A group of ex-U.S. intelligence officials is warning President Obama to defuse growing tensions with Russia over Syria by reining in the demonization of President Putin and asserting White House civilian control over the Pentagon.
ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: PREVENTING STILL WORSE IN SYRIA
We write to alert you, as we did President George W. Bush, six weeks before the attack on Iraq, that the consequences of limiting your circle of advisers to a small, relatively inexperienced coterie with a dubious record for wisdom can prove disastrous.* Our concern this time regards Syria.
President Barack Obama addresses the General Assembly’s seventy-first session on Sept. 20, 2016 (UN Photo)
We are hoping that your President’s Daily Brief tomorrow will give appropriate attention to Saturday’s warning by Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova: “If the US launches a direct aggression against Damascus and the Syrian Army, it would cause a terrible, tectonic shift not only in the country, but in the entire region.”
Speaking on Russian TV, she warned of those whose “logic is ‘why do we need diplomacy’ … when there is power … and methods of resolving a problem by power. We already know this logic; there is nothing new about it. It usually ends with one thing – full-scale war.”
We are also hoping that this is not the first you have heard of this – no doubt officially approved – statement. If on Sundays you rely on the “mainstream” press, you may well have missed it. In the Washington Post, an abridged report of Zakharova’s remarks (nothing about “full-scale war”) was buried in the last paragraph of an 11-paragraph article titled “Hospital in Aleppo is hit again by bombs.” Sunday’s New York Times totally ignored the Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s statements.
In our view, it would be a huge mistake to allow your national security advisers to follow the example of the Post and Times in minimizing the importance of Zakharova’s remarks.
Events over the past several weeks have led Russian officials to distrust Secretary of State John Kerry. Indeed, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who parses his words carefully, has publicly expressed that distrust. Some Russian officials suspect that Kerry has been playing a double game; others believe that, however much he may strive for progress through diplomacy, he cannot deliver on his commitments because the Pentagon undercuts him every time. We believe that this lack of trust is a challenge that must be overcome and that, at this point, only you can accomplish this.
It should not be attributed to paranoia on the Russians’ part that they suspect the Sept. 17 U.S. and Australian air attacks on Syrian army troops that killed 62 and wounded 100 was no “mistake,” but rather a deliberate attempt to scuttle the partial cease-fire Kerry and Lavrov had agreed on – with your approval and that of President Putin – that took effect just five days earlier.
In public remarks bordering on the insubordinate, senior Pentagon officials showed unusually open skepticism regarding key aspects of the Kerry-Lavrov deal. We can assume that what Lavrov has told his boss in private is close to his uncharacteristically blunt words on Russian NTV on Sept. 26:
“My good friend John Kerry … is under fierce criticism from the US military machine. Despite the fact that, as always, [they] made assurances that the US Commander in Chief, President Barack Obama, supported him in his contacts with Russia (he confirmed that during his meeting with President Vladimir Putin), apparently the military does not really listen to the Commander in Chief.”
Lavrov’s words are not mere rhetoric. He also criticized JCS Chairman Joseph Dunford for telling Congress that he opposed sharing intelligence with Russia, “after the agreements concluded on direct orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama stipulated that they would share intelligence. … It is difficult to work with such partners. …”
Sergey V. Lavrov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, addresses a high-level meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Syria on Sept. 21, 2016 (UN Photo)
Policy differences between the White House and the Pentagon are rarely as openly expressed as they are now over policy on Syria. We suggest you get hold of a new book to be released this week titled The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War by master historian H. W. Brands. It includes testimony, earlier redacted, that sheds light on why President Truman dismissed WWII hero Gen. Douglas MacArthur from command of U.N. forces in Korea in April 1951. One early reviewer notes that “Brands’s narrative makes us wonder about challenges of military versus civilian leadership we still face today.” You may find this new book more relevant at this point in time than the Team of Rivals.
The door to further negotiations remains ajar. In recent days, officials of the Russian foreign and defense ministries, as well as President Putin’s spokesman, have carefully avoided shutting that door, and we find it a good sign that Secretary Kerry has been on the phone with Foreign Minister Lavrov. And the Russians have also emphasized Moscow’s continued willingness to honor previous agreements on Syria.
In the Kremlin’s view, Russia has far more skin in the game than the U.S. does. Thousands of Russian dissident terrorists have found their way to Syria, where they obtain weapons, funding, and practical experience in waging violent insurgency. There is understandable worry on Moscow’s part over the threat they will pose when they come back home. In addition, President Putin can be assumed to be under the same kind of pressure you face from the military to order it to try to clean out the mess in Syria “once and for all,” regardless how dim the prospects for a military solution are for either side in Syria.
We are aware that many in Congress and the “mainstream” media are now calling on you to up the ante and respond – overtly or covertly or both – with more violence in Syria. Shades of the “Washington Playbook,” about which you spoke derisively in interviews with the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg earlier this year. We take some encouragement in your acknowledgment to Goldberg that the “playbook” can be “a trap that can lead to bad decisions” – not to mention doing “stupid stuff.”
Goldberg wrote that you felt the Pentagon had “jammed” you on the troop surge for Afghanistan seven years ago and that the same thing almost happened three years ago on Syria, before President Putin persuaded Syria to surrender its chemical weapons for destruction. It seems that the kind of approach that worked then should be tried now, as well – particularly if you are starting to feel jammed once again.
