Mueller invokes ghosts of GRU operatives to help his and Brennan case
12 Russian ghosts and the desire to implicate Russia in DNC leak
The Russiagate investigation looks more and more like the struggle for power between two Mafiosi clans,
when losing side is ready to do all types of dirty tricks on the winning side.
Mueller now he is doing something he wasn't hired to do: trying to save his job and simultaneously derail Putin-Trump
summit
Don Corleone: [to Luca Brasi]
I'm a little worried about this Sollozzo fellow. I want you to find out what he's got under his fingernails. Go to the Tattaglias,
and tell them you're not too happy with our Family, and find out what you can...
Just saw a would-be meme on my Facebook feed . . . to the general effect that the FBI still hasn't even looked at the DNC's
computer or server, but Mueller's indicted 12 Russians for 'hacking' them.
Of course, there is that old quote from a New York state judge that a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.
(Which also reminds me of a riddle: Why is a ham sandwich better than perfect happiness? Well, nothing is better than perfect
happiness, right? -- and a ham sandwich is certainly better than nothing. . . .)
As ludicrous as Russiagate became, it was no joke as it became a real amplifier of the threat of nuclear war. John "911
cover-up" Muller role in this case is very dirty and reminding the behaviour of a typical Mafiosi in a desperate struggle with
other clan. During 811 he already again proved himself to be a loyal agent of the Deep state, if not Democratic Party.
The accusations are worded different the in case on Internet research agency story
as fiasco of Russiagate. No more of "we assess" like the last time. It is amazing to see all the gory (and probably false
or falsified ) detail with which the US supposedly knows of the names and actions of GRU cyber espionage unit in
Russia.
They present GNU as organization without any discipline or special methods and inhabited by wanna be hackers with
questionable qualifications. For example, the malware
which Mueller claimed to be used looks like a the one with capabilities similar to
Flame. So why on
Earth those guys need to use CCcleaner (a
freeware/shareware with murky history -- some versions of which were troyanzed, see
BleepingComputer) when operating this super-sophisticated
military grade malware (with probably immense battery of plugins)
is completely bizarre. Why they need to leave a trace in Windows log? In order to be detected ?
To assume that GRU officers use spearphishing in a manner described looks very unconvincing. If they do it it 's probably outsourced.
That suggest more of a false flag operation, then real GRU activities. Any sizable intelligence agency now has a lot
of skill and a huge knowledgebase of US "achievements" in this area including
Stuxnet,
Flame,
Duqu Trojan and such. Including
detailed history of those operations and source code of malware. Vault 7 also probably was available for them for some time.
In other words they understand NSA capabilities as for malware and for traffic inspection/interception better that some NSA former
employees.
It is unclear also why the military intelligence was tasked with penetrating into civil organization like DNC and how name
of "GRU officers" were obtained (this question was raised in an excellent post at
Sic Semper Tyrannis blog:
How do we know the names of the 12 Russian GRU officers? The Russians do not publish directories of secret organizations.
Where did this information come from?
It would appear that the release of the indictment today was a deliberate political act designed to detract and distract
from the Trump visit to the UK and to put pressure on him to confront Vladimir Putin. I have heard from many of my former
colleagues who are hoping that Putin calls the Rosenstein bluff. If forced to reveal the "evidence" behind this indictment
because of a challenge from a defendant, the results will be a disaster for the prosecution.
The timing of this announcement illustrates how badly the deep state desires to sabotage Trump's plan to improve US-Russia
relations. Since they have been playing the Russia card for so long with no real results and to the detriment of their credibility,
the urge to try to obstruct Trump at the 11th hour must have been overwhelming.
Between Trumps experience dealing with shady characters in his prior career (esp the casino industry) and what he has
no doubt learned about his enemies in the borg since getting elected, I'm guessing he has contingency plans. And if not,
he has great Road Runner-like instincts :)
There is other Russian secret services that are more suitable for the task.
And why those "spearfishers" were indicted. This indictment creates a president, which endanger similar work of US intelligence
agencies against Russian objects.
also look how stupid was DNC and "team Clinton" as for computr security. Yo really need to start to question IQ of people involved.
MSM of couse does nto wnat to look at the problem from this angle. These things only lead to more embarassing questions
A pretty devastating analysis by Disobedient Media
Evidence was found over 500 days ago relating to the Guccifer 2.0 persona that showed they had deliberately manipulated files
to have Russian metadata. We know the process used to construct the documents was not due to accidental mistakes during the creation
process.
The original template document that Guccifer 2.0 used has been identified. It is also the source of the presence of Warren Flood’s
name, and can be found attached to one of Podesta’s emails (it has RSIDs matching with Guccifer 2.0’s first couple of documents).
It makes no sense that the GRU would have even used Guccifer 2.0 in the manner we now know he operated – it only caused any harm
to Trump and served to undermine leaks due to the deliberate placement of Russian metadata that would give a false perception of
Russians mishandling those documents (including the Trump research document found in Podesta’s emails).
This author is responding to the indictment because it features claims about Guccifer 2.0 that are inconsistent with what has
been discovered about the persona, including the following:
Virtually everything that has been claimed to indicate Guccifer 2.0 was Russian was based on something he chose
to do.
Considering that Guccifer 2.0 had access to Podesta’s emails, yet never leaked anything truly damaging to the Clinton campaign
even though he would have had access to it, is highly suspicious. In fact, Guccifer 2.0 never referenced any of the scandals that
would later explode when the DNC emails and Podesta email collections were published by WikiLeaks.
The first piece of malware at the DNC identified by Crowdstrike as relating to “Fancy Bear,” was compiled on 25 April, 2016. This
used a C2 (command and control) IP address that, for the purposes of the APT group, had been inoperable for over a year. It was useful
mostly as a signature for attributing it to “Fancy Bear.”
Two additional pieces of malware were discovered at the DNC attributed to the same APT group. These were compiled on 5 May 2016
and 10 May 2016 while Robert Johnston was working with the DNC on CrowdStrike’s behalf to counter the intrusion reported at the end
of April and install Falcon.
This could be inferred from a number of things. DCLeaks was re-registered on 19 April 2016, however, what they published included
Republicans and individuals that were not connected to the DNC. In fact, DCLeaks didn’t start publishing anything relating to Clinton
campaign staff until June/July 2016. There was also the fact that the daily
frequency of emails in the
DNC emails released by WikiLeaks increased dramatically from around 19 April 2016, however, this wasn’t indicative of the start
of hacking activity but rather caused by a 30 day email retention policy combined with the fact that the emails were acquired between
May 19th and May 25th.
There has been no technical evidence produced by those who had access to the DNC network demonstrating files were being manipulated
or that malware was engaging in activity prior to this and by CrowdStrike’s own admissions, many of the devices at the DNC were wiped
in June. As such, it’s unclear where this may have come from.
There’s an issue here with the conflation of Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks. Why would Guccifer 2.0 have had an account at DCLeaks with
which he had restricted access and could only manage a subset of the leaks (and only those relating to the DNC) while DCLeaks featured
leaks covering those unconnected to and even opposing the DNC?
It makes no sense that the GRU would have even used Guccifer 2.0 in the manner we now know he operated – it only caused any harm
to Trump and served to undermine leaks due to the deliberate placement of Russian metadata that would give a false perception of
Russians mishandling those documents (including the Trump research document found in Podesta’s emails).
So, in fairness, there is actually circumstantial evidence to suggest an overlap as Guccifer 2.0 clearly had Podesta’s emails
and it looks like the spearphishing attack used to snare Podesta’s emails was identical to one that was attributed to the acquisition
of emails published by DCLeaks.
Is there a reason for ambiguity when referencing WikiLeaks?
While he clearly had access to the Podesta emails (NOTE: CrowdStrike decided to start investigating the NGP-VAN breach within
a week of Podesta’s emails being acquired, three months after the December 2015 incident), Guccifer 2.0 used those materials
to fabricate evidence on 15 June 2016 implicating Russians and which, coincidentally appeared to support (but ultimately
helped refute) multiple assertions made by CrowdStrike
that the Trump Opposition report (actually sourced from Podesta’s emails) was targeted by Guccifer 2.0 at the DNC in April 2016 –
and that the theft of this specific file from the DNC – which, again, could not have been stolen from the DNC – had set off the “first
alarm” indicating a security breach.
On 6 July 2016, Guccifer 2.0 released a batch of documents that were exclusively attachments to DNC emails that would later be
released by WikiLeaks.
Guccifer 2.0 certainly didn’t make a genuine effort to “conceal a Russian identity,” far from it. The persona made decisions that
would leave behind a demonstrable trail of Russian-themed breadcrumbs, examples include:
Choosing the Russian VPN Service (using the publicly accessible default server in France) in combination with a mail
service provider that would forward the sender’s IP address.
Creating a blog and dropping a Russian emoticon in the second paragraph of the first post, something he only ever did one
other time over months of activity (in which he used “:)” at a far higher frequency).
Tainting documents with Russian language metadata.
Going through considerable
effort to ensure Russian language errors were in the first documents provided to the press.
Probable use of a VM set to Russian timezone while manipulating documents so that datastore objects with timestamps implying
a Russian timezone setting are saved (in one of the documents, change tracking had been left on and recorded someone in a
PST timezone saving one of Guccifer 2.0’s documents after the documents had being manipulated in the Russian timezones!)
The deliberate and inconsistent mangling of English language (which was actually inconsistent with aspects of English
language that Russians typically struggle with).
Guccifer 2.0 claimed credit for a hack that was already being attributed to Russians without making any effort to counter
that perception and only denied it when outright questioned on it.
We know that whoever had the Podesta emails had far more damaging content on Hillary than that produced by Guccifer 2.0 or DCLeaks
and we know Guccifer 2.0 had access to Podesta’s emails. If it was the GRU and they wanted to harm Hillary, they had FAR better material
do that with than what they chose to release.
DCLeaks featured leaks from those that were not involved in the US presidential election. Guccifer 2.0 only released content relating
to the Democratic party and only content that was of little harm to the DNC leadership and Clinton’s campaign.
... .... ....
Also, if Guccifer 2.0 was Russian, why didn’t he struggle with indefinite and definite articles as a Russian struggling with English
language would typically do?
Of course, ultimately, if he was working with the Russian state, why deliberately do so much to be perceived as Russian?
Ambiguity with not mentioning Wikileaks in the indictment
is probably connected with Seth Rich murder controversy
The fact the Seth Rich murder was swiped under the carpet and never mentions despite obvious (at least time wise) connection
of DNC hack/leak, as well as Awan brothers investigation (which is one big question in itself) creates even more questions about validity
of Mueller indictment and colors it as a cover-up attempt.
Cur Bono and related questions
The first question is: why would Russians go to such length if in any case the foreign policy is by-and-large controlled by forces
outside the Presidential
administration and Russians understand that. Not that he is completely powerless, but is not the person who determine the USA
foreign policy. He may have his own wishes (Trump does have) but at the end of the day he will be forced to follow the Deep State
"recommendations".
High level Russian officials made several statement to this extend. In other words for Russia there is little difference
if elections would result in winning of iether candidate as this winds would have little or no influence on the direction of the USA
foreign policy. If so why bother?
Another question that instantly arises: after reading the indictment is: Why now? Where was all those immense power of NSA, CIA and FBI during election. Why that calmly observed
that Russian are destroying American democracy :-). Something is really fishy here. And that suggest that Russian
"involvement" might well be a false flag operation by Crowdstrike and forces behind it (Brennan and company). Here is one
interesting comment
Yet another interesting tidbit is Mr/Mueller past role in 911 cover-up. And 911 was a huge interference into the US political
life. It essentially finalized conversion to the national security state.
From several point of view Mueller indictments look disingenuous. first of all there is no chain of evidence whatsoever: FBI
was unceremoniously was send to sidelines and all investigation was done by very questionably security firm --
FBI and CIA
contractor Crowdstrike
My educated guess as to the answer to your three questions is the same as you imply:
1. everything they have they have through hearsay from Crowdstrike.
2. See #1.
3. Wikileaks is the only party who would actually respond to the indictment and seek discovery, so leaving them out means they're
not in danger of actually having to produce any evidence.
This indictment reads like Le Carre novel. Some observations.
GRU operates under a very heavy classification regime similar to CIA and other intelligence agencies. Meaning the names
of their operatives themselves are classified information and reveling them to foreigners represents a crime. And yet, here we have
an indictment with not less than a dozen names. "Which means that either the US has infiltrated the GRU top to bottom and sideways,
and Mueller is somehow not gun shy to reveal this fact to the world – or someone is making stuff up. Unless someone wants to point
out to me some other explanation for a dozen classified – top secret and all that – names showing up in a public US document…" (
Since Russia appears is capable of running circles around all the US intelligence agencies, perhaps all of the incompetents
running US 'Intelligence' had better be fired ib the spot. The USA elections should return to paper ballots as they best
serve the interests of the American people. Election propaganda should be allowed only from candidates and only within strict
limits of government allocated budget. Third parties election propaganda should probably be prohibited.
Crowdstrike is shady security company evidence from which can't be trusted. It is riddled with conflicts of interest (beyond
being hired by the DNC) as most of its
executuves and senior management
have a well known anti-Russian bias. Crowdstrike, hired by the DNC is the only source of the claim Russia hacked the DNC computer
servers (since the DNC refused the FBI to have access to their servers). Again, FBI never has direct access to DNC computers.
NSA capabilities for encrypted communications are very limited: they can establish the fact of communication and capture )and for
short period of time store) the bit stream, but they can't decode the stream unless they hack into one of the endpoints.
So from which source such a detailed "step by step" information emerged?
We now know that
the CIA has
the cyber-tools to mask the origin of attacks and point the finger at whomever they choose. The list of the CIA’s cyber-tools
WikiLeaks began to release in March and labeled Vault 7 includes one called Marble Framework that is capable of obfuscating
the origin of documents in false-flag operations and leaving markings that point to whatever the CIA wants to point to.
Why GRU was involved? GRU is a specialized military intelligence unit, and those a civil target. So the statement like
"Unit 26165 had primary responsibility for hacking the DCCC and DNC, as well as the email accounts of individuals
affiliated with the Clinton Campaign." look pretty bizarre.
The personalities of GRU operatives which emerge from Mueller criminal indictments (justice.gov)
look like a second rate hackers, without any discipline, or higher level control of their actions, which definitely harm Russian
state.
The indictment does not explain the fact that the download speed of data was much higher that the Internet connection allows
(which suggests a leak, not hack). The murder of Seth Rich still is hanging over DNC leak. This documents claims that
Seth Rich has nothing to do with it. Assange might disagree, so niether he not Wikileaks were mentioned directly.
Looks like the X-Tunnel malware they refer to belongs to the same class of "exfiltration" software as the USA developed Flame
malware ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_%28malware%29
). Why having such a powerful, multipupose malware "GRU Ghosts" still needed to use a "CC cleaner" (which is a shareware) can't be
explained as in such cases there are plugins which are capable to do the same job (and much more) much better. X-Tunnel malware variants
supposedly used to infiltrate and hack the Democratic National Committee (DNC) back in April 2016 was based on a piece of open source
networking utility developed by a Chinese company in the early 2000s for VOIP applications. Here is some (unreliable) information
about the tool (XTunnel Malware with
a Specific Target – the DNC Network )
... According to Invincea`s expert Pat Belcher, some of the most threatening abilities of XTunnel are “to hook into system
drivers, access the local LDAP server, access local passwords, use SSH, OpenSSL, search and replace local files, and of course
be able to maintain a persistent connection to a pre-specified IP address, even if the host is behind a NATed firewall. That is
a lot of capabilities packed into a file that is less than 2 MB in size.”
As intrusion was detected rather late by the provate company hired by DNC, how FBI managed to obtain the information about "GRU
ghosts" activities? The only other source would be NSA. And NSA can't catch to much -- if this is serous operation the
intruder first build "traning ground" - a server with an identical software", study it, design the operation, automate it and then
do it at minimum amount of time during the day ours when other employees traffic can mask your activity on the "compromised employee"
computer.
Unless absilutly nessesary, no "professional" hacker would try to break into server directly. They way to do it is to break into
some employees home desktops and use them, so that all traffic appear legitimate.
Idea that you can trace particular session to a partiuclar GRU computer is questionable and blongs to the type of "security porno"
typical for Crowdstrike. In no way such organization as GRU operates a direct connection to the Internet. There is such device
as a remote control unit in modern servers (Dell DRAC, HP ILO and it allows to disassociate the IP address that you are using from
the IP address of you desktop/laptop. This is a kind of built-in KVM available on all modern servers. There are is also such
things as proxy servers which are used by most most security consious organizations, whi internally operqte in a provate IP
space (for example 10.x.x.x network) . In this case all IP sessions originate from proxy. And those two mechanisms represent a minimal
level of security -- I am sure that intelligence agencies are capable of and use use more, much more. For example you can change
from IP4 to IP6 on internal netwrok (I think US intelligence agencies now operate IP v6). So the statement that a session was traced
to a particular computer looks extremely amateurish, at best )ala "security porn"). This is not how such organizations as GRU
or CIA operate.
NSA capabilities are probably studied all over the world and schemes to "blind" them at lest temporarily already exist (one important
limitation is that NSA can't store the whole traffic for long, this is just enormous amount of data; may be a week at
most, and then only "envelope" remains stored; so my impression is that in case of hack if it is not detected within a week most
traces are gone.
If "professional hackers" were involved, then the complex task like infiltration onto DNC is heavily compartmentalized. And each
stage is done independently and immediately cleaned on completion. As Crowdstrike did not get access to the server until the horse
left the barn and NSA has problems with encrypted communication, it is unclear how such a level of details was achived. For example,
IP used on each stage should be "burned." and never reused as there are thousands computers in a typical botnet. Particular
modules used are destroyed, This is just common sense as many of them are available from criminal botnets.
I heard that NSA can trance SSH and VPN connection to their destination but all major intelligence servicesa probably know that
and devices measured that bypass this capability. Law enforcement has very little success in catching authors of "extortionware"
so they are really in bad position in facing of capabilities of organizations like GRU.
In a sense the claim about "GRU server" looks a little bit like Le Carre fiction. With the power of modern desktop all you need
is to control one of the botnets and you have everything you need :-)
NSA is the only source of detailed information about hacks as Crowstrike arrived on the scene too late and generally can't be
trusted. But as communications are encrypted how NSA can get detailed account of what and how this is done. And with military intelligence
you can be sure that cypher used is not the one that NSA can break -- they probably know more about capabilities of NSA than many
NSA former employers.
Timing is extremely suspicions in view of the revelation that almost all Hillary emails went to a foreign source. AS PT observed
"It would appear that the release of the indictment today was a deliberate political act designed to detract and distract from the
Trump visit to the UK and to put pressure on him to confront Vladimir Putin"
The statement "On or about June 15, 2016, the Conspirators logged into a Moscow-based server used and managed by Unit 74455 and,
between 4:19 PM and 4:56 PM Moscow Standard Time, searched for certain words and phrases, including:
“some hundred sheets”
“some hundreds of sheets”
dcleaks
illuminati
широко известный перевод [widely known translation]
“worldwide known”
“think twice about”
“company’s competence”
suggests two things:
They have malware on in some other way control one or more GRU computers. Disclosure of this fact (unless this is a
disinformation) is stupid.
The GRU does not employ professional translators.
It mightell be yet another false flag operation to implicate Russians
Like some people see Russianunder each bed, I see flase flag operations even when they might not be the case ;-). But
there is some evidence of that because the indictment was written completly unprofessionally and reflect below average understanding
of the issues involved. That means one thing: they do not care about the truth which is a sure sign of propaganda or false flag oepration
or both.
forst on all none of contrudicting evidence was discussed. And there are severalthing that contrudict the hypotheye state
in the invitement:
Murrey testimony about his role in getting DNC mail archive to Wilileaks
Re Aaron Mate It's entirely possible he reads you regularly and saw your post when you first published, but
on
2/20/18 :
AARON MATÉ: Let's talk about the indictment, Max. Reading through it, the prosecution
alleges some clear political motives, a preference, basically, for Bernie Sanders and Donald
Trump and a strong distaste for Hillary Clinton, also support for some, also, the
encouragement of Russian trolls to disparage Republicans like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
There
does appear to be some political motives there in whatever the Russians, whatever these
alleged suspects were doing. But also, there's a strong commercial component in the sense
that the accounts that the Russians are accused of creating were used to essentially, as a
scheme in which vendors would pay them money for retweets at sometimes $25 to $50 a pop.
It
seems to me that there is both a commercial motive here as well as a political imperative, as
well. I'm wondering your thoughts on what this indictment tells us.
So your Tweet on 6/5/18 wasn't telling him anything he hadn't already said publicly.
Oh it's way more than that.
That is the kind of language Oliver Wendell Holmes would have used back in the
day. It also brings to mind Samuel Clemens. This is a very sharp team indeed.
Mule-er basically drew to an inside straight, and got busted. The Russkies
called his bluff, and his hand is 7-8-10-Jack-four. Sorry, Ereberto,
no nine, just a "nein." Discovery is a bitch! I suspect that further
developments are going to be highly entertaining. Judge: "can we see your
evidence of wrongdoing." Mule-er: "That's highly classified."
In its earliest English uses, "pettifogger" was two separate words: "pettie
fogger." "Pettie" was a variant spelling of "petty," a reasonable inclusion in
a word for someone who is disreputable and small-minded.
Who would have believed decent Americans would ever applaud Russians
kicking the shit out of federal law enforcement? Do I hear "The World
Turned Upside Down" in the distance? Should Mueller change his name
to Cornwallis?
How about "corrupt" shill? Remember, Mueller headed the FBI before and
after the 9/11 attacks. Did Mueller's FBI investigate? No; they covered up
for 9/11 perpetrators. Thanks a lot Mueller.
If I were the judge, I would refuse any motion Mueller makes to avoid
releasing evidence, and if he doesn't do it within a matter of hours, his
entire staff would be getting perp walked for contempt. Let Mueller manage
his investigation from a prison cell, like some drug kingpin.
The US government has already wasted $200 million on this stupid "pettifoggery".
Some one, any one, put an end to this ridiculous dog and pony show.
Mueller, and the Justice Dept. are now the laughing stock of the world. We
need to save a little face, and have this SOB shot for the good of the
nation. This Prick doesn't give two shits for the American people, or the
nation that he is paid to serve.
These guys were likely just pushing click-bait on Facebook. And since it is
election season, it is easy for them to riff off the candidates.
Mueller
giving it any legitimacy shows he is either out of touch with how the internet
works or has his own special case of Trump derangement syndrome.
Accuse others for which you are guilty is in the dnc handbook. The only
illegal activity involved the DNC, team Hillary, and operatives in the FBI,
CIA, DOJ, and the IRS.
This indictment is a total fujkin joke. In Mueller's world he can charge
you with a crime but refuse to show the evidence. Proves that he has no
interest in serving justice. His goals are to defame and bankrupt enemies
of the deep swamp.
When the truth comes out and i was Russian company or individual affected
by this assholes i would sue US for lost business and for defamation and
demand reparations and let THe black Jesus and Clinton Killer Gang and
their lackies pay for it.
Yes, very good links but, this is different in my opinion.
Mueller attempted to bring a criminal
domestic
case
against
international
personas that he is now
unwilling to go through the
discovery process with
(his claim) because of...wait for it...national security.
He never intended or wanted for
this case
to go to trial (but he had to show "something" for
his efforts) it is malpractice (at the American bar level)
and he knew it when he filed it.
When a prosecutor files charges against anyone (here) he
is in essence saying
"We have the evidence to
prosecute your honor and we are going to show it to you."
now he is saying he can't or will not produce that evidence
in the venue he chose to prosecute in.
Probably because he (and his crack Hillary lawyers)
didn't do the homework required until after filing charges
(idiot
fucktard that he and they are...lol)
as Concord's
new CEO is none other than one Dimitry Utkin, founder of the
Wagner Group, a Rodnover, for whatever thats worth ;-)
It's not just embarrassing it's criminal. He wants unlimited scope to
find "something". He indicts Russians knowing they won't show up for
court or so he thought and now he wants to limit the evidence because
he has no hand. Don't interfere with your enemy when he's mucking it
up. Mueller is going to be indicted for all of this, Uranium One
being the least of his problems. If Mr. Mueller wants to question me
the first thing I say is how much money did you give Whitey Bulger?
Muller got caught, tried to make headlines with Real Russians thinking they
would not show up and one did he is now in a PANIC - Muller needs to
produce the evidence or shut up and go away with his band of 13 anti Trump
staff.
"The indictment accuses the firm of producing propaganda, pretending to
be U.S. activists online and posting political content on social media
in order to sow discord among American voters."
Cough cough, none of that is illegal, 1st Amendment, even for
Russians
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is scrambling to limit pretrial evidence handed over to a
Russian company he indicted in February over alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election,
according to
Bloomberg .
Mueller asked a Washington federal Judge for a protective order that would prevent the
delivery of copious evidence to lawyers for Concord Management and Consulting, LLC, one of
three Russian firms and 13 Russian nationals. The indictment accuses the firm of producing
propaganda, pretending to be U.S. activists online and posting political content on social
media in order to sow discord among American voters .
The special counsel's office argues that the risk of the evidence leaking or falling into
the hands of foreign intelligence services, especially Russia, would assist the Kremlin's
active "interference operations" against the United States.
"The substance of the government's evidence identifies uncharged individuals and entities
that the government believes are continuing to engage in interference operations like those
charged in the present indictment," prosecutors wrote.
Improper disclosure would tip foreign intelligence services about how the U.S. operates,
which would "allow foreign actors to learn of those techniques and adjust their conduct, thus
undermining ongoing and future national security operations ," according to the filing.
The evidence includes thousands of documents involving U.S. residents not charged with
crimes who prosecutors say were unwittingly recruited by Russian defendants and
co-conspirators to engage in political activity in the U.S., prosecutors wrote. -
Bloomberg
Mueller also accused Concord of "knowingly and intentionally" conspiring to interfere with
the election by using social media to disparage Hillary Clinton and support Donald Trump.
And Concord Management decided to fight it...
As
Powerline notes, Mueller probably didn't see that coming - and the indictment itself was
perhaps nothing more than a PR stunt to bolster the Russian interference narrative.
I don't think anyone (including Mueller) anticipated that any of the defendants would
appear in court to defend against the charges. Rather, the Mueller prosecutors seem to have
obtained the indictment to serve a public relations purpose, laying out the case for
interference as understood by the government and lending a veneer of respectability to the
Mueller Switch Project.
One of the Russian corporate defendants nevertheless hired counsel to contest the charges.
In April two Washington-area attorneys -- Eric Dubelier and Kate Seikaly of the Reed Smith
firm -- filed appearances in court on behalf of Concord Management and Consulting . Josh
Gerstein covered that turn of events for Politico here
. -
Powerline Blog
Politico' s Gerstein notes that by defending against the charges, " Concord could force
prosecutors to turn over discovery about how the case was assembled as well as evidence that
might undermine the prosecution's theories ."
In a mad scramble to put the brakes on the case, Mueller's team tried to delay the trial -
saying that Concord never formally accepted the court summons related to the case , wrapping
themselves in a "cloud of confusion" as Powerline puts it. "Until the Court has an opportunity
to determine if Concord was properly served, it would be inadvisable to conduct an initial
appearance and arraignment at which important rights will be communicated and a plea
entertained."
The Judge, Dabney Friedrich - a Trump appointee, didn't buy it - denying Mueller a delay in
the high-profile trial.
The Russians hit back - filing a
response to let the court know that " [Concord] voluntarily appeared through counsel as
provided for in [the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure], and further intends to enter a plea
of not guilty . [Concord] has not sought a limited appearance nor has it moved to quash the
summons. As such, the briefing sought by the Special Counsel's motion is pettifoggery. "
And the Judge agreed ...
A federal judge has rejected special counsel Robert Mueller's request to delay the first
court hearing in a criminal case charging three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens
with using social media and other means to foment strife among Americans in advance of the
2016 U.S. presidential election.
In a brief order Saturday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich offered no
explanation for her decision to deny a request prosecutors made Friday to put off the
scheduled Wednesday arraignment for Concord Management and Consulting, one of the three firms
charged in the case . -
Politico
In other words, Mueller was denied the opportunity to kick the can down the road, forcing
him to produce the requested evidence or withdraw the indictment , potentially jeopardizing the
PR aspect of the entire "Trump collusion" probe.
And now Mueller is pointing to Russian "interference operations" in a last-ditch effort
.
Of note, Facebook VP of advertising, Rob Goldman, tossed a major hand grenade in the
"pro-Trump" Russian meddling narrative in February when he fired off a series of tweets the day
of the Russian indictments. Most notably, Goldman pointed out that the majority of advertising
purchased by Russians on Facebook occurred after the election, were hardly pro-Trump, and they
was designed to "sow discord and divide Americans", something which Americans have been quite
adept at doing on their own ever since the Fed decided to unleash a record class, wealth,
income divide by keeping capital markets artificially afloat at any cost.
The indictment accuses the firm of producing propaganda, pretending to be U.S. activists
online and posting political content on social media in order to sow discord among American
voters .
...
"knowingly and intentionally" conspiring to interfere with the election by using social
media to disparage Hillary Clinton and support Donald Trump.
Wait a minute, hold on - what exactly is the 'crime' here? Facebook ads that said Clinton
sucks? That's a crime now? I'm missing something obviously - I just don't know what. Anyone
willing and able to shed light on the crime alleged here?
How about CNN and NYT absolutely slanted and biased coverage? [And no - 'the press' in the
1st Amendment meant and means still the written word, not news corporations].
So far as I know "meddling" isn't a crime outside of Scooby Doo cartoons and MSNBC
I believe that Mueller is, rightly, being told to "Put up or shut up"? The discovery phase
should be very interesting and the only way to avoid that is to drop the charges, which will
indeed completely destroy Mueller's PR strategy. And with it, what remains of his
credibility...
I can picture Mueller sitting at the poker table with a huge stack. As he looks over his
hand, with a sly look on his face and a wink, he goes all in. Surprise suprise, they call his
bet. Now we wait for the reveal except that Bobby is screaming, wait, no fair, it was an
accident, I didn't mean to go all in. Turn those machines back on! The dealer then looks him
dead in the eye and says "Tough shit" as he turns over Mueller's losing hand.
mueller, you are so screwed. so supremely and royally screwed. now your investigation is
coming to a crashing halt without POTUS having to step in. all that was ever needed is
transparency. and now the good guys will have the IG report, Session's investigation, the
declassification of spy-gate materials and discovery from your Keystone cop operation all at
once.
best timeline ever.
take it from janus, extracting a troll from the interwebs and thinking you can crush him
IRL ALWAYS blows up in your face.
the only way you can win the game is with the deck stacked like a tower in your favor and
warping the rules to effect a desired outcome. tptb, you are up against superior people with
superior minds animated by an indomitable will. devastating defeat is inevitable.
That is part of the defense's argument. Many are asking "what is the actual crime" being
charged. Mueller charged them with campaign finance violations and failing to register as a
foreign agent. These crimes have a high burden of proof in that they require the state to
prove that the defendant knowingly broke the laws. No foreign corporation has ever been
charged with these crimes before. And the defense argues that there is nothing in the
indictment to show that they knew they were breaking these laws - hence no way to prove the
case against them. They also raise the 1st Amendment as defense saying political speech is
protected.
Did/do these companies have any other function besides buying $500 worth of "I Like Trump"
ads like selling something? So only Americans can have free speech in America, unless you
identify you and your coworkers as foreign free speech speaker-people? It sounds too tricky.
Only a progressive could figure out the legalities involved, as they are the free speech
professionals. The rest of us must get permission first, and then it will only be grafted IF
we say things that are officially approved by the free speech Nazi party.
Just think if these Ruskies could have voted! It would have been 30-40 more Trump votes
and he would have really really won bigly.
Can't Mueller be prosecuted himself if he knows there is no collusion or whatever... No
Russian anything, yet he continues to steal tax payer monies to fabricate false leads? He has
no incentive to be honest or to limit the investigation and if having the case remain open
benefits his party affiliates and he himself financially. If I got hired to do a one day job
and lied to make it a one year job, wouldn't that be theft of services?? The cuss must show
or he must go!
The furor is all about the "illegitimate" victories of Brexit and Trump's campaign. Does the average user care if s/he is micro-targetted
by political advertisements based on what they already believe?
No, because they already believe they're right, so what's wrong with a little confirmation bias? Most of us spend significant
amounts of energy seeking out sources of information confirming what we already believe; micro-targetting just makes our lives
that little bit less effortful.
The idea the Russians " "had the strategic purpose of sowing political discord in the
United States" which in reality in the result of deep crisis on neoliberalism, which started
in 2008 is a typical scapegoating. The essence of neo-McCarthyism if you wish.
"... But the indictments themselves suggest that Mueller's narrative is wrong. The objective
was not to influence the election, but make money by getting viewers to "click on"
advertisements. Check it out: ..."
"... It's worth noting, that if Mueller really wanted to get to the bottom of the Russia-gate
allegations, he would interview the people who have first-hand knowledge what actually happened.
He would question Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) and Craig Murray, both of whom have stated publicly
that they know who stole the Podesta emails. ..."
"... Mueller hasn't done that, nor has he contacted the VIPs (Ray McGovern, William Binney,
Skip Folden, etc) who did extensive forensic investigation of the "hacking" allegations and
proved that the emails were not hacked but leaked. Mueller has not pursued that line of inquiry
either. ..."
"... The above statement helps to prove my point that the indictments are not a vehicle for
criminal prosecution, but part of a politically-motivated information campaign to damage Trump
and vilify Russia. No one seriously believes that Mueller would ever try to prosecute this case
based on the spurious and looney claims of a criminal conspiracy. The whole idea is laughable.
..."
"... We found it interesting that Rob Goldman, who is the Vice President of Facebook Ads,
tweeted this revealing disclaimer on Monday which Trump posted on Twitter: ..."
"... Bottom line: The indictments were very good news for Donald Trump, but very bad news for
Robert Mueller who appears to have run into a brick wall. But has he? Has Mueller abandoned the
attacks on Trump or is there something else going on just below the surface? ..."
"... I can only guess at the answer, but it looks to me like Trump may have made a deal to
support the attacks on Russia provided he is acquitted on charges of collusion. That's what he's
wanted from the beginning, so, maybe he won this round? Here's one of his recent tweets that
helps to support my theory: ..."
"... What's wrong with that? If Trump's enemies want to provide him with a
Get-Outta-Jail-Free card, then why shouldn't he snatch it up and put this whole goofy probe
behind him? That's what most people would do. ..."
"... The problem is that Trump's biggest supporters want him to continue struggle against
"The Swamp". They want him to fight for their interests and expose the crooked goings-on behind
the Russiagate scandal. They want him to lift up the rock that conceals the activities of the
National Security State so everyone can see the maggots squirming below. That's what they want, a
modern-day Samson who shakes the temple's pillars and brings the whole crooked system crashing
down around him. ..."
"... These same people are hopeful that the Nunes memo and the Grassley-Graham "criminal
referral" are just the tip of the iceberg that will inevitably lead to the bigger fish involved
in this deep-state conspiracy, namely former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper, Former FBI Director James Comey, and very likely, Barack
Hussein Obama himself. What role did these men play in spying on the Trump campaign? Were they
actively trying to sabotage the elections by giving Hillary an edge? Should a second Special
Counsel be appointed to investigate whether crimes were committed in their targeting of the Trump
team? ..."
"... There is no crime called "collusion". So Trump cannot be "acquitted", let alone be
charged with something that is not a crime. Apparently the deep state and media's repetition of
"collusion" has duped not just the public, but this author with thinking it is some kind of
crime. ..."
"... Trump needs the swamp to produce politicized intel for his campaigns against Iran and
Venezuela (plus a dozen other countries which don't threaten the US). He needs the hated MSM (not
much more than the swamp's media branch) to sell the Iran war to his voters, who are supposed to
pay for it. He needs his shady relatives to stay OUT of prison, where several of them seem to
belong (of course, papa Kushner has already spent time inside). So appeasement it is. ..."
"... Sorry, but on the whole Trump voters are too dumb to pose much of an obstacle. They like
the campaigns against Iran because of religion, and against Venezuela because of "socialism".
They didn't raise a peep when it became clear that THEIR money would all go to the Armies of
Mordor. That this is "Saddam-WMD-9/11″ all over again just hasn't registered with them, and
never will. Just like Trump winning his primary running against outside money, and immediately
afterwards selling out for Adelson's shekels–it exceeds the deplorables' attention span, so
it never happened. Keep harping on immigrants and it's all good; razzle-dazzle them, as it was
called in the Chicago movie. ..."
