Online cspan. Org. We take you live to a News Conference also at the National Press club. A group of organizers want the used remove all military aircraft from the syrian airspace and they are hosting this briefing to talk about the u. S. Military role in syria. Good morning and welcome to this News Conference. My name is norman solomon. Im a cofounder and coordinator of the online group roots action. Org which is hosting this event today. Roots action is a cosponsor of the Petition Campaign calling for, this is a title of the, no u. S. Warplanes over syria. Together with five other organizations, veterans for peace, dailykos, the nation magazine, world beyond war, and watchdog. Net. U. S. Government began bombing syria nearly three years ago. That was back in september 2014. Since then they killing from many sides has continued unabated. Meanwhile, during the last three years tensions between the worlds to Nuclear Superpowers have escalated, and escalated sharply. In the process, russia and the United States have come closer to direct military warfare with each other. When addressing the overall tensions between the United States and russia, former senator sam nunn, who is chair of the Senate Armed Services committee, cosigned a letter recently, and id like to quote from it. It called for urgently pursuing practical steps now that can stop the downward spiral and relations, and reduce real dangers, unquote, between russia and the United States. The open letter emphasized comic encoding, reducing nuclear and other military risks. Yet those risks continue to accelerate. That is of the subject of this ongoing Petition Campaign, and that is the subject of our discussion here today. On june 19, u. S. And russian planes reportedly flew within five feet of each other over the baltic sea. Also as the summer began the u. S. Military shot down a steering government jet, after which the russian government threatened to shoot down u. S. Planes over syria. More recently on july 30, New York Times reported that between the United States and russia now, except for in relation to syria quote, there is virtually no military to military conversation of the kind that took place routinely during the cold war. And the times also said with russian and American Forces both operating near the baltics and off the coast of europe, the chances for action and miscalculation are high. The times also described key medications between the russian and u. S. Militaries about their activities in syria as, quoting again, mutually suspicious and sporadic. Whats at stake here as the United States continues its military actions in syria, colluding in the skies over syria. What is at stake includes the very real possibility that conflicts in the air could escalate into military clashes the tween russia and the United States that could spiral into nuclear warfare. So the Petition Campaign that is ongoing is focused on addressing this escalating crisis. Our petition so far to the u. S. Congress and to secretary of Defense James Mattis has gained more than 50,000 unique signers, and the petition is very straightforward. It says we urge you to immediately remove all u. S. Military planes from syrian skies and keep them out of that countries airspace. Today at the newcomers will be hearing from four speakers will address their concerns, our concerns, from a wide range of vantage point. John, former official of the Central Intelligence agency is a cia whistleblower. Matthew was a marine who had to deployment in iraq and later became a state Department Official. Christie edwards is a Legal Authority on International Law, as it pertains to armed conflict. And David Swanson is an author and director of the Organization World beyond war. So we will start with john. He was a cia official. He had major responsibilities with the agency. He went on to serve two years in prison as a cia whistleblower. Back in december of 2014, headline over an article by the Huffington Post really summed it up, a very apt summary. It said the one man jailed for cia torture tried to expose it. John kiriakou. Thank you, norman. President trump, just like present obama before him, seems intent on getting the United States involved in what h is an unwinnable civil war in syria. Launching 59 cruise missiles, for example, against rundown syrian air bases in the middle of the night is easy enough to do. But there are consequences to these actions. And republican and conservative celebration of this use of force notwithstanding, trump has put serious patient and those christians in neighboring countries in jeopardy. Just as president obama and president george w. Bush did in iraq. Neoconservatives and neoliberal ideologies took root in washington many years ago, both parties tried to out hawk each other on military and Foreign Policy to prove who was tougher, who was stronger, who is quicker to use military force. Even in countries where the u. S. Has no obvious national or vital interests. There never seems to be any discussion about whether this military intervention is even legal, let alone whether it is moral or ethical. And theres certainly never any talk in congress for authorization despite the fact that the white house not requesting authorization is almost always in violation of the war powers act. Republicans kneejerk support for military intervention in the middle east, whether its in syria, iraq or elsewhere in the region ought to be anathema to any politician, any politician of either party who considers himself or herself to be a christian. It is these military interventions that having the effect of dooming the small Christian Communities left in place like iraq and syria. The problem for u. S. Politicians who fancy themselves as christians know is that Bashar Alassad is literally the only person standing between syrian christians and their annihilation. It is assad like his father what you like their politics or not who have protected Syrias Christians for generations. Syrian christians make up 12 of the population according to the cias world factbook. But nearly onethird of the countrys 600,000 believers have left series since the start of the civil war in 2011, pushed up by terrorist groups like isis and the alnusra front, and thats according to the New York Times. Before the civil war started regions participated in all elements, all aspects of Syrian Society including as members of parliament, as members of the cabinet, the diplomatic corps and the business community. They maintain their own court system, theyre free to practice their faith openly in churches and cathedrals all around the country, and even the Syrian Military is fully integrated rather than having separate christian units. Similarly, in iraq under Saddam Hussein, and Saddam Hussein was a bad man, but even under Saddam Hussein christian serve in the parliament and the cabinet took a practice their faith freely and openly and they were successful in business. Thanks to george w. Bush invasion of iraq and the subsequent civil war, almost the entire Iraqi Christian Community has left for jordan, the uk and the United States, the same thing is happening in syria. There is a solution to all of this but its not sexy or quick or easy. Its something that many of us have heard about but havent actually seen. Its called diplomacy. Whether trump likes assads politics or not, the only way to say that country from becoming a failed state or an isis state is to sit at the table with all of the stakeholders, including the syrians, the russians, and whether we like it or not, the iranians are we going to have to accept the fact that assad is not going anywhere, nor should he. Whether we like it or not, this is the internationally recognized government of syria. And that is no matter what trump and obama have said. We should respect that, and