The Trump-Russia Witch-Hunt by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

If you turn on the news, especially MSNBC or CNN, you get only one story: Trump and his associates may have conspired with the Russians to win the election or perhaps something even more terrible.  A trickle of “facts” keep coming in that  shows Trump’s associates DID TALK WITH RUSSIANS.  Oh, my god is what they want you to think.  What did they talk about?

This has been going on since the summer!!!  Almost nothing else has happened in the rest of the world since then, except of course,  Trump’s Immigrant and Refugee Debacles.  Democrats are intent on proving that Trump is not only incompetent but that he is a traitor.  The news has joined the cause with the democrats.

Let me first state that I am Independent, that I supported Bernie and then Gary.  Philosophically I am closely aligned with the democrats on most social and environmental issues and aligned more with Republicans on many monetary issues (except for one).   I have little love for Trump or Hillary.

But, I am an American and I believe it is important to support the President and that we interact with him in a positive and meaningful way.  I believe in giving him the benefit of the doubt and not speculating on what he might of done wrong. I believe in innocent until proven guilty.  I also don’t believe in listening to Trump’s rhetoric on his greatness, let’s see a plan with some meat on the bones and the legislation to support it. I would also like to see some unbiased reporting on the impact of his executive orders.  Of course, I have more concerns about Trump but that is not the subject of this blog.

Aside from bashing Trump, what is the message of the news and the democrats.  The news and the democrats seem to be laying the groundwork for a military war with Russia. They never (seldom) report on the very real threats Russia feels as we tightened the noose around their country with anti ballistic missiles.   If we can shoot down Russian missiles, even some of them, it destroys the balance of power between the U.S. and Russia.  Of course, to our media the Russians are the bad guys and there is no justification for their fears or actions.  That is not to say Putin is a good guy.

So, where is this all leading.  Trump just asked for $55 billion additional funding for the military.  And here is the saddest part.  It is not cool to stand against military spending, it is un-American.  A few like Rand Paul will step up and say they want a balanced budget, but there will be no outcry from the democrats and media similar to this Trump-Russia witch-hunt.  

So, as Americans we have lots of challenges ahead of us:  a decaying infrastructure, a medical system that is expensive and ineffective as Americans become sicker, big cities with lots of inner-city violence, social programs that are not sustainable, trade imbalances, soaring personal and government debt, etc.  And are the democrats and the media discussing the merits of the pending legislation of the Republicans or seeking to join hands with them in addressing these challenges?  Of course not.  And we have come to accept this as just the way it is.  These are tough challenges and the democrats are copping out behind rhetoric, see an example with Obamacare.

Instead of addressing these challenges and encouraging meaningful discussion, the democrats and the media are instead pushing us toward a renewed cold war with Russia, and perhaps a ground war in Ukraine.  The big winner as usual will be the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and the big loser will be the American people.  Don't confuse my distrust of the Democratic intentions with my acceptance of the Republican agenda. 

Both sides and the media need to step up to the plate and address the problems this nation is wallowing in.

Stalemate in Congress Continues: Americans Lose

Congress is at it again.  Trump brags he is going to make America great while signing executive orders attacking immigrants, refugees, and the environment.  Meanwhile the democrats are fixated on the Trump-Russia connection.  If that card is not an ace, then they have nothing.

What is the first quagmire?  Obamacare, of course.

Republicans have committed to repeal and recently to repeal and replace.

Democrats are committed to improving Obamacare.

Both now agree on “pre-existing conditions” although they don’t agree on how that will be funded.  Obama resorted to a mandate for everyone to get insurance or pay a tax.  Republicans will push for higher copays and put pressure on the states to fund the gap between what poor people can afford and what healthcare costs. Republicans will drop mandates that forces insurance companies to offer policies that meet minimum standards.   

Republicans will allow cross state competition in hopes that this will decrease insurance rates for healthcare.  Republicans will also lower the amount of medicaid that it sends the states and expect them to make up the difference.

So, much of these changes posed by the Republicans could be considered improvements to Obamacare that the Democrats would reluctantly accept.  A few would vote yes to these changes to balance out the no-votes from Republicans. However, Republicans will say they are repealing Obamacare and replacing it.  In reality, they will be copying most of Obamacare and making some changes to make it more affordable and/or competitive.

Democrats would accept the changes if they are called “improving Obamacare” but not if it is called repealing Obamacare and replacing it.  

The end product would be the same whether it is called “repeal and replace Obamacare” or if it called “improving Obamacare”.  Republicans will support the first, but not the second, and visa-versa for the Democrats.  Neither will have enough votes by themselves to get it passed.  Stalemate.

