U.S. intelligence veterans are calling on German Chancellor Merkel to bring a needed dose of realism and restraint to the upcoming NATO conference, which risks escalating the dangerous new Cold War with Russia.
MEMORANDUM FOR: Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: NATO Summit in Warsaw
REFERENCE: Our Memorandum to You, August 30, 2014
We longtime U.S. intelligence officers again wish to convey our concerns and cautions directly to you prior to a critically important NATO summit – the meeting that begins on July 8 in Warsaw. We were gratified to learn that our referenced memorandum reached you and your advisers before the NATO summit in Wales, and that others too learned of our initiative via the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which published a full report on our memorandum on Sept. 4, the day that summit began.
President Barack Obama talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G7 Summit at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, Germany, June 8, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Wales to Warsaw
The Warsaw summit is likely to be at least as important as the last one in Wales and is likely to have even more far-reaching consequences. We find troubling – if not surprising – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s statement at a pre-summit press event on July 4 that NATO members will agree to “further enhance NATOs military presence in the eastern part of the alliance,” adding that the alliance will see its “biggest reinforcement since the Cold War.”
The likelihood of a military clash in the air or at sea – accidental or intentional – has grown sharply, the more so since, as we explain below, President Obama’s control over top U.S./NATO generals, some of whom like to play cowboy, is tenuous. Accordingly we encourage you, as we did before the last NATO summit, to urge your NATO colleagues to bring a “degree of judicious skepticism” to the table at Warsaw – especially with regard to the perceived threat from Russia.
Many of us have spent decades studying Moscow’s foreign policy. We shake our heads in disbelief when we see Western leaders seemingly oblivious to what it means to the Russians to witness exercises on a scale not seen since Hitler’s armies launched “Unternehmen Barbarossa” 75 years ago, leaving 25 million Soviet citizens dead. In our view, it is irresponsibly foolish to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not take countermeasures – at a time and place of his own choosing.
Putin does not have the option of trying to reassure his generals that what they hear and see from NATO is mere rhetoric and posturing. He is already facing increased pressure to react in an unmistakably forceful way. In sum, Russia is bound to react strongly to what it regards as the unwarranted provocation of large military exercises along its western borders, including in Ukraine.
Before things get still worse, seasoned NATO leaders need to demonstrate a clear preference for statesmanship and give-and-take diplomacy over saber-rattling. Otherwise, some kind of military clash with Russia is likely, with the ever-present danger of escalation to a nuclear exchange.
Extremely worrisome is the fact that many second-generation NATO leaders seem blithely unaware – or even dismissive – of that looming possibility. Demagoguery like that coming from former Polish President Lech Walesa, who brags that he would “shoot” at Russian jets that buzz U.S. destroyers assuredly are not at all helpful. Walesa’s tone, however, does reflect the macho attitude prevailing today in Poland and some other NATO newcomers.
We believe Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was correct to point out that military posturing on Russia’s borders will bring less regional security. We applaud his admonition that, “We are well advised not to create pretexts to renew an old confrontation.”
A Need For Candor
Speaking of “pretexts to renew an old confrontation,” we believe the time has come to acknowledge that the marked increase in East-West tensions over the past two years originally stemmed from the Western-sponsored coup d’état in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014, and Russia’s reaction in annexing Crimea.
Although we have a cumulative total of hundreds of years of experience in intelligence, we had never before seen planning for a coup d’état exposed weeks in advance – and then carried out anyway. Few seem to remember that in early February 2014, YouTube published a recording of an intercepted conversation between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the U.S. ambassador in Kiev, during which “Yats” (for Arseniy Yatsenyuk) was identified as Washington’s choice to become the new prime minister of the coup government in Kiev.
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, on Feb. 7, 2014. (U.S. State Department photo)
This unique set of circumstances prompted widely respected analyst George Friedman, president of the think tank STRATFOR, to label the Putsch in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014, “really the most blatant coup in history.”
If one listens only to Western politicians and the corporate media, however, their version of recent history in Eastern Europe begins on Feb. 23, 2014. A particularly blatant example of this came on June 30, when U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute spoke at a pre-summit press briefing:
“beginning in 2014 and still to this day, we’re moving into a new period in NATO’s long history. Why do I say that? Here’s the evidence I cite. So the first thing that happened in 2014 that marks this change is a newly aggressive, newly assertive Russia under Vladimir Putin. So in late February, early March of 2014, the seizing, the occupying of Crimea followed quickly by the illegal political annexation of Crimea. … Well, any notion of strategic partnership came to an abrupt halt in the first months of 2014.” (Emphasis added)
In view of the coup d’état and post-coup instability in Ukraine, what Ambassador Lute goes on to say about NATO’s professed desire for stability in Ukraine comes across as disingenuous. Far more important, it puts Russia on notice that – in the U.S. view, at least – meddling on the “periphery” between NATO and Russia will continue.
