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Intelligence experts warn Europe is leading the US ‘to the cusp of nuclear annihilation’

Published

7 months ago

12 minute read

Podcast interview: Judge Andrew Napolitano talks to former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer Scott Ritter

From LifeSiteNews

By Patrick Delaney

Ritter, a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, emphasized the relevant French troops “have been put on notice for deployment. So, this is real. This isn’t hypothetical.

A group of former American intelligence officers issued a statement last week warning that a planned deployment of French and Baltic state soldiers into Ukraine could initiate a chain of events quickly leading to the “nuclear annihilation” of the United States, Europe and Russia.

The March 24 public memo from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) addressed to the president of the United States is signed by 19 well-known experts such as Colonel Douglas Macgregor, Scott Ritter, Matthew Hoh, Ray McGovern and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson.

It warns that the planned deployment of 2,000 French troops, being joined by some from the Baltic states, would be “purely symbolic” since they “would have zero survivability” in the “modern high-intensity conflict” happening in Ukraine today.

These troops from NATO countries would furthermore be “‘lawful targets’ under the Law of War” and it is “highly likely that Russia would attack” any such “contingent in Ukraine and quickly destroy/degrade its combat viability.”

President Emmanuel Macron of France may then believe he could invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter requiring NATO members, including the United States, to intervene, the experts explained. Such a response would likely involve aircraft operating from NATO countries against tactical targets inside Russia.

“Doctrinally, and by legal right, Russia’s response would be to launch retaliatory strikes also against targets in NATO countries,” the letter continues. “If NATO then attacks strategic targets inside Russia, at that point Russia’s nuclear doctrine takes over, and NATO decision-making centers would be hit with nuclear weapons.”

“Europe needs to understand that France is leading it down a path of inevitable self-destruction,” the experts wrote. And the “American people need to understand that Europe is leading them to the cusp of nuclear annihilation.”

In describing the imminent dangers involved with this scenario, Ritter, a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, emphasized the relevant French troops “have been put on notice for deployment. So, this is real. This isn’t hypothetical. This isn’t fake. This is real.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, that is an act of war. Russia has said it’s an act of war. Russia will destroy these 60,000,” Ritter assured.

And “if you think for a second that NATO’s going to allow 2,000 French soldiers or 60,000 NATO soldiers to be killed by the Russians without doing anything, you’re wrong,” he said, explaining they will “strike the bases where the Russian aircraft came that destroyed this NATO force.”

Since some of those bases are “duel-hatted,” meaning they have both conventional bombers and nuclear deterrence bombers, a “strategic force waiting reserve in case there’s a nuclear war.”

“Russian nuclear doctrine says that if a conventional power attacks Russia in a way that diminishes its strategic nuclear deterrence, that is a red line that can lead to a Russian nuclear retaliation,” Ritter explained. “We are talking about nuclear war here. And it’s on full automatic, meaning that once this begins, it doesn’t stop until the world is ended.”

According to the former intelligence officer, Macron has spoken to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, along with the British, Polish and Czechs who have signaled they don’t want to lead on this deployment but are willing to follow with their own troop assignments soon after.

And while many believe “Russia has been crying wolf about its nuclear doctrine,” Ritter says, “let me just make it clear, I’ve had a lot of experience with the Russians. They don’t bluff. They literally don’t bluff.”

He believes Russia sent a signal recently in their destroying an airfield and a rail line on the Polish border. In effect, they are saying, “we know how you get here. We know how this is done. If you cross over, we will kill you all.” And, indeed “they have straight-up said, ‘a Frenchman steps foot in Ukraine, that’s a dead Frenchman. We will kill them.’”

‘No doubt,’ the U.S. president directed the CIA to ‘carry out acts of violence inside Russia’

Ritter also discussed why he believes the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was behind the March 22 terrorist attack at a concert hall just outside of Moscow that claimed the lives of at least 139 people.

According to his research, the intelligence service of Ukraine, the GUR, “is a total construct of the CIA and MI6, the British intelligence (agency),” and is thus “not an independent organ. It works on behalf of the United States.”

