Philip Giraldi Archive - The Unz Review

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Victoria Nuland Alert

The foreign interventionists really hate Russia

Philip Giraldi • June 23, 2020

• 1,900 Words • 210 Comments • Reply

It is difficult to find anything good to say about Donald Trump, but the reality is that he has not started any new wars, though he has come dangerously close in the cases of Venezuela and Iran and there would be considerable incentive in the next four months to begin something to bolster his “strong... Read More

Trump the Peace Candidate? This President Abhors International Treaties

Philip Giraldi • May 28, 2020

• 1,300 Words • 54 Comments • Reply

Let us consider why the Donald Trump White House is currently considering detonating a nuclear weapon. It would be the first “test” of a nuke since 1992 and is clearly intended to send a message that those weapons sitting around in storage will be available for use. The testing is in response to alleged development... Read More

U.S. President Donald Trump leads a coronavirus response news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria - RC2ADG9PPF26

America the Victim

Are Enemies Lining Up for Revenge in the Wake of the Coronavirus?

Philip Giraldi • April 30, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 195 Comments • Reply

When in trouble politically, governments have traditionally conjured up a foreign enemy to explain why things are going wrong. Whatever one chooses to believe about the coronavirus, the fact is that it has resulted in considerable political backlash against a number of governments whose behavior has been perceived as either too extreme or too dilatory.... Read More

The Russians Get Blamed Again, But Who Is Really Subverting American Democracy?

Philip Giraldi • April 16, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 33 Comments • Reply

It is perhaps inevitable that a major health panic like the coronavirus will have political ramifications based on whether those most affected by the illness will perceive that the government performed well or poorly in the crisis. The government for its part will engage in a blame game which seeks to place responsibility for what... Read More

George Soros in His Own Words

Philip Giraldi • April 16, 2020

• 1,500 Words

George Soros is a billionaire Hungarian-born investor who is extremely controversial due to his promotion of what he chooses to define as democracy and free-trade movements, primarily conducted through the Open Society Foundations, which he founded and has funded with $32 billion, according to one estimate. He contributed to the campaigns of Barack Obama and... Read More

More American Blunders in the Middle East: U.S. Envoys Embrace Terrorists Yet Again

Philip Giraldi • March 14, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 24 Comments • Reply

The spread of the coronavirus has meant that much of the other news about developments around the world has disappeared from the normal news cycle. The situation in Syria, which involves not only the government in Damascus but also Turkey, Russia, Iran and a remaining American force in part of the country has been proving... Read More

Explaining Syria

It's everyone's fault except the U.S. and Israel

Philip Giraldi • February 18, 2020

• 1,700 Words • 341 Comments • Reply

The first week in February was memorable for the failed impeachment of President Donald Trump, the “re-elect me” State of the Union address and the marketing of a new line of underwear by Kim Kardashian. Given all of the excitement, it was easy to miss a special State Department press briefing by Ambassador James Jeffrey... Read More

Why Both Republicans and Democrats Want Russia to Become the Enemy of Choice

Philip Giraldi • February 6, 2020

• 1,400 Words • 64 Comments • Reply

One of the more interesting aspects of the nauseating impeachment trial in the Senate was the repeated vilification of Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. To hate Russia has become dogma on both sides of the political aisle, in part because no politician has really wanted to confront the lesson of the 2016 election, which... Read More

An End to the World as We Know It?

Congress and the White House compete in year-end stupidity sweepstakes

Philip Giraldi • December 24, 2019

• 1,500 Words • 205 Comments • Reply

At the end of the nineteenth century, Lord Palmerston stated what he thought was obvious, that “England has no eternal friends, England has no perpetual enemies, England has only eternal and perpetual interests.” Palmerston was saying that national interests should drive the relationships with foreigners. A nation will have amicable relations most of the time... Read More

Rethinking National Security: CIA and FBI Are Corrupt, But What About Congress?

Philip Giraldi • November 21, 2019

• 1,400 Words • 26 Comments • Reply

The developing story about how the US intelligence and national security agencies may have conspired to influence and possibly even reverse the results of the 2016 presidential election is compelling, even if one is disinclined to believe that such a plot would be possible to execute. Not surprisingly perhaps there have been considerable introspection among... Read More

How to Start an Unnecessary War

Targeting Iran started before 2016

Philip Giraldi • June 25, 2019

• 1,800 Words • 650 Comments • Reply

I confess to being mystified by those Americans who lean conservative, like myself, who continue to think that President Donald J. Trump is somehow doing a good job. To be sure, the economy continues to add mostly low paying jobs but claims that the new tax law benefits the middle class are a bit hard... Read More

Rumors of War: Washington Is Looking for a Fight

Philip Giraldi • April 18, 2019

• 1,300 Words • 18 Comments • Reply

It is depressing to observe how the United States of America has become the evil empire. Having served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and in the Central Intelligence Agency for the second half of the Cold War, I had an insider’s viewpoint of how an essentially pragmatic national security policy was... Read More

What Foreign Threats?

