IN THIS ISSUE:
Perspective: The Gathering Storm (Part 2)
Multiplying Storm Clouds on the World Horizon
Three prime areas to be watched for their impending consequences are those of Soviet-American relations; growing complexity and interlinkage of Middle East tensions; and a ticking time bomb in American domestic politics.
"Fortress Russia1' and the End of Arms Control: In the wake of the Korean airliner episode and the deployment of U.S. missiles in Europe, a Soviet-American confrontation is growing (NewsALERT #3, 6). The Kremlin considers itself under siege and is reacting accordingly.
Expanding Middle East War Trap: The Lebanon crisis is becoming the focal point of a steadily widening arena of crisis extending from Syria to the Persian Gulf.
White House Infighting and Extreme Security Precautions: As the simmering "Debategate" scandal prepares to boil over again, supertight security surrounds Pres. Reagan.
Letter Corner: Where NewsALERT Stands
Notice Concerning Dr. Beter
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Perspective: The Gathering Storm (Part 2)
In NewsALERT #9 we pointed out that those who now control the U. S. Government are blinding themselves by their own lies.
Our Lord Jesus Christ used to warn that "if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit. " Today the United States is afflicted with exactly such blind guides. Pretending to be motivated by high ideals and purity of purpose, they are subtly leading America in directions which only Satan would applaud. In the process they are making some horrendous mistakes, for which not only they but all the rest of us will pay.
There is an obvious remedy for this situation. We cannot be led into the pit by blind leaders unless we are also blind ourselves. The challenge we face as Americans is to open our eyes, look where we are going and--for once!--halt our blind march like lemmings toward self-destruction.
This challenge is one which faces us as Americans more acutely than it does any other people on earth. America is the leader of the West, and under our form of government it is "we, the people"--not our chosen leaders--who constitute the ultimate human authority. This is not just a vague lip-service principle, but the law of the land. That is how it is set up in the U.S. Constitution, which is the law to which all other American laws are subordinate.
America's Founding Fathers set it up this way for a reason. They knew that sooner or later there would be those who would try to dismantle the freedoms they had instituted, and that they would do so by working within our government itself. In order to give later generations (namely us) a chance to head off disaster, they placed the ultimate authority in our hands.
With that authority goes an equal responsibility.
It is not discharged simply by voting every so often to choose between 2 unsatisfactory candidates for a given office. Instead, it involves the use of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom from unlawful search and seizure. These are the tools we were given to save America from the threat of internal destruction. That is the threat we now face, exactly as our Founding Fathers anticipated.
Multiplying Storm Clouds on the World Horizon
"Fortress Russia" and the End of Arms Control
Yesterday, Dec. 15, the Warsaw Pact suspended its participation in the long-running Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction (MBFR) talks in Vienna, Austria. These talks were aimed at reducing troop levels of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
The suspension of the MBFR talks completes the rapid collapse of arms control talks that began just over 3 months ago. This follows the Soviet termination of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Nov. 23, and the Soviet suspension of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) in Geneva on Dec. 8.
The destructive sequence that was set in motion on Sept. 1 by means of the Korean airliner incident (NewsALER T #3) has run lis intended course. For the first time since the original SALT talks began in Nov. 1969, there are no longer any arms control negotiations at all between the United States and Russia. To all intents and purposes, the world's two most powerful nations are not speaking to one another.
That is dangerous.
We are now seeing the tangible fruits of--in the words of Reagan's hand-picked arms control director, Kenneth Adelman --"sham" arms control "for political reasons. " That is what he publicly said his policy would be before Reagan appointed him (N. Y. Daily News, 5/24/81), so no one should be surprised. Likewise when the START talks fell apart last week on Dec. 8, chief START negotiator Edward Rowny wore a delighted grin as he faced reporters.
Little wonder: General Rowny, whose antics during the negotiations reportedly included unbridled shouting matches with the Russians, was the best possible choice to help insure failure. His main previous claim to fame in the arms control field was his role in scuttling the SALT II treaty. Having thus helped destroy an earlier arms control treaty which Moscow had already signed, Rowny's very presence at the START talks sent a clear signal to the Kremlin. The signal was: We aren't serious--this is a sham.
