Exclusive: Viewed as uncaring about facts, President Trump could change his image by releasing important information about recent turning-point moments that President Obama chose to hide from the people, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
One positive thing about a change in party control of the White House is that the new occupants sometimes release information that the old residents kept hidden because the facts were politically embarrassing or did not support some favored policy.
Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. (Flickr Gage Skidmore)
We saw this in the first days of the Obama administration when President Barack Obama declassified some documents relating to President George W. Bush’s internal policy debates about torture and other abuses from the “war on terror.”
However, as yet, we have seen nothing similar from the Trump administration even though some truth-telling might work very well for President Donald Trump, especially given his reputation for getting facts wrong. A commitment to transparency – giving some truth to the American people on important topics – could change Trump’s image for the better.
Plus, by releasing information that was unjustifiably kept hidden during Obama’s second term, Trump could underscore how Obama grew increasingly obsessive about secrecy the longer he remained in the White House, treating the American people as objects to be manipulated rather than citizens to be informed.
For instance, Obama kept the clamps on CIA analyses relating to the Ukrainian crisis, even regarding the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people and leading to a dangerous escalation in the New Cold War with Russia.
After the crash, the Obama administration quickly steered the Western media toward blaming President Vladimir Putin and got the European Union to join in economic sanctions against Russia.
However, after exploiting the rush to judgment against Putin, the Obama administration went silent, withholding U.S. intelligence evidence even from the official crash investigators. The more the administration learned about the tragic event and who was responsible the less it wanted to say.
At the time, I was told that the reason was that some senior CIA analysts were uncovering evidence that went in an inconvenient direction, suggesting a rogue Ukrainian operation connected to a hardline oligarch with the intent of shooting down a Russian jetliner, possibly even the one carrying Putin back from a state visit in South America, but instead brought down MH-17, which had similar markings.
To spread confusion and create some deniability for the attack, the scheme supposedly called for launching the missile from as deep inside “rebel-controlled” territory as possible.
A Closed File
The source described getting this briefing from U.S. intelligence analysts, but I was unable to get the CIA or the Office of Director of National Intelligence to provide any guidance. Instead, they clammed up, claiming that they didn’t want to “prejudice” the official Dutch-led investigation (although I pointed out that the hasty U.S. finger-pointing at Russia had already done that).
President Barack Obama discusses the crisis in Ukraine for 90 minutes on March 1, 2014, with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (White House photo/Pete Souza)
The refusal of the Obama administration to open its MH-17 files allowed the “Dutch-led” Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to be effectively taken over by Ukraine’s unsavory SBU intelligence agency, which oversaw the care and feeding of Dutch and Australian investigators who decamped for long periods in Kiev.
The SBU’s “evidence” became central to the JIT’s investigation although the SBU was deeply involved in the war against the ethnic-Russian Ukrainian rebels and was even denounced by United Nations investigators for blocking access to alleged SBU torture centers. Beyond that, part of the SBU’s mandate was to protect Ukrainian government secrets, so the SBU had obvious conflicts of interest.
Nevertheless, the JIT relied on SBU-provided telephone “intercepts” of cryptic Russian-language conversations to base its conclusion that Russia provided the rebels a Buk missile system on the night of July 16, 2014, which was then taken on a strangely circuitous route far to the west before circling back to the east to a location far from the battlefront where it shot down MH-17 on July 17 and then was driven back to Russia that evening, again taking an unnecessarily long way home.
Though there were numerous holes in the SBU’s evidence and serious questions about why the Buk would have taken its bizarrely long ride – when a much more direct and discreet route was available – the Western media again showed no skepticism, simply accepting Russian guilt as established fact and dismissing any alternative explanation as “fanciful.”
The Value of Truth
However, whatever the truth is – whether the Russians and their rebel allies were responsible for the tragedy or whether a rogue Ukrainian operation brought down MH-17 – there is no reason why President Trump shouldn’t instruct CIA Director Mike Pompeo to release as much of the U.S. intelligence analysis as possible.
Mike Pompeo, now CIA director, speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC. October 2011. (Flickr Gage Skidmore)
First, the families of the dead deserve all the help that the U.S. government can provide to identify the killers and bring them to justice. Second, by releasing the MH-17 file, President Trump can demonstrate that he does care about truth in contrast to President Obama who mysteriously withheld this information for 2½ years and thus gave the culprits, whoever they are, time to escape and cover their tracks.
Further, if the file blames the Russians, releasing it would show that Trump is not in Putin’s pocket, as many people in Official Washington claim. And, if the file implicates an element of the Ukrainian government – even a rogue faction – that might relieve geopolitical tensions with Russia and open possible paths for resolving the Ukrainian crisis.
The Trump administration also could consider other topics for declassification, such as the circumstances surrounding the U.S-backed coup that ousted elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014. U.S. intelligence surely was following those events closely and could clarify the roles of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt and Sen. John McCain, who all cheered on and encouraged violent protests that preceded the coup.
Obama also hid the intelligence regarding the mysterious sarin gas attack outside Damascus, Syria, on Aug. 21, 2013, which Secretary of State John Kerry and others blamed on the Syrian government although later evidence seemed to implicate jihadist rebels who wanted to trick the U.S. military into intervening directly in the war on their side.
Given the importance of those turning-point moments – and the Obama administration’s attempts to exploit them for geopolitical ends – the American people deserve to know what the U.S. intelligence analysts ultimately concluded and whether President Obama’s team was telling the truth or had gotten lost in the Orwellian idea of “perception management.”
President Trump might find that he can begin to turn around his reputation as a person who doesn’t care about the truth by becoming a truth-teller.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
Damned good article.
Not likely now or ever. Trump is finished. He is openly contradicted in policy positions and rhetorical stances by his cabinet members. His credibility is dead after serial lying and 20 million ACA beneficiaries are letting him know that the game is up.
Along with many, I liked one single thing about Trump – his willingness to work with Russia and avoid a new cold war. Thanks to his intemperance and idiotic behavior, Trump is rapidly becoming an afterthought. Expecting anything from him is simply wishful thinking.
I am not a Republican. However, I watched pack of demonstrators fill in the room where the IOWA Senator Chuck Grassley was holding a town hall meeting with his constituents.
