Free Republic

Raymond McGovern is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer turned political activist. McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief.

In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law No. 7172-1 that will ban opposition parties and seize their property. The law targets opposition parties if they deny the armed aggression against Ukraine.The law includes actions that support the Russian Federation and Republic of Belarus, the two invading countries.The news was first published on the Ukrainian news website UKRinform. This news was reported the same day US GOP Senators paid him a visit in Kyiv to show their support.Zelenskyy also closed all of the TV stations and consolidated them into one state-run channel.“Ukraine has had to take extraordinary measures to...

A look at how the majority of the rest of the world sees things through the lens of Pepe Escobar. Pepe Escobar is a Brazilian journalist and geopolitical analyst. His column "The Roving Eye" for Asia Times regularly discusses the multi-national "competition for dominance over the Middle East and Central Asia." Very useful, eye opening discussion for the very intelligent freepers. I do not recommend it for the others.

Answer to one question Scott Ritter: Well now we have people who say we want to do this with Ukraine. Well right off the bat I want to tell you any time we deal with Russia, let's put it this way, you can't solve a problem unless you have properly defined the problem. Any time we are dealing with Russia we need to understand that the United States and our NATO allies don't understand Russia. We don't have an accurate assessment of Russia. We've under estimated them in some areas and over estimated them in other areas. I'll give you...

Great interview by an excellent military historian.

Western mainstream press previously lauded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a guardian of democracy. However, as ex-Donald Trump adviser Steve Cortes observes in his Newsweek op-ed, its tone is changing. The Zelensky narrative used by western media "has palpably shifted" over the last few weeks, according to Steve Cortes, a US political consultant, market strategist and former Trump campaign adviser.This shift particularly comes in relation to the latest CBS News report which alleged that "much of the billions of dollars of military aid that the US is sending to Ukraine doesn't make it to the front lines." Cortes also cites...

The SU-57 has apparently been seen over Ukraine recently, but not in numbers yet. This is Russia's top fighter. The 34 is more like a medium bomber than a fighter, sort of a 2015 version of the B25.

Welcome to my newest update on Putin’s War in Ukraine. We are now 36 weeks — 254 days — since Russia launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine. My last update can be found at Putin’s War, Week 35. The Lull Before the Next Storm. There has been some action, but the crappy weather has slowed things down. Also, both sides are somewhat tired after a punishing summer’s campaigning. I look at this period as the break when the fighters have returned to their corners. Two significant items have been covered outside this update. First, the Pentagon is beefing up the...

As part of a 'de-communization drive,' Ukraine dismantled Lenin statues nationwide after its 2014 revolution overthrew a Moscow-backed regime Moscow’s occupying authorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol said Saturday they had brought back a statue of Lenin, seven years after it was taken down following Kyiv’s pro-EU revolution. The Moscow-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region, Vladimir Rogov, posted a photograph of workers in the city reinstating the tribute to the Bolshevik leader. "After seven years the statue of Vladimir Lenin has returned to its place in Melitopol,” he said, adding that city authorities had taken it down in...

Last week on October 19 the US Navy announced that “General Michael ‘Erik’ Kurilla [lead image, lower right] , commander of CENTCOM, conducted a visit aboard the USS West Virginia [top], a U.S. Navy Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine at an undisclosed location at sea in international waters in the Arabian Sea. Kurilla was joined on the USS West Virginia by Vice Admiral Brad Cooper [lower left], commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and NAVCENT.” The Fifth Fleet and the Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) are headquartered at Bahrain on the Persian Gulf. From Bahrain down the Gulf to...

Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov has slammed Russia's 'weak' attacks on Ukraine in the latest show of high profile dissent from one of Vladimir Putin's biggest cheerleaders. The colonel general ordered Kremlin troops to 'wipe out Ukrainian cities off the face of the earth' in a chilling video message on Telegram. The head of the Chechen Republic said Russia should respond with fire and fury to the surge in counterattacks on its border regions. His dire threats come as Moscow doubled down on its warning that Kyiv is preparing to use a 'dirty bomb', amid fears the Kremlin could stage a...