While the Russians are keeping their options open in all but the INF talks, their decision to shut down all talks for now is a
lot more serious than spokesmen of our Bolshevized government would have us believe. We are told that the Russians are just buying some time to assess the situation, but that is not true: the assessment has already been made. Last month a juicy opportunity was held out for a breakthrough in the INF talks that would have made any true statesman--or even a self-seeking politician with normal political goals--sit up and take notice.
It was spurned without a moment's consideration by the Reagan Administration (NewsALERT #9). The assessment already announced by the late Soviet President Yuri Andropov on Sept. 28 (NewsALERT #6) was thus confirmed and solidified. The Kremlin is convinced that relations with the present U. S. administration cannot get better, but can only get worse.
The Russians are therefore reverting to a kind of siege mentality that runs very, very deep in the Russian psyche, planted there over many centuries of attacks from all directions. The new U, S. -based Bolsheviks may be taking great satisfaction in producing such dismay in the land they used to rule, but they should not.
They are only redoubling the determination of the new Russian ruling group to make the Soviet Union so overwhelmingly powerful that it cannot be destroyed by the U. S. If it were not for the readiness of the Bolsheviks here to sacrifice American lives, just as they used to sacrifice Russian lives, the Soviet Union would be practically unassailable already. But Russia's new ruling group, having dislodged the Bolsheviks from top power in Russia after decades of struggle, know all too well how dangerous and crafty they can be.
So the New Kremlin is now turning the Soviet Union into "Fortress Russia. " They are turning out the lights on "sham" negotiations with the United States and going home to prepare for the worst. Self-sufficiency is a top priority, lending urgency to the economic reforms set in motion by the late Yuri Andropov (NewsALERT #8).
Those reforms will take a long time and they require peace, not war. But if war should come they intend to be prepared for that, too, by redoubling their already massive military preparations.
For public consumption the fiction will be maintained for some time that the late Yuri Andropov is still alive. The ceremonial double for Andropov (NewsALERT #8, 9) will make his appearance soon.
Expanding Middle East War Trap
As NewsALERT #9 prepared to go to press on Dec. 2, we included an alert to the prospect of a Syrian-American confrontation. This is a direct consequence of the heightened overt U. S. -Israeli "strategic cooperation" to partition Lebanon.
The very next day, Dec. 3, the opening shots were fired in the threatened Syrian-American confrontation, and they were brought about by coordinated U. S. - Israeli action. First the Israeli Air Force staged an air raid on Syrian positions east of Beirut, giving the area a thorough pounding with bombs. Normal Israeli practice after any such raid is to follow it up awhile later by sending a couple of reconnaissance planes to assess the damage inflicted. But on Dec. 3, a pair of American F-14 reconnaissance jets flew over the area instead. They arrived over the freshly bombed areas about 90 minutes after the attack, just about when Israeli reconnaissance jets might have been anticipated.
For nearly two months, American reconnaissance jets had been flying reconnaissance over Syrian positions in Lebanon without drawing anything more than some insignificant harassment fire. But when the Syrian gunners saw two jets swooping toward them shortly after the Israeli raid of Dec. 3, they reacted utterly predictably. They assumed the F-14's were conducting post-attack reconnaissance for Israel, and they opened up with a blistering barrage of antiaircraft missiles.
Having arranged this incident, the Pentagon responded the next day by the first-ever American air raid against Syrian positions. Some 28 attack aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS Independence and USS John F. Kennedy attacked Syrian artillery and antiaircraft positions east of Beirut.
Afterward there were questions whether the raid really did much damage to the Syrians--but there was no question of the cost to the U.S. Two jets were shot down, one pilot killed, and one flier--Navy Lieut. Robert O. Goodman--became the first American prisoner-of-war in the Lebanon conflict. In Vietnam, the first flier to become a P. O. W. was followed by many, many more. If the "Vietnam'1 - in-Lebanon plan now being pursued by the U.S. continues (NewsALERT #4), the same will be true again now.
