The United States has secretly placed soldiers in foreign conflicts before and there is no reason to believe they are not now, former UN weapons inspector and author Scott Ritter told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Thursday.
“That is something – for instance– we used to do extensively during the Vietnam War era,” Ritter explained. “A lot of the Air America pilots flew combat missions over Laos, where American military personnel was forbidden by Congress from operating, were American Air Force pilots who were… called into their commander’s office to be discharged from the Air Force, and then they would go into the next office where a CIA official would be… and they’d go fly their missions."
“So we’ve done that in the past, and there’s no reason for me to believe that we don’t continue to do that to this day in certain parts of the world,” he said, clarifying that he doesn’t know if Ukraine is included in that, but we do know that it provides “significant logistical support” to the Kiev regime.
Actual active-duty officers would “be difficult to see,” said Ritter, citing the legal and political constraints, but adds that contractors would be more plausible. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov alleged that there are US, UK and French troops, not just mercenaries, operating in Ukraine.
Ritter, speaking the day before Lavrov’s comments noted that “there’s reason to believe during the Battle of Mariupol, there were active-duty French personnel, some who died when being evacuated… others who were successfully evacuated at the behest of the French President [Emmanuel Macron] who begged [the] Ukrainians to get them out.”
Ritter also mentioned a “recent incident” where “several dozen French nationals” with “prior or even current French military status” were killed. Ritter did not specify which incident he was referring to but in late January, Russia claimed that 60 foreign soldiers, largely French mercenaries, had been killed during an airstrike in Kharkov. The French government denied the accusations but later admitted French citizens were among the dead and claimed they were humanitarian aid workers without providing further details.
“So, we do have instances where Westerners are definitely heavily involved in the support of the Ukrainian military,” Ritter concluded.
At least in the case of the United States, Presidents are given legal cover for these actions through presidential findings which the president presents to the “small number of” lawmakers who “manage oversight committees” and says “the president is going to operate in violation of these laws, but he's notifying Congress [about it].”
Noting that in recent years the presidents have signed findings after being caught and faced no consequences, Ritter said this is a long-standing issue with the Executive Branch in the US. “No president has been held to account for things of this nature… Every [recent] president has signed multiple findings to excuse unconstitutional behavior [with] the employment of American military power.”