Who loses?  Americans, as usual. Both parties are broken, but Americans keep supporting these non-functional parties.

How Will Our Grandchildren Judge Our Country

Generations from now what will cause our children to weep?  What about the way we are managing our world, our resources, will cause our future children grief?  What are our priorities?

I do not think their grief will come from poor economic recovery in the U.S. or because we lost billions from not putting in a new pipeline.  I don’t there will be grief even if our economy didn’t produce enough jobs and instead we shared the wealth among all.  I can’t imagine our children’s children will care if we became more strict on fracking or shut down some coal mines.

But, I think they will cry when they realize the last lion is gone, the last tiger and elephant can only be seen in a zoo.  Imagine the tears when the last few polar bears are endangered.  I think at this point our children should hate us,  I would, perhaps I already do.

Will our children care if we beat Mexico out of a few dollars of trade?  Or will they care more if we form a strong relationship with Mexico and together we care for our drug addicts?  Will our children care if we have the strongest military if we still must use it full time to maintain world order.  Would they rather us lead the world in values, education, and caring about the world we live in?  

Will our children feel great if we stop all terrorism on our shores and let thousands of Syrian children die?  Or their parents?  Will they be proud of turning out back on those that fought alongside of us in Iraq?

Will they cheer that we have the most effective nuclear weapons and we fail to disarm the world that one day burns from a nuclear holocaust?

To my future children … I have shed many tears about how we are treating this planet, its life forms and our fellow humans. I know you will find it hard to understand how a country spending trillions making war let our people die in the streets cold and hungry and how we let many suffer without medical care.  How we treat addicts as criminals instead of humans that are struggling and need help.  I can not imagine you will judge us well.  I understand it is sad that we have done so little to form the values we need to rise above our pettiness and greed.  Forgive us, we were not ready for the wealth we have received or our place of leadership that was bestowed upon us.

Roe, 1/29/17  

 

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The Saudi Role on September 11 by Lawrence Davidson

Interesting how topics like the ones addressed here, the Saudi role in the 9/11/2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Israeli role in the 6/8/1967 attack on the USS Liberty can be made to disappear down George Orwell's 'memory hole' without anything approaching accountability. Apparently, this is because those most responsible for protecting America's national interest decided in these two cases that holding those responsible accountable would not be in their best interest.   Donald Johnson 

The Saudi Role on September 11

By Lawrence Davidson

On 27 November 2002 a bipartisan commission was established by Congress to investigate the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. By the time the commission was created, President George W. Bush had characterized the attacks as “acts of war,” adding that “freedom and democracy are under attack.” It was therefore to be expected that anyone who was actually, or even imagined to be, involved in these attacks was going to be labeled as an enemy. 

However, when on 22 July 2004, after two years of investigation, the 9/11 Commission’s report was released, something was missing. Twenty-eight pages had been withheld from publication. These pages specifically discussed the connections between the 9/11 hijackers and individuals working in the U.S. for the government of Saudi Arabia. The withholding from publication of these specific pages was apparently ordered by the same George W. Bush who was ostensibly willing to confront anyone who would, in his worldview, threaten the U.S. – “Bring ’em on!” 

For the next 12 years, that is, between July 2004 and July 2016, the 28 pages remained “classified” and therefore unavailable to the public or the press. They were available to members of Congress if they would travel to a “secure location,” one person at a time, to read the document. They could take no notes nor reveal to anyone what they learned. 

So what was going on here? According to Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), a long term advocate of declassifying the pages, what all these years of suppression came to was a “carefully orchestrated campaign to protect our Saudi “‘friends,’” from the public revelation of “ample evidence of Saudi Arabia’s intimate ties to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks.” If Graham is correct, Saudi Arabia received a free pass despite being involved in acts of war against the United States. 

Part II – Leverage 

How was this possible? Well, consider the following: there exists a long-standing commercial relationship and personal friendship between the Bush family and the Saudi royal family. Even more important, Saudi Arabia has long managed the oil market to keep prices in the West at affordable levels. Presently, the Saudis have hundreds of billions of dollars invested, in various ways, in the United States (the exact figure is kept secret).These include stocks, bonds, real estate and currency holdings. And finally, Saudi Arabia is the top purchaser of US weapons, periodically buying as much as $60 billion worth of armaments at a time from U.S. defense contractors. 

