The Effect of the US Intelligence Leaks

via a survey from MoonOfAlabama, an anectote from Ray McGovern and an introduction from Yanis Varoufakis

[Image: McGovern joins Diesen and Mercouris on The Duran.]

Published 2023-04-26

Updated 2023-04-27: Since initial publication many sources have been added, including one which offers a contrary position. The large volume of additional sources is due to the article being very early in embracing the view put forward by the MoonOfAlabama article, namely that the CFR wants the USA regime to pull out and Politico and the NYT are running damage control. Also some updates on the Ukraine conflict has been added from Col. Macgregor, Military Summary (Dima) and The New Atlas (Brian Berletic).

Update 2023-04-28: An update section based on an article from MoonOfAlabama has been appended.

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Apologies up front, dear readers. This is about 4 5 000 words. Sometimes with important events converge there is quite a lot to be said.

Introduction

At a DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025) video meeting Yanis Varoufakis introduces the event with an informative monologue examining the political state of affairs in Europe after the 75% destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, the War in Ukraine and the recent visit to China by Macron and van der Crazy (to borrow a term from Alex Christoforou). He provides macro-economic analysis because, as he says, being an economist is one of his flaws. He also takes the term of vassal used by Macron and issues a "close but no banana". Europe is actually worse off than the next down the ladder, the serf.

Ray McGovern draws from his vast memory of key moments in USA's history an anecdote about two leaks related to the Vietnam War which led to Lydon Baines Johnson (LBJ) announcing that he will not run in the next election, which is a precursor to the end of the Vietnam War and the first "Saigon moment" which we recently saw repeated in Kabul under Biden's watch. The recent US intel leaks provide another echo too.

Lastly, b. from MoonOfAlabama provides us a survey of two articles, one from Politico and the other from the New York Times, which signal the coming USA withdrawal from Ukraine as advised by the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR). Interestingly, the CFR is the USA offshoot of The Royal Institute of International Affairs, a datum not commonly known in the USA or the “west” in general.

An Historic Parallel

Firstly, be warned that when you hear Ray McGovern preface his remarks with "very briefly" you're about to hear something interesting and usually important too, and it sure as hell wont be brief. During his interview on The Duran (see Sources) he relates the story of two leaks which lead to LBJ's scaling back or at least not expanding the Vietnam war and his exit from presidential politics. The very brief response is over 10 and a half minutes long.

(Note: if you listen to the video beware that Ray is getting on a bit and sometimes gets his years out. When he says 1997, he means 1967. Do not let these little slips cause you to ignore this wise old man.)

The anecdote begins with McGovern relating that Sam Adams, after whom Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity have named their annual award for integrity this year awarded to Dan Ellsberg, performed an estimate of enemy numbers of between 500 and 600 thousand in Vietnam. The military brass couldn’t handle this because they'd been projecting the lie of success in the war. To achieve the desired success General Westmoreland wanted another 206 000 troops which Ray described would be used to attack North Vietnam via Cambodia and Laos taking the war to China's border. A pentagon official saw the danger in expanding the war and leaked Westmoreland's request to the New York Times on March 10th 1968 a month after the frightening Tet Offensive. On the 19th of March, Dan Ellsberg released his first leak, which included Sam Adams’ accurate enemy troop numbers. On the 25th of March LBJ confided to a small group of observers that he would have provided Westmoreland with the 206 000 men but the leaks made this politically impossible. Six days later he appears on national television and announces that he will not seek nomination for the next presidential election.

It was only after his death in 2019 that the public learnt that Leslie Gelb, who was "number 3 in the Defence Department at the time" provided the intial leak of the number of troops requested by Westmoreland. Gelb continued to be in excellent favour with the USA's power establishement becoming the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and finally emeritus. McGovern then relates the amusing irony that McNamara instructed Gelb to put together the Pentagon Papers which Ellsberg would leak three years later.

