By Harley Schlanger
n its January 21, 2017 online issue, the {Spectator} magazine of London ran an article by the BBC’s Washington correspondent, Paul Wood, titled “Will Donald Trump Be Assassinated, Ousted in a Coup or Just Impeached?” The date is significant, as it appeared the day after Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States! It was followed, less than one month later, by a post by Adam Shatz, a contributing editor to the {London Review of Books}, on the Review’s blog page, which asserted that “There is no inherent harm in fantasising” about such an end to the Trump presidency.
These comments were preceded by what has now been proven to have been a barrage of utterly fabricated charges claiming that Trump won the presidential campaign due to an intervention by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though most of the U.S. press attributed these allegations, collectively known as “Russiagate”, to the campaign of his opponent, Hillary Clinton — which was guilty of circulating these charges — the origin came from networks at the top of British intelligence, from GCHQ (the equivalent to the U.S. National Security Agency) and MI6. At the center of the lies was a dossier compiled by “ex”-MI6 agent Christopher Steele, a close ally of former MI6 Chief Sir Richard Dearlove.
According to an article in the {Guardian} on April 13, 2017, written by a mouthpiece for British Intelligence, Luke Harding, the GCHQ first passed on reports of “suspicious interaction” between “figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents” in December 2015, shortly after Trump announced his candidacy. This led to a meeting between GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan and Obama’s CIA Director John Breenan in the spring of 2016, when Hannigan passed on the falsified “evidence” to him.
Thus, was Russiagate hatched. And despite massive documentation that this was a colossal “dirty trick”, political and media figures in the U.S. continue to insist that Trump was inserted into the White House by Putin. And they continue to cover-up the leading role played by British intelligence and media.
CHATHAM HOUSE REVIVES “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME”
This background is essential to understanding the intent of an op-ed in the {Financial Times} on August 30, 2023 titled “U.S. Allies Need to Wake Up to the Trump Question.” It was written purportedly as a wake-up call of the threat posed to “European interests” by Bronwen Maddox, the Director and CEO of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) — Chatham House — and reflects the level of panic of operatives of the City of London/British intelligence, as their world is being turned upside down.
The threat identified by Maddox refers to polls which show that Donald Trump is the front-runner by far for the Republican Party nomination for president in 2024, with many showing he would beat incumbent Joe Biden. Maddox writes that this support “should prompt a foreign policy rethink for the U.K. and its allies…British foreign policy, like that in much of Europe and many democracies beyond, is based on the presumption that the U.S. in some sense always remains the same. Its presidents, its policies, its wars of choice come and go. But America upholds the principle of international institutions even if it rails against some of them or funds them sporadically. It continues to pick up the giant’s share of the tab for NATO, above all. Those assumptions are confounded if Donald Trump is elected again.”
She continues: “Dealing with Trump in the White House again would present problems on a different scale [than ordinary frictions — HS]. In a second term … [h]e would have an utterly different conception of America’s role in the world and the nature of its democracy at home, of the rule of law at home and abroad. And so would the U.S. voters who elected him.”
This last sentence shows what the imperial elites of London truly fear, that a different conception of America’s role, i.e., no more business as usual, is a threat to the continued dominance of the Unipolar Order, on which the financial and corporate oligarchs of the City of London and Wall Street depend. It implies an end of U.S. support for the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and opposition to the Anglo-American policy of launching regime change coups against nations rebelling against their continued subjugation to the Unipolar Order.
With NATO’s war and sanctions policy failing to isolate and bring down Russia, a shift in U.S. policy would likely secure the collapse of the present “Rules-Based Order” of domination by a “Sole Superpower.” Add to this the growing solidarity among leading nations of the Global South, typified by statements coming from the just-concluded BRICS summit in South Africa, demanding an end to the neo-colonialism enforced by U.S./NATO military power, and one can see why London officials view this as an existential threat.
THE “AMERICAN REFLEX”
Lyndon LaRouche once referred to the prospect of an anti-colonial policy for the U.S. as an “American reflex”, which has served as a rallying point for Presidents in the past, to change U.S. foreign policy from supporting the interests of the Anglo-American oligarchy. This was especially true during World War II, in disputes arising between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill on the post-war order, with FDR saying the U.S. will no longer send Americans to war to defend British imperial interests. LaRouche described this as a battle between “the republican commitment to the general welfare and the anglophile commitment to the evil of oligarchical interest.”
It lies in the assertion, of great American presidents, such as Abraham Lincoln and FDR, of American interests in defense of the “modern sovereign form of anti-oligarchic nation-state”, reflecting the principles of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution (quotes from Lyndon LaRouche, “Shrunken Heads in America Today”, published in the {Executive Intelligence Review}, April 20, 2001).
While Trump appears to many European elites as a problem, for being unpredictable, uncontrollable, even a patsy for Putin, during his four years as president, he fell short of his campaign pledge to change U.S. policy by “draining the swamp,” i.e. shutting down the permanent bureaucracy some call the Deep State. This shadow government coordinates closely with the British establishment, as can be seen in the role of British intelligence collaborating with officials of the Obama administration behind the scenes in shaping Russiagate.
But with the BRICS summit showing the nations of the Global South will no longer tolerate foreign, neocolonial intervention in elections and economic, financial and trade policies, will the American reflex emerge again? If African nations are adopting the anti-colonial posture of the American revolution, can the U.S. population be far behind?
That is why Maddox wrote what she did, as an alert that the American reflex is surfacing as a real threat to the current world order, and must be smothered. The RIIA was set up in 1920, after World War I, as the leading foreign policy/intel operation of His Majesty’s government, and continues in that role today. A major part of its function is to direct, and coordinate policy with the U.S. oligarchs, working through its sister organization, the Council on Foreign Relations, which was set up in 1921. The spread of anti-colonial sentiment from the Global South to the Global North threatens the existence of the Unipolar Order. This threat is what is behind Maddox’s warning.
TUCKER CARLSON’S TIMELY QUESTION
It is also why a podcast interview with Trump conducted by America’s favorite politically-incorrect news commentator, Tucker Carlson, on August 23, has generated so much controversy. The podcast on X (formerly Twitter) was seen by tens of millions of viewers. Carlson asked Trump directly, “Are you worried that they’re going to try and kill you?”
By “they”, he was referring to those behind-the-scenes operatives responsible for Russiagate, two impeachments, and the ongoing legal proceedings against him. Trump replied, “They’re savage animals; they’re people that are sick.”
Some commentators insist that such questions are unacceptable, in bad taste, and may even incite such actions. But given the past history of assassinations of American Presidents who used their office to advance the “American reflex” — particularly the cases of Lincoln, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy — the threat is real. In referring to these cases, as well as the threat to himself, Lyndon LaRouche spoke of the importance of “factitious advantage” — i.e., identifying the potential assassin before the trigger is pulled.
An International Assassination Bureau does exist. It was the subject of a Schiller Institute seminar on January 14, 2023, “Stop NATO’s World War III and Dismantle the ‘International Assassination Bureau’“. Speakers detailed the leading role played by City of London and British imperial operatives in assassinating figures who led revolts against the colonial system, including American presidents.
The Bronwen Maddox comments about Trump, and her openly-expressed fear of the “American reflex”, should be seen in this context. By identifying the intent of her remarks, it is possible that complacent Americans and Europeans can be shaken from their stupor, and join the campaign of the Schiller Institute to bring their nations into the fight to establish a new security and development architecture, against the “Rules-Based Order”, which does not represent the interests of either Americans nor Europeans.
13 September 2023
Harley Schlanger
laroucheorganization.com