The very question posed to Lukashenko demonstrates how biased the media is. There is ZERO independence and certainly ZERO effort by any investigative journalist to challenge whatever either side says in a war because it is always a propaganda war simultaneously. Zelensky was voted in to create peace and carry out the Minsk Agreement. The US and NATO told him NOT to negotiate peace. This is a proxy war and this is the real issue that the media refuses to even discuss.

US Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Amy Klobuchar told Ukrainian troops in December 2016 that they would help make 2017 a “year of offense” against Russia and that it was time to make Russia “pay a heavier price”. Knowing they had an agreement with Putin not to let NATO get closer to Russia. The Deep State and NATO have been actively planning and conducting uprisings and unrest worldwide in Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia, Libya etc. Ukraine is just one more in a long list of countries that have been devastated for the benefit of the very few that pull the...

https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbards-dem-decision-fuels-speculation-shes-trumps-vp-choice-1750971 -- Former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's decision to leave the Democratic Party has some wondering whether she could be former President Donald Trump's future running mate. Gabbard announced on Tuesday in a video shared to social media that she was no longer a Democrat, and said the party was being led by "an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness" who promote "anti-white racism." She went on to say that she was leaving the party to become an Independent in part because she believed Democrats were bringing the world "ever closer to nuclear war." -- Very interesting. Trump himself,...

Mi>The western narrative of a ‘losing Russia’ has just been decimated by Moscow’s blitzkrieg against Ukraine and its foreign-backed terror operations The terror attack on Krymskiy Most – the Crimea Bridge – was the proverbial straw that broke the Eurasian camel’s back. Russian President Vladimir Putin neatly summarized it: “This is a terrorist attack aimed at destroying the critical civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation.”The head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, confirmed face-to-face with Putin that Terror on the Bridge was carried out by the SBU – Ukrainian special services.Bastrykin told Putin, “we have already established the route...

Yesterday’s response revealed more than hypocrisy or even projection from Vladimir Putin — it revealed desperation. After the humiliation of the attack on the Kerch bridge, which Putin personally opened as a symbol of Russian permanence in Ukraine, Putin unleashed cruise missile attacks on cities across Ukraine overnight. Missiles struck as far from the front as Lviv, making it clear that this had no military value but instead was a terror attack on Ukrainians:(snip) Ahem. The Kerch bridge was and still is a legitimate military target, as it is a major line of communication for the Russian military. In fact,...

ST. PETERSBURG. October 10. /TASS/. Russia will respond toughly, if the Kiev regime continues attempts to carry out terror attacks on Russian territory, President of Russia Vladimir Putin said on Monday. "If attempts continue to carry out terror attacks on our territory, Russia’s responses will be tough and by their scope correspond to the level of threats created for the Russian Federation," the head of state said at a meeting with members of Russia’s Security Council. "No one must have any doubts about that," Putin stressed. By its acts, the Kiev regime has put itself on a par with international...

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday people were killed and injured in multiple missile strikes on cities across Ukraine, including the first bombardment of the capital in months. CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata said the strikes, which could signal a major escalation in the eight-month-old war, appeared to be entirely punitive — retaliation meant to terrorize Ukrainian civilians in densely-populated urban neighborhoods, close to government buildings, with one even hitting a children's playground. Ukraine's national police later said at least 10 people were killed and about 60 others injured by the missile strikes early Monday morning. Russia's strongman leader...

Citing witness accounts., Reuters reports on Monday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky's office was destroyed by a missile strike. In this explosion in Kyiv, clouds of black smoke could be seen rising from buildings in the city's centre, witnesses report. Various media outlets are reporting that Missile attacks are hitting major Ukrainian cities, including central Kyiv hit while some neighborhoods in Lviv and Ternopil are left with no electricity.

This was a live stream so the link takes you to the last couple mins. You need to pull the minute mark line back to the beginning of the stream. Ritter is on immediately and his participation ends at the 48min. mark