Incidentally, it would be helpful toward that end if you had one of your staffers tell the “mainstream” media to tone down it puerile, nasty – and for the most part unjustified and certainly unhelpful – personal vilification of President Putin.
Renewing direct dialogue with President Putin might well offer the best chance to ensure an end, finally, to unwanted “jamming.” We believe John Kerry is correct in emphasizing how frightfully complicated the disarray in Syria is amid the various vying interests and factions. At the same time, he has already done much of the necessary spadework and has found Lavrov for the most part, a helpful partner.
Secretary of State John Kerry addressing the United Nations Security Council.
Still, in view of lingering Russian – and not only Russian – skepticism regarding the strength of your support for your secretary of state, we believe that discussions at the highest level would be the best way to prevent hotheads on either side from risking the kind of armed confrontation that nobody should want.
Therefore, we strongly recommend that you invite President Putin to meet with you in a mutually convenient place, in order to try to sort things out and prevent still worse for the people of Syria.
In the wake of the carnage of World War II, Winston Churchill made an observation that is equally applicable to our 21st Century: “To jaw, jaw, jaw, is better than to war, war, war.”
* In a Memorandum to President Bush criticizing Colin Powell’s address to the UN earlier on February 5, 2003, VIPS ended with these words: “After watching Secretary Powell today, we are convinced that you would be well served if you widened the discussion … beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.”
For the Steering Group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
Fred Costello, Former Russian Linguist, USAF
Mike Gravel, former Adjutant, top secret control officer, Communications Intelligence Service; special agent of the Counter Intelligence Corps and former United States Senator
Matthew Hoh, former Capt., USMC, Iraq & Foreign Service Officer, Afghanistan (associate VIPS)
Larry C. Johnson, CIA & State Department (ret.)
John Kiriakou, former CIA counterterrorism officer and former senior investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Linda Lewis, WMD preparedness policy analyst, USDA (ret.) (associate VIPS)
Edward Loomis, NSA, Cryptologic Computer Scientist (ret.)
Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.)
Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East, CIA (ret.)
Todd Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (ret.)
Coleen Rowley, Division Counsel & Special Agent, FBI (ret.)
Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA, (ret.)
Robert Wing, former Foreign Service Officer
Ann Wright, U.S. Army Reserve Colonel (ret) and former U.S. Diplomat
Thank you, guys, for a smart and brave thing to do.
And you Americans listen to his smart people! And you will be happy.
Sincerely, Svetlana. Russia. Siberia.
Low bow from Russia. Your politicians are silent about the main thing if all nuclear inventories of NATO are used against Russians, any won’t reach our earth! Therefore also powerlessness convulsions at your leaders. To us, it is a pity adequate Europeans and Americans, but for policy of madness of your governors, ordinary people will die, your chiefs act 200 years this way, it is a pity for you. Russians are always ready to war, Yako with us God.
The Realist perspective in Foreign Policy went the way of Tang at about the same time. Still, this is a good letter. The question is, Is Obama playing the double game and just pretending to be at odds with the Pentagon? He can fire Ashton Carter tomorrow and the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff also. So too, as I recall, lt was the Military that resisted the attack on Syria that was imminent after the reported sarin attack outside Damascus, Kerry was full on board , the British House of Commons was not, the US Congress was not, even the CIA could not support the “Presidential Finding” that Obama was using to make his case. Obama was anguished because he wanted it but nobody but the Neoconservatives and narrow foreign interests could support such BS. This letter is OK but Obama has belligerent legacy in Foreign Policy and has used force often. He is no reluctant Commander in Chief . He is , ” Good at killing people”.
FUCK RUSSIA And Putin is a pedo! Go Free world ! US nad Nato only Power that Stop crazy Puti-put from agression to Europe.
Read this: Sergey Lavrov’s article “Russia’s Foreign Policy: Historical Background”
http://www.mid.ru/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2124391?p_p_id=101_INSTANCE_cKNonkJE02Bw&_101_INSTANCE_cKNonkJE02Bw_languageId=en_GB
Obama and Hillary have cause the death of 400,000 people in Syria an the American people have been dupe
by this man child of the far left the life American of is at stake.
Isn’t it interesting that the previous puppet president, GWB, and the current puppet president have received similar warnings?
At some point, doesn’t it make sense that whoever is the puppet president in residence of the puppet hut, he (or she) is following an agenda pressed by those truly in control?
From my perspective, we have not had a U. S.-centric foreign or domestic policy since Eisenhower.
War is profitable. So is the clean-up and restoration, especially when there are no-bid contracts! When pressing war in Afghanistan, drugs are an added bonus for those pushing for war.
Why do people not question why we are continually involved in unconstitutional wars? Do we really need to have a generation of those within our military who are wounded mentally, physically and or emotionally, if not lost, outright?
Only when we admit the realities we face can we work to prevent the further destruction of our sovereign republic and our relations with other nations.
“…senior Pentagon officials showed unusually open skepticism regarding key aspects of the Kerry-Lavrov deal”
The generals have gone ROGUE. They will get US nuked if Obama doesn’t stop them.
As one who detests the lies coming out of the mouths of Obama, Kerry (who has not once reteated from ousting Assad) and the ‘family’ Clan surrounding the president I had to look up other words for Obamas’ wonderful use of transparent, he so often repeated.
