Oliver Stone - The Putin Interviews

Claim: “Libya, as a territorially integral state has ceased to exist.”

Supporting: It is well-recognized that Libya was destroyed as a country by the 2011 NATO intervention. See, “The US-NATO Invasion of Libya Destroyed the Country Beyond All Recognition,” Vijay Prishad, Alternet (March 22, 2017). Retrieved at: http://www.alternet.org/world/us-nato-invasion-libya-destroyed-country-beyond-all-recognition

Background Information:

Gaddafi, known as the “Brotherly Leader,” was a revolutionary who, at 27 years old led a coup to depose the monarch. For the next 42 years, he ruled Libya and implemented the strict fundamentals of Sunni Islam across his country. He was a staunch defender of his country and leadership, often leading his men into bloody battles, which were viewed by the rest of the world as erratic displays of showmanship. Ghaddafi survived many coup and assassination attempts until he was ultimately killed in 2011. See, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/africa/qaddafi-killed-as-hometown-falls-to-libyan-rebels.html

Background Information:

See, “Bush saw Putin’s ‘Soul.’ Obama Wanted to appeal to his Brain,” Steven Mufson, Washington Post (Dec. 1, 2015). Retrieved at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bush-saw-putins-soul-obama-wants-to-appeal-to-his-brain/2015/12/01/264f0c7c-984b-11e5-8917-653b65c809eb_story.html.

Background Information:

See, “911 a ‘Turning Point’ for Putin,” Jill Dougherty, Washington Post (Sep. 10, 2002). Retrieved at: http://www.edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/10/ar911.russia.putin/index.html

Background Information:

It is also true, as Stone states, that Putin gave significant, concrete assistance to the US in its post-911 invasion of Afghanistan. Ibid.

Claim: “Al Qaeda is not the result of our activities. It’s the result of the activities of our American friends.”

Supporting: See, “Frankenstein The CIA Created,” Jason Burke, Guardian (Jan. 17, 1999). Retrieved at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jan/17/yemen.islam

Claim: “Although Bill Casey, Director of the CIA under Ronald Reagan, made it a special effort—this is documented—to excite the Muslims in the Caucasus in Central Asia against the Soviet Union.”

Supporting: See, “Ghost Wars: How Reagan Armed the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan,” Steve Coll & Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! (June 10, 2004). Retrieved at: https://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/10/ghost_wars_how_reagan_armed_the

Claim: “And when those problems in the Caucasus and Chechnya emerged, unfortunately the Americans supported those processes.”

Supporting: See, “Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons,” former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, Consortium News (April 19, 2013). Retrieved at: https://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/19/chechen-terrorists-and-the-neocons/

Background Information:

The letter from the CIA to Putin about the former’s possible support for rebels in Chechnya is referenced in the article: “Chechnya, the CIA and Terrorism,” Michael S. Rozeff, Russia Insider (April 28, 2015). Retrieved at:

http://russia-insider.com/en/chechnya-cia-and-terrorism/6179

Background Information:

“In Afghanistan, Taliban surpasses al-Qaeda,” Joshua Partlow, Washington Post (Nov. 11, 2009). Retrieved at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111019644.html

Claim: “ OS:Do you have any belief that the United States was involved in any way supporting the Chechens in the first or second war?

VP:Yes. We’re 100 percent sure that we have objective proof of that.”

Supporting: See, “Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons,” Ibid.

Background Information:

See, “Miscalculations Paved Path to Chechen War,” David Hoffman, Washington Post (March 20, 2000). Retrieved at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/03/20/miscalculations-paved-path-to-chechen-war/e675f17a-d286-4b5e-b33a-708d819d43f0/?utm_term=.2549af78ab19Hoffman explains that “[o]n the Chechen side, rebel leaders launched an attack against neighboring Dagestan last August in the mistaken belief that they would encounter weak Russian resistance and spark an Islamic uprising. The uprising didn’t materialize, and the incursions were repelled.”

Claim: “Moreover, we had exact data that there were no WMDs whatsoever in Iraq”

Supporting: It is true, as Putin claims, that the Russia’s assessment, which it shared with the US at the time, was that Iraq possessed no Weapons of Mass Destruction to justify the 2003 military invasion. As Newsweek explained, “[p]lenty of the best-informed intelligence sources were certain the WMDs were a fantasy. French intelligence knew it; so did Russia and Germany.” “Dick Cheney’s Biggest Lie,” Kurt Eichenwald, Newsweek (May 19, 2015). Retrieved at: http://www.newsweek.com/2015/05/29/dick-cheneys-biggest-lie-333097.html

Claim: “ OS:…there was a deal with the Soviet Union not to expand NATO eastward.

VP:They were all saying there was one thing that the Soviet Union could be sure of—that the eastern border of NATO would not be extended any further than the eastern border of the German Democratic Republic.

OS:So this was a clear violation.”

Supporting: “Russia’s Got a Point: The US Broke a NATO Promise,” Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, LA Times (May 30, 2016). Retrieved at: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-shifrinson-russia-us-nato-deal--20160530-snap-story.html

Background Information

See, “US Withdraws From ABM Treaty; Global Response Muted,” Wade Boese, Arms Control Association (July/August 2002). Retrieved at: https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002_07-08/abmjul_aug02

Background Information:

“Bush Pulls Out of ABM Treaty; Putin Calls Move a Mistake,” Terence Neilen, New York Times (Dec. 31, 2001). Retrieved at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/international/bush-pulls-out-of-abm-treaty-putin-calls-move-a-mistake.html

Background Information:

“Putin Warns Romania, Poland Over Implementing US missile Shield,” Fox News (May 28, 2016). Retrieved at: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/05/28/putin-warns-romania-poland-over-implementing-us-missile-shield.html

Background Information:

As tension from the Cold War peaked, and paranoia of Communism spread throughout America grew, husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, former members of the Communist party, were sentenced to death under the Espionage Act of 1917 for suspicion of sending nuclear information from the United States to Russia. Despite public outcry and demand for their clemency, both Presidents Truman and Eisenhower refused to pardon them. Until their last days at Sing-Sing Prison in New York, the couple maintained their innocence. They were executed by electric chair on June 19, 1953. See, http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/TheRosenbergTrial.asp

Background Information:

For more on the fascinating story of Klaus Fuchs who shared atomic secrets with the Soviet Union out of his ideological commitment to Communism, see, the description in PBS’s “American Experience,” at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh//amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX54.html