we should sit across the table from Bashar Alassad. Thank you very much. Thank you, John Kiriakou at our next speaker is matthew hoh, a former state Department Official who resigned in protest from his post in afghanistan over your Strategic Policy and goals in that country. He resigned in september 2009. Its worth noting that the council on Foreign Relations has cited his Resignation Letter as an essential document in the history of the war in afghanistan. Prior to his diplomatic assignment, mr. Hoh serve to deployment as a marine in iraq. I should mention that matthew hoh like John Kiriakou and we just heard the Advisory Board of expose program at the institute for public accuracy which has been in this building here at the National PressClub Facility for 18 years, and im the executive director of the institute for public accuracy. Here now is matthew hoh. Thank you, norman. I just want to begin my remarks by noting that we have a new chief of staff in the white house, and one of my concerns over these last many years of our campaigns, of our wars in the middle east, of what really is the most accurate way, our slaughter of many, many people in the middle east has been the misrepresentation and the misunderstanding of what drives many of the actors, many of the men and women who are fighting us in the middle east. General kelly has on a number of occasions stated that this is a war about a way of life however, in my position, tikka when i was in the state department with access to top secret information and access to the interrogations of men that we would capture who had joined the Islamic State and iraq, it was clear that these men who were traveling to iraq and afghanistan to fight us as well as what we know from those people are carried out terror attacks in europe as well as in the United States, including the 9 11 hijackers, in their martyrdom videos or enter notes or what have you, their motivations are clear. They are not saying convert or die. They are not saying we hate your freedom. They are not saying were doing this because your girls are going to school or because your women are wearing dresses above the knees. They are saying this, they are saying were conducting these attacks because you are bombing our countrys, because your military are present in our countrys, because your supporting dictatorships, et cetera, et cetera et cetera. So there is this misunderstanding, this misconstruing. I think its very intentional on some points. Some of it is based on ignorance, and many of it, much of it is done to drive nationalism and to drive the spirit of war. I will say this also ties greatly into what norman was speaking about earlier, the dangers of it were between the United States and russia. And, of course, if anyone has been reading in the New York Times recently you see the coverage in the New York Times over the large u. S. Military exercises, a large nato exercises being conducted on russias a borders. We also remember russia has been the victim of three major invasions in the last 150 years or so, losing tens of millions of people. However, the New York Times finds it fit to characterize russia conducting military training within its own borders as aggression. So that is the first of my concerns that i would like to address within my allotted time here about why its so very, very important for us to get these american aircraft out of the skies of syria. Because we are on the brink of war with russia, and it is something that i dont think the people in washington, d. C. , can quite understand what that war would be like. The second reason is more of, moral reason, more of a reason that has got to do with the fact so good that the United States air campaign, the United States air warfare, maybe in my estimation, is the greatest moral and human hazard of the last century. Certainly if you start with considering this is at 72nd anniversary of the bombing of nagasaki and hiroshima, something that nearly all american 4star and fivestar generals after world war ii said was not a military necessity, you know, was done strictly for political reasons. If you go into the understanding that most americans do not know but north korean serving of the American Air Force burned down nearly every village and town in north korea, that in vietnam we dropped more bombs on the vietnamese and we did on the japanese, or on the germans in terms of tonnage, and we conducted the largest Chemical Warfare program in the history of the world against the vietnamese, something that millions of people are still sickened with, something that they will be babies born today with deformities because of, if we fast food of course to the results of our air campaigns that the iraqis certainly are still paying for, certainly that the libyans are still paying for, that the afghans are still paying for, and for which there has been no results that anyone can point to to say this has been a benefit, and certainly how can anyone say that the air campaign being conducted by the United States is a sane, rational, or moral response. When i first started speaking public against the wars in 2009, i was asked you been a both come you served in both, you were in both, i hate saying served it, thats the incorrect word to use i feel, you in both iraq and afghanistan. What were the similarities . What with the differences between the two . I fell into that trap, but then after a bit of time i simple as that one of my doing . Theres only one thing that matters. The United States military is in both locations, and you can only expect one outcome. Youre absolutely insane if you think anything different is going to happen. And that is the same thing that will happen with the American Air Campaign in syria. If anyone thinks in think different will occur to the people of syria, from American Air Campaign, thats already been, as norman noted, three years in progress, then they are completely naive, foolish, or have another agenda. And this is not to say that Bashar Alassad has not been a dictator, does not come from, was not born from the father, you know, his father not a dictator, has not committed war crimes himself. This is not to excuse that. Im not here as an apologist for the syrian government, but i am telling you that american airstrikes in syria are not the solution, and are continuing moral hazard for all people of syria. Just as they have been for the people of korea, vietnam, iraq, afghanistan, libya, pakistan, and interestingly enough, youve seen in the news recently the American Military is now looking or is interested in launching airstrikes into the philippines. So nearly 120 years after we first began our military campaign against the filipinos, we are looking to continue it. So i appreciate you all being here today, and i thank you all for your time. Thank you, matthew hoh. Our next speaker is christy edwards. At the American Society of International Law, ms. Edwards is a picture of the lever society on the law of armed conflict. She is an advisor to the center for civilians in conflict on International Humanitarian human rights and gender issues. Christy edwards. Thank you so much, norman, for having me here. So ive been asked to provide the legal analysis for this topic, which is whether or not u. S. Airstrikes violate International Law based in syria. So this is a really broad question, and im going to take a look at a time to drill down into some more specifics in the International Legal from a terabyte in order to answer this. So as venture of you are well aware, the u. N. Charter is the definitive Legal Framework that applies here. This is binding International Law on the United States as a signatory, an article to states countries or states have an obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against a territory or the political indepe