The summary here is that three key leaks undermined any expansion of the American war (as the Vietnamese rightly refer to it) and with civil protests brought an end to this second failed USA foreign war (with Korea being the first). The cynical would describe the Korean war as a success for the USA established its military foothold in South Korea. The leaks were from the Pentagon (Gelb) and a Pentagon contractor (Ellsberg) who was working for RAND Corporation, both insiders, and changed USA foreign policy.

[Image: a NYT headline.]

A Hint of a Change in Policy

The MoonOfAlabama article by b. describes a foreshadowing of a political change in USA support for the Ukraine conflict. The Politico article cites the challenge of continuing financial commitments due to Republican control of the House of Representatives. Personally I think this is hogwash. Taking a principled position against the USA's Military Industrial Complex is, sadly, close to political suicide in the USA.

Politico does quote Richard Haass, the current President of the Council on Foreign Relations, the USA's top foreign policy "advisory board" composed of the people who really matter; representatives of the extremely wealthy and the bankers and the very well politically connected. Haas warns:

If Ukraine can’t gain dramatically on the battlefield, the question inevitably arises as to whether it is time for a negotiated stop to the fighting

and

It’s expensive, we’re running low on munitions, we’ve got other contingencies around the world to prepare for.

and

It’s legitimate to ask all these questions without compromising Ukraine’s goals. It’s simply a question of means,

There is no clearer signal that the CFR wants this war scaled back so as to prepare for the next idiocy which seems to be generating a war with China.

Of some interest is that Politico and the NYT are declaring the current state of affairs, which means that they have been permitted to do so. When the Ukrainians fail to achieve any lasting result due to the much vaunted Spring Offensive the war will become a political loadstone around the Biden camp's neck during the upcoming presidential campaigns. If, as some commentators predict, the Ukrainians get the shit kicked out of them, again, this represents a serious military defeat for the USA/NATO which will have political consequences. There can be very little more re-supply because the USA needs to save what it has for the next crazy plan, and equivalently any output by the currently strapped western military contractors need to be retained for that purpose. So, no more weapons for Ukraine.

Russia’s analysts will have read all of the above, including the suggestion for negotiations. Let’s pontificate on their response.

Firstly, they are winning the war. They already knew that the west has already scraped the bottom of the barrel for resupply; the CFR statements are just a confirmation. Indeed, the recent visit by Xi to Moscow and then that of the Chinese defense minister, going directly to the Kremlin to meet with Putin, shows that Russia already understood what is coming and has begun military technology transfers to China to aid their partner. Russia will stick with her SMO objectives of demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, and the recovery of the entire territories of the Lugansk and Donetsk oblasts. They are never going to give up either Crimea or the left bank of the Dniper in Zaporozhye or Kherson. They will use the referenda for justification. From there compromise is possible, so long as whatever is left of Ukraine places in its constitution a clause defining itself as neutral, and the Nazis are irradicated. The west can talk ceasefires all they want. It aint gonna happen until these outcomes are achieved. Recall, Russia is winning and sees no reason whatsoever to compromise on these objectives. Russia is also prepared to fight this war of attrition for years and years. This is acknowledged by many, including a recent RAND corp.’s assessment which warned the USA not to get bogged down in a long term war.

The spectacle of a USA presidential election begins about 15 months before the actual vote with their uniparty primary races. The two halves of the uniparty exclude all other parties from media coverage, usually with help from the media, and also from access to the ballot. If you would like to know more about that go and talk to USA Green Party candidates Dr. Jill Stein or Howie Hawkins, or for the upcoming race whoever the Peoples Party nominate. [Update: or RFK Jr.]

So, it all looks exactly as President Putin has remarked, USA foreign policy is rooted in domestic policy, and the war in Ukraine has become a poisoned chalice. Similarly, the CFR after no doubt having warned Blinkenlights, Sullied-van and Vixen Nuland that the gig is up, have then made their public pronouncement that the party is over. This signals that the power players, including the Military Industrial Complex, believe they have achieved all that was possible and there are bigger fish to fry. It may also signal that they don't have a preferable Democratic (or Republican) candidate for the next presidental cycle than the ever malleable Sleepy Joe.