When escalation begins it tends to feed on itself. The evening after the U.S. air raid on Syrian positions witnessed the most deadly bombardments yet of U. S Marine positions, and eight were killed at a sitting-duck outpost. Next the U.S. Navy retaliated for that by bombarding Syrian-supported Druze positions with navu! gunfire. The situation gradually worked its way up to the first firing of the big 16'' guns of the battleship USS New Jersey on Dec. 14. With that, the biggest operational guns in the world started going to work on hapless Lebanon.
Lebanon is becoming a focal point for American involvement in a steadily widening arena of potential Middle East conflict. By way of Lebanon, the U. S. has now positioned itself for an increasingly direct confrontation with Syria, Moscow's closest client in the Arab world. At the same time, terrorism in Lebanon--including specifically the October truck bombings of the U.S. and French troop barracks--is being traced through Syria to Iran. Thus the Persian Gulf war between Iran and Iraq is becoming intertwined with the deteriorating situation in Lebanon. The car-bombing of the U.S. Embassy and several other targets in Kuwait four days ago exemplifies this intertwining. The claim is that Iranian suicide terrorists were sent to strike Kuwait as punishment for supporting Iraq financially during the Iran-Iraq war, and that the same forces have struck in Lebanon.
In this way a double excuse is being created for American intervention in Iran when the time is ripe. The other excuse is to protect the vital shipping lanes for Persian Gulf oil, which Iran has threatened to close if Iraq succeeds in disrupting its oil shipments (NewsALERT #5. 6). The extensive infiltration of terrorist groups in the region (NewsALERT #6, 7) is continuing to yield dividends in the heightened U.S. -Israeli strategic cooperation which is now openly acknowledged* The goal is to create new opportunities through new crises. But our blind guides are also creating new dangers which they themselves understand only partially.
As for Lebanon itself, there is once again a slowly growing "bring the Marines home" sentiment around the country. Two days ago on Dec. 14, President Reagan made a statement designed to give the comforting impression that one way or the other, we can expect them to be coming home soon.
News reports said in abbreviated fashion that Reagan had promised to bring them home, either when peace is restored or if there is a collapse of the Gemayel government. Sounds like he's eager to bring them home as quick as possible, doesn't it? But his actual statement was laced with qualifiers that really say the opposite. After saying we would leave in the event of a peaceful solution (don't hold your breath for that), he said we would also leave "if there was such a collapse of order that it was absolutely certain that there was no solution to the problem. " That leaves room for the U. S. to stay on, even if the Gemayel government were to collapse, and even if there were a general collapse of order. All the U. S. needs to do is to claim that it is not "absolutely certain" that there is no hope, and our forces can stay.
Weasel words like that are sufficient to fool most of us, because we Americans want to believe our leaders. After Congress reconvenes in late January, though, new pressures for withdrawal will start building. To make sure those pressures do not accomplish anything, watch for new distractions or supposed Syrian provocations around that time. The Bolshevized U. S. Government has no intention of bringing our fighting men home, and will find some way to keep them there.
White House Infighting and Extreme Security Precautions
Lately the subject of terrorism has taken on a domestic tone here in the U. S. itself. At around 11 p. m. , Nov. 7, a bomb went off in the U. S. Capitol Building near the office of Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd. The next evening on ABC-TV news he said: "It didn't come as any surprise to me. I had been expecting something like this for several days. "
Byrd's cryptic comment went unexplained. But just over 2 weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, it was revealed that entrances to the White House were being blocked by dumptrucks filled with sand. Increased security at entrances to certain other important government buildings has also been instituted, such as the diplomatic entrance at the State Department.
One purpose which can be served by all the publicity over possible terrorist threats, whether real or imagined, is quite
obvious. It sets the stage for an increasingly closed style of government. This is alien to American traditions, but is right in line with the Bolshevik-inspired preoccupation of the Reagan Administration with unprecedented levels of secrecy and security (NewsALERT #7).
However, there may be even more to it than that. We suggest you keep your eyes particularly on the security arrangements which now surround President Reagan wherever he goes. These are now extraordinarily elaborate and tight. The last time such a thick security blanket was wrapped around Reagan was in June 1982, up until his bombshell dismissal of Secretary of State Alexander Haig.
