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What Is The
Obama Regime Up To?
By Paul Craig
Roberts
December 30,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- Obama has announced new sanctions on Russia based on
unsubstantiated charges by the CIA that the Russian
government influenced the outcome of the US presidential
election with “malicious cyber-enabled activities.”
The US
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a
report “related to the declaration of 35 Russian
officials persona non grata for malicious cyber activity
and harassment.”
The report is a
description of “tools and infrastructure used by Russian
intelligence services to compromise and exploit networks
and infrastructure associated with the recent U.S.
election, as well as a range of U.S. government,
political and private sector entities.”
The report does
not provide any evidence that the tools and
infrastructure were used to influence the outcome of the
US presidential election.
The report
is simply a description of what is said to be Russian
capabilities.
Moreover,
the report begins
with this disclaimer:
“DISCLAIMER: This report is provided ‘as is’ for
informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any
kind regarding any information contained within.”
In other words,
the report not only provides no evidence of the use of
the Russian tools and infrastructure in order to
influence the US presidential election, the report will
not even warrant the correctness of its description of
Russian capabilities.
Thus the DHS
report makes it completely clear that the Obama regime
has no evidential basis for its allegations on the basis
of which it has imposed more sanctions on Russia.
What is going
on here?
First there is
the question of the legality of the sanctions even if
there were evidence. I am not certain, but I think that
sanctions require the action of a body, such as the UN
Security Council, and cannot legally be imposed
unilaterally by one country. Additionally, it is unclear
why Obama is calling the expulsion of Russian diplomats
“sanctions.” No other country has to do likewise. During
the Cold War when diplomats were expelled for spying, it
was not called “sanctions.” Sanctions imply more than
unilateral or bilateral expulsions of diplomats.
Second, it is
clear that Obama, the CIA, and the New York Times are
fully aware that the allegation is false. It is also
clear that if the CIA actually believes the allegation,
the intelligence agency is totally incompetent and
cannot be believed on any subject.
Third,
President Trump can rescind the sanctions in 21 days, a
third reason that the sanctions are ridiculous.
So why
are President Obama, the CIA, and the New York Times
making charges that they know are false and for which
they have not produced a shred of evidence?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/opinion/president-obama-punishes-russia-at-last.html?_r=1
One obvious
answer is that the neoconized Obama regime is desperate
to ruin US-Russian relations past the point that Trump
can repair them. As the New York Times puts it, “Mr.
Obama’s actions clearly create a problem for Mr. Trump.”
The question the New York Times says, is whether Trump
“stands with his democratic allies on Capitol Hill or
his authoritarian friend in the Kremlin.”
Can Trump’s
foreign policy be controlled by false allegations?
According to the New York Times, Trump has relented and
agreed to being briefed by the CIA about the Russian
hacking now that Republicans such as Paul Ryan, John
McCain, and Lindsey Graham have lined up with Obama and
the CIA in accepting charges for which no evidence has
been presented. However, a briefing without evidence
would seem simply to further discredit the CIA in
Trump’s eyes.
As I have
emphasized in my columns, facts no longer have a role in
the United States and its empire. Allegations alone
suffice, whether in court cases, interrogation centers,
foreign and domestic policies, or classrooms. The US
even bases its military invasions on false
allegations—“weapons of mass destruction.” Indeed, the
entirely of US foreign policy since the Clinton regime
has been based on nothing but false allegations.
The Russian
government should have learned by now, but perhaps
Moscow still thinks that facts matter in Washington’s
decisions.
Possibly we
should consider that more is going on than meets the
eye. Perhaps the propaganda about the Russian cyber
threat to democracy is being used to prepare American
and/or European populations for an incident. The CIA has
morphed into a “deep state” that uses disinformation and
propaganda to align decisions of Congress, the executive
branch, and foreign governments with secret
behind-the-scenes agendas. Many books, such as Stephen
Kinzer’s The Brothers and Douglas Valentine’s
CIA As Organized Crime have described some of
these secret agendas.
In order to
deter Trump from restoring normal relations with Russia,
an incident would have to be severe and irreversible.
Rather than accept defeat for their agenda of US world
hegemony, the neoconservatives are prepared to take high
risks. The willingness to take risks is demonstrated by
the public effort of the CIA Director to discredit the
president-elect.
As expected,
Putin’s response to the latest provocation is low key as
the “sanctions” appear to be meaningless on the surface.
However, in the event that something dangerous is below
the surface, the Russian government might want to
consider putting its military forces on alert.
Dr. Paul Craig
Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall
Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week,
Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He
has had many university appointments. His internet
columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts'
latest books are
The Failure of
Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the
West,
How America Was
Lost,
and
The
Neoconservative Threat to World Order.
The views
expressed in this article are the author's own and do
not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House
editorial policy. |
