War Mongering, CIA-Connected Think-Tank Calls For World War III

By

 Valeriy Krylko

Fellows at the Atlantic Council advocate bombing and confronting Russia, while eschewing any opportunities for peace.

The Atlantic Council is an American think tank, founded in 1961, which lies at the heart of what 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern and whistleblower termed the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think Tank Complex (MICIMATTC).

Its close ties to the CIA were evident when its former executive vice-president, Damon Wilson, was appointed CEO of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA offshoot that promotes propaganda and supports dissidents in countries whose governments have been targeted by the U.S. for regime change.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey is listed as a lifetime director of the Atlantic Council, while former CIA Directors Leon Panetta, Robert Gates and David Petraeus are also listed on its Board, along with such war criminals as Henry Kissinger, and Condeleezza Rice. 

Over the past decade, the Atlantic Council has published countless reports on Russia’s kleptocracy and disinformation under President Vladimir Putin, and has hosted anti-Russian dissidents and Belarusian opposition figures such as Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who called for more aggressive imperial intervention by the U.S. in Belarusian politics. 

One of its fellows, Michael Weiss, spreads his anti-Russia invective as an editor at the popular online media outlet, The Daily Beast. He helps run a neo-McCarthyite website, PropOrNot that promotes the worst kind of fear mongering imaginable while attacking independent media outlets, including the Ron Paul Institute, for allegedly advancing Russian propaganda.

In 2015, the Atlantic Council helped prepare a proposal for arming the Ukrainian military with offensive weaponry like Javelin anti-tank missiles—the same year that it presented its Distinguished Leadership Award to Marillyn Adams Hewson, then the CEO of Lockheed Martin, which produces Javelin missiles and many other strategic weapon platforms.

Since the commencement of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the Atlantic Council has doubled down on its long-standing Russophobia, calling for bombing Russia and starting World War III.

In February, Matthew Kroenig, the Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, argued for consideration of the U.S. preemptive use of “’tactical’ nuclear weapons.[1] This would not only kill thousands of people directly but likely cause what scientists characterize as a “nuclear winter” by injecting so much smoke and debris into the air that it will block sunlight and cause a precioitious drop in global tempratures, affecting food production across the globe.

Within a few years of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949, voluntary organizations emerged in member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) to promote what was called public understanding and support institutions that would enhance collective security. In 1954, the Atlantic Treaty Association was created and an international network of citizen associations was formally linked.

In 1961, former Secretaries of State Dean Acheson and Christian Herter, along with Will Clayton, William Foster and Theodore Achilles, recommended the creation of a new entity, the Atlantic Council of the United States, which would bring together U.S. citizens who supported the Atlantic Alliance.

Initially, it was designed to establish cooperation between the United States and Western European countries against the Soviet Union, but with the collapse of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc, the organization rapidly expanded its activities far beyond the Atlantic. In particular, the subject of its close attention was Russia, other countries that emerged on the territory of the former Soviet Union, as well as Eastern European states.

The Atlantic Council currently positions itself as a forum for political, business and intellectual international leaders. The Council’s structure includes regional centers as well as a number of functional programs related to international security and the global economy.

The official mission of the Atlantic Council is to help build constructive leadership and engagement in international affairs, based on the central role of the Atlantic community in solving global problems. The assumption of course being that the Atlantic community is superior to all others.[2]

Paul Craig Roberts, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under Ronald Reagan, calls the Atlantic Council the “marketing arm of the military-security complex.” 

In February 2009, James L. Jones, then-chairman of the Atlantic Council, stepped down in order to serve as President Obama’s new National Security Advisor and was succeeded by Sen. Chuck Hagel. Four years later, Hagel stepped down to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Numerous media reports, as well as the Atlantic Council’s own reports, show that the organization’s largest contributor is government grants from the U.S. State Department.[3]

The State Department and the U.S. Department of Defense are active sponsors of the organization. For 2021, the Atlantic Council received between $500,000 and $1 million from the U.S. Department of State alone.

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https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/04/04/war-mongering-cia-connected-think-tank-calls-for-world-war-iii/

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MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON AGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UywcZa13Nc

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

Ever since the toppling of Bashar Assad in Syria in December, Russia has been unsure whether its armed forces will be able to maintain their naval base at the Mediterranean port of Tartus and the Hmeimim airbase further north.

This uncertainty has prompted Russia to shift its focus to Libya.

"In the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Assad regime [...] you had a lot of flights and cargo ships taking Russian material from bases in Syria toward Libya," Tarek Megerisi, an analyst at the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations and author of a recent study on Russia's influence in Libya, told DW.

