The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
The Ron Paul Peace and Prosperity Institute
Subscribe to the Institute View Us on YouTube Follow Us On Twitter Join Us on Facebook Join Us at Google Plus

Search Results

for:

George W. Bush Doesn't Deserve the Media's Efforts at Rehabilitation

Thursday February 15, 2018

undefined

"Our democracy is only as good as people trust the results,” former President George W. Bush declared in a presumably well-paid speech last week in the United Arab Emirates, a notorious Arab dictatorship. Bush is being exalted as if he is the second coming of George Washington thanks to his implied slams against the Trump administration. But Bush’s actions during his eight year reign did far more to ravage democracy at home and abroad than most people realize.
read on...

Christopher Steele: The Real Foreign Influence in the 2016 Election?

Thursday February 15, 2018

undefined

Leaving aside the validity of what has become known as the “Steele dossier,” it’s important to look at how Christopher Steele was able to guarantee that the information in it would play a significant and ongoing role in American politics. 

Steele, who is British, did far more than simply provide opposition research to the Democratic National Committee. He was able to make sure it reached the most influential people possible in politics, media and government to shape and influence the growing narrative of the 2016 presidential election. In other words, as a skilled professional intelligence officer, Steele ran a full-spectrum information operation against the United States. One could even call it information warfare.

This is what separates his work creating the dossier  (which a decent journalist with friends in Russia could have done) from his work insinuating the dossier into the highest reaches of American government and political society. For that, you need a real pro, an intelligence officer with decades of experience running just that kind of operation. Looking for foreign interference in the 2016 election? Let’s take a closer look at Christopher Steele.

Steele’s skill is revealed by the now familiar Nunes and Grassley memos, which show he used the same set of information in the dossier to create a collaboration loop, every intelligence officer’s dream, which is his own planted information used to surreptitiously confirm itself, right up to the point where the target country’s own intelligence service re-purposed it as evidence in the FISA (Foreign Intelligence  Surveillance Act) court.
read on...

When Former Spies Turn into TV 'Experts'

Thursday February 15, 2018

undefined

Once upon a time in the United States there was a general perception that organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were both apolitical and high-minded, existing only to calmly and professionally promote the safety and security of the nation. Directors of both organizations often retired quietly without fanfare to compose their memoirs, but apart from that, they did not meddle in politics and maintained low profiles. There was a widespread belief at CIA that former officers should rightly retire to a log cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains where they could breed Labrador retrievers or cultivate orchids.

But the relative respectability of America’s national security agencies largely vanished in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist incidents. It was learned that both the CIA and FBI had made fatal mistakes in their investigations of the al-Qaeda group, putting in question their effectiveness, and the leaders of both organizations began to focus on pleasing their political masters. The appearance of CIA Director George Tenet at the United Nations supporting lies promoted by Secretary of State Colin Powell was a low point, but there were many more to follow.

The 2016 election brought out the worst in the CIA’s leadership, with its Director John Brennan lining up behind Hillary Clinton together with former Acting Director Michael Morell and former Director Michael Hayden. Morell even claimed that Trump was a Russian agent. Indeed, there has been remarkably little speculation regarding the possible roles of some senior intelligence officials, most notably CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, both of whom were in office during the electoral campaign. In September 2016, the two men reportedly were involved in obtaining information on Page and it has also been suggested that Brennan sought and obtained raw intelligence from British, Polish, Dutch and Estonian intelligence services, which might have motivated FBI’s James Comey to investigate the Trump associates. Brennan and Clapper, drawing on intelligence resources and connections, might have helped the FBI build a fabricated case against Trump.
read on...

Making The Roads Great Again? Trump's Big Gas Tax Proposal

Thursday February 15, 2018

According to press reports, President Trump is open to adding an additional 25 cents of federal tax on top of the existing 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline. This is purportedly going to be used to pay for part of his big infrastructure program. The big tax hike would hit lower income Americans the hardest and would in the end not raise even a fraction of the $1.5 trillion we are told is needed to fix US infrastructure. Murray Sabrin, a US Senate candidate from New Jersey has a better idea: transfer the funds from the bloated military budget and eliminate the gas tax altogether! More in today's Liberty Report...
read on...

Is John Brennan the Mastermind Behind Russiagate?

Wednesday February 14, 2018

undefined

The report (“The Dossier”) that claims that Donald Trump colluded with Russia, was paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.

The company that claims that Russia hacked DNC computer servers, was paid by the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.

