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Friday International Webcast
16 September 2016
Tonight’s broadcast, featuring Jeff Steinberg and Diane Sare, begins with excerpted remarks delivered by Terry Strada at a memorial concert of Mozart’s Requiem this past Monday for the victims of 9/11. Strada calls for the American people to mobilize in support of JASTA against the threatened veto by Obama. Steinberg and Sare echo her call to action, in the context of the indictment delivered by the House of Commons of both Cameron and Obama’s roles in launching an illegal regime change war in Libya. The time is ripe for Congress to take similar steps, as well as to immediately bring Glass-Steagall to a vote in the immediate weeks ahead. Circulate this video as widely as possible, and join the rallies planned for next week in defense of the JASTA bill. TRANSCRIPT MATTHEW OGDEN: Hello! Today is September 16th, 2016. My name is Matthew Ogden, and you’re joining us for our weekly broadcast here on Friday evening with the LaRouche PAC webcast. I’m joined in the studio today by Jeff Steinberg, from Executive Intelligence Review; and via video, by Diane Sare, member of the LaRouche PAC Policy Committee, and coordinator of activities up in New York City. We’re meeting here in the immediate aftermath — really in the midst — of the further developments that came out of this past weekend. Going into this weekend we had a dramatic series of developments, including the fact that right on the eve of the 15th Anniversary of 9/11, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the JASTA Bill, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. This is on the heels of the Senate doing the same thing a few months ago. But it was made very clear from the Obama White House that he was going to veto this Bill. In the context of that dramatic escalation on this battle, the Schiller Institute participated in a series of very, very historic concerts sponsored by the Foundation for the Revival for Classical Culture in the New York City area and in New Jersey: four concerts in a row of the Mozart Requiem — very, very well-attended concerts, including one that happened in the context of a mass celebrated by Bishop [nicholas] DiMarzio of the Brooklyn Diocese at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph on Sunday, September 11th. We’re going to begin our broadcast tonight with a very short set of remarks that were delivered Terry Strada, the widow of Tom Strada, and leader of the 9/11 Families Against State Sponsors of Terrorism, who attended the concert in Morristown, New Jersey on Monday, September 12th, at which she endorsed the concert and was invited to the stage to express her views about the crime of 9/11. You’ll see what Terry Strada had to say, which was delivered before the music began, during that Monday concert. I’d like to just begin with a quick excerpt of Terry Strada’s remarks. LYN YEN (pre-recorded): At this point I would like to introduce somebody very special to all of you. Many of you probably know of her. Her name is Terry Strada. She is the national chairwoman of the 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism. She and her organization was instrumental in the release of the 28 pages of the congressional report on 9/11. Without further ado, I’m going to turn the mic over to her. [applause] TERRY STRADA (pre-recorded): Thank you! Thank you very much! My name is Terry Strada, and I lost my husband on September 11th, 2001. Tom was 41 years old when he went to work that day, and never came home again. We have three children. At the time, they were 7 years old, 4 years old, and our youngest was only 4 days old. On September 12th, 2001 I woke up — well, I probably didn’t sleep that night — so when the sun came up, the questions were, "Who did this? Why would they do this?", and "How could they possibly do this? How could they attack our country like this, and how could they kill so many innocent people in one day?" Because I wanted to know the answers, I started to ask the questions more and more. And so did more and more 9/11 families. United to Bankrupt Terrorism was our first title, and now we’re United Together for Justice Against Terrorism. Of course it was the 28 pages that we focused on in the beginning that needed to be released. And when they were released, there were two key things that we learned. One, is that Saudi Arabia has never been fully investigated for the role that they played in 9/11; and two, that it is indisputable that the Saudis played a very important role in 9/11. The second piece of legislation that I’ve been working on for over four years now, is called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. This bill is intended to fix a minor problem in our current Foreign Sovereignty Immunity Act of 1976. So, it’s a 40-year-old law that has stood for 40 years, until we looked further into the Saudi’s role in 9/11, found the evidence, and tried to hold them accountable. What happened next was that the courts