Ask the Inspector/U.S. Tour of Duty Report Card 2024, Prognosis 2025
Thank you!
Your donations helped make 2024 a very eventful and productive year. Your continued donations can help make 2025 just as successful—or even more.
The entire Ask the Inspector/U.S. Tour of Duty team thanks you from the bottom of our hearts.
And if humanity had any sense, they’d thank you as well.
Because your donations helped pave the way for peace between the United States and Russia, and helped avert a nuclear war.
And we plan on doing the same thing in the year to come.
2024 was a year of great trial and tribulation for the Ask the Inspector/U.S. Tour of Duty (ATI/USToD) team. Throughout 2023 we had raised donations in support of a campaign we called “Waging Peace” which got its start in May 2023 when I made my initial visit to Russia as a guest of Alexander Zyrianov, a Russian businessman from Novosibirsk. “Waging Peace” was a campaign designed to address the problem of Russophobia here in the United States—the irrational fear of Russia, born of ignorance, which the US government used to engender support for policies promulgated on the notion that Russia was an enemy of America.
I returned to Russia—again, as the guest of Alexander Zyrianov—in December 2023, and remained through January 20, 2024. This was done with the support of ATI/USToD donations, and the visit played a huge role in advancing the “Waging Peace” mission. There were many highlights of this visit, but one that stood out was my meeting with Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, and my impromptu speech in front of 25,000 fully armed Chechen soldiers where I called for an end to the war in Ukraine and their return to a peaceful life with their families.
I returned from my second trip full of energy and ideas on how to proceed with the “Waging Peace” mission. Alexander Zyrianov and I had agreed that there should be a third “Waging Peace” trip to Russia, this one an expansive journey involving the ATI/USToD team which would last more than 40 days and take us “from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea and Everywhere in Between.” With the help of the generous donations from our supporters, the ATI/USToD team began preparations to bring a documentary film crew with us to capture the experience (which included such planned events as broadcasting ATI from each Russian city/destination we traveled to, and implementing an ambitious “pen pal” program which would help connect Russian and Americans committed to the cause of peaceful coexistence based upon mutual respect for, and understanding of, the culture, values, and history of our two nations. In addition to the planned “Waging Peace” documentary, the ATI/USToD team was planning to delve into the world of self-publishing, where we would release an accompanying book, the publication of which would be timed with the release of the film.
There were other related projects as well—a unique soundtrack for the documentary which would involve the noted music producer (and a friend of the ATI/USToD team) Malcolm Burn, working with Russian artists, and plans for a “Yalta 2.0” conference on international law, which we were planning in cooperation with the Crimean Governor, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Center for Citizen Initiatives, an American non-profit with experience in Russia.
We spent a great deal of money and invested untold hours of time in preparing for this adventure. Unfortunately, the US government had other plans—I was prevented from boarding my flight out of JFK on June 3 by three armed Customs and Border Protection officers, who seized my passport under instructions from the State Department.
Apparently the “Waging Peace” project, and its underlying mission of defeating Russophobia in America, was too great a threat to the US Government, committed as it was to a proxy war against Russia using Ukraine that was designed to achieve Russia’s strategic defeat.
It appeared that there were similar sentiments in certain circles inside Russia as well—on the same day that the US Government seized my passport, the Russian FSB arrested Alexander Zyrianov on manufactured charges of corruption. While these charges have since been shown to be false, Alexander remains in pre-trial detention because of new charges leveled against him by local Novosibirsk politicians who felt threatened that Alexander’s star had begun to burn too brightly.
The seizure of my passport and the arrest of Alexander Zyrianov was a heavy blow to the ATI/USToD team—many thousands of dollars had been spent in support of a project the fruition of which was now very much in doubt. Undaunted, we regrouped and jump-started a new project, “Operation DAWN,” based upon four basic questions being asked of the American electorate in the upcoming 2024 Presidential election: What would you do to save Democracy, America, and the World through your vote in November? Working together with Gerald Celente, the editor of Trends Journal and the long-time host of an annual peace rally in Kingston, New York every summer, the ATI/USToD team began advocating against nuclear war, and making this opposition a key issue in the upcoming election.
