Emergency Press Conference: The Danger of Nuclear War Is Real, and Must Be Stopped

· Scott Ritter: former U.N. weapons inspector and U.S. Marine intelligence officer
· Col. (ret.) Richard H. Black: former head of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon; former State Senator, Virginia (Speaker’s views are not those of DOD or its agencies)
· Ray McGovern: former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
· Lawrence B. Wilkerson is a retired United States Army Colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.
· Helga Zepp-LaRouche: founder of the Schiller Institute

Host:
Schiller Institute
On June 3, the U.S. State Department prevented U.S. citizen Scott Ritter from boarding his flight to St. Petersburg, Russia, and seized his passport. Ritter, a former U.S. Marine officer and United Nations weapons inspector who has become a prominent opponent of the current war policy, was traveling to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which is being attended by an estimated 19,000 people and 3,400 media representatives from some 130 countries. Ritter was subsequently able to participate in the SPIEF panel via Zoom.

In addition to the clear First and Fourth Amendment Constitutional issues raised by the Ritter case, the content of what Ritter was going to discuss is key: the need to improve U.S.-Russian relations and stop the escalating danger arising from NATO’s current posture towards Russia, as seen most starkly in Ukraine, which is dragging the world towards a nuclear World War III.

The May 22 attack on a critical Russian early-warning radar system at Armavir, purportedly by “Ukrainian” drones, could have been the event which tipped the balance towards war—because it could have confirmed for Russia their stated belief that NATO and the West are intent on “blinding” Russia’s early-warning system in preparation for a possible “preemptive decapitation” strike by the U.S. and NATO against them. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated exactly this concern, publically, and it is the height of arrogant foolishness of the West to dismiss this as a “bluff,” as so many in Washington, London and other NATO capitals are now doing.

As dangerous as attempting to blind Russia’s early-warning radar, are the efforts to silence opposition voices who function as a kind of “early-warning” system in the domain of policy deliberation—those who are warning of the danger of nuclear war, and are presenting alternatives to a policy of confrontation.

On Wednesday, June 12 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., a distinguished panel of four experts will each make brief presentations on these topics, and will respond to questions from the media, both in person and over an international Zoom link (with simultaneous interpretation into German, French and Spanish for audiences in those countries).

Scott Ritter: former U.N. weapons inspector and U.S. Marine intelligence officer

Col. (ret.) Richard H. Black: former head of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon; former State Senator, Virginia

Ray McGovern: former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

Helga Zepp-LaRouche: founder of the Schiller Institute