PRESS RELEASE
Matlock Warns of U.S. Police State
March 6, 2017 (EIRNS)—Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R. Jack Matlock, also a leading scholar on Russia, warned Saturday in a post on his website, that the U.S. is threatened with becoming a "police state." After a long review of the falseness of the assumption by the media and many politicians that contact with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak and other Russian diplomats is questionable or even illegal, he writes:
"I have been taught that in a democracy with the rule of law, the accused are entitled to a presumption of innocence until convicted. But we have leaks that imply that any conversation with a Russian embassy official is suspect. That is the attitude of a police state, and leaking such allegations violates every normal rule regarding FBI investigations."
Matlock writes:
"As one who spent a 35-year diplomatic career working to open up the Soviet Union and to make communication between our diplomats and ordinary citizens a normal practice, I find the attitude of much of our political establishment and of some of our once respected media outlets quite incomprehensible. What in the world is wrong with consulting a foreign embassy about ways to improve relations? Anyone who aspires to advise an American president should do just that."
Matlock also endorses Trump’s accusation that we are experiencing a witch hunt:
"The whole brou-ha-ha over contacts with Russian diplomats has taken on all the earmarks of a witch hunt. President Trump is right to make that charge,"
he writes.
He concludes:
"Finding a way to improve relations with Russia is in the vital interest of the United States. Nuclear weapons constitute an existential threat to our nation, and indeed to humanity. We are on the brink of another nuclear arms race which would be not only dangerous in itself, but would make cooperation with Russia on many other important issues virtually impossible. Those who are trying to find a way to improve relations with Russia should be praised, not scapegoated."