“The CIA has worked with the GUR to use Russian nationalist groups to invade Russia,” he emphasized. Perhaps similar to the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020, this was done in early March with a purpose of disrupting the election of Russian President Vladimir Putin and involved approximately 5,000 fighters trained, equipped, and directed by the United States “under the umbrella of Ukrainian intelligence.”

While these fighters were defeated, Ritter said this invasion was an act of war that also demonstrates “the CIA is capable of carrying out acts of violence on Russian soil.”

With regards to the Moscow terrorist bombing, he explained why the media narrative that the terrorists were ISIS-K jihadists was questionable as the assailants released pictures of themselves attempting to display a pious Islamic gesture but did it erroneously, betraying their unfamiliarity with the religion.

Secondly, while jihadists give their lives as “martyrs” in such attacks, these men escaped and sought their safe refuge in Ukraine, indicating they are mercenaries returning to those who recruited and trained, and paid them: “the GUR, which is the same thing as the CIA and MI6. America is behind this 100%.”

‘We have become the terrorists.’

Ritter further highlighted how the president of the United States is required by law to sign a “finding” authorizing such a covert action by the CIA Special Activity Center, at least in its general objectives even if the details of implementation are left to the discretion of the agency. Additionally, “the Gang of Eight” in Congress must be notified of such a “finding” as well.

Therefore, the former Marine concludes, the United States through the CIA has been in Ukraine “training the Ukrainians on ‘irregular warfare,’ ‘unconventional warfare.’ This means terrorism.”

“The CIA has a mission given to it by the president of the United States to train the Ukrainian intelligence services in acts of terrorism,” he said. “This operation is part of that process.”

“Let there be no doubt, the president of the United States has directed the Central Intelligence Agency to carry out acts of violence inside Russia, designed to undermine the authority of Vladimir Putin and to disrupt the elections that took place earlier this month,” Ritter said.

“We have become the terrorists. I hope people understand that. We have become the terrorists. We are responsible for setting in motion events that culminated in this horrific attack in Moscow,” he said. “We’re a terrorist nation.”

Noting the further irony, Ritter emphasized the “presidential directive to disrupt the elections in Russia” amid the western narrative over the last several years claiming “the Russians are interfering with American elections.”

If Americans understood the danger, ‘they would be in the streets’ by the millions

Returning to the topic of the French deployment of troops into Ukraine, “I’d like to believe that once the American people realize that we are on this automatic course towards nuclear annihilation, that if we don’t do anything to stop this, a possible or probable outcome is that they won’t survive the summer.”

“All you guys planning a summer vacation right now, it’s going to end with a blinding flash if we don’t stop this, if we don’t stop this insanity,” he implored.

If the American people understood the danger they were in, “they would be in the streets. Millions of people would be surrounding the White House. Central Park in New York City would be packed. San Francisco would be shut down,” Ritter exclaimed. “The American people should come out, stand up, and say not just ‘no,’ but ‘hell no, not in our name!’”

“But they’re not. They’re all getting up today, getting ready, going to work, living their lives as if nothing’s happening,” he lamented.

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conflict

Sec Def Austin Unveils $400 Million Arms Package For Ukraine — But One Thing Is Missing

Published on October 22, 2024

By

From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

 

By Jake Smith

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Ukraine but isn’t bringing the good news Kyiv wants to hear, as the country continues to struggle to hold the front line amid Russian advances.

Austin has been intimately involved over the last two years in overseeing U.S. military aid to Ukraine, of which there has been approximately $70 billion. The Defense Secretary touched down in Ukraine on Sunday in a show of continued support and announced a new $400 million arms package, but won’t be giving Kyiv what it really wants — the ability to use U.S.-provided long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory, according to multiple reports.

The request to use the missiles for such a purpose has been something Ukraine has asked for for months; as Ukraine can’t produce such weapons, it is looking to the U.S. and Europe for help.

Austin arrived in Ukraine without signaling that the request would be filled, and that’s likely to leave Kyiv unsatisfied. The administration has been hesitant to allow Ukraine to use U.S. or European-provided missiles to conduct long-range attacks against Russia, in part because it could escalate the war and drag the U.S. further into the conflict.

“We think it is wrong that there are such steps,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in early September, according to The Washington Post. “We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine but also on the Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace.”

