Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Ron Paul Institute “Peace and Prosperity 2017” conference. It was one of the most inspiring, honest, and influential experiences of my life. Daniel McAdams, Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute, was to thank for organizing the event and putting together a powerful group of speakers. I got to meet Ron Paul, shake his hand and take a picture with him....so my year is pretty much made!

Now that Dr. Paul’s Youtube series, “The Liberty Report” has been demonetized, it is clear that the establishment-run corporations do not want Dr. Paul’s messages to be rewarded. They told us to take pictures and short videos in order to spread the message of peace and prosperity! The video clips are a little shaky and might be too loud, but I tried my best!

Jacob Hornberger

It started off with a controversial speech by Jacob Hornberger, where he criticizes the US foreign policy by encouraging us to ask the question "what is it that the troops are really doing to protect freedom, when no one over there is threatening to take our freedom away?"

Scott Ritter

Scott Ritter bravely spoke about the real reasons behind Nikki Haley’s intended problems with Iran. He stated that the intention to find Iran in violation of the Nuclear Deal is not necessarily to find the truth, but rather, "to pave the way for kinetic action. That's code word for military action. We've been there. We've done that. We all have the t-shirt....It's called Iraq."

Julian Assange:

A last minute addition to the list of speakers but certainly not the least, Julian Assange, Skyped into the conference for live speech.

Assange compared the similarities in today’s US foreign interventions and the “war racket” that Smedley Butler wrote about in 1935. He questioned the increase of the US military budget, which doubles the size of Russia’s total military budget. Assange covered the wealth transfer to the war industries, pointing out the possibility of our industries being altered by the military industrial complex.

Assange went on to discuss the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s recent addendum to the proposed yearly intelligence bill.

“Section 623 is a Wikileaks bill which tries to define me and my staff as a non-state intelligence agency. When I first saw this I thought, ‘That’s kind of cool, having your own senate bill...with your own number on it” Said Assange.

At this point, everyone in the crowd began laughing along with Assange at the senseless claim.

Assange went on to question, “A non-state intelligence agency. What the hell does that mean? Non-state...intelligence agency? That’s very odd.”

He sarcastically suggested that we have shirts that say “All the way to the top with 623” claiming, “There should be some campaign to absolutely mock this absurd construction.”

Assange then gave credit, or blame, to the newly appointed director of the CIA, MIke Pompeo for pushing the narrative in his very first speech, in April 2017.

Assange then makes his aversion to the CIA clear claiming, “this is absurd to be called this phrase by a “state...non-intelligence agency.”

Whistleblower Roundtable

From Left to RIght

Peter Van Buren

Spent a year in Iraq as a United States Foreign Service Office (ret.). After writing his first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People the State Department began legal proceedings against him, falsely claiming the book contained classified material.

Thomas Drake

Served as a senior executive at the National Security Agency, where he blew the whistle on wasteful spending and illegal secret mass surveillance programs. He was charged with leaking classified information under the Espionage Act, but the charges were ultimately dropped.

Jesselyn Radack

A national security and human rights attorney. She is known for her defense of many controversial whistleblowers, including NSA whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden.

Philip Giraldi

A former CIA Case Officer and Army Intelligence Office who spend 20 years overseas working terrorism cases.

John Kiriakou

Former CIA analyst turned senior investigator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He blew the whistle on the CIA's torture policy against prisoners in Agency custody. The irony is that no other CIA officers, who actually tortured detainees, have ever been charged. Kiriakou went to prison for 30 months for blowing the whistle.

Dennis Kucinich

Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) gave a remarkable speech that empowered the crowd and left the room feeling inspired and unstoppable in the fight against truth and peace. He spoke about his time serving in Congress with Ron Paul.

"What Ron and I saw, over and over again, is how Congress ignored its responsibilities. How one President after another, Democrat or Republican, took us into wars. How the wars proved to be based on lies. And Ron and I stood on that floor time after time challenging these illegal wars."