According to Lute, one of the “key themes” at Warsaw will be: “What do we do about the periphery.” Lute explains: “Here we talk about projecting stability. So we don’t have an obligation to defend states beyond NATO’s territory, but we realize it’s in our interest to make them as stable as possible.”
We suggest that it is past time for Western leaders to admit that there is not one scintilla of evidence of any Russian plan to annex Crimea before the coup in Kiev and the coup leaders began talking about Ukraine joining NATO. If senior NATO leaders continue to be unable or unwilling to distinguish between cause and effect, increasing tension is inevitable with potentially disastrous results – all of them unnecessary and avoidable, in our view.
Ukraine: Still Festering
In our August 2014 memorandum, we suggested that you be “appropriately suspicious of charges made by the U.S. State Department and NATO officials alleging a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Actually, the gravity of the situation was considerably worse than we realized at the time.
Former NATO Commander Philip M. Breedlove.
We now know that U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who was Supreme NATO Commander until two months ago, was pressing hard for confrontation with Russia and the anti-coup separatists in eastern Ukraine. This comes through clearly in Breedlove’s recently disclosed emails, which now confirm what we believed in 2014; namely, that everyone needed to examine closely Breedlove’s exaggerated claims, many of them based on fuzzy photos and other highly dubious “intelligence.”
Lobbying for approval to wage a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, Breedlove was highly critical of President Barack Obama’s policy, which Breedlove disparaged as simply: “Do not get me into a war.” (As though this were some kind of cowardly order!)
The emails show that behind Obama’s back, Breedlove kept trying to “leverage, cajole, convince or coerce the U.S. to react” to Russia. One of Breedlove’s email correspondents wrote back to him: “Given Obama’s instruction to you not to start a war, this may be a tough sell,” but this did not stop Breedlove from trying.
In 2015, as your own intelligence analysts were able to tell you, Breedlove went beyond hyperbole to outright fabrication with claims that “well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of the most sophisticated air defense weapons, and battalions of artillery” had been sent to eastern Ukraine.
These were the kinds of faux claims Breedlove used in attempts to enlist help from the senior military and Congress in getting Obama to supply weapons to Ukrainian armed forces.
Lest we seem to be singling out Gen. Breedlove, his predecessor as Supreme NATO Commander, Adm. James Stavridis, was hardly provided good example. A year after the U.S. led some NATO countries in a Blitz of aircraft and missile strikes against Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, Stavridis and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder wrote in Foreign Affairs: “NATO’s operation in Libya has rightly been hailed as a model intervention.”
The operation was just the opposite, of course. The chaos now reigning in Libya, with hundreds of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean, offers abundant proof that your government’s decision to keep Germany at arms-length from that “model intervention” was a wise one.
While it is somewhat awkward for us to offer such candid comments on the character and caliber of the most senior U.S. generals and admirals – including those, like Ambassador Lute, who end up getting appointed to senior political positions at NATO – such a critique is unavoidable. The important reality to which we draw your attention pertains not only to their qualifications, but also to their dismissive attitude toward President Obama.
President Barack Obama and President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine talk after statements to the press following their bilateral meeting at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, Poland, June 4, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
We observed in our Aug. 30, 2014 memorandum that President Obama “has only tenuous control over the policymakers in his administration.” That this includes senior military leaders can be seen in Obama’s failure to remove Gen. Breedlove, who – in addition to his intense maneuvering behind Obama’s back – made little effort to hide his open disdain for the cautious approach of his commander in chief toward the possibility of armed confrontation in volatile places like Ukraine.
An Appropriate “Nein!”
One factor encouraging us to write to you again is your proven record of insistence on tenacious diplomacy rather than saber rattling and provocation. We noted, for example, that at a press conference with President Obama in Washington on Feb. 9, 2015, you personally experienced Breedlove-type pressure for sending lethal weaponry to Ukraine – the kind of pressure still being applied to Obama himself. You stuck to your guns, so to speak, when the first designated questioner noted that the U.S. was considering providing lethal weapons to Ukraine and that your view was “very different.”
“I have given you my opinion on the export of arms,” was your unequivocal answer. Nor did you diverge from your insistent preference for diplomacy over arms, as you replied to a final, plaintive question: “Mrs. Merkel, … diplomacy, as you said yourself, has not brought much progress. Can you understand the impatience of the Americans when they say we ought to now deliver weapons?”
Right-wing Ukrainian politician Andriy Parubiy.