decided to misinterpret the law and dismiss them on sovereign immunity. Make no mistake. No country, no entity, no individual is entitled to immunity — sovereign immunity, any type of immunity — in the case of a terrorist act. This bill is intended to hold any nation accountable for a terrorist attack on U.S. soil that kills United States citizens. We’ve chosen this path because it’s a peaceful way to fight terrorism. We don’t want to see more bloodshed; we don’t ever want to see more people die over 9/11. And we also want to protect our borders; we want to protect our country; we want to protect you; I want to protect my children. And the way that we do this, is by holding the nations accountable that fund known terrorist organizations, like al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram. People say, "You can’t fight the lone wolf." I say, "Yes, we can!" If we cut off the funding, and we destroy their capabilities to recruit and incite, and bring on more terror and to brainwash people, we can eliminate ISIS. And that is our long-term goal. The short-term goal, right now, is to get Saudi Arabia off of this crazy [situation] that they’re not held accountable. In May, the Senate passed unanimously this Bill, and on Friday, September 9th, it went to the U.S. House of Representatives. I was in the gallery and was honored and proud to see each and every one of our 435 Members in the House vote "Yes" for JASTA. [applause] Thank you, thank you. I don’t really know how many times this has ever happened on our history, that we have both Chambers of Congress voting "Yes" unanimously. What this means for the President: as of 4:00 today, he was still threatening to veto the Bill. The Bill will be sent over to his office for signature later on tonight, at the latest tomorrow. We’re doing everything we can to convince him to not do this. You probably hear things in the news — and I’ll kind of wrap this up, because I want to hear the music as badly as you do — but you may hear in the news, things about the Bill. They’re simply not true, if they’re coming from the Administration. Unfortunately, they are the mouthpiece for the Saudis at this point. We just need to point out to them how important this is, to hold them accountable — any nation, going forward — would be held accountable, and how important it is for our country to have that type of security net. If the President does decide to veto this Bill, it will be our last hurdle; it may be our biggest. But we plan to overcome it, and override the veto. Hopefully the Senate and the House will fall into line and do that for us. If there’s anything that you’d like to do to help, going forward, it’s passtjasta.org. That’s our website. It’s updated as often as I can get to a computer and update it. There are usually just simple instructions of how you can reach out to the White House, your Representative, or a co-sponsor of the bill. This is very important legislation. I thank you very much for taking the time to listen to me, and now I’m so honored to have these wonderful musicians. I have heard them practice. You are in for a treat. This is going to be a very wonderful time now for us to just transcend ourselves from the evil, to a higher place — to a place where Good is. I believe Good will win, and I thank you for coming. [applause] OGDEN: So, as you can see, we’re right in the midst of a very active battle on the JASTA front, as Terry Strada had to say, right there. It’s all dependent on action thatâs taken in the next coming days and hours, in order to create the conditions where Obama is boxed in, and to create the kind of upsurge that is necessary around this. I know there are actions being planned to be taken in Washington, D.C. in the coming days. I’ll let Jeff talk about some of that, and also mention some of the activities that you were involved in, Jeff, up in New York City, at the same time, this past weekend, as these events were taking place. So... JEFFREY STEINBERG: Yes, there will be a series of demonstrations on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., which is when the House and the Senate will be back in town. There’ll be a demonstration in front of the White House. And then, also, another demonstration, I believe, on the Senate side of the Capitol grounds. The point is very obvious. I think Mr. LaRouche put it succinctly: everything that Obama has done as President has been a reflection of the fact that he’s an agent of the British System, the British Monarchy. Therefore, it should be presumed that, even though he will make himself an avowed enemy of the American people — and especially the 9/11 families — if he does go ahead with this veto, we should assume that that’s exactly what he will do, because that’s what the British want him to do. They don’t care about justice for the 2,997 people who perished on 9/11, or the perhaps-by-now tens of thousands of people — first responders, others who were at the scene at the World Trade towers, at the Pentagon, in Pennsylvania — who suffered