The biggest threats to America come from its "friends"

Philip Giraldi • December 4, 2018

• 1,400 Words • 235 Comments • Reply

One of the local Washington television stations was doing a typical early morning honoring our soldiers schtick just before Thanksgiving. In it soldiers stationed far from home were treated to videolinks so they could talk to their families and everyone could nod happily and wish themselves a wonderful holiday. Not really listening, I became interested... Read More

America Goes to War

Fighting Russia, China and al-Qaeda simultaneously requires more money

Philip Giraldi • November 6, 2018

• 1,500 Words • 329 Comments • Reply

Some believe that the Cold War ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union fell apart. In retrospect, many observers also believe that a golden opportunity was missed to heal the wounds inflicted by over 45 years to hostility between the Washington and Moscow. Rather than encouraging development of a Russia that would adhere to Western... Read More

One Click Closer to Annihilation

Last week Washington threatened Iran, Syria, China, Venezuela and Russia

Philip Giraldi • October 2, 2018

• 1,700 Words • 440 Comments • Reply

The nuclear war doomsday clock maintained on the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists website has advanced to two minutes before midnight, the closest point to possible atomic apocalypse since the end of the Cold War. In 1995 the clock was at fourteen minutes to midnight, but the opportunity to set it back even further was lost... Read More

The Path to World War III

Risky Israeli behavior threatens everyone

Philip Giraldi • September 25, 2018

• 1,600 Words • 397 Comments • Reply

The minimal U.S. press coverage accorded to last Monday’s shooting down of a Russian intelligence plane off the coast of Syria is, of course, a reflection both of lack of interest and of Israel’s involvement in the incident. If one had read the New York Times or the Washington Post on the morning after the... Read More

America the Punitive

Philip Giraldi • August 17, 2018

• 800 Words • 10 Comments • Reply

There has been a dramatic shift in how the United States government carries out its business internationally. Admittedly, Washington has had a tendency to employ force to get what it has wanted ever since 9/11, but it also sometimes recognized that other countries had legitimate interests and accepted there was a place for diplomacy to... Read More

Is Bill Browder the Most Dangerous Man in the World?

The darling of the war party needs to answer some questions

Philip Giraldi • July 24, 2018

• 1,700 Words • 246 Comments • Reply

At the press conference following their summit meeting in Helsinki, Russian President Vladimir Putin and American President Donald Trump discussed the possibility of resolving potential criminal cases involving citizens of the two countries by permitting interrogators from Washington and Moscow to participate in joint questioning of the individuals named in indictments prepared by the respective... Read More

The Establishment Strikes Back

Philip Giraldi • July 19, 2018

• 1,100 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

There are a number of elements in the recent release of an indictment of twelve named alleged Russian military intelligence GRU officers by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein looking into possible ties between Moscow and the Trump Administration that I find either implausible or even incoherent. But before considering that, it is necessary to consider... Read More

A Tale of Two Poisonings

Shaping a story to fit the agenda

Philip Giraldi • July 17, 2018

• 1,500 Words • 91 Comments • Reply

Poisoning enemies has a long history with Augustus Caesar’s wife Livia allegedly a master of the art, as were the Borgias in Renaissance Italy. Lately there has been a resurgence in allegations regarding the use of poisons of various types by several governments. The claims are particularly damaging both morally and legally as international conventions... Read More

Hating Russia Is a Full-Time Job

Neocons resurrect tribal memories to fan the flames

Philip Giraldi • June 5, 2018

• 1,700 Words • 317 Comments • Reply

Having just returned from a trip to Russia, I am pleased to report that the Russian people and the officialdom that I encountered displayed none of the vitriol towards Americans that I half expected as a response to the vilifying of Moscow and all its works that pervades the U.S. media and Establishment. To be... Read More