The Leaks

Nomenclature by others for the recent leaks have moved from none to "Discord Leaks" to "Pentagon Papers", to recycle an old term. That last one is interesting as it hints at a source and an event which may be a hint of origin and purpose too. I'm gonna stick with my own label Spring-Offensive-Gate coz it happened in spring and the whole damn thing is generally about how offensive the USA government is in its lying to its citizenry. And, if these were targeted leaks, the purpose was to use the upcoming failure of the "Spring Offensive" to achieve a change in policy.

This newsletter and other commentators have offered two possible scenarios to explain the posting to the initial Discord server by Teixeira of classified information. The first is a combintion of hubris and stupidity by Teixera with incompetance by the USA's counter intelligence people. The second is that he was fed this information to create a patsy to allow the later leaking of far more damaging information. As is often the case, a combination of the two is quite possible. Recall, we still have no idea who initiated the initial cross posting out of the first Discord server, and that is the key question.

The recent podcast and article by John Helmer mentions the psychological analysis which is performed by the Pentagon and other agencies on those who have access to classified information in their SCIFs (facilities for accessing sensitive, classified information). The suggestion here is that Teixeira may have displayed behaviour which signaled that he may well be able to be psychologically susceptible to being manipulated into a patsy.

We have also recently heard that the leaking (limited release of classified infomration) was happening not just back in December but all the way back to February 2022. If true, this provides a long window in which Teixeira could have been identified and then cultivated.

This author maintains that multiple explanations are possible. That which does seem very likely is that the really sensitive information was partially provided to Teixeira and also leaked to news agencies and/or inserted into the data stream. In the end, it doesn't really matter. We wont get any more detailed information until the trial begins over a year from now when nobody will care anymore. The full details will come out, maybe, when whoever coordinated this provides a deathbed confession in who knows how many decades.

But, the effect is the same. The leaks have served a purpose similar to that outlined in McGovern's anecdote. A change in policy has been achieved by the "illegal" release of internal classified documents, whether wittingly or unwittingly, to borrow a phrase from James "least untruthful" Clapper.

[Image: Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economics and founding member of DiEM25.]

The Aftermath or Taking Stock

If the change of policy is to be smoothly achieved, only a small window of outrage shall be allowed before the news machinery is co-opted to drive some "more important" narrative which moves away from the absolutely disasterous Ukraine adventure. We'll find out what that is in a month or two. It will last for just a while until we get into the presidential silly season.

So, lets take stock now.

In 2014 the USA runs the "most blatant coup in history", according to Stratfor, against the most corrupt government in Europe, according to everyone in Europe. The muscle for this are a bunch of west Ukrainian Nazi's who the CIA have been staying in touch with since the 1950s. The chaos during the Maidan protests was kicked off by a few (two have confessed to receiving 5 000 USD for this, if my memory serves) snipers shooting both police and protesters. The thugs then occupy government buildings and the government is replaced by those chosen by Vixen Nuland.

The new unelected, selected government incorporates the Nazi's and begins a civil war against the Russian ethnic and speaking peoples of the Donbas under the name of an “Anti-Terrorist Operation”. The upcoming brutality of this was graphically highlighted by the burning alive of 48 protesters in the Trades Union Building in Odessa.

Russia (using the 20 000 strong garrison of their Naval port in Sevastopol) assists the people of Crimea to kick out Ukrainian security forces in a bloodless annexation. The people of Crimea (over 90%) are very happy to return to the bosom of Russia, so Russia retains control of its only warm water port (not including the base at Tartus in Syria).

During the early years of the Ukrainian civil war the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) receives a mandate for observing the conflict in association with the Minsk Accords. Western media report on the "neo-Nazis" (there's nothing neo about them). Ukraine resists all (lack of) effort by Germany and France to implement the Accords and western media stop talking about the Nazis. We later learn from both of the French and German leaders of the time that they never intended to implement the Minsk Accords, which means the USA never meant for that either. The purpose of the accords was to create the time to arm and train the Ukrainian military.