We believe your resolute “nein” to providing weapons to Ukraine was a key factor in scuttling that ill-conceived idea last year. And, as you know far better than we, your clearly expressed stance helped bring about a ceasefire that, however imperfect, was infinitely better than the escalation of fighting that would have inevitably resulted from sending weapons to Kiev’s government forces.
You stuck to your position, even though it put you in opposition to nearly all political, military, and media voices in the U.S., which were expressing disdain for diplomacy and preference instead for war.
It is inevitable that there will be more proposals to send weapons to the Kiev government, particularly in view of the continued hostilities in eastern Ukraine. We hope that unbiased scrutiny can be given to which parties are responsible for blocking full implementation of the Minsk accords that you, Foreign Minister Steinmeier, and your French and Russian counterparts have worked hard to offer as a plan for peace in Ukraine.
Secretary of State John Kerry is visiting Kiev on July 7, a day before the Warsaw summit opens. He might be asked to share his impressions on the stormy political events in Ukraine over the past few months.
In our view, things have gone from bad to worse there, with Andriy Parubiy now speaker of the Ukrainian parliament. Parubiy is one of the most conspicuous leaders of Ukrainian ultra-nationalist, and outright neo-Nazi, movements. In 1991 he founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine, together with Oleh Tyahnybok, another February 2014 coup plotter, who now leads the extreme right Svoboda party.
The neo-Nazi Wolfsangel symbol on a banner in Ukraine.
The name of Parubiy’s Social-National Party was chosen to identify it with Hitler’s National Socialist Party. Its official symbol is the somewhat modified Wolf’s Hook (Wolfsangel), used by the SS. Both parties blame Russia for the ills besetting Ukraine.
Parubiy as Parliament Speaker makes a mockery of NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg’s insistence that NATO has resolved to make sure that a law-abiding Kiev is “committed to democracy.”
On Monday, Parubiy stated on TV, “I have not supported the Minsk agreements from the very start,” adding that Moscow’s “plans on Ukraine may be stopped only by force and international sanctions.”
Also on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Ukraine has not made any new effort to facilitate implementation of the Minsk accords that call for a ceasefire, weapons withdrawal, local elections in eastern Ukraine, and constitutional reform.
Doing the Possible in Poland
Instead of muscle flexing and saber rattling, it would likely be more constructive if NATO leaders held a serious discussion regarding Kiev’s recalcitrance on the Minsk accords. An open discussion would mean avoiding the usual knee-jerk, wholesale identification with Ukraine’s long list of real and imagined grievances against Russia.
U.S. Ambassador Lute might be asked if knows anyone with the kind of influence with Kiev that it would take to break the logjam and move events toward implementation of the peace agreements so painstakingly worked out at Minsk.
Another worthwhile endeavor would be to establish a NATO working group to respond to Russia’s suggestion to devise organizational and technical measures to prevent close encounters or clashes of aircraft over the Baltic Sea.
Lastly, it would be highly constructive if NATO would take responsibility for assessing the fundamental factors behind the hideous outbreak of the terrorist acts that took so many lives over recent days in Istanbul, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Baghdad. In this context, as well as in central Europe, violence begets violence. It should not be beyond the capability of NATO to undertake a fresh, hard look at why terrorism continues to increase, and to attempt to come up with new, more imaginative, less violent ways to address the issues that ultimately fuel the curse of terrorism.
NOTE: As is our custom, we are sending the White House a copy of this memorandum. We would like you to know, however, that we rarely receive any acknowledgement that our memoranda get through to President Obama – or that the he pays them any heed if they do reach his desk. We suspect that the wide generation gap between his relatively young advisers and the longtime collective experience that we in VIPS bring to the table may, in part, account for this. Therefore, if you find our thoughts informative – perhaps even provocative – we suggest that, when you see the President on Friday in Warsaw, you urge the President to obtain and read his copy.
For the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
William Binney, former Technical Director, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
Daniel Ellsberg, former State Department and Defense Department Official (VIPS Associate)
Graham E. Fuller, Vice-Chair, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
Philip Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.)
Mike Gravel, former special agent of the Counter Intelligence Corps. former United States Senator from Alaska
Matthew Hoh, former Capt., USMC, Iraq & Foreign Service Officer, Afghanistan (associate VIPS)
Larry C Johnson, CIA & State Department (ret.)
Brady Kiesling, Foreign Service Officer, Political Counselor, Embassy Athens, (ret.) (associate VIPS)
John Kiriakou, Former CIA Counterterrorism Officer
Edward Loomis, NSA Cryptologic Computer Scientist (ret.)
David MacMichael, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.)
Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East, CIA (ret.)
Torin Nelson, Former HUMINT Officer, U.S. Department of the Army
Todd Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (ret.)
