CrossTalk on North Korea: DMZ diplomacy

with Patrick Henningsen, Efrain Inbar, and Ray
July 2, 2019 (24 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW-yXkAWxbs

Ray was invited to appear on CrossTalk yesterday on the strength of his Sunday commentary on the Trump-Kim DMZ meeting. ( See: 
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/01/ray-mcgovern-hope-for-a-breakthrough-in-korea/  )

Moderator Peter Lavelle noted Ray’s dishevelled appearance, a sign of solidarity with Ray’s friend Julian Assange, whose beard was so prominent in the photos of Julian being unceremoniously carried out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, arbitrarily ending his political asylum. ( Ray’s earlier piece on the “Julian Assange Beard,” JAB, movement got lots of “looks” but no joiners: https://raymcgovern.com/2019/05/28/the-julian-assange-beard-jab-movement-a-suggestion/ .)

The discussion on DMZ diplomacy and possible next steps addressed the main substantive points as well as obstacles — like how long John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are likely to be employed by Trump.  Bolton, who was exiled to Mongolia lest he play skunk at the DMZ picnic, seems clearly in jeopardy.

But so is Pompeo.  We posted Ray’s brief commentary on a highly interesting NY Times article last week, written by well plugged-in journalists who rang several changes on that theme.  ( See: “The Last Days of Pompeii-o? at https://raymcgovern.com/2019/06/23/the-last-days-of-pompeii-o/  ).

Also (hopefully) available to President Trump is the VIPS MEMORANDUM, warning him that, in key respects, Pompeo’s agenda may not be the same as Trump’s. ( See: 
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/21/vips-memo-to-the-president-is-pompeos-agenda-the-same-as-yours/ ).

Discussion of the almost 70-year Korean conundrum, especially the still formidable obstacles to real progress, was so heavy-weighty that Ray thought he would throw in a frivolously hopeful throwaway line: “Pompeo has been told there is a weight limit on the Rapture.”
Thus, the immediate danger of Pompeo’s bringing on Armageddon to hasten the Rapture has receded.  As for the longer term, Pompeo is still in a bind.  Surely, he does not want to miss being “lifted up,” while most of the rest of us are “left behind.”  But, if he slims down enough to meet the Rapture’s weight requirement, he may end up in Mongolia — like Bolton.  Generally speaking, President Trump, like Caesar, likes to keep men about him who are fat.

“Bureaucratic Tapeworm” (hat-tip to Tucker Carlson) Bolton is a notable exception.  By all indications, he would not mind being “left behind,” so long as he can continue to linger in neocon intestines and in those of the body politic.

As the Germans say, “Ein bisschen Spass darf sein,” or, It’s OK to have a little fun — even with these weighty issues.

CIA RUSSIA EXPERT SPEAKS OUT

Ray in freewheeling discussion taped on June 21, 2019
https://shoutout.wix.com/so/85Mkd_yKo?region=551c9c4a-1d75-42b1-a334-4107edbcb7fb#/main
(Primo Nutmeg program #180)

After brief intro to the program, moderator Steve offers some personal comments on the Democratic debates (from minute 1:45 to 5:38).  He then turns to Ray with some good questions, leading to a relaxed, discursive (sometimes funny) discussion of several front-burner issues for the next 99 minutes.  Included are:

Iran; Israel; the greater Middle East; why relations with Russia went so sour in early 2014 (clues: HRC and MICIMATT); Russia-gate/Deep-State-gate; how the Department of Justice recently threw James Comey under the bus; Comey’s odd behavior in deferring to the shadowy firm CrowdStrike for forensics on DNC computers, and then never insisted on a final report from CrowdStrike; Ray’s friend Julian Assange; and Tulsi Gabbard.

The Last Days of Pompeii-o?

Pompeo, a Steadfast Hawk, Coaxes a Hesitant Trump on Iran
By Edward Wong and Michael Crowley, June 22, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/world/middleeast/trump-pompeo-iran.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_190623?campaign_id=2&instance_id=10375&segment_id=14572&user_id=e69a6cb2bbba5cd47ffe27ec9fb45fbe&regi_id=695407010623
Excerpt:  On Thursday night, after Mr. Trump called off the strike, Douglas Macgregor, a retired army colonel, told Fox News that Mr. Trump “needs to get rid of the warmongers. He needs to throw these geniuses that want limited strikes out of the Oval Office.”
Army Col. Macgregor has a long record of having been right on important things.

