RPI Chairman and Founder Ron Paul, speaking on the Fox Business show The Independents Wednesday night, addresses the Central Intelligence Agency’s spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee — seemingly to cover up torture revelations against the agency. Paul notes the irony that Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) “doesn’t care about our privacy, but, lo and behold, she does care about her own.”

Watch the complete interview here:

In this episode of The Truthseeker, RPI Director Daniel McAdams is interviewed about the role of NGOs and state-sponsored “human rights” groups in pushing US foreign policy and training locals in the techniques of coup d’etat and regime change. The episode is a fascinating look into the role of these groups in unrest from Libya to Syria to Ukraine. From the phony “Kony 2012” film to the phony “I Am Ukrainian” film — all produced by individuals with US State Department contacts and backing.

Officially, US debt stands at more than $17 trillion. In reality, it is many times more. The cost of the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq may be more than six trillion dollars. President Obama’s illegal invasion of Libya cost at least a billion dollars and left that country devastated. The costs of US regime change efforts in Syria are likely thus far enormous, both in dollars and lives. That’s still a secret.

So who in his right mind would think it is a good time to start a war with Russia over Ukraine? And worse, who would commit the United States to bail out a Ukraine that will need at least $35 billion to survive the year?

Who? The president and Congress, backed by the neocons and the so-called humanitarian interventionists!

The House voted overwhelmingly last week to provide $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine. That is just the beginning, you can be sure. But let’s be clear: this is not money for the population of that impoverished country. The Administration is sending a billion dollars from US taxpayers to wealthy international bankers who hold Ukrainian debt. It is an international bank bailout, not aid to Ukrainians. And despite the escalating anti-Russia rhetoric, ironically some of that money will likely go to Russia for Ukraine’s two billion dollar unpaid gas bill!

So what happened in Ukraine? The US government and media claims that the US must save Ukrainian democracy from an invading Russian army that is threatening the country’s sovereignty. But in reality the crisis was instigated in part by US meddling. Remember the intercepted telephone call in which two senior Obama Administration officials discussed plans to replace the elected government in Ukraine with US puppets? That is exactly what happened. Is that not a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty? Is that what democracy is all about?
 
The Obama Administration’s policy toward Ukraine is hypocritical. The overthrow of the government in Kiev by violent street protests was called a triumph of democracy, but when the elected parliament in autonomous Crimea voted last week to hold a referendum to decide its future, President Obama condemned it as a violation of international law. What about the principle of self-determination, which is also enshrined in international law?
 
I have long thought that a referendum to reorganize Ukraine into a looser confederation of regions might help reduce tensions. I still believe this could help, but it seems the US government is not so enthusiastic about democracy when there is a chance for an outcome it opposes.

I strongly believe that Crimeans have every right to transfer sovereignty over their peninsula to Russia if they wish. The only question that remains is whether there will there be an honest election, and I don’t see any reason there can’t be.

The US government tells the rest of the world, “We want you to be good democrats and have elections,” but if they don’t elect the right people then we complain about it and throw them out, like we did in Egypt. In Crimea they want to have an election to determine their future. President Obama condemned those plans for a vote by saying, “We are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders.” Does he not remember that the authorities in Kiev were installed just weeks ago after a US-backed coup against the Ukrainian constitution?

Congress next week will likely vote for sanctions against Russia. Though many mistakenly believe that sanctions are a relatively harmless way of forcing foreign countries to do what we say, we should be clear: sanctions are an act of war.
 
Cooler heads in the United States are not currently prevailing. There is a danger of an unimaginable conflict between the US and Russia. We must demand a shift away from a war footing, away from incendiary rhetoric. We are broke and cannot afford to “buy” Ukraine. We certainly cannot afford another war, especially with Russia!

RPI Chairman and Founder, interviewed on RT, explains that the United States should not bail out Ukraine, either directly or indirectly through the European Union or International Monetary Fund. “The whole thing makes no sense whatsoever from an economic viewpoint, from a political viewpoint,” says Paul, “It’s always vying for controls, and I think that is what’s going on.”