While not minimizing the values of their concerns, something about these agitators may not have made sense to any rational viewer: (a) Every single question being asked by these people was like a script, read from some piece of paper or a book of some kind! (b) All the questions, in one way or another, centered around the disgust with President Trump’s policies.
(1) It was very telling that any organic protester with an authentic heartfelt concerns would choose express those concerns by reading from a script
(2) President Trump defeated Hillary in the state of Iowa 51.8% to Hillary’s 42.2% . The question then must be : What would urge these Iowan citizens who chose Trump to turn against him within 30 days of his presidency when all he is trying to do is to fulfill the platform on which they elected him?
The elites who have commandeered the US foreign policies are some of the most ruthless human species on planet earth. These scripted demonstrators are being manipulated by the elites who are operating from locations, far away from Iowa; despite the fact that these remote operator know they do not give a damn about the problems and concerns of average American citizens, they have no qualms about toying around with their emotions.
The poor scripted demonstrators are voicing their loving concerns about refugees?? Are they also aware that these organizers and writers of their scripts are the same elites who have devised and promoted policies which are violently dislocating these refugees out of their neighborhoods and their lands by the millions?
The poignant question that every sane and compassionate people must force these marauding elites to answer is: Who will occupy the spaces and lands that are being violently emptied once all their occupants have been slaughtered or resettled in Europe, Canada and USA? This is not merely a war against Muslims; these are well thought out forced depopulation of human beings from one region to another. And it is being violently carried in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria and South Sudan. Iran is next on the menu right now!
It may sound very humanistic for average Americans to claim they welcome refugees with open arms. However, these kind hearted Americans must also understand the brutality associated with forcing other humans to leave their neighborhoods and culture!
The event called “Arab Spring” may not have been as spontaneous as the American people were led to believe; this may have been a well coordinated effort by regime changers to fulfill their Middle East and North African objectives that started well before 9/11/2001 as articulated by Gen. Wesley Clark on the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCwCgthp_E
I am sure most of the readers on this sight remember President Barack Obama famous speech at Cairo University (June 4,209), about three months after his January inauguration in 2009. The significance and the implication of that unique speech in an Arab country, Egypt, must be left for those authentic investigative journalists and humanists to unravel.
Here the text of that speech
:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html
In just two months from the date of that speech, a speech given in ” Shakespearean prose” as Bernie Sanders would have called it, the events that led destabilization Libya, assassination of Gaddafi, destruction of once very stable African country of Libya and flight of regime change Libyan survivors (refugees) began in a small Libyan town of Zawiya (8/8/2009. Barack Obama’s Cairo speech was merely the precursor to what was about to follow in Libya:
https://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c2000s/yr10/libyancivilwar2011.htm
One may wonder why not all North African and Middle Eastern countries affected by the Arab Spring did not end like Libya, Yemen and Syria; these countries were previously earmarked for regime change!
These elites are experts at manipulating American citizens again and again without feeling any remorse! The scripted protesters are now being used, just like the Arab youths that filled Cairo University during Obama’s speech!
President Trump, like George W. Bush and Barack Obama, can either choose to be the face through whom the manipulation of American and the world citizens is continued by the regime changers; or he can expose these dangerous group of humans for who they are. Hillary is sucked in so deep that she is looking forward to running again in 2020 regardless of how old, sick or senile she may be by then! The regime changers are experts at filling in the age gaps. All they need is a breathing body to take the blame or be the fall guy/gal!
I will be also encouraging Trump to release all the still classified records of the JFK assassination. There are many.
There is no evidence to believe that Mr. Trump will do anything other than he has done in the past. He has presided over a privately-held company that operates, to paraphrase Noam Chomsky, as the most perfect vertical tyranny. That is where he comes from and influences what he will do.
To James van Oosterom: the “99%” are the middle class of the Occupy movement, the “1%” are the plutocrats driving the plunder. And, yes, I do think there is a paradigm shift because everywhere there is dissent from the globalist plutocrats who consolidated power. Whether the plutocrats and warhawks can see their need to change is the paramount question to aid themselves and everyone else, as the potential for economic and ecological collapse looms with 7+ billion human population and mounting. And humanity does not seem to be able to curtail the current rapacious use of earth’s resources, what the 1960s ecologist Garrett Hardin called “The Tragedy of the Commons” when the population outstrips their resources. In ecology, it’s called “crash”. And humans may believe they’re immune to that, but they’re not, no animal is. The collapse of civilizations is well documented by Jared Diamond and others. Earth is sending us messages with massive changes, but all we get is a few ineffective ideas by “leaders” who mostly are lawyers, except Trump being a silly plutocrat real estate developer.
I guess long time readers have noted the commentary when the Trump is mentioned. It takes a nose dive. Putin is evil. Trump is evil. Those are the high points. It is a cheap tactic, but it works.
You’ve answered your own question. Obviously the Russians shot down the plane. If they hadn’t Trump would not have wasted any time revealing that fact. He so loves the Russian regime that any negative information about them will be squelched. Your answer is therefore obvious… the Russians shot down the plane.
Trump could save the taxpayers millions of dollars by sprouting wings so he could fly around the country on his own power. Expect it to happen around the time Trump becomes a truth teller.
Never could figure out what MOTIVE Putin might have had…. Important in criminology, innit?
Anyone?
How can we expect a chronic liar and scammer, a real estate fraudster, and someone who as President chose to surround himself with warmongers, American exceptionalists and Wall Street sharks to be a “truth-teller”?. He can occasionally drop a couple of “truths”, alright, but only at the expense of advancing racist and militaristic policies, such as his team’s extreme anti Iran hysteria (on a collision course with Russia), his outrageous bullying of Mexico and his newly proclaimed doctrine of absolute nuclear weapons superiority for ever and ever. Is he still pretending to be a warmonger to appease the MIC, or to avoid conflicts at the start of his term? I don’t think so. Those powers already despise him, because his dangerous tantrums and narcissistic attacks are bad for business. So if Trump really wanted to fight the MIC and the establishment, like he said in his campaign, he would have appointed a cabinet and a set of advisors consistent with that goal from Day One. There were plenty of decent people on the right and on the left to choose from, but he went with Bannon, his son-in-law, Mad Dog, Nikki Haley, Mnuchin, etc. Trump is what he is, and he doesn’t hide it (that is something good about him).