"... So on the whole, yes, already since his inauguration it has been clear that The Donald
is mostly playing along, as long as he'll be allowed to stay president ..."
"... So Trump is not opposed to demonizing Russia, he's just opposed to demonizing Donald
John Trump. That's where he draws the line. ..."
"... Well guys, if there's anyone here who still abides by the '5-D chess' theory, I think
it's time to face facts: Trump has thrown us all under the bust to save himself. Expect a war in
Syria, or Ukraine, or maybe both. ..."
"... The indictments have no legal merit, they are a form of domestic propaganda and
disinformation. The real target is the American people. ..."
"... That's pretty much what this banana republic's government is all about. One way or
another, everything they do is designed to ultimately squeeze something out of us dumb 'Merkin
proles and peasants ..."
"... I was expecting more of a profile in courage under the tutelage of someone smarter than
Trump; instead we are seeing another profile in venality and stupidity. ..."
"... US has too many laws that are ambiguous beyond belief, almost anything can be declared a
'crime'. Plus you have limited disclosure due to national security ('methods and sources
subterfuge always works). Volunteering for a political show trial doesn't work. ..."
"... Pentagon vs neoliberal CIA for upper hand at the White House with Bibi (via AIPAC)
solidly on the side of Pence, probably not if, but much more likely when, Trump is taken down.
..."
"... The RussiaGate affairs and collusion charge are the obvious "Banksters United" coup run
with a stunning degree of incompetence. Russia must be demonized because of her mineral
resources, which are still not available for free, and because of her "wrong" behavior in Syria.
Bansksters need this war. Arm producers and dealers need this war. Only the apparent danger of
suicide by nuclear answer stops the banksters and other war profiteers from an immediate attack
against Russian Federation. ..."
"... The FBI and the CIA are the hired gangster organizations for the banksters. If the FBI
and the CIA cared about national security, the US would not suffer the infamy of Awan affair,
CrowdStrike "conclusions," and the US support for Daesh/ISIS/Al Qaida in the Middle East, as well
as the US support for neo-Nazis in Ukraine. The US taxpayers have been financing both ISIS and
neo-Nazis because banksters decided so. ..."
Notable quotes:
"... But the indictments themselves suggest that Mueller's narrative is wrong. The objective was not to influence the election, but make money by getting viewers to "click on" advertisements. Check it out: ..."
"... It's worth noting, that if Mueller really wanted to get to the bottom of the Russia-gate allegations, he would interview the people who have first-hand knowledge what actually happened. He would question Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) and Craig Murray, both of whom have stated publicly that they know who stole the Podesta emails. ..."
"... Mueller hasn't done that, nor has he contacted the VIPs (Ray McGovern, William Binney, Skip Folden, etc) who did extensive forensic investigation of the "hacking" allegations and proved that the emails were not hacked but leaked. Mueller has not pursued that line of inquiry either. ..."
"... The indictment states that the organization that employed the trolls "had the strategic purpose of sowing political discord in the United States." This seems to be a recurrent theme that has popped up frequently in the media as well. The implication is that the Russians are the source of the widening divisions in the US that are actually the result of growing public angst over the lopsided distribution of wealth that naturally emerges in late-stage capitalism. ..."
"... The above statement helps to prove my point that the indictments are not a vehicle for criminal prosecution, but part of a politically-motivated information campaign to damage Trump and vilify Russia. No one seriously believes that Mueller would ever try to prosecute this case based on the spurious and looney claims of a criminal conspiracy. The whole idea is laughable. ..."
"... We found it interesting that Rob Goldman, who is the Vice President of Facebook Ads, tweeted this revealing disclaimer on Monday which Trump posted on Twitter: ..."
"... Bottom line: The indictments were very good news for Donald Trump, but very bad news for Robert Mueller who appears to have run into a brick wall. But has he? Has Mueller abandoned the attacks on Trump or is there something else going on just below the surface? ..."
"... I can only guess at the answer, but it looks to me like Trump may have made a deal to support the attacks on Russia provided he is acquitted on charges of collusion. That's what he's wanted from the beginning, so, maybe he won this round? Here's one of his recent tweets that helps to support my theory: ..."
"... Hmmm? So Trump now Trump is okay with blaming Russia as long as he's not included too? Is that what he's saying? ..."
"... Okay, so now Trump is turning the tables and saying, 'Yeah, maybe Russia has been 'sowing discord', but the Democrats are the ones you should be blaming not me.'So Trump is not opposed to demonizing Russia, he's just opposed to demonizing Donald John Trump. That's where he draws the line. ..."
"... The problem is that Trump's biggest supporters want him to continue struggle against "The Swamp". They want him to fight for their interests and expose the crooked goings-on behind the Russiagate scandal. They want him to lift up the rock that conceals the activities of the National Security State so everyone can see the maggots squirming below. That's what they want, a modern-day Samson who shakes the temple's pillars and brings the whole crooked system crashing down around him. ..."
"... These same people are hopeful that the Nunes memo and the Grassley-Graham "criminal referral" are just the tip of the iceberg that will inevitably lead to the bigger fish involved in this deep-state conspiracy, namely former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Former FBI Director James Comey, and very likely, Barack Hussein Obama himself. What role did these men play in spying on the Trump campaign? Were they actively trying to sabotage the elections by giving Hillary an edge? Should a second Special Counsel be appointed to investigate whether crimes were committed in their targeting of the Trump team? ..."
"... Trump's backers hope that he is principled and pugnacious enough to go nose-to-nose with these Intel agency serpents and give them the bloody whooping they so richly deserve. Unfortunately, I don't see any evidence that that's what he has in mind ..."
"... Goldman, an executive at Zucc's Book, displayed evidence at a House Committee hearing of Russian bots trolling the US by portraying Sanders as 'sexy' and Trump as a hero. These memes were generally amusing but largely ineffectual. The idea of election meddling by Russia to elect Trump has largely been debunked, and both the Left and the Right now see it as a distraction to the real issue: Deep State malfeasance. ..."
"... Trump has to realize that he would be neutered by the continuance of the Mueller witchhunt, so I think that if it is a deal, it is tactical for the present. ..."
"... in my view, the Democrats overplayed their hand by calling this clickbait scam the "equivalent of Pearl Harbor" and make pushback more likely. ..."
"... Whitney can't bring himself to say Mueller has been, for decades, 'historically, criminally corrupt with longtime habit of maintaining a DoJ cover for CIA.' As well, why does Mike exclude mentioning Seymour Hersh and Kim Dotcom concerning the proposed fact Seth Rich leaked the DNC mails? He sticks with a weak 'we really don't know' line of bs. ..."
"... Grassley wants the DoJ personalities to fall on their swords while Feinstein is besides herself, going crazy, as the investigation into President Skunk implodes around the Steele Dossier. It's like an exclusive 'serial-killers only' swingers' club where everybody is tired of the limited opportunity at couplings, yet their sex addiction requires everyone screwing everyone out of habit and everyone hates everyone's guts. At some point, the entire crew will resort to some new mass murder, like allowing war in Korea, to get it all back on track ..."
"... There is no crime called "collusion". So Trump cannot be "acquitted", let alone be charged with something that is not a crime. Apparently the deep state and media's repetition of "collusion" has duped not just the public, but this author with thinking it is some kind of crime. ..."
"... Trump needs the swamp to produce politicized intel for his campaigns against Iran and Venezuela (plus a dozen other countries which don't threaten the US). He needs the hated MSM (not much more than the swamp's media branch) to sell the Iran war to his voters, who are supposed to pay for it. He needs his shady relatives to stay OUT of prison, where several of them seem to belong (of course, papa Kushner has already spent time inside). So appeasement it is. ..."
"... Sorry, but on the whole Trump voters are too dumb to pose much of an obstacle. They like the campaigns against Iran because of religion, and against Venezuela because of "socialism". They didn't raise a peep when it became clear that THEIR money would all go to the Armies of Mordor. That this is "Saddam-WMD-9/11″ all over again just hasn't registered with them, and never will. Just like Trump winning his primary running against outside money, and immediately afterwards selling out for Adelson's shekels–it exceeds the deplorables' attention span, so it never happened. Keep harping on immigrants and it's all good; razzle-dazzle them, as it was called in the Chicago movie. ..."
"... So on the whole, yes, already since his inauguration it has been clear that The Donald is mostly playing along, as long as he'll be allowed to stay president ..."
"... So Trump is not opposed to demonizing Russia, he's just opposed to demonizing Donald John Trump. That's where he draws the line. ..."
"... Well guys, if there's anyone here who still abides by the '5-D chess' theory, I think it's time to face facts: Trump has thrown us all under the bust to save himself. Expect a war in Syria, or Ukraine, or maybe both. ..."
"... The indictments have no legal merit, they are a form of domestic propaganda and disinformation. The real target is the American people. ..."
"... That's pretty much what this banana republic's government is all about. One way or another, everything they do is designed to ultimately squeeze something out of us dumb 'Merkin proles and peasants ..."
"... I was expecting more of a profile in courage under the tutelage of someone smarter than Trump; instead we are seeing another profile in venality and stupidity. ..."
"... US has too many laws that are ambiguous beyond belief, almost anything can be declared a 'crime'. Plus you have limited disclosure due to national security ('methods and sources subterfuge always works). Volunteering for a political show trial doesn't work. ..."
"... Pentagon vs neoliberal CIA for upper hand at the White House with Bibi (via AIPAC) solidly on the side of Pence, probably not if, but much more likely when, Trump is taken down. ..."
"... The RussiaGate affairs and collusion charge are the obvious "Banksters United" coup run with a stunning degree of incompetence. Russia must be demonized because of her mineral resources, which are still not available for free, and because of her "wrong" behavior in Syria. Bansksters need this war. Arm producers and dealers need this war. Only the apparent danger of suicide by nuclear answer stops the banksters and other war profiteers from an immediate attack against Russian Federation. ..."
"... The FBI and the CIA are the hired gangster organizations for the banksters. If the FBI and the CIA cared about national security, the US would not suffer the infamy of Awan affair, CrowdStrike "conclusions," and the US support for Daesh/ISIS/Al Qaida in the Middle East, as well as the US support for neo-Nazis in Ukraine. The US taxpayers have been financing both ISIS and neo-Nazis because banksters decided so. ..."
Here's your legal koan for the day: When is an indictment not an indictment?
Answer– When there is no intention of initiating a criminal case against the accused.
In the case of the 13 Russian trolls who have just been indicted by Special Counsel Robert
Mueller, there is neither the intention nor the ability to prosecute a case against them. (They
are all foreign nationals who will not face extradition.)
But, if that's the case, than why would Mueller waste time and money compiling a 37-page
document alleging all-manner of nefarious conduct when he knew for certain that the alleged
perpetrators would never be prosecuted? Why?
Isn't is because the indictments are not really a vehicle for criminal prosecution, but a
vehicle for political grandstanding? Isn't that the real purpose of the indictments, to add
another layer of dirt to the mountain of unreliable, uncorroborated, unproven allegations of
Russian meddling. Mueller is not acting in his capacity as Special Counsel, he is acting in his
role of deep state hatchet-man whose job is to gather scalps by any means necessary.
Keep in mind, the subjects of the indictment will never be apprehended, never hire an
attorney, never be in a position to defend themselves or refute the charges, and never have
their case presented before and judge or a jury. They will be denied due process of law and the
presumption of innocence. Mueller's ominous-sounding claims, which were the centerpiece of his
obscene media extravaganza, made sure of that. In most people's minds, the trolls are guilty of
foreign espionage and that's all there is to it. Case closed.
But the indictments themselves suggest that Mueller's narrative is wrong. The objective
was not to influence the election, but make money by getting viewers to "click on"
advertisements. Check it out:
"Defendants and their co-conspirators also used the accounts to receive money from real
U.S. persons in exchange for posting promotions and advertisements on the
ORGANIZATION-controlled social media pages. Defendants and their co-conspirators typically
charged certain U.S. merchants and U.S. social media sites between 25 and 50 U.S. dollars per
post for promotional content on their popular false U.S. persona accounts, including Being
Patriotic, Defend the 2nd, and Blacktivist."
That sounds like a money-making scheme to me not an attempt to subvert US democracy. So why
is Mueller in such a lather? Isn't this all just an attempt to divert attention from the fact
that the Nunes' investigation has produced proof that senior-level officials at the FBI and DOJ
were "improperly obtaining" FISA warrants to spy on members of the Trump Campaign? Isn't that
what's really going on?
If we can agree that the indictments were not intended to bring the "accused" to justice,
then don't we also have to agree that there must have been an ulterior motive for issuing them?
And what might that ulterior motive be? What are the real objectives of the investigation, to
cast a shadow on an election that did not produce the results that powerful members of the
entrenched bureaucracy wanted, to make it look like Donald Trump did not beat Hillary Clinton
fair and square, and to further demonize a geopolitical rival that has blocked Washington's
imperial ambitions in Syria and Ukraine? Which of these is the real driving force behind
Russiagate or is it 'all of the above?'
Nothing will come of the indictments because the indictments were not designed reveal the
truth or bring the accused to justice. They were written to shape public perceptions and to
persuade the American people that Trump cheated in the elections and that Russia poses a
serious threat to US national security. The indictments have no legal merit, they are a form of
domestic propaganda and disinformation. The real target is the American people.
It's worth noting, that if Mueller really wanted to get to the bottom of the Russia-gate
allegations, he would interview the people who have first-hand knowledge what actually
happened. He would question Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) and Craig Murray, both of whom have
stated publicly that they know who stole the Podesta emails.
Mueller hasn't done that, nor has he contacted the VIPs (Ray McGovern, William Binney,
Skip Folden, etc) who did extensive forensic investigation of the "hacking" allegations and
proved that the emails were not hacked but leaked. Mueller has not pursued that line of inquiry
either. Nor has he interviewed California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who met with
Assange personally and who has suggested that Assange may reveal the name (of the DNC "leaker")
under the right conditions. Instead of questioning witnesses, Mueller has spent a great deal of
time probing the online activities Russian trolls who were engaged in a money-making scheme
that was in no way connected to the Russian government, in no way connected to the Trump
campaign, and in no way supportive of the claims of hacking or collusion. None of this reflects
well on Mueller who, by any stretch, appears to be either woefully incompetent or irredeemably
biased.
The indictment states that the organization that employed the trolls "had the strategic
purpose of sowing political discord in the United States." This seems to be a recurrent theme
that has popped up frequently in the media as well. The implication is that the Russians are
the source of the widening divisions in the US that are actually the result of growing public
angst over the lopsided distribution of wealth that naturally emerges in late-stage
capitalism. Moscow has become the convenient scapegoat for the accelerated parasitism that
has seen 95% of the nation's wealth go to a sliver of people at the top of the foodchain, the 1
percent. (But that's another story altogether.) Here's a brief clip from the
portentous-sounding indictment:
"The general conspiracy statute creates an offense "[i]f two or more persons conspire
either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or
any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose .
The intent required for a conspiracy to defraud the government is that the defendant
possessed the intent (a) to defraud, (b) to make false statements or representations to the
government or its agencies in order to obtain property of the government, or that the
defendant performed acts or made statements that he/she knew to be false, fraudulent or
deceitful to a government agency, which disrupted the functions of the agency or of the
government. It is sufficient for the government to prove that the defendant knew the
statements were false or fraudulent when made."
The above statement helps to prove my point that the indictments are not a vehicle for
criminal prosecution, but part of a politically-motivated information campaign to damage Trump
and vilify Russia. No one seriously believes that Mueller would ever try to prosecute this case
based on the spurious and looney claims of a criminal conspiracy. The whole idea is
laughable.
There are a couple interesting twists and turns regarding the indictments that could be
significant, but, then again, maybe not. We found it interesting that Rob Goldman, who is
the Vice President of Facebook Ads, tweeted this revealing disclaimer on Monday which Trump
posted on Twitter:
"I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the
election was *NOT* the main goal."
Then there are the puzzling comments by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who said on
Friday:
"There's no allegation in this indictment that any American had any knowledge. And the
nature of the scheme was the defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appear that they
were ordinary American political activists, even going so far as to base their activities on
a virtual private network here in the United States so, if anybody traced it back to that
first jump, they appeared to be Americans ."
Do you notice anything unusual about Rosenstein's remarks? There's no mention of Trump at
all, which is a striking omission since all of previous public announcements have been used to
strengthen the case against Trump. Now that's changed. Why? Naturally, Trump picked up on
Rosenstein's omission and blasted this triumphant message on Twitter:
"Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein stated at the News Conference: "There is no allegation in the
indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no
allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016
election." Donald Trump
So, what's going on here? Mueller and Rosenstein are smart guys. They must have known that
Trump would use the dates and the absence of anything remotely suggesting collusion as
vindication. Was that the purpose, to let Trump off the hook while the broader propaganda
campaign on Russia continues?
This is the great mystery surrounding the indictments, far from helping to establish
Trump's culpability, they appear to imply his innocence. Why would Mueller and his allies
want to do that? Are the Intel agencies and the FBI looking for a way to end this political
cage-match before a second Special Counsel is appointed and he starts digging up embarrassing
information about the involvement of other agencies (and perhaps, the White House) in the
Russiagate fiasco?
Just think about it for a minute: There is nothing in the indictments that suggests that
Trump or anyone in his campaign was involved with the Russian trolls. There is nothing in the
indictments that suggests Trump was acting as a Russian agent. And there's nothing in the
indictments that suggests the Russian government helped Trump win the election. Also, the
timeline of events seems to favor Trump as does Rosenstein's claim that the online activity
did not have "any effect on the outcome of the election."
Bottom line: The indictments were very good news for Donald Trump, but very bad news for
Robert Mueller who appears to have run into a brick wall. But has he? Has Mueller abandoned the
attacks on Trump or is there something else going on just below the surface?
I can only guess at the answer, but it looks to me like Trump may have made a deal to
support the attacks on Russia provided he is acquitted on charges of collusion. That's what
he's wanted from the beginning, so, maybe he won this round? Here's one of his recent tweets
that helps to support my theory:
"I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said "it may be Russia, or China or
another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his
computer." The Russian "hoax" was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia – it never
did!" Donald Trump
Hmmm? So Trump now Trump is okay with blaming Russia as long as he's not included too?
Is that what he's saying? Here's more in the same vein:
"If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S.
then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have
succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart
America!" Donald Trump
Okay, so now Trump is turning the tables and saying, 'Yeah, maybe Russia has been
'sowing discord', but the Democrats are the ones you should be blaming not me.'So Trump is not
opposed to demonizing Russia, he's just opposed to demonizing Donald John Trump. That's where
he draws the line.
What's wrong with that? If Trump's enemies want to provide him with a Get-Outta-Jail-Free
card, then why shouldn't he snatch it up and put this whole goofy probe behind him? That's what
most people would do.
The problem is that Trump's biggest supporters want him to continue struggle against
"The Swamp". They want him to fight for their interests and expose the crooked goings-on behind
the Russiagate scandal. They want him to lift up the rock that conceals the activities of the
National Security State so everyone can see the maggots squirming below. That's what they want,
a modern-day Samson who shakes the temple's pillars and brings the whole crooked system
crashing down around him.
These same people are hopeful that the Nunes memo and the Grassley-Graham "criminal
referral" are just the tip of the iceberg that will inevitably lead to the bigger fish involved
in this deep-state conspiracy, namely former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper, Former FBI Director James Comey, and very likely, Barack
Hussein Obama himself. What role did these men play in spying on the Trump campaign? Were they
actively trying to sabotage the elections by giving Hillary an edge? Should a second Special
Counsel be appointed to investigate whether crimes were committed in their targeting of the
Trump team?
All of these questions need to be answered in order to clear the air, hold the guilty
parties accountable and restore confidence in the government. Trump's backers hope that he
is principled and pugnacious enough to go nose-to-nose with these Intel agency serpents and
give them the bloody whooping they so richly deserve. Unfortunately, I don't see any evidence
that that's what he has in mind . We'll see.
Goldman, an executive at Zucc's Book, displayed evidence at a House Committee hearing of
Russian bots trolling the US by portraying Sanders as 'sexy' and Trump as a hero. These memes
were generally amusing but largely ineffectual. The idea of election meddling by Russia to
elect Trump has largely been debunked, and both the Left and the Right now see it as a
distraction to the real issue: Deep State malfeasance.
Those Never Trumpers in the Dems and McCain camps are now left disgraced and humiliated
and their only allies are WaPo, NYT, CNN and a few other fake news outlets. The test for
Trump will be whether he can take a wrecking ball to the FBI and Department of State and to
truly cleanse the bureaucracy of ne'er-do-wells who have constantly been undermining him from
the beginning.
I think the author is correct in his assumptions. One area of hope, though, is that the
allegations are so ridiculous and others have pointed out, for instance, that the Australian
Labor party sent operatives to the US to help defeat Trump, and Trump has to realize that
he would be neutered by the continuance of the Mueller witchhunt, so I think that if it is a
deal, it is tactical for the present.
As the article indicates, Trump would lose a lot of his support if he follows through on
the deal. Also, pro-Trump websites are continuing on with the drumbeat against Mueller, and
in my view, the Democrats overplayed their hand by calling this clickbait scam the
"equivalent of Pearl Harbor" and make pushback more likely.
I think that one thing the indictment has accomplished is to reveal to anybody not paid to
think otherwise that the yankee imperium entered the post-legal era years ago, and that the
legitimacy of the yankee state has totally evaporated.
Isn't is because the indictments are not really a vehicle for criminal prosecution, but
a vehicle for political grandstanding? Isn't that the real purpose of the indictments, to
add another layer of dirt to the mountain of unreliable, uncorroborated, unproven
allegations of Russian meddling. Mueller is not acting in his capacity as Special Counsel,
he is acting in his role of deep state hatchet-man whose job is to gather scalps by any
means necessary [...] It's worth noting, that if Mueller really wanted to get to the bottom
of the Russia-gate allegations, he would interview the people who have first-hand knowledge
what actually happened. He would question Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) and Craig Murray, both
of whom have stated publicly that they know who stole the Podesta emails.[sic][...] None of
this reflects well on Mueller who, by any stretch, appears to be either woefully
incompetent or irredeemably biased
Misdirection here by Mike Whitney. Whitney can't bring himself to say Mueller has
been, for decades, 'historically, criminally corrupt with longtime habit of maintaining a DoJ
cover for CIA.' As well, why does Mike exclude mentioning Seymour Hersh and Kim Dotcom
concerning the proposed fact Seth Rich leaked the DNC mails? He sticks with a weak 'we
really don't know' line of bs.
These same people are hopeful that the Nunes memo and the Grassley-Graham "criminal
referral" are just the tip of the iceberg that will inevitably lead to the bigger fish
involved in this deep-state conspiracy, namely former CIA Director John Brennan, former
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Former FBI Director James Comey, and very
likely, Barack Hussein Obama himself. What role did these men play in spying on the Trump
campaign? Were they actively trying to sabotage the elections by giving Hillary an edge?
Should a second Special Counsel be appointed to investigate whether crimes were committed
in their targeting of the Trump team?
Yeah, well Mike, 'hope springs eternal' is the apropos folk wisdom. Why not look at this
instead:
"Of course, none of this will be brought out by the Congressional intelligence
committees, to collapse the credibility of 'three amigos' Special Counsel Mueller, fired
Director Comey & present FBI boss Wray to help kill the 'Russia collusion' farce;
because all parties are complicit and tainted in the cover-up.Grassley wants the
DoJ personalities to fall on their swords while Feinstein is besides herself, going crazy,
as the investigation into President Skunk implodes around the Steele Dossier. It's like an
exclusive 'serial-killers only' swingers' club where everybody is tired of the limited
opportunity at couplings, yet their sex addiction requires everyone screwing everyone out
of habit and everyone hates everyone's guts. At some point, the entire crew will resort to
some new mass murder, like allowing war in Korea, to get it all back on track"
(See second link, preceding.)
There is no crime called "collusion". So Trump cannot be "acquitted", let alone be
charged with something that is not a crime. Apparently the deep state and media's repetition
of "collusion" has duped not just the public, but this author with thinking it is some kind
of crime.
That's the purpose of endlessly repeating this vague term in pejorative rhetoric, without
ever referencing a criminal statute like the Foreign Agent Registration Act or whatever.
This gigantic diversionary twaddle has worked because the seditionists have still not been
stopped. I'm not real optimistic about it, but there are some positive developments. There is
a big disappointment in the offing with the Inspector General report coming out soon.
Horowitz is a deep state operative who has covered for the Clintons in the past. They have to
do something, so expect a limited hangout or partial whitewash. That way the drug and weapons
ratlines can continue to fund our unconscionable acts across the globe.
Trump needs the swamp to produce politicized intel for his campaigns against Iran and
Venezuela (plus a dozen other countries which don't threaten the US). He needs the hated MSM
(not much more than the swamp's media branch) to sell the Iran war to his voters, who are
supposed to pay for it. He needs his shady relatives to stay OUT of prison, where several of
them seem to belong (of course, papa Kushner has already spent time inside). So appeasement
it is.
Sorry, but on the whole Trump voters are too dumb to pose much of an obstacle. They
like the campaigns against Iran because of religion, and against Venezuela because of
"socialism". They didn't raise a peep when it became clear that THEIR money would all go to
the Armies of Mordor. That this is "Saddam-WMD-9/11″ all over again just hasn't
registered with them, and never will. Just like Trump winning his primary running against
outside money, and immediately afterwards selling out for Adelson's shekels–it exceeds
the deplorables' attention span, so it never happened. Keep harping on immigrants and it's
all good; razzle-dazzle them, as it was called in the Chicago movie.
So on the whole, yes, already since his inauguration it has been clear that The Donald
is mostly playing along, as long as he'll be allowed to stay president . The question
remains if (just like Putin in Syria) he isn't trying to appease something which won't be
appeased–maybe Trump thinks he has a deal, but his enemies, while technically backing
off from the collusion claim, will still squeeze his relatives so hard on their finances and
other shenanigans that something breaks. I say: would serve Trump right for sleeping with the
dogs.
Intriguing if these 13 Russians turned up at US District Court for a chat with a Federal
Prosecutor with the International press in tow. It would be lovely to have Vlad present his
people for investigation and trial. Mueller set these 13 up, again, 'knowing' he would never
have to prove a damned thing and so, there are many embellishments. Mueller 'knows' he'll
never try them, but he also 'knew', as they ALL did, that Hillary was getting in and so these
crimes would never come to light.
Love to have Putin blow up yet another thing these folks thought they 'knew'. I'd
contribute to the GoFundMe for the best lawyers there are..
So Trump is not opposed to demonizing Russia, he's just opposed to demonizing Donald
John Trump. That's where he draws the line.
Bingo. Well guys, if there's anyone here who still abides by the '5-D chess' theory, I
think it's time to face facts: Trump has thrown us all under the bust to save himself. Expect
a war in Syria, or Ukraine, or maybe both.
It's all up to Nunes now. Let's hope he doesn't sell us out, too:
The indictments have no legal merit, they are a form of domestic propaganda and
disinformation. The real target is the American people.
That's pretty much what this banana republic's government is all about. One way or
another, everything they do is designed to ultimately squeeze something out of us dumb
'Merkin proles and peasants , especially us stupid goyim.
The rest is mere detail. Understanding that saves a lot of time and energy.
"The test for Trump will be whether he can take a wrecking ball to the FBI and
Department of State "
He could have done that a year ago. Trump has left more people loyal to Obama in their
jobs than would have thought possible. His advisors are all seemingly pushing their own
agendas and haven't clued him in on the fact that he has Obama's bureaucracy snapping at his
ankles and he needs to go on a firing rampage.
I doubt that he even knows who he can fire outright and who would have to be moved into
another department.
According to the author, this troll farm had 90 employees assigned to the American market
who designed clickbait ads using titles that would attract doofuses wanting to read articles
on their favorite subjects related to the election.
If you surf the net without a good adblocker, you'll see all these clickbait ads with
titles like "Defeat Trump with one weird trick", or "What Trump said to Hillary off stage
will astonish you" in an attempt to get the reader to go to their site and buy something.
That's what these trolls were doing, and it had nothing to do with influencing voters.
Bingo. Well guys, if there's anyone here who still abides by the '5-D chess' theory, I
think it's time to face facts: Trump has thrown us all under the bust to save himself.
Expect a war in Syria, or Ukraine, or maybe both.
It does really look like this is true. I was expecting more of a profile in courage
under the tutelage of someone smarter than Trump; instead we are seeing another profile in
venality and stupidity.
there have been thousands of such people in Balkans, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece,
who set up web pages and made money on advertising, who used the presidential election, as
honey pot. Mueller is such an idiot, that he does not know it. Sorry, he is so clever, to go
only after russian trace. you can start here:
send a couple of the indictees over to stand trial, and hire some lefty-lawyer like
Dershowitz to defend them
That was my initial reaction. But that assumes that a Washington court would not be a show
trial with emphasis on process minutia, e.g. 'identity theft' and some financial violations.
With media in overdrive proving their hyper-patriotism.
US has too many laws that are ambiguous beyond belief, almost anything can be declared
a 'crime'. Plus you have limited disclosure due to national security ('methods and sources
subterfuge always works). Volunteering for a political show trial doesn't work.
We just have to let it go, it is now a 'crime' for foreigners to criticise US politicians
without first registering with Washington. Quite a beacon of freedom for the world.
Indicting foreign election interference trolls sets a precedent for prosecuting domestic
election interference trolls. The domestic election interference trolls spent hundreds of
millions and left very prolific financial and digital footprints. Jim Messina shouldn't be
sleeping easy.
Trump's failure to fire people by the truckload during the first week of his presidency is
a topic worth exploring. Probably we won't know why he failed to do this until after his
presidency sometime, but it is a curious choice given how widespread and intense was the
hatred of him.
We can know why now. Trump was kneecapped from day one in the Oval Office and he's
surrounded by treasonous people who'll either keep him in line or step out of the way of
Trump's political enemies. Pence and his ideologically (theologically, actually) aligned
Christian Zionist generals have it under control:
Meanwhile Trump is the perfect idiot to take the heat and end up holding the bag. The
momentary big, inside fight, is fundamentalist Christian Pentagon vs neoliberal CIA for
upper hand at the White House with Bibi (via AIPAC) solidly on the side of Pence, probably
not if, but much more likely when, Trump is taken down.
That fool actually believed he would be allowed to become President. Well, he was wrong.
He got the title, he gets the heat, but he'll never be allowed to exercise the power.
Trump belongs to the Ruling Class. If he didn't, the rulers never would have selected him
as president. I thought the producers had brought in the Trump character to change the
direction of the play. But no, still the same old Empire first, the rich second, and
everything else later. How much did the Trump family save from the new tax law? That's
another story all together.
Back in the day, when knights were bold, prosecutors for real, laws were understood by
all , they laid their turds beside the road, and walked away contented!
Sheesh anyhow, This Comey, and his side kick Mueller are doing pretty good job of what
they are charged with, (to do that is charged with a task.) of charging Russians, those dirty
Boris's and Natashia's over there in the dark forrest somewhere.
A ticket a tasket, the case is in a basket, (basket case, of course) and Comey and Mueller
are excellent in their roles, playing to a tough crowd, masterful impressions of Lerch and
Herman Munster.
What is the real job? could it be to extend childhood and adelescence (strike that) wrong
thought . dupdada here it is: could it be that the real job is to extend the election process
FOOD FIGHT, indeterminately, thus displacing the expectations normally accruing to a change
of administrations. That is a serious sounding term for adults, not for the kids.
ADMINISTRATION suit wearing mthfrkrs all around, all dry fake talk masking every possible
meaning and to what end?
That boat left the pier now the population is only to be amused, more of the same Food
Fight please!
You have an evolution of pollution of the process of regress into the
abstraction/distraction. Mad Hatter's Tea Party, now the new norm, and it seems to work,
We've grown too cynical for the likes of Columbo, or Perry Mason, etc.
The investigation like the Sword of Damocles may indeed get Pres Trump to further compromise
his agenda as per the campaign. However, those who lost the election have no intention of of
giving an inch. if at all possible, they intend to get rid of Pres Trump because he waylaid
there plans. Unfortunately they are incorrect, it was Pres Trump, it was their agenda and and
a solid opposition to it that defeated them during the election.
Since the attempt to remove him includes the Russia investigation and it various tentacles
I intend to defend the current President as much possible.
Major Sjursen and Dr. Bacivich – ya ya ya I know . . . he's a this and a that . . .
) seem to have reached the same conclusion – once in it's "heck to fight" the
preordained agenda.
The RussiaGate affairs and collusion charge are the obvious "Banksters United" coup
run with a stunning degree of incompetence. Russia must be demonized because of her mineral
resources, which are still not available for free, and because of her "wrong" behavior in
Syria. Bansksters need this war. Arm producers and dealers need this war. Only the apparent
danger of suicide by nuclear answer stops the banksters and other war profiteers from an
immediate attack against Russian Federation.
The moneyed and powerful psychopaths-in-charge are enraged that the wealth of other
nations is still outside their reach becasue of Russian "stubborness." The US/UK banking
section is the main engine behind the supreme crimes of aggression in the Middle East and
Ukraine (the ongoing civil war there had been initiated on the CIA instructions in 2014; see
Brennan "secret" visit to Kiev on the eve of military actions against the civilian
populations of Eastern Ukraine:
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-media-report-cia-director-held-secret-consultations-in-kiev-33897
).
The FBI and the CIA are the hired gangster organizations for the banksters. If the FBI
and the CIA cared about national security, the US would not suffer the infamy of Awan affair,
CrowdStrike "conclusions," and the US support for Daesh/ISIS/Al Qaida in the Middle East, as
well as the US support for neo-Nazis in Ukraine. The US taxpayers have been financing both
ISIS and neo-Nazis because banksters decided so.
Germany invested a lot in the US project for the Middle East (the strategy of the
destruction of societies and states, conceived by Admiral Arthur Cebrowski, but noticeably
less in the British-US project for the " Arab Springs ". Since the Cold War, it has housed
and supported several headquarters for the Muslim Brotherhood, including that of the Syrians
in Aix-la-Chapelle. Germany took a part in the assassination of ex-Prime Minister of Lebanon,
Rafic Hariri. In 2012, it co-wrote the Feltman plan for the total and unconditional
capitulation of Syria. At present, Volker Perthes, director of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und
Politik, the state think-tank, is advisor to Jeffrey Feltman at the UNO. [Jeffrey David
Feltman is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Feltman was born
to Jewish parents in the US he speaks Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, and Hungarian.]
For several years, the internal documents of the European External Action Service (EEAS)
are copied and pasted from Volker Perthes' notes for the German government. Volker Perthes
was at Munich with Jeffrey Feltman and their friends, Lakdhar Brahimi, Ramzi Ramzi, Steffan
de Mistura, Generals David Petraeus (the KKR was also represented by Christian Ollig) and
John Allen (Brookings Institution), as well as Nasser al-Hariri, the President of the High
Authority for Negotiations (pro-Saudi Syrian opposition), Raed al-Saleh, director of the
White Helmets (Al-Qaïda)and their Qatari sponsors, including Emir
Thamim."
There were also "three bosses – German BND (Bruno Kahl), British MI6 (Alex Younger)
and the French DGSE (Bernard Emié), who explained in a private room, in front of an
audience chosen for their naïveté, how nervous they were about the Turkish
operation in Syria. The three men pretended to believe that the combatants of the YPG
constitute the safest barrier against Daesh. Yet they were supposed to create the Frontier
Security Force with certain ex-members of Daesh . It's clear that the job of these three
super-spies is to know to whom they owe the truth, and to whom they can lie. Sustaining their
momentum, they hinted that the Syrian Arab Army uses chemical weapons – profiting from
the absence in the room of the US Secretary for Defence, Jim Mattis, who had testified a few
days earlier that proof of this claim is inexistent."
-- Lies, obfuscations, and crimes. The "three bosses" [of national security services] are
in service to Banksters, corporations, and arm dealers and producers. On the public dime, of
course And is not it touching that Jeffrey Feltman [a veritable Israel-firster] designs the
US military support for ISIS/Daesh in Syria?
The Government exists for the rich to control the slaves. The rich choose one of their own
to be President. The patriotic slaves, aka zombie morons left and right, vote for the slave
masters every four years. And argue over their merits. Oh, the Trump has a much nicer touch
with the lash than Obama.
The DNC data was leaked by an insider -- some say by the murdered Seth Rich. The Podesta
emails were hacked. And what that hack revealed was a network of wealthy pedophiles that
included both Podesta brothers, John and Tony, and other D.C. notables like Maeve Luzzatto
and James Alefantis. It's true that the PizzaGate conspiracy theory has been promoted by
Twitter nutcases, but that doesn't mean there isn't truth in it.
