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With the war entering its fourth year, a decision by the Trump administration virtually ensured that the news from Donbas will grow dramatically worse. Last month, the State Department approved the transfer of $50 million worth of lethal weapons to the Ukrainian military. Along with a shipment of M107A1 Barrett sniper rifles, the United States will be delivering 35 FGM Javelin anti-tank launching systems and 210 missiles.
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In March, when the House Intelligence Committee opened its investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election, ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff zeroed in on the conspiracy theory. 'Now is it possible that the removal of the Ukraine provision from the GOP platform is a coincidence?' Schiff wondered aloud. 'It is possible. But it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated and that the Russians use the same techniques to corrupt U.S. persons that they employed in Europe and elsewhere.'
Schiff's diatribe before a congressional gallery packed with camera crews made him an overnight star of the Russiagate drama. He had once been 'a milquetoast moderate,' as journalist Ryan Lizza put it, but through his grandstanding, the once obscure centrist suddenly 'emerged as an unlikely face of Democratic resistance to the new President 'a liberal hero,' according to Lizza. There was more to Schiff's burgeoning obsession with Russian meddling than his own sense of vanity, however.
Since entering Congress in 2002, Schiff hasn't met a war he didn't like. He has backed the invasion of Iraq, cheered on NATO's regime change operation in Libya, heartily endorsed the U.S.-Saudi war on Yemen, clamored for direct U.S. intervention in Syria and lent his signature to virtually every AIPAC-crafted resolution that has landed on his desk.
And the arms industry has rewarded Schiff handsomely, pumping over $70,000 into his campaign coffers in 2016. Schiff's largest donor this past campaign cycle, at $12,700 [individuals plus PACs], was Northrop Grumman, the defense giant. Raytheon'the manufacturer of the Javelin anti-tank missile system'was close behind it, with $10,000 in contributions [PACs]. In all, arms giants accounted for over one-sixth of Schiff's total donations.
Back in 2013, Schiff was treated to a $2,500-per-head campaign fundraiser by a Ukrainian-born, California-based arms merchant named Igor Pasternak. The war in Donbas has been a boon for Pasternak, earning him a lucrative contract to supply the Ukrainian State Border Guard with integrated surveillance systems, and a subsequent deal to help replace the Ukrainian military's AK-47 rifles with a version of the M-16.
Max Blumenthal
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