"So, it was clear at that point that in Moscow's eyes, Libya is the safe space for it in the Mediterranean," he added.

According to a report published in March by the New York-based think tank The Soufan Center, this is not the first time that Russian ships have called at the Tobruk naval base in eastern Libya.

The strategic port is under the control of Khalifa Haftar, the warlord and commander of the Libyan National Army militia who rules large parts of the east of the divided country.

"In June 2024, two Russian destroyers visited the Haftar-controlled Tobruk naval base. The warships' visit was billed as a training mission but was likely a continuation of the delivery of artillery to the [Libyan National Army] for potential use against its rivals in Tripoli or for export to anti-Western military forces in neighboring countries," the study highlighted.

Moscow's interests in Libya are also represented by mercenary militias such as the former Wagner Group, which now operates under the name "Africa Corps."

According to Megerisi, Moscow is pursuing several interests in Libya, which has been rattled by years  of civil war.

In principle, Russia is striving to establish a military presence in the Mediterranean, the expert told DW. So far, this had mainly been concentrated in Syria. Megerisi also pointed out that Moscow was interested in commercializing local natural resources, especially energy deposits.

Under pressure from Western sanctions, Russia is also trying to find consumers for its exports. As Megerisi noted, Libya is an important export buyer for Russian weapons.

In the Libyan conflict, Russia has been supporting the renegade commander Haftar for years. "He remains Moscow's most important partner," Ulf Laessing, head of the German political foundation Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Sahel regional program in Mali, told DW.

"The Russians also have diplomatic ties to the western part of the country and to its capital, Tripoli, but the focus is clearly on Haftar," he added.

However, this has become increasingly risky, as Haftar is now 81 years old and his rule may well be fragile in the face of political pressure from the US. One of his sons, Saddam Haftar — against whom Spain issued an arrest warrant in 2024 on suspicion of arms smuggling — has established himself as Russia's point of contact in Libya in recent years, as Megerisi pointed out in his study. He's provided Russia with a network of Libyan military bases, the expert explained.

"Russia has used all this to help Haftar's putative heir, Saddam Haftar, expand Libya's role as a hot spot for smuggling of weapons, drugs, fuel — and people," Megerisi stated.

For years, flights from Syria to eastern Libya were operated mainly by a private Syrian airline, as Laessing noted. "They brought migrants from Asia, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, to eastern Libya. From there, they were transferred to ships that set off for Italy."

According to Megerisi, human trafficking follows a fixed pattern.

"On arrival, migrants hand over their informal visas to [Haftar's forces], who detain [the people] until they receive payment by the network. They are then held for between several days to several weeks, typically in inhuman conditions, before being taken to 'launch points' where they board boats towards Europe. At this point, Saddam [Hafter] is paid again for his coastguard units to allow boats through: $100 dollars per migrant for 'smaller boats' ... or an $80,000 flat fee for larger boats," he wrote in his study. 

Others are taken to western Libya, Megerisi added: "This demonstrates how Libyan armed groups cross political divides in pursuit of profit." 

The routes migrants choose to reach Libya vary, depending on where they've come from. While Africans mostly arrive by land, people from Asia tend to come by plane. Afterwards, they usually pass through various points of contact until they reach eastern Libya, where they are handed over to Haftar's network.

This is where Moscow's interests vis-a-vis Europe come into play. "The Kremlin has weaponized migration," Megerisi stated.

According to him, this was already the case during the war in Syria, when Russian planes brought migrants from Damascus to Minsk, who then traveled on toward Western Europe.

At the time, it increased pressure on the EU's external borders, he said, adding that it is currently uncertain whether these flights are still taking place.

Since the fall of Assad, the focus of migration has been in the Sahel zone, said Megerisi. While Russian militias are helping to ensure that more people from that region find their way to Europe, they are also working hand in hand with Saddam Haftar, he sai.

In his view, Europe can best counteract people smuggling by offering migrants safe routes and checking them upon arrival. This would offer migrants safer routes of passage, and take the business out of the hands of smugglers, he noted.

This article was originally written in German. 

https://www.dw.com/en/russias-role-in-trafficking-smuggling-from-libya-to-eu/a-72274806

GUSNOTE: WHO DESTROYED LIBYA? OBAMA AND NATO IN 2011... MIGRATION TO THE EU FOLLOWED, NOT BECAUSE OF THE RUSSIANS BUT BECAUSE OF OBAMA...

WHO DESTROYED SYRIA? OBAMA (FROM 2009), BIDEN (OBAMA 2.0) AND NATO (VIA AL QAEDA, TURKEY AND ISRAEL) IN 2024....

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