RPI academic advisor, Prof. Mark Almond, explains how the US and its NATO allies are suddenly realizing that they have unleashed a force in western Ukraine that is highly destabliizing, with the repeal of the language law and the repeal of the law banning Nazi symbols being the early legislation passed by the US-backed group in control in Kiev. Panic is setting in the West.

Said Almond:

Suddenly the whole mood music from Washington, from London, from Brussels, even from Warsaw, is to say reach out to the Russian population, reach out to the Jewish population that is fearful of this radical neo-Nazi type rhetoric and stormtrooper squads roaming the streets in some of the cities of Ukraine. They have realized that the coup that overthrew Yanukovich has not been the end of the drama, but only the first act.

It is the sign of a rather childish, almost unbelievably incompetent attitude on the part of the NATO countries that they facilitated this crisis without thinking through what would happen. That you are unleashing forces of nationalism, of fear, that can become uncontrollable.

Watch the whole interview here:

Speaking this morning on Fox News, Judge Andrew Napolitano, an RPI Advisory Board member, explains the Unites States Supreme Court’s Fernandez v. California decision this week that gives police greater leeway to search homes without a warrant. Napolitano describes the decision as a “U-turn” away from privacy protection that bodes badly for future cases before the court, including cases concerning the National Security Agency and the US government’s mass spying program:

A month before violence ripped Ukraine apart, RPI contributor Christine Stone provided an in-depth analysis of Ukraine’s precarious position, accurately forecasting the disaster that was to come.

Appropriately titled “Ukraine: Europe’s Partner or Puppet?” Stone wrote in October, 2013:

As the second most populous former Soviet republic, Ukraine has seemed uncomfortable with its independence since 1991 and less than committed to making it work. The fundamental issue has always been, does the country remain entwined with its larger neighbour Russia, or does it succumb to the blandishments of the West and distance itself completely from a country with which it was co-joined for over 1000 years?
…
With its shaky economy and political turmoil in several EU and euro member states, is this what the European Union really needs? With Russia now showing a more robust approach to what it sees as its ‘national interest’ who knows whether what seems on the surface to be an economic spat could lead to something deadlier.

Here is Christine Stone today discussing the aftermath of the “people’s revolution” in Ukraine:

“What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests?”
– Rep. Ron Paul, US House, Feb. 13, 2009

Judge Andrew Napolitano, speaking on Fox News this morning, explains that it is both illegal and unconstitutional for President Barack Obama to use drones or other means to “targeted kill” United States citizens. Napolitano, an RPI Advisory Board member, elaborates that “only the Congress can enact a law” — not a president on his own — and that the US Constitution guarantees a jury trial to Americans, including Americans accused of treason, before the government can deprive them of life, liberty, and property.

A new Cold War? RPI Academic Advisor Mark Almond joins Peter Lavelle and guests to debate whether a new Cold War is brewing, pitting the West against Russia. The US media is hysterical in its attacks on Russia, says Peter Lavelle, even more strident than he remembers during the original Cold War. Prof. Almond points out that although the West’s ideological argument against Russia has disappeared — in some ways Russia is more capitalist than some of the European countries that join with the US to criticize it — the russophobia has become even stronger. All guests agree that there is a remote, but terrifying, possibility that the new Cold War may turn hot if the West continues to push the “Berlin Wall” toward Moscow. Watch this very important episode of Crosstalk:

As Ukraine spins out of control, US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks out of both sides of his mouth — telling the opposition that it has full US support, while warning that “outside powers” should not get involved in the political crisis. RPI Director Daniel McAdams is on RT today to discuss this US disconnect on Ukraine:

Ron Paul keynote speech at Mises Circle Houston last week. He speaks on war and peace and the police state. The original tea party was very soon co-opted by warmongers. Our role is to educate ourselves and to help educate others. Listen to this inspiring speech!