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Posts Tagged ‘Jake Sullivan’

Sullivan Touts ‘Massive Surge’ In Arms To Ukraine With 50 Days Left In Biden’s Term

Posted by M. C. on December 3, 2024

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/sullivan-touts-massive-surge-arms-ukraine-50-days-left-bidens-term

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan took to the Sunday news shows where he boasted that the White House is surging as many weapons as possible to Ukraine in the final days of the Biden administration.

He explained to ABC News that with just 50 days left in Biden’s term, the White House is busy trying to “get Ukraine all the tools we possibly can to strengthen their position on the battlefield.”

“President Biden directed me to oversee a massive surge in the military equipment that we are delivering to Ukraine so that we have spent every dollar that Congress has appropriated to us by the time that President Biden leaves office,” he said.

NurPhoto/Reuters

Biden and his top officials have long pledged to support Ukraine with arms and funding “for as long as it takes” to defeat Russia.

But Sullivan and other defense officials have of late begun to acknowledge the inevitability of the Zelensky government having to enter negotiations with Moscow. For the time being, Sullivan said Washington aims to “give Ukraine as many tools as possible so that they could go into that negotiation and feel they could achieve the outcome that they would like to see.”

Still, Sullivan sought to reiterate in the ABC appearance that the “key thing” behind potential negotiations to end the war is that Ukraine’s destiny should “not be imposed by outside powers, including the United States.”

Concerning a recent NY Times report that suggested some US officials want to see nuclear weapons given to Ukraine, Sullivan dismissed this as a possibility:

Still, Sullivan debunked a report suggesting that the administration is open to returning nuclear weapons to Ukraine.

“That is not under consideration. No. What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not nuclear capability,” he told Karl.

As for dealing with the incoming Trump administration, Sullivan confirmed there is contact on handing “off the baton” – though Trump has vowed to immediately negotiate an end to the war. 

See the rest here

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The US Has A Standing Policy Of Ignoring The Human Rights Violations Of Its Allies

Posted by M. C. on November 15, 2023

So if it sometimes seems as though the US has no actual morals or values regarding human rights, it’s because that is precisely the case. You see things like White House spokesman John Kirby crying about civilians dying in Ukraine yet shrugging indifferently at civilians dying in Gaza because his tears are cynical weapons used to advance US interests on the world stage, not a normal empathetic response to human suffering.

You have to break few eggs to build an empire.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/138877422

Caitlin Johnstone

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has been repeatedly refusing to tell the press whether he believes Israel has been following the laws of war in Gaza.

Here’s a transcript from an exchange with The Hill’s Niall Stanage at a White House press conference on Tuesday:

Stanage: You said today, as you’ve said a number of times, about the importance of the laws of war being upheld. Israel has killed around 11,000 Palestinians. Around two thirds of those are women and children. The situation in the hospitals is dire. Israel has dropped an astronomical amount of ordnance in very built-up areas. Is Israel, in your view, abiding by the laws of war? And if it is, how do you come to that conclusion?
 
Sullivan: Well, as I said yesterday, I — Jake Sullivan, standing here — am not in a position to be judge and jury to make that determination. It’s a legal determination. What I can do is state for you the clear policy of the Biden administration, which we have been unequivocal about from the beginning of this conflict. And that is that even though Hamas is using civilians as human shields, is burrowing into civilian areas with its rocket emplacements that they are continuing to launch every single day at civilian areas in Israel, that puts an added burden on the IDF but it does not lessen their responsibility to act in ways that separate terrorists from civilians and does everything in their power to protect civilian lives. 
 
Stanage: But the — 
 
Sullivan: That is — that was the case. That remains the case today. That is the message that we’ve said publicly and we communicate to our Israeli counterparts privately — 
 
Stanage: But — 
 
Sullivan: — and we do that on a daily basis.
 
Stanage: I’m just trying to be clear, though. The administration’s view is that the IDF is doing that?
 
Sullivan: What I’ve told you is that I am not in a position to give you a legal determination to your question. I am not in a position to do that. What I’m in a position to do is to state the U.S. government position on how Israeli operations should be conducted. And that is what I have done. That is what I continue to do. That is what I can do from this podium.

Sullivan performed the same evasive dance routine during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, telling host Dana Bash “I’m not going to sit here and play judge or jury on that question” when asked if Israel is operating according to the rules of war. 

It was funny because Bash’s question arose from Sullivan’s own assertion that Israel has a “responsibility to operate according to the rules of war”; Sullivan asserted that this was Israel’s responsibility on his own, but then immediately refused to say whether or not that was actually happening.

Of course, Sullivan has only been performing these freak show contortions with regard to questions about the criminality of governments which align themselves with the interests of Washington; he’s been directly and repeatedly accusing Russia of war crimes in Ukraine without the slightest bit of hesitation from the early days of the conflict.

You see this glaring inconsistency over and over again in US foreign policy, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office or which party is in control. The criminality of US allies gets ignored, downplayed and frantically obfuscated, while the criminality of US enemies gets spotlighted, exaggerated, and pushed to the forefront of international attention.

