Waging peace in times of war

ef. Scott Ritter would have liked to have attended the “Mut zur Ethik” conference in person, as he did last year. During the previous conference, he also shared his experiences with the people of Russia, which led him to change his opinion of ‘the Russians’ and to perceive them as equal human beings. Communicating this to the American people is an honorable endeavor and, in view of the Western propaganda against Russia, also urgently needed. Unfortunately, his personal participation was not possible because his country’s government has seized his passport. This has also made an important trip for a project and for attending the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg impossible for him.

I am a man of peace and I promote peace. But if you know me, you know that I’m an American and I love my country. I’m proud to be an American.
 I’m not proud of what my country is doing. But I recognise that it is incumbent upon me and other Americans to fix the problems that are manifest in the bad policies of government. I’m a marine, and I’m proud of my service as a marine. And this is why it’s very ironic that my government has chosen to violate the constitution of the United States by seizing my passport and denying me my constitutional right of free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of travel.
  They’ve provided no reason for this. They simply seized the passport. I think I know what the reason is because it manifested itself on 7 August when the FBI executed a search warrant at my house. I will say that in terms of having the FBI visit your home, this was the way to do it.
  They were very professional, courteous, even considerate in the execution of their duties. There was no violence or threat of violence. They did not destroy my house. They respected my belongings.

The FBI search warrant

Nevertheless, they made entry into my house against my will, and they seized my electronics. They were acting in accordance with a search warrant that had been signed off by a US magistrate judge who had received sworn affidavits from the FBI and Department of Justice, that if they gained access to my home and they seized my electronics, that the information they would find on those electronics would make their case that I was operating as an unregistered agent of a foreign government in violation of the Foreign Agent Registration act¹. The search took many hours, and during that time, I was fully cooperative with the FBI. I answered all of their questions.
  At no time did they accuse me of a crime, nor was I charged with a crime. I am not under arrest. I have not been detained. They simply seized my electronics.
  When I asked for specifics about what the probable cause is for coming in, they could not provide me any specifics, or they would not provide me any specifics. I begged of them not to leave my house with any questions unasked, that I was completely cooperative because I had nothing to hide. I was not operating as a foreign agent of a foreign government, the foreign government in question being Russia, and I would do whatever it was within my power to do to demonstrate this reality to them so that we could bring this unpleasantness to an end. They left with all of their questions asked and all of their questions answered.
  And now I wait for them to evaluate the electronics and hopefully reach the same conclusion that I tried to get them to reach during the conduct of the search. That I have done nothing wrong. The problem, though, is that we live in a time where perception is more important than reality. As I described to you during my visit last year, I was embarked on a journey of peace. I called it waging peace because our two nations, the United States and Russia, have once again fallen into what one could easily call a New Cold War.

‘A Cold War that is lurching
dangerously to a hot war’

A Cold War that is lurching dangerously to a hot war, in a hot war that would manifest itself through the use of nuclear weapons. It is my primary goal and objective as an American who loves my country, loves life, loves all life, to prevent such an outcome. It is my duty; it is my responsibility. The constitution of the United States of America, to which I have sworn my allegiance to uphold and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
  Yes, there are domestic enemies to the Constitution, and those enemies have manifested themselves in the form of the United States government. Now, some people may say that’s a very unpatriotic statement. Those people would be unfamiliar with the history of the United States. As an American citizen, I do not owe my allegiance to the government.
  I don’t work for the government. The government works for me. The government is required to carry out its duties, its tasks, its work in conformity with a constitution that provides me and the other people with certain inalienable rights. Foremost amongst these are the First Amendment, the rights contained in the First Amendment, rights of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, a free press.

Advocacy journalism

The right to have a free press. One of the duties. And I emphasise free press because in addition to being an American citizen, I am a journalist. I’m not your classic journalist. I don’t have a press credential from the “New York Times”, the “Washington Post”, or any one of the majority mainstream media outlets. No, I’m part of what one might call the practice of advocacy journalism². I advocate in the cause of peace and justice. I advocate to prevent war.
  I am what we could loosely call part of the alternative media that challenges the distortions and indeed the outright deception that is being presented to the American public through the mainstream media, which has ceased to function as independent journalists and instead have become literally an extension of the arm of government. We know this. The government outright admits that on occasion they declassify intelligence information that they know is wrong and misleading for the purpose of disseminating it to the mainstream media. Indeed, one general talking about this said he’d like to give it to CNN because they would act quicker.
  And the purpose of this was to get ahead of a Russian narrative. So they’re disseminating false information deliberately to influence a narrative to influence the American people. It is literally deception. In 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States and the landmark “United States versus New York Times” decision.
  This is the famous Pentagon Papers decision. Daniel Ellsberg leaking these papers to the “New York Times” and the “Washington Post”, who were publishing them. The Nixon administration sought to block the publication. The Supreme Court said no. And one of the justifications for this is they said it is absolutely paramount that a free press is able to challenge the lies of the government when those lies are designed to deceive the American public and lead Americans off to foreign lands where they will die from shot, shell, and disease. This is exactly what’s happening today when it comes to Russia. We are being lied to about Russia. The US government admits it is openly deceiving the American people, using the mainstream media as a vector of this deception.

