At last week's G8 summit Russian President Vladimir Putin caught everyone off guard, and has potentially stymied new U.S. war provocations, by offering the U.S. use of a Russian radar in Azerbaijan, as the basis for missile threat detection. (Click here for details.)

In a number of interviews prior to the G8 summit Putin had warned that the proposed new U.S. ballistic missile defence system "would change the whole configuration of international security" and that "the likelihood of unleashing a nuclear conflict will even increase." He warned that Russia's response would not be reciprocal but asymmetric.

Retired Russian military figures have warned that the system could be used to inflict a pre-emptive strike—attack disguised as defence.

The "two plus two" talks which Australia has just participated in with the U.S. and Japan is part of the same new global security arrangement aimed at Russia and China. Given recent progress in diplomacy with North Korea, everything points to China being the real target of the Asia-Pacific BMD project, according to a Chinese defence expert.

The plan to recruit India to the project, further surrounding China, was originally pushed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney during his trip to Australia and Japan earlier this year, as pointed out in the June 7 Japan Times.

LaRouche has repeatedly stated that the Bush-Cheney Iraq/Iran war strategy is actually designed to destroy the U.S., Russia, China, and India—the only four nations capable of leading the world out of the current economic mess.

Check www.larouchepac.com for updates of this story.