{"id":233740,"date":"2016-03-24T15:22:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T15:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=233740"},"modified":"2016-03-24T15:22:56","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T15:22:56","slug":"us-intel-vets-warn-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/us-intel-vets-warn-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"US Intel Vets Warn Against Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>To those living \u201coutside the Beltway\u201d it may seem counterintuitive that those of us whose analysis has been correct on key issues that the U.S. government got criminally wrong \u2013 like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 \u2013 would be blacklisted from \u201cmainstream\u201d media and ostracized by the Smart People of the Establishment. But, alas, that\u2019s the way it is.<\/p>\n<p>Forget the continuing carnage in which hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions made refugees. Within the mainstream U.S. media and around Washington\u2019s major policy circles, there is little serious dialogue, much less debate about what went so hideously wrong; and Americans still innocently wonder \u2013 regarding the people on the receiving end of the blunderbuss violence \u2013 \u201cwhy they hate us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After more than 13 years of presenting thoughtful critiques to senior officials \u2013 and having little discernible impact \u2013 we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity are strongly tempted to take some solace in having made a good-faith effort to spread some truth around \u2013 and, now, go play golf. But the stakes are too high. We can\u2019t in good conscience approach the first tee without having tried one more time.<\/p>\n<p>Accordingly, we repeat <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2016\/02\/26\/vips-offers-advice-to-candidates\/\"><u>the offer<\/u><\/a> we extended on Feb. 26 \u2013 this time to the winnowed candidate roster of Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump \u2013 to make our deep experience and proven expertise available to those of you interested in the tell-it-like-it-is analysis that has been our niche for so many years.<\/p>\n<p>Given <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/vips-memos\/\"><u>our 13-year record<\/u><\/a> for accuracy and insight, we had hoped that at least one or two of you would take us up on the offer, especially since a few of you have faced criticism for a paucity of foreign policy and national security experts.<\/p>\n<p>Of more immediate importance to the nation and the world, statements by some of you in reaction to the Monday bombings in Brussels, seem to betray:<\/p>\n<p>A) Gross naivet\u00e9 about how to counter terrorism;<\/p>\n<p>B) Demagogic disregard for the civil liberty protections embodied in the U.S. Constitution; or<\/p>\n<p>C) Both of the above.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/AWCBlog\/~3\/WDjwbfhndO0\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To those living \u201coutside the Beltway\u201d it may seem counterintuitive that those of us whose analysis has been correct on key issues that the U.S. government got criminally wrong \u2013 like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 \u2013 would be blacklisted from \u201cmainstream\u201d media and ostracized by the Smart People of the Establishment. But, alas, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-233740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire","7":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}