Obama CIA Director James Brennan's heavy involvement in the Russia/election conspiracy
theory might be a clue that the D.C. pedophile network might be a CIA blackmail operation,
much as Jeffrey Epstein's private Caribbean island was used as a Mossad honey trap.
"No greater friend of the Zionists than the fundamentalist Christians."
True. And thanks for using the term "Zionist" because not all Jews are Zionists and not
all Zionists are Jews. Most American Jews, while supportive of Israel, are not Zionists. Most
American Jews are a benefit to the communities they call home. Zionism is a globalist cult
that must be unmasked and destroyed.
MUNICH -- Just hours after the Justice Department indicted 13 Russians in what it charged
was a broad conspiracy to alter the 2016 election, President Trump's national security adviser,
Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, accused Moscow of engaging in a campaign of "disinformation,
subversion and espionage" that he said Washington would continue to expose.
The evidence of a Russian effort to interfere in the election "is now incontrovertible,"
General McMaster said at the Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of European and
American diplomats and security experts, including several senior Russian officials. On Friday,
just hours before the indictment, the top White House official for cyberissues accused Russia
of "the most destructive cyberattack in human history," against Ukraine last summer.
Taken together, the statements appeared to mark a major turn in the administration's
willingness to directly confront the government of President Vladimir V. Putin. Defense
Secretary Jim Mattis and C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo also attended the Munich conference, and
while they did not speak publicly, in private meetings with others here they reiterated similar
statements.
The comments highlighted a sharp division inside the administration about how to talk about
the Russian covert efforts, with only Mr. Trump and a few of his close advisers holding back
from acknowledging the Russian role or talking about a larger strategy to deter future
attacks.
The indictment characterized the cyberattacks and social media fraud as part of a larger
effort by Russia to undermine the United States. A senior administration official called the
effort to confront Russia "a significant point of contention" within the administration.
After the indictment on Friday Mr. Trump declared in a Twitter post that "the results of the
election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong -- no collusion!" He made no
mention of Russia as a "revisionist power," the description used in his own National Security
Strategy, or of the elaborate $1.2 million-a-month effort that the indictment indicated
Russia's Internet Research Agency spent in an effort to discredit the election system and
ultimately to support his candidacy.
Vice President Mike Pence, speaking this past week in Washington, misstated American
intelligence conclusions about the election hacking, arguing "it is the universal conclusion of
our intelligence communities that none of those efforts had any effect on the outcome of the
2016 election." The intelligence chiefs have said they have not, and cannot, reach such a
conclusion.
Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, cited Mr. Pence's comments during the
session here Saturday to make the case that Russia did nothing wrong. "So until we see the
facts, everything else is just blabber," he said.
The man who served as the Russian ambassador to the United States during the period covered
by the indictments, Sergey I. Kislyak, picked up on a favorite theme of Mr. Trump's:
questioning the credibility of the F.B.I. and intelligence agency assessments.
"I have seen so many indictments and accusations against Russians," Mr. Kislyak said on
Saturday afternoon. "I am not sure I can trust American law enforcement to be the most truthful
source against Russians." He added, "The allegations being mounted against us are simply
fantasies."
Mr. Kislyak, who has been caught up in the investigation because of meetings with Trump
campaign officials during his time as ambassador, went on to cite a study, which he said he was
keeping in his briefcase, that proved the "main source of computer attacks in the world is not
Russia. It is the United States."
Leaked: Secret Documents From Russia's Election Trolls
An online auction gone awry reveals substantial new details on Kremlin-backed troll farm efforts to stir up real protests and
target specific Americans to push their propaganda.
The Kremlin-backed troll farm at the center of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election has quietly suffered a catastrophic
security breach, The Daily Beast has confirmed, in a leak that spilled new details of its operations onto obscure corners of the
internet.
The Russian "information exchange" Joker.Buzz, which auctions off often stolen or confidential information, advertised a leak
for a large cache of the
Internet Research Agency's (IRA) internal documents. It includes names of Americans, activists in particular, whom the organization
specifically targeted; American-based proxies used to
access Reddit
and the viral meme site 9Gag; and login information for troll farm accounts.
Even the advertisement for the document dump provides a trove of previously unknown information about the breadth of Russia's
disinformation effort in the United States, including rallies pushed by IRA social media accounts that turned violent.
While special counsel Robert Mueller's recent
conspiracy
indictment against the IRA showed a sophisticated organization aimed at targeting U.S. voters with disinformation, the seller
appears not to have understood the implications of the auction.
The listing was titled "
Savushkina 55
," the physical address in St. Petersburg from which the troll farm used to operate. The date on the auction is listed as
Feb. 10, 2017 -- seven months before Facebook and Twitter identified and pulled down Internet Research Agency accounts from Twitter.
It received no bids. The seller, "AlexDA," has not posted any other listings, and was unable to be reached. In Russian, the listing
promised "working data from the department focused on the United States."
"The leaks show that Russian imposter accounts targeted activists for specific causes the Kremlin-backed troll farm wanted
promoted. On the target list: the daughter of one of Martin Luther King's lieutenants."
While the date of the auction could not be independently confirmed, the authenticity of the leak can. The leaked documents
list screen names connected to a number of American citizens who were used as unwitting proxies by the Russians. The Daily Beast
was able to track down four of those citizens, whose names have not been previously revealed. The leak contains precise dates
in 2016 in which the IRA-created account Blacktivist reached out to those U.S. citizens, plus a short description of the conversations.
The Daily Beast spoke to those citizens, and confirmed they interacted with the Blacktivist account in the ways described by the
IRA in the document. In one case, the American even provided screenshots of his interactions with the Russian troll trying to
dupe him.
In short, the leaked document contains details of the Russian disinformation campaign that have not been previously made public
-- details which The Daily Beast was able to confirm. .....
"... "This funding is critical to ensuring that we continue an aggressive response to malign influence and disinformation and that we can leverage deeper partnerships with our allies, Silicon Valley, and other partners in this fight," said Under Secretary Goldstein. "It is not merely a defensive posture that we should take, we also need to be on the offensive. ..."
"... Israel is long known for such information operations in which its paid trolls not only comment on issues on social media but actively manipulate Wikipedia entries. Such astroturfing has since become a common tool in commercial marketing campaigns. ..."
"... With regard to the larger issue, it seems that the US is getting more and more like its allies Ukraine (drives out any press concerned with printing the truth, relies on a bombastic and entirely false narrative to try and convince its hapless citizens that all is great and everything is Russia's fault) and Israel (an early leader in manipulating online info as b states). ..."
"... If it sounds like a PR monkey banging away on a regurgitated theme, it probably is. For example, the endless repetition in US media about "Syrian chemical weapons attacks" with no on-the-ground supporting evidence is typical of a Rendon Group disinformation campaign; so then they hire a hundred trolls to post outraged comments about 'Syrian chemical weapons use' in comment sections and on twitter; then they hire some State Department intern to write a book about the horrors of the Assad regime, and at the end they collect their $10 million paycheck. ..."
"... The hypocrisy of the U$A continues to be staggering.. If the collective IQ's of the general public approached double digits, the disinformation and propaganda afoot, couldn't gain much traction. As comedian Richard Pryor once said, " Who you gonna' believe, the propagandists, or your lying eyes." ..."
"... money for propaganda... that was back in 1984 - we have progressed from Orwell's version of reality to a new one where reality is what you make of it... meanwhile there will be more dead people that the sponsors of these troll farms, could care less about... although they will frame it - 180% of that... ..."
The U.S. State Department will increase its online trolling capabilities and up its support
for meddling in other countries. The Hill
reports :
The State Department is launching a $40 million initiative to crack down on foreign
propaganda and disinformation amid widespread concerns about future Russian efforts to
interfere in elections.
The department announced Monday that it signed a deal with the Pentagon to transfer $40
million from the Defense Department's coffers to bolster the Global Engagement Center, an
office set up at State during the Obama years to expose and counter foreign propaganda and
disinformation.
The professed reason for the new funding is the alleged but unproven "Russian meddling" in
the U.S. election campaign. U.S. Special Counsel Mueller indicted 13 Russians for what is
claimed to be interference but which
is likely mere commercial activity.
The announcement by the State Department
explains that this new money will not only be used for measures against foreign trolling but to
actively meddle in countries abroad:
Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein said the
transfer of funds announced today reiterates the United States' commitment to the fight.
"This funding is critical to ensuring that we continue an aggressive response to
malign influence and disinformation and that we can leverage deeper partnerships with our
allies, Silicon Valley, and other partners in this fight," said Under Secretary Goldstein.
"It is not merely a defensive posture that we should take, we also need to be on the
offensive. "
The mentioning of Silicon Valley is of interest. The big Silicon Valley companies Google,
Facebook and Twitter were heavily involved in the U.S. election campaign. The companies
embedded
people within the campaigns to advise them how to reach a maximum trolling effect:
While the companies call it standard practice to work hand-in-hand with high-spending
advertisers like political campaigns, the new research details how the staffers assigned to
the 2016 candidates frequently acted more like political operatives, doing things like
suggesting methods to target difficult-to-reach voters online, helping to tee up responses to
likely lines of attack during debates, and scanning candidate calendars to recommend ad
pushes around upcoming speeches.
Hillary Clinton's well-heeled backers have opened a new frontier in digital campaigning, one
that seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet's worst instincts. Correct the
Record, a super PAC coordinating with Clinton's campaign, is spending some $1 million to find
and confront social media users who post unflattering messages about the Democratic
front-runner.
In effect, the effort aims to spend a large sum of money to increase the amount of
trolling that already exists online.
Clinton is quite experienced in such issues. In 2009, during protests in Iran, then
Secretary of State Clinton pushed Twitter to defer
maintenance of its system to "help" the protesters. In 2010 USAid, under the State Department
set up a
Twitter-like service to meddle in Cuba.
The foreign policy advisor of Hillery Clinton's campaign, Laura Rosenberger,
initiated and runs the Hamilton68 project which
falsely explains any mentioning of issues disliked by its neo-conservative backers as the
result of nefarious "Russian meddling".
The State Department can build on that and other experience.
Since at least 2011
the U.S. military is manipulating social media via sock puppets and trolls:
A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command
(Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop
what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman
or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.
...
The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing
background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be
able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by
sophisticated adversaries".
It was then wisely predicted that other countries would follow up:
The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to
users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments,
private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.
Israel is long known for such information
operations in which its paid trolls not only comment on issues on social media but
actively
manipulate Wikipedia entries. Such astroturfing has since become a common tool in
commercial marketing campaigns.
With the new money the State Department will expand its Global Engagement Center
(GEC) which is running "public diplomacy", aka propaganda, abroad:
The Fund will be a key part of the GEC's partnerships with local civil society organizations,
NGOs, media providers, and content creators to counter propaganda and disinformation. The
Fund will also drive the use of innovative messaging and data science techniques.
Separately, the GEC will initiate a series of pilot projects developed with the Department
of Defense that are designed to counter propaganda and disinformation. Those projects will be
supported by Department of Defense funding.
This money will be in addition to the large funds the CIA
traditionally spends on manipulating foreign media:
"We've been doing this kind of thing since the C.I.A. was created in 1947," said Mr. Johnson,
now at the University of Georgia. "We've used posters, pamphlets, mailers, banners -- you
name it. We've planted false information in foreign newspapers. We've used what the British
call 'King George's cavalry': suitcases of cash."
...
C.I.A. officials told Mr. Johnson in the late 1980s that "insertions" of information into
foreign news media, mostly accurate but sometimes false, were running at 70 to 80 a day.
Part of the new State Department money will be used to provide grants. If online trolling or
sock puppetry is your thing, you may want to apply now.
Posted by b on February 26, 2018 at 02:02 PM |
Permalink
"to find and confront social media users who post unflattering messages about the Democratic
front-runner"
I call these social media watchers rather than trolls. Rather than simply trying to
disrupt any and all social media threads they don't like, social media watchers look for
comments or comment threads that are disparaging or damaging to their employer.
#2 @Peter AU 1 - I would say the language "to find and CONFRONT" sounds pretty much like
troll behavior.
With regard to the larger issue, it seems that the US is getting more and more like its
allies Ukraine (drives out any press concerned with printing the truth, relies on a bombastic
and entirely false narrative to try and convince its hapless citizens that all is great and
everything is Russia's fault) and Israel (an early leader in manipulating online info as b
states).
That $40 million will probably be pissed away on a couple sweetheart contracts to Tillerson
friends and nobody will see a difference. US State Department propaganda programs, labeled as
"public diplomacy" and other monikers, have been around for a long time but haven't been
executed very well.
From the State Dept. historian office, 2013: . .(excerpt):
Public Diplomacy Is Still in Its Adolescent Stage in the State Department , etc.
. . . The process of convergence has been evolutionary. Secretary Powell grasped the power
of the information revolution, reallocated positions and resources from traditional
diplomatic posting to new areas and recognized the power of satellite television to move
publics and constrain governments even in authoritarian regimes. Secretary Rice forwarded
this reconceptualization under the rubric of "Transformational Diplomacy," which sought to
help people transform their own lives and the relationship between state and society.
Secretary Clinton continued the theme under the concept of "Smart Power." "Person-to-person
diplomacy in today's work is as important as what we do in official meetings in national
capitals across the globe," Clinton said in 2010.The work done by PD officials in Arab
Spring countries beginning in 2011 was as much about capacity-building as advocating U.S.
policies or directly trying to explain American culture. . . here
Prior efforts were targeted more at traditional news outlets, this is just an expansion into
social media along the lines of previous work, example A being the Rendon Group in Iraq,
etc. https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rendon_Group
If it sounds like a PR monkey banging away on a regurgitated theme, it probably is. For
example, the endless repetition in US media about "Syrian chemical weapons attacks" with no
on-the-ground supporting evidence is typical of a Rendon Group disinformation campaign; so
then they hire a hundred trolls to post outraged comments about 'Syrian chemical weapons use'
in comment sections and on twitter; then they hire some State Department intern to write a
book about the horrors of the Assad regime, and at the end they collect their $10 million
paycheck.
Media watchers target specific comments or comment threads, in the case stated by b, those
disparaging or damaging to Clinton.
What I term trolls target blogs or social media accounts that are considered targets, no
matter the content of a particular article or comment thread. Social media media watchers are
a little more specialized than trolls and look for specific content.
P.S. it's funny that you can find out what these clowns are up to by looking for job listings
and salary reports:
The Rendon Group Social Media Specialist Salary | Glassdoor
Average [monthly] salaries for The Rendon Group Social Media Specialist: $2,520. The Rendon
Group salary trends based on salaries posted anonymously by The Rendon Group employees.
Talk about a soul-destroying job. Right up there with Wikipedia page editor.
I see what you are alluding to, but the only problem with it is that, irrespective of the
differing definitions, at heart, these infiltrators are a disrupting force on the message
boards, whether paid to be or not. Their medium is disruption and obfuscation. I tried to
wade into the neoliberal viper's den at slate.com un the past to post "alt-right" stuff and
was quickly attacked by multiple avatars.
In essence, one troll disrupts because he has a need for recognition, and the latter
disrupts for money. Both are netgain for the troll and loss for the rest of us.
The hypocrisy of the U$A continues to be staggering.. If the collective IQ's of the general public approached double digits, the disinformation
and propaganda afoot, couldn't gain much traction. As comedian Richard Pryor once said, " Who you gonna' believe, the propagandists, or your
lying eyes."
thanks b... troll farms looks like a good name for it... farming for the empire.. they could
call it that too.. russia as trend setter, lol.. i don't think so!
speaking of troll farms, i see max Blumenthal came out with some 'about time' comments on
the sad kettle of fish called 'democracy now'... here is his tweet - "If @democracynow is
going to push the neocon project of regime change in Syria so relentlessly and without
debate, it should drop the high minded literary NPR aesthetic and just host Nikki Haley for a
friendly one-on-one #EstablishmentNow https://twitter.com/democracynow/status/967123918237655041
7:07 AM - Feb 25, 2018 "
money for propaganda... that was back in 1984 - we have progressed from Orwell's version of
reality to a new one where reality is what you make of it... meanwhile there will be more
dead people that the sponsors of these troll farms, could care less about... although they
will frame it - 180% of that...
The silver lining here is that the state dept. is in a sense admitting that there is nothing
"in the pipe" relating to outright censorship whether through nefarious agreements between
ISP providers and the IC via the repeal of net neutrality.
$40 mil is a lot for liberal college graduates however.
Nonsense Factory @ 8, Peter AU 1 @ 9: There are plenty of communities in rural Australia
who'd be glad to have troll farms paying that sort of money (even as Australian dollars - 1
Australian dollar being worth about US$0.76 at this time of posting) a month. Real farmers
could do trolling on the side during slow seasons of the year and make some money.
What we need are some Mole Trolls, or maybe that's Troll Moles--double agents if you will
that work for 6-12 months recording 100% of all they do then reveal it all in an expose.
Getting ready for mid-terms. It's going to be interesting to see if the Democrats get wiped
off the map. They should be able to hire quite a few people for $40 million. Don't be
surprised if they deploy AI in the first wave, then follow up with a real person.
ben @13:
Turn off your I phones, and think a little.
ROFL After wandering aimlessly in the mall with Her Majesty over the weekend, I'm not sure
if that's even possible now.
"The big Silicon Valley companies Google, Facebook and Twitter were heavily involved in the
U.S. election campaign. The companies embedded people within the campaigns to advise them how
to reach a maximum trolling effect:"
It went much further than that . Google actually tweaked its algorithms to alter search
recommendations in favor of the Clinton campaign. A comparative analysis of search engines
Google, Bing and Yahoo showed that Google differed significantly from the other two in
producing search recommendations relevant to Clinton.
The entire U.S. MSM is a F'ing troll farm, disinformation, Orwellian world on steroids. The
U.S. public is fed a constant never ending stream of complete Bull sh**, self serving crap.
How to stop it is the only question, to stop the impunity with which these criminals like
Bush and Trump and Obama and Mattis et.al. lie with their pants on fire and .....they all
suck .01% dick.
It's surprising to see the NYT admit the US does it, too. The alt media has been all over
this including Corbett's recent video with the Woolsey interview with Fox News where he
laughs it off and then says it was for a good cause.
Two days before 9/11, Condoleeza Rice received the draft of a formal National Security
Presidential Directive that Bush was expected to sign immediately. The directive contained
a comprehensive plan to launch a
global war on al-Qaeda , including an "imminent" invasion of Afghanistan to topple the
Taliban. The directive was approved by the highest levels of the White House and officials
of the National Security Council, including of course Rice and Rumsfeld. The same NSC
officials were simultaneously running the Dhabol Working Group to secure the Indian power
plant deal for Enron's Trans-Afghan pipeline project. The next day, one day before 9/11,
the Bush administration formally agreed on the
plan to attack the Taliban.
The Highlands Forum has thus played a leading role in defining the Pentagon's entire
conceptualization of the 'war on terror.' Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a retired IMB vice
president who co-chaired the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee from 1997
to 2001, described his experience of
one 2007 Forum meeting in telling terms:
"Then there is the War on Terror, which DoD has started to refer to as the Long War, a term
that I first heard at the Forum. It seems very appropriate to describe the overall conflict
in which we now find ourselves. This is a truly global conflict the conflicts we are now in
have much more of the feel of a battle of civilizations or cultures trying to destroy our
very way of life and impose their own."
Yeah well since the writer of the 'quiz' exposes themself as bein a troll of the worst
sort there is nothing to be said. I'm currently attempting to ingest only those newstories
where the publisher provides space for feedback from readers since if a story is truthful it
should be able to withstand challenge. yeah riight cos that means there's bugger all out
there anymore. The biggest 'win' populism has had this far is in driving all feedback off all
sites with a readership of more than a few hundred. Many of those that do allow feedback only
permit humans with credentialed facebook or google accounts to indulge and the comments are
only visible to similarly logged in types. That tells us a lot about the lack of faith the
corporate media actually have in the nonsense they publish.
Of course 'trolls' are the ones held to be the guilty for causing this but if you actually
watch what happens in a feedback column such as the rare occasions when the graun still
permits CIF comments it isn't the deliberately offensive arseholes spouting the usual cliches
who get deleted, it is those who put forward a considered argument which details why the
original writer has reached a faulty conclusion.
We all know this yet it seems as though none of us are prepared to confront it properly as
the censorship it is.
IMO media outlets which continually lie or at least distort the truth to advance a particular
agenda need to be called to account.
Massed pickets outside newsrooms would be a good way cos as much as media hate us loudmouths
who won't swallow their bromides, they like their competition even less. A decently organised
picket of NYT, WaPo or the Graun would be news in every other spineless, propagandising &
slug-featured media entity.
Said troll was published in Richmond and God only knows who else picked it up. I refuted
it in the comments as best I could, also excerpting MOA. Regardless:
Among Rendon's activities was the creation of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC)
on behalf of the CIA, a group of Iraqi exiles tasked with disseminating propaganda,
including much of the false intelligence about WMD . That process
had begun concertedly under the administration of George H W. Bush, then rumbled along
under Clinton with little fanfare, before escalating after 9/11 under George W. Bush.
Rendon thus played a large role in the manufacture of inaccurate and false news stories
relating to Iraq under lucrative CIA and Pentagon contracts -- and he did so
in the period running up to the 2003 invasion as an advisor to Bush's National
Security Council: the same NSC, of course, that planned the invasions of Afghanistan and
Iraq, achieved with input from Enron executives who were simultaneously engaging the
Pentagon Highlands Forum.
Mass surveillance and data-mining also now has a distinctive operational purpose in
assisting with the lethal execution of special operations, selecting targets for the CIA's
drone strike kill lists via dubious algorithms, for instance, along with providing
geospatial and other information for combatant commanders on land, air and sea, among many
other functions. A single social media post on Twitter or Facebook is enough to trigger
being placed on secret terrorism watch-lists solely due to a vaguely defined hunch or
suspicion; and can potentially even land a suspect on a kill list.
In 2011, the Forum hosted two DARPA-funded scientists, Antonio and Hanna Damasio, who are
principal investigators in the 'Neurobiology of Narrative Framing' project at the
University of Southern California. Evoking Zalman's emphasis on the need for Pentagon
psychological operations to deploy "empathetic influence," the new DARPA-backed project
aims to investigate how narratives often appeal "to strong, sacred values in order to evoke
an emotional response," but in different ways across different cultures
This goes a long way toward explaining what is occurring in Hollywood and Nashville.
"... The Russian independent TV Rain, also known as Dozhd, found (Russian, machine translation ) that one management person of the IRA was missing in the Mueller indictment. That women, Agata Burdonova, has recently moved with her husband to the United States. She had run the "translator" department of the IRA that created English language social marketing campaigns. She has now applied for a U.S. Social Security number. ..."
"... On June 15, 2017, Dmitry Fyodorov says he received an employment offer from Facebook. On August 8, 2017 Fyodorov marries Burdonova. Employer (presumably, Facebook) sponsors both of their visas -- prob. H1B. ..."
"... On December 7 2017 both moved to Bellevue, Washington. Two month later Mueller indicts the alleged IRA owner and management, but not Burdonova. This smells of a deal made by some US agency to get insight into the IRA. In return, an opportunity to move to the US was offered. ..."
Automated Twitter accounts, or trolls, repeated a tweet about a MoA piece
on Muller's indictment of "Russian trolls" . Funny but not really important. There is
interesting news though related to the original Muller indictment. Mueller accused with little
evidence 13 persons involved in the private Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) of meddling
with the U.S. election campaign.
The Russian independent TV Rain, also known as Dozhd,
found (Russian,
machine translation ) that one management person of the IRA was missing in the Mueller
indictment. That women, Agata Burdonova, has recently moved with her husband to the United
States. She had run the "translator" department of the IRA that created English language social
marketing campaigns. She has now applied for a U.S. Social Security number.
On June 15, 2017, Dmitry Fyodorov says he received an employment offer from Facebook. On
August 8, 2017 Fyodorov marries Burdonova. Employer (presumably, Facebook) sponsors both of
their visas -- prob. H1B.
On December 7 2017 both moved to Bellevue, Washington. Two month later Mueller indicts the
alleged IRA owner and management, but not Burdonova. This smells of a deal made by some US
agency to get insight into the IRA. In return, an opportunity to move to the US was
offered.
MASHA GESSEN: So, I am really fascinated with what it tells us about our imagination about
the Russian imagination. So, Russia imagines America and the American political system as like
this unassailable monolith that they are throwing stuff at just to try to make a dent, whereas
the United States is starting increasingly to imagine Russia as all-powerful, as incredibly
sophisticated, as capable of, you know, sending out some really absurd tweets, in sub-literate
English, and somehow changing the outcome of the election. And that projects such a belief in
the fragility of the system and the basic instability of it and in the gullibility of voters
who read something that's not even comprehensible English and suddenly change their vote. I
mean, the working theory of the investigation -- right? -- is that Russians influenced the
election by influencing American public opinion. And so, we're asked to believe that a
significant impact on American public opinion could be produced by, you know, the Bernie the
Superman coloring book tweet.
"... The sad thing is, by admitting that Trump had no connection to the 13 accused 'election hackers,' his accusers are offering him an easy out–with the expectation that he will pay them back by turning against Russia. ..."
"... Trump has already acquiesced in new arms shipments to Ukraine, and he doesn't seem to have any problem with the Pentagon randomly attacking (among others) Russian soldiers and contractors in Syria ..."
"... Well this was always the ultimate point. Not getting Trump, but making sure Trump falls in line with the insane plan to get Russia. ..."
The sad thing is, by admitting that Trump had no connection to the 13
accused 'election hackers,' his accusers are offering him an easy out–with the
expectation that he will pay them back by turning against Russia.
Trump has already acquiesced
in new arms shipments to Ukraine, and he doesn't seem to have any problem with the Pentagon
randomly attacking (among others) Russian soldiers and contractors in Syria. If there were ever
any doubt, it now seems obvious that "the swamp" has successfully drained Trump. Start digging
your bomb shelters, people
Well this was always the ultimate point. Not getting Trump, but making sure Trump falls in
line with the insane plan to get Russia.
It's hard to see how this ends. Like the Terminator they absolutely will not stop. Ever.
Until they are physically incapable of moving another step. But will the world survive long
enough for that to happen? Or will Russia cave rather than risk war? Without Putin at the
helm I think 'compromises' will start and then pretty soon Russia is back in the fold with a
token president and the IMF running the show. Like the rest of us.
The whole election-meddling distraction is remarkable in both comic and tragic ways. The
tragedy can be summed up in three words: New Cold War. At a time when the U.S. and Russian
governments ought to be working toward nuclear disarmament, relations are deteriorating
dangerously. As the estimable Australian writer Caitlin Johnstone,
notes , despite Donald Trump's campaign promise of détente with Russia,
We are
already at an extremely dangerous point in the ongoing trend of continuous escalations with
a country that is armed with thousands of nuclear warheads. [Johnstone's links.]
Would Trump have done these things without the pressure of Russiagate? I don't know, but
Russiagate hasn't helped. And what more would Hillary Clinton have done by this point?
Johnstone argues that Russiagate is all about putting Russia in its place and securing the
American ruling elite's geopolitical and economic interests -- not about getting Trump:
America's unelected power establishment doesn't care about impeaching Trump, it cares
about hobbling Russia in order to prevent the rise of a potential rival superpower in its ally
China. All this lunacy makes perfect sense when you realize this. The US deep state is using
the hysterical cult of anti-Trumpism to manufacture support for increasing escalations with
Russia, and the anti-Trumpists are playing right along under the delusion that pushing for
moves against Russia will hurt Trump.
Of course, removing Trump from office would be a cherry on top. If the drivers of Russiagate
can't have that, at least they can leave the impression that Hillary Clinton would be president
today were it not for the diabolically cunning Vladimir Putin and the inherently depraved
Russia in cahoots with their tool, Donald Trump. ( Putin's
opponents in Russia are irritated that Americans portray Putin as virtually omnipotent.)
Russiagate promoters in the Democratic Party deny they intend to right the wrong of 2016, but I
don't believe them. Surely they are trying to delegitimate the election on the grounds that
Trump and Putin stole it from its rightful owner. (For the record, I think all elections are
illegitimate but not because of foreign involvement.)
The anti-Russia campaign has certainly gone well beyond overboard. Former Director of
National Intelligence James (Yeah, I
lied . What you gonna do about?) Clapper, on "Meet the Press," said
the Russians "are "typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor,
whatever, which is a typical Russian technique." (Beg your pardon, I linked to RT. Here's an American
site for anyone concerned about having RT in their browser history.) Johnstone
points out that Clapper has said such things before, including: "But as far as our being
intimate allies, trusting buds with the Russians that is just not going to happen. It is in
their genes to be opposed, diametrically opposed to the United States and to Western
democracies." As I recall, former CIA Director John Brennan said something similar.
On the comic side, Russiagate is a new theater of the absurd, featuring Americans running
around with their hair on fire over alleged official Russian actions that amount to
nothing significant: it was an act of war -- another Pearl Harbor -- no wait, another 9/11!
Let's assume -- purely for the sake of discussion since no evidence has been made public --
that the Russians did it. Note, first, that the "it" looks like the product of the gang that
couldn't shoot straight. I'm not going to do what Johnstone, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron
Maté, and the late Robert Parry have done so well so many times, namely, catalog all the
inane acts the Putin-guided Russian intel agencies are said to have committed in order to bring
down America. (Start here .)
Suffice it to say that if that's the best Putin can come up with, we have little to
worry about. Of course, the very inanity of this so-called campaign to destroy America -- the
ridiculous discrepancy between means and alleged end, the sheer clownish ineptitude --
furnishes sufficient grounds for skepticism, at least, about the Russiagate narrative. (See
David Stockman's
explanation of the ineptitude. SPOILER ALERT: It wasn't a Russian Intel operation. The man
who we are to believe sought to subvert America's democracy is a freelance pro-Putin Russian
food-industry oligarch employing a bunch of minimum-wage keyboard jockeys who didn't pay
attention to the United States until the 2014 U.S.-sponsored coup in Ukraine, i.e., before
there was a Trump campaign.)
Americans generally do not know the nefarious things "their" government has done over many,
many years. This is partly due to what Bryan Caplan in The Myth of the Rational Voter calls "rational irrationalism." Americans embrace a
nationalism that is impervious to facts. Even vivid accounts of the systematic wholesale
slaughter of the Indians wouldn't shake it. People generally don't like to venture outside
their comfort zones to shake up their worldview, and even if they did so, what would change?
Each person has only one vote, and the chance that one vote will make a difference is close to
zero. So why not indulge one's nationalist biases? It's not as though there's an opportunity
cost to doing so.
On the other hand, politicians and pundits do have some idea of America's long record of
intervening in other countries. (Maybe I'm being too charitable.) What's their excuse for being
so offended by even the possibility of meddling in an U.S. election? One explanation is the
"exceptional nation" dogma of the American creed, or what I call the American chosen-people
complex. Even secular American nationalists believe America has been anointed -- by history if
not by a deity -- to lead the world. (This goes back to the founding generation, by the way.
It's no post-World War II phenomenon. See America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited .)
Thus, we have a moral inequivalence on our hands. It's okay if we do it to "them" (whoever),
but it's not okay if "they" do it to us. Moreover,
we can do it to ourselves , but if anyone else tries it, there'll be hell to pay.
Any way you look at it, Russiagate is ridiculous. Of course it serves some people's
interests. But it harms the rest of us, most of all by bringing us closer to conflict with
Russia, perhaps even to nuclear war.
The reality of Russiagate is that the corrupt neoliberal system and its institutions were laid bare in an
unprecedented way. The Democratic Party is toast. The Republican Party is a vile sham. And the MSM has exposed itself as attack
dogs of intelligence agencies like never before. People are waking up to the corrupt
and useless system in place. The reality of the system was exposed in magnifying Russiagate lens. That's probably the only
good thing about it
Notable quotes:
"... John Sipher (ha ha) starts out by re-asserting the lie that Russians "hacked" the DNC ..."
"... Why are the people who work for this guy trying to sell opinions being called trolls? This is just another way to give credence to the FBI narrative that trolls tried to sway the election. If anyone was a troll, ..."
"... And Rachel? Quit lying to yourself and others. My gawd! You have come a long way from your time at Air America that I don't even recognize you anymore. You are creating hysteria and you have become a raving lunatic. Enjoy your $30,000/day, $7 million a month salary for selling out to the people who you used to despise. I despise you! ..."
"... He retorts that 'there's enough hot spots -- Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, China' -- but fails to acknowledge that for example, the Iraq invasion and subsequent insurgency/civil war/rise-of-ISIS is all about what Aaron pointed to, the ginning up intelligence to create the Iraq invasion - which then spilled over into Syria. The role that the US is playing in all the other place he mentions, they have constantly resorted to lethal force and refused negotiation. ..."
"... The establishment media leaves out the essential context: The US is on a single superpower, Pax Americana global empire gambit; with everyone else playing for time while building their defences. ..."
"... And 'Russian Doctrine' is just recycled Soviet Doctrine - but the US always lead arms escalations during the old cold war - the so called soviet doctrine was in fact defence against US pressure and aggression. ..."
"... The Democratic Party is toast. The Republican Party is a vile sham. And the main stream media has exposed itself like never before. People are waking up to the corrupt and useless system in place. The reality of the system is being laid bare in an unprecedented way. As bad as things seem, this is a good thing, if we can keep those in power from destroying the earth before we can recover it. ..."
"... Unless something more comes of this, the Dems and their media cohorts will do a repeat of the Repubs and that same media when the WMD failed to materialize in Iraq. The wonderful thing about The Homeland, though, is that being wrong, all the time, in no way disqualifies you for remaining an important and serious person. ..."
"... Black Lives Matter ..."
"... Bernie Sanders ..."
"... Yeah, I think the point of this is not to change opinions, the point was to try to either suppress voters on one side, or to get people to hardened opinions, and get people to come out to vote, and we've even seen the same troll farm, looks like they're doing this now around the Parkland shooting in Florida. They were going around Black Lives Matter, they're trying to spin up divisions to get us working against each other, as much as electing Jill Stein or Bernie Sanders. ..."
AARON MATÉ: Now, Maddow makes at least one error here. The indictment does say that
the operation had a monthly budget of $1.25 million dollars, but that was for its entire global
operations, of which the U.S. was only a part. And more importantly, can we say conclusively
that this was the work of Russian intelligence? Well, joining me is John Sipher, national
security analyst with Cipher Brief, and a former member of the CIA's clandestine service.
John Sipher (@john_sipher) is a former Chief of Station for the C.I.A. He worked for
over 27 years in Russia, Europe and Asia and now writes for various publications and works as a
consultant with CrossLead and New Media Frontier.
Here's what Mr CIA guy 'Sipher' is selling: The indicted 13 Russian trollers
interfered w the 2016 POTUS election- NOT by hacking US voting machines & flipping
votes to Repug Trump, but by sowing discord among the US electorate which even 'Sipher'
admits already existed. Most of the Face-Book posts by these alleged Russian trollers
were either posted AFTER Nov 8, 2016 &/or were seen by virtually NO-One, thus
'Sipher' effectively admits he now ilk in the US intel biz can even assess how much
alleged impact these alleged Russian trollers had on the 2016 POTUS election -But- I can:
Virtually ZERO!!
Now compare that to the US' notorious track-record of nefariously 'meddling' in other
countries' political processes- Mainly by Mr CIA guy 'Sipher's' so-called 'ex'
employer:
- In 1996 the US actively & blatantly interfered in Russia's presidential election to
get Slick Willy's pal & chum(p) that drunk Boris Yeltsin guy elected, & even
openly bragged about it. And then orchestrated a fire-sale of Russia's resources, that
resulted in great hardship to the Russian people.
In 2014 while Putin's attention was on the Winter-Olympics in Sochi, Killary Clinton's
protege' Vikky Nuland actively stoked a Neo-NAZI coup vs Ukraine's democratically elected
president -- In an blatant attempt to push NATO right up into Russia's face / west-flank
& to try to grab Russia's naval base in Crimea [which up till the 1950s was actually
officially Russian territory].
In 1953 the CIA in tandem w MI6 actively worked to overthrow Iran's democratically
selected leader Mosadeq, in an out-right COUP, that brought that notorious dictator the
Shah of Iran to power!
In 1954 the CIA actively worked to overthrow Guatemala's democratically elected leader
Arbenz, in an out-right COUP!