The Julian Assange Beard (JAB) Movement: a Suggestion

… on Seeing Julian’s Political Asylum Unceremoniously Withdrawn

Have any of you readers had the trouble Ray has experienced in getting the following photo out his mind?

Ray’s hair/beard grows in dishevelled witness to the uncivilized treatment accorded his admired friend Julian.  Why such treatment? For publishing truthful information highly embarrassing to war criminals and others who dread the possibility that their crimes will come to light.

Could this, or something similar, spark a movement?  Might Justice-for-Julian women adopt some kind of solidarity symbol of their own?

The above photo recalls happier times visiting Julian in Ecuador’s embassy in London, before the Ecuadoran government caved in to U.S. pressure to flaunt international law, end his political asylum, and let the British put him in prison. In late January 2013 Julian hosted a dinner, inviting a dozen friends including members of Sam Adams Associates for Integrity– some of whom are pictured above with Julian (Ann Wright, Ray McGovern, Elizabeth Murray, and Coleen Rowley).  They were on their way to a Sam Adams award ceremony the following evening at the Oxford Union.

Julian, himself the Sam Adams laureate in 2010, was live-streamed into the august precincts of the Oxford Union the next evening and gave a presentation lauding the courage of the 2013 Sam Adams honoree Thomas Fingar. Tom, a former Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence, was given the Sam Adams award at the traditional annual ceremony*** hosted that year by the Oxford Union.

Most notably, Fingar supervised a National Intelligence Estimate issued in November 2007, in which all agencies of the U.S. intelligence community agreed that Iran had stopped working on nuclear weapon at the end of 2003.  There is lots of evidence, including in George W. Bush’s own memoir, showing that this NIE played a huge role in preventing the attack on Iran that Bush, Cheney, and Israel had been planning for 2008.

As for Julian Assange, in summer 2013 he played a key role in enabling whistleblower Edward Snowden to escape from Hong Kong and avoid the fate that seems likely now for Julian, unless we all put our backs to the wheel to prevent it. (Julian’s deus-ex-machina intervention on behalf of Ed is another HUGE reason Julian sits atop Official Washington’s WANTED list.)

In October 2013, a small delegation of Sam Adams Associates flew to Moscow to present the award to Ed Snowden.

***For additional information on the Sam Adams Award, including the citations accompanying the various annual awards, please click on: samadamsaward.ch .
Also related:  https://raymcgovern.com/2019/05/26/iraq-all-over-again-and-where-is-katharine-gun/

Iraq All Over Again? And Where Is Katharine Gun

A rush to war based on faulty intelligence and a manufactured crisis sounds very familiar.
By Marcia Mitchell
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/20/iraq-all-over-again-and-where-katharine-gun

Katharine Gun of the UK’s NSA equivalent was the second recipient of the annual Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. Coleen Rowley of the FBI was the first.

For more information on the annual Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence go to samadamsaward.ch.  The award citation for Katharine is included below, but you are invited also to read, below the citation, related articles on her courage — articles posted, appropriately enough, by SAAII award laureate Coleen Rowley.  Here’s the citation:

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Katharine GunKnow all ye by these presents that Katharine Gun is hereby awarded The Corner-Brightener Candlestick, presented by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.

Heeding the dictates of conscience and true patriotism, Ms. Gun put her career and her very liberty at risk trying to prevent the launching of an illegal war. That she is here with us today and not in a prison cell bespeaks a tacit but clear admission by her government that the US/UK attack on Iraq in March 2003 was in defiance of international law.

Ms. Gun’s beacon of light pierced a thick cloud of deception. She set a courageous example for those intelligence analysts of the “Coalition of the Willing” who have first-hand knowledge of how intelligence was corrupted to “justify” war, but who have not yet been able to find their voice.
Presented this 14th day of April 2004 in Copenhagen, Denmark by admirers of the example set by our former colleague, Sam Adams.

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Do not miss the film.  And, with respect to Iran at this point, please tell all your insider friends “who have not yet been able to find their voice.”  There must be one or two with the courage of Katharine Gun and Coleen Rowley.