The old thesaurus was enlightening. For example, ‘easily seen through, recognized or detected, crystal-clear, porous, obvious, apparent, and tidy.’
I think I , along with others, were deceived by how transparent his government would be, but after putting people in jail for a 1917 espionage act I had to ignore the word and replace it with words more truthful to his administration. I think many in the world can see through his “transparency” with ease.
No wonder the Russians don’t trust the US, and their first inkling was the lie perpetuated after the wall came down. It only snowballs from there into deceit, war mongering, and the death of millions.
Yes yes yes, close your eyes and ears, trust Guardian Washington Post luminary truth ;))
But if the seriously, with the approval of people like you, is born and increases terrorism
http://vfl.ru/fotos/foto_zoom/d6a2524710452828.html?antid=1
http://www.ksta.de/politik/interview-mit-al-nusra-kommandeur–die-amerikaner-stehen-auf-unserer-seite–24802176
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jifS0fi9WB8
and you still believe Colin Powell shaking a test tube,
how long to? (sorry for my english)
“We write to alert you, as we did President George W. Bush, six weeks before the attack on Iraq, that the consequences of limiting your circle of advisers to a small, BUT FANATICAL GROUP WHOSE ONLY CONCERN IS TO WIPE OUT NEIGHBOURS OF ISRAEL ACCORDING TO THE PROPOSALS OUTLINED IN THE ODED YINON PLAN AND CLEAN BREAK STRATEGY etc etc
Hopefully more dumb shits won’t follow you here.
Your gonna take her from behind are ya! Good luck!
One quick solution: Invite Russia to join NATO, which should have happened when the Cold War ended.
David Ulberg:
Wow! Well done! A neon display of aggressive ignorance!
Obama should have fired both Dunford and Carter on the spot. He’s not interested in being President any more–if he ever was.
That is an interesting list of names. It does not include any of the neo crowd that lead us into Iraq II as far as I can tell. Is that just me, a coincidence, or is it worth taking note of in the divisions at the state and defense departments. Is there a back lash against the neo-cons?
shut up bill. We know how familiar YOU are with getting your cock sucked.
This is an extremely important message that must be disseminated as widely as possible, since as the authors say — and if they don’t know, who does — chances of Obama actually reading it and acting upon it are slim. The month remaining of the presidential campaign must be used to bring this most important issue to the forefront, which it certainly is not at the moment.
Robert Parry et al. are doing their best to counter the war propaganda of the US media (mirrored dutifully by the European media, at least the German media), but it’s an uphill battle. We must do everything we can to “publicize” (bad word but I can’t think of a better one at the moment) the expert opinions of the VIPS, Parry, and experts such as Stephen F. Cohen.
Cohen makes the point that the most important issue of this election is nuclear war with Russia, and like him or not, Trump is the ONLY candidate who has brought it to the table — though as Cohen says, the moderator/media pay no attention, not even to the extent of asking Killharry if she agrees that nuclear war is the most important threat to humanity — more so than the environment because if there is nuclear war there will be no more (inhabitable) environment.
Neither Cohen nor McGovern et al. (nor I), I’m sure, trust Trump, but we trust Killharry even less, and fear she is even more likely to be manipulated by the Destroyers in the Pentagon and at Langley. I urge everyone to listen to McGovern et al., Parry, and Stephen Cohen.
The VIPS include former top-level CIA, NSA, FBI and military officials. They know whereof they speak, and they are doing their best. I am a mere “conspiracy theorist,” as a peek at my website will confirm (and for which I do not apologize), but I believe these people are honest and competent and completely sincere. We must listen to them!
Dear Author,
allow me translate this informartion into Czech language and publication on the Czech web site http://www.rukojmi.cz/.
Thank You very much and Best Regards
Maj.(retired) Frantisek Chmelar
Chef of Military expozition
Cold War and Air Defence Museum
Czech Republic
Prague / Slany – Drnov
http://www.bunkr-drnov.cz
Coordinates: 50°13’43″N 14°9’28″E
E-mail: [email protected]
is the simplest solution the correct one? president obama isn’t being deceived by anyone or tricked into anything.. he’s the greatest modern salesperson for the u.s. empire to the people in the u.s. people?
It appears VIPS is right on the money again in their analysis of what is currently taking place. Are the “neo-cons” also at work here behind the scenes in their lust for more power by any & all means? Perhaps President Hillary Clinton will see the light and rein them all back in. Urban renewal & REVIVAL is soon coming on the horizon.
President Obama is a trojan horse neocon. I believe he wants war with Russia and so do the neoconservatives that he hired to run the state department. This is insane. I believe this trojan horse allowed to win the presidency to complete the objectives of the Clean Break Strategy; Securing the Realm. If Hillary Clinton gets into the White House, expect Nuclear War! Too bad there is no “media” in the US- just total neocon propaganda 24/7.
I hope you are being sarcastic. No one except a Zionist shill serving masters in Tel Aviv would hold such views.
Even a child could see the dangers we face. Our American leadership has set us on a journey down a very slippery slope, let’s hope they can find a way back when they realize their chosen adversaries are willing to call their bluff. The Obama/Clinton policies will either wreck the world, or wreck U.S. credibility once and for all.