Too quick to rush to judgment. Let’s wait and see….
Consider peoples’ judgment of Obama. He was widely considered well-spoken, direct, articulate. He sounded well-meaning and sincere (except to blacks whom he constantly lectured and slighted). And hey, look, he turned out to be an artful liar, covering his lies with more lies and finally a labyrinth of lies. A man of peace who hurled some 60,000 bombs at mostly defenseless people. And managed to make himself look good. A snake oil salesman.
I prefer Trump. Just for the hell of it. I’m gonna wait and see….
God bless, Robert. What drug are you on?
If you’re expecting anything out of Trump along the lines of “Truth”, you’ll have a long long wait. Like maybe on his death bed…in a Citizen Kane moment…He’ll utter ” I was a fraud all along”.
The constant shilling for Trump is incredible.
Certainly, some of your points ARE credible and I also need to thank you for some of the information you’ve provided over the years. And your VIEWPOINTS ( this is NOT news ) are generally in the right vein. I just wish you’d get off this broken record. I believe ( or maybe it’s just wishful thinking…yea, that’s what it is ) that the ONLY hope is with the NSC and maybe some of those generals know we’re headed in the wrong direction and will guide Trump towards making some moves towards a less belligerent stance in foreign policy. Nah…war means JOBS! And we have ” Deconstruction of the Administrative State”! So many things to destroy, so little time… ;>/
Anyways, he’s certainly burned his “truth card” already. He would know it if it hit him. And I’m pretty sure it will.
Make that ” he wouldn’t know it if it hit him”
Stiv:
This seems a shallow POV as it hits many talking points of the ‘now’ commentary and buries the significance of “WE’RE NOT SO INNOCENT”.
Does our exceptionalism Allow us to bypass an authentic investigation of The Horrible Record of our severe punishment of human beings across all spheres of the globe for still-consuming Centuries?
– Is life the hysteria of Soldering On while expecting to die-at-any-moment?
Must we continue hiding the truth of our past and present annihilations?
are we actually selling body-parts of aborted babies?
did we bring this research over via nazi-era science/testing?
Pictures of human skeletons piled in ditches paints morbidity
in white-bonepiles of insane probings in-search-of eternal life.
This by men who attained to Control the World
by Authority of an demonic Quest to Own/Control all Life.
::
“The thief comes not but to steal, kill and destroy…”
J’hon,
My points are:
1. Trump is a damaged entity when it comes to “truth” The whole idea of him being a vessel for truth is preposterous. He’ll make up ( or speak) “truth” to serve his own interests only.
2. When he does to speak demonstrable fact, he bungles it so badly… with his 3rd grade speech patterns.. that any nuance is lost. In other words, he will lead people to question “facts” by his rudimentary presentation.
3. Trump is the problem, not the solution. That will become apparent in a most profound way to where even Robert won’t be able to deny. The “man” ( hard for me to include him in my grouping ) is a lie from every standpoint.
4. How does anyone defend this actions this far? Is Robert that myopic? Does the “We’re not so innocent” comment give him credence. I don’t think so….it obscures the truth that is there.
Yes, my comment purely addresses these issues. Robert’s commentary usually covers some issues that have gravitas. However, I am finding him very lacking these days and wish he would till new ground. My POV IS limited and shallow in that way…I admit. I just think he could be doing so much more that spitting out the same ol same ol. He’s shown, during his career of being able to do that. I’m just a working stiff…doing two jobs…so I depend on sites like this to give me grounds for thought and further research during my limited free time. It also help me digest MSM news. Got to thank this site for that!
But J’hon…you have a very dark vision going there. Trump will not win. It might get ugly but god….I’m taking this era as something that needs to happen to show if you’re always sleeping you’ll never wake up.
“What do you think our country is so innocent?”
::
Was that is a rhetorical question to be fluffed over as a madman’s blurb?
Or an invitation to recognize an awful truth about “america the beautiful” ?
::
“There’re none so blind as those who Will Not See. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.”
Jonathan Swift
Reading Mr. Parry’s article, several things come to mind.
The first is the whole question of classification and what are the rights of ordinary citizens to know what the government is doing. It seems obvious that too much classification does not serve the national interest but the interests of the classifiers. Classification is a source of power, and elected representatives measure their power by the degree which they and they only are privy to such information. Releasing information diminishes the few who benefit from it, even makes them vulnerable.
Long overdue is a open discussion of what should be classified and for how long, guided by the proposition that we should be living in a democracy.
The stories Mr. Parry relate all talk about lies told over and over again until they are accepted as truth, even when the initial reaction might be skepticism or denial.
One of the truths I remember vividly was the one that Saddam gassed the Kurds. A study that somehow made the light of day was done by an intelligence official of very high rank who actually went to the area and made the investigation. His conclusion that the gas used was cyanide based as I recall, the gas the Iranians used, and unlikely to be possessed by the Iraqis.
Several years later, when the contention was used to demonize Saddam, I called the author. I am not going to name him, but he was a top tier guy with great credentials. So I called him and asked him why is our government saying something different than what you concluded.
I will always remember his response, delivered in a matter of fact tone. He said he was aware of no studies other than his own team. What was clear from his remark was that operating from the only available on the spot investigation, there was no other reasonable conclusion than the one he reached. I didn’t press him, knowing he wouldn’t respond, by asking if our government and our media were lying.
First and last time I ever talked to someone in the intelligence “community and I was impressed.
Sorry, that’s Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill”.
The point I was trying to make is that Trump has multiple forces allayed against him to even try to bring better relations with Russia, and his nasty rhetoric against Mexico has really soured relations with that country from his ignorance of what NAFTA did to Mexican farmers and other workers, causing their exodus north to find work. Tillerson and his State Department have a big challenge in mending fences, I hope they can smooth things over, they have multiple problems. Trump created his own problems from the start by not being informed enough to frame his arguments rationally, ever. He has no historical knowledge, doesn’t read, unlike JFK who challenged the deep state but was a real statesman with a grounding in history.
I agree with the commenters who say we are at a paradigm shift, the 99% are fed up all over the world and their leaders always represent the 1% to 10%. So these are interesting times.
