By Robert Parry, Dec.13, 2017
VIPS’ J. Kirk Wiebe, NSA Whistleblower, interviewed by PBS
46 minutes NOTE: toward the end of the first minute, there is some static — a minor glitch lasting only a few seconds; one can just let the video play on.
The interview offers a poignant, gripping retrospective. Includes what happens to you, your family, and your colleagues when your superiors trash the Fourth Amendment, you blow the whistle to the Pentagon IG and word gets to the Department of Justice, which orders the FBI to raid your home early one morning — on what are known in advance to be false pretenses. That was ten years ago, but, clearly, the experience of being violated and betrayed persists.
The FBI, of course, was “just following orders.” A recent article about the Bureau’s actual record in “just following orders” helps put its behavior in some historical perspective. See:
Full text of Gilbert Doctorow’s talk at National Press Club, Dec. 7, 2017 on his most recent book: DOES THE UNITED STATES HAVE A FUTURE? — which focuses on U.S.-Russia relation — the dangers and opportunities.
++++++++++++
A link to full video coverage of Doctorow’s no-holds-barred talk AND the lively Q&A that ensued was included in our posting yesterday:
https://raymcgovern.com/2017/
https://raymcgovern.com/2017/
++++++++++++++
The first and the final paragraphs of Doctorow’s speech appear below.
I am going to deliver a talk that will come in at 30 minutes in which I address in greater detail than you will find in the book the connection between the title question and the content of the book. To be more specific, I will explain why a book about the United States failing on the world stage deals so largely with what is happening in Russia.
…I would be content if the chances of accidental or intentional war between these two powers were vastly reduced. This is an objective which I believe is attainable fairly quickly.
…I would be content if the chances of accidental or intentional war between these two powers were vastly reduced. This is an objective which I believe is attainable fairly quickly.
The Neocons faulted the détente policy with trying to manage a relationship, a coexistence with the Soviet Union which they believed was the wrong goal, when the destruction of the Soviet Union was achievable. They were almost right. The Soviet Union collapsed, but of its own weight, due to its own contradictions and the failures of Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic policies.
However, the destruction of Russia, which is arguably the objective of US foreign policy today is unattainable, or comes at the price of collective suicide. The Russian economy is today very well managed by world class professionals. It is a typically European mixed social and market economy. Meanwhile, the broad population is mobilized around the leadership and quite patriotic. We have no choice but to manage relations and coexist with Russia as it is. …
© Gilbert Doctorow, 2017
The Speech and Q&A moderated by Ray McGovern have been posted on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
++++++++++++
Gilbert Doctorow is an independent political analyst based in Brussels. His latest book, Does the United States Have a Future? was published on 12 October 2017. Both paperback and e-book versions are available for purchase on www.amazon.com and all affiliated Amazon websites worldwide.
SANITY ON RUSSIA AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
On December 7, 2017 Ray moderated an event at the NPC in which Gilbert Doctorow addressed the wider, Russia-related issues in his new book, Does America Have a Future? Gil is an American historian of Russia, whose academic and business credentials simply won’t quit — not to mention his accomplishments as an author, notably of Does Russia Have a Future (2015). Gil asked Ray not only to moderate but also to chime in at will. Ray found it difficult to avoid abusing the privilege; it all made for a lively Q&A.
Here is the video; the Q&A, begins at 1:05:10.
Rather than summarize his latest book, Doctorow expanded on its most salient themes, referring the audience to a lengthy review of the book’s contents by Alexander Mercouris in “The Duran.”
http://theduran.com/does-the-united-states-have-a-future-a-new-book-by-gilbert-doctorow-review/
The front-burner issues discussed in both collections of Doctorow’s essays, of course, are inextricably linked. His latest work guides us through the tug of war between the U.S. and Russia, highlighting the existential risk of armed confrontation — a risk played down in Western media by blocking out news from original Russian sources. Discussing the real risk of a nuclear exchange, Gil referred to Daniel Ellsberg’s new book The Doomsday Machine, which Ellsberg summarized last week in an excellent interview on “Democracy Now.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/12/6/doomsday_machine_daniel_ellsberg_reveals_he
Doctorow, a graduate of Harvard College with a PhD from Columbia, has been “banned in Boston,” so to speak — and in Manhattan, as well. Those who watch his NPC presentation and the relaxed but pointed Q&A will find it easy to understand why.
Trump’s Slurred Speech Tied to Low Battery in Putin’s Remote
By New Yorker satirist Andy Borowitz, Dec. 8, 2017
Laugh heartily — but not too long. Some of the Russia-gate afficionados nourished by drinking drivel on RSM are likely to forward this report to similarly credulous friends lusting for more evidence of Trump’s “dalliance” with Putin. Borowitz’s finding is, after all, only a tad more fanciful than other such “evidence.” Please; someone remind RSM readers that the posting is satire.
CIA analysis is now bubble wrapped in pliable plastic to fit the narrative of the sitting administration. And so, incoming administrations have to unravel layers of deceit. The back-in-the-day ethos of speaking truth to power is no more. The consequences are, unsurprisingly, awful.
http://www.
ICH re-runs Lee Camp’s Sept. interview of Ray on Redacted.
December 6 (21 minutes)
Russophobia Goes Comic
Ambassador Craig Murray, December 8, 2017
https://www.craigmurray.org.
Former UK Amb. Murray points out that Comedian and Radio host Randy Credico has been subpoenaed to testify to Congress “as the alleged go-between for Roger Stone and Julian Assange, on the brilliant grounds that he knows both of them.” Murray adds:
“I can tell you from certain knowledge this is absolute nonsense. … Where Russia fits into this mad conspiracy theory I have no idea. If I had any belief that it was the genuine intention of [Congress] or Special Counsel inquiries to discover the actual truth, I would be surprised they have never made any contact with me, as opposed to my fleeting houseguests. But, as I am well aware the last thing they want to know is the truth, I am not surprised in the least.”
Greg Palast: typical candor, insight, and humor on why Trump won
October 25, 2017, 24 minutes
Greg Palast discusses the 2016 election with “Aggressive Progressive” comedian Jimmy Dore – how Trump’s billionaire buddies helped him steal the White House, and how he conned the mid-West workers while Hillary Clinton could not be persuaded to show up there. Palast and Dore mock the notion that Vladimir Putin played any significant role, despite the McCarthy-ist BS regularly dealt out by Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow. Palast has done a post-election edition of “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.”
… and now this!
Lethal Russian battle moose trained to invade Finland
http://russiafeed.com/russian-battle-moose-trained-invade-finland/
No, the source of this alarming report is not former NATO commander, U.S. Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, so susceptible was he to nightmares about Russian-bred Orlov horses carrying Cossack cavalry into Ukraine. Rather, the source is Finnish media, which last spring accepted and reported as fact an old April Fool’s joke about trained Russian military moose going into battle.
hummmm… “accepted as fact”