#jack matlock

Free PDF format book, endorsed by Noam Chomsky

Available in English, French or German.

"How the West Brought War to Ukraine", written by Benjamin Abelow, praised by Jack Matlock, John Mearsheimer, Chas Freeman, Douglas McGregor, Richard Sakwa, Kristen Mehta, Gilbert Doctorow & Robert Kennedy Jr.

This is a concise but useful history to NATO's implementation war with Russia. It provides much of the background necessary to understand why this war was very much avoidable but made inescapable by the political actions of the NATO collective. While its brevity prevents it from going into details or considerations for all sources on the matter, it is a very readable work that quickly delivers the most important arguments about the many Western provocations against Russia.

Empire of Happiness   Het Rijk van het Kwaad… Ach, dat begon al in onze kinderjaren. Rusland, de communisten, ze stonden voor barbaarse horden die ons wilden verpletteren.       AFP « L’UKRAINE D’AUJOURD’HUI N’EST PAS UNE DÉMOCRATIE » : ENTRETIEN AVEC L’ANCIEN AMBASSADEUR JACK MATLOCK   Jack Matlock est un témoin privilégié de la diplomatie internationale des dernières décennies. Dans cet…

Source:The National Interest I saw a show on Book TV on C-SPAN last weekend with Stephen Kotkin who just wrote a book about Joe Stalin perhaps the most evil and worst dictator that at least Russia has ever produced if not in the history of the world. And it was a good show and Kotkin goes into how Stalin built the Soviet State essentially on his own and how he built Russian authoritarianism. He…

Did the U.S. “intelligence community” judge that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election?

Most commentators seem to think so. Every news report I have read of the planned meeting of Presidents Trump and Putin in July refers to “Russian interference” as a fact and asks whether the matter will be discussed. Reports that President Putin denied involvement in the election are scoffed at, usually with a claim that the U.S. “intelligence community” proved Russian interference. In fact, the U.S. “intelligence community” has not done so. The intelligence community as a whole has not been tasked to make a judgment and some key members of that community did not participate in the report that is routinely cited as “proof” of “Russian interference.”

I spent the 35 years of my government service with a “top secret” clearance. When I reached the rank of ambassador and also worked as Special Assistant to the President for National Security, I also had clearances for “codeword” material. At that time, intelligence reports to the president relating to Soviet and European affairs were routed through me for comment. I developed at that time a “feel” for the strengths and weaknesses of the various American intelligence agencies. It is with that background that I read the January 6, 2017 report of three intelligence agencies: the CIA, FBI, and NSA.

This report is labeled “Intelligence Community Assessment,” but in fact it is not that. A report of the intelligence community in my day would include the input of all the relevant intelligence agencies and would reveal whether all agreed with the conclusions. Individual agencies did not hesitate to “take a footnote” or explain their position if they disagreed with a particular assessment. A report would not claim to be that of the “intelligence community” if any relevant agency was omitted.

The report states that it represents the findings of three intelligence agencies: CIA, FBI, and NSA, but even that is misleading in that it implies that there was a consensus of relevant analysts in these three agencies. In fact, the report was prepared by a group of analysts from the three agencies pre-selected by their directors, with the selection process generally overseen by James Clapper, then Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Clapper told the Senate in testimony May 8, 2017, that it was prepared by “two dozen or so analysts—hand-picked, seasoned experts from each of the contributing agencies.” If you can hand-pick the analysts, you can hand-pick the conclusions. The analysts selected would have understood what Director Clapper wanted since he made no secret of his views. Why would they endanger their careers by not delivering?

What should have struck any congressperson or reporter was that the procedure Clapper followed was the same as that used in 2003 to produce the report falsely claiming that Saddam Hussein had retained stocks of weapons of mass destruction. That should be worrisome enough to inspire questions, but that is not the only anomaly.

The National Interest: Jack Matlock: The House That Stalin Built

The National Interest: Jack Matlock: The House That Stalin Built

I saw a show on Book TV on C-SPAN last weekend with Stephen Kotkin who just wrote a book about Joe Stalin perhaps the most evil and worst dictator that at least Russia has ever produced if not in the history of the world. And it was a good show and Kotkin goes into how Stalin built the Soviet State essentially on his own and how he…

L’Occident a commis une erreur en s’ingérant dans le conflit ukrainien

14:50 12/09/2014

Alors que les politiciens européens et américains cherchent de nouvelles sanctions pour “mettre la Russie à genoux et la forcer à oublier l’Ukraine”, les anciens ambassadeurs du Royaume-Uni et des Etats-Unis à Moscou tentent d’expliquer quelles seraient les conséquences d’une telle politique irrationnelle et peu pragmatique pour l’Occident, écrit vendredi le quotidien…

Give Diplomacy With Russia a Chance

Mit Matlock, Pickering und Collins äussern sich in der New York Times drei frühere Botschafter Amerikas in Moskau zur aktuellen Ukraine-Krise. Die aktuell bestehende Situation zwischen USA und Russland beschreiben sie wie folgt: “Relations between the two capitals have descended into attempts by each side to pressure the other, tit-for-tat actions, shrill propaganda statements, and the steady…