99%, Jessica? Not in your lifetime. Or in mine, being 78. If 15% were dissenters, I’d be surprised. No, though an incurable optimist, I can’t see how you got that number. Okay, maybe 20%.
The paradigm shift is called wishful thinking…. With luck, I’ll soon be cashing in my chips.
Robert Parry’s reporting is always excellent, but I am reminded of the old saying “wish in one hand and crap in the other, and see which one fills up”. I think if Trump attempted to declassify any of the things mentioned, The CIA would have him killed or emasculated before any releases took place. Even if he identified and fired the key players in the Deep State, I suspect that their power is such that they would still prevail, as Alan Dulles did with JFK.
From my 74 years on earth, I have concluded that humans are irrational actors, emotion trumps logic. After generations of drinking the kool-aid that USA is the “indispensable nation” (Clinton’s own words) or “exceptional”, many conditioned Americans have come to believe it. America is definitely “exceptional” in having led the way in exploitation, having 6% of earth’s population and using 25% of earth’s resources. Also exceptional in being the greatest meddler on earth through its brutal CIA, which manages through propaganda to convince the kool-aid drinkers that it is doing what is necessary to protect the sheeple.
“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” goes the maxim. The US propagandists would rather uphold the empire for their own paychecks. They certainly don’t want to air the dirty laundry of this country, that’s dangerous. We don’t live in Russia, therefore all we know is obtained from others, and it takes a lot of digging to get facts from mountains of propaganda. I found a website showing Putin going on field study with scientists working to save the Siberian tiger and the polar bear, he is an outdoorsman who loves animals and nature; also having a laugh at himself by performing at a nightclub to sing Chuck Berry’s “Blueberry Hill” in English. It was funny, and the Russian audience loved it. There is a great deal we don’t know about Russia, or any other country, unless we live there.
Yes, there is a lighter side of Putin, not the bloodthirsty dictator, how he is presented by MSM in US and in Europe.
Search youtube for Putin’s best jokes, for example.
I appreciate Mr. Parry’s reporting. I do not appreciate my president lying through his teeth with every other sentence. Why anyone thinks Trump will amount to anything other than a complete disaster is beyond rational thought. This is the same huckster of Trump “University”, of countless bankruptcies which consistently defaulted on subcontractor payments. Who resurrected his failing name and business from a cheesy reality show. How does anyone think we are dealing with a stand up guy? I don’t think that is asking much, to want the President of the United States of America be a ‘stand up guy.’ Just because he is willing to adjust and tweak the status quo in Washington some people are willing to forget who and what he’s done. To gain leverage, spread lies and win the bottom line might be laudable in business but how does that work in Syria, Palestine, the Mexican border or in Crimea? He’s proven himself to be an egotistical jerk and a louse. My experience has been if the man in charge is a dick, he will hire other dicks and that creates suffering.
What is the old saying? “Birds of a feather flock together.” How many readers think Steve Bannon is good for us? Go ahead and defend him.
Realizing that I know nothing about Steve bannon, because I never look at anyone with an R by their name, or sees themselves as conservative or right-wing, I decided to take you up on your challenge to defend him. I went to a trusted website source, E.I.R., and typed his name into their search box. They had nothing about him on their own web, the search popped up a website called insidethevatican.com (Steve’s a Catholic Irish-American from the working class background; dad was a telephone lineman). One is presented with this article on that Vatican website: “Steve Bannon, in his own words—Bannon & his views explained”. It was quite an enlightening read, I must admit, and the man is not at all what I thought he was, or how he’s typically represented in the MSM. It is really worth checking out that article, to see where Steve is really coming from. In that article I can see potential for good works coming from him…and also potential for bad works, if twisted or spun in the wrong way, which leads back to square one; which way is Trump gonna jump?
There is so much he could do if the public found him credible and the Establishment-media wasn’t constantly hounding him. But he does not help his own case when he lies and exaggerates and otherwise diminishes his own credibility.
He needs a public win. Perhaps if we got AG Sessions to arrest some pedophiles…
Trump’s ultimate weapon of truth against the deep state attempting to undermine him would be to release all unclassified information about 9/11 and to call for a fresh, independent investigation of the New Pearl Harbor event that plunged the world into perpetual war. There is little doubt in the minds of those not in denial that the whole story has yet to be told.
Until that happens, disturbing reports and documentaries like the following will continue to come forth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v_JMHSv6uM
The latest about ISIL is using disable folks for suicide bombings…also ISIL has an open door to drones and drone technology…..Where is the coverage from the MSM on this “greatest show on earth”……All of the great USA agencies that want to save the world from “terrorist”…..are turning a blind eye because of $$$$ profits…….
Trump can’t be any significant amount of good. He’s a lifelong liar and chiseler. He has never performed a single gratuitous act of decency. Not one. He was elected almost four months ago and shown absolutely no intention to rising to position. Just had posturing and spewing of hate.
So stop fantasizing about all the good Trump can do.
He can’t do good. It’s not in his nature. Or interest.
besides, he has to devote time to his businesses to maintain the tax breaks without which he’s nothing.
It’s really not at all about Trump. It’s about the paradigm-shift, the changing-of-the-ZeitGeists, underway, right now, throughout the World, as we speak. The World is going from a centuries-old phase of Empire-building, war-fighting, and geopolitics, to a time of Nation-Building, a New Rennaisance. Obama was the last President of the old era (presently defined as the Post-War Anglo-American Imperium of London and Wall Street). Trump is the first President of the new era of Nation-Building, led by China and Russia, which he has said he wants to get onboard with that. He is pretty much the lout you say he is. Perhaps pandering to his self-interest will work?…lots of good real estate deals to be made, in the Nation-Building era, for the old real estate magnate. We must go with the President we have, not the one we wish we had (Sanders). We just have to figure out how to make it work.
test
Look folks the “deep state” owns the MSM….any narrative must be dismissed as beyond fake news. Aside from protesting outside the offices of NYT/WP/CNN/CNBC/CBS/ABC/FOX/PBS you have nothing….. If you want results Trump cannot do it alone…..and yes I know your cappuccino may become lukewarm …..You folks in the USA are so spoiled….you will do nothing….you are already slaves to the easy money of the MIC……I smell something…..ah , it’s just the flesh of the people caught up in this regime change game that’s played out world wide……Listen…don’t even think about it…it’s just collateral damage…….Have you tried the double shot espresso….really good……tah tah……
Perhaps you could add the 2009 coup in Honduras that we supported, if not fomented, to your list. There is also increased US military support to the regime and ongoing murders of ecology and rights workers there.
