Free Speech and the Apocalypse

If the US government had its way, my latest book, Highway to Hell: The Armageddon Chronicles, 2015-2024, would never have been written, let alone published. The government wants to control the narrative around the threat of nuclear conflict. Highway to Hell destroys the government narrative, exposing the reality of the dangers of a nuclear conflict, and how the government is making such a conflict more than a possibility, but rather a distinct probability, for the American people and the rest of the world.

When Highway to Hell was first conceived, I was in the midst of a campaign—Operation DAWN—designed to make preventing nuclear war and promoting arms control a central issue for the 2024 Presidential election. Highway to Hell was intended to be a primer for the education of Americans on the imminent danger of nuclear war, and the absolute necessity for disarmament and arms control as the ideal mechanisms to keep the nuclear genie in the bottle.

The Biden administration’s Department of Justice and FBI, however, took umbrage with this campaign and, as part of a larger effort to counter so-called Russian interference in the American electoral process.

On August 7 of 2024, the FBI raided my home. They seized my personal electronics, including my main laptop where I kept my files and drafts of work in progress. On that laptop there were several lengthy articles and two draft books. The FBI also seized archival material that was being used in both the articles and the draft books.

But the FBI did more: by carrying out such a high-profile raid, the FBI highlighted their allegations that I was an agent of the Russian Federation. They brought into question my credibility as a journalist and analyst, and by linking their allegations to my status as a contributor to both RT and Sputnik, sought to paint me as a Russian propogandist, and my work, by extension, Russian propaganda.

In short, the FBI raid was an elaborate act of theater designed to destroy a critical voice at the very moment this voice needed to be heard the most: on the eve of a national election where the issue of nuclear war and arms control was one of the most important being considered by the American people.

While I was, and still am, unable to access the draft articles and books, along with the archival research documents, I was not about to let the FBI and, by extension, the US government, silence me.

When the work the government labeled as propaganda (i.e., my articles published in RT and Sputnik) is combined with work I have done over the course of the past decade, the government’s efforts fail miserably.

This is especially true when addressing the issue of the threat posed by nuclear weapons and the critical importance of arms control in containing and eliminating this threat.

The government claims that in articles I published with RT and Sputnik I am simply parroting Russian talking points.

This is the furthest thing from the truth: when these articles are read side by side with dozens of other articles written over the years for outlets such as The Huffington Post, TruthDig, The American Conservative, The Washington Spectator, Consortium News and Energy Intelligence, the consistency of argument and the heavy reliance on fact-based analysis underscores the reality that my work is my work alone, influenced by no outside parties, including the Russian government.

The articles were, however, intended to influence the target audience, namely the American people.

And this is exactly what the FBI and the Biden administration were trying to prevent by raiding my home.

In preparing the original draft of Highway to Hell, I had gone back and reviewed the totality of my writing about nuclear weapons and arms control since 2015. I had written a couple chapters prior to the FBI raid, which were lost when the FBI seized my computer. Anyone who writes knows how hard it is to pour yourself into a project, and how hard it is to try and recreate that product in case it is lost, erased, or—as in this case—stolen by the US government.

I was having a hard time getting motivated to re-write the chapters in question, and was re-reading the earlier articles to get myself motivated, when I was struck by an epiphany: why re-invent the wheel?

The book I was trying to write was, for all intents and purposes, already written.

Moreover, by assembling the various articles I had written over the years into a single volume, organized chronologically by topic, I would be able to demonstrate to anyone who read the book the reality that what I wrote for RT and Sputnik was exactly what I wrote for my American publishers. And finally, by writing a book that incorporated the RT and Sputnik articles I wrote on nuclear weapons and arms control, I would be standing up to the forces that were trying to silence me, not only by continuing to speak and write on topics they found disconcerting, but also by publishing the very material they were trying to delete from the public eye.

Highway to Hell was now more than simply a clarion call about the dangers of nuclear weapons and the need to rid the world of that danger, but it was also the physical manifestation of the absolute need for free speech (my voice) and a free press (Clarity Press, which had the courage to publish this book in the face of US government pressure not to.)

The threat of nuclear war is as great today as it has ever been in the history of the nuclear era, even more so than the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Someday the history of what happened between September and December 2024 regarding the Biden administrations insane rush toward the nuclear apocalypse will be become public. What we know now, however, should be enough to send a chill down the spine of any American—the Biden administration gave Ukraine permission to use long-range US-made ATACMS missiles against targets inside Russia despite a Pentagon assessment which said such actions had a better than 50% chance of triggering a Russian nuclear response.

More than 50%.

And the Biden administration went ahead regardless.

Some people may think that the Biden administration believed the Russians were bluffing.

But a senior Democratic member of Congress, when briefed by the CIA about the new Russian nuclear doctrine that the Biden administration would be testing by greenlighting the use of ATACMS by Ukraine, made it clear that the CIA had concluded that the Russians were not bluffing.

The scariest part of the briefing, this representative told me, was not the CIA conclusion, but rather the fact that the senior Biden administration officials present were not concerned by the potential for a nuclear “exchange” with Russia.

This fact was backed by a presentation made in November 2024 by the Strategic Command officer responsible for America’s nuclear war plans. Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan, the J-5 (Plans and Policy) for Strategic Command, told an audience at a panel hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the US was prepared to fight and win a nuclear war. While he did not cite Russia as the enemy in such an exchange, this conversation took place at the precise timeframe where the Biden administration was playing nuclear roulette with ATACMS missiles.

It is incumbent for the American public to empower themselves with knowledge and information about the dangers of nuclear war, and the need for arms control.

Highway to Hell is an ideal resource for this empowerment.

And the fact that the US government did its level best to keep this book from being published should be even more reason for this book to be read by every American.

Because free speech isn’t free if the American people are denied access to information by the US government.

Scott will discuss this article and answer audience questions on Ep. 254 of Ask the Inspector.