tremendously, and have developed diseases, illnesses related to 9/11. There’s one estimate that 40,000 people have been afflicted with serious illnesses because of their heroic actions immediately following the 9/11 attacks. Obama is on the other side. These are impeachable crimes. Being an agent of a foreign power, while serving in the Executive Branch of the U.S. government — I mean, that is treachery. The fact of the matter is that Obama can be forced by an enormous amount of public mobilization, to go forward and actually sign the Bill into law, or simply let it pass into law without his signature. But that’s going to be only on the basis that he is convinced that there will be an overwhelming, bipartisan, near-unanimous voice vote, if he attempts to veto the Bill. This is an existential issue, not just for the Saudis, but for the British as well. Remember, a month or so back, at the height of the mobilization after the Senate unanimously passed JASTA, a British Tory Member of Parliament wrote in the Daily Telegraph that if the Saudis can be sued by the families, then the British can be sued also. Now, he claimed it was because of failure to crack down on the jihadist networks that were given safe haven in Britain, but we know that the reality is, that Prince Bandar was the central figure organizing the support for the 9/11 hijackers. We know it through the 28 pages, and that barely scratches the surface of the evidence. Bandar’s another British agent. Bandar and Margaret Thatcher, in 1985, created the Al-Yamamah program, and it was funds from that Al-Yamamah program that were probably going into the hands of the 9/11 hijackers. So this is a very big deal. And it’s going to come down to a head-to-head political battle. Everyone listening to this broadcast should contact your senators, contact your representatives. Deliver a very blunt message to the White House, that this will be considered an act of treachery, perhaps an act of treason, on the part of President Obama, if he fails to sign JASTA into law and allow the 9/11 families, at last, their day in court. No matter where the evidence goes, no matter what’s proven or not proven, they have every right under our Constitutional system to take appropriate legal action in a court against the Saudis, and the JASTA Bill removes what in this case was an illegitimate sovereign immunity. So, I think that’s where we stand. This past weekend of 9/11 in New York, the Schiller Institute had an extraordinary event. And the full video of that is up on this website; and I would urge everybody to watch it. There was another event that took place at the historic Cooper Union campus in lower Manhattan; and I was honored to speak on a panel on the 28 pages at that conference. There were a number of other speakers: Judge Imposimato from Italy, who was the judge who went after the Gladio apparatus around the strategy of tension attempted coups in Italy in the 1970s and ’80s, the Moro assassination. He was one of the keynote speakers. Dan Sheehan, the lawyer who broke open the Iran/Contra affair spoke. But everybody was laser focussed on the implications of the 28 pages and JASTA; and the importance now of making sure — as Senator Bob Graham said at a recent event in Washington, DC, the release of the 28 pages just simply pops the cork. Now we go after the full content of the bottle. There are millions of pages of classified material that are yet to come out that deal with Sarasota, Florida, San Diego, California, Paterson, New Jersey, Herndon, Virginia, and other locations unknown. And of course in Europe, Hamburg, Germany. The point I made both at the Schiller Institute event and at the Cooper Union event, is that there is no statute of limitation on the truth; and we’ve got to drive that point forward. OGDEN: At the Schiller Institute event in New York on Saturday, September 10th, not only did Jeff speak, not only did Virginia State Senator Dick Black deliver a very dramatic and sharp speech. But also, the Ambassador from Syria to the United Nations was the featured guest, and delivered a very strong speech in which he denounced the Obama administration and the Bush administration campaign of regime change that has taken place in the region over the course of the last 15 years since 9/11. Starting with Saddam Hussein, then with Qaddafi, and then with the attempted regime change against Assad in Syria. I think that the developments of this week, with the lower house of the UK Parliament where they delivered a very strong rebuke to David Cameron in terms of the grounds on which the Libyan invasion was launched; which led to Cameron’s resignation. This also applies just as much to the case of Obama; and this is something which Obama is continuing to push during his time in office. So, I think all of these are coming together in the context of Obama’s rejection on his trip to Asia, during the ASEAN and G20 summits. He is being boxed in; and his true colors are very clear as he sides with the Saudis against the American