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The Trump Administration : Interview with Virginia Senator Richard Black
- Richard Hayden “Dick” Black (born May 15, 1944) is a Republican member of the Virginia State Senate. Black represents the 13th District encompassing parts of both Loudoun and Prince Williams Counties. Black was previously a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1998 to 2006.
- Sen. Black had traveled to Syria in 2016 and promised support for the government of President Bashar Assad, who U.S. officials have repeatedly said has lost the legitimacy to rule the war-torn country.
- His trip to a Middle Eastern country in the midst of a civil war and his comments in the face of official U.S. foreign policy are highly unusual for a state lawmaker.
- Still, he has met with Assad government officials and said he would advocate for better relationships between Assad and the U.S.
“I will be Syria’s voice,” Black said, according to the official Syrian news agency.
- Black was a career military officer. He served in both the U.S. Marines and in the U.S. Army JAG Corps. He served a total of 31 years active and reserve, rising from the rank of private to full colonel.He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, Command and General Staff College, and Naval Aviator’s Flight School.
- After the war, he left the service and earned a law degree, returning to military service as a prosecutor with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Black later headed the Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, before retiring from the military in 1994.
- Sen. Black has said Assad protected Christians and fought terrorist groups. On his Twitter account, Black said he supported Assad because he is stemming the growth of the Islamic State group, ISIS.
- President Trump is under the influence of warmongers whose bread is buttered by violence, and are connected with the war industry blocking the President from getting really good people placed in office, says Sen. Black.
This is a transcript of his interview with RT
Published time: 11 Apr, 2017 13:07
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/384336-trump-warmongers-syria-russia/
RT:
The White House has said Washington could take further military action in Syria. What can we expect to see happen?Richard Black:
We need to look at what occurred. We know with absolute certainty that Syria did not drop poison gas – because there has to be a motive. There was no motive. Syria was advancing and defeating the jihadists on every front.Why would President Assad enrage the world and order to kill a handful of civilians? If for some reason, he decided to use poison gas, why would he use it against heavily entrenched terrorists instead of killing a gaggle of women and children? The whole thing is totally irrational; a child should be able to see through it.
Now what we do know for a fact is that CNN reported on September 13, 2016, – just five months ago – that US B-52 attacked a major ISIS poison gas facility in Mosul. Where did that poison gas go? Where did the sarin gas and so forth that they produced go? It WENT INTO artillery shells, and it was distributed to warehouses. I believe the Syrian air force did drop bombs on a warehouse. Why do I know that? Because under the protocols that were established Syria notified the US so that they could de-conflict aviation going over there.
My guess is that what happened is that they bombed a warehouse, it had poison gas belonging to the terrorists and some of those shells were damaged in the attack and that was the cause of the release.
It gets back to this point. I was a prosecutor in the Pentagon; I was the top criminal justice authority in the Pentagon.You always look to the motive. There was absolutely no motive.And I defy anyone to come up with a satisfactory motive why President Assad would incur the wrath of the world over just to kill a handful of women and children walking down the street. It is utterly ludicrous; there is no possibility that it occurred.
RT:
Was there any justification for the US attacking the Syrian air base? Some say it played into the hands of ISIS fighters. What are your thoughts?RB:
I think it was a terrible thing to do. Shortly after the attack was launched, ISIS launched a ground attack. We don’t know how they knew about the missile attack, someone apparently informed them, and they launched an attack immediately afterward. There was no justification; it was a rash, impulsive decision, at best.At worst, it was a very carefully orchestrated pre-planned occurrence that was done in conjunction with covert intelligence agencies. We know they’ve done this before. It happened in 2013 with the false-flag attack in Damascus, and they know that when they do this, and they pretend that the civilians are killed – sometimes civilians are killed. I don’t deny that – but when they claim the Syrian government does it, all of the media in unison conclude absolutely they have to be guilty. Even though there is not a shred of evidence…
RT:
Tillerson is due in Moscow on Tuesday, what do you think we can expect from this meeting? Is there any hope left for anti-terror co-operation between Russia and the US?RB:
I hope so. I think Rex Tillerson would like to cooperate with Russia. There is a lot of pressure within the Trump administration. When they got rid of Michael Flynn, he was truly the adult in the room, he was a well-informed individual, and WE’RE beginning to see the Trump administration eliminate the most coherent and most intelligent members, the most experienced members and replace them with neocons who simply respond to the global oligarchs, who make their money on war, oil, and drugs.I would hope that Rex Tillerson can bring a positive message. I know that Boris Johnson said that “we should show a united front to President Putin.” I don’t think that this is the case. I think that the President of the US should talk with the President of Russia and they should coordinate. We don’t need any of these unified groups, these gaggles of people who are simply there to do propaganda. We need to talk government to government.