Scott Ritter, former Maj., USMC, former UN Weapon Inspector, Iraq
Coleen Rowley, Division Counsel & Special Agent, FBI (ret.)
Peter Van Buren, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Officer (ret.) (associate VIPS)
Ann Wright, U.S. Army Reserve Colonel (ret) and former U.S. Diplomat
Russian do not want war. We want peace and cooperation. But we will defend ourselves if attacked happen. As in all past wars … “Who’s to us with the sword come, that perish by the sword.” (C) Come and see us as friends! :)
World War III is a really bad idea. World Peace I is clearly more sensible. Most people on Earth prefer peace.
Agree
the warmongering is the complete realisation of the policy of the military industrial complex of which already Eisenhower warned in 1960. People who desire war have no idea – like myself who suffered as a boy of 10 from the firestorms of burning German cities. People who desire war believe they can stand aside far away from the battlefield EUROPE. The same belief was also with the German Emperor and Adolf Hitler who were convinced that the WWI and WWII could easily be won in a few months. Both wars ended in the biggest desaster world has ever seen since then. But both wars will be playground plays compared to WWIII which some criminals prepare.
I alerted Florian Rötzer to this article and shortly thereafter (on July 8) he published a long article quoting extensively from it in Telepolis, a German online magazine of which he is the chief editor:
http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/48/48761/1.html
George Friedman of STRATFOR is “widely respected” by who? I read his “forecasts” (when having free time) for years–he is hardly in the know when saying (or writing) anything on Russia.
… NATO members will agree to “further enhance NATOs military presence in the eastern part of the alliance,” adding that the alliance will see its “biggest reinforcement since the Cold War.”
And NATO continues its march of folly.
Bill, perhaps you have read Barbara Tuchman’s “March of Folly: from Troy to Vietnam” ? It was recently recommended to me, and the reviews on Amazon have me very much looking forward to reading it.
Gregory: It is a long time since I read this book, but I can recall I was very impressed when I read it. I highly recommend it as I do the compendium of essays by Walter Karp that woke me up to the reality of American politics. You can get information about the four books at alibris.com. You can probably also get a good deal on Tuchman’s books there. The same assessment for Karp’s books goes for Robert Parry’s books. He has continued the tradition of Karp who died about the time Robert Parry was starting his similarly courageous and enlightening career combining real journalism with history.
Thanks for the references Bill. Walter Karp looks to be a real “find” for me. His “Indispensable Enemies: the Politics of Misrule in America” is in my shopping cart. I often come across the idea that America foreign policy is inept due to bureaucratic bungling; that “mistakes” are made because of institutional inertia, and that our missteps are well-intentioned. I argue that American foreign policy would certainly be a bungled job if in fact the intentions were good…but our foreign policy is not well-intentioned, the planners are basically doing what they set out to do. Karp (according to a review) may be of a similar mindset. Sorry to see he passed away at age 55.
Well done.
Those Breedlove emails should be a bigger story. It’s really something else, this push to create a nuclear-ized line of control on Russia’s border, beyond even the Pakistan/China and India Line of Control.
We’ve lost the cultural understanding of how dangerous this is, lost that sense that those of us who grew up during the Cold War had of the precarious nature of it all.
Disband NATO please & close most of the American military bases in Europe and send the hundred thousand American troops home. Europe should be responsible for its own defense and its own foreign policies, not merely a compliant vassal of the United States
https://www.darkmoon.me/2015/german-victims-how-the-allied-victors-of-wwii-tortured-and-killed-their-german-prisoners-of-war-part-2-of-2/
Good try, VIPS; I respect your efforts. But Merkel has been on a very short leash since March, 2015 when Germanwings Flight 9525 inexplicably flew into a mountain. She knows that disaster was a personal message to her from the empire: get back in line.
I am replying to you, Berry, because you and I are two of the very few who choose to identify themselves with a link to their website, which serves the important purpose of letting people know who the heck is speaking.
As for your comment here, however, there is no indication whatever that anything other than the deplorably undetected insanity of the pilot was a cause of the crash, so you are either way off base (not to say your rocker) or privy to some info that no one else has.
Mr. Morrissey, what is the credible “indication” of cause that the pilot deliberately crashed the plane into the mountain? As I recall, the case for such a conclusion is circumstantial at best and at worst is a leap of logic . . . . “the pilot must have been insane.”
Then there is the documented fact that planes of the same manufacture as GW 9525 could be entirely controlled remotely without the pilots’ cooperation.
So no, I am not privy to which it is, but the evidence of insanity is weak and the evidence that the empire uses terrorism to achieve its ends overwhelming.