Liars Lying About Nearly Everything

Skripalgate is the latest chapter in Russiagate

Philip Giraldi • April 10, 2018

• 1,600 Words • 440 Comments • Reply

At least since the time of Marcus Tullius Cicero in the late Roman Republic everyone has certainly understood that politicians lie all the time. To be sure, President Donald Trump has been exceptional in that he has followed through on some of the promises he made in his campaign, insisting periodically that he has to... Read More

Let's Investigate John Brennan

Time to find out if CIA interfered in the 2016 election

Philip Giraldi • March 27, 2018

• 1,700 Words • 100 Comments • Reply

Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, a Barack Obama friend and protégé as well as a current paid contributor for NBC and MSNBC, has blasted President Donald Trump for congratulating President Vladimir Putin over his victory in recent Russian national elections. He said that the U.S. President is “afraid of the president of... Read More

Russiagate Comes to England

Who poisoned the Russian spy?

Philip Giraldi • March 20, 2018

• 1,600 Words • 341 Comments • Reply

I don’t know what happened in Salisbury England on March 4th, but it appears that the British government doesn’t know either. Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech before Parliament last Monday was essentially political, reflecting demands that she should “do something” in response to the mounting hysteria over the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei... Read More

Christopher Steele As Seen By the New Yorker

Liberal fantasies beatify the messenger

Philip Giraldi • March 13, 2018

• 1,700 Words • 216 Comments • Reply

The latest salvo in the Russiagate saga is a 15,000 word New Yorker article entitled “Christopher Steele the man behind the Trump dossier: how the ex-spy tried to warn the world about Trump’s ties to Russia” by veteran journalist Jane Mayer. The premise of the piece is clear from the tediously long title, namely that... Read More

Russiagate Suddenly Becomes Bigger

Will every critic of our government policies soon be indictable?

Philip Giraldi • February 20, 2018

• 2,000 Words • 214 Comments • Reply

It’s hard to know where to begin. Last Friday’s indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies by Special Counsel Robert Mueller was detailed in a 37 page document that provided a great deal of specific evidence claiming that a company based in St. Petersburg, starting in 2014, was using social media to assess... Read More

Destroying Syria

Why does Washington hate Bashar al-Assad?

Philip Giraldi • January 23, 2018

• 1,900 Words • 664 Comments • Reply

The Donald Trump administration is planning to install a 30,000 strong armed “security force” in northern Syria along the borders with Turkey and Iraq. This presumably will tie together and support the remaining rag-tags of allegedly pro-democracy rebels and will fit in with existing and proposed U.S. bases. The maneuver is part of a broader... Read More

Meet the Corrupt Billionaire Who Has Brought About a New Cold War

Philip Giraldi • January 2, 2018

• 700 Words • Leave a Comment

One has to ask why there is a crisis in US-Russia relations since Washington and Moscow have much more in common than not, to include confronting international terrorism, stabilizing Syria and other parts of the world that are in turmoil, and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. In spite of all that, the US and... Read More

National Security Searches for a Strategy

Proliferating enemies with no end in sight

Philip Giraldi • December 26, 2017

• 1,900 Words • 558 Comments • Reply

The end of the year is full of goodies. I watched with glee the 128 to 9 vote at the United Nations condemning the Trump Administration decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and was even more amused when the Associated Press and the New York Post tried to twist the story into a... Read More

Russiagate Becomes Israelgate

Who was corrupting the American political system?

Philip Giraldi • December 5, 2017

• 1,800 Words • 868 Comments • Reply

Reading the mainstream media headlines relating to the flipping of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to provide evidence relating to the allegations about Russian interference in America’s last presidential election requires the suspension of one’s cognitive processes. Ignoring completely what had actually occurred, the “Russian story” with its subset of “getting Trump” was on... Read More

Sputnik and RT Under Investigation

Is it news or propaganda? And what about the First Amendment?

Philip Giraldi • October 10, 2017

• 1,600 Words • 154 Comments • Reply

Somehow everything keeps coming back around to Russia. In one of its recent initiatives, the Justice Department (DOJ) appears to be attacking the First Amendment as part of the apparent bipartisan program to make Vladimir Putin the fall guy for everything that goes wrong in Washington. In the past month, the DOJ has revealed that... Read More

The New Know-Nothings In Congress

Hearings are endorsements of established viewpoints

Philip Giraldi • August 8, 2017

• 2,400 Words • Leave a Comment

A congressman once admitted to me that he and his colleagues know a lot of things, generally speaking, but their knowledge only “extends about one inch deep.” In other words, the briefings provided by staffers and in committees is intended to touch only on what is important to know to look well informed in front... Read More

Groupthink at the CIA

Hating Russia and Trump is de rigueur

Philip Giraldi • August 1, 2017

• 1,800 Words • 172 Comments • Reply

Long ago, when I was a spear carrying middle ranker at CIA, a colleague took me aside and said that he had something to tell me “as a friend,” that was very important. He told me that his wife had worked for years in the Agency’s Administrative Directorate, as it was then called, where she... Read More

$fracking-hydraulic-fracturing$

Fracking Around with the Russians

What will those rascals in Moscow do next?