We’re seeing this inconsistency illustrated today by Hillary Clinton, who just published a think piece with The Atlantic war propaganda outlet forcefully defending Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza, after spending the last two years tweeting things like “If Russian leadership would rather not be accused of committing war crimes, they should stop bombing hospitals.”

Speaking of former US secretaries of state, it’s probably worth mentioning here that a leaked 2017 State Department memo addressed to then-secretary of state Rex Tillerson explained that this inconsistency regarding the criminality of US allies vs US enemies is actually a standing policy within the inner workings of the US government.

The leaked memo from the early days of the Trump administration showed neoconservative empire manager Brian Hook teaching the political neophyte Tillerson that for the US government, “human rights” are only a weapon to be used for keeping other nations in line. In a remarkable insight into the cynical nature of imperial narrative management, Hook told Tillerson that it is US policy to overlook human rights abuses committed by nations aligned with US interests while exploiting and weaponizing them against nations who aren’t.

See the rest here

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Ukraine Invasion Scheduled for Wednesday Canceled

Posted by M. C. on February 16, 2022

Over recent weeks, AP’s ace reporter Matthew Lee and colleagues had been repeatedly led down the White House garden path by the likes of broken-record “the-Russians-are-coming-and-it-could-be-Wednesday” national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Might it be that, this time, at least one AP honcho became so weary of this drivel, that s/he decided to go ahead and publish before receiving the customary Guidance Memo from the powers that be, telling the Establishment media how to spin major events?

by Ray McGovern

“’Foiled again!’ rose the cry from those expecting Russian President Vladimir Putin to step out of character and risk war, just as he finally succeeds in getting the U.S. to take Russia’s security concerns seriously – and even address them.” Today we can simply recycle the above lede sentence from our article four weeks ago: Godot Likely To Arrive Before Russia Invades Ukraine.

New this time, and so far unique, is the lack-of-spin headline and lede that the AP promptly used yesterday in reporting on the significance of the talks held in Moscow by Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (Headline and lede sentences follow.)

Russia ready to discuss confidence-building measures, Putin says after talks with Germany’s Scholtz

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow is ready for talks with the US and NATO on limits on missile deployments and military transparency, in a new sign of easing East-West tensions. The statement came after Russia announced it is pulling back some troops from exercises that have raised fears of a potential invasion of Ukraine.

Has AP Learned a Lesson?

Over recent weeks, AP’s ace reporter Matthew Lee and colleagues had been repeatedly led down the White House garden path by the likes of broken-record “the-Russians-are-coming-and-it-could-be-Wednesday” national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Might it be that, this time, at least one AP honcho became so weary of this drivel, that s/he decided to go ahead and publish before receiving the customary Guidance Memo from the powers that be, telling the Establishment media how to spin major events?

This time, the “guidance” came from President Joe Biden himself, who stuck to Sullivan’s ad-nauseam alerts that a Russia invasion “remains distinctly possible.”

Reuters, too, apparently got the Memo in time and dutifully reported:

The Kremlin sought to portray its moves as proof that Western talk of war had been both false and hysterical.

“February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Russia’s defence ministry published footage showing tanks and other armoured vehicles being loaded onto railway flatcars. But Western military analysts said they needed more information to judge the significance of the latest troop movements.

Putin With Scholz

At yesterday’s press conference, Chancellor Scholz at times played straight man for Putin, calling the announcement of the Russian troop pullback a “good signal” and agreeing that diplomatic options are “far from exhausted”, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had reported to Putin on Monday. Here’s what’s important (and was given appropriate prominence in AP’s reporting).

Putin at the presser with Scholz:

“… as [Lavrov] reported yesterday, the [US and NATO] responses still contain a number of considerations that we are not only ready to discuss but that we have actually suggested to our partners over the years. I am referring to our proposals on European security, certain weapons systems, notably, intermediate and shorter-range missiles, and military transparency. We are ready to continue this joint work. … [Emphasis added.]

So far, the NYT has omitted that statement by Putin, which, coming yesterday together with the troop pullback, is highly significant. That the Times “forgot” to include it is yet another sign that even the most sensible, rudimentary negotiations on key matters of concern to Russia will be resisted tooth and nail by the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank) complex in which the NYT is right there in the middle, the fulcrum – the key “M.”

Still, some Times editor apparently insisted on slipping in the important acknowledgment by Mr. Biden today that:

“Neither the US or NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not, do not have plans to put them there as well.” [Emphasis added.]

Biden made this commitment to Putin during the telephone call of Dec. 30 that Putin had urgently requested. It amounts to a major concession and enabled Moscow to conclude that at least one or two of Biden’s retinue – or Biden himself – have their heads screwed on right.

In sum, at the risk of boring Antiwar.com readers who have heard this many times before, this issue represents the most fruitful negotiating path. A key remaining question is whether the MICIMATT can thwart it. All in all, yesterday gave a glimmer of hope that if others of the MEDIA follow AP’s example, US citizens will become better informed of the realities and thus be chary of giving credulity to officials like Jake Sullivan. As President Eisenhower warned 61 years ago, only “an informed citizenry” can prevent inordinate accretion of power by the MIC, the Military-Industrial-Complex.