CLOSE NATO—DIRECT INVESTMENTS TO DOMESTIC US NEEDS
I agree with most of the commentators above. In addition with the closing
of NATO, specific guidelines (and appropriations etc) should be made
to engage those thousands currently employed in manufacturing
US weapons to responsible, well-paid positions in domestic fields
such as building and staffing of hospitals (eg technological needs,
not only lifting a spade), building and rebuilding highways, bridges,
and railroad systems, construction of affordable houses and
the like.
Our goal is NOT to put thouands of workers out-of-work but
to direct them to more productive endeavors than the
manufacture of higher tech means to kill other human beings.
It goes without saying that various labor unions must be
involved in all phases of this transition..
I have my doubts as to whether the above article will
persuade Angela Merkel.
Why is the US Secretary of State in Georgia declaring US
interest in yet another state bordering Russia???
If the US continues to abrogate exclusively to itself
the inalienable right to be militarily involved in every
country in the world (as a basic US security interest and
obligation?), perhaps they should establish bases and so-called
“training exercises” in Palestine to combat the so far
uncontested (by the US) oppression and illegal
annexation etc. by the State of Israel.
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
I hesitate to be so self-serving as to re-post my own previous comments, but for those who may find them interesting, I refer you to my June 23 post under Marjorie Cohn’s June 22 article, and to my July 6 post under Ann Wright’s July 5 article.
I frequently hear the truism: “Words have meaning.” That may be counted among humanity’s falsest statements. They simply don’t. Words have definitions, and “meaning” resides in the mind of the listener. Some comments on this site exemplify that point, demonstrating that not only do people fail to listen – or exhibit adequate reading comprehension – they also fail to comprehend that words have multiple definitions. The result is often an emotional response (irrationalism) where none is warranted.
My observation is that a few of the commenters here, as well as the authors of this article, have assessed things with reasonable fidelity. The United States and NATO are now ‘in bed’ with a bunch of Nazi lunatics in Ukraine. There is an ideologically unbroken chain of association between the pogromists and Banderists of WWII and the current regime in Ukraine. Ergo, they are not “neo-Nazis”. They are simply “Nazis”. For example, Yaroslav Stetsko’s personal secretary is now a member of the current government. These people have their own agenda. What they “say” can hardly be expected to coincide with what they “mean”. This bizarre alliance is almost certain, whether intended or unintended, to spark some kind of kinetic event. The chance that the event will involve nuclear weapons is extremely high. As long as a Nazi tail is wagging the NATO dog, nobody is safe.
We are now living in the surreal, delusional and abstract interpretation of current events which I choose to call, “The Dada Cafe”. Good luck with that. Don’t say nobody tried to warn you.
The United States and NATO are now ‘in bed’ with a bunch of Nazi lunatics in Ukraine.
From the same region as Gavrilo Princip who fired the starter’s pistol for World War One.
“Shooting went on regardless, profiteering went on regardless, people would go on starving regardless, lies would always be told regardless—what was the good of art anyway? In those days we saw the mad final excrescences of the ruling order of society, and burst out laughing. We did not yet see that there was a system behind all this madness.”
– George Grosz and Wieland Herzfelde, “Die Kunst ist in Gefahr“ (“Art is in Danger”), 1925
I would very much hope that VIPS also saw fit to Fed-ex a copy of this memo to Merkel’s regular interlocutor, Francois Hollande. In my understanding, France has long had a number of deep reservations vis-a-vis NATO; and — you never know, d’you — this memo could conceivably prove to be the straw that’ll break the camel’s back.
Thank you for your courageous efforts VIPS, this memo is excellent. If no effort to steer vision to sanity is made, we won’t even have a chance to avoid a dance with death made by blind choice.
This article is nonsense. NATO, the EU, etc., are part and parcel of the Global-Totalitarian Cabal that is initiating negative advances toward Russia and Company, risking a world war. The best thing that would happen would be if Russia and Company would nuke all of it’s Totalitarian nemesis, including the U.S.
International law expert Alexander Mercouris points out the fact that the “Ukraine Parliament Speaker Exposes Absurdity of Merkel’s Sanctions Policy” http://theduran.com/ukraine-parliament-speaker-exposes-absurdity-merkels-sanctions-policy/
“immediately after the sanctions were extended – Andrey Parubiy has acted to prove the EU wrong and Putin right. Though he is the Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament and a key figure in the Ukrainian power structure he admits that he entirely opposes the Minsk II Agreement and always did. In a television interview on Monday 4th July 2016 he is reported as saying:
“’I have not supported the Minsk Agreements from the very start. I thought, and I still think that the Minsk Agreements were signed in conditions that were unfavourable for Ukraine.’