In 1960-61 the CIA in tandem w the Belgiums [& even the UN] actively worked to
overthrow Congo's democratically elected leader Patrice Lumuba, in an out-right COUP the
resulted in Lumumba's DEATH [w the OK of Ike Eisenhower's & Alan Dulles' CIA]! A coup
that brought the notorious despot Mobutu to power.
In 1961 Dulles' & 'Tricky Dick' Nixon's CIA talked JFK into allowing the CIA to
try to over-throw Castro in Cuba, in the 'Bay of Pigs' fiasco.
In 1966 LBJ's CIA helped to overthrow Ghanaian leader Kwame' Nkruma in a military
coup.
In 1973 Nixon's & Kissinger's CIA helped to overthrow the democratically elected
leader of Chile' Allende' in an out-Right coup, the resulted in Allende's DEATH! And
brought the notoriously murderous military regime of Pinochet to power!!
In 1991 Mr CIA POTUS Bush Sr OKed an out-right Coup vs the democratically elected
leader of Haiti Aristide. And Bush Sr's son, Bush Jr would do a repeat vs Aristide yet
again in 2004- Which was Haiti's bicentennial anniversary of its independence from
Napoleon's France [in 1804] as France's notorious [ex] slave-colony. The US & France
have been causing misery in Haiti ever since!!
In 2002 the US [likely spear-headed by the CIA] tried to pull a coup vs Venezuela's
democratically elected leader Hugo Chavez, which failed. But the US has been actively
meddling in Venezuela ever since, & is apparently plotting a coup vs Chavez'
democratically elected successor Maduro.
In 2003 the Bush-Cheney-Bliar nexus used false intel from Mr 'Sipher's' CIA, launched
that disastrous Iraq Attack Pt2 based on LIES, which resulted in over 1 Million Iraqis'
death, in an nefarious Neo-CONian / Neo-Liberal regime-change scheme!! This CIA backed
disaster directly resulted in the rise of AL-CIAeda in Iraq & then ISIS!!
In 2009 under Dim Obama & Billary HRC as his Sec of State, the US OKed a coup vs
Honduras' democratically elected leader Zelaya. And Honduras remains in turmoil to this
day!
In 2011 Dim OBomber & Killary [I came,. I saw, He died, Ha, ha, ha- Yes!] Clinton
in combo w France's Sarkozy, the UK's Cameron & those 'bastions of democracy' the
Saudi-GCC oil monarchs- actively overthrew Libya's leader Col Khadaffi via FUK-US NATO's
relentless 9 month 'R2P' bombing assault in yet another notorious Neo-CONian / NeoLiberal
regime-change scheme [based on LIES yet again]- Resulting in Khadaffi's brutal murder
[that KIllary openly called for just a few days before & then hideously cackled over
afterwards] mass chaos in what was Africa's most prosperous country, & brought to
power a regime that's directly linked to AL-CIAeda & even ISIS, & who are now
openly selling Black Libyans & African immigrants on Libyan SLAVE-Markets!!
In 2012 the US under then Sec of State Billary HRC tried to interfere in Russia's
elections [yet again] to block Putin's regaining Russia's presidency.
In 2011 the US under Slick Willy Clinton [as the UN's Gov of Haiti] & wife Billary
HRC as Sec of State, actively interfered in Haiti's elections yet again to bring that
neo-Duvalier guy Martelli to power, while outlawing Aristide's political party which is
the most popular party in Haiti.
In 2015 the US covertly backed a 'parliamentary coup' vs Brazil's democratically
elected leader Delma Roussef!
And oh let's NOT forget the US' & it allies [UK, the Saudis, the Turks, the IAF,
etc] actively involvement in the on-going Syrian disaster- In yet another Neo-CONian /
Neo-Liberal nefarious regime-change scheme!! And how Mr CIA guy Sipher's CIA & other
intel' agencies have been trying to bait first Dim OBomber & now Repug Trump into an
all out attack on Syria to accomplish it, using dubious 'intel' ala 'WMD redux'!!
I mean seriously Mr CIA guy 'Sipher' & all you other Russia-Gaters [IE: Rachael
Mad-cow & even Bernie]?? All this BS hype over 13 Russians trolling click-bait on
Face-Book, vs all that I've outlined above [just a short-list] that the CIA & even
so-called 'liberal' Dims have actively supported, w DISASTROUS results- Literally
destroying MILLIONS of lives in the process!! PLEASE!!
John Sipher (ha ha) starts out by re-asserting the lie that Russians "hacked" the DNC.
Everything that follows is just blah, blah,blah....Why is TRN interviewing this
buffoon?
No, sorry. I have great respect for Aaron, but TRN is not doing us any favors by
helping spread this noxious propaganda. They legitimize it by acknowledging it.
Meanwhile, there is other news they could be giving us.Check this out:
http://bit.ly/2EMOl4S Sad we have to depend upon comedians to give us the
news....
BTW. Why are the people who work for this guy trying to sell opinions being called
trolls? This is just another way to give credence to the FBI narrative that trolls tried
to sway the election. If anyone was a troll,
I'd say it was the Correct the Record folks
who were the trolls. Hillary's campaign paid over a million dollars for people to go into
websites and if anyone was being critical of Hillary, they tried to get them to change
their minds. How is that not election interference? And was that even legal? It was
unethical if not against campaign finance laws.
It arose inside the country, though Hillary is, without a doubt, scum. Hillbots were
actual 'Murkins, a lot of them still suffering from Hillbotulism. Elections featuring two
absolutely unacceptable candidates are a real drag, and, unfortunately, probably the
OFFICIAL end of the United States (though in reality, the US died in March 2003).
Unbelievable. Aaron: I don't believe that the Mueller investigation has delivered
solid proof that Russia did anything against the country.
Sipher:
Well I think that he and the FBI are reputable sources and I'm going to
believe them and what they tell me. Even if they haven't proven anything, we know that
Putin is a bad man and he wants to sow divisions here and besides he's using chemical
weapons in Syria (even though that's so totally off topic) and when I go to bed at night
I see Putin in my dreams and yackity, yack, yack! So there. I'm a poopy head and you're
not.
Good grief, how can people believe anything by this time? And Rachel? Quit lying to
yourself and others. My gawd! You have come a long way from your time at Air America that
I don't even recognize you anymore. You are creating hysteria and you have become a
raving lunatic. Enjoy your $30,000/day, $7 million a month salary for selling out to the
people who you used to despise. I despise you!
This guys arguments are so weak he must be interacting the very ignorant audience most
of the time (I think the great majority of Americans don't pay attention to what their
own foreign policy is -- and MSM the vast majority of the time offers nothing but safe
softball foreign policy questions).
He retorts that 'there's enough hot spots -- Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, China' -- but
fails to acknowledge that for example, the Iraq invasion and subsequent insurgency/civil
war/rise-of-ISIS is all about what Aaron pointed to, the ginning up intelligence to
create the Iraq invasion - which then spilled over into Syria. The role that the US is
playing in all the other place he mentions, they have constantly resorted to lethal force
and refused negotiation.
The establishment media leaves out the essential context: The US is on a single
superpower, Pax Americana global empire gambit; with everyone else playing for time while
building their defences.
And 'Russian Doctrine' is just recycled Soviet Doctrine - but the US always lead arms
escalations during the old cold war - the so called soviet doctrine was in fact defence
against US pressure and aggression.
MoonofAlabama gives a good analysis of the marketing scheme aspect of these
"meddlings". Max Blumenthal mentions it in his discussion with Mate from earlier in the
week, but this is a very detailed look into the matter:
http://www.moonofalabama.or...
I suppose it is ok for Aaron to interview guys like this CIA agent but the agent
clearly doesn't understand the validity of an indictment. An indictment doesn't prove
anything; If it did, we wouldn't need trial courts.
The Department of Justice could
indict a ham sandwich if they wanted.
The DOJ knows that this case will never go to trial
and they will never have to prove anything. It is depressing that the Democrats and MSNBC
have lost all credibility. We are very lucky to have Aaron and Max looking at this sutff.
The Democratic Party is toast. The Republican Party is a vile sham. And the main
stream media has exposed itself like never before. People are waking up to the corrupt
and useless system in place. The reality of the system is being laid bare in an
unprecedented way. As bad as things seem, this is a good thing, if we can keep those in
power from destroying the earth before we can recover it.
I just got done reading the Mueller indictment. For the MSM and the Dems to continue
their pathetic witch hunt is a true indictment of the corruption at the heart of this
country's political and media elites. No doubt there was an attempt, weak as it was, to
influence Americans, but for anyone to think this is the smoking gun that proves it was
decisive in determining the 2016 election, or that the Russian government definitely
orchestrated it, or that Trump, whom I despise as much as anyone else, colluded with
them, reveals a startling lack of intellectual honesty.
The effort put forth by the Russians involved seemed to have two objectives; first to
take advantage of the tribalization of American society to advance the Trump campaign,
and secondly, to make money off it.
Worst of all, if nothing more comes out of this, then the Dems, as corrupt as they are
incompetent, will have added more fuel to the Trump charges of fake news and will have
served only to weaken any resistance they claim to represent as this clown leads this
country on an ever accelerating demise.
I take issue with advancing the Trump campaign as an objective. Some ads, etc., were
anti-Trump and some were about kittens. I haven't seen any predominant political message,
at all, in that "effort". Also, it was so paltry that they had to know that it would have
no effect, at all, and never could have any effect. Implying otherwise is part of what
makes the whole story look like a bumbling, comedic farce to most thinking people.
If you read the Mueller indictment, it's clearly stated that they did contact various
American groups working for Trump, locally, that is, and arranged events, paid for
various materials, even someone to dress up as HRC and be in a jail, and also travel to
the states to do some first hand research, but as you say, the effort was minor, at best,
and was no factor in Trump winning, especially compared to the billions of $ of free air
time he got when running in the Repub primary, he was a cash cow for the networks, after
all, and the DNC advancing his cause during those same primaries, thinking he was an
easier opponent than Cruz or Rubio.
Unless something more comes of this, the Dems and
their media cohorts will do a repeat of the Repubs and that same media when the WMD
failed to materialize in Iraq. The wonderful thing about The Homeland, though, is that
being wrong, all the time, in no way disqualifies you for remaining an important and
serious person.
I haven't seen ANY evidence of traveling to the US for "first hand research". WHERE
does this crap come from? It comes from people desperate to keep the war budget higher
than any war budget in the history of planet earth. I still see nothing in that
"indictment" that serves as any real evidence that Trump colluded with any Russians, much
less any Russians definitively working for the Government of Russia, or any evidence that
the campaign was affected or that Russians were trying to create "discord" in the US.
If they bothered to look at the same types of activities and even direct money given
to candidates by Israeli, Saudi, UK, and other nationals, I think it would dwarf anything
Russian citizens used to fund or further any campaign. They won't look elsewhere, though,
because nothing perpetrates the fraud on the American people that is the Defense budget
like the word "Russians" and most of the "defense" (i.e., war) budget is completely
unnecessary. They should be cut by a third right now, with further cuts pending.
The indictment gives the names and dates of two Russians who made it here for a few
days; a third was unable to secure a visa. There are dates and places named in the
indictment, but nothing that could of had any influence on the election. If the Dems are
so worked up over having lost two elections this century even though their candidate had
more popular votes, you'd think they'd be screaming for a change in determining the
presidential election. We all know the Repubs would.
We are in total agreement as to what really mattered and matters regarding this issue
and the reasons behind the Dems sudden embrace of McCarthyism and their overall need to
point to Russia or anyone else to maintain the unmaintainable American empire. If you
haven't read the indictment, it's not that long, 37 short pages, several of which can be
skipped because they simply list names or laws broken.
If the dems really cared, they would be calling for publicly funded elections, cuts of
a quarter or more of the war budget (i.e., "defense"), and public health care and
education, and jobs programs with benefits. They care about nothing but their own
butts.
Aaron Mate is an excellent, intelligent, sincere, and questioning journalist--in
short, what everything one would expect from a real journalist. So, what is it the
naysayers don't like about him? Is it because he does not support their narrative. Is it
his laid back style? What in particular?
Glen Ford penetrates all the BS and gets right down to the real agenda, Black or
otherwise. He called out Obama back in 2007, when nearly everyone else on the so called
left were coming in their pants over that fake.
CIA staff exhibit two qualities in abundance: 1) Suspicious incredulity regarding all
apparent statements, actions and motivations of subjects in the field, and 2) Studied,
refined, and highly purposeful public mendacity regarding their and their government's
apparent statements, actions and motivations.
Mr Sipher is lying and the tell is his amazing degree of credulity regarding numerous
US entities paired with across the board mistrust and outright defamation of numerous
non-US entities. Virtually every accusation Sipher made against Russia, Putin and the
indicted, is a menu item on standard CIA operational plans for disrupting the elections
of foreign nations and has been practiced continuously for several decades, technology
permitting.
As a companion to this interview it might be nice to solicit an interview with a CIA
antagonist who knows how to expose--point by point, in policy, practice and
tradition--one of the most destructive covert entities in world history.
Mr. Sipher is throwing everything at the wall to see what might stick, attempting to
conflate what he laughably refers to as the "Russian Black Arts" with the Parkland
shooting. He talks in circles; on one hand acknowledging pre-existing social
"hyperpartisan", "tribal", divisions", while on the other hand dismissing genuine
political movements Black Lives Matter , Democratic Socialism ( Bernie
Sanders ), and the Environmental Movement ( Jill Stein ) as products of
Russian propaganda that is at once both sophisticated and simple.
JOHN SIPHER: Yeah, I think the point of this is not to change opinions, the point
was to try to either suppress voters on one side, or to get people to hardened
opinions, and get people to come out to vote, and we've even seen the same troll farm,
looks like they're doing this now around the Parkland shooting in Florida. They were
going around Black Lives Matter, they're trying to spin up divisions to get us working
against each other, as much as electing Jill Stein or Bernie Sanders.
His assessment lacks any measure of self/social-awareness or self/social-consciousness
that should be a pre-requisite before laying out criticism of another. It seems to me Mr.
Sipher might be protecting his CIA pension.
Hey there Munk! True believers will lay down their lives for their preferred criminal
syndicate because they are of one body; pensions are just icing. Your observations among
others are exactly why I said Sipher is lying.
Bill Binney, Ray McGovern and John Kiriakou are the first three that come to mind as
potential contrarians, although I am sure there are others as well. Perhaps the Clapper
lyings will come up in part two?
A few months ago, while waiting for wifey to come out of Target, I saw a preteen kid
wearing a T shirt that said, "I speak fluent sarcasm." I want one of those.
Muhammad Ali used rope a dope to defeat George Foreman; Mate let's these idiots expose
themselves with their own words; nothing is more effective than letting a fool speak.
The size of funds that Democrats and Republicans operated were in billions. And , IRA
staffers purchased just $100,000 worth of Facebook ads, 56% of which ran after Election
Day. So only $44K was spent during election campaign.
There author is wrong about color revolution against Trump. It is progressing.
One interesting side effect will be ruthless suppression of the US influence in Russian
elections. Bismark famously remarked that "the Russians are slow to saddle up, but ride fast."
Here media dogs also are off leash and there will be innocent victims, blamed in treason and
other nefarious activities just to voicing dissent. Russiagate discredited neoliberal fifth
column in Russia, making them all "enemies of the people".
Notable quotes:
"... After nine months of labor, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller thus brought forth a mouse. Even if all the charges are true – something we'll probably never know since it's unlikely that any of the accused will be brought to trial -- the indictment tells us virtually nothing that's new. ..."
"... Yes, they persuaded someone in Florida to dress up as Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform and stand inside a cage mounted on a flatbed truck. And, yes, they also got another "real U.S. person," as the indictment terms it, to stand in front of the White House with a sign saying, "Happy 55th Birthday Dear Boss," a tribute, apparently, to IRA founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the convicted robber turned caterer whose birthday was three days away. Instead of a super-sophisticated spying operation, the indictment depicts a bumbling freelance operation that is still giving Putin heartburn months after the fact. ..."
"... Not that this has stopped the media from whipping itself into a frenzy. "Russia is at war with our democracy," screamed a headline in the Washington Post. "Trump is ignoring the worst attack on America since 9/11," blared another. " Russia is engaged in a virtual war against the United States through 21st-century tools of disinformation and propaganda," declared the New York Times, while Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter tweeted that the IRA's activities amounted to nothing less than a "tech Pearl Harbor." ..."
"... This makes the Dems seem crass, unscrupulous, and none too democratic. But then Mudde gave the knife a twist. The real trouble with the strategy, he said, is that it isn't working: ..."
"... No collusion means no impeachment and hence no anti-Trump "color revolution" of the sort that was so effective in Georgia or the Ukraine. Moreover, while 53 percent of Americans believe that investigating Russiagate should be a top or at least an important priority according to a recent poll , figures for a half-dozen other issues ranging from Medicare and Social Security reform to tax policy, healthcare, infrastructure, and immigration are actually a good deal higher – 67 percent, 72 percent, or even more. ..."
"... " the Russia-Trump collusion story might be the talk of the town in Washington, but this is not the case in much of the rest of the country." Out in flyover country, rather, Americans can't figure out why the political elite is more concerned with a nonexistent scandal than with things that really count, i.e. de-industrialization, infrastructure decay, the opioid epidemic, and school shootings. As society disintegrates, the only thing Democrats have accomplished with all their blathering about Russkis under the bed is to demonstrate just how cut off from the real world they are. ..."
"... But Russiagate is not just about regime change, but other things as well. One is repression. Where once Democrats would have laughed off Russian trolls and the like, they're now obsessed with making a mountain out of a molehill in order to enforce mainstream opinion and marginalize ideas and opinions suspected of being un-American and hence pro-Russian. If the RT (Russia Today) news network is now suspect -- the Times described it not long ago as "the slickly produced heart of a broad, often covert disinformation campaign designed to sow doubt about democratic institutions and destabilize the West" – then why not the BBC or Agence France-Presse? How long until foreign books are banned or foreign musicians? ..."
"... "I'm actually surprised I haven't been indicted," tweets Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky. "I'm Russian, I was in the U.S. in 2016 and I published columns critical of both Clinton and Trump w/o registering as a foreign agent." When the Times complains that Facebook "still sees itself as the bank that got robbed, rather than the architect who designed a bank with no safes, and no alarms or locks on the doors, and then acted surprised when burglars struck," then it's clear that the goal is to force Facebook to rein in its activities or stand by and watch as others do so instead. ..."
"... But Russiagate is about something else as well: war. As National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster warns that the "time is now" to act against Iran, the New York Times slams Trump for not imposing sanctions on Moscow, and a spooky "Nuclear Posture Review" suggests that the US might someday respond to a cyber attack with atomic weapons, it's plain that Washington is itching for a showdown that will somehow undo the mistakes of the previous administration. The more Trump drags his feet, the more Democrats conclude that a war drive is the best way to bring him to his knees. ..."
"... Thus, low-grade political interference is elevated into a casus belli while Vladimir Putin is portrayed as a supernatural villain straight out of Harry Potter. But where does it stop? Libya has been set back decades, Syria, the subject of yet another US regime-change effort, has been all but destroyed, while Yemen – which America helps Saudi Arabia bomb virtually around the clock – is now a disaster area with some 9,000 people killed, 50,000 injured, a million-plus cholera cases, and more than half of all hospitals and clinics destroyed. ..."
"... The more Democrats pound the war drums, the more death and destruction will ensue. The process is well underway in Syria, the victim of Israeli bombings and a US-Turkish invasion, and it will undoubtedly spread as Dems turn up the heat. If the pathetic pseudo-scandal known as Russiagate really is collapsing under its own weight, then it's not a moment too soon. ..."
"... The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy ..."
"... A minor quibble was how at the end the author kept referring to how the "U.S" or "Washington" were the forces for the regime changes or flat-out destruction of nations Israel wants destroyed. The crappy little pesthole has been the barely-concealed mastermind of all the "Wars For Israel" which have turned the US of A into a bankrupt laughingstock. ..."
"... As ludicrous as Russiagate became, it was no joke, and became a real amplifier of the threat of nuclear war, and the relentlessly increasing militarization of America. Without the enthusiastic help of the corporate media, the whole phony narrative would never have got off the ground. Of course the criminals we call the intelligence community did all they could to give it legs, as well. We can only pray that it fades away now, and is not replaced with something else like a shooting war. But that hope is fading now on several fronts ..."
"... That was NOT to remove Trump, which was always a long shot and would only produce Pence and angry motivated Trump voters in the next election. ..."
"... The Trump derangement syndrome had a calculated purpose to keep donors giving after they were outraged by the waste of their donations. They'd been acting like a donor-strike was in progress. This cured that. ..."
"... This fed off the Stages of Grief reactions of those who'd so confidently expected a Hillary win. That helped do it, but was not the real motive. Those who initiated and shaped it were more directed, and aimed at the money. That is why the more likely things to blame, like Comey, were set aside in favor of the easy target of a foreign enemy which was familiar from recent Cold War. ..."
"... Having only as reference my own personal take on our news media the infamous MSM, is that these journalistic bandits are only in the game of twisting the news for the ratings, and to promote their own opportunistic careers. The corporate owned media has replaced responsible reporting with salaisuus promotions of often tragic events in a way that tends to in my eyes be a mere exploitation of these tragedies, as we viewers become glued to our TV screens. ..."
Fads and scandals often follow a set trajectory. They grow big, bigger, and then, finally,
too big, at which point they topple over and collapse under the weight of their own internal
contradictions. This was the fate of the "Me too" campaign, which started out as an
exposé of serial abuser Harvey Weinstein but then went too far when Babe.net published a
story about one
woman's bad date with comedian Aziz Ansari. Suddenly, it became clear that different types of
behavior were being lumped together in a dangerous way, and a once-explosive movement began to
fizzle.
So, too, with Russiagate. After dominating the news for more than a year, the scandal may
have at last reached a tipping point with last week's indictment of thirteen Russian
individuals and three Russian corporations on charges of illegal interference in the 2016
presidential campaign. But the indictment landed with a decided thud for three reasons:
It
failed to connect the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the alleged St. Petersburg troll factory
accused of political meddling, with Vladimir Putin, the all-purpose evil-doer who the corporate
media say is out to destroy American democracy. It similarly failed to establish a connection
with the Trump campaign and indeed went out of its way to describe contacts with the Russians
as "unwitting." It described the meddling itself as even more inept and amateurish than many
had suspected.
After nine months of labor, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller thus brought forth a
mouse. Even if all the charges are true – something we'll probably never know since it's
unlikely that any of the accused will be brought to trial -- the indictment tells us virtually
nothing that's new.
Yes, IRA staffers purchased $100,000 worth of Facebook ads, 56 percent of which ran
after Election Day. Yes, they persuaded someone in Florida to dress up as Hillary
Clinton in a prison uniform and stand inside a cage mounted on a flatbed truck. And, yes, they
also got another "real U.S. person," as the indictment terms it, to stand in front of the White
House with a sign saying, "Happy 55th Birthday Dear Boss," a tribute, apparently, to IRA
founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the convicted robber turned caterer whose birthday was three days
away. Instead of a super-sophisticated spying operation, the indictment depicts a bumbling
freelance operation that is still giving Putin heartburn months after the fact.
Not that this has stopped the media from whipping itself into a frenzy. "Russia is at
war with our democracy,"
screamed a headline in the Washington Post. "Trump is ignoring the worst attack on America
since 9/11,"
blared another. " Russia is engaged in a virtual war against the United States through
21st-century tools of disinformation and propaganda," declared the New York
Times, while Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter tweeted that the IRA's
activities amounted to nothing less than a "tech Pearl Harbor."
All of which merely demonstrates, in proper backhanded fashion, how grievously Mueller has
fallen short. Proof that the scandal had at last overstayed its welcome came five days later
when the Guardian, a website that had previously flogged Russiagate even more vigorously than
the Post, the Times, or CNN, published a
news analysis by Cas Mudde, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, admitting
that it was all a farce – and a particularly self-defeating one at that.
Mudde's article made short work of hollow pieties about a neutral and objective
investigation. Rather than an effort to get at the truth, Russiagate was a thinly-veiled effort
at regime change. "[I]n the end," he wrote, "the only question everyone really seems to care
about is whether Donald Trump was involved – and can therefore be impeached for
treason.
With last week's indictment, the article went on, "Democratic party leaders once again
reassured their followers that this was the next logical step in the inevitable downfall of
Trump." The more Democrats play the Russiagate card, in other words, the nearer they will come
to their goal of riding the Orange-Haired One out of town on a rail.
This makes the Dems seem crass, unscrupulous, and none too democratic. But then Mudde
gave the knife a twist. The real trouble with the strategy, he said, is that it isn't
working:
"While there is no doubt that the Trump camp was, and still is, filled with amoral and
fraudulent people, and was very happy to take the Russians help during the elections, even
encouraging it on the campaign, I do not think Mueller will be able to find conclusive evidence
that Donald Trump
himself colluded with Putin's Russia to win the elections. And that is the only thing that will
lead to his impeachment as the Republican party is not risking political suicide for anything
less."
Other Objectives of "Russiagate"
No collusion means no impeachment and hence no anti-Trump "color revolution" of the sort
that was so effective in Georgia or the Ukraine. Moreover, while 53 percent of Americans
believe that investigating Russiagate should be a top or at least an important priority
according to a recent poll ,
figures for a half-dozen other issues ranging from Medicare and Social Security reform to tax
policy, healthcare, infrastructure, and immigration are actually a good deal higher – 67
percent, 72 percent, or even more.
Summed up Mudde: " the Russia-Trump collusion story might be the talk of the town in
Washington, but this is not the case in much of the rest of the country." Out in flyover
country, rather, Americans can't figure out why the political elite is more concerned with a
nonexistent scandal than with things that really count, i.e. de-industrialization,
infrastructure decay, the opioid epidemic, and school shootings. As society disintegrates, the
only thing Democrats have accomplished with all their blathering about Russkis under the bed is
to demonstrate just how cut off from the real world they are.
But Russiagate is not just about regime change, but other things as well. One is
repression. Where once Democrats would have laughed off Russian trolls and the like, they're
now obsessed with making a mountain out of a molehill in order to enforce mainstream opinion
and marginalize ideas and opinions suspected of being un-American and hence pro-Russian. If the
RT (Russia Today) news network is now suspect -- the Times
described it not long ago as "the slickly produced heart of a broad, often covert
disinformation campaign designed to sow doubt about democratic institutions and destabilize the
West" – then why not the BBC or Agence France-Presse? How long until foreign books are
banned or foreign musicians?
"I'm actually surprised I haven't been indicted," tweets Bloomberg columnist
Leonid Bershidsky. "I'm Russian, I was in the U.S. in 2016 and I published columns critical of
both Clinton and Trump w/o registering as a foreign agent." When the Times complains
that Facebook "still sees itself as the bank that got robbed, rather than the architect who
designed a bank with no safes, and no alarms or locks on the doors, and then acted surprised
when burglars struck," then it's clear that the goal is to force Facebook to rein in its
activities or stand by and watch as others do so instead.
Add to this the classic moral panic promoted by #MeToo – to believe charges of sexual
harassment and assault without first demanding evidence "is to disbelieve, and deny due process
to, the accused,"
notes Judith Levine in the Boston Review – and it's clear that a powerful wave of
cultural conservatism is crashing down on the United States, much of it originating in a
classic neoliberal-Hillaryite milieu. Formerly the liberal alternative, the Democratic Party is
now passing the Republicans on the right.
But Russiagate is about something else as well: war. As National Security Adviser H.R.
McMaster warns
that the "time is now" to act against Iran, the New York Times slams
Trump for not imposing sanctions on Moscow, and a spooky "Nuclear Posture Review"
suggests that the US might someday respond to a cyber attack with atomic weapons, it's
plain that Washington is itching for a showdown that will somehow undo the mistakes of the
previous administration. The more Trump drags his feet, the more Democrats conclude that a war
drive is the best way to bring him to his knees.
Thus, low-grade political interference is elevated into a casus belli while
Vladimir Putin is portrayed as a supernatural villain straight out of Harry Potter. But
where does it stop? Libya has been set back decades, Syria, the subject of yet another US
regime-change effort, has been all but destroyed, while Yemen – which America helps Saudi
Arabia bomb virtually around the clock – is now
a disaster area with some 9,000 people killed, 50,000 injured, a million-plus cholera
cases, and more than half of all hospitals and clinics destroyed.
The more Democrats pound the war drums, the more death and destruction will ensue. The
process is well underway in Syria, the victim of Israeli bombings and a US-Turkish invasion,
and it will undoubtedly spread as Dems turn up the heat. If the pathetic pseudo-scandal known
as Russiagate really is collapsing under its own weight, then it's not a moment too
soon.
Daniel Lazare is the author of several books including The Frozen Republic: How the
Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy (Harcourt Brace).
Zachary Smith , February 24, 2018 at 1:25 pm
First thing I checked before reading this was to check for instances of misuse of the term
"liberal". When I found none at all, the piece suddenly looked very promising. And it
was a fine essay!
A minor quibble was how at the end the author kept referring to how the "U.S" or
"Washington" were the forces for the regime changes or flat-out destruction of nations Israel
wants destroyed. The crappy little pesthole has been the barely-concealed mastermind of all
the "Wars For Israel" which have turned the US of A into a bankrupt laughingstock.
With that small objection on record, I will declare this was great.
Zachary, I wouldn't get too hung up on words like "liberal" which have been used and
abused to become almost meaningless but yes, "the Democratic Party is now passing the
Republicans on the right." Somehow I think they believe they can pick up enough "moderate"
Republicans in the midterms to make up for the "angry white males"(& intellectuals) they
lost in the last election the same losing strategy.
mike k , February 24, 2018 at 1:41 pm
As ludicrous as Russiagate became, it was no joke, and became a real amplifier of the
threat of nuclear war, and the relentlessly increasing militarization of America. Without the
enthusiastic help of the corporate media, the whole phony narrative would never have got off
the ground. Of course the criminals we call the intelligence community did all they could to
give it legs, as well. We can only pray that it fades away now, and is not replaced with
something else like a shooting war. But that hope is fading now on several fronts
Mark Thomason , February 24, 2018 at 1:41 pm
From its first moment, this was a Team Hillary exercise, decided on by her in the days
right after the election and promoted through her media contracts that had been an extension
of her campaign.
Why? At first they seemed to imagine it possible to reverse the election outcome.
Then it shifted to Trump hate. Why?
That was NOT to remove Trump, which was always a long shot and would only produce Pence
and angry motivated Trump voters in the next election.
The Trump derangement syndrome had a calculated purpose to keep donors giving after they
were outraged by the waste of their donations. They'd been acting like a donor-strike was in
progress. This cured that.
This fed off the Stages of Grief reactions of those who'd so confidently expected a
Hillary win. That helped do it, but was not the real motive. Those who initiated and shaped
it were more directed, and aimed at the money. That is why the more likely things to blame,
like Comey, were set aside in favor of the easy target of a foreign enemy which was familiar
from recent Cold War.
It was completely cynical, guided by the same greed that had produced the candidacy of
Hillary and run it the whole time, doing fund raising in friendly places instead of
campaigning in swing states.
JDQ , February 24, 2018 at 2:00 pm
..please do read this. It gives Liberals more a bashing than Conservatives
Joe Tedesky , February 24, 2018 at 2:40 pm
Having only as reference my own personal take on our news media the infamous MSM, is that
these journalistic bandits are only in the game of twisting the news for the ratings, and to
promote their own opportunistic careers. The corporate owned media has replaced responsible
reporting with salaisuus promotions of often tragic events in a way that tends to in my eyes
be a mere exploitation of these tragedies, as we viewers become glued to our TV screens.
This
is the way the MSM sell too many needless pharmaceutical products, and their drugs are
products, to insurance ad's and somehow make commercial space for the MIC defense
contractors. This is how the MSM makes real money, as they forfeited our learning of anything
worthwhile, as to pave the way for more exploitation of our country's struggles with
everything and anything, but all forfeited simply to make the MSM more money.
It goes without saying that we the American public aren't necessarily as fooled, and
tricked, as our masters would like to believe we are. So to explain away the Empire's
failings certain forces from within our nation's Beltway are hard at work trying to blame all
of their misgivings on another, and that another is Vladimir Putin and his American
engineered misunderstood Russians. For this reason our MSM hardly ever put the real Putin on
our television screens. No never, these American media producers always when describing
Putin, use a prop, or a slimy squinty eyed shirtless Russian stereotype instead. For our MSM
ever to air a speech of Putin, or do as Oliver Stone did, is beyond question, so don't wait
up kids to see ever steady Vladimir on our American TV sets because it just isn't going to
happen.
So now our MSM is exploiting the Florida mass shooting, and it is with their slants and
predisposed opinions where I lose faith in anything our media does. Even as terrible as this
Florida school shooting was, our MSM must politicize and adhere left right slants to this
story as in their daff journalistic heads this is what they must do. Like I said this is my
opinion taken from my own experiences, so take my comment for what it is, and not from any
references I happened upon.
That's a good question: why now. Where was all those immense power of NSA, CIA and FBI during election. Why that calmly
observed that Russian are destroying American democracy :-). Something is really fishy here.
Another interesting tidbit is connection of Mr. Mueller to 911 cover-up.
Yet another interesting tidbit is the story of the USA interference in the Russian election s of 2011-2012. As Caitlin
Johnstone observes the US's long history in meddling in other countries' elections is not "whataboutism," but rather a highly
germane point to understanding the context for the allegations of Russian meddling
Notable quotes:
"... f the purpose of all the warrantless spying -- in direct contravention of the Constitution, no less -- is to keep the country safe from foreign assault, whether by bombs in a subway or by guns in an office building or by hacking into computers, why didn't our 60,000 domestic, and God only knows how many foreign, spies catch this Russian interference? ..."
"... "the Russians ran unchecked through our computer systems and the American marketplaces of ideas." You see, kids, the First Amendment is no longer prophylactic, something to prevent government from violating your natural rights to speak, hear, and think. Instead, things such as what I'm doing right now are like food stamps, political privileges redeemable only at Uncle Sam's Club. ..."
"... Muller indicted foreigners knowing they could not be extradicted to stand trial in the US. These indictments are "guerrilla theater" designed to justify Mueller's investigation. ..."
"... Why are so few people laughing at the microminiature level of this so-called meddling? These guys were run-of-the-mill internet trolls, engaging people in idiotic quarrels like trolls everywhere do. ..."
"... Meanwhile, how many American military bases sit on foreign soil where our people with guns and jets meddle for a living? How many countries get our ridiculously misnamed "foreign aid" where we tax America's middle class to bribe foreigners' rich people to do our bidding? ..."
"... All of MSM is owned by one foreign entity with one anti-American agenda. They interfere in every election, hell they hand pick the candidates, make em sign a pledge/oath to the foreign nation. Will Mueller be going after any of these traitors? Why isn't Mueller in prison for 9/11 cover up Mr. Sessions? ..."
Why didn't the CIA or the NSA or the FBI pick this up?
That is the $64,000 question that the indictment does not address, and we may never know the
answer to it. If the purpose of all the warrantless spying -- in direct contravention of the
Constitution, no less -- is to keep the country safe from foreign assault, whether by bombs in
a subway or by guns in an office building or by hacking into computers, why didn't our 60,000
domestic, and God only knows how many foreign, spies catch this Russian interference?
One answer is information overload. By spying on everyone all the time, the spies have too
much data through which to sift, and they miss the evidence of coming terror -- just as they
did with the killings in Orlando, in San Bernardino, at the Boston Marathon, on a New York bike
path and even recently at a school in Florida, all of which were preceded by internet chatter
that would have tipped off a trained listener to the plans of the killers.
Well, shucks. No Russophobic dirk to look for this week in the folds of his robe -- Mr.
Napolitano is finally full on, swinging the Establishment sword at "the Kremlin" and "its
indicted spies." And he's doing it to scare the American people.
"It is a felony for foreign nationals to participate in American federal elections, and it
is a felony for any Americans knowingly to assist them." No citation of the statute(s), or of
the particular acts among all "Judge" has mentioned within the scope of the subject
indictment. He is endorsing the notion that, under the Constitution he pretends to cherish, a
non-US citizen and any American "assistant" can be criminally convicted for "phony web posts"
or "aggressively revealing embarrassing data about Clinton," i.e., publishing anything deemed
relevant to a federal election on the internet. If you suggested after Sunday School there in
Nebraska that your friend check out those documents at Wikileaks, then will Mr. Mueller come
for you? Well, that depends:
"The other reason for the indictment is to smoke out any American collaborators. He has
identified American collaborators, but not by proper name, and the Department of Justice has
said -- not in the indictment, in which case it would be bound by what it says, but in a
press statement, which binds no one -- that the American collaborators were unwitting dupes
of the Russians. My guess is that Mueller's American targets are under electronic and visual
surveillance and that he is listening to their (premature) sighs of relief."
