The much anticipated open testimony of the impeachment
inquiry of Donald Trump has begun. Those of us who have
nothing better to do, have been glued to the TV or radio, I
myself prefer NPR radio as I like my news without added
opinion. Also it leaves me free to do other things while I'm
listening, like folding laundry.
The opening statement of Rep. Adam Schiff was compelling.
He laid out the case which the previous closed-door hearings
had uncovered. If the Democrats can prove their case, it will
be a damning indictment of the President. It was a step-by-
step accounting of an orchestrated plot to obtain information,
rightly so or not, that Hunter Biden and his father, Joe Biden,
then the vice-president, were complicit in a cover-up of illegal
activities involving Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian gas company
called Burista. That alone, would not be such a problem, but the
president was also asking for proof of Ukrainian involvement
in the 2016 election on behalf of Hillary Clinton. And he wanted
the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to make an
announcement, in public, of his government's investigation of
both of these allegations.
To secure the cooperation of Zelensky, President Trump was
withholding funds that had been allocated by Congress for the
defense of the Ukraine against Russian aggression. President
Trump was also holding back an official visit to the White
House for Zelensky, such a visit would impart greater stature
for Zelensky and the new Ukrainian government. Both of these
would be confirmed , if and when, Zelensky would make the public
announcement. Prior to the phone call from President Trump to
President Zelensky, the two conditions were laid out by a series
of back-door visits from President Trump's private attorney, Rudy
Giuliani, and several other emissaries. But, before that could
occur the administration had to get rid of the U.S. ambassador
to the Ukraine, who would probably object vociferously to such goings
on. These same back-door emissaries began a smear campaign
against an outstanding career diplomat, Marie Yovanovich.
All of this appears to be for the benefit of Donald Trump's re-
election campaign. And all of this
could be construed as to be
asking a foreign country for help in interfering in an election,
as was done in the 2016 election by the Russian government.
That interference was well documented in the Mueller Report
which was released on March 22, 2019. As a result of that report
thirteen Russian operatives were indicted for election tampering,
they will never be brought to justice as they have fled the country
and Russia has no plans to extradite them. Despite the evidence
by both the FBI and the Mueller Report, of Russian involvement,
Trump still believes that it was Ukraine who was involved in the
election tampering.
But interference of this sort was not the first time nor was it
the last time that the Russians mounted a full-scale assault on
a democratic election. The New York Times reported that
Russian political operatives openly interfered in the general
election of the island country of Madagascar in November
2018. Why, you would ask, would Russia be interested in a
tiny African country. It appears that Madagascar has a very
valuable chromium mine, and the major stake holder (70%)
of the mine is an ally of Vladimir Putin. The election would
have returned the mine control back to Madagascar if the
right man was elected. As many as 30 Russians, working
openly, paid bribes, spread misinformation, and ran spoiler
candidates to secure a win the election. And win they did!
These Russian operatives are a part of Putin's private army,
the Wagner Group, which has been working in Africa for a
number of years. The Wagner Group, headed by another
Putin ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the successor of the KGB,
may be uniformed, but have no insignia identifying them.
They went into Syria to retake the oil fields, they disarmed
the Ukrainian resistance, and are involved with Assad's elite
forces in Syria. They are also moving into the Central African
Republic, Libya, and Burundi.
But Russia is not alone in interfering in democratically elected
governments. The first and the biggest was the CIA operation
to overthrow the elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1953. The
CIA worked to supplant the Prime Minister to strengthen the
rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, all to stop the
Iranian oil from being nationalized. During the unrest 200-
300 people were killed. That led to the Iran Revolution of
1978-1979 and the October 1979 seizing of our embassy
which was captured and held for 444 days.
The United States is notorious for interfering in foreign
governments when we fell they are not in our interests.
Here is but a brief synopsis:
1954 - Guatemala, a covert CIA operation to depose
the democratically elected President Jacob Arbenz.
1956-1957 - Syria, the CIA backed forces in an attempt
to overthrow the government in both 1956 and 1957,
both attempts failed and the CIA was expelled from
the country.
1957-1958 - Indonesia, the CIA attempted to blackmail
President Sukarno to lessen the communist party
influence in the elections.
1959 - Cuba, where there were five attempts by the CIA
to assassinate Fidel Castro during the years 1959-1963.
all the attempts failed.
1961- Cuba, the now famous botched Bay of Pigs invasion
by the CIA.
1964 - Brazil, the CIA supported the overthrow of the
democratically elected President Joao Goulart.
1965-1973 - Viet Nam, 1.4 million Vietnamese civilians
were killed or wounded and over 47,000 American
military killed, before the war ended March 29, 1973
All of these were either sanctioned by the Congress or the president
with the approval of the Congress, which does not excuse them, but
makes them legal in terms of approved covert or overt actions. None
were done for the expressed benefit of the President personally. This
is why we must take up these investigations, so whether it is the CIA,
the Russians, or the President himself, we Americans must say that
election manipulation will be exposed and stopped, no matter where
it occurs or who benefits from it.
I'm just sayin'.
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