The use of propaganda launderers allows government factions to pursue their own foreign policy agendas independently of the rest of the government.
It is apparent that fake “citizen investigators” like Bellingcat are employed as deception conduits by the more aggressive factions in Western governments, which seek to sabotage peace efforts in Ukraine, Syria and other parts of the world.
NGOs: Grassroots Empowerment or Tool of Information Warfare?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro1byfe5vUM
“nonsense”
https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/782510265103450112
Fake “citizen investigative journalist” Eliot Higgins has consistently jumped to the fore to “confirm” Western “Government Assessment” allegations, including:
1) accusations against Syrian president Bashir Assad that the Syrian government used “barrel bombs” against opposition forces and claims that Assad “gassed his own people”
2) accusations against Russian president Vladimir Putin of a “Russian invasion” of Ukraine, and claims that a Russian Buk-1 missile launcher caused the destruction of Malaysian Air flight MH-17 over eastern Ukraine
The purpose of using deception operatives like Eliot Higgins and the Bellingcat website is to provide a channel for Western “Government Assessment” claims to more effectively reach the public and be perceived as truthful.
When Bellingcat’s fabricated “evidence” is debunked by real independent investigative journalists such as Pulitzer Prize winning reporters Seymour Hersh and Robert Parry, technical experts such as professor Theodore Postol from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, forensic researchers such as Neil Krawetz who established the Fotoforensics site, Higgins either ignores them completely or attacks them in Bellingcat articles or Twitter posts.
Higgins can rely on the New York Times, the Washington Post. the UK Guardian, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Deutsche Welle, and other media outlets to laud him as a genius, while endlessly and unquestioningly repeating his debunked claims.
Here is how the propaganda laundering works:
Higgins provides “investigation reports” that “confirm” the Western government narrative. Higgins then “fact checks” the Western “Government Assessment” and rubber stamps it with the Bellingcat “digital forensics” seal of approval, further advancing the dubious Western narrative.
Higgins promoted this deception strategy in his article, “Social media and conflict zones: the new evidence base for policymaking” https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/policywonkers/social-media-and-conflict-zones-the-new-evidence-base-for-policymaking/
Citing “Bellingcat’s MH17 investigation”, Higgins declared that “a relatively small team of analysts is able to derive a rich picture of a conflict zone” using online information and social media.
Higgins extolled the virtues of this “new evidence base” of “open source” information while side-stepping the obvious opportunities for deceptive information to be planted in these media from hidden sources.
The “overarching point” for Higgins was that “there is a real opportunity for open source intelligence analysis to provide the kind of evidence base that can underpin effective and successful foreign and security policymaking. It is an opportunity that policymakers should seize.”
Western government aggressive factions have enthusiastically seized the opportunity to use deception operatives like Higgins and Bellingcat to disseminate propaganda.
Everybody knows this letter will be ignored.
Makes me wonder why the grandstanding? To make “intelligence” agencies look somewhat credible?
It’s not just wayward official in the War Dept., it’s the whole system. Do not ignore the ruling class.
https://therulingclassobserver.com/2016/10/01/squandering-our-most-precious-resource/
Dealey Plaza, Dallas Texas, shots rang out there, few demanded justice.
Courage died there, lies became mainstream, cowards stole a nation, bullets killed a dream.
Rig the vote, milk the FED, endless war, and countless dead,
Dallas Texas, you betrayed us, look at all the blood we’ve shed.
Feckless traitors vote for measures, arms deal windfalls help to build their treasures.
Afghan poppies fund the CIA, misbegotten profit – is what makes terror pay.
“Crimes of State”, “Pay to Play”, campaign bribes are here to stay,
Dallas Texas, you betrayed us, oil barons paved the way.
I hear his voice in the annals of my memory, visions still recall that act of craven treachery-
And driving down the ruined road we still believe that we are brave and free, Lord, brave and free-
Rig the vote, milk the FED, endless war and countless dead,
Dallas Texas, you betrayed us, look at all the blood we’ve shed.
“Crimes of State”, “Pay to Play”, corruption reigns and rules the day
Dallas Texas, you betrayed us, oil barons paved the way.
Dallas Texas, you’re to blame,
Dealey Plaza now that’s our shame.
It’s all about the Dealey Plaza stigma writ large and looming like the grim reaper. Sorry folks, but I gotta tell you the truth. We ain’t never goin’ home. Sing along with John Denver: Country roads, take me home…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN86d0CdgHQ
As long as we’re talking shelf life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LcvNM7oc7k
Ha ha ha David Ulberg.
You seem to see the world in a childlike way.
If you thought about it, which may require a huuuge effort on your part, you might come to see thatPresident Putin is not Russia and President Obama is not America. There are billions of people living on this planet and just a handful of “leaders”. The best people try to think for themselves and try to understand the consequences of their actions and the actions of their government.
You might give it a try.
I WONDER IF OBAMA WILL EVEN -EVER- SEE THIS?
Therefore let us spread it far and wide on the net.
I will do my part to help.
Dennis Morrisseau
USArmy Officer[Vietnam era] ANTI-WAR
FOR TRUMP
Lieutenant Morrisseau’s Rebellion
FIRECONGRESS.org
POB 177, W. Pawlet, VT 05775
[email protected]
802 645 9727
The comment above, Vote Trump, says it all.