So don't worry, Big Brother most likely still loves you, or at least won't send you to
your room. As long as you were only an "unwitting dupe," and have stopped playing with the
bad kids.
Until Mr. Mueller could get here on his white horse, "the Russians ran unchecked through
our computer systems and the American marketplaces of ideas." You see, kids, the First
Amendment is no longer prophylactic, something to prevent government from violating your
natural rights to speak, hear, and think. Instead, things such as what I'm doing right now
are like food stamps, political privileges redeemable only at Uncle Sam's Club.
I hope there's no gentlemen's agreement that precludes some of the other writers published
on this website from confronting Mr. Napolitano on this vile column.
Muller indicted foreigners knowing they could not be extradicted to stand trial in the US.
These indictments are "guerrilla theater" designed to justify Mueller's investigation.
What would Mueller do if Putin gets tough and: sends one Russian to the US; with say $100
million for his legal defense?
Or if Putin offers to try the Russians in Moscow, in a Russian court, with Mueller
prosecuting them?
Though an indictment is a charge only, it presumably relies on hard evidence of a wide
and deep Russian project -- so wide and so deep that it could only have been approved and
paid for by the Kremlin.
Why are so few people laughing at the microminiature level of this so-called meddling? These
guys were run-of-the-mill internet trolls, engaging people in idiotic quarrels like trolls everywhere do.
Meanwhile, how many American military bases sit on foreign soil where our people with guns
and jets meddle for a living? How many countries get our ridiculously misnamed "foreign aid"
where we tax America's middle class to bribe foreigners' rich people to do our bidding?
To call this flapdoodle about Russian net trolling a joke is far too kind.
All of MSM is owned by one foreign entity with one anti-American agenda. They interfere in
every election, hell they hand pick the candidates, make em sign a pledge/oath to the foreign
nation.
Will Mueller be going after any of these traitors?
Why isn't Mueller in prison for 9/11 cover up Mr. Sessions?
We all know it wasn't Muslims caught celebrating the attack, or busted with explosives inside
of a van leaving New York. Why act like it isn't common knowledge, you're making the FBI look
pretty stoopid Mr. Mueller .look even Faux News messed up and reported it
"... Rachel Maddow feeds the left's appetite for bot conspiracy nonsense. But in 2013, MSNBC personalities, including Maddow, were being promoted by Chinese bots. Does that mean Maddow is a Chinese spy? Bots are ads that pretend to be people. Tracking how they're deployed can be interesting, but it's dangerous to read too much into that. ..."
"... The bot paranoia is being used to delegitimize real stories and candidates. If you can connect bots to a point of view you don't like, then no one really believes it. Link it to a candidate you don't like and he was never really elected. Hook it up to a serial predator in the Senate and you can ignore his victims. ..."
"... But if you believe that, then MSNBC must be a Chinese informational warfare operations. ..."
"... Mad Cow disease. ..."
"... Give me a fucking break, they think bots are going to swing big things. Bots are not very advanced, only annoying. They cannot craft intelligent or persuasive arguments. Yet the establishment is freaking out about them. It goes to show how far down the drain things stand if such lowly, unpersuasive, spamming shittery is deemed a threat to the narrative. ..."
"... That's what democracy is all about - steering the public discourse and manipulating the lowest common denominator, which isn't that hard to do if you own big media. The challenge is in deprogramming all the lies and deceptions, which takes effort initially, after which it just becomes a never ending tragicomic episode. ..."
"... Who the fuck needs bots in North America, U.K. and EU when you have bull dyke's like Rachel "Mad Cow" that still have viewers that actually listen to "him" ..."
The Internet Research Agency indictment accuses a troll bot farm of trying to influence the election in what the media claims
is the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. 9/11 need not apply.
Bots are everywhere.
"Bots Are Trying to Help Populists Win Italy's Election," claims Bloomberg. "Russian Bots Are Using 2016 Tactics to Hijack the
Gun Debate," shrieks Vanity Fair. ABC spins that bots are trying to make Black Panther look bad. "Rampaging Twitter 'bots' bred in
Suffolk farmhouse," the London Times asserts.
This media madness might make you think that bots are some sort of new and advanced technology. But you can see them in the comments
and they've been around forever. Automated programs that log into social media accounts are not a new technology. Internet users
of a bygone era remember seeing them in chat rooms and on bulletin boards without ever rampaging around Suffolk farmhouses.
Bots have become a convenient media scapegoat. The new formula is "Bots + Thing We Disagree With = Proof We're Right". That's
why there are stories claiming that Russian bots are tweeting against gun control or Islamic migration. And it explains the "Russian
Bots Rigged the Election for Trump" meme.
Bots are an informational technique. Media spin reverse engineers the technique to discredit the idea. Not only is that a fallacy,
but bots just piggyback on popular trends to gain influence. Russian bots don't tweet about gun control because they care about guns,
but because they get retweeted. The same was true of the bots promoting Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. There are a million brands
doing the same thing with bots and influencers. But that's okay because they push politically correct messages.
And that's the bot double standard. When Russian bots and trolls push Black Lives Matter, Bernie Sanders or Dakota Access Pipeline
protests, their programmed actions don't reflect on leftist causes, organizations and politicians. But the revelation that Russian
bots and trolls tweeted about the Bill of Rights, Islamic migration or Trump is spun by the media into a conspiracy that indicts
the ideas and discredits the previous election.
The latest example of the Big Bot Conspiracy is a bizarre Newsweek article by Nina Burleigh blaming Senator Franken's problems
on bots. Some might have thought that Franken had been forced to resign for groping women across America. But according to Burleigh,
it was the fault of the Japanese bots.
The feminist activist was already infamous for putting her allegiance to Democrats ahead of sisterhood.
"I would be happy to give him a b_____ just to thank him for keeping abortion legal," Nina Burleigh had said of Bill Clinton.
"I think American women should be lining up with their Presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude." Now Burleigh has brought
her kneepads to the raided offices of Newsweek.
Nina Burleigh's article blames Franken's problems on "fake news sites, an army of Twitter bots and other cyber tricks". The Democrat
Senator's original accuser is dismissed as a "Hooters pinup girl and lad-mag model". So there was either nothing wrong with groping
her or no reason to believe her.
That's what leftists denounce as 'slut-shaming', but, as with Bill Clinton, it's okay when Democrats do it.
Burleigh mentions the "release of a picture of a Tweeden and Franken" (editors are one of the casualties of Newsweek's troubles),
but neglects to mention that it's a picture of Franken groping Tweeden. None of the other many accusers rate a mention from this
feminist Franken activist.
There was the feminist choir member and book editor who accused Franken of groping her at the Women's Political Caucus. It's really
hard to write her off as a "right-wing plant" or a "lad-mag model".
Especially since she then voted for Senator Franken.
Another accuser was groped at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and claimed that Franken wanted to join her in the bathroom.
Nina Burleigh would have probably told her to go along and bring her senatorial kneepads in gratitude for his support of Planned
Parenthood.
A Democrat congressional aide remembers Franken trying to give her an open mouth kiss while he was still a radio host with Air
America. "It's my right as an entertainer," she recalls Franken telling her.
An Army vet on a USO tour described being groped by Franken during the Iraq War. "When he put his arm around me, he groped my
right breast. He kept his hand all the way over on my breast."
Jezebel, a hard left feminist site, offered an account from a liberal "former elected official in New England" who remembers Franken
trying to plant a "wet, open-mouthed kiss" on her, on stage.
Instead of addressing the many accounts of Franken's liberal accusers who supported him and, many of whom indicated they didn't
want him to quit, Burleigh, like most Frankentruthers from Tom Arnold to Richard Silverstein, smears Leeann Tweeden while ignoring
Franken's numerous other accusers.
After silencing the women who came out against Franken, Nina Burleigh surreally claims that the Franken accusations had served
to "silence the testimonies of eight former female staffers who defended the Minnesota Democrat".
Presenting testimonies from the few women you didn't grope is not considered a compelling argument.
But instead of talking about any of this, Burleigh talks about bots. A "bot army" made the Franken accusations go viral. And then
there was "a developer named Atsufumi Otsuka" who "registered a web domain in Japan" that hosted "Japanese-registered fake-news sites".
But, "by November 17, the trending of 'Al Franken' was officially also a Russian intelligence operation."
The Japanese and the Russians had teamed up against the Minnesota groper. This wasn't just worse than Pearl Harbor. It was WW2
and the Cold War combined in one hashtag.
"Researchers have found that each bot account had 30 to 60 followers, all Japanese. The first follower for each account was either
Japanese or Russian," Burleigh breathlessly relates.
Now that the Russian and Japanese bots had teamed up, all hope for humanity was lost.
Burleigh's article has more international locations than a Tom Clancy novel. It also completely ignores the question of whether
Franken groped his victims to discuss the bots who tweeted about it.
That's not accidental. Burleigh doesn't want to talk about whether Franken is guilty; she wants to write a progressive thriller
in which international bots caused the problem by talking about it. And if it can be shown that bots amplified a scandal, then the
facts somehow no longer matter. In the same way that if it can be shown that bots amplified Trump's message, the 2016 election results
were illegitimate.
But shooting the messenger bot doesn't tell us anything the truth of the inconvenient message.
Since the election, these types of articles are everywhere. They rely on the work of "researchers" who are usually partisan activists,
often amateurs with no actual technical training, to spread conspiracy theories. These conspiracy theories confuse correlation and
causation. If a foreign bot retweets Trump, he works for the bot's masters. If a bot tweets any conservative story, it's a right-wing
global bot plot.
Anyone who knows anything about how the internet works knows that this is nonsense.
Bots imitate to amplify. In this comments section, a bot will show up sooner or later, it will copy a comment that someone else
made and post it in order to get likes so that it resembles a real account. For every stupid bot telling you how much it makes by
working online, there's a smarter bot leaving legitimate comments to blend in. And so bots tweet, comment and chat about everything
popular.
If there's a trending topic, the bots will quickly show up. And everyone uses them.
Rachel Maddow feeds the left's appetite for bot conspiracy nonsense. But in 2013, MSNBC personalities, including Maddow, were
being promoted by Chinese bots. Does that mean Maddow is a Chinese spy? Bots are ads that pretend to be people. Tracking how they're
deployed can be interesting, but it's dangerous to read too much into that.
Correlating bots with narratives isn't actually causation.
The bot paranoia is being used to delegitimize real stories and candidates. If you can connect bots to a point of view you
don't like, then no one really believes it. Link it to a candidate you don't like and he was never really elected. Hook it up to
a serial predator in the Senate and you can ignore his victims.
But if you believe that, then MSNBC must be a Chinese informational warfare operations.
Give me a fucking break, they think bots are going to swing big things. Bots are not very advanced, only annoying. They
cannot craft intelligent or persuasive arguments. Yet the establishment is freaking out about them. It goes to show how far down
the drain things stand if such lowly, unpersuasive, spamming shittery is deemed a threat to the narrative.
Yeah, I can't imagine reading CNN balls deep or other garbage groupthink mouthpieces that apparently alot of zombies take as
gospel. I go to CNN only to dip my feet in the water and see how fucking stupid its all becoming. Other than that, its a brain
killer.
That's what democracy is all about - steering the public discourse and manipulating the lowest common denominator, which isn't
that hard to do if you own big media. The challenge is in deprogramming all the lies and deceptions, which takes effort initially,
after which it just becomes a never ending tragicomic episode.
Who the fuck needs bots in North America, U.K. and EU when you have bull dyke's like Rachel "Mad Cow" that still have viewers
that actually listen to "him"?!!!
The "Russian troll" farm was a marketing/spam business.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange weighed in on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's "13 Russian troll" indictment noting that the
Russians bots from The Internet Research Agency, spent thousands of dollars on Facebook ads to grow their audiences something
that is very common and encouraged by Facebook.
Mueller "troll farm" indictment today
– explicitly states no collusion
– does not mention WikiLeaks
– states trolls intent to support Trump & Sanders, oppose Clinton, Cruz
– states trolls intent on anti-Trump AND pro-Trump rallies post electionhttps://t.co/uMxBAwOeOY
The Russian ads mentioned in Mueller's indictment were already released by the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017.
Facebook previously announced the Russian ads comprised .004% of their advertising during the election.
Assange tweeted all this out on Friday, but of course the mainstream media failed to note any of this while reporting its propaganda
to those who naively listen and believe in the nonsense (courtesy
The Gateway Pundit)
Buried in the Mueller astro-turfing indictment is something that we have long suspected. The Internet Research
Agency's "troll farm" is geared to develop audience in socially active communities (e.g through aligned memes), in order to spam
them on behalf of anyone willing to pay: pic.twitter.com/sms0YAKB3j
Julian Assange: Buried in the Mueller astro-turfing indictment is something that we have long suspected. The
Internet Research Agency's "troll farm" is geared to develop audience in socially active communities (e.g through aligned memes),
in order to spam them on behalf of anyone willing to pay.
Before advertising networks can advertise they must build audience. How much of IRA's activities were simply
trying to build audience by gaining followers using tweets and memes likely to be shared in those communities?
Julian Assange: Before advertising networks can advertise they must build audience. How much of IRA's activities
were simply trying to build audience by gaining followers using tweets and memes likely to be shared in those communities?
IRA allegedly also ran kitten appreciation groups. Are we also to believe that these kittens were also
a plot to divide America? To not distinguish between audience building and customer advertising payload is sketchy.
Julian Assange: IRA allegedly also ran kitten appreciation groups. Are we also to believe that these kittens
were also a plot to divide America? To not distinguish between audience building and customer advertising payload is sketchy.
The US has 320 million people with a trillion dollar media and cultural sector that employees over a million
people. I do not assess that it is possible whatsoever to divide America by trying to "heighten the differences" with a hundred
trolls.
Julian Assange: The US has 320 million people with a trillion dollar media and cultural sector that employees
over a million people. I do not assess that it is possible whatsoever to divide America by trying to "heighten the differences" with
a hundred trolls.
Re-enforcing audience bias is exactly what Facebook & Google have been doing at a vast scale by algorithmically
preying on people's existing biases to increase engagement. In a more traditional manner, FOX, MSNBC, CNN, NYTimes, WaPO etc,
are doing the same thing.
Julian Assange: Re-enforcing audience bias is exactly what Facebook & Google have been doing at a vast scale
by algorithmically preying on people's existing biases to increase engagement. In a more traditional manner, FOX, MSNBC, CNN, NYTimes,
WaPO etc, are doing the same thing.
Regardless of whether IRA's activities were audience building through pandering to communities or whether
a hare-brained Russian government plan to "heighten the differences" existed, its activities are clearly strategically insignificant
compared to the other forces at play.
Julian Assange: Regardless of whether IRA's activities were audience building through pandering to communities
or whether a hare-brained Russian government plan to "heighten the differences" existed, its activities are clearly strategically
insignificant compared to the other forces at play.
Jimmy Dore did catch on to Assange's explanation as to what exactly was happening at IRA's HQ in St, Petersburg, which
can be summed up as just another social media spam business, which had the misfortune of operating in Russia at a time when
American swamp creatures are trying to find any scintilla of evidence to demonize Russia, and drag on a falling apart "Trump-Russia"
collusion investigation.
"... The bipartisan support Mueller's appointment received is even more telling given that he is the definition of a Washington insider. The power elites across the political spectrum seemed to trust him to, above all, protect their position at the head of the table. ..."
"... McAdams noted that the indictment was especially helpful to the " entire political class in Washington, " which may now " continue with its Cold War 2.0 project " without interference from anyone in favor of normalizing U.S.-Russian relations. In addition, McAdams warned that the recent indictment is likely to have a " chilling effect on the First Amendment, " also a boon to those elements of the political elite that seek to limit the acceptable range of debate on U.S. foreign policy. ..."
The bipartisan
support Mueller's appointment received is even more telling given that he is the definition of
a Washington insider. The power elites across the political spectrum seemed to trust him to,
above all, protect their position at the head of the table.
Part 1
Last Friday, depending on which side of the partisan divide one was watching from, President
Trump was either vindicated or his treachery was confirmed. The impetus for these seemingly
disparate reactions was Robert Mueller's indictment against 13 Russian nationals, the latest
and largest indictment to result from his investigation into alleged collusion between the
Trump campaign and the Russian government.
However, over the nine months that Mueller's investigation has been active, it has continuously
grown from its original purpose of investigating Russian collusion, expanding to include the
business dealings of Trump and his inner circle with countries ranging from Qatar to China,
meaning that the probe is no longer expressly about Russian collusion.
The drift of focus from its original purpose -- as well as its failure to produce any
connection between the Trump campaign, the Russian government, and the leaks of DNC and John
Podesta's emails -- has led critics who place themselves outside of the left-right paradigm to
treat this latest indictment with skepticism. Not only that, but concerns have been raised that
the real purpose of Mueller's probe is much more subtle and nefarious than publicly admitted
and that it may itself be a threat to American democracy.
One such critic is Daniel McAdams, political analyst and executive director of the Ron Paul
Institute for Peace and Prosperity. McAdams, in an interview with MintPress News, stated that
the Mueller indictment " has something for everybody, " explaining the strikingly
different reactions from the establishment left and right.
However, McAdams noted that the indictment was especially helpful to the " entire political
class in Washington, " which may now " continue with its Cold War 2.0 project "
without interference from anyone in favor of normalizing U.S.-Russian relations. In addition,
McAdams warned that the recent indictment is likely to have a " chilling effect on the First
Amendment, " also a boon to those elements of the political elite that seek to limit the
acceptable range of debate on U.S. foreign policy.
Like every single hotly publicized Russiagate "bombshell" that has broken since this
nonsense began, Mueller's indictment of 13 Russian social media trolls was paraded around as
proof of something hugely significant (
an "act of war" in this case), but on closer examination turns out to be empty. The always
excellent 'Moon of Alabama' recently
made a solid argument that has also been advanced by Russiagate skeptics like TYT's
Michael
Tracey and Max Blumenthal of The Real
News, pointing out that there is in fact no evidence that the troll farming operation was an
attempt to manipulate the US election, nor indeed that it had any ties to the Russian
government at all, nor indeed that it was anything other than a crafty Russian civilian's money
making scheme.
The notion that a few Russian trolls committed a "conspiracy to defraud the United States"
by "sowing discord" with a bunch of wildly contradictory posts endorsing all different
ideologies sounds completely ridiculous in a country whose mainstream media spends all its time
actively creating political division anyway, but when you look at it as a civilian operation to
attract social media followers to sock puppet accounts with the goal of selling promoted posts
for profit, it makes perfect sense. James Corbett of The Corbett Report has a great
video about how absolutely bizarre it is that public dialogue is ignoring the fact that
these trolls overwhelmingly used mainstream media like the Washington Post in their shares
instead of outlets like RT and Infowars. As a scheme to acquire followers, it makes perfect
sense. As a scheme to subvert America, it's nonsensical.
There is currently no evidence that the Russian government interfered in the US election.
But it is worth pointing out that if they did they had every right to.
"Whataboutism" is the word of the day . At some
point it was decreed by the internet forum gods that adding "-ism" to a description of
something that someone is doing makes for a devastating argument in and of itself, and people
have hastened to use this tactic as a bludgeon to silence anyone who points out the extremely
obvious and significant fact that America interferes in elections more than any other
government on earth.
"Okay, so America isn't perfect and we've meddled a few times," the argument goes. "So what?
You're saying just because we've done it that makes it okay for Russia to do it?"
Actually, yes. Of course it does. Clearly. That isn't a "whataboutism", it's an observation
that is completely devastating to the mainstream Russia narrative. If it's okay for the CIA to
continuously interfere in the elections of other countries up to and including modern times, it
is okay for other countries to interfere in theirs. Only in the most warped American
supremacist reality tunnel is that not abundantly obvious.
It amazes me that more people aren't willing to call this like it is. No, it would not be
wrong for Russia to interfere in America's elections. Yes, what America did to Russia
absolutely would make a proportionate retaliation okay. Of course it would.
Imagine this:
A guy in a cowboy hat runs into a bar and starts punching people. Most of them just rub
their sore jaws and hunch over their drinks hoping to avoid any trouble, but one guy in a fur
cap sets down his vodka and shoves the man in the cowboy hat.
The man in the cowboy hat begins shrieking like a little girl. All his friends rush to his
side to comfort him and begin angrily shaking their fists at the man in the fur cap.
"Hey, he punched me!" says the man in the fur cap.
"That's a whataboutism!" sobs the man in the cowboy hat.
Can you imagine anything more ridiculous?
Seriously, how do people think this is a thing? How does anyone think it's legitimate to
respond to
my article about a former CIA Director openly admitting that the US still to this day
interferes with elections around the world babbling about "whataboutisms" ?
What a doofy, indefensible monkey wrench to throw into the gears of political discourse.
Yes, obviously by asserting that it is acceptable for the CIA to meddle in other countries'
elections, the US has created an environment where that sort of thing is acceptable. If
Americans just want to embrace their American supremacist bigotry and say "Yeah we can do that
to you but you can't do it to us cuz we have big guns and we said so," that's at least a
logically consistent position. Crying like little bitches and behaving as though they've been
victimized by some egregious immorality is not.
Channel 4 News reported on the research of the Institute for Politics and Strategy at
Carnegie Mellon University's Don Levin back in November, writing the following:
Dov Levin, an academic from the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon
University, has calculated the vast scale of election interventions by both the US and
Russia.
According to his research
, there were 117 "partisan electoral interventions" between 1946 and 2000. That's around one
of every nine competitive elections held since Second World War.
The majority of these – almost 70 per cent – were cases of US interference.
And these are not all from the Cold War era; 21 such interventions took place between 1990
and 2000, of which 18 were by the US.
If Americans don't like election meddling, they need to demand that their government stops
doing it. As long as it remains the very worst offender in that department, the US is entitled
to nothing other than the entire world meddling in its elections.
I shouldn't even have to say this. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Don't
dish it out if you can't take it.
This is a very weak argumentation which is based of very questionable sources (such as Fontanka rag).
Notable quotes:
"... For the evidence Mueller has revealed of incompetence in the Russian campaign, the waste of money expended, and the failure of the campaign's objectives, there are calls in Moscow for Peskov to be sacked. ..."
"... The Christopher Steele dossier accused Peskov of arranging negative media against Hillary Clinton during 2016; for an analysis of the veracity of that claim, read this . For a painstaking analysis of how the Mueller indictment discredits the Steele dossier, read Alexander Mercouris's account . ..."
Feb 18, 2018
The three types of power which decide the fate of regimes are force, fraud and subversion; that's to say, arms, money, media.
The Roman Empire was good at using small armies to take on much bigger ones; by adeptly concentrating their force they managed
to rule much larger large territories than the legions could cover.
The Byzantine Empire excelled at using bribery of locals to stay loyal; the pre-requisite for that was the intelligence to identify
who to pay, how much, and how often. The British Empire used subversion to divide and rule most of their colonial targets, but if
the British were matched for firepower and intelligence, they failed and were defeated – by the American colonists, the Maoris, the
Boers, the Germans, the Japanese.
The American Empire excels
at subversion on the home front. But abroad it usually combines fraud with subversion. When these two fail to preserve or topple
regimes, US-made wars have been a consistent failure. The Russians are better than Americans at force and fraud. Schemes of subversion
like the US plots to promote Boris Yeltsin, Anatoly Chubais, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Alexei Navalny to rule the Kremlin, are not
winners with Russians; they are judged successful only by foreigners who read the Washington Post and London Times.
The Kremlin official responsible for Russian media involvement in the US presidential election of 2016 was Dmitry Peskov (2nd
image, left); he doubles as spokesman for President Vladimir Putin. For Peskov's intention to employ social media he has not been
indicted nor identified as a co-conspirator by Special Prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III ( right). For the evidence Mueller has
revealed of incompetence in the Russian campaign, the waste of money expended, and the failure of the campaign's objectives, there
are calls in Moscow for Peskov to be sacked.
He has so far avoided responding. "We have not yet familiarized ourselves [with the Mueller indictment], " he told Reuters.
The 37-page indictment, dated February 16 and signed personally by Mueller, can be read in full
here .
Mueller's indictment reveals how much evidence was gathered from the internet server companies and social media platforms, Facebook,
YouTube-Google, Twitter and Instagram, together with their banks and the PayPal payment service. But this is circumstantial evidence;
the corpus delicti is absent.
Missing from the charge sheet is identification of the victims of the crime alleged, the numbers of victims, and the money spent
to subvert or defraud them, as Mueller charges. The indictment alleges that "significant numbers of Americans" were targeted, "significant
funds spent", and "thousands of US dollars [paid for advertising] every month"; but no evidence is presented of these numbers. No
witness has come forward to testify to having suffered; no alleged perpetrator or conspirator to substantiate criminal intention.
Also, these aren't the crimes formally charged against the accused Russians.
THE FIVE-CHARGE ALLEGATION, BUT ONLY TWO CRIMINAL COUNTS CHARGED
In short, the Russians are accused of violating the US law on registering as foreign agents, as well as the crimes of stealing
identity data from real Americans and fabricating false identities to open and operate US bank accounts, credit cards and the PayPal
system. Although "interfer[ence] in US political and electoral processes" is alleged, it's an orphan -- no such crime is charged
in the indictment.
Another orphan is the charge of obtaining visas "through false and fraudulent statements" and "false pretenses in order to collect
intelligence for their interference operations". Mueller alleges this offence was committed in 2014, when three of the thirteen Russians
named in the indictment visited the US briefly. However, the "intelligence" they are alleged to have gathered at the time wasn't
used, according to the indictment, until two years later. What this "intelligence" by "false pretenses" might have been isn't provided
in the evidence because Muller and his grand jury don't charge anyone with visa fraud.
Fourteen weeks before last Friday's indictment, executives of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google testified in open congressional
hearings on the same set of allegations as Mueller
presented
to his grand jury behind closed doors.
The media company witnesses started by identifying very small numbers of accounts, advertising messages, reader clicks, and bots
(automated relayed messages). Subsequently, these numbers have been multiplied in US media commentaries by estimates of audience
reach, although reach is not a measure of actual
exposure. Still, compared with the aggregate volumes of internet traffic associated with the presidential election but unconnected
to Russian sources, the numbers for Russian-source material amounted to minuscule fractions of one percent. The media companies weren't
asked for, and volunteered no report of how much money they had received from their Russian content
sources .
In his indictment Mueller provided less precision than the rules of evidence and the defendants' rights require under the US Constitution;
Mueller is not expecting to try the thirteen named defendants in a court of law. In one example of an "overt act" of the alleged
Russian crime (Par. 71), Facebook is reported as publishing an advertisement on August 4, 2016, for a "Florida Goes Trump" rally.
Facebook charged the Russians for audience reach of 53,000, according to Mueller. But only 8,300 clicked on the ad (14%). Although
the allegation is that this audience was then "routed to the ORGANIZATION's 'Being Patriotic' page", Mueller withholds his count
of how many – more likely, how few readers followed the route. The Russians were still paying to advertise the same rally on Instagram
two weeks later, on August 16, but no evidence is presented by Mueller that it happened at all. No route, no rally, no American victims,
no evidence of Russian intention to commit a crime of election interference.
Four bank accounts have been identified at six banks "in order to receive and send money into and out [sic] of the United States
to support the ORGANIZATION's operations in the United States and for self-enrichment". These banks, as well as the US dollar-clearing
banks in New York, have provided Mueller with details of the originating banks for the transactions. The indictment identifies fourteen
Russian company names as holding these bank accounts. The Russian company names are mentioned in evidence, but not the originating
banks. If they were Russian state banks under US and European Union sanctions since 2014 (Gazprombank, for example), Mueller's indictment
doesn't say so; noone has intimated that the Russian money was anything but lawfully earned and then legally transferred from source.
Details of fake or stolen names, driver's licences or social security numbers have been reported by Mueller to substantiate the
count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. But this was a fraud with a twist. No sum of money is identified in the
evidence as having been taken from an unwitting victim; all of it, however much or little, was sent to the US bank accounts from
the alleged Russian conspirators and their companies, and spent on social media placements. As for enrichment – again, no sum reported
in the indictment – this appears to have been earned by the US media companies and the US banks. Lawfully, according to Mueller.
The only losers were the Russians, but the accused haven't been complaining of not getting their money's worth.
The criminal counts set out in the indictment turn out to be crimes without victims – that's to say, no American victim, according
to the charge sheet.
Mueller's indictment is precise about the names of the Russian companies established by the principal defendant Yevgeny Prigozhin,
allegedly "for operations to interfere with elections and political processes". Mueller also claims that the only link he could find
to the Russian government was the official registration of the "ORGANIZATION [Internet Research Agency] as a Russian corporate entity"
"in or around July 2013." Although the allegation is that Prigozhin's organization had an "annual budget [of] the equivalent of millions
of US dollars", there is no evidence, nor even an allegation that this money came from a Russian government source. Instead, other
companies operated by Prigozhin are reported to have had "various Russian government contracts".
Prigozhin's parent company called Concord is alleged to have funded "the ORGANIZATION as part of a larger CONCORD-funded interference
operation it referred to as 'Project Lakhta'."
... ... ...
Mueller noted in passing that Project Lakhta wasn't targeted only in the US. The indictment alleges that by September 2016 it
was working on a budget exceeding Rb73 million ($1.25 million) per month, with bonus payments to its Russian employees of Rb1 million
(1.4%). The money was being spent, according to Mueller, on "multiple components, some involving domestic audiences within the Russian
Federation, and others targeting foreign audiences in various countries, including the United States".
This is another clue to Prigozhin's real line of business, and the reason for the multiplicity of company names and functional
departments through which he operated; and for an employment roll Mueller counted as "more than eighty" in Project Lakta alone. Russian
sources believe Prigozhin's organization has contracted for domestic Russian operations paid for by Russian corporations and local
politicians. Some of the operations are believed to be conventional positive advertising of events, products, campaigns, and ideas.
Some reportedly involve the circulation of kompromat against business and election rivals; some to defend against botnet and denial
of service attacks on corporate websites and communication systems; some to attack the websites of business adversaries or investigative
journalists, Russia-based or Russia-related.
Investigations by Russian media and government regulators have been reporting for some time allegations that Prigozhin has been
diverting money from state procurement contracts for himself, and for clandestine purposes approved by state officials and state
company executives. For a sample of the details, start in 2014 with the St. Petersburg website Fontanka's investigation of Mikhail
Bystrov and Mikhail Burchik, the second and third defendants in the Mueller indictment.
Fontanka said it had uncovered evidence that paying clients
of the Prigozhin, Bystrov and Burchik organization included a youth group of the Russian Orthodox Church, the St. Petersburg municipal
authorities, and a Gazprom media promotion company. The payroll of the organization was reported in mid-2014 to be Rb180,000 per
month (about $5,500).
In December 2016 Prigozhin was listed on the US Treasury's sanctions list, the evidence for which appears to have been cribbed
from Fontanka and other Russian press
reports . Prigozhin was accused
of,
"having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in
support of, senior officials of the Russian Federation. Prigozhin has extensive business dealings with the Russian Federation
Ministry of Defense, and a company with significant ties to him holds a contract to build a military base near the Russian Federation
border with Ukraine. Russia has been building additional military bases near the Ukrainian border and has used these bases as
staging points for deploying soldiers into Ukraine."
Mueller's indictment fails to mention this Treasury charge or its Russian media sources. Mueller claims the reason for the multitude
of Russian corporate names used by Prigozhin in Project Lakhta was to "obscure its conduct" and conceal the Russian source of funds
from the US media and US regulators. For much longer, however, Russian investigators have been reporting that Prigozhin has created
corporate chains of this type to conceal personal enrichment schemes from Russian regulators and commercial competitors.
Prigozhin has replied publicly to the US prosecutor's charges, not to the Russian ones. "The Americans are very impressionable
people; they see what they want to see," he is quoted by a state news agency as saying last Friday. "I have a lot of respect for
them. I am not upset at all that I ended up on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him."
Russian sources believe Prigozhin's Project Lakhta was ordered by someone in a position to exercise a call on Prigozhin's cashflow.
They exclude Russian officials on the Kremlin Security Council -- Sergei Ivanov, Sergei Lavrov, Sergei Shoigu, Anton Vaino, Nikolai
Patrushev, Sergei Naryshkin – and dismiss the possibility that Project Lakhta had either President Putin's or Russian intelligence
service support.
The suspicion of Russian sources is that the American campaign element in Project Lakhta was "so hare-brained there is only one
official who could have considered Prigozhin's project worth the money and the attempt – Dmitry Peskov". Peskov is officially titled
Deputy Chief of the Presidential Executive Office and Presidential Press Secretary. From the Kremlin he
supervises
the budgets for the state television broadcaster RT, the state news agency Sputnik, and special US-targeted propaganda programmes,
such as the Valdai Discussion Club for academics and the Oliver Stone films.
The Christopher Steele dossier accused Peskov of arranging negative media against Hillary Clinton during 2016; for an analysis
of the veracity of that claim, read
this . For a painstaking analysis of how the Mueller indictment discredits the Steele dossier, read Alexander Mercouris's
account .
Russian experts charge that the Russian targeting of Americans through social media, as described by Mueller, was a colossal mistake
because the US audience for social media was young and overwhelmingly committed to Clinton. Between their intention to vote and the
vote they cast, the social media made next to no difference.
... ... ...
Brookings , the Washington think-tank most supportive of Clinton, reached the conclusion that her defeat was caused by "blowback"
among older voters. In other words, Clinton's defeat, Trump's victory came from voting by older Americans. They were not the ones
targeted by the Russian social media campaign; they didn't see the advertisements and tweets the Mueller indictment is now reporting
as a criminal conspiracy to "defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful functions of the government."
Official Russian reaction to the indictment has been to ridicule the election interference allegation but avoid addressing the
foreign registration and false identity charges. "Thirteen people interfered in the US elections?!"
responded the Foreign Ministry
spokesman Maria Zakharova.
"13 against an intelligence services budget of billions? Against intelligence and counterintelligence, against the latest developments
and technologies? Absurd? Yes."
Her minister Sergei Lavrov
claimed
: "unless we see the facts, all the rest will be just twaddle, I am sorry for my not so diplomatic expression."
The unofficial Russian reaction towards Prigozhin's activities in the US is more quizzical, and under the American pressure, more
private. It acknowledges that Prigozhin is a commercial operator, and for every outlay he has a paying client. Who that client was
for Project Lakhta is the object of speculation so far unreported in the Russian press.
To Russian lawyers the facts presented in the Mueller indictment suggest the big crime in the affair may have been a Russian one.
If Mueller's small numbers are correct, then Prigozhin may have spent much less money, and to lesser effect and purpose than he had
led his client to believe and pay for. If there's a difference between what Prigozhin was paid and what the Mueller indictment suggests
he spent, Prigozhin may have a case for fraud to answer to Russian prosecutors – and his client, the charge of abuse of authority.
"If the US prosecutor makes it a crime for a Russian to pretend to be an American," commented a Moscow lawyer, "will the [Russian]
General Prosecutor investigate Prigozhin for the crime of spending such money with the pretence of having brains?"
"... Since the end of the first Cold War and the collapse of the USSR the US has treated Russia with overbearing contempt and hostility. The Russians appealed to the US to be allowed a more open role in European affairs. The response was to drive the borders of NATO far to the east, to the borders of what is but a rump of the Russian Empire before WW1. ..."
Since the end of the first Cold War and the collapse of the USSR the US has treated
Russia with overbearing contempt and hostility. The Russians appealed to the US to be allowed
a more open role in European affairs. The response was to drive the borders of NATO far to
the east, to the borders of what is but a rump of the Russian Empire before WW1.
The Russian response is to use what they see as a legitimate instrument of statecraft against
us. This instrument seeks the weakening of enemies through exploitation of their own defects.
Our response to this is to adopt a high handed attitude that speaks volumes about us. We
admit that we do the same things to others even as we claim an absolute right to do this
because we are the future of humanity, the dwellers in the "city on the hill."...
At the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lang was the Defense Intelligence Officer (DIO) for
the Middle East, South Asia and counter-terrorism, and later, the first Director of the
Defense Humint Service. At the DIA, he was a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service.
He participated in the drafting of National Intelligence Estimates. From 1992 to 1994, all
the U.S. military attachés worldwide reported to him. During that period, he also
briefed President George H. W. Bush at the White House, as he had during Operation Desert
Storm.
He was also the head of intelligence analysis for the Middle East for seven or eight years
at that institution. He was the head of all the Middle East and South Asia analysis in DIA
for counter-terrorism for seven years. For his service in the DIA, Lang received the
Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive. -- Wikipedia
"... I don't care about USA hypocrisy, I care about the stupidity of thinking that elections are somehow tainted for no other reason than that spurious points of view were expressed by somebody somewhere. ..."