people. I don’t think it can be taken for granted that the conjunction of all of these events up in New York City over the weekend has set up the most dramatic political showdown of Obama’s entire career, as we go into the coming days here in Washington. So Diane, you probably want to give a little bit more of a context to that. DIANE SARE: I think what we’re talking about is a certain profound question of justice; not retribution, but the ability for mankind to actually move forward. What distinguishes Asia and Russia under Vladimir Putin from the United States and the trans-Atlantic system, is that these nations are actually committed to a world in which the future is brighter than the present or the past. That is, the leaders of these nations are saying, my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren are going to live in a world in which their standard of living is higher, their educational level is superior, the number of diseases they’re subjected to is fewer; the way that Americans used to think not so long ago. Part of the significance of the work of the chorus, which is here directed by John Sigerson and myself, is to remind the American people what is actually a human standard; as opposed to a bestial standard. I have to say in that regard, I found Senator Richard Black’s comments and particularly his passion and his anguish when he was describing what was being done in Syria by these so-called "moderate" Syrian rebels who the US is funding; the people we are funding who are beheading children that they’re kidnapping out of hospitals, or the rebels we are funding who are carting women around in cages. Where our own State Department spokesman says, "Well, how can we stop funding them? We’re not going to judge what they do on one single incident of beheading. Other than the fact that they behead children, they might be wonderful." It is so evil! And the idea that Americans have lost the capacity to feel outrage when you are confronted with this kind of evil; where it’s all kind of numb, and people say, "Well, there’s nothing you can do." I think the process of the election of Hillary Clinton, who may be suffering some serious illness, we don’t know; who was destroyed by her capitulation to Barack Obama. And Donald Trump, who’s just a pure FBI thug lunatic. What’s happening is that the population is putting up a kind of teflon veneer where they are trying not to think about anything. Of course, that’s death; we have to think. What you have in the rest of the world is a break-out of the human spirit, of this quality of creativity. So, what happened this weekend, the involvement of our chorus in this series of concerts sponsored by the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, is that you got a glimmer of the power — I think both the fact that JASTA had passed the Senate and then the House on that Friday going into the weekend; and then what we were presenting musically from the African-American spirituals to the Mozart to the Handel, in terms of what it actually means for us to be human. And a certain quality of human life which we hold sacred; and which is not in our physical being. And perhaps this was most powerfully sensed at the Catholic mass which was dedicated to the firefighters and those who had died on September 11th. The Bishop made the point that these are people who are giving their lives not simply for their brothers or for their friends, but for complete strangers. At the end of the Mass, it’s not typical that people applaud and give standing ovations; but when the Mass closed, the standing ovation of the crowd — it was very clear it was not simply for the musicians; but it really was in deep and profound appreciation of what these people had done. I have a sense that we really are in a moment in the United States like Germany in 1989. Maybe we’re in May of ’89 and not October yet; but there’s a kind of awakening of the better spirit of the American population. People are not prepared to sit back and tolerate criminal injustice. If we will act with courage, since about two-thirds of the world is already on the other side of this; and China, for example, the idea of talking about legalizing drugs? They would think you are completely insane; being addicted to drugs, distributing drugs is not tolerated. There’s certainly a harsh crackdown on drug trafficking in the Philippines which we’re seeing now; and I don’t think Duterte appreciates Obama’s accusations of human rights violations for someone who’s trying to shut down the drug trade. In other words, there’s a whole different standard in the world which, when we find our courage and stand up, is going to resonate. There’s no reason for people to believe that what happens in this country is going to be determined by the fraud of what’s call the elections. I would just say that what Jeff, you were saying earlier about Obama; we have to really stick to this. There’s no point in talking about the candidates unless Obama, who is the evil who is occupying the seat of