Mel Goodman interviewed by Matt Taibbi on Rollingstone.com, July 21, 2017

“For journalists like me who have backgrounds either working or living in Russia, the new Red Scare has been an ongoing freakout. A lot of veteran Russia reporters who may have disagreed with each other over other issues in the past now find themselves in like-minded bewilderment over the increasingly aggressive rhetoric. . . . When asked about the roots of the current Russian-American divide, former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, the author of excellent books like Whistleblower at the CIA and Failure of Intelligence, points to a 1990 deal struck between Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The two men brokered a quid pro quo: The Soviets wouldn’t oppose a re-united Germany, if the Americans promised not to leapfrog East Germany into the Russians’ former sphere of influence. Goodman later interviewed both men, who confirmed the key details. ‘They both used the word leapfrog,’ he says. ‘The Russians think we broke that deal.’ Russia believes the U.S. reneged on the leapfrog deal by seeking to add the Baltics, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Georgia and even Ukraine to the NATO alliance. To Russia, American denunciations of Russian adventurism in Crimea and eastern Ukraine seem absurd, when all they see is NATO leapfrogging its way ever-closer to their borders.”
—Matt Taibbi

 

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-what-does-russiagate-look-like-to-russians-w493462

Recent News and Latest Book

Biden and the Washington Post Combine to Argue for War

“Militarily,” according to Ignatius, the “Israeli campaign against Hamas has been relentless and successful.”   This outrageous statement is belied by the absence of evidence regarding the so-called command and control center under the Al-Shifa hospital compound, let alone any success against the Hamas leadership or overall Hamas forces.

Is There No End to the War-Mongering of the Washington Post

It is increasingly clear that the Russian campaign against Ukraine and the Israeli campaign against Gaza are violating international law and the essential tenets of just war.  Neither Russia nor Israel is making the required distinctions between combatants and non-combatants, and the excessive use of force on both battlefields is a violation of the need for proportionality in warfare.  Russian and Israeli military forces are targeting civilian infrastructure and even civilians themselves.