The State Department Says Russia Is Invading Ukraine—Should We Believe It? from the Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), signed by
William Binney, former World Geopolitical & Military Analysis Technical Director at NSA and SIGINT Automation Research Center co-founder,
David MacMichael, retired from National Intelligence Council
Ray McGovern, retired US Army infantry/intelligence officer and CIA analyst
Elizabeth Murray, retired Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East
Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, retired US Army Judge Advocate
Coleen Rowley, retired Division Counsel & Special Agent, FBI
Ann Wright, Col., retired US Army and resigned as Foreign Service Officer
You need to know, for example, that accusations of a major Russian “invasion” of Ukraine appear not to be supported by reliable intelligence. Rather, the “intelligence” seems to be of the same dubious, politically “fixed” kind used 12 years ago to “justify” the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. We saw no credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq then; we see no credible evidence of a Russian invasion now. Twelve years ago, former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, mindful of the flimsiness of the evidence on Iraqi WMD, refused to join in the attack on Iraq. In our view, you should be appropriately suspicions of charges made by the U.S. State Department and NATO officials alleging a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
One year ago, hawkish State Department officials and their friends in the media very nearly got Mr. Obama to launch a major attack on Syria based, once again, on “intelligence” that was dubious, at best.The distinguished list of authors of this missive to Merkel point out "NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen's checkered record for credibility," having stood before parliament when he was PM to proclaim he knew Iraq had WMD, which we know was untrue, the day before the Iraq invasion and occupation. Here he goes again, and we are being told that his title, NATO Secretary General, has somehow given him the gravitas to be deemed a reliable source of information, no matter how greatly wrong this great Dane was about the Iraq War.
These experienced intelligence experts also wrote that the "fuzzy" satellite images NATO released on August 28 were inconclusive as to whether or not Russia was invading Ukraine and reminiscent of the images Colin Powell presented to the UN of semis that were supposedly driving non-existent WMDs round and round in Iraq. (Diarists' Note: I called the NATO satellite photos "blurry" in aprevious diaryfor which my tip jar was inappropriately abused with 2 HRs, as proven by former US government intelligence experts similarly describing these same photos as "fuzzy" and inadequate proof of a Russian invasion.)
The authors of this open letter to the German chancellor concluded that NATO, instead of promoting a proxy war with Russia, should ask Kiev to declare a ceasefire in East Ukraine, where over 2,000 civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands of Russian ethnics have had to flee their homes.
President Obama has exercised caution in refraining from using the I word, invasion, in reference to Russian involvement in East Ukraine:
It’s a continuation of what’s been taking place for months nowSenator Warbucks Feinstein says Obama may be 'too cautious' with regard to FP for her taste and hungry chops, and with regard to ISIS in Iraq/Syria, she laments:
“I’ve learned one thing about this president, and that is he’s very cautious. Maybe, in this instance, too cautious,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in an interview aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”Senator Dianne Feinstein (D?) agrees with Lindsey Graham (R) and John McCain (R) and their New York Times Op-Ed on what Obama should do with regard to ISIS:
We should embed additional United States special forces and advisers with our partners on the ground — not to engage in combat, but to help our partners fight ISIS and direct airstrikes against it. Regional allies should play a key role in this effort. No one is advocating unilateral invasion, occupation or nation-building. This should be more like Afghanistan in 2001, where limited numbers of advisers helped local forces, with airstrikes and military aid, to rout an extremist army.McCain/Graham are quick to say that embedding US special forces with their "partners on the ground" to "direct airstrikes" and provide "military aid" would not be an "invasion."
What is one man's "military aid," is another man's "invasion," and vice versa.
Obama's "caution" and wise speech calling the Iraq War a "dumb war" is precisely why I supported him in the Democratic Primary over Hillary"Obliterate Iran"Clinton.
What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.Russia is not Iraq. We really need to exercise extreme caution here and not let the same crazed Neocons and their yapping mouthpieces who shoved their "ideological agendas down our throats" in Iraq shove it down our gullets again this time, because as awful as the Iraq Strike and Awe has turned out to be in loss of blood and treasure, the misadventure of provoking war with Russia will be infinitely worse. First strike, and we're ALL out, no matter what divine rapturous Project for a New AIPAC, MIC, Natural Gas, & Big Oil Century those "dumb"& "rash"think(?) tank arm chair warrior drones may prognosticate.