leadership of this country right now, is removed from office and prosecuted in a criminal court. STEINBERG: I just wanted to add something; a footnote on what Matt mentioned earlier, about the actions by the British House of Commons this week. The Foreign Affairs Committee produced a report, which was a damning indictment of Cameron, Sarkozy, and Obama over the disastrous consequences of the overthrow and assassination of Qaddafi in Libya. On a certain level, the British House of Commons — with everything that we know; with all the caveats about the power of the British monarchy and all of that — the House of Commons puts the US Congress to shame. They forced Cameron out of office; they forced his resignation from the House of Commons on the grounds of his role in the Libya disaster. Above all else, the United States, Britain, and France lied to the world — they also lied directly to Russia and China — when they promised at the outset that there would be no regime change in Libya; but it was strictly a humanitarian intervention. Well, it turns out that the House of Commons report is, if anything, an even more stunning indictment of Obama than of Cameron. The report makes very clear that Cameron and Sarkozy were the drivers behind the need to intervene to prevent the humanitarian disaster in Benghazi. In fact, they were protecting British-created terrorist networks that were back in Libya from having fought the wars in Afghanistan; the same wars that created al-Qaeda. But what was made clear is that it was President Obama who insisted that a no-fly zone was insufficient; a no-fly zone failed in Iraq, it failed in Bosnia, and it would fail in Libya. Therefore, the UN resolution had to have much more teeth; it had to be a "no-drive" zone. It had to give a carte blanche to defend the so-called victims of Qaddafi forces by all out military action. On the one hand, everybody swore up and down to Russia and China that it was not about regime change. As a result, Russia and China abstained from the vote when the Security Council resolution was passed to create the no-fly zone and the no-drive zone; and to use all forms of military force that were deemed necessary to "save" the civilization population of Benghazi. Well, the report makes clear that after the first 24 hours, they were safe; there was no threat to them anymore. From that moment on, the whole exercise was all about regime change. There was one exchange where one of the ministers in the Cameron government at the time, Liam Fox, lied and said no, this was never about regime change; we didn’t have any agenda. The questioner pointed out that on April 14, 2011, the New York Times published a signed op-ed by Barack Obama, David Cameron, and Sarkozy; in which the three of them said, "Qaddafi must go, and go for good." So, they were lying openly; and if anything, Obama did more heavy lifting to create this disaster than either Sarkozy or Cameron. It included a conscious decision to assassinate a foreign leader. So, the British House of Commons has delivered a new bill of impeachment against President Obama; and I hope that Congress will take that seriously. Needless to say, the US media has blacked out the story totally up to this point. OGDEN: In a very real way, this is like a Chilcot Report 2.0 in the case of Libya and Obama’s role in that. Honestly, that’s exactly what you called for, Diane, in the petition that you were circulating about a month or a month and a half ago. Look at what’s developed since the publication of that petition: We’ve won the fight on the release of the 28 pages; although there are tens of thousands of other pages that need to be released. JASTA has gone through — this was your point, too — JASTA has gone through both the Senate and the House; and despite the fact that Obama is still threatening to veto, as it stands, it could be overridden in the first veto override of the Obama administration. Although he’s trying to delay it, and deploying Saudi agents crawling Capitol Hill right now. We have reports that the Saudi Foreign Minister is personally going to Capitol Hill and meeting with members of the Senate; threatening that you have to withdraw your support for this JASTA bill. But that is a fight which is active; this Chilcot Report type of approach, as you called for in your petition, Diane, this is what we now see coming out of the UK House of Commons. Also, the overarching question of cooperation between the United States and Russia to actually defeat terrorism worldwide. I thought it was very important that this was one of the themes around these concerts with the image of the 9/11 Teardrop Memorial in Bayonne, New Jersey; which was contributed by Russia in support of the world’s struggle against terrorism after 9/11. And also, during this Schiller Institute seminar in New York City on Saturday, Senator Dick Black pointed out that we’re right in the midst of this ceasefire negotiation between Kerry and Lavrov. And according to reports, Kerry has really isolated himself from the