A drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday again highlights the possibility of cataclysmic escalation resulting from the Ukraine conflict.

JAMES BAMFORD, WashWriter@gmail.com
Bamford recently wrote the piece “The Most Dangerous Game: How Shadow War Over Ukraine Nearly Triggered Nuclear Holocaust” in The Nation, which summarizes Bamford’s findings: “Unnoticed among the trove of documents in the Pentagon leak is this account of how a miscommunication between a Russian pilot and his base came perilously close to starting World War III.”

Bamford has written extensively about the NSA and espionage. His latest book is Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence.

Bamford also recently wrote the piece “The Trump Campaign’s Collusion With Israel” which Sam Husseini of IPA questioned the State Department about during Wednesday’s briefing, see video.

Bamford’s most recent report gives specifics regarding when tensions were especially high last September: “According to a Pentagon document marked SECRET/NOFORN (allegedly leaked by Airman Jack Teixeira on a Discord group chat), as the British RC-135W entered the airspace above the Black Sea that September morning, a pair of Russian SU-27 fighters scrambled skyward to shadow him. Then, responding to an order from his command center (likely Belbek Airbase on Crimea) a Russian pilot launched a missile directly at the NATO reconnaissance jet packed with 30 or more Royal Air Force personnel. In that moment, the Russian fighter pilot came very close to igniting World War III.”

But, Bamford reports: “The only thing that saved the dozens of British crew members from what the secret U.S. documents called a ‘near shoot down’ was a technical glitch that caused the missile to miss its target.”

Concludes Bamford: “The sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, Russia’s nearly shooting down a British spy plane, the secret and growing involvement of US and NATO troops on the battlefield — these are all clear warnings that very bad things can happen very quickly. The only realistic solution is to replace the intelligence agents with intelligent diplomats as quickly as possible, and to then work out a speedy cease-fire and a negotiated settlement to the war. In a conflict between nuclear powers, that should have been the first step, rather than the last.”