“The EU’s decision to link sanctions against Russia to the full implementation of the Minsk II Agreement happened directly after that agreement was reached in February 2015. Deeply humiliated by Putin at Minsk, Merkel tried to salvage her reputation with the US hardliners and gain some leverage over the process by getting the European Council to link the lifting of the sanctions to the full implementation of the Minsk II Agreement.
“By doing so Merkel led the EU into a trap where its sanctions policy against Russia – which is severely hurting scores of European businesses, including German businesses – is now hostage to the obsessions of people like Parubiy, who have made it perfectly clear that they will never willingly implement the Minsk II Agreement.
“Though this fact may not be widely known by the generality of the European public, it is very well known by the businesses affected and of course it is well known to EU governments including […] to members of Merkel’s own coalition government.”
Andriy Parubiy founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine together with Oleh Tyahnybok in 1991. The name Social-National Party was chosen as a fully intentional allusion to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party called National Socialist Party. This interpretation has been confirmed by Der Spiegel, Germany’s leading weekly news magazine.
True to its historical inspiration, the Social-National Party did not conceal its radical nationalism and its Nazi features. In a 2009 study of “Ultraright Party Politics in Post-Soviet Ukraine”, researchers Andreas Umland and Anton Shekhovstov characterized the Social-National Party of Ukraine in these words: “… of these various Ukrainian nationalist parties the SNPU was the least inclined to conceal its neo fascist affiliations. Its official symbol was the somewhat modified Wolf’s Hook (Wolfsangel), used as a symbol by the German SS division Das Reich and the Dutch SS division Landstorm Nederland during World War II and by a number of European neofascist organizations after 1945. As seen by the SNPU leadership, the Wolf’s Hook became the “idea of the nation.” Moreover, the official name of the party’s ideology, “social nationalism,” clearly referred back to “national socialism”—the official name of the ideology of the National-Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) and of the Hitlerite regime. The SNPU’s political platform distinguished itself by its openly revolutionary ultranationalism, its demands for the violent takeover of power in the country, and its willingness to blame Russia for all of Ukraine’s ills. Moreover, the SNPU was the first relatively large party to recruit Nazi skinheads and football hooligans.”
From December 2013 to February 2014, Parubiy was a commandant of Euromaidan. He was then appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, and was approved by (then) new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on 16 June 2014.
As Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Parubiy oversaw the “anti–terrorist” operation against eastern Ukraine.
Parubiy resigned as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council on 7 August 2014. He declined to say why, stating “I believe it is unacceptable to comment on my resignation in a time of war”, and he would “continue to assist the front, primarily volunteer battalions”. President Poroshenko signed a decree confirming Parubiy’s dismissal the same day. RT reported that local media were stating that Parubiy resigned after he was ordered to declare another ceasefire in the southeast of Ukraine, but refused to do so.
Parubiy has been the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, since 14 April 2016.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kyiv on 7 July 2016 to meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD-8VSlDGb0
Kerry was accompanied by Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland.
In addition to meeting with Poroshenko, Kerry discussed the Minsk Implementation Plan on Donbas with high-ranked Ukrainian officials including Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy.
After Kyiv, Kerry traveled to Warsaw, Poland to attend the NATO summit. On July 8, he will be accompanying U.S. President Barack Obama, who will also be present at the summit.
“It is likely that the ultra-nationalist Parubiy was behind the false flag operation and nationalist revolutionary seizure of power. He would be rewarded under the new Maidan regime with the post of Chairman of the Defense and Security Council of Ukraine.”
The Real “Snipers’ Massacre”, Ukraine, February 2014: Updated/Revised Working Paper
By Gordon M. Hahn
https://gordonhahn.com/2016/03/09/the-real-snipers-massacre-ukraine-february-2014-updatedrevised-working-paper/
Still timely and must reading for VIPS: “Ms. Merkel and Peace” by Dagmar Henn http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/13/ms-merkel-and-peace/
“Sometimes one gets the impression that the Russian side tries to explain very slowly three times to intellectually challenged people of Berlin the effects of what they are actually doing at the moment. I would consider the interview with [Russian politician Yevgeny Alexeyevich] Fedorov in this context — a kind of tedious pedagogic effort. Could it be that Merkel saw this video and became deeply frightened, when she heard that in case of a Ukrainian attack against Russia ‘Washington and Berlin would be burned to ashes’?
“Well, some decades ago someone, after meeting Merkel — at that time minister of enviromental issues — commented that she is not any more intelligent than her appearance suggests. But it would need someone incapable to count up to three not to understand that we are talking about a real and massive risk of a nuclear war. This risk has existed since the day of the coup in Kiev, and we have escaped it twice already — through the reunification of the Crimea with Russia, and through the uprising in the Donbass, which has up to now prevented an attack of the junta against the Crimea.