Obama administration; or at least there’s a faction which is trying to actively undermine these efforts to work with Lavrov. So, these are ongoing battles; and it’s all around the question of the type of leadership that was exhibited in that petition that you put out about a month and a half ago, Diane. Obviously, we’re now preparing for the convening of the United Nations General Assembly this week and next week in New York City. I think these events that were happening at the Schiller Institute conference with the Syrian ambassador and so forth, should be seen as preparing the way for what will be the defining questions — hopefully — put on the table at the UN General Assembly. Both that and the question of the new international financial architecture, coming out of the G20 meetings; we have a big responsibility on that as it comes to the question of Glass-Steagall, which is something that I’d like to get to in a moment. But maybe, Diane, you want to say a little bit more about the events leading up to this UN General Assembly meeting. SARE: Sure. Actually, I’m thinking, I don’t know what the conspiracy is this time. Last year, as followers of our website know, President Putin had gone to China for the V-J Day parade and then come to the UN and proposed his coalition to wipe out ISIS; and created that to great effectiveness. Now, the UN General Assembly comes in the wake of the G20 meeting, the ASEAN meeting, the Vladivostok conference, where all of these nations which have been represented, signed more and more agreements with each other on various economic projects and so on. And, I think it’s significant that, going into the G20, Xinhua ran that interview with the Russian representative; who said that Beijing and Moscow must work with Washington. We have to bring Washington in on this; and Washington is a complex and unpredictable partner, I think were the words that were used. So, clearly, I’m sure that they’re not coming into this General Assembly with no plans. I don’t know what plans they have; I think it’ll be very interesting as it unfolds. I think it’s very important for Americans to do our part to make the United States less full of complexes; I’ll put it that way, and less unpredictable by addressing this Obama criminality problem. I think what Jeff said about Cameron — it really is something. Tony Blair first with the Chilcot Inquiry; now you have this whole report on Libya. Any American, any member of Congress can get their hands on this; and it is absolutely damning in terms of Obama’s role. I think that would be an important contribution for the United States, because the truth of the matter is, we should be part of the Belt and Road; we should be part of the New Paradigm. The American people are suffering horrifically, horrendously with this economic collapse; and I guess that brings us to the point that you were talking about, which is the Glass-Steagall moment. OGDEN: Right; exactly. On that subject, let me just read the text of the institutional question we got for this week. I know Mr. LaRouche had a direct response to this. It reads: "Mr. LaRouche, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is marking the 8th anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy with a new push to investigate and potentially jail more than two dozen individuals and corporations who were referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution in 2011 by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a government-appointed group that investigated the roots of the 2008 financial crisis. None was ever prosecuted. In a letter to the Justice Department’s Inspector General, Warren calls the lack of prosecutions ’outrageous and baffling’, and asks the Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, to investigate why no charges were brought. ’The DoJ record of action on these individuals nearly six years after DoJ received the referrals, is abysmal,’ she writes. "In your view, is Senator Elizabeth Warren’s new push to investigate and potentially jail nearly two dozen individuals and corporations who were referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution a step in the right direction; and will it help the prospects of Glass-Steagall’s passage?" So, Jeff, maybe you want to say what Mr. LaRouche’s response was on this. STEINBERG: I think the point is, again, we’re looking at the irresponsible behavior of leading government elected officials. The fact is, that in 1933, you had the Pecora Commission, which was a Senate investigation into the crimes of the too-big-to-fail banks of the Depression era; and bankers did go to jail. They were called to testify under oath before Congress; they were forced to produce their tax records; and there was a climate that was created through that process that led to the passage of Glass-Steagall and a number of other critical legislative initiatives in the first 100 days of the FDR Presidency. Where we are today is in the midst of a financial crisis that’s much larger, that’s much more