John F. Kennedy: role model

I have decided that this is not tolerable, that as an American citizen, as a citizen of the world, that these deceptions must be challenged. Now, how do you go about challenging deceptions like this in a time of war? Because even though it’s not a hot war today, it is very much a cold war that is getting hotter and hotter as I speak. I turned to John F. Kennedy for my guidance, the famous president who, on June 10, 1963, delivered a commencement address at American University.
  There, Kennedy implored the American people not to see a distorted and desperate view of the other side, that being the Soviet Union, the Russians, not to see the conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication is nothing more than an exchange of threats. He said that no government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, he implored, we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements in science and in space and in economic and industrial growth, in culture, and in acts of courage. He said, in short, it’s imperative that we develop a mutual, deep interest in a just and genuine peace, in halting an arms race.

My travels to Russia

He said that it is important that we do this because in the final analysis, the most common link we have with the Russian people is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s future, and we are all mortal. I drew upon these words in my work. Yes, last May I went to Russia, but I went to Russia again in December, a trip that lasted from December to January. Why?

In the shoes of the Russian people

Because it was imperative that I put myself in the place of the Russian people to learn their perspective about the world and the world problems, to bring this perspective back to the United States, to educate the American people about the reality of Russia so that we could find these common interests upon which we could build a framework that led to peace, not war. This was a very successful trip. Too successful. The US government was afraid of what I was doing.
  I sought to capitalise upon this trip to return to Russia this summer in a journey that would take me to St. Petersburg, to the International Economic Forum, where I was scheduled to speak on panels, where I was scheduled to meet with Russian political leaders, Russian economic leaders, Russian military leaders, and the average Russian people before embarking on a 40 day journey from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea and 16 cities in between, where I would reach out to the Russian people, meet with them, talk with them, enter into a dialogue with them to better understand the world from their perspective, exactly the way John F. Kennedy had implored Americans to do, to prevent a nuclear war. This trip was too much for the US government.
  This is why they pulled my passport. And now I continue to have dialogue. And so they have raided my house to, I guess, intimidate me into being quiet, to shutting up, to understanding that there would be consequences for my actions. I think they forgot that I’m a Marine.
  I know what the consequences of my actions are. I joined a military service known for its combat capabilities. I knew that by joining the Marine Corps, I could be called upon to give my life for my country. And I was prepared to do that then, and I’m prepared to do that now.
  This battle isn’t about the United States versus Russia. This battle is about the United States versus the United States. This battle over free speech, over my right to carry out the instructions of an American president, a great American president. Instructions that would lead to a path of peace, not war.
  This is my duty as an American to hold to account those whom I elect to higher office for what they do in my name. There is no greater duty, no greater responsibility than to speak truth to power. Now, I’m not a martyr. I really don’t want to have bad things happen to me because, because by extension, bad things happen to my family.
  But if you don’t stand up for what you believe in, if you’re not willing to fight for that which you claim defines you as a person, then you are nobody. And at the end of the day, if I’m looking in a mirror in the morning and the man staring back at me stands for nothing, then my life has not been a life worth living. Everything I claim to have been trying to accomplish turns out just to be a lie. No, the man that’s going to stare back at me is the man that says, this is my fight.
  This is my life. This is my duty. I will continue to wage peace fiercely in this time of war. And I thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that through interaction with you and your wonderful organisation.  •

¹ The Foreign Agent Registration Act of 1938 requires that persons working in the US for foreign entities in a political or semi-political (economic) capacity register, document and have their activities approved. [Editor’s note]
² Advocacy journalism refers to a reporting pattern in which journalists take sides in reporting on events, people or social conditions that are underrepresented in the media. This may involve the interests of minorities and those of (powerless) majorities, which receive disproportionately little media coverage. [Editor’s note]