Trump has made it crystal clear he wants “to get along with” Russia and Putin.
And unlike Obama, he is tough enough, if he faces insubordination, to say to the generals, national security establishment nuts, etc., “You’re fired.”
If Trump is not elected and Hillary becomes President, our very survival is at stake.
Nothing could be more important than that.
And yet our “progressive” lemmings are so fearful of being labeled “deplorable” that they will follow Hillary in a stampede into oblivion.
See: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/21/progressives-are-targets-of-hillarys-basket-of-deplorables-speech/
Total thanks are due to the diplomatic efforts of VIPS for their thoughtful and wise council to President Obama, who we still see as the Commander In Chief of our armed forces today. Perhaps the two leaders Obama and Putin are our last best hope to avoid another total tragedy from unfolding in Syria. Is it possible they could agree on a no first nuclear strike for openers, and then begin an honest and transparent dialogue on the future of Syria, free of hidden agendas. The US and Russia really need to work together and not undermine each other. Can they get a grip on the dogs of war? We are looking at civilization here folks. Thank you VIPS and ACEWA.
Your paranoia about evil Russians is written in your anamnese. You need special treatment for that. Kremlin could help with that too.
And thanks for the guys’ letter to Oblablama. Very encouraging to know some clever people still exist in America. Not all brains swolen with hamburger fat :))).
Leaks have come out that show SecState Kerry also opposed the ceasefire and wanted more military commitment to Syria.
Worse, this is precisely the way Obama acts: say one thing in public, do the exact opposite in private, and let someone else take the blame for it when things get worse.
There is no doubt in my mind that despite the alleged “rift” between the White House, State Department, Pentagon and CIA that they are mostly on the same page with an intent to fracture and destroy Syria.
This is proven by the fact that the US introduced THREE UNSC Resolutions early on with Chapter 7 language in them which would have allowed Obama to attack Syria in the same manner he and NATO attacked Libya. Only the vetoes of Russia and China – burned over Libya – prevented that from happening.
And now we are supposed to believe that Obama is “reluctant” to start a war with Syria, despite his also being ready to attack Syria in August, 2013, over the bogus “chemical attack”?
The only thing Obama is “reluctant” to be is BLAMED for STARTING a new war in the Middle East – after he has destroyed FOUR countries during his administration – Libya, Ukraine, Syria and Yemen.
I reiterate that the goal of the Syria crisis is enable the preconditions for a war with IRAN. This is for the benefit of Israel, the US, oil companies and the US military-industrial complex which is slobbering for the profits from a decades-ong war with Iran. And there is no way that either Israel or the US elites are going to stand down from those goals, regardless of the presence of Russia.
So asking Obama to “do something” about this state of affairs is a joke. Everything which has happened lately has been done under his direct or indirect orders – orders he himself has received from his rich masters in Chicago and elsewhere. As Pepe Escobar has termed him, he is nothing but a “paperboy” – delivering the news from the elites in the US.
And if Hillary Clinton is elected, we can count on her obeying the orders of anyone with the cash as well as her own psychotic need to exercise power. So “cheer up, things could be worse” – and they will be.
I think you’ve hit the nail. Obama practices the old tried and true method of “bait and switch,” i.e., say one thing and do the opposite. People notice this, and it’s why he quickly developed a reputation for being “glib,” or as they say in his home town of Chicago, a slippery sanctimonious “liar.”
I thought it’s the bunch with a mysterious “home” in Aspen Colorado, the Committee of 300, historically seated on high…and since all of these plans are longstanding in order to meet the end goal, are we all just in denial believing there is some “small” thing to be done by one person or another…I must admit to hanging on myself…stubborn as all get out and still going to cast my vote for Trump believing that he, too, is part of the cabal but not a globalist. Is there really hope beyond that?
Yes,I did miss someone, something: the Mainstream Media.
President Obama is the “go-to” guy here, but let’s not forget the forces that are pushing him in the wrong direction.
In no particular causal order, there is the MI Complex, which has to keep its factories running and the profits surging. Then, there is the Zionist Neo-Conservative crowd led by the think tanks, the Congress, and the Israeli Lobby. And there is the moron, John McCain, the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who is allowed to bully the Pentagon reps into saying and doing stupid things: “we are not going to share intelligence with Russia”, and breaking Kerry’s cease fire by bombing the Syrians. Finally, there is the un and misinformed American public, which doesn’t know what is going on. Did I miss anyone?
I am in total agreement with the opinion of the experts who composed and/or signed this document. We ignore it at our own peril.
We owe them our dedicated gratitude.
David Ulberg, must live in Idaho or someplace else where he thinks the bombs won’t reach him.
I doubt this – either English isn’t his first language or the fellow is at a near-illiterate seventh-grade level somewhere in the US. Personally, I’d suspect he’s writing from somewhere on the stolen West Bank.
But take a gander at what passes as a Good Christian or Good Jew these days:
U.S AND. RUSSIA
PLEASE SAVE THE WORLD
FROM DESTRUCTION.
David Ulberg’s comment is not fit to print but needed to be. Even if this fellow thinks he is being clever, there are such people who think the way Mr. Ulberg’s words suggest.
True enough; and unfortunately, there are too many in high places.
Taught to be fearful of everything, were we?
Some typos to fix before sending: “you have hear” should be “you have heard” and “it puerile” should be “it’s puerile.”