Philip Giraldi • July 18, 2017

• 1,400 Words • 183 Comments • Reply

It has been another week full of news about Russia. Americans might be surprised to learn that nearly every aspect of their lives has been somehow impacted by the insidious covert activity of a former global enemy that now has an economy the size of Spain or Italy. One of the latest claims is that... Read More

Was Russia Probing U.S. Electoral Systems?

Maybe, but gathering intelligence is not the same as full interference

Philip Giraldi • June 6, 2017

• 1,100 Words • Leave a Comment

The most recent Russiagate expose comes from The Intercept, which was founded by Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill. The site has been the source of a number of stories that rely on stolen or leaked government documents, including material from Edward Snowden. It has also produced some exemplary investigative reporting on U.S. government high crimes... Read More

What Did John Brennan and Anonymous Sources Really Say?

Speaking to a Russian becomes treasonous

Philip Giraldi • May 30, 2017

• 1,300 Words • 99 Comments • Reply

The Washington Post and a number of other mainstream media outlets are sensing blood in the water in the wake of former CIA Director John Brennan’s public testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. The Post headlined a front page featured article with Brennan's explosive testimony just made it harder for the GOP to protect Trump.... Read More

Do High-Level Leaks Suggest a Conspiracy?

National-security officials may see themselves as patriots, but their methods set a dangerous precedent

Philip Giraldi • May 18, 2017

• 1,600 Words • Leave a Comment

Back in my time in the CIA, there were two places in the headquarters building one could go that were free speech zones—places where it was safe to vent about senior management without necessarily being admonished or even reported. They were the Historical Intelligence Collection room off the library, where no one ever went to... Read More

Are They Really Out to Get Trump?

Sometimes paranoia is justified

Philip Giraldi • May 16, 2017

• 1,600 Words • 212 Comments • Reply

President Donald Trump is not exactly known for his self-restraint. The recent firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey was not handled with any delicacy and has unleashed a firestorm of criticism coming from across the political spectrum. And since Comey’s abrupt dismissal the backstabbing has become even worse, with many coming... Read More

Why Was Comey Fired?

The simplest explanation is that Trump doesn’t like him much and doesn’t trust him at all

Philip Giraldi • May 10, 2017

• 900 Words • Leave a Comment

The firing of FBI Director James Comey may have been a surprise to some, most particularly in the media, but there was a certain inevitability about it given the bureau’s clear inability to navigate the troubled political waters that developed early last summer and have continued ever since. The initial reaction that it may have... Read More

Shambolic Doings in Washington

Will we survive the next 90 days?

Philip Giraldi • April 25, 2017

• 1,900 Words • 160 Comments • Reply

There remains one good thing to say about Donald Trump: he is not Hillary. The boneheaded cruise missile attack in Syria would have occurred even earlier under President Rodham Clinton and there would undoubtedly be no-fly and safe zones already in place. Oh, and Ukraine and Georgia would be negotiating their entries into NATO to... Read More

Will Russiagate Become Obamagate?

Obama appointees may have hoped Carter Page would be the smoking gun they needed to bring down Trump

Philip Giraldi • April 13, 2017

• 1,000 Words • Leave a Comment

Russiagate’s latest celebrity is a former Donald Trump associate named Carter Page. Page, who worked for Merrill Lynch in Moscow and speaks Russian, is a banker and investor who early in 2016 was a part of the amorphous group that was advising Trump on foreign policy. There is no evidence to suggest that he was... Read More

Iran the Destabilizer

A world in turmoil, thank you Mr. Trump!

Philip Giraldi • April 11, 2017

• 2,000 Words • 154 Comments • Reply

The real Donald Trump has been exposed. The man who promised a sensible and non-interventionist Middle Eastern policy and a reset with Moscow has now reneged on both pledges. His nitwit United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has directly linked Russia and Syria for punishment by the omnipotent Leader of the Free World lest anyone be... Read More

By Jingo, an "Act of War!"

