The Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) has issued an Alert Memorandum addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump, detailing what he needs to be told before the United States plunges into “a wider and/or `forever’ war” with Venezuela and its Ibero American neighbors, perhaps even with Venezuela’s foreign supporters, such as Russia and China—with all that would imply for his presidency.
The VIPS, established in January 2003 by high-level former U.S. intelligence officials, who had the integrity to quit their posts rather than sign onto the lies used for the later U.S. invasion of Iraq, have maintained an unmatched track record of accuracy.
“We are deeply concerned about where the United States seems to be headed in its Venezuela policy and urge you to demand that the Intelligence Community give you clear, unfiltered, `truth-to-power’ analysis,” they now warn. “Flying blind into an unprovoked war against a Latin American government, even one weakened by years of U.S. `maximum-pressure’ sanctions, risks a conflagration that could draw Russia into the conflict and offers zero probability of establishing a legitimate, pro-U.S. successor government.”
Intelligence is being politicized, they assert. “We have seen this before—during numerous intelligence and foreign policy debacles, including the fake allegations about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And we remember the disastrous consequences for the country and its leaders.”
They detail on-the-ground realities which puncture the lies being used to promote this new war, among them that:
“Washington policies have actually unified Maduro’s leadership team”;