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27-year career as a CIA analyst includes serving as Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and preparer/briefer of the President’s Daily Brief. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

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Blinken denies giving Taliban lists of Americans and Afghan allies, but then says US turned over names for busloads of evacuees — RT USA News

Posted by M. C. on August 30, 2021

Continuing the Hillary Clinton tradition of massive state department failures.

Implicit in that statement was the fact that rather than insisting on doing its own passenger vetting, the US State Department has trusted the Taliban not to misuse such information and to let through everyone whom Washington wants evacuated from Afghanistan.

https://www.rt.com/usa/533406-blinken-denies-giving-taliban-lists/

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to refute reports that the Biden administration gave lists of Americans and allies in Afghanistan to the Taliban, but then went on to say it provided names for busloads of its evacuees.

Asked by NBC News host Chuck Todd on Sunday how the administration could be sure that lists of people the US is trying to get out of Afghanistan won’t be used for “horrendous reasons,” Blinken said “it’s simply not the case” that such information has been turned over to the Taliban.

“The idea that we’ve done anything to put at further risk those that we’re trying to help leave the country is simply wrong,” Blinken added. “And the idea that we shared lists of Americans or others with the Taliban is simply wrong.”

Todd followed up, asking Blinken, “What was shared?” The secretary of state replied that “in specific instances,” the administration gave the Taliban manifests for busloads of people that it needed to get through checkpoints to the Kabul airport for evacuation.

“When you’re trying to get a bus or a group of people through and you need to show a manifest to do that ​​– particularly in cases where people don’t have the necessary credentials on them or documents on them – then you’ll share names of the lists of people on the bus so they can be assured those are the people we’re looking to bring in,” he said. “By definition, that’s exactly what’s happened, we’ve gotten 5,500 American citizens out of Afghanistan.” Also on rt.com President Biden says US ‘could very well have’ given evacuees’ names to Taliban, as he faces criticism after deadly Kabul attack

Implicit in that statement was the fact that rather than insisting on doing its own passenger vetting, the US State Department has trusted the Taliban not to misuse such information and to let through everyone whom Washington wants evacuated from Afghanistan. It’s not hard to imagine how the manifests could imperil Americans and Afghan allies, whom the Taliban could simply choose to seize or turn away and later target for reprisals, but Blinken insisted, “The idea that we put anyone in any further jeopardy is simply wrong.”

President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also tried to bat down reports of lists being given to the Taliban, telling CNN host Jake Tapper that such reporting was “unfounded and inaccurate.” But he only denied giving “all” names to the Taliban, and like Blinken, he said the administration had worked with the Islamist group to get busloads of people through checkpoints. He didn’t respond directly when asked whether the manifests could have been used against any US evacuees.

And over on CNN, Jake Tapper grilled NSA Jake Sullivan on the administration giving a “kill list” to the Taliban. Sullivan’s argument was that they didn’t give them “all” the names just small lists. But he couldn’t say if the small lists were used against Americans or allies. pic.twitter.com/zflv5ZHoY0— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 29, 2021

US Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) called Blinken’s comments “disgusting,” saying in an ABC News interview, “Their plan has basically been happy talk. People have died and people are going to die because President Biden decided to rely on happy talk instead of reality.”

Sasse argued that the administration essentially “outsourced” security outside the airport perimeter to the Taliban. “They passed a list of American citizens and America’s closest allies – people who fought alongside us – they passed those lists to the Taliban, relying on them, thinking they could trust on them,” the senator said. “It was stupid then, it’s insane now.” 

Sasse added that by refusing to extend its withdrawal deadline beyond August 31, the administration will leave behind Americans and US allies who won’t be able to be evacuated in time.

Sullivan insisted that Washington has “substantial leverage to hold the Taliban to its commitments to allow safe passage for American citizens, legal permanent residents and the Afghan allies who have travel documentation to come to the US. We will use that leverage to the maximum extent, and we will work with the international community to ensure the Taliban does not falter on these commitments.” Also on rt.com Gold Star mother of US marine killed in Kabul attack blasts Biden as ‘dementia-ridden piece of crap,’ blames his supporters

The US and dozens of other governments issued a joint statement on Sunday, calling on the Taliban to honor its assurances that all foreign nationals and Afghans with authorization to enter their countries be allowed to depart from Afghanistan freely and safely.

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Scott predicts his own death

Posted by M. C. on December 15, 2020

https://mailchi.mp/3b608bf33fc2/scott-predicts-his-own-death-4154361?e=de2d0eded6

“I’m afraid that that’s how I’m gonna die 30 years from now. I’ll be sitting there arguing why we gotta get out of Afghanistan, and drop dead of a damn heart attack.”

Scott joked with Danny Sjursen in their recent interview:

The joke is in reference to Richard Holbrook, who actually dropped dead of a heart attack while arguing to get out of Afghanistan in front of Hillary Clinton and Jake Sullivan. Listen to the Interview Jake Sullivan is Biden’s new national security advisor. He worked with Clinton on the Libyan war, and he sent a notorious email revealing that the U.S. was fighting on the same side as Al Qaeda in Syria.

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