More chickenhawks on parade for war with Russia

Philip Giraldi • April 4, 2017

• 1,600 Words • 175 Comments • Reply

The latest Democratic Party shill to demonize Russia is, I am ashamed to say, my state of Virginia’s Senator Mark Warner, who, on Thursday said “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a deliberate campaign carefully constructed to undermine our election.” Last Thursday, Warner was the top Democrat on a Senate Intelligence Committee panel investigating Moscow’s alleged... Read More

Russiagate’s Unasked Questions

Comey’s testimony settles nothing

Philip Giraldi • March 27, 2017

• 2,100 Words • Leave a Comment

Call me confused. Last week’s House Intelligence Committee hearing on possible Trump associates’ collusion with the Russian government, which featured FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers, provided very little new information even as it confirmed troubling revelations that had already appeared in the media. If the FBI began its investigation of team... Read More

A Troubled CIA Analyst Finds Jesus

And the devil is spelled T-R-U-M-P

Philip Giraldi • February 28, 2017

• 1,400 Words • 89 Comments • Reply

Last Monday The Washington Post featured an op-ed by one Edward Price entitled “I didn’t think I’d ever leave the CIA. But because of Trump, I quit.” I must admit that it was refreshing at first to read something in The Post that did not rush to blame BOTH Trump and Vladimir Putin for everything... Read More

Why Do "Progressives" Like War?

Fleeing to Canada is no longer an option

Philip Giraldi • February 21, 2017

• 1,400 Words • 167 Comments • Reply

Liberals are supposed to be antiwar, right? I went to college in the 1960s, when students nationwide were rising up in opposition to the Vietnam War. I was a Young Republican back then and supported the war through sheer ignorance and dislike of the sanctimoniousness of the protesters, some of whom were surely making their... Read More

More About Russia and Less About Flynn?

The leak has narrowed Trump's options for dealing with Putin

Philip Giraldi • February 16, 2017

• 1,200 Words • Leave a Comment

The story on the resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn is somewhat like peeling an onion, with each layer revealing something new. To be sure, I am delighted to see Flynn gone, both because of his clearly expressed desire to confront Iran and his inaccurate characterization of Islam. But Flynn’s departure will no doubt... Read More

How a Former CIA Officer Reads the Trump Dossier

Fact, fiction, or speculation?

Philip Giraldi • January 11, 2017

• 1,000 Words • Leave a Comment

Yesterday, BuzzFeed published a 35-page dossier containing allegations that Russian operatives worked to identify and develop compromising personal and financial information about Donald Trump. Allegedly, this is the full document from which a two-page synopsis was drawn and provided to Trump and President Obama as an appendix to a report about Russian interference in the... Read More

Washington Invented Hacking and Interfering in Elections

Weaponized hacking all began with Stuxnet

Philip Giraldi • January 10, 2017

• 1,400 Words • 98 Comments • Reply

Is the United States the victim of an unprovoked cyber and media attack by Russia and China or are the chickens coming home to roost after Washington’s own promotion of such activity worldwide? On Thursday Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asserted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that while no foreign government had been... Read More

No Smoking Gun on Russia Hack

Language used in the intelligence community's latest report suggests that they may not possess indisputable evidence

Philip Giraldi • January 9, 2017

• 2,200 Words • Leave a Comment

The eagerly awaited report on the alleged Russian influence operation and hack linked to the recent American presidential election finally appeared on Friday. It is quite possible that President Obama, the intelligence community, and Congress now hope that the case has been definitively made to tighten the screws on Russia. If that is so, they... Read More

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About Philip Giraldi

Phil Giraldi is a former CIA Case Officer and Army Intelligence Officer who spent twenty years overseas in Europe and the Middle East working terrorism cases. He holds a BA with honors from the University of Chicago and an MA and PhD in Modern History from the University of London. In addition to TAC, where he has been a contributing editor for nine years, he writes regularly for Antiwar.com. He is currently Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest and resides with his wife of 32 years in Virginia horse country close to his daughters and grandchildren.

Personal Classics

America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars

Shouldn't they recuse themselves when dealing with the Middle East?

Philip Giraldi

• 1,324 Comments • Reply

Americans Should be Ashamed

A Modern Guernica Enabled by Washington

Philip Giraldi

• 106 Comments • Reply

How the Israel Lobby Works

Pressuring Candidates Even Before They Are Nominated

Philip Giraldi