Talk:Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

In case anyone's interested: Several of their open letters calling for sanity, from the last two years are here: https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/veteran-intelligence-professionals-for-sanity/


 * Some of them:

September 10th, 2018 https://www.mintpressnews.com/vips-potential-for-u-s-russia-clash-in-syria-has-never-been-greater/249018/
 * VIPS: Potential for U.S.-Russia Confrontation in Syria Has Never Been Greater; As Syrian forces backed by Russia launch the final showdown in Syria against jihadist extremists in Idlib province, the potential for a U.S.-Russia confrontation has never been greater, as VIPS warns in this memo to the president. September 9, 2018

Subject: Humanitarian Asylum for Julian Assange, August 07th, 2018  https://www.mintpressnews.com/intelligence-vips-plead-humanitarian-asylum-julian-assange/247183/
 * Intelligence Veterans Plead for Humanitarian Asylum for Julian Assange: Memorandum for: The US Embassies of Ecuador and the United Kingdom, and the U.S. State Department

As the George W. Bush administration revved up to attack Iraq 15 years ago, we could see no compelling reason for war. We decided, though, to give President Bush the benefit of the doubt on the chance he had been sandbagged by Vice President Dick Cheney and others. We chose to allow for the possibility that he actually believed the “intelligence” that Colin Powell presented to the UN as providing “irrefutable and undeniable” proof of WMD in Iraq and a “sinister nexus” between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. 1 August 2018 https://www.mintpressnews.com/vips-trump-iran/246839/
 * VIPS to Trump: Intel on Iran May Actually be CATASTROPHIC As drums beat again for war — this time on Iran


 * Intelligence Agency Veterans Urge Trump To Withdraw Haspel Nomination: Two dozen former U.S. intelligence officers urge President Trump to rescind Gina Haspel’s nomination to lead the CIA, citing torture that she oversaw while supervising a black site prison, as well as her role in destroying evidence. March 26th, 2018 https://www.mintpressnews.com/intelligence-veterans-urge-trump-to-withdraw-gina-haspel-cia-nomination/239568/


 * Intelligence Veterans Warn of Risk of U.S. – Iran Conflict Based on False Pretexts: As President Donald Trump prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week, a group of U.S. intelligence veterans offers corrections to a number of false accusations that have been leveled against Iran. February 26th, 2018  https://www.mintpressnews.com/intelligence-veterans-warn-risk-u-s-iran-conflict-based-false-pretexts/238120/


 * Intelligence Agency Veterans Challenge The ‘Russia Hack’ Evidence: In a memo to President Trump, a group of former U.S. intelligence officers, including NSA specialists, cite new forensic studies to challenge the claim of the key Jan. 6 “assessment” that Russia “hacked” Democratic emails last year. July 24th, 2017 https://www.mintpressnews.com/intelligence-agenecy-veterans-challenge-russia-hack-evidence/230086/


 * Intelligence Veterans Pen Open Letter Casting Doubts On Syrian Conflict: Two dozen former U.S. intelligence professionals are urging the American people to demand clear evidence that the Syrian government was behind the April 4 chemical incident before President Trump dives deeper into another war.: April 28th, 2017 https://www.mintpressnews.com/intelligence-veterans-pen-open-letter-casting-doubts-on-syrian-conflict/227314/


 * Started to include the following on this page's first day, but it's pretty old already... will add it later... there are many others more recent that may be better to put before this one:


 * You need to know, for example, that accusations of a major Russian “invasion” of Ukraine appear not to be supported by reliable intelligence. Rather, the “intelligence” seems to be of the same dubious, politically “fixed” kind used 12 years ago to “justify” the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.  We saw no credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq then; we see no credible evidence of a Russian invasion now... In our view, you should be appropriately suspicions of charges made by the U.S. State Department and NATO officials alleging a Russian invasion of Ukraine..Hopefully, your advisers have reminded you of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen's checkered record for credibility.  It appears to us that Rasmussen's speeches continue to be drafted by Washington.  This was abundantly clear on the day before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq when, as Danish Prime Minister, he told his Parliament: “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.  This is not something we just believe.  We know.”  Photos can be worth a thousand words; they can also deceive.  We have considerable experience collecting, analyzing, and reporting on all kinds of satellite and other imagery, as well as other kinds of intelligence.   Suffice it to say that the images released by NATO on August 28 provide a very flimsy basis on which to charge Russia with invading Ukraine.  Sadly, they bear a strong resemblance to the images shown by Colin Powell at the UN on February 5, 2003 that, likewise, proved nothing...
 * The State Department Says Russia Is Invading Ukraine—Should We Believe It? A memo to Angela Merkel (2 September 2014)
 * cheers Om777om (talk) 02:28, 6 April 2019 (UTC)