A very good letter in its allusions to the Truman-MacArthur problem and the Bush-Powell warning, its book suggestion, and its cautions about a narrow circle of advisors “jamming” the president. Even though the President has no war-making powers.
Erik: While we are at it, you might want to correct your correction of …it’s puerile….should be: its. It’s is the contraction for it is.
Its is the possessive. Thanks.
No, Putin is not laughing. He is a very serious man, and doesn’t really have much of a sense of humor. What he does have is exceptional tactical and strategic skill, exquisite timing and a strategic nuclear force substantially superior to our own. We have no defense against Russia’s strategic missiles; the coming war will destroy America completely and forever and we can do nothing to prevent it.
Russians are not evil; you are. It is you and your Zionist neocon heroes who are promoting vicious, illegal, murderous attacks on other nations and pushing the world to war. Putin has the confidence and resolve that comes from knowing that his cause is just, and that his enemy is deceitful, corrupt, malevolent and arrogant. Putin will not back down; Russians will choose to die on their feet rather than live on their knees.
Hillary spent her time in the state department packing that organization with Neocon warmongers who are awaiting the return of their sponsor (Hillary) in the white house to clear the path to provoke a total nuclear war with Russia (and China). If Hillary becomes president most of humanity will die, so be careful what you wish for.
According to this memo during Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, she and her minions were busy trying to figure out what to do about Wikileaks using either “legal or non-legal” methods:
http://investmentwatchblog.com/julian-assanges-life-is-in-danger-leaked-intel-showed-hillary-had-ordered-a-drone-strike-on-julian-assange/
Supposedly one day this week Julian Assange will be doing an on-camera interview with Alex Jones from inside the Ecuadorean Embassy where Assange will lay out the Wikileaks “October Surprise” against Her Royal Highness.
I can’t help but wonder what those “NON-LEGAL” methods were that were suggested to Mrs. Clinton by Anne-Marie Slaughter??
Perhaps the signatories of the letter to President Obama would like to weigh in on what those “non-legal” methods might have been??
Well said . Too much truth for many .JFK was right about the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs. Freaking lunatics.
If all Russians (perhaps you mean Orthodox Christians) and all Muslims are evil and only your imaginary friend Jaweh is real and the exclusive fount of goodness, why is Netanyahoo good pals with Putin but unquestionably repulsed by Obomber? Moreover, why have the Likudniks who run Israel allied with the extreme Wahabists from that slave state (really just a wealthy family fiefdom) called Saudi Arabia, and why with the lunatic strongman Recep Erdogan who wants to restore a Sunni Ottoman Empire? How is any of that the preferred course of human events for your Hebrew god? It’s not. All religion is just a contrivance, used to justify the power lust of human beings like the Zionists whom you mindlessly follow and support with your gutter language. And, by the way, if your god is so omnipotent, why doesn’t he choose to make happen the history you seem to think he wants without all the torment inflicted upon “his” creatures ultimately caused by his unspoken demands as they try to intuit his will? Read something besides the Talmud once in a while, Mr. Ulberg, and learn to cultivate both reason and compassion.
One cannot have a discussion of the real world, Mr. Ulberg, if you choose to base your facts, principles and rhetoric in ancient bedouin mythology, especially such an angry militant dogma as you seem to embrace. Your “Christ” sounds more like a warlord than the so-called “Prince of Peace” claimed by most Christians. I have no truck with any invisible friends in the sky but will leave all believers alone unless they insist on forcing their beliefs on the general public. And, the only “burgers” I know of are hamburgers.
Here is a suggested reading list:
– The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine….Ilan Pappe.
– Goliath – Life and Loathing in Greater Israel….Max Blumenthal.
– The Wandering Who?….. Gilad Atzmon.
– The General’s Son…..Miko Peled.
– The Invention of Israel……Shlomo Sand.
– Why I Stopped Being a Jew…..Shlomo Sand.
– Against Our Better Judgement ……Alison Weir.
– The Host and the Parasite…..Greg Felton.
Hopefully you can find someone to read those for you so that next time you do not do what you did to yourself this time………………
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!
Now get back to school and learn your history, Your making a fool out of yourself.
You jest!
There is no evidence that Obama has any sway in the White House at all, and his appointees do whatever they want because Obama is a feckless hack and a weakling and there is no accountability in his administration whatsoever.
I did notice today however that the propaganda barrage regarding Russia and Syria had stopped.
It probably had more to do with this
http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/politics/30-09-2016/135749-moscow_nuclear_war-0/
Than with anything Obama says.
Great advice. Let’s hope someone is listening.
Absolutely on target and must by all means be brought to the attention of a broad public, precisely because the chances of O reading it and acting upon it are so slim.
I found two typos that should be corrected: “not the first you have hear” (heard) and tone down it (its).”
Kerry, Powell, and Kirby, are pathological liars. They have over the last month made it clear that all out war is a matter of their choosing.
Stop making excuses for these war criminals,it demeans any humanity or credibility you believe you still have.
If Obama allows his “handlers” to stage manage his conferences with world leaders, or allows the Pentagon to “jam” him, then he’s an extraordinarily weak president who’s unaware of his power or afraid to exercise it (except when the Saudis want a favor??)
