Ryan Routh, The Man Who Tried to Assassinate Donald Trump, Wrote a Book That Sounds Like it Was Written by the CIA

Is He a Manchurian Candidate?

[Source: nypost.com]

Ryan Routh has been all over the news since Sunday after his arrest for attempting to assassinate Donald Trump.

The media has emphasized Routh’s previous criminal record and social media posts that echoed Democratic Party talking points regarding the 2024 election and Donald Trump.

Routh’s quixotic efforts to raise an Afghan mercenary force to fight in Ukraine were also spotlighted and fact that other mercenaries dismissed him as a “whack job” because of his “delusions of grandeur” and “messiah complex” combined with a lack of military training.

Routh at an anti-Ukraine rally [Source: nypost.com]

Routh recently published a book with his wife, Kathleen Shaffer, entitled Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracies, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen: Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, World War III and the End of Humanity, whose content has escaped media notice

It is among the most bizarre books that I have ever read that appears to be written by a CIA asset.

The reason I suspect the latter is because the author employs flowery rhetoric one would expect from an idealistic, hippie-type political activist mixed with glowing praise for CIA backed mercenary forces.

Routh furthermore takes political positions that directly align with the interests of the U.S. government and CIA.

Throughout the text, Routh warns about a growing U.S. isolationism and the lack of will of U.S. citizens and leaders in standing up to “Russian barbarian invaders.” He openly calls for Vladimir Putin’s assassination along with Belarusian socialist leader Alexander Lukashenko, whom the U.S. government and CIA have sought to overthrow.

[Source: amazon.com]

Routh generally does not appear at all to be well informed about world politics. He provides no context for the outbreak of war in Ukraine or discussion of U.S. policies that helped to provoke the war and no larger analysis of world political developments.

Instead he offers pages of moralistic homilies that one might expect to read in a self-improvement book mixed in with Russophobia, valorization of the free enterprise system, denunciation of communism and other CIA talking points.

Along this latter vein, Routh calls Hillary Clinton a “gutsy leader,” and claims that NATO “stole Ukrainian nuclear warheads” after the collapse of the Soviet Union—alluding to the Lugar-Nunn initiative that got Ukraine to dismantle its nuclear weapons.

Blaming U.S. leaders for allowing “Hong Kong to be imprisoned” by the Chinese, Routh advocates for bombing all residences and burning every structure in Russian border towns and encircling Taiwan with military ships to protect it from the Chinese.

Lamenting how the Biden administration “left the Afghans to be beaten and killed by terrorists,” Routh defends Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s canceling of elections, writing that “Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian parliament will have to put reelection out of the picture and make the hard decision that makes the general public mad for the benefit of the whole.”

This latter statement is one that a CIA or State Department flunky would make rather than an independent citizen or political analyst, even one who is pro-war. Apart from the above statement, Routh never otherwise mentions Zelensky, or attempts to analyze political developments within Ukraine.

Towards the end of the book, Routh heaps praise on Peruvian President Dina Boularte, calling her a “pioneer for democracy” who supposedly  “stood with fellow Peruvians against Pedro Castillo” whose “wish to derail democracy was unsuccessful.”

Castillo, however, was overthrown in a right-wing coup led by Boularte after he had attempted to reassert Peruvian control over its natural resources. With U.S. backing, Boularte in turn ordered the violent suppression of anti-government protesters, resulting in over 70 deaths.[1]

So why is Routh invoking her as a great leader? Does anybody independent of the U.S. government think this is the case?

Protester with sign calling Dina Boularte an assassin. [Source: pledgetimes.com]

Routh issues praise for another dubious Latin American politician; Juan Guiadó, a right-wing extremist who backed a series of coups against the socialist government in Venezuela.

Guiadó had limited support within Venezuela but was championed by the Trump administration and CIA who anointed him Venezuela’s president-in exile. His organization was found to be thoroughly corrupt and the coup attempts that he launched miserably failed.

Yet Routh writes “I would suggest to Juan Guiadó that he seize the leadership role that he won….When all is said and done with Putin, together you both can also eliminate Maduro from power, as it should be.”

These comments appear to have been written by someone in the CIA or State Department.

What private citizen—even one who may be conditioned to support U.S. foreign policy—thinks in this way? Why single out Maduro when the U.S. supports many tyrannical governments—like the Saudis, or Rwandans or Ugandans? Of course its because Maduro is socialist and a target of regime change by the U.S. government since Hugo Chavez died of cancer.

Elsewhere in his book, Routh praises the Syrian Free Army and Myanmar rebels; CIA backed forces that few Americans know much about. 

Since Routh offers no special insights into these groups, it appears he is just regurgitating CIA talking points. Almost nobody champions the cause of these groups outside of Washington and their dubious record can be easily researched.