Apparently, this was too much for the US Government, which on August 7 ordered the FBI to execute a search warrant at my home in Delmar, New York, ostensibly on suspicion that I was acting as an agent of the Russian government, in violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) as part of a larger scheme to interfere in the 2024 Presidential election. No charges were filed, but my personal electronics (computers and cellphone) were seized, along with the entire archive I had relied upon to counter the US government’s lies about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Rather than allowing ourselves to be intimidated by such strong-arm tactics, the ATI/USToD team doubled down on our activism, speaking out in defense of our First Amendment right to free speech—and that of others, such as the Uhuru-3—and aggressively pushing forward with “Operation DAWN.”
On September 28, we kick-started the “Operation DAWN” campaign in Kingston, New York, with a four-hour rally that combined music with impassioned presentations dedicated to the cause of peace and saying no to nuclear war. I, Gerald Celente, Judge Andrew Napolitano, and Joe Lauria each delivered powerful presentations which were delivered to an enthusiastic live audience as well as hundreds of thousands of viewers who tuned in to the live-streamed event. I took the opportunity to premier an anti-war music video featuring a song written and sung by my daughter, Patricia, and illustrated by her sister, Victoria, and Victoria’s fiancé, Sam, which was ably produced by Malcolm Burn, who graciously provided his home recording studio for our use. Country music performer Garret Steele entertained the crowd in between presentations, and we were all thrilled by the guest appearance of Roger Waters, who spoke to the crowd live via video before playing a music video he had prepared specially for the occasion.
We were just getting started. On October 26 the ATI/USToD team organized a panel discussion/brunch at the Tudor City Steakhouse in downtown Manhattan, which furthered the underlying theme of saying no to nuclear war and which served as the core message of “Operation DAWN.” The event brought together such notable speakers as Judge Andrew Napolitano (“Judging Freedom”), Dennis Fritz and Larry Wilkerson (from the Eisenhower Media Network, which co-sponsored the event), noted podcaster/activists Garland Nixon, Danny Haiphong, and Russell Dobular, independent congressional candidates Diane Sayer and Jose Vega, WBAI radio host Randy Credico, and the hosts of ATI, Jeff Norman and myself, for an afternoon of informed discussion and dialogue.
On election night the author joined Gerald Celente, Joe Lauria and Garland Nixon for a six-hour marathon live panel discussion about the election results and what it meant for the United States going forward.
We followed this up with a post-election, three panel extravaganza, hosted at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, where we gathered some of the top military, political, and social activist personalities in the alternative media world for a major live-streamed event intended to sustain the anti-nuclear war momentum we had helped achieve through the election of Donald Trump. This event was preceded by meetings with congressional members and their staffs, where specific policy options were discussed that could help prevent a nuclear war from breaking out between Russia and the US prior to Trump taking office.
While preventing nuclear war was the primary objective of “Operation DAWN,” it was advanced hand in glove with the cause of defending free speech. The US government’s unrelenting efforts to intimidate me into silence underscored the reality that void of free speech, the “No Nuclear War” platform embraced by “Operation DAWN” would be criminalized by a US government unable and unwilling to engage on this subject based upon the facts.
The FARA argument used by the FBI to justify the raid on my home in August was the centerpiece of a prosecution undertaken by the Justice Department targeting the Uhuru 3 (Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Jesse Nevel, and Penny Hess), a black nationalist group falsely accused of being Russian agents under FARA. While a jury had found the Uhuru 3 not guilty of the charge of being Russian agents, because of muddled jury instructions, they found the defendants guilty of conspiring to be foreign agents of Russia.