Finally, Russia comes to the aid of the self declared republics of the DPR and LPR, announces the SMO and invades other Ukrainian oblasts for logistics support, to secure fresh water resources for Crimea and to scare the hell out of Ukraine to achieve a rapid political settlement. The USA sends its faithful servent Boris the clown Johnson to Kiev to scuttle any peace negotiations. After BoJo’s visit the war we now see gets properly under way evolving into a conflict which Russia has armed itself and trained itself to win for decades; an artillery war of attrition on the steppes. Are there any other Russian strengths you want to play to after betraying them and threatening a genocide in Donba (as observed by the OSCE)?

USA Secretary of Defense Austin declares the purpose of USA supporting Ukraine is to "weaken Russia", which fits hand in glove with arming and training the Ukraine military to “NATO standard”. Sleepy Joe Biden also lets slip the real objective which is regime change in Russia which most people know is about carving Russia up into smaller states which can more easily be controlled and exploited. To achieve this hoped for outcome European serf states are required to commit economic hari-kari by imposing now 11 sanctions packages against Russia while the USA with Norweigan assistance blows up the Nord Stream pipelines undermining their industry and causing even more inflation because energy costs hit all sectors of an economy.

Meanwhile over 100 000 Ukrainian soldiers die to Russia artillery with at least 200 000 more begin severly injured. Around 10 million Ukrainians have migrated to Europe or Russia. These are the real casualties for Ukraine.

As an aside, one would hope that the Europeans have learned about this refugee problem which is created by NATO supporting USA foreign wars. They’re at three out of three now with Libya, Syria and Ukraine amounting to well in excess of 10 million refugees arriving Europe.

The Ukrainian economy has been smashed into little pieces and somebody is going to need to pay to re-establish a functioning society there else it becomes a hotbed for radicals and other problems which means more refugee flows and security threats. Where this money comes from and how effectively it is spent will be a very interesting topic to keep an eye on years from now when the fighting ends.

The USA's Military Industrial Complex have made a killing (sorry for the tasteless pun). Various corrupt officials from the Biden family through Zelensky and 34 Ukrainian "Generals" not to mention other Ukrainian oligarchs such as Kolomoisky have also siphoned off the slush funds flowing into the country out of the pockets of USA and EU tax payers.

Russia's military have had a very nice workout, thank you very much. The formation of the Wagner group was to provide assistance to LPR+DPR during the civil war as direct Russian military assistance would have been illegal (Putin is a lawyer, lets not forget that). Since the Special Military Operation another 380 000 troops have been added to Russia's military, most of whom are surely now trained and some of whom will have been rotated into and out of the front lines in former Ukrainian but now Russian territory which will have provided them with the only thing better than training -- experience.

To boot, Russia has had the opportunity to try out and demostrate the effectiveness of its hypersonic missile technology which the west is still struggling to develop. Again, the only thing better for weapons manufacturers than test firings is actually using their products in battle. And, boy-o have they ticked all the boxes. A case in point is the attack on a command bunker in western Ukraine which nobody is officially talking about (Russia or the USA or the MSM) but supposedly killed around 150 NATO commanders from the precision impact of two Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. If you think that is speculative, then take the earlier destruction of the foreign mercenary NATO training base near Lviv or the old Russia ammunition storage bunker in southwestern Ukraine.

Actually, the difference in military technology is stark. Russian missile defense systems have proven very effective, though not perfect. Their passive and active detection of enemy missile batteries and artillery and anti-missile defense systems have proven effective. The same is true of the tactics which they have employed against these threats. Russia is streaks ahead in the world's offensive missiles and missile defence systems and everybody knows this.

The rest of (or most of) the world said "no thanks" to the USA/EU/NATO calls for sanctions on Russia. China and Russia's special relationship has grown from strength to strength with the SCO and BRICS growing and now exerting pressure on the core of USA dominance, its currency, via a process known as de-dollarization, and its financial systems by creating replacements for SWIFT and credit card processers like Visa and MasterCard. The IMF and World Bank now have to compete with Chinese equivalents, namely the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Banks (aka the BRICS Bank).

