CCI Friends,

There seems to be a faint whiff of change in the air … have you noticed? More articles sensing the absurdity of Washington’s Russia policy. The shift is coming from several sides and is loaded with logic and facts unlike even a month ago. Read the following attentively and let us know if you are also picking this up from other sources.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Current Affairs
July 20, 2018

It’s Time For a Little Perspective On Russia

Any Russian interference is only a small part of the “election meddling” we should care about…

by LYLE JEREMY RUBIN

I think we are due for a little perspective on Russia.

I was trained at NSA headquarters as a signals intelligence officer in the Marines. This was about a decade ago, and I was by no means an area specialist. That said, I was privy to relevant briefs. At the time I learned that U.S. cyber operations in Russia, across Russia’s periphery, and around the world already dwarfed Russian operations in size, capability, and frequency. It wasn’t even close, and the expectation was that the gap was about to grow a whole lot wider.

This should hardly come as a surprise. Just compare the defense budgets of the United States and Russia. The president recently signed a gargantuan $700 billion gift to the Pentagon, with marginal dissent from either party or their affiliated media outlets. The budget increase alone ($61 billion) exceeds Russia’s entire annual expenditure ($46). The U.S. military budget now equals more than the combined budgets of China, Russia, Britain, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, and France. As Vice concluded, “it’s 14 times larger than the Kremlin’s budget.”

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truthdig

Norman Solomon

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greet each other ahead of their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP)

Throughout the day before the summit in Helsinki, the lead story on the New York Times home page stayed the same: “Just by Meeting With Trump, Putin Comes Out Ahead.” The Sunday headline was in harmony with the tone of U.S. news coverage overall. As for media commentary, the Washington Post was in the dominant groove as it editorialized that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is “an implacably hostile foreign adversary.”

Contempt for diplomacy with Russia is now extreme. Mainline U.S. journalists and top Democrats often bait President Donald Trump in zero-sum terms. No doubt Hillary Clinton thought she was sending out an applause line in her tweet Sunday night: “Question for President Trump as he meets Putin: Do you know which team you play for?”

A bellicose stance toward Russia has become so routine and widespread that we might not give it a second thought—and that makes it all the more hazardous. After President George W. Bush declared “You’re either with us or against us,” many Americans gradually realized what was wrong with a Manichean view of the world. Such an outlook is even more dangerous today.

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CCI Friends, the evidence is piling up –– trusted U.S. officials from earlier and wiser administrations are speaking out — more Americans are better informed every week — this can reach critical mass if each of us is sending this information out to our friends, business colleagues, family members, neighbors, church/synagogue groups, everyone we know. PLEASE be part of this effort to educate our mainstream friends on these issues. When the mainstream is aware of what has been happening behind their backs, the legitimacy for these campaigns of disinformation, enemy-making, pushing America toward wars, will stop.

All you need to do is copy and paste the below, then send to your contacts.

Thanks for your assistance!

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Consortium News
July 3, 2018

Former US Envoy to Moscow Calls Intelligence Report on Alleged Russian Interference ‘Politically Motivated’

By Jack Matlock

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.

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Dear CCI Friends,

Check out the URL and article below authored by three highly-qualified US-Russia specialists. Tell us whether the Presidential Summit on July 16th makes sense to you or not.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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The Washington Times
July 10, 2018

Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki: The Triumph of Common Sense

By Edward Lozansky, James Jatras and Gilbert Doctorow

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The upcoming Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki is a triumph of common sense over bitterly anti-Russia politics in Washington and some European capitals. Prepared by National Security Advisor John Bolton, the summit is the culmination of President Trump’s efforts to reestablish lines of communication with the world’s other nuclear superpower that Barack Obama foolishly severed following the ideological agenda of the State Department and intelligence agencies.

In addition, the pre-summit visit of a delegation of Republican Members of Congress organized by Ambassador Jon Huntsman opens top-level lines of communication between the two sides and can help establish a minimum of mutual trust that has been missing for the last few years. If the decades of first Cold War taught us anything it was that machines fail, that humans are fallible, and that false attack alerts or misreading the intentions of the other side can easily lead to catastrophe.

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It’s disturbing to see these eight Republican Senators criticized for merely visiting Russia. Isn’t this what they should do as decision makers of whether we go to war or not? Are Democrats now the “war party”? Will every effort to decrease international tension now be criticized and politicized? This cycle started when Trump expressed the desire to improve relations with Russia. It became a political football when the Clinton campaign decided to use Russia as an election issue to cover up its loss against Trump.

According to the Democrats and the Washington Post, there’s nothing positive about this trip, and these Senators now “face scorn and ridicule”. Russian media didn’t help by acting like US cable news. An astonishing lack of good sense all around. I guess people simply don’t understand what is at stake—and it’s not who wins the next election: it’s whether planet earth will survive this push to war between two nuclearized nations. No one seems to comprehend this.

Meanwhile, if accusations are made against Russia without proof (the usual pattern), is Russia not allowed to claim itself not guilty?

Sharon Tennison and Sylvia Demarest
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Washington Post
July 5, 2018

Republicans on Russia trip face scorn and ridicule from critics at home

By Karoun Demirjian

Republican lawmakers who went to Russia seeking a thaw in relations received an icy reception from Democrats and Kremlin watchers for spending the Fourth of July in a country that interfered in the U.S. presidential election and continues to deny it.

“Cannot believe GOP, once the party that stood strong against Soviets & only a decade ago sought to democratize the Middle East, is now surrendering so foolishly to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Kremlin’s kleptocracy — only two years ­after Russia interfered in U.S. election,” tweeted Clint Watts, an information warfare specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and frequent featured expert before congressional panels examining Russian influence operations.

“Russians wooing with a shopworn song — repugnant as nails on a blackboard,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote in a Twitter post in response to the delegation’s trip. “They are enemies and adversaries, attacking us.”

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