When:
Wednesday, June 12, 2024; 1:00—3:00 p.m. ET
Where:
National Press Club, Washington, D.C.; and on-line via Zoom
Who:
· Scott Ritter: former U.N. weapons inspector and U.S. Marine intelligence officer
· Col. (ret.) Richard H. Black: former head of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon; former State Senator, Virginia
· Ray McGovern: former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
· Helga Zepp-LaRouche: founder of the Schiller Institute
Host:
Schiller Institute
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
IN PERSON PARTICIPATION: Seating is limited, if you wish to attend you must RSVP at questions@schillerinstitute.org
ONLINE JOURNALISTS PARTICIPATION: Journalists wishing to participate on-line, please send an email to questions@schillerinstitute.org
indicating your name, media you represent, and language preference
(English, German, French and Spanish can be accommodated), and you will
receive a link by email.
GENERAL PUBLIC: The public in general can view the online English-language live stream here: https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2024/06/07/emergency-press-conference-the-danger-of-nuclear-war-is-real/
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On June 3, the U.S. State Department prevented U.S. citizen Scott
Ritter from boarding his flight to St. Petersburg, Russia, and seized
his passport. Ritter, a former U.S. Marine officer and United Nations
weapons inspector who has become a prominent opponent of the current war
policy, was traveling to participate in the St. Petersburg
International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which is being attended by an
estimated 19,000 people and 3,400 media representatives from some 130
countries. Ritter was subsequently able to participate in the SPIEF
panel via Zoom.
In addition to the clear First and Fourth
Amendment Constitutional issues raised by the Ritter case, the content
of what Ritter was going to discuss is key: the need to improve
U.S.-Russian relations and stop the escalating danger arising from
NATO’s current posture towards Russia, as seen most starkly in Ukraine,
which is dragging the world towards a nuclear World War III.
The
May 22 attack on a critical Russian early-warning radar system at
Armavir, purportedly by “Ukrainian” drones, could have been the event
which tipped the balance towards war—because it could have confirmed for
Russia their stated belief that NATO and the West are intent on
“blinding” Russia’s early-warning system in preparation for a possible
“preemptive decapitation” strike by the U.S. and NATO against them.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated exactly this
concern, publically, and it is the height of arrogant foolishness of the
West to dismiss this as a “bluff,” as so many in Washington, London and
other NATO capitals are now doing.
As dangerous as attempting to
blind Russia’s early-warning radar, are the efforts to silence
opposition voices who function as a kind of “early-warning” system in
the domain of policy deliberation—those who are warning of the danger of
nuclear war, and are presenting alternatives to a policy of
confrontation.
On Wednesday, June 12 at the National Press Club
in Washington, D.C., a distinguished panel of four experts will each
make brief presentations on these topics, and will respond to questions
from the media, both in person and over an international Zoom link (with
simultaneous interpretation into German, French and Spanish for
audiences in those countries).
Recent comments by the panelists:
Scott Ritter: “The command centers that Russia uses
were conceptualized and constructed during the Soviet Union, when
Ukraine was part of the Union, and, from a Russian perspective, they
were deep in the Russian rear, protected. But if Ukraine now is carved
out and made part of NATO, and you insert American missiles there, all
of these places that were thought to be safe in the rear are now
reachable. And if America allows Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles to
strike these facilities, Russia will nuke NATO! Not Ukraine—NATO!… The
Ukrainians are complaining that the United States will only allow them
to use the HIMARS, that they won’t be allowed to use the ATACMS to
strike Russia yet. But, just so everybody in your audience understands,
we are one ATACMS launch away from everybody dying. The Russians aren’t
playing games here.” [June 4, 2024, on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s
“Judging Freedom” show]
Senator Richard Black:
“Now, if you look at where we are right now with the three drone attacks
directed at their eyes and ears against nuclear attacks, this clearly
would trigger the nuclear doctrine of the Russian state. Now, in
addition, if there’s actually a cohesive movement towards preparation
for nuclear war—I’m not saying that we have made some sort of a
decision, but we certainly are laying all the groundwork in case a
decision was to be made. We’re attacking their early warning systems by
blinding them. We have significant drone attacks against the nuclear
bomber base in Russia, deep within Russia. Keep in mind that, from the
Russian perspective, if you put yourself in their shoes, what do they
see? They see that Russia is being blinded to where it can’t detect
incoming attacks. Also, its nuclear bomber fleet is being attacked,
repeatedly attacked. Now we see NATO moving nuclear capable F-16 jets
into the country. You put all those together, and it is a very
nerve-wracking situation for Russia, where they have such a short period
between a nuclear launch against them and a decision being made to
counter that launch. What do they do? How do they respond?” [May 30,
2024, interview with Executive Intelligence Review (EIR)]
Ray McGovern:
“Russia views the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine as the kind of
existential threat that President John Kennedy perceived, when Moscow
installed nuclear missiles in Cuba. Those missiles were capable of
hitting, within minutes—Washington, D.C. and the Strategic Air Command
in Omaha. For readers who have missed this, U.S. missile capsules
already emplaced in Romania and Poland (ostensibly for ‘ABMs’) can
accommodate overnight what Russia calls ‘offensive strike missiles’—with
even shorter launch-to-target time—than those Kennedy strong-armed
Khrushchev to remove from Cuba, under threat of nuclear war.” [Dec. 12,
2022, Antiwar.com]
Helga Zepp-LaRouche: “I can
only say that the judgment of Scott Ritter is that once they start to
use the ATACMS missiles, which have a much longer-range and could
actually reach deep into Russian territory; or if German Chancellor
Scholz capitulates again, which he is doing, and allows the Taurus
cruise missiles to be deployed [to Ukraine], that could lead to the
absolute destruction of Moscow, of the Kremlin, and would mean a
guaranteed World War III. And we are absolutely sitting on that powder
keg. Therefore, one ATACMS away from Armageddon is exactly where we are.
And we have to really get the population mobilized… We have to convince
the people of Western Europe and the United States that the countries
of the Global South are not their enemy. What the BRICS-Plus countries
are attempting to do is to straighten out the world order… [It is]
eminently possible to establish a new security and development
architecture.” [June 5, 2024, Weekly Schiller Institute webcast]