It might be useful to consider that everything we’ve been told about the “killer” Putin has been fed to the media by the CIA and/or MI 5 & MI 6, without a single shred of evidence (sound familiar?)… although I do hear that he is rude to his domestic servants (though even that is hearsay).
Putin has been photographed horseback riding bare chested. Worst than that he banned GMO’s and ordered all food to be produced organic.
When I see the photo of Putin topless I always remember the topless photo of JFK in PT-109. Shameless macho man. LOL.
I like Mr. Parry’s efforts to mix in positive, constructive thoughts with analysis & reporting. Perhaps it would also be useful for the public who are not in positions of power to have open conversations that explicitly mention covert empire building. We are not in a position individually to stop the CIA from lying, committing terrorism, false flag attacks, and the odd genocide here and there in some far off place. But we can get people involved in discussing the costs and benefits of such things. Are we getting good value for
the $1 trillion+ per year defense budget (from unknown quantities of criminal revenue from CIA drug running, illicit businesses, etc.) Would our economy be a lot worse if only spent $250 billion per year on defense and invested the rest in things that increase welfare, infrastructure, and long-term productivity? If we only murdered 1/10 the number of brown strangers we have been semi-randomly killing, would be less safe or safer? The public could be involved in these sorts of discussions rather than simply opining about whose mug looks better on tv.
Josh Stern,
I along with many, many others who regularly read Consortium News share your thoughts on the stealth hegemon we are all an inadvertant party to (we have never been asked). It colors everything, it justifies every atrocity, it slants every obvious true fact by ignoring the obvious.
The desperate (pathetic really) attempts by the national media to puff out their chest(s) to confirm their significance as a free press with a lazy appeal to authority (‘sources report that’, ‘we’re the press, here to fight against tyranny’, etc, etc) that long ago lost its integrity.
I would submit that that loss of integrity has been going on for a long, long while, at least since 11/1963 when Dan Rather had to be told to correct his reporting on which way the head blows, and of course he did. The current outrage/hurt feelings by CNN, the NYT, the WaPO, etc at actually being called out for their perfidy echoes as unintended self mockery in their own echo chambers.
Thank goodness for Consortium News and a few others (including George Webb’s outstanding citizen journalism on Youtube). We all need to have a real, fact based dialogue on this and many, many other matters, one of the top most being that we have never been asked directly whether we approve of empire building. Nor have we been asked, directly, if we approve of droning funerals and wedding parties and killing thousands of innocent men, women and children.
I, personally, do not. But then again, I have never been asked.
It would be great to see all the machinations of the “deep state” exposed. Trump has the power to do it. He should go after them, before they go after him. Expose, expose, expose.
Stephen, it would be one hell of a thrilling moment in time if Trump were to expose the truth. Although there are those around him, like Pence among others, that before Donald could get the next sentence out of his mouth after his starting with, ‘and about 9/11 let me tell you the real truth….’ , and then Pence would grab the mic and Trump would be escorted off the stage.
I think we are all placing our bets on the wrong horse. Trump’s Adminstration is not going to be any different in the way we all hope it might be than anything which came before it. It fact it looks as though when it comes to minority concerns it is taking a very sharp turn to the right. The ‘your not one of us’ crowd are now in power.
Trump can blow kisses towards Putin all he wants, but as more unfolds on how the Trump Adminstration is doing nothing more with it’s foreign policies than those Adminstrations which came before it, Russia will do what Russia needs to do to defend itself from such American hegemonic dreams it has. Trump’s foreign policy is the same Kissenger bull crap as we have seen before, but it has a heart shaped bow on it for Russia, and I’m sure Russia is on to it. If anything Trump’s willingness to be friends will in the end look like a clever ploy and be viewed by the Russians as a bigger insult to them than anything Obama may have ever done prior. I’m only excusing Obama enough in the eyes of the Russians since Deir Ezzor the Russians know all to well that most of the bad comes from America’s Deep State and that the U.S. president is nothing more than a figure head.
Even if Trump wanted to expose the truth about Flight MH17 I am sure that those Cabinet officers and VP Pence would highly disapprove of any truth telling that this president wants to do, as treason. All those official lies were put there for a reason, and that reason is part of the official strategy they have all worked on for over the last fifty years so as to make America the largest world empire that this world has ever seen ever in our history of mankind. This is ‘Make America Great Again’ on steroids, so we better get use to it.
I should also mention that the American media would do everything in it’s power to undo any truth telling any American president would bring forward, and make that president look totally insane. Once the media would be in motion then the 25th Amendment section 4 would swiftly move through the House and Senate and impeachment would be done. Trump’s mouth would be his biggest deficit for once, and that’s that. I might also bring up how finding him in a Scalia death position would not be unheard of. I would recommend Trump resign and open up a hotel casino in Moscow.
I agree that the opportunity for Trump to expose the truth, whatever it is, once he thinks that he knows what it is, could and ultimately will establish his character and support. Whether the conclusions on the issues change or not, we do not have the truth, and having it (or believing that we have much of it) makes all the difference.
Sam F without a doubt any truth being spoken by anyone would be a welcome relief in and of itself, but with the ‘fake news’ meme being put out by either party, media or current politicos it would be a hard sell to be able and convince everyone about anything let alone revealing the truth.
Read this about the truth you may expect to come out of this Adminstration…..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/roaming-charges-exxons-end-game-theory/
Wouldn’t it be nice?
Why we choose blindness to our own horrific slaughters of human live in theaters of war we instigate can only be attributed to our own Willing Ignorance and Self-Absorbed disaffection from the suffering world of humanity.