Given the direct relationship between the Uhuru 3 case and the allegations of FARA violations being hinted at about me by the US government, I took a special interest in the proceedings, calling the trial of the Uhuru 3 the “trial for the United States of America.” We used the ATI platform to talk with Chairman Omali and the other Uhuru 3 defendants, and I participated in a rally in Washington, DC in support of the Uhuru 3. I was also present at the sentencing of the Uhuru 3 in Tampa, Florida, where the judge, realizing that justice had not been served, set down for the defendants an all-probation sentence.
To sum up, 2024 was a year of unfulfilled expectations combined with new opportunities that led to great successes.
In short, I give the ATI/USToD team a solid “A” grade for effort, and a similar grade for results.
None of this could have happened without the generous donations of our supporters and subscribers.
2025 looks to be a year of great opportunity. Not prone to stay idle, the ATI/USToD team is starting the year running, hosting Ania K, my co-author and collaborator for our new book, Covering Ukraine, for a week-long book tour in the United States that will see events in New York City (January 15), Washington DC (January 19) and Poughkeepsie, New York (January 21). The purpose of the tour is far more than promoting book sales—the goal is to use the opportunity of having myself and Ania K on stage together to not only talk about the Ukraine conflict and the prospects for peace now that Trump has been elected, but also the power of collaboration when it comes to alternative media.
We will continue to promote alternative media collaboration, furthering the “family of podcasts” cooperation that we began last year, which saw podcasts hosted by Judge Napolitano, Gerald Celente, Graland Nixon, Wilmur Leon, Danny Haiphong, Jimmy Dore, Nima Rostami Alkhorshid, Cynthia Pooler, Ania K, Rachel Blevins and others work together to bring viewership to ideas and messages of mutual value. Because of this partnership, the ATI/USToD team has been able to reach audiences that number in the millions, outstripping mainstream media outlets such as CNN and MSNBC.
In the coming year, the ATI/USToD team will look to expand its reach, looking for new opportunities on Telegram and X, and to enter into an exciting partnership with the Eisenhower Media Network.
We will also continue our collaboration with Malcolm Burn, where we have plans for an exciting foray into musical diplomacy.
We will likewise be working with social activists to improve our outreach capabilities, including an exciting project in collaboration with Jose Vega that will take us into the brave new world of self-publishing.
“Operation DAWN” will continue to be a top priority, where we will hold the Trump administration’s feet to the fire when it comes to preventing nuclear war, while expanding our efforts into arms control and the need for nuclear disarmament.
2025 will also see the “Waging Peace” project resurrected, with plans to travel to Russia already underway. This effort, however, will be difficult so long as my good friend, Alexander Zyrianov, remains imprisoned. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but I remain optimistic that Alexander will soon be released back into the arms of his loving wife, and that we can resume our collaboration on bringing the people of our two nations together in peace.
The year ahead is full of hope and the promise of peace. But this lofty objective cannot be achieved without hard work. The ATI/USToD team is ready to continue to work hard for peace. We expect that the year will be full of challenges, and we are confident in our ability to overcome them all.
But we can only do this with the continued generous support of our supporters and subscribers.
Your investment will not be in vain.
Last year you helped prevent a nuclear war and successfully defended free speech.
This year?
The sky is the limit.
With your help.
Thank you very much,
The ATI/USToD Team
Scott Ritter, Jeff Norman, Ryan Milton, Jose Vega, Jelena K, Alexandra Madornaya, Jon Curl, Adam Marksby and Morgan Blythe.
2024 was a challenging year indeed, made more endurable because of your efforts, and the efforts of all those who pursue truth. Thank you all at ATI/USToD and those who contribute, for all you have achieved, and endured, for your transparent personal growth, your humour, wisdom, intelligence, wit, perseverance, kindnesses, honesty, and Love.
As daunting as 2025 appears already, I am reminded that it is under the darkest skies that the stars are more clearly seen. The darker it gets, the more stars appear, until the very sky is filled with them, and the darkness is revealed as an imposter before the light of all those stars.
2025 looks quite grim, but more stars will shine as the network of truth grows.
People
Planet
Peace
Thank you Scot and crew.