(The ISSG Statement can be found at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/02/252428.htm)
Ray pointed to the demonstrable benefits of Russia-U.S. cooperation in recent years, particularly with regard to Syria. He reminded the TV audience that this kind of cooperation prevented an overt U.S. attack on Syria in September 2013, when President Putin persuaded Assad to let Syria’s chemical weapons be destroyed.
Ray also noted the very large flies in the ointment –Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. He emphasized the need for Washington – with a united voice – to talk Turkey, so to speak, to the leaders of all three of countries to get them to curtail their support for the terrorists largely responsible for the continuing human catastrophe in Syria.
Ray explains how tension and small wars are very good for the “blood-soaked” arms trade. He adds, though, that Putin has made abundantly clear that what really worries the Kremlin is the destabilizing effect of Washington’s stepped-up efforts to surround Russia with ballistic missile defense systems.
The Russians do not want to revert to “launch on warning,” but Russian generals cannot take the chance that these incredibly expensive missile defense systems might actually work. We can expect more and more countermeasures.
Ukraine and Crimea are also discussed, as well as the White House functionaries happily bereft of any appreciation of Russia’s security interests, much less Putin’s determination to have them respected – the interests, not the functionaries. National Intelligence Director Clapper has just told Congress the Russians are “paranoid.” Really.
-The creation of the CIA and the role of Pearl Harbor.
-Vietnam: the Communist “domino effect” scare; LBJ lying politics, spinelessness of his courtiers; Tonkin Gulf; unacknowledged rift between Russians and Chinese.
-The misconceived conception of the CIA – the notion that covert action over-throwers of governments should be thrown in with the tell-it-like-it-is analysis group that Truman envisaged for the CIA; a structural fault from the outset (witness Nicaragua, Chile, for example).
-CIA Director William Colby fired for disobeying Kissinger’s orders to lie to Congress about earlier CIA abuses.
-How CIA analysts, with the help of innovative technical collection systems, were able to assure Nixon, Reagan, et al. that they could verify agreements on strategic arms limitations and reductions (“trust but verify”).
-Two Bushes – two attitudes toward “the crazies.”
-How and why the “mainstream” media, owned and operated by the “blood-drenched arms traders,” beat the drum (almost always successfully) for war; the powerful incentives for endless war; drone strikes = a good way to do that.
-How more sober forces overcame both media and neocons, in thwarting an overt attack on Syria in late summer 2013; how President Vladimir Putin then pulled Obama’s chestnuts out of the fire – another reason the media/neocons hate Putin.
-Ukraine – one “regime change” too many; Feb. 22, 2014 Putsch in Kiev was advertised in advance on YouTube; was later called “the most blatant coup in history” (George Friedman of STRATFOR).
-Surveillance and blackmail opportunities; is Obama afraid?
-Assassination of John Kennedy; James Douglass book: “JFK and the Unspeakable.”
-Drones: All those killed are assumed to be terrorists, unless they can later prove they were not terrorists and not dead (like Lazarus).
-Israel: The elephant in the room.
-Irish grandparents on the “Upper Crust,” and why the sun never sets on the British Empire.
(Intro can be skipped by starting at minute 11:00; interview was on Jan. 21, 2016; posted Feb. 5.)
Frankly, what is “frankly ridiculous” is further proof that “British Justice” is an oxymoron, as Ray learned years ago at his Irish grandmother’s knee. (She and her kin knew quite a lot about “arbitrary detention.”) So Ray found it a little much, reading Hammond’s statement that the UN finding “ignores the facts and the well recognized protections of the British legal system.” Right!
Sadly, that “legal system” has become so corrupted by subservience to U.S. diktat, that the gutsy nobles who forced the Magna Carta on King John 800 years ago must be rolling over in their graves. Same for the servile Swedes – a particular pity, since they once enjoyed a decent reputation on human rights.
In a Feb. 2014 interview Abby Martin and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund recall what happened to Ray as then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton drove home the point that authorities need to respect freedom of expression – in Iran. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund was able to get an unconstitutionally draconian BOLO (for “Be On Look-Out”) order for Ray rescinded 7 months after this interview. (8 minutes)