Even within our gates – as in this unknown voice of America:
not as with the emergence of AMERICANA music
(culture, language, actualization unimagined by you.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R36PGtwWuc&index=8&list=RD6zQlpfyAOaE
It would be good to get an honest comparison of aerial firefighting work, recently completed in Chile, by Russian and US very large air tankers. I believe the Russian tanker to be superior but no report that I have read comes out and says that. Recently, both Canada and Sweden have refused Putin’s offer of their big airplane entry, with the same excuse….and that is all these leaders offered; excuses. Poor ones at that.
Netanyahu used the big Russian aircraft two major Israel wildfires ago but not on the most recent scary Israel blazes. He was emphatic after the first major that fire prone nations in the Mediterranean area should get together on regional wildfire aerial response. As usual, that idea was shelved.
The world needs stronger aerial firefighting, Christchurch was the latest to get hit. Canada’s damages last summer were in the order of $10B, with the damages born in large measure by governments, by self-insured, largely US-owned, oilsands industry, and by insurers.
Consistent evidence suggests the White House squatter does not give a flip about whether or not he is viewed as “a person who doesn’t care about the truth”.
Robert Parry’s suggested actions are rational, logical, sensible, and would tend to quell chaos. Well and good.
But please explain what part of the squatter’s public performances align with these descriptors.
Yep, the President could tell the truth about JFK, Syrian sarin, the Maidan coup, MH-17, and a whole host of other things. The CIA controlled NY Times, Washington Post and CNN would immediately proclaim, “There goes Trump, telling lies again”. Unfortunately, the myths are so ingrained, the truth just wouldn’t be enough. American exceptionalism is a religion, and as such, is immune to facts.
How sadly true.
John 10:10
The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance.
Imagine living abundant life in Syria, right now.
Or Yemen, Palestine, Honduras, Venezuela, South Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Flint.
Bombs falling thru the sky.
Corporations buying-rights-to-polute-in-the-name-of-Profit
(The Beast = Control of Economies)
There is an excelent documentary by Olive Stone “Ukraine On Fire” I recommend that to everyone who is interested in the truth about The Ukraine..
Where can one see this film?
You Tube has at least one free copy, kinda rough listening to Ukrainian ( Russian?) and English at the same time.
“Further, if the file blames the Russians, releasing it would show that Trump is not in Putin’s pocket, as many people in Official Washington claim.”
Hmm. I wonder if that would be a sufficient incentive to produce a fake file? I see this as unlikely, though, because of the damage it would do to his relations with Russia.
But in light of the reason you mention, he might have a disincentive to reveal the truth, if it the truth favors Putin.
At the stage we are at, it is more vital than ever that the truth, whatever it is, be made public. People need to have confidence that their leaders are not deceiving them. For that reason I thoroughly agree with your recommendations for Trump. Along with all the other values, there are epistemic values to consider. The truth has value in itself. Once you demote it, you corrode all thinking, including thinking about the importance of getting one’s facts straight in cases where “alternative facts” have a specious attraction. As a journalist once said: “Never check an interesting fact.” In this case it is more like: Never pursue facts that, if found, will make your story unacceptable to your publisher, political party, etc.
He could begin his rehabilitation by releasing his tax returns.
He could save his Presidency or destroy it by doing this. I believe they will be released by someone in government. I’m not familiar with who “guards” these papers but I’m sure someone could release them to the highest bidder. The incessant beating down of the MSM is becoming just as bad as the defense of Trump. Neither is wrong or right 24/7. Just as he could release Obama’s (“bad”) hidden doings, he could do both. What do you think he might do.
In response to Thomas Wark
You’re just never going to stop looking for that pony, are you? I know you can’t stand Obama or Clinton, but that does not excuse whitewashing dangerous monsters like Trump and Putin. Trump is NEVER GOING TO DO ANY OF THE GOOD THINGS YOU DREAM HE WILL DO. Stop dreaming. Wake up, open your eyes. Please.
Stick to investigative reporting and history. You’re good at those. You’re terrible at imagining how Trump could be different if he weren’t Trump.
Putin has shown himself to be, in word and in deed, a statesman of extraordinary quality. I am glad someone of his sensibilities, patience, and restraint is guiding the foreign policy of the Russian Federation. To call him a “monster” lacks a sense of perspective or judgement.
Robert Parry is obviously not trying to “whitewash” Trump nor Putin. He’s not saying that he can’t understand why that honest good fella Trump doesn’t just expose some truth about events in Ukraine and Syria, is he? No. He’s posing a hypothetical to elaborate that the truth behind important matters was obstructed by Obama. I do not get the impression that Mr. Parry is hopeful or expectant whereas Trump is concerned…but given the fact that Trump actually has thrown some truth to the wind, it isn’t nearly as beyond possibility compared to what we are used to from our Presidents. It isn’t “whitewashing” Putin to suggest that the MSM narratives regarding MH-17 and the sarin “attack” are unsupported by the evidence.
Trump now has some blood on his hands, but still has quite a bit of catching up to do if he wants to join the ranks of Clinton & Obama.
During the campaign Trump made a promise he most certainly will not be able to keep. “I will ALWAYS tell you the truth.” To the American public, that is. Very naive. Which president would do that? Not even the well-meaning Trump. He might, however, tell some truths that presidents usually don’t.
“dangerous monsters like Trump and Putin”
I would definitely not lump these two together under the same description. Putin is a great pragmatist and certainly a monster from the point of view of the American exceptionalists. Russians do not claim that they are always excused because they are exceptional or “God’s own country”. They are following the interests of the Russian state, as they see them.
Trump can be unforeseen, as his knowledge of history in a longer perspective is probably rather hazy. And I wish his aides would confiscate his smartphone and prevent him from tweeting, until he has counted to 100.
Mr. Parry is not imagining, he is encouraging, at a time of uncertainty. Mr. Trump will have less incentive to do what he may yet intend,if he has no support in the media. If he betrays his supporters as you suppose, there will be little further argument for encouragement. We shall see. Premature conclusions would be counterproductive.