The idea has been frequently discussed between U.S. and Ukrainian officials but nothing has come to fruition. Austin has also previously said that he doesn’t think it would significantly improve Ukraine’s odds of victory, noting in an early September press conference that “there’s no one capability that will in and of itself be decisive in this campaign.”

Ukraine is also pressing the administration for NATO membership, but Austin had no new updates to give on that request either, according to reports. The Biden-Harris administration has said that Ukraine’s fate is eventually to join NATO but hasn’t provided a timeline for when.

However, the U.S. is providing Ukraine with $400 million worth of weapons systems, Austin announced on Monday, including munitions, armored vehicles and tanks, according to reports. The aid will certainly meet some of the needs of Ukraine’s military but is not as large as some of the prior multi-billion dollar packages.

“The United States understands the stakes here, Mr. President,” Austin told Ukrainian Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday, Reuters reported.

President Joe Biden’s options to help Ukraine are starting to run out as he prepares to leave office in January. Even with U.S. and European-provided military aid, it has done little more than help Ukraine maintain a defensive position against Russia, which has shown no signs of stopping its invasion campaign.

Russia launched sweeping missile and drone strikes against targets in Eastern Ukraine over the weekend ahead of Austin’s visit, according to Reuters. Ukrainian forces staged a successful incursion into regions in Western Russia at the end of the summer but Russian forces have started to retake some of the territory in recent weeks, The New York Times reported.

The odds that Biden can secure substantially more funding from Congress to aid Ukraine are slim; it was already difficult for the president to secure the last $60 billion aid package in April, as the sentiment among some lawmakers is that the administration doesn’t seem to have a plan to end the war and move Ukraine toward victory.

It will be either presidential candidates Donald Trump or Kamala Harris who will have to pick up where Biden left off. Harris would likely mirror Biden’s approach to the war and continue strong U.S. support for Ukraine’s military campaign, but some critics fear that she lacks the needed foreign policy wisdom to properly maneuver the conflict.

Trump has vowed to end the war before January if he’s elected in November, touting his ability to negotiate with both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also signaled he may end military aid to Ukraine in favor of seeking a peaceful settlement between Kyiv and Moscow.

Austin on Monday dismissed ideas that U.S. support for Ukraine would end if Trump were elected in November.

“I’ve seen bipartisan support for Ukraine over the last 2-1/2 years, and I fully expect that we’ll continue to see the bipartisan support from Congress,” Austin said, according to Reuters.

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conflict

Middle East War Shows No Signs Of Stopping One Year After Oct. 7 — And No Clear Path To Exit

Published on October 8, 2024

By

From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

 

By Jake Smith

The chaos of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel is still being felt one year later as the broader region grapples with a conflict that has shown no signs of stopping.

Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attacks caught Israel by surprise and resulted in the murder of approximately 1,200 people and the kidnapping of hundreds of others, including American citizens. Israel retaliated and launched a war against Hamas in Gaza, which a year later has not ended but instead spilled into the broader Middle East and drawn in other bad actors such as Hezbollah and Iran.

“We’re still stuck in Oct. 7, 2023, in one unending day of terror, of fear, of anger, of despair,” Yuval Baron, an Israeli citizen whose father-in-law is still being held by Hamas in Gaza, told Reuters.

Israeli forces have largely occupied Gaza and killed thousands of Hamas operatives, largely crippling the terrorist group’s capabilities, although it has come at great humanitarian cost to the enclave, according to Reuters. The conflict has displaced millions of Palestinians and wreaked havoc across Gaza, leaving many areas uninhabitable, Bloomberg reported.

The effort to build Gaza after the fighting ends — whenever that may be — will likely be an incredibly costly venture that could take years and require joint cooperation between several Arab states, according to Bloomberg. Millions of tons of debris will have to be cleared from the enclave while buildings are repaired or replaced.

“We thought it would be two months [of fighting] — at most,”  Mohammed Shakib Hassan, a Palestinian civil servant who fled his home after Israeli forces entered Gaza last year, told The New York Times. “Twelve months have passed in front of our eyes.”

Israel, with the help of the U.S., has on several occasions made offers for a ceasefire in Gaza conditioned on the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas and the surrender of the terrorist group, but these proposals have been rejectedmultiple times. Yayha Sinwar, the leader of Hamas who has been hiding underground in Gaza, reportedly believes that he is not going to survive the war and has zero intention of reaching a ceasefire deal with Israel at this point in the conflict, according to U.S. intelligence assessments reviewed by The New York Times.