global in its scope than what we were dealing with in 1933. Yet, there’s been virtually no significant action by either the Justice Department or by Congress against these criminal swindlers who are CEOs of major banks. Just an illustration: The woman who was the head of the division of Wells Fargo that was caught basically creating phony accounts for their own customers in order to charge fees so that employees of the bank could get special bonuses; that person resigned from the bank, but received a $125 million golden parachute on her way out the door. It’s night and day. So, Mr. LaRouche’s comment on Glass-Steagall was, "Do it! It’s needed right now; we can’t wait another minute." Today, Deutsche Bank was given a $14 billion fine by the Justice Department for their involvement in mortgage-backed securities fraud in the run-up to 2008 and beyond. Yet, no official of Deutsche Bank has gone to jail. In fact, Deutsche Bank’s $14 billion fine virtually bankrupts it; the entire bank capitalization, market capitalization of the bank is $19 billion. Were they to pay the fine out of their own deposits, they’d be out of business tomorrow morning. So, we’re at a moment where this is all deadly serious. Yes, of course, these bankers should be put in jail; but why is Elizabeth Warren not doing more to push Glass-Steagall? Why is Elizabeth Warren instead tiptoeing around the issue because she’s basically been anointed by Hillary Clinton as the attack dog against Donald Trump? Again, hold it up to the gold standard of Franklin Roosevelt, the Pecora Commission, and you’ll see that once again — as we just discussed with the British House of Commons actions compared to the complete inaction on impeaching Obama or taking other measures to deal with these problems — it’s shameful; and it’s all part of a recurring pattern. As Diane just said, there may only be four or five months left in the Obama Presidency, but every day that he remains in office is a threat to the survival of this country and the survival of humanity. Libya was all about starting the process of war provocations against Russia and China. Lyndon LaRouche warned about that the day that Qaddafi was assassinated back in 2011; and we’re still in that trajectory towards war. So, yes, we urgently need Glass-Steagall; it should be taken up immediately. There are bills in both Houses. Yes, the Justice Department should reverse its policy of no jail time for too-big-to-fail bankers; throw them all in the slammer — they all deserve it. All of the top executives of all of the big eight US commercial banks — they’re all involved in multiple crimes, whether it’s mortgage-backed securities fraud, LIBOR fraud; the crimes are manifest and the actions have been pathetic. OGDEN: As you referred to, there is a major problem with the Democrats right now being compromised because of their defense of Obama and Hillary; both of whom are avowed — as it stands right now — opponents of the restoration of Glass-Steagall. As Terry Strada said, right now the Obama White House is a spokesman for the Saudi regime; but in the exact same way, it’s a spokesman for Wall Street. You have Glass-Steagall in both party platforms; you have the biggest mobilization in years from some of the trade union movements — the AFL-CIO — other activist layers around Glass-Steagall. Getting this to a vote — preferably before the elections take place, if not sooner — but the problem is, you have an intention from the top to suppress this from within the ranks of the Obama faction of the Democratic Party, which Hillary Clinton finds herself in right now. I would say that there is also a broader, a little bit of a deeper agenda here; and this came up in the discussion we had yesterday with Lyn and Helga. Helga pointed out that there’s a recent report that has now been put out by the Club of Rome, which has been around for 40 years now — an avowedly neo-Malthusian movement to reduce population; that’s been their agenda — and the title of the report in German is "One Percent Is Enough"; explicitly saying that the kind of dramatic growth percentages that you see year on year on year, coming out of China and other countries that are now part of this New Silk Road dynamic, is somehow dangerous to the planet. And that we must enforce a zero-growth or at least very low growth agenda; which is what is coming out of the British monarchy and is coming out of a lot of these trans-Atlantic circles. That is really the foundation around which this fight between the new international economic order, this New Paradigm that you see coming out of China, the BRICS, and the Silk Road countries, versus the Obama, trans-Atlantic regime that’s taking place. It’s a longstanding, deeply rooted, ideological opposition to the idea of the no limits to growth, perpetual increases in productivity kind of idea of mankind; which Mr. LaRouche has made a career out of defending and deepening with his approach to physical economics. So, you have this as a deeper agenda which, again, Obama has