“…dangerous monsters…”
Does it bother you the convergence of zionism and neo-nazism in a specific location – in Ukraine, on a border with Russian Federation? This convergence had formed under Obama-Clinton regime. Why should we believe your warning BEFORE we could see the results of Trump governance? He has been an obvious target of the CIA-controlled MSM; this alone should give a pause to any thinking person. By the way, the zionism/neonazism convergence was on show when the US/EU were insultingly disrespectful towards the celebration of V-day in Russia. Expect “novel” interpretations of the WWII
Again, what was the point of “pink-pussy” march in DC ? And what is so monstrously wrong about Russian Federation protestations, considering the encroachment of NATO and the consequent increase in tension on the Russian borders? After Bush the lesser (slaughter in Iraq) and Obama (slaughter in Libya, Syria, Yemen) the name “dangerous monsters” belongs squarely to the US presidents and their influential “advisors.”
Thank you Mr. Parry. A thought provoking essay. I enjoy your website and find the writings here ringing of truth more so than most any other news site.
Hear, hear!
Truth is not told by “outing” others but by ones own actions. Trump is taking action.
To suggest that truth is as Obama did is obnoxious. Yes he outed George W but that is what bullies do.
Truth is the ugly “as is” reality. When truth is captured as a ‘feeling’ it is a lie. When truth is defined as an opinion, it is a lie. Truth exists. Our liking or not, agreeing or not have nothing to do with Truth as is.
You’re right; callling out previous actors for claimed lies is not telling the truth. It is political theater. When Trump releases his tax returns and actually follows the procedures to turn over control of his businesses that his attorney announced in detail at a pre inauguration press conference, there may be some hope that his future utterances can be judged on fact.
In my mind, Parry spends too much time defending Putin.
Parry’s push back is needed in this time of NeoMacarthyism.
With the ongoing Deep State/Dem Establishment hysteria over Russia, and devil incarnate Putin, Herr Hair (aka “Trump”) would clearly invite a monumental shit storm if the hidden info exonerated the Russkis.
“…a rogue Ukrainian operation connected to a hardline oligarch with the intent of shooting down a Russian jetliner, possibly even the one carrying Putin back from a state visit in South America, but instead brought down MH-17, which had similar markings.”
It seems that one of the complications for the US administration on a road to truth about MH17, is that the “hardline oligarch” is Jewish (and a former leader of the Ukrainian Jewish Community) and that he is also implicated in the horrendous massacre of civilians in Odessa, where civilians were burn alive by the neo-Nazi battalion financed by the “hardline oligarch.”
>> treating the American people as objects to be manipulated rather than citizens to be informed.
Trump blew-up the gates to the fort of secrecy —
which has been in effect for many years past President Theodor Roosevelt and the sinking of the Maine in Havana harbor, the “sneak attack” on Pearl Harbor thru Tonkin Gulf, Iran-Contra, the USS Liberty, etc, etc, with our long history of ‘color revolutions’ and blatant overthrows of citizen elected governments on behalf of US Corporations
— when he rightfully (correctly) replied to the assertion ‘Putin is a killer’ with “we aren’t so innocent either.”
Why we choose blindness to our own horrific slaughters of human live in theaters of war we instigate can only be attributed to our own Willing Ignorance and Self-Absorbed disaffection from the suffering world of humanity.
I do not believe Trump has blown up anything.. One one occasion Rump the Trump (RTT) spoke a truth.. But he has yet to remove the cloak of secrecy from his own secret deals in Syria, in Turkey with Edogodan, with Netanyohu, or with the situation in the Ukraine.
Americans remain as much in the dark under RTT as under the past 12 presidents.. If RTT wanted to release the deep dark secrets of his administration and the nefarious exploits of past administrations, he need only to tear up the national security secrecy agreements; the NDAs that prevent those who know from talking.. and expose America to the reality of how those who were in charge of the government used and abused them.
There is a great deal of evidence that the sniper killings during the Maidan square (which created the legend justifying the overthrow of the democratically elected government) were not perpetrated by the Berkut (government) police, but instead by actors in hotels and buildings controlled by the Maidan movement itself.
The only reason this is not more widely known is because the investigation in Ukraine is in the hands of the same extreme-right-wing groups who are implicated in the event.
This issue deserves persistent attention at sites such as this. The materials gathered by Ivan Katchanovski (Univ. of Ottawa) are the most detailed and objective available on the subject. If U.S. politics is to come anywhere close to a reality-based universe, this counts among the most central points in need of full clarification and correction.
About a year ago a French documentary by Paul Moreira was shown, at least on French TV and in Sweden, “The Masks of the Revolution”. The reaction of the Ukraine government:
“Ukraine’s authorities have urged a French broadcaster to take a documentary titled ‘Masks of Revolution’ off the air. They claim the movie misrepresents Maidan events, and have a list of their own suggestions for what needs to be shown.”
Swedish TV first cancelled the showing until they have controlled some of the facts with the filmmaker. Later on the film was shown after all.
https://vimeo.com/163237577 (in French, Eng. subtitles)
Several versions are available on youtube, in different languages.
There are some unpleasant videos taken at the Odessa massacre with private mobile phones. Victoria Nuland, the bread lady, is seen on the streets of Kiev. Many far-right activists are interviewed and “Heil Hitler” is heard.
Your comment is awaiting moderation. (This after 10 hours after posting it. I’ll make a new try, without the link provided, if this would be the reason.)
About a year ago a French documentary by Paul Moreira was shown, at least on French TV and in Sweden, “The Masks of the Revolution”. The reaction of the Ukraine government:
“Ukraine’s authorities have urged a French broadcaster to take a documentary titled ‘Masks of Revolution’ off the air. They claim the movie misrepresents Maidan events, and have a list of their own suggestions for what needs to be shown.”
Swedish TV first cancelled the showing until they have controlled some of the facts with the filmmaker. Later on the film was shown after all.
Search the film on vimeo com.
Several versions are even available on youtube, in different languages.
There are some unpleasant videos taken at the Odessa massacre with private mobile phones. Victoria Nuland, the bread lady, is seen on the streets of Kiev, with people politely refusing her gifts. Many far-right activists are interviewed in the documentary and Hitler’s name is heard.
As the MSM fake news pronounced the Kiev riot police as being cruel I watched many You tube videos documenting the extremely passive Kiev police, not reacting to blow torches in their face and chains and pipes beating them over their heads. Actions by protesters in the USA that would result in instant execution.
This Maidan scenario was also played in Syria. In the first demonstrations, the police were unarmed and many of them were killed outright, as were a busload of soldiers. The Syrian conflict was violent from the start, what few “peaceful demonstrators there were thoroughly infiltrated by armed provocateurs.