Shame on you! What you show is ignorance as to what may become a nuclear war and many millions of deaths…..perhaps bringing on the demise of life on this earth. What in the world are you thinking? You seem to be full of hate….
Under the first amendment, you have the right to be wrong, provocative and daft. Congratulations on hitting the trifecta.
According to published articles, Obama’s handlers NEVER allow him to speak one-on-one alone with President Putin. They are either afraid that Obama won’t stick to the script he has been given, or that Putin might have some hypnotic effect on Obama’s mind and cause him to make a rare rational decision. So, I don’t think there will ever be a classic Reagan-Gorbachev, Nixon-Brezhnev or even a Kennedy-Khrushchev summit between Obama and Putin that changes world history for the better. It simply won’t be allowed by whomever is busy organizing the next Clinton administration.
With Washington now giving Moscow ultimatums on Syria and vice versa, and warnings (if not threats) of war being made (by the likes of Morrel and Kirby speaking uncontradicted by the president), I fear that America may have saved its worst president for its last, and the world will be a cinder by the time Inauguration Day 2017 rolls around.
If you’re correct in your assertion….and your last part comes to pass, then in the aftermath Obama will forever be known as the person who let it happen. it seems that the presidents are always concerned about their “Legacies” and try to be viewed favorably by future generations. So far, my opinion of him is NOT favorable….so will he do the right thing ? We all hope so.
The point is, there won’t be any aftermath……
Exactly!
Obama has met in person with Vladimir Putin with no “handlers”:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-putin-have-private-chat-at-g-20-summit-turkey/
You must have linked to the wrong story:
Rice is a ‘neocon’s neocon’, and is one of the Three Harpies. (The other two are Hillary and Samantha.)
Um, the story you cited explicitly says that Susan Rice was in the “foursome.” She is one of a retinue of handlers that never leave his side, I believe so he doesn’t stray off the reservation. The Deep State probably never forgave Reagan when, alone with Gorbachev, the two of them nearly made an agreement to dismantle all nuclear weapons. Can you imagine the Sturm und Drang if Obama came up with something so transformative together with Putin?
I’m surprised the guys, like a lot Americans are adequate in the comments, in contrast to other media.
better together to study and explore outer space, and to fight on the hockey field but not on the battlefield,
together crush a these terrorist bastards on both sides and in WW2 meeting on the Elbe River.
Good luck guys.
(sorry for my english ;))
Thank you Alex. Obama should save some grace by coming forth with truth and reality concerning the Syrian situation, the need to coordinate efforts with Putin and Russia on any number of issues as part of a global outreach that seeks strategic basic resource management, environmental priorities, stopping the flow of arms to mercenary terrorists, and so on…But that’s not gonna happen from Obama.
May we one day have the blessing of close friendship with Russia and your people. I love your hockey and the Blackhawks are thrilled with Panarin!
Thank you all for all you have done, the sacrifices you have made and what you continue to do to press for sanity in foreign policy.
Best of luck.
May I suggest that you consider a petition on Roots Action for public support of your initiative to persuade the President to put his foot down and take control of this looming crisis.
http://rootsaction.org/about-rootsaction/staff-bios
Thank you!
Thank God there exists in America and on Earth this moral, decent, honorable group with extraordinary integrity – the men and women of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity..
But too bad you have so few, if any, in power who will listen to them!
Call me a pessimist but I’m fairly certain that this memorandum will be ignored in the same way as all the previous ones have been.
I totally agree!! I think Obama and Kerry go through the motions of wanting a cease fire, but both are in lockstep with the Pentagon and all those who want to see Assad gone. I think he’s waiting for Clinton to take over and tell it like it is, which is Assad must go, and another puppet state will be installed that will do our bidding and satisfy our allies in the ME.
Besides satisfying Israel by getting rid of Assad and installing a puppet regime to do the United States’ bidding, there are the multi-national corporations also to be satisfied with the building of a pipeline across Syria:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-secret-stupid-saudi-us-deal-on-syria/5410130
If Assad can stay in power a pipeline will be built benefiting Iran, Iraq, Syria and Russia.
U.S. involvement in Syria has nothing to do with “human rights”. It is all about control of energy resources and $$$$$. It’s all about an imperialistic real estate grab for the ruling elite.
abbybwood
I think you nailed it perfectly, sadly.
Meanwhile Bill McGibbon says we’re running out of time on switching to renewables and can no longer afford to wreak havoc with more fossil fuel exploration.
Hey evelync, YOU ARE 110% ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! PEOPLE, YOUR USE OF FOSSIL FUELS ALONG WITH YOUR TOTAL AND UTTER DISREGARD FOR YOUR OWN MOTHER (NATURE) WILL COST YOU DEARLY. IN LESS THAN 2 GENERATIONS 70% OF ALL KNOWN LIVING SPECIES WILL HAVE VANISHED. YOUR CHILDREN’S KIDS WILL NOT KNOW WHAT AN ELEPHANT OR TIGER LOOKS LIKE IN REAL LIFE. WHAT’S WORSE, IS THAT NOT ONLY DID WE, THE HUMANS, BRING THIS 6TH MASS EXTIUNCTION EVENT UPON OURSELVES, BUT THERE IS IN FACT A GRAND CHANCE THAT DUE TO OUR OWN ACTIONS, THE HUMAN MAY VERY WELL ALSO GO EXTINCT.