This puts Saudi Arabia in a very strong economic position in relation to the United States. Consider the hypothetical consequences of a rapid withdrawal of Saudi funds from the U.S. At the very least this would send the stock market into a tailspin. The U.S. would be forced to freeze Saudi assets, and not only the American and Saudi economies would suffer, but the world economy as well. 

The Saudis have been known to assert what can only be called economic blackmail against the U.S. government to hide embarrassing facts about themselves, including their dealings with terrorist groups ranging from off-shoots of al-Qaeda to ISIS. They can and do argue that if Saudi agents do at times act against U.S. interests, even to the point of aiding terrorists, they do so as rogue agents and not under the authority the central government. The problem is that, just like America’s “rogue” agents, they never seem to suffer punishment. 

Part III – Lobby Power 

The government of Saudi Arabia has gathered together in Washington, D.C., a broad coalition of lawyers, public relations firms, and ex-diplomats-turned-lobbyists that collectively function as a Saudi special interest group. 

It is through the leverage applied by this lobby that the 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission report stayed below the radar for for 12 years. This happened even while the official Saudi line was that that country had nothing to hide and would welcome the publication of the pages. Finally, Barack Obama, drawing near to the end of his presidency, decided to declassify the document. It is possible that he and his advisers, in consultation with the Saudis, had come to the conclusion that after all these years, the U.S.-Saudi relationship could weather any belated disturbance that might result. 

Thus, on 15 July 2016 the 28 pages were made public. Now anyone can read them. Or can they? Many of the sites at which they were initially posted are strangely going blank. 

For all the good it might now do, it turns out that Senator Bob Graham was right. At least two Saudi individuals (Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Basnan) working for the Saudi government possibly as “intelligence agents” gave financial aid and other assistance (including identifying flight schools) to at least two of the hijackers soon after they arrived in the U.S. Al-Bayoumi is the prime conduit here. The amount of money he was receiving from the Saudi government went up substantially the same month he began aiding the hijackers and then was reduced by the same amount once he and the hijackers parted company. Al-Bayoumi left the U.S. one month prior to the 9/11 attacks. A full reading of the 28 pages indicates that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. 

The Saudi government has put out a reply to the release of the 28 pages. It declares that since 2002, U.S. government agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, have investigated the allegations and established that no one “acting on behalf of the Saudi government provided any support or encouragement for these attacks.” 

This statement is Riyadh's effort to obfuscate matters. It goes hand-in-hand with the weak response of CIA Director Brennan, who has said that the recently declassified allegations have not been “vetted” (established as true or false) and fail to prove that the Saudi government “as an institution” was involved in 9/11. There are troubling contradictions here. If, as the Saudis say, a thorough investigation of the allegations has been carried out, what is with Brennan’s claim that the information in the 28 pages has not been “vetted”? If the CIA and the FBI have not vetted the allegations, despite having 14 years to do so, how can Brennan so readily exonerate Saudi Arabia? Only the gullible, the ignorant, or the indifferent would see this as adequate. 

Part IV – Allies Who Wage War on the U.S. 

The Saudis are not the only “ally” that has committed acts of war against the United States and then, with the help of lobby power, got the actions covered up. 

The other, equivalent miscreant is Israel, which in recent years has rendered assistance to al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Perhaps more significantly, on 8 June 1967 Israeli forces knowingly attacked the U.S. Intelligence ship Liberty ostensibly because it had picked up information of a pending unprovoked Israeli attack on Syria’s Golan Heights. The resulting combined sea and air attack on the Liberty killed 31 Americans and wounded 171. In this incident the Bush family’s role as protector of a foreign enemy was played by President Lyndon Johnson. He was a great admirer of the Israelis, whom he likened to the early U.S. settlers of his native Texas. This admiration was so great that he actually ordered the rescue flight of U.S. military jets coming to the aid of the wounded ship to turn around and return to base. Even though numerous naval officials were never satisfied with the Israeli explanation (it was all a mistake) or the obviously superficial investigations carried on by both sides, much of the vital material remains classified and Congress refuses to revisit what was, after all, an act of war.

As I have said many times, the United States is not a democracy of individual citizens. It is a nation of competing interest groups – including foreign ones who have hired themselves Washington lobbies. It is also clear that powerful interest groups can, quite literally, get away with murder. How is this in the American national interest? Those of you reading this who are American citizens might put the question to your congressional representatives and senators. Let me know if you happen to get a serious response.

Lawrence Davidson is a retired professor of history from West Chester University in West Chester PA. His academic research focused on the history of American foreign relations with the Middle East. He taught courses in Middle East history, the history of science and modern European intellectual history.

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