“So even if this specific question more or less escaped public attention until today, and now suddenly becomes so acute that even Der Spiegel remembers it, the leading players in Germany must have realised this tiny problem right from the start. (And they should have been able to imagine what it might mean if creatures like members of the Right Sector gained access to nuclear weapons, which might have happened, had their access to the Crimea not been blocked so promptly)”
Far from tempering the alliance’s belligerence, Merkel plays NATO shieldmaiden http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6fl6Wdtm65o/T-_8RuRyZwI/AAAAAAAAAhY/tSp6tQlfN_U/s1600/angela+merkel+als+brunhilde+blog.jpg
According to Albert Speer [Inside the Third Reich, The Macmillan Company. 1970, p. 463], the Berlin Philharmonic’s last performance before their evacuation from Berlin at the end of World War II in Europe was of Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene at the end of Richard Wagner’s opera, Götterdämmerung [Twilight of the Gods].
Very wise words. I would like to point out that NATO is the military arm of the Rothschilds, not an ally of the USA, not in a true sense. . NATO could never confront Russia and survive, so it is imperative to get the USA’s military involved. If this does not wake up the President, then nothing will- he is in control of NOTHING! Since Israel was unsuccessful in maneuvering the USA into a catastrophic confrontation with Iran and Russia, a Rothschilds dream of divide and conquer and take total control of Americas stockpile of nuclear arms, the Rothschilds are now resorting to NATO as the bait. This country is at a fateful crossroad; one leading to life and one leading to total destruction and death. NATO is neither an ally, nor friend. NATO is the sole property of the Rothschilds dynasty and they want a WW3. The Napoleonic War with Russia, WW1 and WW2, were very profitable for the Rothchilds. This Putin knows as does Iran and China. Only our president remains blind!
He is not blind,he is part of the Zionist problem.
As a person living in Germany I strongly support this (further) attempt by the VIPS to speak truth and reason to power, in this case to our chancellor Merkel. I hope a copy is also sent to Steinmeier and Sigmar Gabriel, also to Gernot Erler and Gerhard Schröder (and even Joachim Gauck), all of whom would (I think) be supportive. I posted to OpEdNews.com about Steinmeier’s remarks and Schröder’s support of them, but I don’t think many people noticed.
What the VIPS are doing is extremely important. I can hardly find words to praise them enough. I have suggested a couple of times that other “leading dissidents” should take them as a model and take similar actions, but as far as I can see the VIPS are the only ones acting responsibly, namely swallowing their egos and actually getting together to produce eminently sensible statements that everyone can and should stand behind.
Many thanks and kudos to all the VIPS. You continue to be my model for responsible political engagement. If the world blows up, you will be among the few who will be able to say (theoretically!) you did your best to prevent it.
thank you for this info
seems not all americans are stupid warmongers
as many people might think when they see what happens in the
world,and hear Nato chiefs…….
What Europe should have done long ago was to disband NATO, close all of the American military bases in Europe and send the hundred thousand American troops home. Europe should be responsible for its own defense and its own foreign policies, not merely a compliant vassal of the United States. You would think that, under such a policy, tensions would be lower, trip wires to World War III could be eliminated, money saved on needless armaments, and trade with Russia, China, Iran and other countries greatly enhanced, providing more jobs to fuel the economies of the European states. Perhaps, without American influences playing one country against another, Europe might have by now become even more unified than the mistrusted EU. So, why have they never done this? Why do they show not the slightest intention to do so in the future? Is it a consequence of the paranoia constantly being stoked by America? Or do these nation states still basically distrust one another to the point where they need a collective minder in the form of the United States? In essence, a super “baby sitter.” If the latter, people of Europe, please grow up and take control of your own destinies as soon as possible. Your American baby sitters are about to burn your house down.
Realist, your warnings to the Europeans is spot on, but should we not advise our fellow Americans not to vote for a proven warmonger. If only the news media were doing it’s job. Doing their job of reporting the news with coverage that tends to dig into the depths of the news, and in a way that is objective to every issue, which would help greatly to improve the public’s education of world events. It’s not that people don’t care, they just don’t know.
I’m hoping that this Brexit rebellion is the start of a European withdraw from the empire of chaos, and the empire’s Neocon influences. I’m also hoping that with the rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which represents two thirds of the world’s population, that this may slow down the ambitious nature which seems to prevail inside the Washington beltway, and that a more fair and level headed group of American diplomats will emerge. There have been a few times in my life, that I wished for less, and got lucky and received much more, I hope this is one of those lucky times again. take care Realist JT
The U.S. of A controls Europe in just the same way the USSR used to control Eastern Europe until it’s demise in 1991.Hence no disbandment of NATO and the huge increase of America weapons , including nuclear ,and personnel since the Warsaw Pact was ended. In other words Germany has no choice in the same way the UK has no choice. It is Wall Street again who wants war and they ALWAYS get what they want and Damn the people who will die. Very good article.
