US State Department

Journalists Demand Blinken Back Israel Arms Embargo

August 15, 2024 Open Letter, Consortium News. Resist! Antony Blinken, Gaza, Journalists, Palestine, Press Freedom, US State Department

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 160 Palestinian journalists. This is the largest recorded number of journalists killed in any war. While Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the densely populated Gaza means no civilians are safe, Israel has also been repeatedly documented deliberately targeting journalists. Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support. By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today. On World Press Freedom Day this year, you called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists,” and reiterated your “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.”

Scott Ritter Silenced By Liberal Authoritarians

June 9, 2024 Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post. Educate! Repression, Russia, Scott Ritter, US State Department

It is not difficult to be astonished these days, given how many things going on around us warrant astonishment. To pull something out of a hat at random, the Democratic apparatus has openly, brazenly politicized the judicial system—weaponized it, if you prefer—in its determination to destroy Donald Trump and now has the temerity to warn in the gravest terms that a second Trump term would mean… the politicization of American justice. Again at random, in The Washington Post’s June 7 editions George Will tells us President Biden “has provided the most progressive governance in U.S. history.” Yes, he wrote that. Give in to your astonishment.

Falsified US State Department Report Inspires Yet Another Resignation

May 31, 2024 Talia Mullin, Scheer Post. Resist! Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, Resignation, US State Department

Stacey Gilbert, a former senior civil military advisor in the U.S. State department bureau of population where she dealt with refugees and migration, has recently resigned from her position. Her departure on Tuesday comes after the publication of a falsified report which concludes, despite disagreement from the experts who drafted the report, that Israel has not prevented aid from entering into the Gaza Strip amid widespread famine and humanitarian disaster. Additionally, contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAid), Alexander Smith, stepped down from his position this week, making the list of U.S. officials who have resigned explicitly citing Biden’s Palestine/Israel policy nearly ten.

Ann Wright On The Gaza Freedom Flotilla And Upcoming NATO Protests

May 13, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG Ann Wright, Biden administration, Freedom Flotilla, NATO, Peace, US State Department

This week, Clearing the FOG speaks with Ann Wright, a retired Colonel, former State Department official and prominent peace activist. Wright, who resigned in protest of the Iraq War from the State Department in 2003, speaks about recent resignations over the genocide in Gaza and the Biden administration's new report on Palestine. She also discusses the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which is ready to sail but is being prevented from doing so, and the protests and activities being planned for this July when the NATO leaders meet in Washington, DC around the 75th anniversary of its founding.

Third State Dept Official Resigns Over US Gaza Policy

April 26, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. Resist! Israel, Palestine, Resignation, US State Department

Hala Rharrit, the Arabic-language spokeswoman for the US State Department, has resigned in protest against White House support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Her resignation, effective Wednesday, was confirmed through her State Department biography page. The State Department is the US equivalent of other nations’ foreign ministries. In a statement on the social networking site LinkedIn, Rharrit stated, “I resigned in April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in opposition to the United States’ Gaza policy. Diplomacy, not arms. Be a force for peace and unity.”

US Foreign Policy Establishment Is Instrumentalizing Islamophobia

November 16, 2023 Tyler Walicek, Truthout. Educate! Islamophobia, Israel, Palestine, Report, US Foreign Policy, US State Department

An incisive new report released by researchers affiliated with Rutgers University lays out in detail the many ways in which the U.S. political establishment has instrumentalized anti-Muslim bigotry and disingenuously redefined the idea of “antisemitism” in order to defuse criticisms of the Israeli government and justify dehumanizing policies toward Palestinians. Titled “Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine-Israel Discourse,” the 68-page report offers a thorough examination of how the domestic foreign policy establishment and the associated Israel lobby employ Islamophobia as a tool of ideological legitimation.

Provocations By US State Department Chill Press Freedom In Latin America

November 16, 2023 Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. Educate! Censorship, Latin America, Press Freedom, US State Department

The headline is provocative: “The Kremlin’s Efforts to Covertly Spread Disinformation in Latin America.” This was a statement on the US State Department website, posted on November 7, 2023. The United States government accused two companies—Social Design Agency and Structura National Technologies—of being the main agents of what it alleged is Russian-backed disinformation. The statement named the heads of both of the firms, Ilya Gambashidze of Social Design Agency and Nikolay Tupkin of Structura. On July 28, 2023, the European Union sanctioned several Russian individuals and firms, including SDA and Structura.

ICC’s Putin Arrest Warrant Based On State Department-Funded Report

April 17, 2023 Jeremy Loffredo and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. Educate! ICC, Russia, Ukraine, US State Department, Vladimir Putin, Wars and Militarism

On March 17, the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, introduced an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Llova-Belova. The warrant, which accused Putin and Lolva-Belova of conducting the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children to a “network of camps” across the Russian Federation, inspired a wave of incendiary commentary in the West. US Sen. Lindsey Graham, perhaps the most aggressive cheerleader in Congress for war with Russia, proclaimed: “The ICC has an arrest warrant for Putin because he has organized the kidnapping of at least 16,000 Ukrainian children from their families and sent them to Russia.