Here’s a little investigative reporting in regard to the Maidan Snipers, which was done by the BBC as well as a few other links providing information in regard to the snipers.
Snipers in the Maidan
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31359021
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-big-lie-of-the-maidan-revolution-the-organizers-of-the-coup-detat-hired-the-snipers/5372048
Polish MP and Presidential Candidate conducts a candid interview with a Polish Newspaper and states that the Maidan Snipers were trained in Poland. He is also very expressive on the US and names the countries that are pulling away from the sanctions.
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/04/korwin-mikke-maidan-snipers-were.html
This article promotes a good idea that could be realized if Trump and Putin can strike up a mutually beneficial arrangement, but with Trump – who knows? The preceding sentence prompts a question. Will the Establishment of which Trump is an outsider allow Trump to work with Putin?
WHERE IS PARRY’S UNDERSTANDING GAP?
This writer continues his amazement at Robert Parry’s
illusionary dreams of Trump being a “good guy”.
In this he is, I believe, I he is joined by others on the left.
It is not only Donald Trump’s style, not only his actions
in this brief time but the facts of US and global
economy that militate against such baseless dreams.
The works of Dr. Jack Rasmus indicate the vastness of
the web which currently strangles the world.
There are many, many details but one cannot keep from
being flabberghasted by the optimism of Parry and
feriends. One example of many follows:
“….However, as yet, we have seen nothing similar from the Trump administration
even though some truth-telling might work very well for President Donald Trump,
especially given his reputation for getting facts wrong. A commitment to
transparency – giving some truth to the American people on important topics –
could change Trump’s image for the better….”
Knowing that Robert Parry is no “pie-in-sky”, we continue to look forward to
his tough take-prisoners investigative journalism.
—–Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
CORRECTION
“take no prisoners”. Mea culpa. Peter Loeb
The comments section here seems as good a place as any for recommendations to President Donald Trump and his “new and improved” mage as a “truth-teller”. President Trump could tell the American people that most wars the U.S. engaged in have begun as a result of false flags or outright lies, for example the Vietnam War (Gulf of Tonkin) and Iraq War II (Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction”), among others. He might also remind “the people” that President John F. Kennedy. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and others were not the victims of lone assassins, as the history books convey to students across America, but that each of those fine human beings were murdered by their own government.
A human being is either one who speaks total truth or one who lies, whether the falsehood comes through commission or omission. Perhaps the hundreds of “Truth suggestions for President Trump” which appear in these comments will succeed in embarrassing him into revealing far, far more than than the shallowest example, in response to O’Reilley: “There’s a lot of killers..You think we’re perfect?” 2017 is the time for total transparency and putting it all – and that means every disturbing and unconscionable secret and lie – right there on the table, for all to see. That is the definition of “truth-teller”.
A good article with good points deserving attention.
Mr. Trump cannot lose by exposing the truth, however inconclusive the evidence may be. The only inhibition is argument that the truth might be damaging, but it need not damage elements of US intelligence or business unless they deserve it.
I suspect that the intel agencies claim to the admin that they are relying upon human sources whose identity and position they must protect. But those can be protected as “unnamed sources within the ***.” And what could they have said that would be convincing without corroboration? Any source hostile to Russia would say such things anyway, so why believe them without corroboration? Those intel elements are almost certainly corrupt manipulators, and should be disregarded and impeached as analysts.
Another claim might be that the nature of some secret intelligence device would inevitably be exposed if its evidence was presented. But the nature of such a device could be masked. No such claim of need to protect sources has even been made.
If there is a defense for continued secrecy, Trump could at least reveal its nature and why its sources are considered reliable.
Still awaiting moderation after five hours?
Would that be due to a series of asterisks suggesting a blanked naughty word?
I promise not to be naughty.
I’m waiting to see E.I.R.’s dossier on the 2017 “Maidan” or color revolution/coup being run by the Soros/Obama crew on Trump, and the institution of the Presidency itself; a repeat of what went down in 2014 in the Ukraine.
A good article with good points deserving attention. I am re-posting this because it is still “awaiting moderation” due to punctuation.
Mr. Trump cannot lose by exposing the truth, however inconclusive the evidence may be. The only inhibition is argument that the truth might be damaging, but it need not damage elements of US intelligence or business (unless they deserve it).
I suspect that the intel agencies are claiming to the admin that they are relying upon human sources whose identity and position they must protect. But those can be concealed as “unnamed sources” within some large group. And what could they have said that would be convincing without corroboration? Any source hostile to Russia would say such things anyway, so why believe them without corroboration? The intel elements concealing facts are almost certainly corrupt manipulators, and should be disregarded and impeached as analysts.
Another claim might be that the nature of some secret intelligence device would inevitably be exposed if its evidence was presented. But the nature of such a device could be masked. No such claim of need to protect sources has even been made.
If there is a defense for continued secrecy, Trump could at least reveal its nature and why its sources are considered reliable.
I’ll try posting half of this comment to see what is shunting it to hours of waiting for moderation.
I suspect that the intel agencies are claiming to Mr. Trump that they are relying upon human sources whose identity and position they must protect. But those can be concealed as “unnamed sources” within some large group. And any source hostile to Russia would say such things anyway, so why believe them without corroboration? Another claim might be that the nature of some secret intelligence device would inevitably be exposed if its evidence was presented. But the nature of such a device could also be masked. No such claim of need to protect sources has even been made.
This is a test comment due to moderation delays.
Here is a short version: secret agencies may be claiming to Trump that they are relying upon human sources or secret devices whose identity or nature they must protect, although such a claim should have been made already, and those things can be concealed as “unnamed sources” within a large group, or the technology masked. Any source hostile to Russia would need corroboration anyway. So such a claim seems implausible.
As Trump feels the pressure from the greenback revolution, he needs to play some Truth Cards. Here’s hope that he isn’t stonewalled by the (executive) agencies holding the docs.
Good Article Mr. Parry.
Yes, It would be good if Trump would shed some light on ” The powers of darkness” whoever they are.
Here is an article that looks at the interesting connection between one of the Deep State players and the Obama Administration:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2016/12/the-deep-state-and-its-link-to-obama.html