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Scott Ritter Challenges Schumer Funding Ukraine Threat to Diane Sare

Government and Politics

August 4, 2022


See:  "Diane Sare Responds to Ukrainian Blacklsting" and see: Scott Ritter -- "Chuck Schumer's Attack on Free Speech"

In a recent press release, entitled "Diane Sare Responds to Ukrainian Blacklsting", I called on  Senator Chuck Schumer to respond to charges that he is funneling taxpayer dollars into foreign agencies that are threatening American journalists, researchers, and political personages for opposing the "narrative" concerning the war in Ukraine.  I am demanding an investigation into whether the $8.7 billion allocated in Law 117-128, which Schumer supported, has been used to finance a Ukrainian organization which has acted to jeopardize my personal security.

My July 31st release begins:

“On July 14 the Ukrainian Government's ‘Center to Counter Disinformation’ posted my name and photograph on a list of 72 individuals whom they accuse on their website of ‘promoting narratives consonant with Russian propaganda.’ While that is already an egregious assault on our Constitutional right to Freedom of Speech by a foreign power, I have since learned that on the day the Ukrainian blacklist was posted, the Center’s Director Andriy Shapolavov, speaking at an international roundtable on ‘countering disinformation’ with ‘representatives of state authorities, public organizations, mass media and international experts supported by the US State Department’ called such people as those listed, ‘information terrorists,’ and said that Ukraine is preparing legislation so that such people can be prosecuted as ‘war criminals.’ (See the Center’s website: https://cpd.gov.ua/events/3898/)

The “roundtable” in question, military analyst Scott Ritter explained,  “was organized by the U.S. Civil Research and Development Fund (CRDF Global Ukraine), an ostensible nonprofit organization authorized by U.S. Congress to promote ‘international scientific and technical collaboration.’ It is supported by the U.S. State Department, some of whose officials sat in attendance.”

This point is included in an article by  Ritter which appeared in the August 3rd edition of the Consortium News.  The article entitled "Chuck Schumer's Attack on Free Speech", makes the point that it is particularly relevant that I am not only a target of the Ukrainian Disinformation hit-list, but I am also on the ballot for the U. S. Senate against Senator Schumer himself.   In other words, Senator Schumer is using his position in the U. S. Senate to funnel tax-payers dollars to those threatening the campaigns and persons of his direct political opponents.  

Ritter’s article states: “The Senate majority leader pushed through a funding bill that now supports a structure under which U.S. citizens and politicians -- including a challenger for his own seat -- are being targeted as ‘information terrorists’.”

Another opponent of Senator Schumer concerning Ukraine who is on the hit list, Ritter notes, is Senator Rand Paul.  Paul's offense was in holding up rapid passage of the $40.1 billion "emergency spending package for Ukraine" during the Congressional debate in May, 2022, by insisting on the inclusion of a special inspector (specifying the Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction) to be authorized to audit the use of the funds.  

Ritter’s article concludes:

“I hope that both Rand Paul and Diane Sare pursue whatever legal recourse is available to them to expose and shut down a Schumer-supported law that allows U.S. taxpayer money to underwrite a campaign targeting U.S. citizens, including serving senators and political challengers, with intimidation and more for the ‘crime’ of exercising their First Amendment right of free speech.”

But there is more.

In an earlier article, Ritter had added:  “Moreover, Ukraine has a history of converting ‘blacklists’ of this nature into ‘kill lists’, where those who speak out against the policies of the Ukrainian government are being murdered or threatened with violence’.”

I think Scott Ritter’s points are very well taken.  I also restate my challenge to Senator Schumer to respond to these charges, and also note that I will hold the Senator responsible for my physical security.

And what about the security of the American population, the electorate, and the rest of the world?

Clearly Senators Schumer, Pelosi and Menendez, as well as others, are using their positions in the U. S. Senate to provoke needless wars against Russia and China. These wars and other wars have been ongoing since the end of the Cold War. The American population is being drained, pouring weapons and supplies and personnel into every undeclared war that can be promoted through propaganda, foreign intelligence agencies, and the media. The American population is being kept in the dark, and the imminent threat of nuclear war may send us into the darkness of a nuclear winter. I intend to use my campaign, and my platform to shine a light into that darkness, whatever the consequences.

-- Diane Sare