Don’t Let The Media Cheerlead Us Into More Wars Like It Did in Iraq

March 17, 2023 Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Strategize! Ann Wright, Iraq War, US State Department

Twenty years ago on this coming weekend, I was in Mongolia as the Deputy US Ambassador. After writing a Dissent Cable in early March 2003 on the pending U.S. war on Iraq to my boss Secretary of State Colin Powell, I made the decision to resign from the U.S. government as it was poised to invade, occupy and destroy the sovereign state of Iraq. I was one of three U.S. diplomats who resigned—Brady Kiesling and John Brown resigned before me. For months, the Bush administration attempted to get the U.S. public to believe that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction and therefore was a threat to the United States and the international community.

Labor Against Empire: Voices From The Honduran US Embassy Strike

October 6, 2022 Popular Resistance. Resist! Honduras, Labor Unions, US State Department, Worker Rights

For the last 3 months, more than 1,000 Honduran construction workers building the new United States embassy in Tegucigalpa have been striking against Alabama-based mega-prison contractor B.L. Harbert and their ultimate employer, the U.S. State Department, to demand safe working conditions, job security and fair compensation in compliance with Honduran labor law. Join the DSA International Committee and DSA Labor for a bilingual webinar to hear directly from the striking workers in Honduras, co-sponsored by US- and Honduras-based solidarity organizations. We seek to create opportunities for relationships to grow between the striking workers, Honduran civil society, and solidarity organizations around the Americas, and for workers in Honduras and the United States to hear directly from each other.

On Shedding An Obsolete Past

March 12, 2021 Andrew Bacevich, Tom Dispatch. Educate! Joe Biden, Pentagon, US Empire, US State Department

You may have noticed: the Blob is back. Beneath a veneer of gender and racial diversity, the Biden national security team consists of seasoned operatives who earned their spurs in Washington long before Donald Trump showed up to spoil the party. So, if you’re looking for fresh faces at the departments of state or defense, the National Security Council or the various intelligence agencies, you’ll have to search pretty hard. Ditto, if you’re looking for fresh insights. In Washington, members of the foreign policy establishment recite stale bromides, even as they divert attention from a dead past to which they remain devoted. The boss shows them how it’s done. Just two weeks into his presidency, Joe Biden visited the State Department to give American diplomats their marching orders.

De-Militarizing The United States

July 2, 2020 Melvin Goodman, Counterpunch. Create! CIA, Militarization, Pentagon, US State Department

The reliance on military instruments of power to implement foreign policy has expanded the role of the Department of Defense at the expense of the Department of State. The State Department’s budget is less than one-tenth of the defense budget, and smaller than the budget of the intelligence community. There are more soldiers and sailors in military marching bands than there are Foreign Service Officers. The decline of the Agency for International Development, and President Bill Clinton’s dissolution of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the United States Information Service have contributed to the overall decline of civilian influence in national security policy.

Fortress On A Hill: Interview With Larry Wilkerson

June 11, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Fortress on a Hill. Educate! Podcast, US military, US State Department, Wars and Militarism

Powerful. That’s how I’d describe today’s episode. A deep dive into the mind of COL(R) Larry Wilkerson, his career as a U.S. Army officer to include combat in Vietnam, his close professional relationship with Colin Powell, his time at the State Department during the Bush II era, his thoughts on various conflicts to include Iraq and Syria, and his thoughts on the murder of George Floyd amidst the COVID-19 era. Lawrence Wilkerson’s last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02).

New Details Emerge Linking US To Latest Coup Attempt In Venezuela

May 6, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! Juan Guaido, US coup, US State Department, Venezuela

The government of Venezuela is celebrating after thwarting another foreign-backed coup attempt Sunday, just two days after self-declared another coup attempt by “Interim President” Juan Guaidó ended in total failure. A flotilla of small speed boats filled with up to 300 paramilitary units, sailed from their training ground in Colombia heading for a port near the country’s capital Caracas, from where they were aiming to kickstart an insurrection. They confidently predicted they would be in the Miraflores presidential palace within 96 hours. However, the mission went spectacularly wrong almost immediately, as they were intercepted by the Venezuelan Navy, who reportedly killed at least eight in the fighting at sea, capturing many others.

A Simple Democratic Transition Framework For Venezuela: End All Sanctions

April 19, 2020 Nino Pagliccia, One World Press. Create! Democracy, US coup, US State Department, Venezuela

On March 31, the US Secretary of State issued a press statement proposing a “pathway” by which all Venezuelans would live happily ever after, at least that is what Mike Pompeo seems to wish. He “call[s] on all Venezuelans, whether military or civilian, young or old, of all ideological tendencies and party affiliations, to consider this framework carefully and seriously.” The 13-point document was posted on the US State Department website with the title “Democratic Transition Framework for Venezuela”. Let’s take a serious look at it. An initial major observation can be made even before reading the 13 paragraphs. If this is a proposal meant as a recommendation to resolve an impasse between parties, it will not accomplish its goal because no “serious” proposal can be made unilaterally and much less by a non-friendly government.

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