The FBI’s counterintelligence probe into Trump’s alleged connections to Russia was launched on the basis of information gathered from a report that was paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.

The surveillance of a Trump campaign member (Carter Page) was approved by a FISA court on the basis of information from a report that was paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.

The Intelligence Community Analysis or ICA was (largely or partially) based on information from a report that was paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign. (more on this below)

The information that was leaked to the media alleging Russia hacking or collusion can be traced back to claims that were made in a report that was paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.
read on...

2019 Military Budget: Pentagon Wins, American Taxpayers Lose

Wednesday February 14, 2018

President Trump has delivered his military budget request for 2019 that increases spending by 12 percent over 2017 spending. Designed to fully fund a "depleted" military, even Defense Secretary Mattis was surprised at the figures. Many more warships, many more F-22s (even though they don't work). Half a billion more dollars to continue the US "regime change" operation in Syria. There's something in it for everybody...except the American people. How this massive spending increase makes us less safe and less free in today's Liberty Report...
read on...

Korea Olympic Charm Offensive - What's The Threat?

Tuesday February 13, 2018

Neocons -- and even a few "libertarians" -- are furious that North Korea is getting some credit for unleashing a "charm offensive" at the Olympic games. Rather than look to a future without crippling sanctions and the threat of nuclear war, they obsess on the lurid details of reported abuses by the North Korean government. But what's the big problem with a "charm offensive"? Isn't it preferable to a military offensive? Tune in to today's Liberty Report...
read on...

If America Wasn’t America, the United States Would Be Bombing It

Tuesday February 13, 2018

undefined

On January 8, 2018, former government advisor Edward Luttwak wrote an opinion piece for Foreign Policy titled “It’s Time to Bomb North Korea.”

Luttwak’s thesis is relatively straightforward. There is a government out there that may very soon acquire nuclear-weapons capabilities, and this country cannot be trusted to responsibly handle such a stockpile. The responsibility to protect the world from a rogue nation cannot be argued with, and we understandably have a duty to ensure the future of humanity.

However, there is one rogue nation that continues to hold the world ransom with its nuclear weapons supply. It is decimating non-compliant states left, right, and center. This country must be stopped dead in its tracks before anyone turns to the issue of North Korea.

In August of 1945, this rogue nation dropped two atomic bombs on civilian targets, not military targets, completely obliterating between 135,000 and 300,000 Japanese civilians in just these two acts alone. Prior to this event, this country killed even more civilians in the infamous firebombing of Tokyo and other areas of Japan, dropping close to 500,000 cylinders of napalm and petroleum jelly on some of Japan’s most densely populated areas.

Recently, historians have become more open to the possibility that dropping the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not actually necessary to end World War II. This has also been confirmed by those who actually took part in it.
read on...

Lifting of US Propaganda Ban Gives New Meaning to Old Song

Monday February 12, 2018

undefined

Though its ostensible purpose is to fund the US military over a one year period, the National Defense Authorization Act, better known as the NDAA, has had numerous provisions tucked into it over the years that have targeted American civil liberties. The most well-known of these include allowing the government to wiretap American citizens without a warrant and, even more disturbingly, indefinitely imprison an American citizen without charge in the name of “national security.”

One of the lesser-known provisions that have snuck their way into the NDAA over the years was a small piece of legislation tacked onto the NDAA for fiscal year 2013, signed into law in that same year by then-President Barack Obama. Named “The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012,” it completely lifted the long-existing ban on the domestic dissemination of US government-produced propaganda.

For decades, the US government had been allowed to produce and disseminate propaganda abroad in order to drum up support for its foreign wars but had been banned from distributing it domestically after the passage of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948. However, the Modernization Act’s co-authors, Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Adam Smith (D-WA, no relation to the Smith of the 1948 act), asserted that removing the domestic ban was necessary in order to combat “al-Qaeda’s and other violent extremists’ influence among populations.”
read on...

Who Is The Aggressor In Syria?

Monday February 12, 2018

It's been a couple of weeks of serious escalation in Syria. First, the US attacked and killed some 100 Syrian government-allied troops for launching an operation against a US-funded rebel force that seeks the overthrow of the Syrian government. Then some US-trained rebels shot down a Russian jet fighter. Then Israel began bombing Syria for the 100th or so time. Then Syria shocked the world and shot down an Israeli F-16. Then Israel dropped some more bombs on Syria for what it said was a violation of its sovereignty. Where does it go from here? And why are we still there? Tune in to today's Liberty Report...
read on...

Subscribe

Authors

Tags