The Haig dismissal took place just 2 days before the deadline for an anti-Bolshevik coup d'etat which Dr. Beter had made public 4 months earlier (AL#72). He had said that either Reagan or Haig would go by then; it was Haig who went.
Now the ''Debategate" plan (NewsALERT #1) is simmering in a new White House power struggle-. In late January, Reagan is to announce his candidacy for re-election. Then Debategate is supposed to boil over again. . . with new dangers for Reagan.
Letter Corner: Where NewsALERT Stands
The worst thing about many of the storm clouds now gathering is that an honest U. S. Government could avoid them.
That is why NewsALERT hammers away at the deceptions by which our own leaders are spoiling our future. We want America's future to be bright, not clouded over constantly by deliberate crisis after crisis as it is now. A change for the better can take place--but only if a factually informed, spiritually fortified American people will live up to our responsibilities under the U. S. Constitution.
Whenever a candle is lit in dark and hidden places, it tends to expose things that are not pleasant to see. That may cause a few readers sometimes to misunderstand our intentions. For example, the following letter recently received raises some questions whose answers may be helpful to other readers too:
"My family after reading my last NewsALERT #8 are claiming that you are very anti-Reagan, anti-America. This poses a question in my mind: if you seem to be taking up for the Russians in this latest newsletter, does that make you a Communist?. . . For instance on page 11, and I quote: 'We hear constantly about the efforts of Soviet spies to obtain information about U. S. technology, as if that were proof that the Russians could not do these things for themselves. ' In other words this does seem to appear that America is being downplayed.
"... I would really be in debt to you if you could clear up my doubts. , . "
--F. S.
Largo, Florida
NewsALERT reply: We are indebted to reader F. S„ for bringing these questions to our attention. Three points are raised, which we think are best answered in reverse order.
About Soviet technology: In NewsALERT #8, the quoted sentence is followed by a paragraph about the efforts of the late Gen. Thomas Power over two decades ago to warn about exactly the same thing. Gen. Power, former head of the U. S. Air Force Strategic Air Command, believed and said publicly that the only insurance against eventual disaster for the United States lies in keeping the public informed, instead of in the dark about military as well as other developments. He tried as long ago as 1959 (in a book manuscript banned by the Pentagon) to let Americans in on the true significance of Soviet technical spying.
Its purpose is to keep Soviet technology abreast of Western developments with minimum expense and effort, while saving the best Russian engineers and scientists to work on the most advanced projects to "leapfrog" (Gen. Power's word) past the best we have to offer in certain areas. Clear back in 1959 --nearly a quarter-century ago!--Gen. Power warned in his banned manuscript (AL#32) that, thanks to their two-pronged approach, the Soviets "can buy more progress in military technology than we can for an equivalent amount. Most importantly, they are getting it a great deal faster than we do. " (Our emphasis. ) He said that even then, they were already matching our efforts, so where does that put them today, after moving "a great deal faster" for 24 more years? It puts them in
the position we reported in NewsALERT#8--with pretty much what we have militarily, and some more besides.
To the best of our knowledge, the only person who has ever made public the contents of Gen. Power's banned 1959 manuscript was Dr. Beter, in his March 1978 tape (AL#32). But you can go to your local library and probably find a copy of a later, Pentagon-censored version which was published as a book in 1965, titled Design for Survival (Coward-McCann, N„ Y. ).
We realize it takes courage even to be a subscriber to NewsALERT, because we report many things that challenge the picture which we are usually given about things. To reader F. S. and any others similarly beset by criticism from others who interpret our reports as anti-American in some way, we suggest the following experiment which might open a few eyes: First, quote this issue of NewsALERT as stating that the Soviet military industrial base is "by far the world's largest in number of facilities and physical size, and it produces more individual military systems in greater quantities than any other nation.
" Then point out that this is in direct conflict with the impression usually given by the U. S. Government, to the effect that the Russians are forever struggling and spying just to keep up with what we do.