"... Looking at the lefty dupes who actually fell for this trolling, I surmise that (1) the disinformation only confirmed the choices they already made, and (2) the stupidity of those sky-screaming dupes will never be good for success of a democracy, whether they are trolled or not. ..."
I don't care about USA hypocrisy, I care about the stupidity of thinking that
elections are somehow tainted for no other reason than that spurious points of view were
expressed by somebody somewhere.
Act of war? Dangerous balderdash! Most of the information available to voters is
always a mish-mash of lies, myth and spin. It's the voters' responsibility, as in
all areas of life, to assess incoming info with skepticism and individual research. You can
not hold an election if you insist on invalidating it afterwards whenever a lie is
discovered in the petabytes of hype that support it.
Looking at the lefty dupes who actually fell for this trolling, I surmise that (1)
the disinformation only confirmed the choices they already made, and (2) the stupidity of
those sky-screaming dupes will never be good for success of a democracy, whether they are
trolled or not.
Looks like securityboulevard.com
is peddling disinformation. But like in all such cases you never know... Colonel Lang is a very
respectable blogger and if he quoted this garbage there might something behind it.
My impression is that if Russians wanted to disrupt the US elections (the good question is
why, because the consensus in Russia is that it is just a political show that does not affect the
US foreign policy one bit; in other words Russians as believers in "deep stat" hypothesis) they
would use much more sophisticated approaches. Those internet trolls are far from the the level of
Russian professionals in the area of "active measures" ;-)
BTW commenters trashed his post mercilessly.
Notable quotes:
"... Since the end of the first Cold War and the collapse of the USSR the US has treated Russia with overbearing contempt and hostility. The Russians appealed to the US to be allowed a more open role in European affairs. The response was to drive the borders of NATO far to the east, to the borders of what is but a rump of the Russian Empire before WW1. ..."
"... The Russian response is to use what they see as a legitimate instrument of statecraft against us. This instrument seeks the weakening of enemies through exploitation of their own defects. ..."
"... Our response to this is to adopt a high handed attitude that speaks volumes about us. We admit that we do the same things to others even as we claim an absolute right to do this because we are the future of humanity, the dwellers in the "city on the hill." ..."
"... Our political parties far surpass any Russian effort "to create, publish and repeat divisive messages." Proof? Just look at all the attack ads aired in before any important election. Lots of the ads come from dark money sources, so who can tell who's behind them. Maybe Mueller should be investigating that, too...if the integrity of US elections is really the goal, not just opportunistic Russia-bashing. ..."
"... Was the Organization (Internet Research Agency) acting on behalf of the Russian government, or was it a commercial marketing operation with no operational ties to the Russian government? ..."
"... It seems the notion of "sowing discord" or creating chaos within the American body politic is arrived as a means of explaining the lack of internal consistency in the Organization's methods, but such analysis is predicated on the assumption this was a Russian government operation. ..."
"... Evidence for that assumption is obviously lacking, although that has not prevented such assumption from being presented as flat fact by many. ..."
"... It's a circus, a distraction against the Nunes Memo and investigation by Mueller, a compromised individual, if every there was one. ..."
"... Mueller is in it for the $$$millions in fees he gets for his office. Period. ..."
"... No one who actually tried to skew the election will ever be indicted. That includes, Clinton herself, and her husband, the DNC, and the media. ..."
"... Never mind the same Obama administration brought down the Brazilian President through leaking "Panama Papers". Unfortunately a clean politician was replaced by a corrupt politician in that country. Thanks ..."
"... When we compare these trolls to the New York Times, which admitted it intentionally kept news of Bush's illegal electronic spying from the American people during the Bush/Kerry election, specifically so it would not be an election issue, the trolls were doing exactly what our founding fathers wanted the press to do, while the NYT was not. ..."
"... I believe that these Russian trolls were merely parts of a private profit making Internet advertising firm that had zero to do with election interference and everything to do with generating the most eyeballs for its customers' advertisements, However, the claim that these trolls were a Russian government operation intended to create "divisiveness" is based on the assumption that opposing Hillary Clinton was somehow divisive. Since when did criticism of a US politician become devisive? ..."
"... We don't need the Russians to "sow discord" among our polity. We do it rather well ourselves. TDS, Birtherism, BLM, #MeToo, pro-choice/pro-life, safe spaces, and all the PCness and identity politics is just that, more grist for the discord mill. ..."
"... The hysteria over the Russian trolling shows how far into madness we've fallen. My personal hunch however is that Russiagate is a giant smokescreen to obfuscate a conspiracy at the highest levels of the Obama administration to interfere in the elections in a partisan manner and when the electorate chose otherwise to discredit a duly elected POTUS. Russia just happened to be roadkill in that plot. ..."
"... It shouldn't take long before Russian are blamed for 9-11 and Great Depression. A complete dehumanization of Russia and Russians is gaining a full steam. ..."
"... And while the outcome, regardless of who funded this operation, has contributed to US political disarray, it seems this outcome has primarily been driven by HRL's loss, plausible (but not yet proven) DOJ, FBI and White House illegal election and post-election interventions and the desperate efforts by Democratic party types and their tribal supporters to believe that HRC was robbed of her rightful Presidency. ..."
"... How do we know this wasn't some cockamamie propaganda exercise drawn up in some CIA office? the whole thing is small potatoes.. Mueller has nothing of relevance here, other catching some advertising agency trying to make a buck off social networks... and it was chump change in terms of $... if 100, grand a month could affect the direction of an election - i am sure many others would happily pay some troll farm based in st. petersburg for that kind of success.. ..."
"... This organisation has been well known and received coverage in the western press for years so I assume the relevant people have poked around their, likely poorly protected, systems. Two things to remember is Russia is a pretty anarchic place with different factions and people doing their own thing. ..."
"... Others would be a better judge of whether this smacks of an organised Russian intelligence operation, or just one of Russia's many incompetent private companies ..."
"We will use the key performance indicators (KPIs) we created in November to measure the
level of success enjoyed by the Russian intelligence active measures campaign. The plethora
of examples within the indictment serves to confirm much of our analysis, but also shows
their successes were more robust than previous analysis had concluded.
KPI 1 – Shape the U.S. election discourse and feed divisiveness into the
United States. The efforts in the creation of thousands of online accounts to create,
publish and repeat divisive messages, creating slightly nuanced content and otherwise pushing
themes that would be most inflammatory has now been documented in the indictment. The DoJ
shared an example: "The Russians organized one rally in support of the President-elect and
another rally to oppose him, both in New York, and on the same day."
KPI 2 – Framing the dialogue via ads and fictitious persons. This is
where the Russians invested heavily -- not only millions in funds which they funneled to
social media accounts including Twitter and Facebook, but also in online search ads with
Google and Bing. Additionally, their use of email and assuming the identities of real U.S.
citizens to infiltrate and provide direct support to various political entities is now
well-documented." securituboulevard.com
-------------
I have no idea what or who "Security Boulevard" may be but I needed a mission statement for
Project Lakhta. A number of people are saying that Lakhta just wasn't professional enough for
them to give it much credit. I disagree. the program may have been run by Putin's Caterer
billionaire friend with a few ex-SVR as cadre and the rest enthusiastic geeks, but IMO the
results speak for themselves. If the goal was to further aggravate divisiveness in the US, this
project certainly contributed to US political disarray.
The image of Michael Moore marching in a Project Lakhta anti-Trumo demonstration is just
too, too delicious.
The question arises of actual motive on the part of the Russians. Much of the usual drivel
is circulating about Russian hatred of democracy as a commodity.
IMO that is not the root of their behavior in this matter and in all the other IO operations
that they seem to be continuing against the US. No, I think the objective is simply to weaken
the US as a self-declared adversary that wishes to see Russia reduced to the status of a
mid-sized regional player subject to US oversight and control.
Since the end of the first Cold War and the collapse of the USSR the US has treated
Russia with overbearing contempt and hostility. The Russians appealed to the US to be allowed a
more open role in European affairs. The response was to drive the borders of NATO far to the
east, to the borders of what is but a rump of the Russian Empire before WW1.
The Russian response is to use what they see as a legitimate instrument of statecraft
against us. This instrument seeks the weakening of enemies through exploitation of their own
defects.
Our response to this is to adopt a high handed attitude that speaks volumes about us. We
admit that we do the same things to others even as we claim an absolute right to do this
because we are the future of humanity, the dwellers in the "city on the hill."
Our political parties far surpass any Russian effort "to create, publish and repeat
divisive messages." Proof? Just look at all the attack ads aired in before any important
election. Lots of the ads come from dark money sources, so who can tell who's behind them.
Maybe Mueller should be investigating that, too...if the integrity of US elections is really
the goal, not just opportunistic Russia-bashing.
Was the Organization (Internet Research Agency) acting on behalf of the Russian
government, or was it a commercial marketing operation with no operational ties to the
Russian government?
It seems the notion of "sowing discord" or creating chaos within the
American body politic is arrived as a means of explaining the lack of internal consistency in
the Organization's methods, but such analysis is predicated on the assumption this was a
Russian government operation.
Evidence for that assumption is obviously lacking, although
that has not prevented such assumption from being presented as flat fact by many.
The Story was broken and published in 2015. It found the perps were using bots to get
advert revenues........ period. The indictments are of Russian Nationals for activities and
actions taken within Russia. Neither Mueller nor the US have jurisdiction.
It's a circus, a distraction against the Nunes Memo and investigation by Mueller, a
compromised individual, if every there was one.
Mueller is in it for the $$$millions in
fees he gets for his office. Period.
No one who actually tried to skew the election will ever be indicted. That includes,
Clinton herself, and her husband, the DNC, and the media.
Colonel I totally agree with your analysis, we seem to forget about our adventures in
promoting democracy else where. What I think is that the Russians exposed our own corrupt
politicians (I can still hear Obama's preaching about wikileaks and Clinton emails "Never
mind the content of those emails, it is a fact they stole our documents, and attacked our
democracy). Never mind the same Obama administration brought down the Brazilian President
through leaking "Panama Papers". Unfortunately a clean politician was replaced by a corrupt
politician in that country. Thanks
The entire purpose of the First Amendment is to allow for a vigorous public debate. The flaw
in the above reasoning is that if the alleged goal of the supposed Russian "interference" was
to "aggravate divisiveness" then that Russian troll farm was doing exactly what our founding
fathers wanted the press to do, provoke a public debate about issues during an election.
When we compare these trolls to the New York Times, which admitted it intentionally
kept news of Bush's illegal electronic spying from the American people during the Bush/Kerry
election, specifically so it would not be an election issue, the trolls were doing exactly
what our founding fathers wanted the press to do, while the NYT was not.
I believe that these Russian trolls were merely parts of a private profit making
Internet advertising firm that had zero to do with election interference and everything to do
with generating the most eyeballs for its customers' advertisements, However, the claim that
these trolls were a Russian government operation intended to create "divisiveness" is based
on the assumption that opposing Hillary Clinton was somehow divisive. Since when did
criticism of a US politician become devisive?
This is the part I don't understand. The devisiveness stick can be swung against anyone
and anything. My comments here can be seen by some as devisive. Same with the post I'm
commenting on, this entire blog and every other person or group exercising their First
Amendment rights by debating an issue. So while I believe the whole Russian thing is complete
bullshit, the thing I worry about most is that it is being used to demand conformity and
squelch our First Amendment rights. Vigorous debate, no matter who or what is sponsoring that
debate, doesn't weaken our country. It only makes it stronger. What is really weakening our
country is the current demonizing of free speech via evidence free claims that such speech is
hurting the US and helping a supposed enemy country.
"If the goal was to further aggravate divisiveness in the US, this project certainly
contributed to US political disarray."
So you're saying that because a commercial fake ad campaign was seized upon by a US
government Russian witch-hunt that therefore the fake ad campaign contributed to US political
disarray? As opposed to the witch-hunt itself?
I believe that's putting the cart before the horse.
We have Facebook's head of ads explicitly saying that he's seen all the ads and they
definitely had nothing to do with swaying the election - before he's forced to recant that
statement by Facebook management on the excuse that it insults Mueller.
In other words, everyone views this as a commercial marketing operation which used the US
elections as a vehicle to make money by supporting and denouncing both Trump and Clinton, but
you're convinced it was a real Russian government disinformation operation.
Based on what? The fact that it had zero impact on the election? Or the fact that by
definition it couldn't possibly have had any significant impact on US divisiveness by
comparison with the US media and social media themselves - other than by having been put up
by Mueller's witch hunt as significant? The fact that this operation has zero connections to
the Russian government except for this "chef" having some vague connections with Putin?
Not buying it. This operation in my view had zilch to do with weakening the US in any way,
shape or form - except to extract some money from it.
Scott Adams
does a white board presentation where he compares the theory of Russians helping Trump with
the theory of Russians as someone else who wanted anybody but Hillary.
Scott has been right about quite a few things before and has written the book "How to win
biggly in a world where facts don't matter" explaining trumps style and persuasion
methods.
We don't need the Russians to "sow discord" among our polity. We do it rather well
ourselves. TDS, Birtherism, BLM, #MeToo, pro-choice/pro-life, safe spaces, and all the PCness
and identity politics is just that, more grist for the discord mill.
The hysteria over the Russian trolling shows how far into madness we've fallen. My
personal hunch however is that Russiagate is a giant smokescreen to obfuscate a conspiracy at
the highest levels of the Obama administration to interfere in the elections in a partisan
manner and when the electorate chose otherwise to discredit a duly elected POTUS. Russia just
happened to be roadkill in that plot.
A lot of you armchair sleuths are creating your own reality on an unwarranted basis
proceeding from a desire to think that because Mueller is embarked on a voyage to Gulliver's
various lands, all his results are false. This is a fallacy. The first amendment? The framers
never intended that it should protect people acting either directly or indirectly on behalf
of a foreign power. Their reaction to the Citizen Genet case shows that clearly. The British
did things like this on a sustained basis for the purpose of luring the US into WW2. Why do
you think they made that effort a covert campaign?
A covert political action on behalf of a
foreign power would never have been thought by the framers to deserve first amendment
protection.
A commercial venture? Once again, you don't know what you are talking about. If
you had ever written a business plan for a new venture you would know that a competent
entrepreneur would have looked at the "pro forma" financial projections in the plan and
decided that the trivial possible revenues would never recover the capital invested in the
scheme and would have decided against proceeding. Have you never watched "Shark Tank?"
Some
of the operatives involved did travel to the US to work some of the street demonstration
capers. The indictment says that in September of last year, they concluded that the FBI was
closing in on them and left the country rather than be apprehended. pl
With Col Lang's forbearance on posting an except in this case, the following excerpt from
John Helmer's current blog post (johnhelmer.net) provides some insight into that has been
driving the "Organizations" activities:
"Russian sources believe Prigozhin's organization has contracted for domestic Russian
operations paid for by Russian corporations and local politicians. Some of the operations are
believed to be conventional positive advertising of events, products, campaigns, and ideas.
Some reportedly involve the circulation of kompromat against business and election rivals;
some to defend against botnet and denial of service attacks on corporate websites and
communication systems; some to attack the websites of business adversaries or investigative
journalists, Russia-based or Russia-related.
Investigations by Russian media and government regulators have been reporting for some
time allegations that Prigozhin has been diverting money from state procurement contracts for
himself, and for clandestine purposes approved by state officials and state company
executives. For a sample of the details, start in 2014 with the St. Petersburg website
Fontanka's investigation of Mikhail Bystrov and Mikhail Burchik, the second and third
defendants in the Mueller indictment. Fontanka said it had uncovered evidence that paying
clients of the Prigozhin, Bystrov and Burchik organization included a youth group of the
Russian Orthodox Church, the St. Petersburg municipal authorities, and a Gazprom media
promotion company. The payroll of the organization was reported in mid-2014 to be Rb180,000
per month (about $5,500).
Russian sources believe Prigozhin's Project Lakhta was ordered by someone in a position to
exercise a call on Prigozhin's cashflow. They exclude Russian officials on the Kremlin
Security Council -- Sergei Ivanov, Sergei Lavrov, Sergei Shoigu, Anton Vaino, Nikolai
Patrushev, Sergei Naryshkin – and dismiss the possibility that Project Lakhta had
either President Putin's or Russian intelligence service support.
The suspicion of Russian sources is that the American campaign element in Project Lakhta
was "so hare-brained there is only one official who could have considered Prigozhin's project
worth the money and the attempt – Dmitry Peskov". Peskov is officially titled Deputy
Chief of the Presidential Executive Office and Presidential Press Secretary. From the Kremlin
he supervises the budgets for the state television broadcaster RT, the state news agency
Sputnik, and special US-targeted propaganda programmes, such as the Valdai Discussion Club
for academics and the Oliver Stone films"
So this appears to me to be primarily a "commercial for hire to make something happen
through the web" model for arrange of potential corporation and political clients. I find it
interesting that the one possible "sufficiently hare-brained" suspect is Peskov who oversees
the budgets of Russia's state owned "open" US-targeted information programs..
The piece in NYT certainly broke through the bottom. But then again, I learned today from
Adam Schiff that Russians love 2nd Amendment because they love nothing more than Americans
killing each-other. It shouldn't take long before Russian are blamed for 9-11 and Great
Depression. A complete dehumanization of Russia and Russians is gaining a full steam.
"The Russian response is to use what they see as a legitimate instrument of statecraft
against us. This instrument seeks the weakening of enemies through exploitation of their own
defects. "
I have always thought that this makes sense. It would have been incredibly passive and an
abdication of responsibility for the Russians to not respond. You can argue about the
particulars on exactly what they did or did not do, but it never made sense to think that
they were not acting in their own best self-interests in response to provocation.
I think the following excerpt from Helmer's piece is more relevant here:
The unofficial Russian reaction towards Prigozhin's activities in the US is more quizzical,
and under the American pressure, more private. It acknowledges that Prigozhin is a
commercial operator, and for every outlay he has a paying client. Who that client was for
Project Lakhta is the object of speculation so far unreported in the Russian press.
So finding the client would seem to be critical to both the 'Russian government
involvement' and 'Trump team colluded' allegations.
It is noted that Prigozhin had previously tried to take another Russian Company - Yandex
(Equivalent of Google for Russia) to Court to have his Name removed from Search Results that
connected his Name with [this] Search Query, before eventually backing down....
This points out an obvious Dilemma to many Critiques of Russia, the all Powerful Russian
Government whom between apparently personally controlling all Business, nor does it allow a
free Press neither forced Yandexs Hand in having those results Removed, nor did it prevent
RBC/RBK from publishing their Report on the 'Troll Farm' which if to be believed was a vital
Part of their Political Interference...
Which way does it go? Do they suddenly have to admit that Press is maybe the more Free than
imagined? Or does the Government simply not extend any interest in hiding its 'Operation and
Assets'... Or is it that simply - It has no Hand in this and thus no interest?
All of this goes back to the Points others have clearly made very well above - That of
this being about Commercial Interests and Motivations not a super Secret Plot that clearly is
not being hidden..
To add one more Aspect to what I mean by 'Commercial Interests' - This does not have to mean
Directly... Favorable Patronage if the right People are pleased with you can leverage Profits
through further Contracts and Opportunities..
I am not pushing Peskov and basically agreeing with jjc's post that evidence that this was
a Russian government is lacking (at least so far).
And while the outcome, regardless of who funded this operation, has contributed to US
political disarray, it seems this outcome has primarily been driven by HRL's loss, plausible
(but not yet proven) DOJ, FBI and White House illegal election and post-election
interventions and the desperate efforts by Democratic party types and their tribal supporters
to believe that HRC was robbed of her rightful Presidency. Absent this context - which was
clearly not created by the IRA operation - it is hard to see that this operation would be
getting any attention.
Sir:
An Alternate to your thesis is that the object of Lakhta is to make Russia Great Again.
It appears with every US inspired sanction Russia recovers after a brief pause, and advances
her economy far beyond what was foreseen but a few years ago:
1., agriculture -greatest wheat exporter in 2017, rather than importer.
2., replacing slowly all the software from the west with either homegrown
product or Chinese goods
3., the famous Kremlin List might force lot of offshore Russian wealth to go home, lest it be
expropriated by the US Treasury.
4., you, Sir, can add other observations based on facts of Russia's recovery since the
sanctions started.
How do we know this wasn't some cockamamie propaganda exercise drawn up in some CIA office?
the whole thing is small potatoes.. Mueller has nothing of relevance here, other catching
some advertising agency trying to make a buck off social networks... and it was chump change
in terms of $... if 100, grand a month could affect the direction of an election - i am sure
many others would happily pay some troll farm based in st. petersburg for that kind of
success..
sorry - cold war 2 / mccarthyism 2 - all on tap and who benefits from that? that is the
question i would like to hear an answer to.. thanks..
Re the KPI's to "measure the level of success enjoyed by the Russian intelligence active
measures campaign":
I was taught that performance measures are meaningless unless they can quantify a
commodity which equates to 'success'. The examples given here seem to fall well within that
category IMHO. Discord and divisiveness may be a valid goal, but how much was sown? There was
plenty around, but it is surely next to impossible to assess the impact of Lakhta in a
meaningful way. So Moore went to a Lakhta rally, rather than what, perhaps a different anti
Trump rally? Is the net effect better or worse and by how much?
The second KPI is not even a KPI - how is dialog framing a valid goal? The text describes
the significant investment made (the other side of the equation) and the methods used - this
is meaningless re any assessment of supposed 'success'.
Average salary in St Pete would be around USD1000 a month so the costs are not much, maybe
more if they had English language skills. Wouldn't be many fixed/startup costs at all. Also
not just click bait advertising but the opportunity to take a contract to run a PR campaign.
I am still undecided. This organisation has been well known and received coverage in the
western press for years so I assume the relevant people have poked around their, likely
poorly protected, systems. Two things to remember is Russia is a pretty anarchic place with
different factions and people doing their own thing.
Generally Russians can still be pretty
incompetent at things, these guys seem to be a good example of that. Others would be a better
judge of whether this smacks of an organised Russian intelligence operation, or just one of
Russia's many incompetent private companies. Creating a little mischief can be fun as well. I
can't be bothered to look fully in to everything but actual real examples of attempts to
cause mischief are too few, and the evidence sufficient to convict has not been
presented.
As for British activities before WWII, I have always been of the opinion the success of
that was due to important power centres, the people Lindbergh listed in his Des Moines
speech, although I would include white Southerners, in the US consciously turning a blind
eye. The inference would be that this was so insignificant and ineffectual that it wasn't
picked up, or dismissed if it was.
Security Boulevard is an aggregation of cyber-security bloggers. Christopher Burgess, the
author of this article, retired from the CIA in 2005 with 30+ years. He worked as a security
advisor for Cisco and in several other security related companies. I don't remember ever
hearing about him. I looked at some of his writing about the Russia thing going back to
before the election. Our views largely coincide and I recognize the terminology he uses. I
chalk that up to his background. He certainly was aware of some of the same experiences in
foreign cyber-espionage and IO that I dealt with. These key performance indicators are from
an article he did back in November 2017.
It is not in the interests, to say the least, of Russia to weaken the US. And Putin, above
most, knows this. Maybe tweak us a bit...but weaken us? Why? He is going to need us against
China. We have no natural geopolitical antipathy (hostility) with Russia. We may thrust
ourselves into that position, at times, in Eastern Europe or the Middle East. However it is
not organic to our relationship. On the other hand, such antipathy (hostility) does exist
between China and Russia. And it is not just , organic, geopolitical, but racial was well.
Although we're not supposed to talk like that anymore. Putin might not talk it...but he is
thinking it.
YOU may not have any antipathy toward Russia but Washington and New York and the media
drip with it and our actions since the fall of the USSR would not look like friendship to any
neutral observer. pl
The thing about British activities in the US before WW2 is laughable and rather
self-serving. So, you think that 1.25 million US a month was trivial, eh? Have you ever
funded a business? pl
"I was taught that performance measures are meaningless unless they can quantify a
commodity which equates to 'success'. " You were taught poorly. Nothing in international
policy operations can be meaningfully quantified. Only social science idiots thank that this
is possible. pl
You have CIA on the brain, something like water on the knew and have seen too many movies.
you have no idea how difficult it would be to construct an operation like this in a police
state like Russia if you were foreign. pl
And then there were a few British capers like the Zimmerman telegram and the BS about
German atrocities in Belgium in WW1. Oh, yes and the lies told about the Boers in the S.
Africa War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Security_Co-ordination
pl
He seems not to be using KPI in the traditional way, but it could be a terminology
difference between intelligence and business uses. Substitute the word "goal" and you're
fine.
pat - b did a post to break down this us .25 million a month b.s..
here is the quote for you - "(Some U.S. media today made the false claim that $1.25
million per month were spend by the company for its U.S. campaign. But Point 11 of the
indictment says that the company ran a number of such projects directed at a Russian audience
while only the one described in 10d above is aimed at an U.S. audience. All these projects
together had a monthly budget of $1.25 million.)
as memory serves they had at least 10 different projects going... - 100 grand a month is a
better guesstimate... chump change...
Do you really think that Russia sees its relations with the US as other than a zero sum
game? How could they see it any other way given the way the US has acted toward them? pl
I didn't say the Russian project created the aura of animosity. The US is falling apart
politically. The Russian project originators perceived this and sought to exacerbate it, and
succeeded. pl
So, you think this project was put up on "spec" like building something in the hope that
someone will buy it and redeem your costs. Have you ever done that? pl
I concur on Burgess. The graphic in the article you cite is pretty good, though it doesn't
mention the "seeding and feeding" use of bots and commenters in blog and media platform
threads to influence the discussion. But I think that's inferred by the use of the term
"computational propaganda." I've never seen that before, but I like it. In psychology, it is
called the "availability heuristic." The idea is that if you make the same claim or idea
appear again and again, people will eventually become convinced it's true. So if you can
swarm the Internet with many instances of the same falsehood or argument, people will come to
believe it's true.
In case anyone's curious, this is the same tactic employed by GEICO in the US.
With respect Colonel, my point was that the use of KPI's in this context is indeed
meaningless. Thus the authors are discredited in my view by using & abusing the term.
This report reads no different to many others to me - allegations that the mission was to
sow discord. So is this a new Pearl Harbor or a laughably tiny contribution to the immense
discord extant already. My own gut feel is that it is likely well towards the latter end of
the scale.
Following Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three entities
behind a Russian "troll farm" said to have meddled in the 2016 U.S. election (admittedly, with
zero impact
), two people familiar with both the
ads
purchased
by Russians on Facebook, and the "troll farm" in question have refuted Mueller's
narrative over the course of four days. Indeed, things don't seem to be going well for the Russia
investigation, which started out with serious claims of Collusion between the Trump campaign and the
Kremlin, and has been reduced to CNN
diving through the garbage
of a Russian troll farm.
About that troll farm...
Adrian Chen, staff writer for
The New Yorker -
who first profiled
the indicted Russian troll farm in 2015,
sat down with MSNBC's Chris Hayes, where he
proceeded to deflate Mueller's big scary indictment to nothing.
"Tried to tamp down the troll farm panic on @chrislhayes show last night,"
Adrian Chen tweeted
. "
It's
90 people with a shaky grasp of English and a rudimentary understanding of U.S. politics shitposting
on Facebook.
"
Chen then responded to a tweet saying the IRA has 300-400 individuals. "That was the entire
Internet Research Agency," Chen wrote."
The American department had ~90 people
,
according to the Russian journalists who did the most in-depth investigation."
Chen links to a Washington Post article which profiles Russian journalists who
also
investigated
said troll farm.
The former director of the FBI has assembled a "dream team" of investigators for his Special
Counsel probe and concluded that 13 Russians and 3 entities tried to meddle in the election after
an entire year of investigation.
Those efforts had zero impact on the election
Facebook's VP of ads is on record saying "I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very
definitively that swaying the election was *NOT* the main goal
The same FB Exec noted that most of the ads were purchased after the election.
Suggesting that the real, underlying narrative is one of
US media
propaganda, he was
then made to walk back his comments and apologize for his "
uncleared
thoughts
"
CNN is rooting around in the trash outside the troll farm.
And for all of this, Obama and Congress slapped sanctions on Russia, evicted two diplomatic
compounds, and launched several Congressional investigations over.
But at least the US Military Industrial Complex is happy, while the stock of Boeing has never been
higher.
The United
States, through a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) called The
National Endowment for Democracy has spent over $27,000,000 since 2013
in Russia to "promote democracy".
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a U.S. non-profit soft
power organization that was founded in 1983 with the stated goal of
promoting democracy abroad. It is funded primarily through an annual
allocation from the U.S. Congress in the form of a grant awarded through
the United States Information Agency (USIA).
NED was banned in Russia as an undesirable international NGO in for
"using Russian commercial and noncommercial organizations under its
control... to declare the results of election campaigns illegitimate,
organize political actions intended to influence decisions made by the
authorities, and discredit service in Russia's armed forces.
Former Congressman Ron Paul also argued against NED funding
stating that NED has "very little to do with democracy. It is an
organization that uses US tax money to actually subvert democracy, by
showering funding on favored political parties or movements overseas. It
underwrites color-coded 'people's revolutions' overseas that look more
like pages out of Lenin's writings on stealing power than genuine
indigenous democratic movements."
Investigative reporter and editor of Consortiumnews Robert Parry has
characterized NED as a "neocon slush fund," whose founding was the
brainchild of Reagan Administration CIA Director William Casey and its
leading propagandist Walter Raymond Jr., then on the staff of the
National Security Council. The idea was to set up an organization funded
by the U.S. Congress to take over CIA programs that attempted to
influence foreign elections by promoting the selection of candidates who
supported U.S. policy and would "do what the U.S. government tells them
to do.
NED's Statement of Principles and Objectives, adopted in 1984,
asserts that "No Endowment funds may be used to finance the campaigns of
candidates for public office." But the ways to circumvent the spirit of
such a prohibition are not difficult to come up with; as with American
elections, there's "hard money" and there's "soft money".
As described in the "Elections" and "Interventions" chapters, NED
successfully manipulated elections in Nicaragua in 1990 and Mongolia in
1996; helped to overthrow democratically elected governments in Bulgaria
in 1990 and Albania in 1991 and 1992; and worked to defeat the candidate
for prime minister of Slovakia in 2002 who was out of favor in
Washington. And from 1999 to 2004, NED heavily funded members of the
opposition to President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to subvert his rule and
to support a referendum to unseat him.
Additionally, in the 1990s and afterward, NED supported a coalition
of groups in Haiti known as the Democratic Convergence, who were united
in their opposition to Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his progressive
ideology, while he was in and out of the office of the president.
The Endowment has made its weight felt in the
electoral-political process in numerous other countries.
The United States has continued democracy programs despite
local prohibitions.
Nevertheless, USAID and the NED have continued to fund organizations,
even where that's against the local country's laws. In Venezuela, for
example, the United States has
openly
continued
funding civil society organizations, even listing that in
its annual budgets, albeit without naming recipients.
USAID and the NED are undoubtedly keeping their plans in the country
secret. However, the NED and its leaders
continue
to
openly counter Russian ideological efforts throughout Eurasia.
For instance, when NED President Carl Gershman
testified
before
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June 2016, he said
that one of the NED's five main focuses includes pushing back against
"an information offensive by Russia and other authoritarian regimes."
MSM has a story to run for 3 nights on "Russian meddling" - the sheeple bleat - go
to work, pay bills, pay taxes, invest in their "retirement", and send their kids off
to die in pointless wars.
The other funny thing about the indictments is that the speech of these Russian
nationals if they ran ads as alleged, is protected by the First Amendment, which
does not limit itself to US citizens. "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the
freedom of speech ...". The indictments claim that one must register as a foreign
lobbyist if they want to engage in political speech in the United States. For very
important reasons, the Constitution does not limit its protections to citizens,
including and especially where speech and religion are concerned.
Let's use a little math here. Even FB admits that only 1 in 23,000 images on
their site during this time period were paid for by the trolls. The vast
majority of FB users would never even have seen this content. If they were in
the .0004 of users who stumbled upon "troll speech," the message would no
doubt be drained out by all the other hundreds or thousands of messages they
did notice (mostly pictures of friends' babies). And, believe it or not, a
whole lot of voters don't even use Facebook. So only a minute fraction of FB
users could have conceivably seen one random, lonely impression, which would
have been drowned out by thousands of other non-troll impressions, posts made
by people who actually speak English and made by people the FB users actually
know.
Finally, if you were in the subgroup that found one of the five golden
tickets (stumbled upon a real Russian troll post), who is to say the dang post
wasn't 100 percent accurate.
I know I'm supposed to panic over all of this, but I'm not gonna do it.
Not. Gonna. Do. It.
The FBof
Matters apparently have exposed their MSM
strategy...they stole it from the Chocolate Factory...(((super secret FIB
methods)))...
Oomph Loompa doompadee doo, I've got another puzzle for
you. Ooompa Loompa doompadah dee, If you are wise you'll listen to me." I
suppose Mueller and associates have their heads so far up their asses they
actually believe they're in Wonka's Chocolate Factory...Oh look!!! Another
pristine Passport!!!
Let's use a little math here. Even FB admits that only 1 in 23,000 images on
their site during this time period were paid for by the trolls. The vast
majority of FB users would never even have seen this content. If they were in
the .0004 of users who stumbled upon "troll speech," the message would no
doubt be drained out by all the other hundreds or thousands of messages they
did notice (mostly pictures of friends' babies). And, believe it or not, a
whole lot of voters don't even use Facebook. So only a minute fraction of FB
users could have conceivably seen one random, lonely impression, which would
have been drowned out by thousands of other non-troll impressions, posts made
by people who actually speak English and made by people the FB users actually
know.
Finally, if you were in the subgroup that found one of the five golden
tickets (stumbled upon a real Russian troll post), who is to say the dang post
wasn't 100 percent accurate.
I know I'm supposed to panic over all of this, but I'm not gonna do it.
Not. Gonna. Do. It.
The FBof
Matters apparently have exposed their MSM
strategy...they stole it from the Chocolate Factory...(((super secret FIB
methods)))...
Oomph Loompa doompadee doo, I've got another puzzle for
you. Ooompa Loompa doompadah dee, If you are wise you'll listen to me." I
suppose Mueller and associates have their heads so far up their asses they
actually believe they're in Wonka's Chocolate Factory...Oh look!!! Another
pristine Passport!!!
The trolls were allegedly trying to "sow discord." The MSM - working closely with
the FBI and the Establishment in Washington - are trying to "spread panic."
For
once, the fear-mongering isn't playing in Peoria.
If Obama hadn't slapped sanctions on Russia, what were the Oval Office conspirators
going to leak to media about Flynn's conversations with the Russian ambassador?
What was Sally Yates going to assert could be a violation of the Logan Act, and also
a possible way for Russia to blackmail Flynn? What was the FBI going to question
Flynn about? So McCabe could change their 302s. So there
had
to be
sanctions. And there
had
to be trolls.
The Saker gives a few findings to those who understand what might be happening:
The best way to get information is to make it up.
Everything what we know now about the so-called "Kremlin trolls from the Internet
Research Agency paid by Putin's favorite chef," came from one source, a group of CIA
spies that used the mascot of Shaltay-Boltay, or Humpty-Dumpty, for their collective
online persona.
Just think about this working scheme: Shaltay-Boltay with a group of
anti-government "activists" created the "Internet Research Agency," they and some
"activists" created 470 FaceBook accounts used to post comments that looked
unmistakably "trollish."
After that other, CIA affiliated entities, like the entire Western Media, claimed
the "Russian interference in the US election." Finally, the ODNI published a report
lacking any evidence in it."
"... I turned in a blank ballot in November 2016. A choice between the Devil's Sister and the Devil's Jester wasn't a choice that sober grownups would make. I didn't need 13 Russians's help to arrive at that conclusion. ..."
"... My God, what a confession it is to believe that 13 non-billionaires could influence an American election: "Horosho! Now that election goes to Trump, next we get Moose and Squirrel!" Seriously?! ..."
"... "Is the Great Republic about to fall because a bunch of trolls tweeted in our election?" The Deep State folks want us to think so. Is there any way to turn the tables on them? ..."
"... If career lawyers at DOJ told Jeff Sessions that he should probably recuse himself because of X, Y, and Z, then they are presumptively guilty of bad faith, and Sessions need not necessarily feel bound to stay recused. ..."
"... Sessions was under no legal compulsion to recuse himself, as Andrew C. McCarthy has demonstrated. Arguably, the A.G. can point to any such bad faith as a reason for taking back his recusal. "The rule of law!" the Deep State will scream. But bad faith of the kind in question is ipso facto a negation of the rule of law. ..."
