{"id":270792,"date":"2016-10-03T02:50:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T02:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/obama-warned-to-defuse-tensions-with-russia\/"},"modified":"2016-10-03T02:50:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T02:50:16","slug":"obama-warned-to-defuse-tensions-with-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/obama-warned-to-defuse-tensions-with-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Warned to Defuse Tensions with Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>A group of ex-U.S. intelligence officials are warning President Obama to defuse\u00a0growing tensions with Russia over Syria by reining in the demonization of President Putin and\u00a0asserting White House civilian control over the\u00a0Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-21101\"\/>ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President<\/p>\n<p>FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity<\/p>\n<p>SUBJECT: PREVENTING STILL WORSE IN SYRIA<\/p>\n<p>We write to alert you, <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2003\/02\/05\/powells-un-speech-and-the-case-for-war\/\"><u>as we did President George W. Bush<\/u><\/a>, six weeks before the attack on Iraq, that the consequences of limiting your circle of advisers to a small, relatively inexperienced coterie with a dubious record for wisdom can prove disastrous.*\u00a0Our concern this time regards Syria.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21011\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/692968.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/692968-300x200.jpg\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21011\" alt=\"Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly\u2019s seventy-first session. 20 September 2016 (UN Photo)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/692968-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/692968-160x107.jpg 160w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/692968.jpg 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21011\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/692968-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly\u2019s seventy-first session. 20 September 2016 (UN Photo)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/692968-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/692968-160x107.jpg 160w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/692968.jpg 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Barack Obama addresses the\u00a0General Assembly\u2019s seventy-first session on Sept.\u00a020, 2016 (UN Photo)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>We are hoping that your <em>President\u2019s Daily Brief<\/em> tomorrow will give appropriate attention to Saturday\u2019s warning by Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova: \u201cIf the US launches a direct aggression against Damascus and the Syrian Army, it would cause a terrible, tectonic shift not only in the country, but in the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Russian TV, she warned of those whose \u201clogic is \u2018why do we need diplomacy\u2019 \u2026 when there is power \u2026 and methods of resolving a problem by power. We already know this logic; there is nothing new about it. It usually ends with one thing \u2013 full-scale war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We are also hoping that this is not the first you have hear of this \u2013 no doubt officially approved \u2013 statement.\u00a0If on Sundays you rely on the \u201cmainstream\u201d press, you may well have missed it.\u00a0In the Washington Post, an abridged report of Zakharova\u2019s remarks (nothing about \u201cfull-scare war\u201d) was buried in the last paragraph of an 11-paragraph article titled \u201cHospital in Aleppo is hit again by bombs.\u201d\u00a0The New York Times totally ignored the Foreign Ministry spokesperson\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n<p>In our view, it would be a huge mistake to allow your national security advisers to follow the example of the Post and Times in minimizing the importance of Zakharova\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n<p>Events over the past several weeks have led Russian officials to distrust Secretary of State John&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2016\/10\/02\/obama-warned-to-defuse-tensions-with-russia\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of ex-U.S. intelligence officials are warning President Obama to defuse\u00a0growing tensions with Russia over Syria by reining in the demonization of President Putin and\u00a0asserting White House civilian control over the\u00a0Pentagon. ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity SUBJECT: PREVENTING STILL WORSE IN SYRIA We write to alert you, as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-270792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}