found himself as a spokesman for, and has made it very explicit on multiple occasions. Remember his trip to Africa, where he said you guys aren’t allowed to have access to modern technology such as electricity; because if you do, the planet will boil over. And on other occasions, he said, we don’t need any fancy stuff like fusion power or anything like that. So again, I think it comes down to this much deeper idea of what is your conception of man; and what is your scientific idea of this perpetual progress; or the conception that there is no limit to creative discovery, there are no limits to growth. That’s the deeper agenda that we now see also bubbling to the surface. STEINBERG: These guys are genocidal lunatics; they’ve been that way for 40 years. The LaRouche Movement was in a certain sense, launched as a war against the Club of Rome when they came out with their 1972 report, "Limits to Growth". The whole history has been a battle between those led by Mr. LaRouche and Mrs. LaRouche, who represent the principle of real human creativity; versus people who work for an oligarchical system that is consciously out to suppress it. You’ve got Prince Philip, the British royal consort, calling for the population reduction of this planet by 80%. If the Club of Rome report, 1% cap on growth, were to be put into effect, this would represent mass genocide on an unprecedented scale in human history; and it would happen right away. OGDEN: Right. As was made very clear in these concerts over the weekend, there’s an element of inspiration which, when it is unleashed in the American population, it is overwhelming. The kind of turn-out that we saw at these concerts in New York — full to capacity audiences in almost every single venue; including downtown Manhattan, the cathedral in Brooklyn, a concert that happened in Morristown, one that happened in Lehman College in the Bronx; there’s an undercurrent of desire for this kind of beautiful celebration of the nature of mankind. I thought it was really significant to place Mozart’s Requiem, which is an incredibly profound and has a resonance which goes deep in the American population; including the fact that the last time it was celebrated as part of a Mass was 50 years ago at the request of Jackie Kennedy, at a memorial service for the slain President, John F Kennedy, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. That was the last time this was presented in the context of the mass itself. But the conjunction of that, together with these four African-American spirituals, which is this call for justice, for freedom, and for the dignity of the human being; putting these together in the counterpoint between the two, it really did awaken something very profound and very deeply rooted in the people who participated in this community chorus which is growing in an exponential way, but also in the people who participated as members of the audience. So Diane was the conductor of the first part of these concerts, of the African-American spirituals, and I would personally say, I think you were channeling the spirit of Sylvia Olden Lee and her collaborators. It was very moving, and I think it’s part of something that we’re going to see continue to grow; in not just the desire for justice, but the desire for human dignity and creativity among the American people. So, maybe you want to say a little bit about what the plans are for the community chorus in that context, Diane. SARE: I hope it’s going to grow, and there are a lot of plans. But my parting words to our audience would be: One, that people should join the actions in front of the White House on Tuesday in support of the JASTA bill and against Obama’s veto; and a challenge to the American people and the members of the US Congress. Which is, are you more cowardly and gutless than the British House of Commons? If they can throw out Cameron and expose the crimes against humanity that he has participated in, and if they are already naming Obama; what is holding you back? OGDEN: Good. Well, those events in front of the White House are scheduled currently for 12:30pm on Tuesday, and apparently there may be another rally in front of the Senate at 2pm the same afternoon. So, if you are in the area, or you can make it into DC, that’s something to participate in. There will probably be more information on the passJASTA.org website that Terry Strada mentioned at the beginning of this broadcast in her remarks at that Morristown concert. And please, circulate tonight’s webcast as widely as you can so that Terry Strada’s very emphatic statement that she made at that concert can be heard more widely. I think this is something that needs to be heard by the American people; and that’s something that you have a responsibility to assist in. So, I’d like to thank both Diane and Jeff for joining me here today. Please stay tuned to larouchepac.com; we will have coverage of this rally next Tuesday, and you can join us for our regularly programming as well. So thank you very much, and good night. |