The statement in quotation marks above may be brushed aside by some, thinking NewsALERT made it up to downplay America. But this happens to be a direct quote from a recent report by the Pentagon's own intelligence analysts --the Defense Intelligence Agency. It sums up exactly what, we keep reporting in other ways.
We think you have a right to know.
Taking up for the Russians? There is an old saying: "Know your enemy. " It is foolish and dangerous to treat an avowed, deadly enemy as if he were a friend; it is equally foolish and dangerous to ascribe more hostile intentions on the part of another power than really exist. The first error leaves a nation needlessly vulnerable; the second error creates the opposite problem--deadly enmity where it need not have existed.
It is the second error which the Reagan Administration is making now with Russia. Every door which the New Kremlin has attempted to open to a better dialogue with the U. S. over
the past several years has been slammed shut on their fingers by Reagan tough-guy belligerence.
We have chronicled this course of events in arms control, for example, but virtually every other channel for Soviet-American dialogue has also been severed in similar ways. Aside from resuming wheat sales to , Russia (which was done to appease badly injured U„ S. farmers, not to improve the climate of dialogue), the trend by the U. S. for several years now has been to close every possible door while opening none. If 5,000 years of human history is any guide at all, such belligerence borders on insanity. It cannot possibly lead to peace, but instead cannot fail to lead to war sooner or later. If anyone seriously believes that such policies are truly in America's best interests, we simply cannot agree.
The Reagan Administration, including conspicuously President Reagan himself, is indulging in a concerted campaign to de-humanize Russia's image in American eyes. That is always part of any hate campaign to prepare for war, and it is dangerous beyond measure. NewsALERT believes Americans have a right to know that this image is a caricature, and not even a good caricature at that. Changes have taken place in Russia's ruling circles, and still are taking place, which offer the chance of a safer future for the world--if the opportunity is not thrown away.
Anti-Reagan or anti-America: This brings us to the final point, which actually is raised first in the letter from reader F. S. First, we think it is dangerous to equate "Reagan" with "America. " America is not Ronald Reagan: it is you, us, your family, your friends, and about 230 million other people.
Many millions of Americans are swayed to put their confidence in our present leaders by just one factor. That factor is the jovial, sincere-appearing manner of President Ronald Reagan. We tend to forget that an actor makes his entire living by learning to appear to be what he is not. Given a good script and proper direction, an actor with no competence whatever in mathematics, say, could convincingly imitate Albert Einstein. Actors also learn, as perhaps the most fundamental aspect of their entire art, how to feign emotions which are not real, including even crying on demand for the camera.
When all of this is used within its proper arena of entertain-
ment, it need do no harm, and can be uplifting and good. When it is misused within the arena of politics, however, it becomes positively dangerous. That is why America's media president, whose unprecedented dependence upon sheafs of 3x5 cue cards has become legend, is so dangerous. He has the talent to make lies sound like the truth. . . and he is so ignorant of many things that he may even believe they are the truth.
Just for the record, NewsALERT would find it hard to improve on the old motto of President Teddy Roosevelt: "Walk softly and carry a big stick. " In other words, be strong and fully prepared for defense against any aggressor, but don't go out looking for trouble. Reagan and Co. , by contrast, are stomping as loudly as possible and swinging a stick at everyone who gets within range. Is that the American way? We don't think so. If that makes NewsALERT anti-Reagan, it is only an unavoidable consequence of being pro-America. . . the real America of 230 million people.
Notice Concerning Dr. Beter
In November 1982 Dr. Peter Beter terminated his AUDIO LETTER tape program and his association with Audio Books, Inc. , for health reasons. Copies of Dr. Beter's letter dated Nov. 16, 1982, were sent at that time to all AUDIO LETTER subscribers, but a few current NewsALERT subscribers may not have received a copy. To insure that there is no confusion in anyone's mind, Dr. Beter has requested that we print in four issues of NewsALERT the following, which we are glad to do:
Dr. Beter is not associated with NewsALERT in any way.
Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year from NewsALERT!
Next scheduled issue: Jan. 6, 1984
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| Peter Beter News Alert 10: Perspective: The Gathering Storm (Part 2) Multiplying Storm Clouds on the World Horizon |
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