Kathy Kelly and Ray Witness Before Gates of CIA

 

For more on the Dec. 14 protest at CIA Headquarters, see:

Drone Warfare Protest at CIA Follows Strike on Civilians in Yemen

Kathy was the main speaker. She and Ray were boat-mates, together with other Justice people, on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, summer 2011. This photo of Kathy and Ray reflects not only the joy of solidarity, but the strength Ray derives from having fallen in with prophets who are unafraid – and ending up barricaded from the gates of the Establishment.

Kathy departed the next day for Pakistan to continue her work there and in Afghanistan – not only to stop killer drones, but also (for the umpteenth time) to put her body on the line to honor Isaiah’s: “Comfort Ye, My People” – and not just sing the song.

(Not that Kathy lacks a beautiful voice… So there we were in early July 2011 with other boat-mates on a brutally hot night in an equally hot neighborhood jail in Athens – courtesy of the U.S. embassy and embarrassed but compliant local Athens police. We were singing so beautifully, if loudly, that the neighbors shouted out complaints just as loudly; at which point the sheepish police actually apologized to us and let us all go at 3:30 AM.)

Kathy Kelly is co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a truly creative, gutsy community, which needs all the support they can get. See http:/vcnv.org/

 

Snowden and Snooping

Speech by Amb. Chas W. Freeman at MIT, Dec. 12, 2013

Freeman is one of the best and brightest. Read the speech and see why his tenure in 2009 as Deputy Director of National Intelligence/Director of the National Intelligence Council was unusually short – five hours! The Israel Lobby got the White House to “un-appoint” him because of his bad knees (he could not jerk them quickly enough at the word “Israel”).

Chas Freeman on Snowden and snooping

For the play by play on Freeman’s remarkably short-lived appointment, see:

http://consortiumnews.com/2009/031109a.html

 

Syria…

Sy Hersh’s latest is a must-read: Syria: Whose SARIN?

http://www.lrb.co.uk/2013/12/08/seymour-m-hersh/whose-sarin

It is extremely telling that Sy could not find anyone in this country to publish this investigative piece so embarrassing to the powers that be (as well as to lazy journalists). Like Mearsheimer and Walt when they did their major piece on the Israel Lobby, Sy had to go to the London Review of Books.

Consortiumnews.com, however, is always ready to post VIPS memos – and especially those like this one (link below) – on a priority basis, when needed. So VIPS was already on record with some of the basics of Sy’s story two months ago.

We did catch a lot of heat for posting this one (below) but, in order to be relevant, we had to move very quickly, since it appeared that Congress was going to vote in the next day or two on whether to attack Syria. (This was before the Russians came to our rescue and threw Obama a lifeline.)

Obama Warned on Syria Intelligence
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), Sept. 6, 2013

Obama Warned on Syrian Intel

And why did Obama change his mind about attacking Syria? It could be, as Sy suggests, that someone was able to get to him and warn him that folks like John Brennan were trying to start another war.

It seems at least equally likely that Gen. Martin Dempsey got to Obama on Aug. 30, after Kerry told a press conference, 35 times, that “we know” the Syrian government was behind the chemical attacks on Aug 21. VIPS has good reason to believe that its memo to Dempsey (see below) got into the right hands early on the afternoon of Aug. 30 and may actually have had some impact. (Needless to say, this does not happen with every such memo!) On Aug. 31, Obama said this:

“Our military has positioned assets in the region. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has informed me that we are prepared to strike whenever we choose. Moreover, the Chairman has indicated to me that our capacity to execute this mission is not time-sensitive; it will be effective tomorrow, or next week, or one month from now. And I’m prepared to give that order.” (Emphasis added)