"... The rule of law only demands that a reversal of a recusal bear an extremely heavy burden of proof for its justification. No problem if Sessions relied on bad-faith actors at DOJ–reversing his recusal would be justified. ..."
Cue the resident amoral neocon scumbags to tell us that darn it, it's DIFFERENT when we do it. Sure our "allies" might be neonazis,
slave traders, people who bomb churches, behead priests, kidnap nuns, and enslave Christians .but you know .Putin.
The insanity that is engulfing the USA is no longer just a joke, that these lunatics have nuclear weapons is now a very serious
threat to the rest of the world – that is hopefully not as insane. Bombing foreign nations is not considered an act of war (kinetic
action in Syria, Libya, Niger, Somalia, etc), however making online comments is an act of war?!?
I have made online comments against America, I suggest I also get added on that list as an act of war.
I don't think if I were a "resident amoral neocon scumbag" I would dare to reply after VikingLS' opening comment.
The title sounds silly: "acts of war" in the real world are defined by people who want to go to war.
And BTW, Pat's language is slippery when talking about the Chilean coup. Maybe the White House had "deniability" but State
and the CIA left fingerprints everywhere. If you want to see an obviously lying Kissinger, read the section on the coup in "White
House Years."
I turned in a blank ballot in November 2016. A choice between the Devil's Sister and the Devil's Jester wasn't a choice that
sober grownups would make. I didn't need 13 Russians's help to arrive at that conclusion.
My God, what a confession it is to believe that 13 non-billionaires could influence an American election: "Horosho! Now
that election goes to Trump, next we get Moose and Squirrel!" Seriously?!
I tell my kids all the time that half the people in this country are, by definition, below average in intelligence.
"Is the Great Republic about to fall because a bunch of trolls tweeted in our election?" The Deep State folks want us to think
so. Is there any way to turn the tables on them?
If career lawyers at DOJ told Jeff Sessions that he should probably recuse himself because of X, Y, and Z, then they are
presumptively guilty of bad faith, and Sessions need not necessarily feel bound to stay recused.
Sessions was under no legal compulsion to recuse himself, as Andrew C. McCarthy has demonstrated. Arguably, the A.G. can
point to any such bad faith as a reason for taking back his recusal. "The rule of law!" the Deep State will scream. But bad faith
of the kind in question is ipso facto a negation of the rule of law.
The rule of law only demands that a reversal of a recusal bear an extremely heavy burden of proof for its justification.
No problem if Sessions relied on bad-faith actors at DOJ–reversing his recusal would be justified.
Career lawyers at DOJ, especially in the Office of Legal Counsel, would clearly have known that Sessions was under no legal
compulsion or professional obligation to recuse himself. If they left him with a different impression and advised that it would
be best for him to recuse himself, their actions couldn't realistically be attributed to incompetence. Only bad faith could explain
such advice.
This is true even if they deliberately neglected to inform the A.G. of the legal non-necessity for recusal and played up the
alleged political necessity for recusal. It would still be bad faith.
If that's correct, it doesn't mean Sessions should immediately take back his recusal. Weeks or months of preparation might
be needed for educating the public and injecting a spine-stiffening drug in a number of Republican senators–call your office,
Lindsey Graham. But it does allow for a stronger attack right now on Robert Mueller, who needs to get out from under his own shadow
of bad faith before he ends up earning the nickname "Bad Faith Bob."
"... The whole of American politics is nothing but 'sowing discord'. The only thing that holds the two parties together is the hatred shared for the 'other party'. ..."
"... Again, if election laws were broken, arrest, try, convict and imprison the perpetrators. Lots of money gets spent sowing discord during the elections. I'm not concerned one bit about the drop in the bucket spent by the Russians ..."
"... She had over a billion dollars to tell me that she was for universal health care. ..."
"... So, if I have a heart attack, based on my obesity, poor diet and alcoholism, I should immediately blame the background radiation in my basement? ..."
"... A classic case of misdirection, served up and serving the converging interests of a variety of players: neo-cons and defense contractors wet for a new Cold War with Russia, the Clinton/Obama wing of the Democratic Party desperate to use this to distract from their catastrophic political negligence, and factions in the National Security State looking to be rehabilitated in the eyes of media and liberal elites. ..."
"... What Russian government? It was a commercial operation posting click bait, of all sorts, to sell ads. And yes, that's the explanation that fits the facts best. If Putin was really bankrolling it, no evidence so far, he was wasting his money. From our point of view, a good thing. ..."
"... A foreign government employed copy editors to sow dissent in American politics by way of Twitter, Facebook, online advertising and a network of blogs. ..."
"... Google files patent for robot that writes your Facebook posts, emails and tweets ..."
"... All Russian bot claims appear to originate from the same group of warmongers and their highly flawed Hamilton 68 Dashboard project: McCarthyism Inc.: Terror Cranks Sold America the Russia Panic Truthdig ..."
"... [The Alliance for Securing Democracy's] researchers and advisors have become go-to pundits for mainstream reporters seeking expert opinions on Russian online meddling. They have been endorsed by John Podesta, the founder of the Center for American Progress and chief of staff for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Julia Ioffe, the Atlantic's Russia correspondent, has also weighed in to promote the ASD's efforts. Both highlighted the ASD's Hamilton 68 Dashboard as a scientific barometer of Kremlin influence over the American social media landscape ..."
"... Bill Kristol, among others, is on the so-called Alliance for Securing Democracy's board of advisors. ..."
"... And "b" at Moon of Alabama thinks that they've deliberately indicted a bunch of people they don't expect to prosecute (they're all in Russia) in order to have the above "message" on the books for as long as it takes for someone to stage a legal test of it. ..."
"... Until then it is simple intimidation. ..."
"... If the Russian government actually funded this sort of thing, they must be pretty simple-minded. ..."
"... Anyway, do we even know that it was Russian "government" money financing these things? It was some oligarch who had "ties" to Putin. By the standards used so far in Russiagate reporting, that basically means that he and Putin are both Russian. ..."
"... The Russian Federation is very much against neo-Nazi and white supremacy movements due to what it suffered from Nazi Germany during WWII. Now Russia sees this on it's boarders in Ukraine. But Russia is branded with this because white folk live there. What about all the Muslims in Russia, many of which have come from Central Asia? What about all the Asians in Eastern Russia? The quoted statement is born of either ignorance, misinformation or disinformation. ..."
"... Unfortunately for Soros (and fortunately for the entire planet) the Russian government realised the cancerous nature of Soros backed NGOs, and took the proper preventative measures which in hindsight, and after reviewing the DC Leaks memos, proved to be a very wise move. ..."
"... Crowdstrike is the only source of evidence of Russian hacking of DNC. And Crowdstrike had to walk it back when they used the exact same evidence to claim that Russia had hacked Ukraine's artillery. That is likely why DNC refused to let FBI run forensics on their servers. ..."
"... negotiable convictions ..."
"... This is the mental equivalent of the sunk cost fallacy. At this point the media, the Dems and legions of David Brock led trolls have invested so much time and energy into "Muh Russia" that they can't write off their investment. ..."
"... Keep going. You're doing fine. It's down there somewhere. You can endure another season of Persist, the payoff is right around the corner. There is nothing more important right now than ignoring inconvenient facts. ..."
"... Domain Keys Identified Mail, or DKIM, is a highly regarded email security system that can be used to independently authenticate the contents and sender of an email that uses it. ..."
"... argumentum ad ignorantium ..."
"... argumentum ad ignorantiam ..."
"... Feffer says that progressives don't take Russiagate as seriously as they should. I think critical thinkers are taking it very seriously, because of potential censorship of dissenting voices that favor peace over war, and that favor productive social spending over wasteful military spending. ..."
"... Even absent such concerns, the Russiagate hysteria is obviously a partisan power struggle that sucks the air out of the room for productive political discourse to address real social, economic, and environmental problems. ..."
"... So, the 13 incitements, in addition to keeps the Russian narrative alive for another few weeks, is providing political cover for the establishment to clean house as it were, and clear out the Progressive infestation threatening to cripple the money train the establishment has become accustomed too. ..."
"... democracy in the USA is broken. ..."
"... when 10s of thousands of soldiers would be sent somewhere for an extended period ..."
"... Historically speaking, America peaked at the moon landing. ..."
I find this question, in light of Real News (quite missing from the American landscape)
and Real History (likewise), rather tedious and specious.
Did America (via John Negroponte and Frank Wisner, Jr., and their Franco-American
Foundation's creation of false political scandals against his competitor) do conceivably
worse in France to get Sarkozy elected the first time?
Did America do worse to support the overthrow of democratically elected Honduran
president, Manuel Zelaya?
Did America do worse to support the overthrow of democratically elected president of the
Ukraine (cost to American taxpayers: $5 billion)?
Did America do worse to support the overthrow of democratically elected and farsighted
Chilean president, Salvador Allende, with the subsequent torture/murders of over 30,000
Chileans as well as American citizens?
Time doesn't allow me to go on for more pages, plus this site has a word limit.
The whole of American politics is nothing but 'sowing discord'. The only thing that holds
the two parties together is the hatred shared for the 'other party'.
Again, if election laws were broken, arrest, try, convict and imprison the
perpetrators. Lots of money gets spent sowing discord during the elections. I'm not concerned one bit
about the drop in the bucket spent by the Russians
So this is more about Americans and their political intelligence than Russia and its
intelligence. Trolls bringing down the Merican political system is theatre of the absurd. How
many people died, again?
What I find truly amazing is that Hillary Clinton had over a billion dollars to provide me
with reasons to vote for her. I was searching for anything.
She had over a billion dollars to tell me that she was for universal health care.
She had over a billion dollars to tell me that she would expand social security.
She had over a billion dollars to tell me that she would make college free or at least
dramatically less expensive.
She had a billion dollars to tell me that she and her crazed neo-con advisors wouldn't start
WWIII. Threatening to shoot down Russian planes doesn't inspire confidence.
Over a billion dollars to explain to us in detail on numerous platforms how she was going to
make our lives better.
It was obvious to every one that she was a hard-core neo-liberal and hard-core
neo-conservative. All she offered was "America is already great!!!" A billion dollars and all
she could provide was insults and paranoia.
And people still don't know that as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, she attended those
rightwing prayer breakfasts at the Bush White House; belonged to rightwing,
imperialistic/military organizations, and had an uncle, Wade Rodham, who was a member of the
US Secret Service's presidential protection unit during the Kennedy Administration.
Not to mention those fundraisers thrown by Lady Rothschild at Martha's Vineyard for
HRC.
This is not about Clinton. It's about Russia and the Trump campaign. Hillary lost and
thank God. We should ban any spouses, children or grandchildren from holding elected office
of any kind.
But turning this into a Democrat or Hillary thing is wrong. If there is something there, then
the investigation might find it. If not, we have already grabbed up some arch-criminals in
the persons of Gates and Manafort. So that is a already justification enough. Frankly, all
the talk of costs is also a lie. Manafort's milllions will be seized. Russiagate will turn
out to be profitable!
So, if I have a heart attack, based on my obesity, poor diet and alcoholism, I should
immediately blame the background radiation in my basement?
Most of the "attacks" Lobel referred to were traditional white propaganda by the likes of
RT, which are invariably conflated with, first, Trump/Putin collusion, and since that puppy
died, Russian "attacks" on our exceptional democracy.
Assume every hyper-ventilating charge by Mueller to be true, and magnify it fifty-fold;
it's still bupkis in the toxic and corrupt stew that is US politics.
A classic case of misdirection, served up and serving the converging interests of a
variety of players: neo-cons and defense contractors wet for a new Cold War with Russia, the
Clinton/Obama wing of the Democratic Party desperate to use this to distract from their
catastrophic political negligence, and factions in the National Security State looking to be
rehabilitated in the eyes of media and liberal elites.
This entire tempest (in a teapot) only gained legs because Hillary Clinton is congenitally
unable to accept responsibility for her own mistakes.
What started out as merely a convenient way to distract the public from the embarrassing
and politically crippling *leak* of her own internal emails (the actual content of which no
one in Clintonland or the media ever protested) has, over the last 18 months, devolved into a
swampland of denial and fantasy which has engulfed the Democrats.
So you must be the one who has the actual evidence that any of this was financed by the
Russian government. Please do post it and enlighten us all. Then please forward it to the DNC – if they know the type of bang for their buck
they can get for just $1000 maybe they'll stop sending the rest of us so many emails begging
for money.
Kevin-it seems to me you presume your conclusion when you say 'This is not the case. A
foreign..'
What's your source? What long history, the internet came around in early 90's, I'm old but
that's not that long ago. And seriously, millions of impressions when Trump rallies were
chanting "lock her up" you don't think word had gotten around or you don't think any
Americans would think of that without foreign assistance.
The World Wide Web went live in 1991. The "internet" has become a catchall term for the
WWW, but there were previous proto-internets including the Internet. "Kevin" isn't on the ball clearly. "Sow dissent" is pretty much code for how upset he was
that "Dear Mother" didn't have a coronation.
"A foreign government employed copy editors to sow dissent in American politics by way of
Twitter, Facebook, online advertising and a network of blogs." Er, citation? I read the indictment. It doesn't say that.
Can you possibly explain this? If the political system can suffer from a few internet
memes, the problem is the state of American politics.
Is the country really this childish? The whole country is founded on dissent. Have you
ever seen those bumper stickers about "Well behaved women not making history"? Do you not see
the problem with your issue.
We aren't discussing arming paramilitary groups or rousing violence. We are discussing a
social media click bait farm in an indictment presented by Bob Mueller, who's greatest hits
include torture, lying about WMDs in Iraq, rounding up Muslims, entrapment, and the Anthrax
farce. I would probably start with a prosecutor with a shred of credibility outside of the
circles where Joe Scarborough is respected.
The worst part is the "OMG Russia" frauds are going to shout so much that nothing will be
done about gun control or any other calamity, but I bet the Pentagon will get more money for
another failed weapon system.
What Russian government? It was a commercial operation posting click bait, of all sorts,
to sell ads. And yes, that's the explanation that fits the facts best. If Putin was really bankrolling
it, no evidence so far, he was wasting his money. From our point of view, a good thing.
A foreign government employed copy editors to sow dissent in American politics by way
of Twitter, Facebook, online advertising and a network of blogs.
There is no proof that this troll farm was acting on behalf of any government.
In one example, for a mere $1000 or so, Russians were able to get American citizens to
build a fake jail cell on a trailer complete with actors to play Hillary, Bill and
Trump.
Right, no republican ever made an offensive parade float before the Russians came
along.
I fear Lambert is right and that the DNC will hyjack the Florida High School students
anti-gun movement and make it serve their purposes. Not Russians bots to fear.
Actually saw someone (somebot? sometroll?) get called out on twitter today for doing the
Russia! thing and not the US people who actually believe whatever the issue was. I think it's
the first time I've seen that. Maybe the last too, but still for a moment there
[The Alliance for Securing Democracy's] researchers and advisors have become go-to
pundits for mainstream reporters seeking expert opinions on Russian online meddling. They
have been endorsed by John Podesta, the founder of the Center for American Progress and
chief of staff for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Julia Ioffe, the
Atlantic's Russia correspondent, has also weighed in to promote the ASD's efforts. Both
highlighted the ASD's Hamilton 68 Dashboard as a scientific barometer of Kremlin influence
over the American social media landscape
However, an investigation by AlterNet's Grayzone Project has yielded a series of
disturbing findings at odds with the established depiction. The researchers behind the
ASD's "dashboard" are no Russia experts, but rather a collection of cranks, counterterror
retreads, online harassers and paranoiacs operating with support from some of the most
prominent figures operating within the American national security apparatus.
Bill Kristol, among others, is on the so-called Alliance for Securing Democracy's board of
advisors.
Our current Powers That Be have never been happy with the legacy of "free speech." It's
now, demonstrably, an indictable offense for non-US citizens to engage in it in the US.
And "b" at
Moon of Alabama thinks that they've deliberately indicted a bunch of people they don't
expect to prosecute (they're all in Russia) in order to have the above "message" on the books
for as long as it takes for someone to stage a legal test of it.
If the Russian government actually funded this sort of thing, they must be pretty
simple-minded.
For not the first time in recent days, I am reminded of a Dave Barry joke from many years
ago, perhaps even before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I don't remember what the column
was about; it might have been about comic strips in general, which were his favorites and
which ones he didn't care for, etc. He mentioned the strip Nancy and said something
like it "was the product of a 70-year Soviet government experimental project to produce a
joke."
Anyway, do we even know that it was Russian "government" money financing these things? It
was some oligarch who had "ties" to Putin. By the standards used so far in Russiagate
reporting, that basically means that he and Putin are both Russian.
It's easy to be skeptical of Russigate. For over a year now the MSM have breathlessly
published a steady stream of "evidence" only to have it fall apart. When "progressive
skeptics" point this out they're accused of going too far? I think we can all assume the
Russian government hasn't been sleeping through the relentless pressure put on it by the
West, but hasnt it been obvious that Russiagate is a politically motivated project?
Toward the end of the book Shattered , there's a passage describing how the
Russia! Russia! Russia! narrative was planned. This happened in a room full of Shake Shack
containers and it involved people from the Clinton campaign.
"It's not a surprise that neo-Nazi groups and white supremacy groups have identified
Russia as one of their key allies, in part because Russia is home to so many white people,
and that the Putin government has identified these movements of key allies as well."
This is an absolutely ridiculous statement. The Russian Federation is very much against
neo-Nazi and white supremacy movements due to what it suffered from Nazi Germany during WWII.
Now Russia sees this on it's boarders in Ukraine. But Russia is branded with this because
white folk live there. What about all the Muslims in Russia, many of which have come from
Central Asia? What about all the Asians in Eastern Russia? The quoted statement is born of
either ignorance, misinformation or disinformation.
The 'net says there are maybe 40,000 "blacks" living in Russia. Also reports a wide
variety of experiences and opinions on what it's like to be a black (actually, of course,
various shades of skin tones from dark olive to golden russety shades of brown, to near
obsidian with hints of blue, but lumped together as "black," like I am a "white" even though
my skin tones range from pinky yellow [soles and palms] to a light tannish cream [most of the
rest]), living and traveling in Russia. One bit of the discourse:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/15/black-in-the-ussr-whats-life-like-for-a-russian-of-colour
I'm reminded of Dick Gregory's observation on America, that as to whites and blacks, "Down
South, they don't care how close you (African-Americans) get, as long as you don't get too
big. Up North, they don't care how big you get, as long as you don't get too close."
Russia is a big place, with some 143 million people living within the geographic
boundaries. Nativism and related notions seem present in any population anywhere, whether
deeply held convictions or convenient ladder rungs to political and economic power. It's so
hard to develop any completeness and accuracy in understanding what's really shakin' and
doin' in the world when people revert to simplisticated personifications as actual important
functional categories. "Russia" is getting the full treatment. Too bad us USians don't use
the same lenses and mirrors to examine our own linty navels
Absolutely right. Russia's dead in WW2 – 20 million (*) is the accepted estimate. I don't think any
other nation suffered as badly (+). If anyone on earth knows the evil consequences of
fascism, neo-Nazism, racial purism the Russians do. That one single line in Feffer's argument comes squeaky close to invalidating the whole
thing.
(*) Strictly the USSR.
(+) Query: Maybe the brutality of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria ?
It is estimated that the total deaths in the Soviet Union under Stalin range from 9 to 50
million (book-keeping was their forte), including famines but not including death by the
Germans.
Mao's policies are believed to have resulted in 40 to 70 million deaths in China.
Not really. The German sympathizers and later defectors who just wanted out couldn't all
claim to be rocket scientists. A factory worker who just wanted to drive a big car and live
in McClean has to come up with a story worth paying for.
There was a cottage industry of tall tales for Stalin's personal use/entertainment. I
don't think the later defectors are an issue, but powerful people helped facilitate the
arrival of too many people with missing records and German accents who weren't in a rush to
go to Israel to not be a political problem.
The former Canadian foreign minister's grandfather was a collaborator. How did he get to
the West? He probably told a tall enough tale. Someone could make their career with that kind
of information coup. What happens if its discovered it was a run of the mill Nazi that was
helped by a now powerful person?
The U.S. actually sent out people to look for Hitler in South America, not escaped war
criminals but Adolph, himself. The U.S. is a paranoid society. Someone was giving tips, and
reason would pretty much dictate the Soviets weren't stopping until they finished the
job.
Its similar to how many people Caesar killed in Gaul, not that he didn't kill a great deal
of people, but after a while, it comes back to there not being that many people.
Here is a Rigorous Intuition post about the CIA's importation of Nazis into post WWII
America . . . . more about the reasons for it than a lot of details about the whole scope of
all the operations . . . all the ratlines, all the paperclips, all the etc.
And here is another, this one about Allen Dulles's persistent sympathy for German Fascism
with perhaps a little of the smelliest Nazism pressure-washed off of it. It talks about his
negotations through various go-betweens with German interlocutors during the early WWII
period.
A combination of ignorance and arrogance is annoying and more dangerous than Russian troll
farms. I can't believe his stupidity about Russians being Nazis. And of Putin being an
Imperialist. If you read Putin's speeches, he is very much a nationalist or patriot. The Bear
is in defense mode and trying to protect its huge borders. Putin' s Speech to the UN in 2015
was about "sovereign democracy" i.e. self -determination of a nation. He said they learned
from the USSR that you can't and shouldn't spread ideology. Feffer could have a permanent gig
on Morning Joe for all the "bafflegab" he spouts.
It's not a particularly well-supported or well-worded statement but it's not ridiculous
nor is it without merit. Muslims are a minority group in Russia and not a very popular one.
Some particularly barbarous acts of terrorism by various aggrieved groups has done nothing to
improve their standing in Russian society. Vladimir Putin's government has actively
cultivated various domestic ethno-nationalist astro-turf movements with fascist predilections
for some time. It is believed that Putin sees these groups as a bulwark against liberal,
western ideology that can be weaponized as CIA sponsored color revolutions or MeToo# type
identity politic movements. Knowing what I know about the United States and post-Cold War US
political meddling, I can't say I blame Putin for wanting a bulwark.
I remember years ago watching a documentary about a state-funded ultra-nationalist Putin
youth group called "Nashi". They staged pro-Putin rallies, hosted summer camps and would
organize free skin-head metal concerts with complimentary vodka and private tents for
appropriately "Russian" ( not muslim and definitely not brown) couples to patriotically
procreate in the service of the fatherland. You can call these state-sponsored groups of
young Russian ethno-nationalists whatever you want, but neo-nazi doesn't seem too unfair if
you're familiar with the ideological history and psychological undercurrents of National
Socialism.
I don't believe Russia hacked any DNC servers, hijacked our elections or flipped any
votes, but I don't doubt for a minute that Russia is actively sowing discord and
disinformation among the American body politic. I believe the ultimate goal is the political
disintegration, or at least paralysis of the United States as payback for the disintegration
of the USSR and Warsaw Pact. I've heard Putin make sly statements over the years where if you
read between the lines this goal is discernible through his thinly veiled remarks and his
smoldering anger at the US for it's continued aggression against Russian influence and
territory post-1989. Years before the 2016 election I remember reading reporting of how the
modern Texas secessionist movement was nothing more than Moscow funded astro-turf. I have no
doubts the "Cal-Exit" campaign that sprung up right after the election (and ironically
supported by the exact same people most worried about Russian influence) was chiefly
organized and funded by professional Russian propagandists as well.
I don't believe the hysterical, McCarthyist media narrative concerning the election and
Russia, but I am also skeptical of absolutist, overarching narratives to the contrary. Putin
is no dummy, he's not a pacifist, and he definitely views the US as a threat/adversary. None
of that means Russian needs to be treated as an enemy or that diplomacy could not result in a
mutually beneficial accommodation for both countries. The world is complicated and becoming
emotionally invested in overly simplistic narratives, even contrarian ones, is unwise.
my major concern is its support for far right-wing nationalist and frankly,
racist movements around the world, including here in the United States.
What does he think Ms. Nuland and her friends were up to in Ukraine? Other than a few bits like that, Feffer does seem to be at least somewhat grounded in
reality (contrast his comments with the quote from Dan Coats). He thinks Russiagate had
little to do with Trump, for example, and was just targeted at spreading confusion in
general. That alone would get him branded as a heretic by the true believers.
I quit reading shortly after that. TV/Video is just awful at policy discussions. The
stupid factoid barrages. I feel dumber just for reading this conversation, I suppose that's
the point.
Great examples of how to fill up newspaper columns without doing any real reporting and
without rocking any important boats.
Also, from 2013:
For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth
broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came
silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an
unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for
domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic
propaganda efforts.
I just started a website to organize all these scattered articles I read on the various
sites I visit I need to find where I put the link to an article that outlines the planting of
CIA paid journalist in major newspapers
Given the "resistance" and other self-described "progressive" voices who have lost their
minds over the election of Donald Trump, one should not be surprised by Feffer's credulity.
He may do a better job at hiding it, with his oh-so-civil language, but the desperation
coming from partisan believers, who rightly see Trump as dangerous but refuse to go after him
for real reasons (first-strike policy in retaliation for cyber attacks, for instance –
has a single Democrat gone on record saying how utterly wrong that is? Oh wait, didn't
Hillary herself campaign on refusing to rule out the first strike option?) is palpable.
And who can blame them for being desperate?
But I find the notion that Russian "meddling" successfully increased the amount of discord
among USians to be.ridiculous. We don't need any help from Russia to be dissatisfied with our
polity and the false choices it constantly gives us.
Mate was far too kind. Some people and some ideas don't deserve the benefit of rational
debate.
The "#TheResistance" don't care about Trump's genuine dangers. They care about how he
prevented their Jonestown Priestess Clinton from getting coronated Empress as they were all
expecting.
There are millions and millions of Jonestown Clintonites. They are a deadly threat and a
menace to political improvement in this country. You can get a sample of what they smell like
by reading Riverdaughter's blog "The Confluence" and its threads. Put your nose close to the
screen and you can smell the Jonestown Punch.
Not since German security services sent VI Lenin back on a sealed train to Petrograd, has
one nation fractured the politics of another with cynical support for the deranged.
Nice. If the Russian Empire wasn't on the verge of falling apart, it wouldn't have taken
the one Lenin domino to topple it all. If the US is on the verge of falling apart people will
be blamed, but not the American people, the people who are actually responsible for this
sociopathy.
Caitlin Johnstone made a three-part Debunking Russiagate series back in June 2017. Here
are all three. I think they hold up pretty well. (They were noted at NC.)
.From the outside, Americans screaming about this look like a bully screaming, "How dare
you do to me what I do to everyone else. I'm going to bury you!" This does not induce sympathy.
Still, we can make a strong case that countries shouldn't interfere in other countries'
internal political affairs, including–especially including–elections.
I think that the Russians might be willing to agree to that.
So the sane method of dealing with this issue, to which which virtually everyone will
agree, would be to begin negotiations towards that end.
Americans and Russians get together and have frank talks, which amount to a peace
treaty: We won't do it to you, if you don't do it to us.
They might even extend that to not doing it to other countries.
This is the actual road out, though it seems laughable because it's really impossible to
imagine. Both the US and Russia have been interfering in many countries for a long time,
though America is the champion of the last 30 years or so, and by a wide margin.
Russia has been arguing for just that -- a cyberwar peace treaty -- for almost a decade
now. Here's a 2009 write-up , which is really
quite interesting in a hindsight-y way.
"We really believe it's defense, defense, defense," said the State Department official,
who asked not to be identified because authorization had not been given to speak on the
record. "They [the Russians] want to constrain offense. We needed to be able to
criminalize these horrible 50,000 attacks we were getting a day."
I find the narrative that's been put forward to be honestly more convincing than the
counter narrative
We're supposed to be convinced because he's convinced. It's a gut feeling. Appeals to
actual evidence bounce right off. Guess I don't get out much but had to look up who John
Feffer even is.
The latest M of A–linked here the other day–is a great takedown of Mueller's
troll farm allegation. Some of us prefer a little evidence prior to being "convinced."
Russia is Soros' white whale a creature he has been trying to capture and kill-off for
nearly a decade.
Unfortunately for Soros (and fortunately for the entire planet) the Russian government
realised the cancerous nature of Soros backed NGOs, and took the proper preventative
measures which in hindsight, and after reviewing the DC Leaks memos, proved to be a very
wise move.
Crowdstrike is the only source of evidence of Russian hacking of DNC. And Crowdstrike
had to walk it back when they used the exact same evidence to claim that Russia had hacked
Ukraine's artillery. That is likely why DNC refused to let FBI run forensics on their
servers.
Feffer claims to oppose Cold War II, but is actively promoting it. Russiagate is being
used to silence progressives. Note that both Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein are named in
Mueller's indictment as beneficiaries of the alleged "Russian meddling" in our election.
BTW: Feffer is a Fellow at Open Society, a NGO financed by George Soros who also funds the
Atlantic Council, whose board includes the owner of Crowdstrike. So Feffer and Crowdstrike
are both funded by the same oligarch.
The Soviets and now the Russians have been messing about with the US for 70 years. Nothing
new about it. Read "The Sword and the Shield" which is sourced from the KGB archives when
they were briefly opened to the west after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Things are just easier now than then. "The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle
for the the Third World" is also sourced from the KGB archives has details about what they
did then.
The US messed with the Soviet Union and Russia when they could. See the stories about
Yeltsin's reelection. Or the Ukraine in 2014.
this was reportedly a commercial venture. still awaiting evidence that the election was in
any way affected by some online scam that may have originated in russia. the us has
interfered, as you point out, much more effectively in russia. other countries do it to us,
but there is no evidence that russia effected clinton's loss to trump, or colluded in
effecting it.
A commercial venture, as opposed to David Brock's pro-Clinton paid trolls which was
definitely not a commercial venture and designed solely to influence the election. Also
illegal by the way but he's a Murican so who cares?
This is the mental equivalent of the sunk cost fallacy. At this point the media, the Dems
and legions of David Brock led trolls have invested so much time and energy into "Muh Russia"
that they can't write off their investment.
Keep going. You're doing fine. It's down there somewhere. You can endure another season of
Persist, the payoff is right around the corner. There is nothing more important right now
than ignoring inconvenient facts.
I might suggest that things would go faster if you give up just a little more of your
critical thinking skills. To be honest they just get in the way at times like these when the
narrative gets tenuous.
No one outside of the Dem party faithful really cares about the Russiagate nonsense. The
rest of the world has watched the US meddle in and outright rig elections in more countries
than I have the time to list for decades, a list with very ironically includes Russia in
1996. If a troll factory is the best they have, it's a straight up joke. They better have
more to go along with it, because as it stands now buying a few ads and paying people to post
online, standard PR practice, is incredibly weak. At this stage in the game, it feels kind of
pathetic, an attempt by a party elite still unable to admit they lost, grasping at straws and
still in this late hour desperately trying to make it seem like Hillary was the rightful
winner.
It also, not coincidentally, works to taint the criticism of anyone, right or left, who
disagrees. Not only that, it further casts doubt on all news sources which aren't the
Democrat party approved corporate sources, another bonus. One could make a good case this was
the goal all along: absolve themselves for bungling the 2016 election and discredit any
information sources they don't control lock, stock, and barrel.
'The rest of the world has watched the US meddle in and outright rig elections in more
countries than I have the time to list.'
Not only has the US been hollering "regime change" since the infamous neocon Project for a
New American Century began in 1997, it actually invaded and plundered several countries --
Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan -- for the express purpose of replacing their governments
with US-backed ones.
Check out ex-CIA douchebag James Woolsey making weird barnyard noises when MSM anchorette
Laura Ingraham asks him whether "we" still meddle in other countries' elections, before
admitting on the record that it's "only for a very good cause" [yuk, yuk]
With waving arms and hair on fire, Rep. Jerrold Nadler claimed on MSNBC that the Russian
troll farm is "the equivalent of Pearl Harbor." If special snowflake America's democracy is
so fragile that a bunch of amateurish Boris & Natasha trolls can bring it down, then
let it bleed [and share the Stoli, comrades].
" If special snowflake America's democracy is so fragile that a bunch of amateurish Boris
& Natasha trolls can bring it down, then let it bleed [and share the Stoli,
comrades]."
Your second paragraph is I think all that matters at this point. The Russian trolls (who
are probably still active online, albeit with less vigor) are pikers compared to the native
manipulators who swarm the 'liberal' ring of our 2-ring media circus. The latter are devoted
to squelching dissent, and unconcerned about sounding like idiots while they do it. Of course
the only people they are aiming to shame are waverers on their 'own side'. Republican flyover
types are unpeople in their eyes; their target audience is pretty select -- mainly those who
don't want to be out of place among the youthful hipster elite. I.e. former Sanderistas who
might pay attention to establishment Democrat perfidy if the noise machine stops howling for
a second.
I'd love to know where these frantic fellows were when the New York Times comments
sections were overtaken by Correct the Record trolls 2 years ago. That Brockian anti-Sanders
effort was more effective and Orwellian than anything they've since tagged as
Russia-generated. So much of the furor now seems to be coming from men who fear they may be
getting bested at their own game!
"Tainting the criticism" of anyone who disagrees is the primary mid-range goal of the
Russiagate Information Operation. The long range goal is to pass Patriot Act type laws to
suppress and control all expression on all media; digital, analog or other.
feffer keeps saying "who hacked the dnc" but there is no evidence anybody did. it's like
the repeated assertions made about saddam's "wmd's" in the runup to iraq 2.
Timestamps on the DNC data show the files were copied locally, not over a network. That
means they were leaked. Not hacked. Leaked by someone with physical access to the data. This
came out
back in July . Maybe Mate isn't "convinced" but I haven't seen anything, ever, that
convincingly refutes the analysis.
So if someone wants me to believe in Russiagate they need to show me some damn evidence.
I'm not going to believe something simply because every flexian apparatchik in the press
parrots it 24/7 (90% of whom were in the tank for Hillary and personally devastated when she
lost and more than happy to blame evil foreigners for how they called the election wrong).
What we're seeing is a serious mental breakdown on the part of Democrats. What happened to
these people? Back when GWB was in office they were supposedly the party of reality, the
rational people who didn't make things up to justify a convenient war. It appears that only
lasted as long as elections went in their favor. Now we see them for the dishonest hysterical
fantasists they really are. Just like Republicans.
So where does that leave us? At the dawn of a Second Cold War with a psychopathic party on
either side. Well, that's just awesome.
How do we know that the time stamps where created on the DNC's computer and not some other
computer later on? It's easy to change the date backwards and make those time stamps be
anything.
I had occasion to view a Podesta email recently:
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/11409 Big banner across the top: This email has also been verified by Google DKIM 2048-bit RSA key. Like a blockchain transaction, this DKIM algo was designed to prove cryptographically that
you are viewing what existed when the user clicked send.
Click on the DKIM link in that banner for a full explanation.
Domain Keys Identified Mail, or DKIM, is a highly regarded email security system that can
be used to independently authenticate the contents and sender of an email that uses
it.
Some folks just can't keep themselves from pushing the Narrative. I wonder how many of
those people have been involved in "interfering with elections," as part of the Great
American Enterprise
Yves Smith: You yourself have written that extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence. What we are getting is flimsy hearsay and calls for war. It is all Remember the
Maine (and don't remember that the Democrats, in particular, brought this on themselves).
Feffer's typical in not being able to keep control of the simplest of facts:
"It's not a surprise that neo-Nazi groups and white supremacy groups have identified Russia
as one of their key allies, in part because Russia is home to so many white people, and that
the Putin government has identified these movements of key allies as well."
So now Russia is the international source of white people? What can this possibly mean?
And don't tell the Volga Tatars or the Mari or the Yakuts or any of the many peoples who
aren't "white" by U.S. standards. (Many of the Mari are among the last pagan Europeans.) The
comment is worthy of Sarah Palin, well-known foreign-policy expert and Chunky Monkey shoes
fancier.
I am reminded of the Watergate crisis. By all means, let's have indictments for real
crimes (besides lying to the FBI) of people who are living within American jurisdictions or
can be extradited. Then have a trial(s) with a judge of the quality of John Sirica.
But that isn't what the powerful want, particularly because establishment figures soon
will be dragged in. They want confrontation, more looting, and more war. And if we are all
suddenly worried about Putin being morally stinky, what should we do with Erdogan, Netanyahu,
Viktor Orban of Hungary, Brazilian President Temer, and Aung San Suu Kyi, all of whom are
considered "friends" of the U S of A?
And as to sowing discord: Someone should have noticed that 50 years ago with Nixon and the
Southern Strategy.