The Biden-Harris administration has spent months brokering negotiations between Israel and Hamas and working with regional mediators to try to reach a deal, but these efforts have largely been fruitless. Though President Biden has on several occasions predicted that a ceasefire could be reached in short order, his own officials now privately believe it will be near impossible to get a deal done between now and January, the end of Biden’s term.

“They’re probably not going to get one before the election, or before January either. But that’s not on them, per se. It speaks to the difficulty of how far apart [Israel and Hamas] are,” former State Department official Gabriel Noronha told the Daily Caller News Foundation in September.

There have been various roadblocks to getting a deal done. Specifically, Israel wants to leave troops along the Gaza-Egyptian border, arguing that it would stonewall Hamas from trafficking in weapons, but Hamas has rejected this term.

Though the prospects of a deal are unlikely at this point, Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza has largely come to a close as the terrorist group’s capabilities have been vastly diminished.

“Hamas is a shadow of its former self. Israel is going to continue to try to eradicate them, but it’s sort of a guerilla campaign. Hamas is being starved and smoked out. I suspect that you’re going to see Hamas go underground somewhat — more figuratively than literally at this point,” Noronha told the DCNF last month.

Instead, Israel has shifted much of its forces and focus away from Gaza and toward Lebanon, which houses the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. Hezbollah is Iran’s largest terrorist group in the Middle East and has engaged in cross-fire skirmishes with Israel since last October out of support for Hamas, displacing thousands of civilians near the Israel-Lebanon border, according to NPR.

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have reached a boiling point in recent weeks, as Israel has launched sweeping airstrikes against the terrorist group in southern Lebanon and killed the group’s leader in an airstrike in late September, according to The Washington Post. Israeli forces have begun ground raids against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, in what could be the prelude to a much larger ground invasion.

The Biden-Harris Administration, along with other allies, also put forward on Sep. 26 a separate ceasefire proposal for Israel and Hezbollah, although it was seemingly ignored by both parties.

“It’s clear that Israel is determined to rid Lebanon of Hezbollah,” senior fellow at the Strauss Center and former Pentagon official Simone Ledeen told the DCNF. “They need Hezbollah to lay down their arms and surrender… the Israelis [are] really focused on getting to that objective.”

The multi-front Middle East conflict extends also to Iran, which — though it has helped orchestrate and fund the various terror attacks against Israel — made an unprecedented move in April and launched a sweeping missile strike against Israel from directly within Iran’s borders, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Iran launched a similar attack against Israel last week in the form of roughly 180 missiles, most of which were intercepted by U.S. and Israeli forces.

Israel is expected to respond with an attack directly against Iran, although the timing and nature of the move is publicly unknown. The Biden-Harris administration is helping coordinate the attack with Israel, though it wants Israel to avoidgoing after the country’s nuclear facilities.

“The launch of over 180 ballistic missiles by Tehran requires a decisive reaction to prevent future attacks,” Israeli intelligence agent Avi Melamed said in a statement on Monday. “Currently, it seems that Israel is finalizing its operational plans while the U.S. prepares munitions to defensively counter any potential Iranian counterstrike.”

The conflict extends even further into Iraq, Syria and Yemen, all hotspots for other various Iranian-backed terrorist groups that have attacked U.S. and Israeli forces in the region since last October, according to Axios. Israeli forces have launched a series in those regions, too, in recent months.

Until the current Middle East conflict comes to an end, the possibility of regional peace may be too far out of reach, even as that remains a goal for other key Arab states and Western nations. Iran’s “axis of resistance” has taken severe blows since last October, according to Axios.

But Israeli forces are stretched across multiple fronts in a conflict with no clear end game, and the Israeli people seem to be growing more and more weary of the conflict; 23% of Israelis considered leaving the country in the last year, according to a recent poll cited by Axios.

“This war won’t end because nobody is willing to blink,” Thomas Nides, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told the Times. “In the meantime, everyone is losing — hostages and their families, innocent Palestinians, Israelis displaced from northern Israel, Lebanese civilians. And it’s truly tragic.”

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