PRESS RELEASE
LaRouche Warns: Israeli Actions
in Syria Threaten World War
Aug. 3, 2013 (EIRNS)—This release was issued today by the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee.
Lyndon LaRouche today warned that Israeli actions, including the July 5 Israeli Air Force bombing of a depot near Latakia, Syria which held Russian-made anti-ship cruise missiles, could trigger a wider war, drawing the United States into direct thermonuclear conflict with Russia.
LaRouche charged that the Israeli behavior is "criminally insane" and could cause a world war. LaRouche added that the financial and economic breakdown crisis in Europe and the United States has reached an advanced stage that any day, there could be a triggering event that leads to global conflict. He cited the period between now and the end of September as the final phase of an economic cycle, in which the prospects of a systemic crash is greatly increased, moving to the end of the fiscal year. He warned that this is also a grave danger point for an eruption of conflict. One cannot rule out the outbreak of some kind of general war between now and November, he concluded.
The Netanyahu government in Israel is going psycho over the fact that war-avoidance elements within the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community leaked the fact of the July 5 IAF bombings to the U.S. media. It was the first and only disclosure of the latest in a series of Israeli bombing raids against targets in Syria. The fact that Russian arms are being targeted by the Israelis has profound strategic implications and the Israelis had intended to keep the attacks secret.
On July 31, Michael Gordon posted a story in the New York Times under the headline "Some Syria Missiles Eluded Israeli Strike, Officials Say." Gordon reported on the July 5 IAF bombing raid and reported that U.S. intelligence community sources believe that the Israeli raid did not destroy all of the Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles in storage. He reported that "further Israeli strikes are likely."
The Gordon article was followed Aug. 2 by a story in the Jerusalem Post, accusing Pentagon and U.S. intelligence circles who "do not have Israeli interests at heart" of leaking the story of the IAF strikes to damage Israel. The author of the Jerusalem Post piece, Yaacov Lappin, accused "elements in the U.S. intelligence community, not in the Obama Administration" of being behind the damaging leaks. Prof. Efraim Inbar, of the Sadat-Begin Center, warned that the U.S. leaking of the secret Israeli raids was intended to embarrass Israel, and could lead to retaliation by the Assad government.
According to U.S. intelligence sources contacted by EIR, the leaks are intended to make clear that the United States is not supporting the Israeli strikes against Russian targets inside Syria. Such strikes could lead to an escalation that directly draws the United States into a head-on confrontation with Russia, which has delivered weapons to the Assad government, based on long-standing government-to-government contracts.
The fact that elements in the U.S. intelligence community blew the whistle on the Israeli air strikes, including details about how the IAF conducted the air-to-surface attacks on the Latakia depot from over the Mediterranean, caused an hysterical reaction in Jerusalem. The message to Israel from the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community faction was clear: Further Israeli attacks on Russian SAM sites inside Syria are not in the U.S. interests and Israel should cut it out. The source concurred with LaRouche's evaluation that the Israeli actions are insanely dangerous and could trigger a much larger conflict.
LaRouche warned colleagues today that the madmen in London and Washington are out to start a thermonuclear confrontation, targeting Russia and China, unless they are stopped. The intelligence leaks and the insane Israeli behavior must be seen in this overall context.