Manchurian Candidate?

If I am correct, and Routh’s book is CIA disinformation, what would its purpose be in light of Routh’s involvement in the Trump assassination attempt?

I do not know the answer, however, can come up with a theory based on my study of past assassinations and CIA history.

That theory, far fetched as it may sound, is that Routh is a Manchurian candidate[2] who was groomed and programmed by CIA psychiatrists to commit political violence and to write a book that would at once a) cast him as a critic of Trump’s Ukraine/Russia policy, giving him a motive for his crime; and b) advance Democratic Party/CIA talking points on foreign policy.  

When the CIA sets up patsies, they invariably need to create a personae for that patsy which will match the crime and make him look crazy which they have clearly done with Routh. And since Routh is now famous, people will actually read his book.

Routh after his arrest. [Source: nypost.com]

The purpose of the political violence in his case may not have been to kill Trump as it is unlikely Routh could have successfully shot him from the bushes where he was found.

The purpose rather would have been to advance a “strategy of tension” whereby people are continuously put on edge by the threat of violence and prone to suspend rational judgment and support ever greater police state measures.

Some people might dismiss the above theory as “conspiracy theory” and it possibly is. However, these are historical precedents and the CIA has groomed Manchurian candidates before.

One was Sirhan Sirhan who was programmed to shoot at Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968 on command after seeing a woman with a polka dot dress. Sirhan’s shots diverted attention while the real assassin who worked for a CIA contractor, Thane Eugene Cesar, shot Kennedy from behind his ear.

Relevant to Routh’s case, Sirhan was programmed not only to shoot a Kennedy but to write a rambling and often incoherent diary in which he recorded his anger about Kennedy’s support for Israel—establishing a motive for him.

Sirhan Sirhan after his arrest in June 1968. [Source: listal.com]

Another known example of the CIA creating Manchurian candidates is the Symbionese Liberation Afrmy (SLA), a radical group in the 1970s whose leader Donald DeFreeze was subjected to behavior modification and programming under the CIA’s MK-ULTRA at the California medical facility at Vacaville in the 1970s.

Brad Schreiber’s book, Revolution’s End: The Patty Hearst, Mind Control, and the Secret History of Donald DeFreeze and the SLA (Skyhorse Publishing 2016) shows that DeFreeze was programmed to commit violent criminal acts that would undermine left-wing movements in California. As part of the cover, he and his comrades wrote political manifestos whose aim was to spread public disinformation.

Donald DeFreeze [Source: wikiwand.com]

“Forrest Gump of CIA Paramilitary Operations”

These and other historical precedents raise suspicion about Routh that he could very well be part of a covert operation of sinister intent.[3]

Adding to the suspicion is the fact that Routh was something of a “Forrest Gump of CIA paramilitary operations,” in the words of Mike Benz, a former State Department official.

Routh admits to having been in numerous countries where the CIA operated supporting paramilitary groups the CIA was backing and admits to being in contact with the U.S. embassy in Kyiv where he was involved in getting visas for jihadists terrorists who were brought in to fight the Russians in Eastern Ukraine.

Additionally Routh is known to have visited Fort Bragg, head of the U.S. Special Forces in North Carolina numerous times, somehow could afford a first-class plane ticket from Hawaii to Florida and to fly around the world despite being an unemployed construction worker, appeared in a promotional video for Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov battalion, and was given only misdemeanor charges for possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction[4].

All of this raises red flags about his background adding plausibility to the theory that he is a tool of the intelligence services.

One other oddity is that according to the Department of Justice, Routh left a box with a friend months ago with electronic equipment and bomb material and a letter stating: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”

How would Routh know the assassination attempt would fail unless it was designed to do so and the act was all staged? Like in the scenario I have laid out.

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[1] These actions have resulted in a genocide inquiry being launched against Boularte. Peruvian security forces invaded the University of San Marcos and forced female students to strip naked in front of them.

[2] The term Manchurian candidate is a reference to a 1959 political novel by Richard Condon that was made into an award winning film by John Frankheimer about an American POW in the Korean War who was groomed by Communist China to carry out a coup in the U.S. and assassinate the President.

[3[ Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson pointed out that Donald Trump’s schedule is not made public so someone on the inside must have tipped Routh off, raising further suspicion of some kind of covert operation designed either to kill Trump or advance a “strategy of tension” as discussed.

[4] Routh served no jail time despite having been purportedly arrested 74 times. He claimed in one interview that his wife, Kathleen Schaffer, paid for his travels overseas and recruitment of mercenaries. Investigators found that Schaffer worked for a company located close to Langley, Virginia, home of the CIA headquarters.

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