Bigwigs being generously paid by NATO as well as all the senior officers in the militaries that belong to NATO, have no real interest in losing their jobs, or their $20000 a month pensions. So what good is peace to them?
These people need an enemy and if they don’t have one they will make one up and go to ‘war’ with them, the ‘war on terror’ is a good example.
Sanity is certainly required here but wealth and power have trumped sanity since the first guy figured out that it was easier and more fun to just take things by force.
Save your breath appealing to merkel she is a disaster for Europe
Havent you picked up on the fact that Merkel is pursuing an anti Russian policy.
German troops will be on Russia’s border.
Merkel lost the plot when she supported the coup in ukraine and turned a blind eye to the nature of the government in Kiev
Merkel gave tacit approval to the so called ATO in the east of ukraine.
Merkel puts all the blame for failure of Minsk 2 on Russia when ukraine openly admit they will not enforce it
Merkel maintains an anti a Russian stance that is at odds with her coalition partners in the german government and also with juncker at the EU who went to St Petersburg recently.
Merkel has been briefing against him, blaming him for brexit.
When her migrant policy was more of a factor in dividing Europe
She is an over rated leader who needs to go. Germany needs to return to Ostpolitik
I really can not believe how merkel is soooo stupid.
Or blackmailed. We only read that NSA was spying on her, we never read what NSA had spied up on her.
In Germany, the coalition partner of the Merkel’s CDU is going alone in re-establishing links with Russia, circumventing Merkel completely. Merkel is a politically dead woman talking due to her promotion of Germany as a destination for refugees and illegal immigration. This is why CDU has been routed at every regional election since the flood of refugges and immigrants started arriving.
Not sure what the benefit of this letter will be, the veterans of intelligence appear to have obsolete intelligence. But they are all absolutely wonderful individuals.
There’s no taste for that in Germany. The letter is correct in its assessment of Merkel’s attempts to maintain peaceful relations with the Ukraine. Merkel and Putin get along. She speaks Russian. He speaks German. However, Merkel is under great political pressure from both the EU and NATO.
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Jonathan Marshall outlines new US Programs that are being designed to “counter” Russian Propaganda. The story notes that one of the program’s targets is ‘RT’, which draws less than 0.1% of the US Audience. Along the way, Marshall manages to discuss NATO General Craig Breedlove, who complains that the Russian Information Machine is causing stress within certain NATO Countries who are becoming passive toward the Russian Threat.
There’s a link to Dr. Stephen Cohen, which is followed by this amazing quote, which echoes my own concerns about the growth of the nuclear threat with this ‘New Cold War’: “no conflict in recent memory has attracted less debate than America’s dangerous revival of the Cold War with the world’s only other nuclear superpower”.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/04/13/the-new-propaganda-war/
Here’s the German Magazine ‘Der Spiegel’s’ Article on the raucous Bayerischer Hof Hotel Meeting in which US War Criminals plotted to destroy the Ukrainian Peace Process on the eve of Merkel’s trip to Minsk. Included in the meeting were US NATO Head, General Phillip Breedlove, Victoria Nuland, action officer for the coup in the Ukraine; and John McCain, who never saw a war he couldn’t love.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/germany-concerned-about-aggressive-nato-stance-on-ukraine-a-1022193.html
Poison Pill added to Minsk II?
http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/muenchner-sicherheitskonferenz/was-us-politiker-ueber-deutschland-denken-39678276.bild.html
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/03/19/ukraines-poison-pill-for-peace-talks/
So if Blair was our “poodle,” what will Merkel be labeled?
Speaking of Chilcot, did anyone notice how a large percentage of the families of British soldiers killed in Iraq are (rightfully) angry at learning how Blair helped lie the U.K. into the war while almost none of the US families–except for Cindy Sheehan–ever speak out? Is this a form of “Stockholm Syndrome?”
Brainwashing by Zion has had a terrible effect on American minds.
Add to that,the MSM won’t print things that hurt the Zionist expansion program,which of course Iraq,Libya,Afghanistan and Syria(most of all,as they can grab Syrian territory at will)all are part of.
Dancing Israelis?Was that an ABBA song?
From my myopic viewpoint… US military families cling to the Support Our Troops meme, whereas the American public at large ignores the issue, probably because they are not personally affected. “Stockholm Syndrome” is too strong; US military families are not in a hostage situation.