NATO is happy to welcome two new members, Sweden and Finland. They are, frankly, idiots for this choice. NATO has no effective political purpose. It has yet to fight a defensive war. It has lost, with the exception of Libya which was a debacle anyway and the war in the Balkans which was illegal, every war it has fought. NATO is purely a marketplace for western arms manufacturers, and you don’t even get a discount.

So, who are the losers following the Ukrainian coup in 2014, the civil war and the Special Military Operation to date? Obviously, Ukraine is the biggest loser as predicted by Professor Mearsheimer in 2014. Next would be Europe and especially Germany who have lost access to the cheap Russian energy which fueled their industry some of which has been lured to the USA by the Act which is supposed to counter inflation which is partially caused by the USA itself. The USA has lost too. How this plays out will become clearer over time. It certainly has lost political influence. Whether this extends into significant financial loses is as yet unclear.

Has Russia lost? Yes, in the short term. The economic sanctions caused a downturn, but they recovered quickly from that, to everyone’s surprise. The land Russia has aquired is some of the most developed and richest within the former borders of Ukraine, though Russia is going to need to fund its repair which they have already begun in Mariupol and other places. Russia has also gained much, particularly in its new diversified export markets and its relationships with other nations via BRICS, the SCO and the EAEU.

Where to From Here?

[If your eyes are getting tired, pull out here. Below is a summary of the state of international affairs and a little hand waving. Or, you could just skip to the relatively short Update below.]

Crystal balls are notoriously unreliable, but some general trends might be foreseeable. Yanis Varoufakis' introduction to the DiEM25 meeting provides a useful summary of where Europe finds itself.

The coming winter in Europe may actually be cold, as opposed to the previous which was mild. Europe must begin restocking its energy supplies immediately to prepare for that, and this will cost at least twice as much as previously. Rising inflation is causing political unrest, and this is on top of the farmers protests seen last summer. Just wait for the summer about to arrive. The French are again in the streets, this time not over rises in fuel prices (the Yellow Vests) but because of Macron's heavy handed attempt to extend the retirement age from 62 to 64. The French fought for that retirement age and are likely to fight to retain it as Macron attempts to create some legacy to fan his ego.

NATO is also fracturing with Turkey playing its usual geopolitical maneuvres and now other NATO nations applying sanctions on NATO member Hungary, while the Polish role out their yearning for a return to a 400 years old state of affairs, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. If the USA want the war in Ukraine to continue, after the Ukrainians lose in any “Spring Offensive” there really is only one option, and that is to allow Poland to “come to the aid” of Ukraine. This is an extremely dangerous possibility. This is how “world wars” start.

The declining USA is in a spot of bother both internally and with its waning geopolitical influence. Their signaled intent to generate a war with China over Taiwan is a non-starter from the perspective of the Pentagon, but money can be made by the MIC by supplying weapons to Taiwan which is all fine and dandy. Every single war-game that the Pentagon has run simulating a war with China ends up being called off because it devolves into a nuclear conflict, or it ends up with Taiwan being virtually destroyed, or both.

The recent unrest in Sudan highlights the "great game" which is happening in Africa. African nations’ attitudes are changing with the emergence of the BRICS and SCO blocks, an alternative to the colonial west. Their embrace of, or at least interest in this change has been demonstrated by their welcome of visits by one of the world's best diplomats, Russia's Lavrov. They have also welcomed visits by Chinese officials. Blinkenlights has only been tolerated.

South America seems to be returning to a type of Pink Tide with Lula back in power in Brazil, Maduro and the Chavistas still in power in Venezuela and Petro in charge in Bolivia. Fernández in Argentina is courting joining BRICS, AMLO is running center left policies in Mexico and the Sandanistas are still in power in Nicaragua. Cuba maintains its existence despite the 60 odd years of economic blockade which the entire U.N. General Assembly vote against year after year with the exception of the USA and Israel. In protest of this continued USA beligerence AMLO and various other Latin American and Caribbean leaders told the USA to go take a hike by declining to attend the "Summit of the Americas" held by the USA in California a few months back.