GOOD LUCK, CHOOSE WISELY, AND GOD SPEED.
13
According to Gen Wesley Clark, there are three more Mid East Countries to be taken out after Syria. I feel as if I were in the fifties again. Sigh…Putin seems to be the only level head around.
If they would become Satelite state for USA it would be worth it, but I have a feeling that newly established state would serve radical Wahhabi interest and values and not western values.
DON’T UNDER estimate how badly Russia wants this area: “Moscow wants to protect a key naval facility which it leases at the Syrian port of Tartous, which serves as Russia’s sole Mediterranean base for its Black Sea fleet, and has forces at an air base in Latakia, President Assad’s Shia Alawite heartland.” BBC
access to the sea is in short supply in Russia. Pautin won’t back down on this one.
Even if it is taken seriously, our Brezinski warmongers will counter that a detente with Russia to dump AlQaeda would likely turn it again on the US, as happened before 9/11. Our warmongers can always provoke the causes of war when they cannot start one themselves, to pose falsely as our protectors and demand domestic power. But we are far better off joined with Russia against them than otherwise. We would do far better yet in a UN alliance to address all causes of despair and anger worldwide, but the corrupted and antiquated US government always addresses symptoms rather than causes.
US government always addresses symptoms rather than causes, mainly because most of the time, THE US GOVT IS THE CAUSE!
You’ve got that right! https://waitforthedownfall.wordpress.com/the-leadership-of-fools/
Thanks Joe for that bird’s eye view! Too bad the likes of you, with a clear level-headedness, is becoming an endangered specie among American people.
The end of the first Cold War saw the beginning of the rise of the Secretary of Defense and the corresponding fall of the Secretary of State in making policy. It accelerated under Bush Two where the Secretary of State virtually disappeared in the media. Clinton became more visible because she acted more like the Secretary of Defense than State. Diplomacy and civil discourse disappeared replaced by patronizing name calling of the opposition. Even our President couldn’t resist engaging in it, diminishing his stature in the eyes of many. The Putin bashing, while childish and churlish, is nevertheless dangerous and continuing it, as the group suggests has consequences.
Yet another reason to vote Trump.
Agreed. https://waitforthedownfall.wordpress.com/go-hillary-go-2/
The problem is that Obama wants so much to be liked by everyone that he is afraid to assert any authority over anyone who disagrees with him.
Obama should simply tell Dumford and the others to sit down and shut up or fire them as Truman did MacArthur (which was clearly the right thing to do).
Obama wants to live long enough to retire. He has no desire to join JFK and RFK.
I agree. The Goebbels style propaganda put forward by the yankee regime and its acolytes has reached a level only approached by totalitarian regimes in the past. Sheldon Wolin’s concept of soft totalitarianism appears vindicated here. The implications, of course, are frightening.
Unfortunately, Obama is not known for his ability to listen. Especially in military matters. As his record demonstrates. And this “demonization” follows on the doors opened wide by Obama and the Dems in their concerted effort to deflect attention from Hillary’s violating the law and national security. ANYONE with any depth of knowledge knows that Obama and Clinton have been pushing Russia hard, under the guise of NATO. This is, and has been, the aggravating factor that made Putin push into Ukraine and look about for other areas to extend Russia’s power. If Clinton is elected, we can expect Putin to increase his paranoia and escalate the situation. This is absolutely the fault of Obama. He knows nothing of military strategy and it’s reflected in his record of the past eight years. He always thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room…
Obviously you haven’t been paying attention. The Russian Federation has made NO push into USA/Ukraine. America and their idiots have gotten just what they wanted…, the UKRO NAZIS groups of Right Sektor, Azov Battalion Adair group etc,etc. USA/UKRAINE is broke and destitute! The Russian Federation has consistently tried the peaceful approach in both USA/UKRAINE and in Syria. The United Snakes and NATO and their “moderate terrorists” have failed! They are not and will not be in charge of much of anything on this planet in another few months.
Right
The UN at its current state is nothing but an agglomeration of WELL payed people that do NOTHING to advance any sort of global peace.
It is an ABSURDITY that fundamentally PACIFIC nations of this planet have to contribute to such a USELESS organization that exists to make SURE America and its CRONIES can INVADE, IMPOSE THEIR WILL and ROB resources all over the globe and still have the COURAGE to come in front of TV cameras and say their VALUES and EQUALITY and CONTRIBUTIONS to democracy make then EXCEPTIONAL.
It is MORE than an ABSURDITY…
IT IS DISGUSTING!
Sure, memorandum will be ignored for good reason since this military cabal has made Russia to become existential threat for them. In the early1990s Paul Wolfowitz, then Deputy Secretary of Offense proclaimed that they have 10 years long window of opportunity to push Russia out of Middle East for good. So, he planned for 7 countries having long historical connections with Russia such as Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Kurds etc. He was almost right for 10 years later Putin has started his consolidation of power. Alas, one important ingredient was badly wanted, that is intelligence.Dizziness from success overwhelmed their prudence and they have missed the moment when window of opportunity turned into trap. Now they are all left with the classical Benjamin Franklin option – to hang together in order not be hanged separately.
Nonetheless, these are extremely important confessional documents.
Nobody takes her seriously. She is a chatter-box. Bad-looking cchatter-box.
Zaharova is person which nobody takes seriously, Chatter-box