Deja vu all over again! My, I’d forgotten how supportive the Very Serious People get when it’s time for another war. I wonder how enthusiastic they would be if it was their children on the front lines. Sis boom bah! How long until they put on their American flag pins again?

Secretary of State John Kerry made the round of Sunday shows this morning to condemn Russia’s “incredible act of aggression” in Ukraine, warning Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the country faces harsh economic sanctions from the international community.

“It is really a stunning, willful choice by President Putin to invade another country,” Kerry said on Face the Nation.

But in the seriousness of the situation, the irony of Kerry’s next comments may have gone missed. ”You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” he said.

He went on to repeat the assertion on Meet the Press, keeping a straight face as he told host David Gregory: ”You just don’t invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests.”

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the U.S. is up to in the Ukraine. We’ve been funneling millions to the Ukraine opposition for a while, and we’ve selected the new prime minister. Also, late last year, the IMF demanded that Ukraine double prices for gas and electricity to industry and homes, that they lift a ban on private sale of Ukraine’s rich agriculture lands, make a major overhaul of their economic holdings, devalue the currency, slash state funds for school children and the elderly to “balance the budget.” In return Ukraine would get a paltry $4 billion.
Continue reading “‘You can’t invade another country on a trumped-up pretext’” →

I’ve always assumed so, and when it comes to issues like this, I believe he’s too afraid of being killed to change the status quo. (I don’t see that as a character flaw, simply a fact.) It will take a sustained public insistence to break up the intelligence apparatus, and this leak may be the thing that does it. I hope so. Brad Blog:

During my interview last night with 27-year CIA analyst Ray McGovern on the Mike Malloy Show (which I’ve been guest hosting all this week), the man who used to personally deliver the CIA’s Presidential Daily Briefings to George Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan, among other Presidents, offered an extraordinarily chilling thought — particularly coming from someone with his background.

In a conversation at the end of the hour (audio and transcript below), as I was trying to pin him down for an opinion on whether or not he felt it was appropriate for CIA Director Leon Panetta to have reportedly attempted to block a lawful investigation into torture and other war crimes committed by the CIA, McGovern alluded to a book about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and noted he felt it likely that both Panetta and President Obama may have reason to fear certain elements of the CIA.

“Let me just leave you with this thought,” he said, “and that is that I think Panetta, and to a degree President Obama, are afraid — I never thought I’d hear myself saying this — I think they’re afraid of the CIA.”…

McGovern went on to note “the stakes are very high here,” in relation to Attorney General Eric Holder’s recently announced investigation of the CIA now under the direction of Panetta. “His main advisers and his senior staff are liable for prosecution for war crimes. The War Crimes statute includes very severe penalties, including capital punishment for those who, if under their custody, detainees die. And we know that at least a hundred have, so this is big stakes here.”

He then recommended James W. Douglass’ book, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.

“He makes a very very persuasive case that it was President Kennedy’s, um, the animosity that built up between him and the CIA after the Bay of Pigs, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because he was reaching out to the Russians and so forth and so on. It’s a very well-researched book and his conclusion is very alarming,” the long-time CIA veteran noted in what turned out to be a chilling end to our interview in which he described “two CIAs”.

One, he says, was created by President Truman to “give him the straight scoop without any fear or favor. And then its covert action arm, which really doesn’t believe — which doesn’t belong in this agency.” McGovern referred to that CIA “advisedly” as the President’s “own personal gestapo” which acts without oversight by the Congressional committees once tasked to do so.

“And so if you’re asking why Obama and Panetta are going very very kid-glove-ish with the CIA, I think part of the reason, or the explanation is they’re afraid of these guys because these guys have a whole lot to lose if justice takes its course.”

“So, it’s pretty scary. Yes, it is,” he concluded.

Via medical malpractice attorney Thomas Soldan.