The SCO has expanded to include most of Asia, though we can expect foreign fueled (i.e CIA+MI6+Mossad) trouble in Asia across any of the existing zones of discontent from Kashmir to Beluchistan to northern Afghanistan to Nagorno-Karabakh. There are, sadly, many hotspots for the west to heat up further. This was recently seen in Georgia with foreign organised protests against a local equivalent of the USA’s Foreign Agent Registration Act. Oh, the hypocrisy.

The Middle East (or West Asia) has recently rejected USA's diplomacy of chaos and accepted a more peaceful path negotiated by Russia and China. The rapproachment of Iran and Saudi Arabia was a very surprising development. Only one Gulf State stands against inviting Syria back into the Arab League, and they're likely to pay a price (or receive a bribe) for that (to facilitate the re-entry). This will leave the US presence in north eastern Syria and north western Iraq without much political support, creating another potential loadstone for Sleepy Joe.

In southeast Asia and Australasia the ball is murky. Australia's abandoning of the French submarine deal to join AUKUS and give the contract to the USA+UK is mingbogglingly stupid as it both creates more targets in Australia if a war with China breaks out, weakens its defence and angers its major trading partner. Malaysia has been signaling an interest in the BRI project which has already connected with Laos and will soon extend into Thailand. Indonesia has been playing a careful hand having perhaps learned quite a bit from the Indians. Burma has its usual troubles with changing influences over its military government. How ASEAN plays its role for international dialogue may prove very interesting.

The wild cards are South Korea, Japan and the Philippines. Again China's influence is strong due to trade. Japan has the usual trouble of far too many USA military bases and an ongoing tussle with Russia over the island chain to the north of their northernmost major island. Japan has, however, maintained their energy trade with Russia. The wealthy and intelligent South Koreans have a similar problem to Japan with too many USA military bases and China as a major trading partner. They are currently mightily pissed off with the USA for leaking the artillery shell supply to Ukraine via either Poland or the USA to the media. One expects that they will play a careful non-provocative role. The Philippines has recently accepted four new USA bases which are rather small coast-guard type installations. They are, however, very difficult to get rid of and tend to expand. The political situation is also rather fluid across the quite varied populations of the islands, as seen recently by the shift from Rodrigo Duterte to son of former corrupt dictator Marcos.

So, who knows? One thing is certain, the world is changing and it is changing much more rapidly than many an analyst expected.

Update

MoonOfAlabama’s b. has published a very interesting article. Recall that China issued a framework for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. Although described as a “peace plan” in western media, b. describes the publication more accurately as a collection “of things that will need to be understood and done to come to a sustainable solution of the crisis.”

The article quotes Yahoo! News regarding the recent 90 minute conversation between the Chinese and Ukrainian presidents Xi and Zelenskyy in which several very interesting points are made, the most eye-catching of which is that the Chinese readout of the call declares that Zelenskyy initiated the call.

The MoonOfAlabama article describes China’s approach to achieving a solution. It follows the exact model which Russia and China recently used to achieve rapproachment between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Russia used to begin the ongoing efforts to achieve a rapproachment between Turkey, Syria and Iran. The model is that phase 1 is to engage each party privately, in confidence, and seek to understand their grievances and areas where compromise may be achieved. From there, with permission from each side, the other can be approached to sound out areas for agreement, trading potential compromises.

China has begun the process by appointing a special envoy to Ukraine who will also engage with other, especially European, parties:

China will send the Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs to Ukraine and other countries to have in-depth communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.

This quote is from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

So, not only do we have leaks from US military and intelligence declaring that Ukraine is in no position to run any successful counter-offensive, but we also have Ukraine initiating diplomatic discussions with China to find a way out of this conflict. China’s response is to appoint a senior diplomat, Lu Liu, who no doubt has a very capable secretariat behind him.

The war mongering elements of the USA executive must be livid, while any who may have had a hand in leaking some of the classified documents will be breathing a sigh of relief.

M. K. Bhadrakumar has also published a heavily referenced and informed analysis synthesizing the leaks and recent call by Zelenskyy to Xi.