RT:
Former President Obama repeatedly vowed that there would be no “boots on the ground” in Syria and Iraq, but didn’t keep his word. This tradition of hypocrisy isn’t a recent thing though. “He kept us out of war,” was the slogan for Woodrow Wilson campaign; he then got the US involved in WWI. Peace candidate Lyndon Johnson got the US into the Vietnam War. Now, Trump has dropped his campaign promise to curb US intervention in Syria. What are your thoughts on that?RB:
The President is coming under the influence of some people who are not seeking peace in the world. The President looks around the table, and all he has got are these warmongers, their bread is buttered on violence.They are connected with the war industry, and so they block the President from getting really good people placed into office. It is a major problem; it is part of the way our government works. But it is not a good thing; it is very bad thing.
The Trump Administration : Interview with Dr. Gerald Horne
- Gerald Horne is a well known historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He received his PhD from Columbia University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a frequent contributor to Political Affairs magazine.
- Dr. Horne is the author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His current research focuses on a variety of topics such as the impact of the Haitian Revolution on the U.S.; a biography of Paul Robeson; an analysis of Pro-Tokyo Negroes before 1945; the internationalism of the Black Press; and African-Americans and Aviation before Sputnik
This is a transcript of his interview with RT
Published time: 10 Apr, 2017 13:38
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/384209-us-syria-iran-assad/RT:
Nikki Haley referred to “classified” evidence proving that Bashar Assad was responsible for the chemical incident in Idlib province. If they really have this evidence, why do you think they are withholding it from the UN?Gerald Horne:
That is the $64 question. It reminds us that after the last chemical attack in August 2013, the highly regarded journalist in the US Seymour Hersh did an investigation which pointed to the culprits in that particular attack was not the Damascus regime or President Assad but in fact, the rebels assisted by their external allies.Then, of course, there is a legal question. That is to say, where the UN resolution that authorized this attack on Syria is? I take it that there was no imminent threat of a Syrian attack on the US. So, I am wondering what is the legal justification in international law for the US attack in Syria.
Then there is the question of domestic law. That is to say the US Constitution gives Congress the right and the authority to allow the US to go to war, there is no existing credible resolution from Congress that would have authorized this attack on Syria. And then there is a political question.
It is well-known Trump was facing a range of scandals, and it is also well-known that there is a history of US presidents facing difficulties at home waging war abroad. This was the plot of the widely popular movie of 1997 called Wag the Dog and certain pundits are calling this the ‘Wag the Dog’ gambit by Mr. Trump.
And I also recall that in 1983, the day after US marines were blown up in Lebanon, Ronald Reagan, the US president invaded the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada to distract attention from that tragedy. This attack on Syria has echoes of 1983.
RT:
Despite the bombardment, the al-Shayrat base is still functional, and planes have been taking off from there. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said it’s a “serious mistake”. What’s the logic behind that? Should Assad be getting permission from Washington to use his own base in his own country?GH:
Obviously, that is ridiculous and ludicrous, but we have to keep our eye on the ball and recognize that there is a larger game at play. Keep in mind that there had been repeated confrontations in the first few months of 2017 between Iranian speed boats and US vessels in the Persian Gulf.It is no secret Mr. Trump is hostile to the Iranian regime. It is no secret that he would like to see regime change in Tehran. And since Iran is a major supporter of the Damascus-based regime, it seems to me that these missiles aimed at Damascus were also incidentally aimed at Tehran.
Likewise, I don’t find it coincidental or accidental that President Xi Jinping was in Florida at the same time that Mr. Trump authorized this attack on Syria. Not only because Mr. Trump was placing pressure on China to place pressure on its ally in North Korea…But also there is a lot of hysteria in the US about the rise of China.
And this muscle-flexing on the part of Mr. Trump was also a signal to China just as in 1999 the US “accidentaly” attacked the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade as a way to give a signal, not so subtle, to China.
Iranian political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi, commented on the US ambassador to the UN’s statement that the US needs to “get the Iranian influence out” of Syria: “I could only conjecture that she means the US is going to increase its creeping intervention inside Syria and throw its weight behind various rebel groups in order to roll back against what the Syrian government, with the backing of Russia and Iran, has made over the past two years.”
“This reflects the roll-backing strategy on the part of the US that is very unfortunate because it transpires at a very delicate time in the peace process when the talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Astana are proceeding as well as a parallel track in the European capitals,” he continued.
In Afrasiabi’s view, the US’ attack on the Syrian airbase “was meant to torpedo the peace process” which is part of the strategy “held by the leadership in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.”
“They see growing Iranian influence, and they want to reverse that,” Afrasiabi told RT.
Citations
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/384336-trump-warmongers-syria-russia/
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/384209-us-syria-iran-assad/
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