Jon Rainwater: Trump Reverses Tillerson's Offer to Talk with North Korea Without Preconditions

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

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JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

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Trump Reverses Tillerson's Offer to Talk with North Korea Without Preconditions

Posted Dec. 27, 2017

Interview with Jon Rainwater, executive director of the group Peace Action, conducted by Scott Harris

Before the Christmas holiday, there was a brief sign of hope that dangerous rising tensions between the Trump administration and North Korea might be about to ease. On Dec. 12, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued the following statement at the Atlantic Council in Washington: "We've said from the diplomatic side, we're ready to talk anytime North Korea would like to talk. We are ready to have the first meeting without precondition.” Tillerson’s comments were uncharacteristically conciliatory toward Pyongyang, given the fact that during his first speech at the United Nations in September President Trump had threatened to “totally destroy North Korea.”

But not long after Tillerson’s overture to the North, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump’s position on North Korea was unchanged and that negotiations were pointless if the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, continued to menace his neighbors. The disconnect between Tillerson and the White House exposed ongoing public disagreements in the administration on the proper U.S. approach to North Korea. The discord also focused renewed attention on reports that the administration was considering a plan to replace Tillerson at the State Department with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and fill the vacancy at the CIA with conservative Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Jon Rainwater, executive director of the group Peace Action, who assesses the mixed signals sent by the Trump administration on beginning negotiations with North Korea with the goal of de-escalating tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile program.

JON RAINWATER: There have been rising tensions. We're closer to war with North Korea than we ever have been on both sides, particularly the two heads of state have been engaging in the most egregious sort of language towards each other. And Tillerson did recently make a statement in a speech that he was willing to negotiate. That the United States was willing to negotiate and he used the words without preconditions. And this very welcome.

It was actually the dropping of preconditions in negotiations with Iran that led to the breakthrough of starting to talk to Iran that in turn led to the breakthrough of having the nuclear agreement with Iran. People may remember that George W. Bush had put on a precondition with Iran to require Iran to end enrichment of uranium and that did not work very well. During that entire period, Iran just went ahead with its program and created more and more uranium, more lower-enriched uranium, much of it, but they did not listen to the preconditions. So those type of preconditions don't work.

Tillerson came to the table, so to speak, although it was in a speech saying we could drop preconditions. Now, he left some wiggle room, and then in a subsequent statement, he talked about making sure that there's an end to missile tests before getting to the table, which sounds an awful lot like a pre-condition. So we are getting a mixed message not only from the administration as a whole, but with Tillerson himself. So it's a little disappointing, but at least he's pointing to this opening, so we have to push the administration to really engage in direct talks.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Do we have any indication of what exactly the conflict is between the White House and Tillerson at the State Department?

JON RAINWATER: I think some of it is just on atmospherics and posturing, because a lot of it is going to happen behind closed doors. So you have a situation again with Iran where the Obama administration started reaching out to counterparts in Iran to set up negotiations. And some of that work is apparently happening. Or something analogous is happening with North Korea where there is some at least lower level contacts. So, knowing exactly where the president is at is hard to say. You've seen a lot of these tweets by the president criticizing, in a sense, diplomacy that Tillerson is engaging in. You have a lot of aggressive tweets basically downplaying diplomacy and so, clearly there are those in the administration that don't yet want to drop preconditions and there's some kind of tug of war going on with the State Department.

But I certainly don't know exactly who's where within those debates.

BETWEEN THE LINES: John, what concerns do you have about the coming period? There's a lot of commentators who talk about the Russia investigation targeting the inner circle of Trump in the White House and the president himself may be charged with one crime or another related to collusion between his campaign and Russia. Is there a concern that in the "wag-the-dog" style we might see more bellicose rhetoric targeting North Korea? And the conceivable triggering of a conflict that would, in effect be a way to distract the American people from the scandal-plagued White House and where the Mueller investigation may be headed?

JON RAINWATER: I think the wag-the-dog scenario is very real and something we should be very concerned about. I'm hopeful that the attention that everybody's giving it, I mean, the fact that that's one of your big questions means that people will be ready for it. And ready to say, "Wait a second, you're just trying to distract us here. We can't have war with North Korea."

So I think we have to demand diplomacy now before it gets to that state. And if the administration starts talking about war, we as the public need to put pressure on our members of Congress to push back.

For more information, visit Peace Action's website at peaceaction.org.