Sources for this Update

Ukraine Peace Talks - A Grown Up Is Taking Charge, b., MoonOfAlabama, 2023-04-27

China shifts gear on Ukraine mediation, M. K. Bhadrakumar, Indianpunchline, 2023-04-27

The Roundtable #56: Tarik Cyril Amar, Alexander Mercouris, Gonzalo Lira hosts Amar and Mercouris, The Roundtable -- Gonzalo Lira, 2023-04-27

Sources

Biden Prepares To Give Up On Ukraine, b., MoonOfAlabama, 2023-04-25

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Europe’s Fate, Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News, 2023-05-03 (this souce post date’s the article, but is added for Lawrence’s analysis of the comments made by Yanis Varoufakis which are core to the article)

Biden’s team fears the aftermath of a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive, Jonathan Lemire and Alexander Ward, Politico, 2023-04-24

• 18+ snapshots

Ukraine’s Spring Offensive Comes With Immense Stakes for Future of the War, Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, Adam Entous and Thomas Gibbons-Neff, New York Times, 2023-04-24

• 16+ snapshots

UKRAINE’S PROMISED COUNTER OFFENSIVE DESTINED FOR ABJECT FAILURE, Larry Johnson, his website, 2023-04-25

Who gains from a forever war in Ukraine?, M. K. Bhadrakumar, his website, 2023-04-26

• This opinion is included as M.K.B is a very good political analyst (he's a former India diplomat) and states that there is zero possibility of the Biden administration withdrawing from the Ukraine conflict. I disagree, obviously, but providing differing views from intelligent people is one of the missions of this newsletter. The rest of his article is excellent analysis.

James Clapper’s ‘least untruthful’ statement to the Senate, Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2013-06-12

Mearsheimer Told Us So — In 2014, Rod Dreher, The American Conservative, 2022-02-24

William Westmoreland, staff/no by-line, History.com, updated 2019-05-29

"Power Rules", a review of Leslie Gelb's book, CFR, the book was published in 2009 the review is undated

US War Propaganda Exposed w/ Ray McGovern, Alexander Mercouris and Glenn Diesen, Mercouris and Diesen interview McGovern, The Duran, 2023-04-25

• 00:01:03 to 00:11:41 Diesens asks McGovern about the leaks

E77： Is Europe a vassal of the US？ With Yanis Varoufakis, Julijana Zita, Erik Edman and more!, Yanis Varoufakis and other members, DiEM25, 2023-04-18

Jeffrey Sachs on China's "Historic" Push for Multipolar World to End U.S. Domination, Goodman and Gonzalez interview Prof. Sachs, DemocracyNow!, 2023-04-25

China & Zelenskyy Talking - Col Doug Macgregor, Napolitano interviews Macgregor, Judging Freedom, 2023-04-26

Biden White House fears spring offensive failure, Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercourist, The Duran, 2023-04-26

Russian Airpower Over Ukraine Increasing + More Shortcomings Appear Ahead Ukrainian Offensive, Brian Berletic, The New Atlas, 2023-04-23

Ukraine Will Start After The Fall Of Bakhmut. Russians Too. Military Summary And Analysis 2023.04.25, Dima, Military Summary channel, 2023-05-25

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking in that capacity at the U.N. Security Council on the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy Peace 2023-04-24, Sergei Lavrov, uploaded by Michael Rossi Poli Sci, 2023-04-24

• Full U.N. recording of all three hours of the meeting with interpreters into English is here.

Lavrov multilateralism. Politico, Biden fears failed offensive. WaPo, US blocked Moscow attack. U/1, Alex Christoforou, his youtube channel, 2023-04-26

Culture

The Church - Reptile, The Church (from the album "Starfish", 1988), Mushroom Records (Arista Records, internationally), uploaded to The Church's channel 2013-12-12

The Church - Under The Milky Way, The Church (also from the album "Starfish", 1988), Mushroom Records (Arista Records, internationally), uploaded to The Church's channel 2013-03-14

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