Seems to me that Maté did just fine. I'm not sure of what else you can do with
someone like Feffer. When presented with good reasons for doubting his purported evidence,
Feffer pretty much concedes the point every time. But then he insists that he finds the
evidence convincing. In other words, he insists that he's going to go on treating it as good
evidence, drawing the relevant conclusions, and asserting as much. That means he's a gullible
person, and rather dogmatic to boot. Arguing with such people won't get you very far.
I did find Feffer's repeated demand for a counter-narrative interesting. This seems to be
a way of simultaneously lowering the bar for knowledge and raising the bar for doubt. He's
trying to say that doubt is only reasonable if the skeptic can produce a better theory than
the believer. Absent such a theory, doubt isn't reasonable and everyone should believe. In
other words, having conceded that the evidence isn't very good by ordinary epistemic
standards, he's decided to switch to extra-ordinary standards. Roughly, I think the ordinary
standard for doubt goes something like this: I can correctly say I doubt something when I can
explain why the supposed evidence doesn't provide sufficient support for the claim in
question. I'm not required, as a skeptic, to produce a superior argument for a different,
incompatible claim about the same issue.
And now, having written that, it looks to me like Feffer is just engaging in a bit of
argumentum ad ignorantium , a fallacy so old they named it in Latin.
The counter-narrative, IMO, is this: The avaricious and foolhardy Trump wanted to build
more onanistic monuments to himself in Moscow, to slurp oysters there and cavort with Russian
women. He threatened to upset decades of planning by both Dems and Republicans alike to
encircle Russia, expand NATO, and SELL BILLIONS AND BILLIONS WORTH OF ARMS, often to
dictators, with kickbacks on the side (legal and illegal) to ours truly. The powers that be
in the CIA and FBI decided that intervention was needed, even if the cost was democracy
itself. Trump has enough irons in the fire with Russia, enough outstanding loans and dirty
dealings, that such a clear-eyed narrative may never get its head above water, but that is as
close as we may come to nutshelling it.
"That means he's a gullible person, and rather dogmatic to boot. Arguing with such people
won't get you very far."
Which also means, surely, that his demand that others who refuse to endorse his gullible
dogmatism must meet "extra-ordinary epistemic demands" is – at best – mere
sounding off. For who could be a worse pick for assessing both the required standards and
their being met?
I think the kindest thing to say here, epistemically, is that the man is in a terrible
mess. It is a sad thing to see. But then there are a lot of sad things to see in the
"progressive reality-based community" today.
Makes me wonder what's to be done about it. When I hit upon the idea that he's just
arguing from ignorance, I started thinking about informal logic courses, the ones called
Critical Thinking hereabouts. Perhaps more of those would help.
By the way, I was talking with a colleague who does Ancient yesterday, specifically the
philosophy of Socrates, and I mentioned the question you raised about the Noble Lie. He told
me that it's quite similar to a myth recounted by Hesiod. That was news to me. He also said
that Greek colonists, prior to departure, would settle on a constitution for the new city
together with a founding myth. As for the bit about the whole of one's childhood having been
a dream, he guessed that this was a story that was intended to be told repeatedly, to
successive generations. Now, the first generation was unlikely to believe, granted. But later
generations would believe it of the first , the founding generation. He noted that this would
be quite similar to what a number of native American peoples believed about the first of
their kind. Oh, and one more thing occurred to me: earth mother goddess myths were common to
the region back then, dating back at least to the Minoan civilization. Altogether, to me this
makes the Myth of Metals seem a good deal more plausible relative to the people for whom it
was intended.
This also makes me think that education in the humanities could be part of the solution to
widespread credulity and dogmatism. Studying Plato can, for instance, inoculate against myth,
something which is still with us. Knowing myth when you see it, it's possible to appreciate
it without being taken in. There's much to be gained, too, from thinking like Thucydides from
time to time. It's good to recall that both Sparta and Athens claimed to be fighting for
freedom. And every time I hear about how we're going to use better, more powerful tools to
finally vanquish the things we find most threatening, whether those things are "enemy" states
or tactics (terrorism) or catastrophic ecological processes that we have ourselves set in
motion, I can't help but recall Lucretius' account of what happened when bulls and boars and
lions were trained up for war and loosed upon the enemy. "Don't believe what I've just told
you about all this," he says, "for no one would be so foolish as to think they could ever
really control such beasts." I don't often use the word, but there's wisdom here, or so it
seems to me. We'd profit from knowing it. But, by and large, we don't.
If I take my young kids and have an easter egg hunt with those plastic eggs and tell them
that there's candy inside, and they keep finding them, opening them and there's just candy
wrappers with no candy, then my kids are going to quickly grow tired of looking for the eggs
since they're not delivering the promised candy.
This is what Russiagate feels like. We keep finding eggs, getting excited, then, no candy.
But we're told to keep at it .eventually SOME of those eggs will have some candy. Other
people who are really good at finding eggs have said they found some eggs with candy in them,
even though we know they're habitual liars.
Feffer and the others who believe in this story are going to need some SERIOUS F-ING CANDY
at this point to justify this unshakable belief they have that THERE IS CANDY SOMEWHERE IN
THESE STUPID, PLASTIC EASTER EGGS!?!?!?!
It reminds me of that iceberg that broke off Antarctica last year. The enormity and extent
of the hypocrisy and global delusion it represents.
If anyone wants to understand the level of breakdown, consider the amount of debt being
issued today. That is the real source of cognitive dissonance.
I certainly agree. When politics gets this chaotic and confusing there is some far more
important hidden agenda being guarded by a "bodyguard of lies." The turn of this century will
go down in history as the beginning of the energy wars. When the stakes are this high
everybody pretends to be innocent. My knowledge is scant – I assume Russia's lifeblood
is natural gas and LNG and they want to sell it to Europe. We claim Europe as our URally and
do not want this to happen. Unless we can strong arm our way into some of the action. To that
end we have been pushing US natural gas/LNG exports regardless of the expense and short
returns of fracking. The dead silence on global warming and the energy crisis should be the
first give-away.
A hugely important point which is seldom ever if ever covered in the media here (umm
scratching his head, I wonder if it could be for any particular reason) -- Europe is highly
dependent on natural gas from Russia. We're forecast to have a
big, late cold sna p and suddenly everyone starts getting a little twitchy about energy
security.
Of course, us gas consumers here (well, our governments, anyway) resent their dependence
and the self-loathing which it engenders. But that dependence in fact increases geopolitical
security because neither "side" wants to do anything which upsets the energy apple cart.
Shale gas and LNG exports from the US threatens this equilibrium. But there's no economic
(cost of production) advantage for US shale gas over pipeable Russian gas. Wouldn't it be
nice for the US shale gas industry if, oh, I don't know, there were some shenanigans which
gave a voice to anti-Russia sentiment and a clamour for, maybe eventually, economic
sanctions?
And during the last cold snap in the US, several tankers full of Russian LNG made port
here to make up a shortage. So, having prohibited Europe from buying Russian gas in favor of
importing the US version, we ended up not having enough for our own people and got it from
Russia.
>We have the report from the intelligence community here in the United States that
provides at least a trail. It's been challenged, but I find the narrative that's been put
forward to be honestly more convincing than the counter narrative.
I agree that the 'Russia hacked the DNC' theory is more likely to be true than
any other individual theory, although there still isn't any hard proof available to the
public. But that's hardly a good defense of 'Russiagate'. Not having a better suspect isn't
really a justification for sanctioning Russia (or more, if the Russiagaters get their
way).
I disagree that the report provides a trail. It lists a number of APTs that conducted the
hacking, and states that they are tied to Russia. However, it provides zero underlying
evidence that the hacking was conducted by those APTs, and that they were related to Russia
in any way.
Another possibility is that, yes, Russia did hack the DNC for intelligence-gathering
purposes, but didn't provide the emails to WikiLeaks. It's entirely possible that more than
one entity hacked into them (if anyone did at all). As flimsy as the narrative is with Russia
doing the hack, it's even thinner when it comes to transmitting the emails to Russia.
thanks for this summary. just more assertions sans evidence from the people that brought
you the iraq war (republicans and democrats, working together like the harlem
globetrotters and the washington (hmm) generals.
That's like saying the most popular theory is correct, on the basis that it's the most
popular. Truth doesn't work that way. Supply some evidence. Otherwise you're operating on the
basis of what feels true. "Truthiness", not truth.
Why did the FBI never examine the server?
Why do the timestamps show the data was copied locally by someone with physical access to the
machine?
Why did the NSA decline to back the whitepaper when we know they have every single network
intercept and can literally prove what happened?
All we have is a bunch of handwaving and people who don't know much about computers
repeating things they heard from people with a track record of lying.
I think it's worth looking at the Russia-gate believers, on this. If they all agreed on
one narrative, that'd be something, but they don't even agree among themselves, which I'd
argue is actually really problematic.
Marcy Wheeler says collusion is there, Steele doc is garbage, and the social media stuff
is just fluff. I think she says crowdstrike is garbage, too, but might have had some good
bits.
Some in corp media says Steele doc is unquestionably awesome and should be believed.
Cenk Uygur says it's not about the hacking of the DNC, it's about money-laundering and not
collusion to rig election.
Feffer says crowdstrike is legit report, even though they're Dem Party hack consultants.
Feffer also says Russia wants to sow discord and the social media stuff matters. He says
they're hacking European elections, too, even though those reports have been knocked down. He
also says Trump was an imperfect vehicle for Russia's agenda.
Luke Harding and Steele say Trump and Russia have been besties for years and planned this
all along.
I may be off on one or more of the details above, but all of these "serious" believers in
Russia-gate don't even agree with one another.
I'm growing increasingly tired of watching Aaron Mate disembowel these people one-by-one
but I'd agree it needs to be done because this story just .won't .go .away .
Climate change is real, but not caused by humans .not real ..real, but caused by solar
activity .real, but planet is getting colder and risking new ice age .maybe real, but don't
have enough evidence .
almost like it's an organized campaign to spread DIS-information?!?!?!?
If anyone has a fun link to someone trying to tackle where the secret volcanoes spewing
CO2 are, I'd appreciate it. Because it's become a meme-earworm to me: "Which
volcanoes?!?"
The people you've mentioned are not perfectly mainstream. At least they were not until
quite recently. They are members of the (formerly) 'left' wing blogosphere. A group that
contains many natural contrarians, who each have cultivated slightly different views of
things over the years.
Although they sure seem pretty lockstep now, on this matter, don't they? I suspect most of
them cannot not allow themselves to accept why it is that a skank like Trump was elected. The
'left' blogosphere was completely neutered over the past decade, and it's leading lights now
have little value to add to anyone's thinking on current affairs.
Feffer says that progressives don't take Russiagate as seriously as they should. I think
critical thinkers are taking it very seriously, because of potential censorship of dissenting
voices that favor peace over war, and that favor productive social spending over wasteful
military spending.
Even absent such concerns, the Russiagate hysteria is obviously a partisan power struggle
that sucks the air out of the room for productive political discourse to address real social,
economic, and environmental problems.
How seriously to take Russiagate is a separate question from skepticism over evidence we
have yet to be shown. The bigger question that Feffer doesn't address is "So what?" Even if
the facts stated in the 3-agency report and the DOJ indictment are true, do they really
justify all this hysteria?
If the Russian state is actually interfering in our elections, then quietly take measures
to stop it. Instead, over the past 15 years, the federal government has promoted hackable
computers and voting systems.
Moreover, even if the Russian state did interfere for geopolitical goals, treat it as the
actions of an adversary and quietly take countermeasures. This should not be a political
issue.
The Russiagate narrative has gone far beyond authentic reaction to Russia's actions, which
many experts such as Cohen and Mearsheimer consider to be reactions to NATO actions.
Feffer's concern is that Putin and Trump are colluding to promote white supremacy. That's
his big picture, and would be concerning if true. However, even if true that doesn't address
the concerns I raise above.
Would recommend a recently published book by investigative journalist, Michele McPhee: Maximum Harm: The Tsarnaev Brothers, the FBI, and the Road to the Marathon Bombing. Highly recommended
All good points, Dwight. We need to separate the discussion/investigation of Russian
influence from the ridiculous and dangerous hyperbolic reaction to it. We need to take steps
to make the election process fair and transparent and un-hackable as far as possible (paper
ballots, hand-counted) as much or more for domestic reasons. I care far more about
voter suppression (legal and illegal) and about domestic players monkeying around with
electronic voting systems than I care about a tiny amount of crude ads and trolling on social
media.
Democrats have just strangled the "Blue wave" in the cradle. Political tides are turning, and the Democratic Establishment is starting to feel the
pressure from Progressive primary challengers. And evidence is mounting that Progressives win
elections, even in "red districts" while corporate Democrats still manage to lose even in
blue ones. And on the horizon, is a Sanders run in 2020.
So, the 13 incitements, in addition to keeps the Russian narrative alive for another few
weeks, is providing political cover for the establishment to clean house as it were, and
clear out the Progressive infestation threatening to cripple the money train the
establishment has become accustomed too.
The "Do Russia-gate skeptics go too far" is a part of that narrative. Interesting to note
that "Russia-gate skeptics" don't actually get much air-time to challenge the narrative. So,
the notion that they have gone "too far" is a bit laudable. No, the point here is to justify
further squelching independent media and to silence the few individuals out there who still
dare to speak out over watercoolers.
Already, more assertive smears have been made against Jill Stine and Birney Sanders as
receiving "Russian aid" in their campaigns. The end game is to knock them out of the running
in 2020, justifying even more extreme steps.
Democratic Establishment being challenged in primaries will start to invoke a kind of
"don't change horses" privileges for their primaries in response to this new "9-11". They
might even go so far as to accuse the primary challengers as receiving "aid from Russia."
This will cripple their primary efforts. And failing that, justifies simply locking them out
of the primary all together in the name of "election integrity."
Their thinking is that if they lock out the progressives, then the establishment can rise
the wave for another cycle. But in so doing, they squelch the issues progressives are trying
to represent, and makes Russia-gate more prominent in the 2018 strategy.
It plays right into the hands of the Republicans. Giving them the intellectual high ground
when it comes to rallying around the president. While at the same time de-mobilizing the
progressive vote, ending the blue wave before it gets started.
The Dem-establishment are finished, they just don't know it yet. It's just a mater of time
before they fade away completely. What remains undecided is whether a progressive moment will
take their place, either by taking over the Democratic Party or forming a new third party to
take its place. Or weather America becomes a single party state under Republican Rule.
yes, i think it's a twofer, clean house in the democratic party to preserve their control
and maintain their grift, and support the neocons who haven't had enough wars lately.
The answer is to defeat every single mainstream Democrat in every single race, every
single time. Loss by loss, the Mainstream Democrats can be exterminated from political
existence.
The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research
that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about President Trump's
connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin,
people familiar with the matter said.
How good were these sources? Consider what Steele would write in the memos he filed with
Simpson: Source A -- to use the careful nomenclature of his dossier -- was " a senior
Russian Foreign Ministry figure. " Source B was " a former top level intelligence
officer still active in the Kremlin. " And both of these insiders, after "speaking to a
trusted compatriot," would claim that the Kremlin had spent years getting its hooks into
Donald Trump.
The Washington-based Campaign Legal Center (CLC) said in a Wednesday complaint to the
Federal Election Commission (FEC) that Hillary for America and the Democratic National
Committee (DNC) broke campaign finance law by trying to hide payments related to the
dossier, which included graphic, unproven claims about the current president's sexual
habits.
The FBI last year used a dossier of allegations of Russian ties to Donald Trump's
campaign as part of the justification to win approval to secretly monitor a Trump
associate, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.
Thanks to the Podesta Emails available on Wikileaks, we can have a clear view of what
research and polling was done to try to come up with a good strategy for the Clinton
campaign.
Secretary Clinton's top vulnerability tested in this poll is the attack that claims as
Secretary of State she signed off on a deal that gave the Russian government control over
20% of America's uranium production, after investors in the deal donated over $140
million to the Clinton Foundation. Half of all likely voters (53%) are less likely to
support Clinton after hearing that statement and 17% are much less likely to support her
after that statement.
Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow
control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence
that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and
money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin's atomic energy business inside the United
States, according to government documents and interviews.
The connections to the current Russia case are many. The Mikerin probe began in 2009
when Robert Mueller , now the special counsel in charge of the Trump case, was still
FBI director. And it ended in late 2015 under the direction of then-FBI Director James
Comey , whom Trump fired earlier this year.
I found the intelligence agency report on the DNC hacking to be rather flimsy. I think the
tell for me was that roughly half of it consisted of some very generic, boilerplate
cybersecurity tips – the kind that you'll find in your agency's annual security
refresher training. The only thing that would've made it more obvious, I think, is if they
had changed around the font size and margins, in order to drive up the page count. What does
that say about their confidence in the rest of the report, that they felt the need to add
fluff to it?
You have no chain of evidence to convict anyone in a court of law for the hack. The FBI
was called in months later, and the already deemed guilty party just so happened to collude
with her election opponent.
I often get called a supporter of "fake news" for ignoring any and all reports on Russian
election interference and Russian twitter bots as profoundly not interesting or important. No
evidence has ever surfaced that votes were changed, fabricated or deleted. The electoral
process itself was untouched. The candidates were not bribed (for a given value of 'bribed'
-- i.e. 'quid pro quo'). Thus, there was no interference.
I was especially ridiculed for claiming that the recent four-alarm fire at Wired
about Russian Twitter posts following the Parkland school shooting was crisis exploitation at
its most disgusting. I do not dispute that posts by Russian government employees exist. I
just fail to see them as a threat or even a meaningful fact to report about.
Why would Putin prefer Trump to Clinton? SABOTAGE.
The term sabotage derives from the practice of throwing "sabots" (clogs) into machines to
break them. It's Luddites 101. Tossing Trump into the machinery of Democracy has clearly
achieved precisely the same thing. Since Trump, many headlines continue to assert that
democracy in the USA is broken.
To Putin, the beauty of it is that he did it so easily and for so little money.
clinton sabotaging the primaries broke our democracy, and so did the supreme ct in
citizens united. are the justices and clinton controlled by putin, too? i understand clinton
has a higher price tag than the average russian troll.
Yeah, sorry, but if we lost our 'democracy', we lost it some good number of years before
Trump. Perhaps when George W Bush beat Gore, if not before that. Trump is just the latest
right wing sh*tlord president we have had in succession, including supposed leftists Obama
and Clinton. The only reason Democrats hate Trump more than they hated Bush (whose image by
the way has since been rehabilitated by the Democratic establishment!) is that he is rude and
goes against social norms.
Also, do you really think a few hundred thousand dollars worth of shitty advertisements
comparing Hillary to the Devil is really enough to actually affect the election in any
significant way?
yeah love it when shrub is now getting brought back into the fold, assuming their disdain
for him ever was real. and ronnie was often complimented by obama.
The extent of the hysteria is mind boggling-do people believe this? another pearl harbor,
worst atk sincie 9-11?
The head of these 13 people, yes just 13, was a former hot dog vendor in St Pete. The $1.2
mil also covered ads to internal Russian markets. Moon over alabama says it was a commercial
exercise-VP of Facbook says most ot the russian sourced ads were place after the
election.
i agree with kuntzler that the us has collectively lost its mind-it really is beyond
hysteria, it goes to "can you top this." I think "worst atk since 9-11" gets us close to the
top but I have never credited scarborough with any ability to think-just keep repeated the
mantra. I do not know where this will wind up but clearly the neo cons have won big time and
america has embarassed itself beyond what anyone could conceiveably imagine. I hold my head
and try not to completely dispair.
It's the blatant in your face lies and it's the ludicrousness of the lies. I recently saw
Dr.Strangelove at the theater, and what do you do when confronted with people who are crazed
or possessed by something? To say things in all seriousness that would make you spit your
drink out in laughter. There's got to be something going on for this many people in "serious"
media outlets to be saying the most lunatic and bizarre things in unison.
i'm afraid it's a push for another war, syria, iran, russia, you name it. it's just about
as bad as the extended propaganda campaign before we attacked iraq for nonexistent (and very
obviously nonexistent, as hans blix and mohammed elbarridei shot down each and every report
of wmd's) weapons. i just hope and pray to the gods of randomness that this one doesn't work
as well.
A few thoughts: Cord cutting. Who watches cable news? In the end people who are older and
towards the more comfortable end of the spectrum, the last eight or sixteen years, weren't
terrible. Trump might be more upsetting to them that the Iraq War, hence the new found
admiration for Shrub.
We should remember the rightward shift of the media in the 90's to chase after the
audience being lost to cable news and talk radio. Rush harped endlessly on the liberal media.
It was grossly inaccurate, but newspapers shifted right in response as conservatives stopped
buying newspapers.
Who is the most likely to be a cable news viewer of the next few years? A kid who went to
an Occupy rally? No, I don't think so. The networks have been furiously fear mongering to
keep the election viewership watching because in the long term they won't pick up new people.
After all, what does Maddow do in an hour (imagine she never went full Glenn Beck) that you
couldn't read in under five minutes? They are pulling out all of FoxNews tricks to win old
people over. Look at the graphics on MSNBC and CNN. In years past, the three cable networks
had different acts, but they look almost interchangeable. Everything, even opinion pieces,
get the "breaking news" chyron. Turn on MSNBC. I guarantee you, you will see "breaking news"
in a frightening form over something entirely trivial.
Senior citizens viewership. Anathema to advertisers. Seniors even the ones with money
already have loyalty to brands. Ads are a waste on them.
Then of course, there is the basic problem with "access journalism." The msm "press"
revolves around the need for "interviews" and access to subjects. For example, Trump and the
NYT have the strangest relationship. The snipe at each other non-stop, and then hold weird
public love fests when Trump does an interview. Instead of "following the money," the media
looks for Deep Throat to provide answers. The Bush and Clinton courtiers dominate Washington
(Obama just kept whoever was around in power), but going forward, what good is a useless
Clinton lackey to a corporate board? A Bush family endorsement? They are still in Washington,
but they desperately need for the paymasters to believe the Clinton/Bush apparatus are still
marketable. They provide the press with a story, and their story of "OMG Russia" excuses
their own losses. Lets not forget $125 million Jeb lit on fire and promises of how Trump
couldn't down to Bush Country and defeat Jeb after the Southern Dandy's endorsement in
SC.
At the end of the day, it still goes back to "What Happened?" The political elites in this
country are so effed up that they allowed Jeb vs. Hillary to be a real possibility. The
future of the GOP is a clownshow, and the Democrats have Bernie Sanders and a drooling
Kennedy or whoever their desperate attempt to block a candidate having to make promises is.
Who is at fault? It can't be "Mother." It can't be people with fancy titles. No, its
foreigners.
To cap things off, CNN, yes that CNN, dispatched one of their reporters to St Pete to go
through the garbage of the troll farm; he tried to enter the building and was asked to
leave.
I think the most recent Mueller indictments are more dangerous than many people realize.
Claims that Bernie was supported by 'Russian bots' in the primaries are already being used
against him. Assuming most Democratic primary voters still believe in Russiagate in 2020, it
would be very easy for Trump to use the Russia conspiracy against Bernie or another
progressive that had a good chance of beating him. His intel heads are all Russia hawks who
have vowed to help prevent 'Russian interference in our elections'. There's guaranteed to be
at least a few Russian internet trolls supporting the campaign, or some minor official with
some vague connection to Russia, so all they have to do is open an investigation, and leak
that investigation to the press.
I was just at a talk and Q&A session given by NH senior Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. There
will be an article in the local paper tomorrow that I'll post, but in the meantime I will do
my best to write up the highlights here today, so please bear with me. I was scribbling
furiously. Unfortunately it was not videotaped.
She gave a 15-20 minute talk at a podium and then the rest was Q&A with the crowd and
a professor moderated it. There were 168 chairs set out but from a quick head count only a
little over 100 people attended- most were retirees, and then students made up the rest. It
was at 11am, so not a very good time of day for normal people.
Okay so for her talk: she said she looks at the cybersecurity threat through a lens of
global security, and that the Kremlin has used these tactics versus Ukraine and in the lead
up to Brexit. She said this isn't a new Cold War because technology has rendered countries
borderless, and only recently has the US become aware that it's been targeted by
cyberattacks, especially spread through social media. She said our efforts in Syria were
damaged by these cyberattacks. She kept mentioning Kaspersky over and over again, how he's a
major buddy of Putin and does his bidding, said Kaspersky Labs is Kremlin-linked, and that
under Russian law it is required to have all servers located in Moscow available/all info
shared with the FSB. She used the term "Russia's hybrid warfare" at least a few times, and
said that our government has to "protect Americans from threats". She wants to establish a
clear command structure for cybersecurity at the federal government level. And that it's
crucial for younger generations to be taught how to identify fake news and
disinformation.
She thinks Putin is doing this to manipulate our open media in order to turn Americans
against each other, and reiterated that all 17 intel agencies have incontrovertible evidence
of Russian interference. She brought up that Dan Coates repeated Pompeo's statement that the
US is under attack. Sanctions against Russia were brought up and she repeated how the bill
was bipartisan, and it sends a strong message to the Kremlin and that Trump won't okay these
sanctions. She said there have been partisan attacks on Mueller, the DoJ, and FBI in order to
undermine the investigations, and that this would help achieve the Kremlin's goal of turning
Americans against each other. She said elections here in the US and "all across Europe" have
been threatened.
The "misleading" Nunez memo was mentioned and she said trolls and bots using facebord and
twitter led to its release, that the Russians are pushing the deep state narrative along with
anti-Obama messages in order to enflame social divisions in the US, and that the Russians are
pushing messaging about Ukraine and Syria. She said "a hostile foreign power interfered in
our election", that the Russians are trying to undermine American democracy, that we have to
fight back because "It's about Patriotism"(yeah, she actually said this-it was all I could do
to not throw up at that point), and how important the independence of the FBI is and that the
Mueller MUST be allowed to complete his investigation. She said the US is being eroded from
within and trotted out a JFK quote about defending freedom "against Putin's methods". Unity
unity unity! Felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.
She accused the Russians of building up their military might and extending it to Ukraine
and Syria, that they caused the Brexit vote result, fomented and stirred up Catalonia's
secessionist movement the other month, and caused a certain Czech leader to be elected(I'm
not up on Czech politics).
She brought up the idea of using paper ballots again and admitted there had been no hacks
to voting machines. She said the Russians were trying to undermine people's(not just
Americans) faith in democracy, getting folks to think elections are rigged, and that their
vote doesn't count (yeah yeah I know, right?!).
During the Q&A session, she said how they were talking to Treasury and others to find
out ways to force the sanctions through, brought up the Magnitsky Act(and his murder in
jail). Someone asked about the Korea troubles and she said how she completely believes
McMaster and other military leaders that the bloody nose strategy isn't on the table even
though "Trump has pleaded for it". She stated that she thinks an AUMF from Congress is
only necessary when 10s of thousands of soldiers would be sent somewhere for an
extended period , and she mentioned how the Syria situation deteriorated because Obama
drew a red line and then didn't back it up.
She thinks the Russians are trying to undermine The West in order to create a new Russian
Empire. She actually said this out loud. A student called out the US's efforts influencing
the elections of other countries(he brought up a recent Carnegie Mellon paper about how the
US meddled in 80 countries), coups, propping up dictators, etc and you could hear a pin drop.
I think she looked like a deer in headlights and then she spurted out she thinks we shouldn't
be doing that. It was awesome and I thanked the kid on the way out.
Anyway, sorry for the super long post, but that's how it went down. She seemed not very
intelligent, like she was just mindlessly repeating what someone above had told her to say,
kept repeating certain terms and statements like Russian hybrid warfare, etc. She sounded
like a crackpot, to be honest with you-I couldn't believe some of the stuff she was saying.
It was very concerning-this is a US senator and there must be a lot more like her, and they
are leading the Dems. She seemed very uncomfortable and not very knowledgeable talking about
this stuff, even though that's why she was here and it's supposed to be her thing. It's like
for example when you didn't actually do the work but you're talking about it-you memorize the
answers or what you're supposed to say and that's it-no depth, just repeat certain terms over
and over. I got the feeling she doesn't know much geography or history, too. It was scary.
These are the people in control and driving this agenda. Cheers.
Thanks for the report.
The public gutlessness and corresponding stupidity of most senior US elected officials
regarding relations with major competitive powers is like a bizarre form of patriotic
observance in which the speaker proudly announces the sacrifice of their critical faculties
in the service of the nation. It's as though there are no constituents who will reward
analytic honesty and the corresponding lives and resources saved. One wonders if her
interactions with staff on these matters amount to anything more than a selection of
camouflage statements that allow her position to become indistinguishable from the modal
patriotic dimwit her fellow elected officials aspire to be. It's like watching high schoolers
try out team cheers.
After today, I'm not confident she knows what the Twitter actually is. And bots this, bots
that, bots bots bots. It was a lot to digest, and makes me appreciate Lambert and his yellow
waders even more. I tried to write down as much as I could word for word what she said,
especially the Russian Empire thing. It seemed like she really thinks the Russians are trying
to take over the whole world to create a new Russian Empire with Tsar Putin at the helm, and
that this supposed meddling is truly an act of war. It's scary. Walking out of there, I felt
like a (family blog) genius. What she said about congressional authorisation needed only when
10,000s of troops are being sent for an extended period, my head exploded. Like I said
before, caught in a Twilight Zone episode.
The D party is pushing this Russia! thing whole hog-this is what they're going with for
the long haul instead of focusing on real issues. They are 100% sure Mueller's going to find
something that takes down Trump. That's their whole plan.
So I must have missed a page in my notebook earlier, sorry-just remembered how she made a
point to crow about forcing the Kremlin-backed and very well-funded RT to register as a
foreign agent, and talked about how if RT's on in a hotel in the US and you watch a few
minutes of it, it's very subtly biased(those sneaky Russians!) and the delivery is a little
different than on CNN and other mainstream US news stations and this is in order trick
American viewers and to subtly sow discord amongst the American public. It was epic stuff
today, so much to try to keep track of and remember.
John Feffer, "the reason we take it seriously is twofold." (What do you mean we , kemo
sabe?)
"One, because we're worried about our U.S. democracy and whether it can function in a fair
way." (We live in a Republic which by design favors the moneyed classes primarily through the
Senate and Electoral College. Fairness has been in retreat since Buckley v. Valeo and
Citizens United v. FEC.)
"And the threats to U.S. democracy, by the way, are not, you know, specific to Russia."
(I'm afraid and you should be, too.)
It sure doesn't help cybersecurity when top US officials (e.g. a former 2016 POTUS
candidate) do not even bother to follow basic government cybersecurity protocols.
i just did something fun. Google 'Evidence of Russian meddling', or 'Why can't Google find
evidence of Russian meddling?'. One gets links to GWB and McMaster's claims of 'clear
evidence' and 'incontrovertible', but no actual evidence.
The American electoral system has always been open to the corrupt current flavor of the
day. George Washington passed out free whiskey,poll taxes, Jim Crow, voter suppression,
gerrymandering, Citizens United, secret money, hackable computerization and so on. We leave
the barn door open and are surprised when stuff happens.
I would be shocked if the Russians did not try to stick a toe in the door and create a little
chaos if for nothing else than our hypocritic and insufferable claims to exceptionalism,
freedom fries and all things bright and beautiful. Especially using a tool as perfect as the
web and social media the Americans own creation.
We have lost all sense of racketeering though sort of on the books, it is not really a crime
any more in this country. I think Russia and the USA are organized as competing racketeering
oligarchies. The cold war was about the commies and the commissars. This is just about your
basic Sicilian mob activity.
Very muddled and gray.
Average Americans do not understand cultures where the lie is the first response in most
discourse. We are working on it, but we are not really there in comparison to the older
cultures.
So while I am certain that elements within Russia have been sowing chaos wherever possible
and that there is some truth in Russia Gate I also recognize that it mirrors the chaos that
the US has sowed throughout the world. Mostly motivated by an ideology of greed and naked
power on both sides.
Donald Trump was for sure laundering money in New York real estate and saved by mob money in
everyone of his bankruptcies. We know Sheldon Adelson was in collusion with the Chinese mob
and got a "cost of doing business" penalty from the government. Grrr. Rant.
corrupt.corrupt.corrupt
Did the finagling around the election have any effect on the outcome? As far as I can see,
no it did not. Worse than Pearl Harbor? Worse than 9/11? Of course not. The hysterical
posturing became tedious long ago. Wake me if you find anything.
Why is Trump trumpeting? I would follow the money.
A minor point but perhaps someone could point out to Feffer that Nazis (both the
ur-example and those currently U.S. favored Ukranian ones) consider Russians to be
sub-human?
I get labeled a Trump supporter by decrying Russiagate.
Frankly I couldn't care less what Mueller does to Trump. This bothers me on several
different fronts.
1. This is demonstrably a McCarthyite witch hunt with goals at clear divergence from what
Mueller was originally appointed for, which was to investigate "collusion" (whatever that
means) between Putin and Trump. We know because of one Adam Schiff (D-McCarthy) and similar
Democrats and their Russian demagoguing anyone who dares to disagree with them.
2. These indictments are clearly exaggerated in their impact on the American system. Why?
I can think of one major effect of the witch hunt: The attempt by the establishment to roll
up dissent of any kind. We now have this media fueled hysteria going on by proven liars in
the establishment to suppress what they call "fake news". We saw efforts such as the infamous
"PropOrNot" anonymous troll cavalcade to try to censor sites. Now Google and Facebook are
doing the censoring for them by ranking non-establishment sources as somehow untrustworthy --
as if the establishment press was ever trustworthy.
3. The hypocrisy. No one in the corporate media establishment ever seems to note that this
cyber behavior and other types of regime undermining is completely typical of the U.S., which
mere hypocrisy might not be so bad, except it leads directly to #4:
4. The warmongering. People have openly talked about Russia engaged in acts of war (as if
the U.S. is pure as a crystal snowflake in this regard). This exaggeration and hypocrisy are
a direct threat to world peace and my own personal survival as a human being.
These are the things I fear: Being silenced by authoritarians who call themselves
"liberal" and getting nuked. That's it. People who accuse everyone of being "Russian dupes"
or "supporting Trump" are IMHO engaged in sheer demagoguery. The influence of the Russians on
the American system, whatever you call it, can be described as ephemeral at best, but the
censorship and warmongering are very real and dangerous.
That our politicians and media are being grossly irresponsible in a supposed effort to get
Trump (the real effort is much more than that) is an understatement.
That the US is hypocritical is not news. But that we should call this a witch hunt because
we are guilty of tampering and worse is not fair to either our constitution or the American
people.
The costs of this investigation are small in the grand scheme and tiny compared to the
principles it purports to protect. Mueller is far from done. Writing this off now smacks of
partisanship. If there is something there, then it will out. If not, then a few will hang
anyway. I, for one, am quite happy that the likes of Manafort and Gates got caught. I think
hillary should swing as well, so don't tar me with a red or blue brush. But the Republicans
had their chance to investigate her and never did, so that tells me something.
Remember that this is a 100% Republican administration carrying out this investigation.
Everyone involved is Republican from Potus to Congress to Mueller.
Frankly, if this keeps Trump from doing too many stupid things, it's time and money well
spent.
I may be wrong, but I seem to recall they investigated her AND Bill many, many times over
the years, starting when he was governor of Arkansas, and never found any evidence they could
take to a prosecutor. Do you happen to recall how many discrete investigations of Benghazi
there were?
"Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations for
allegedly using social media to sow discord in the U.S. and support the candidacy of Donald
Trump"
The 13 Russian national stooges social media talking points show is all smoke and mirrors
to distract from the DNC and Clinton campaign tactics that did intentionally interfere with a
presidential election. Considering the enormous amount of actual evidence in the complicity
of the DNC, a foreign ex-spook national- Christopher Steele is fed 'info-mation' by Clinton
buddies Trey Gowdy and Sidney Blumenthal, Fusion GPS, Hillary Clinton campaign, FBI
surveillance and FISA memo to spy on the opposing presidential candidate (Trump) is the real
show. All based upon a dubious paid for foreign dossier filled with hearsay of anonymous
sources used to undermine and destroy an american presidential candidate during an election
year is the real crime of complicity Mueller is trying to avoid.
Throwing a ruskie sheet over the 800lb elephant sitting in the middle of the room doesn't
hide the facts and more than likely brings into question the Clinton campaign influences and
connections with the NSA.
Onto more relevant news: Lucky Charms has added marshmallow unicorns to its cereal.
This actually makes me a little sad. I am only skimming the transcript so far and I don't
think I could stand to watch the video, even though I really like Aaron Maté. I didn't
care when he took apart that Luke Harding fool, but John Feffer always seemed like a pretty
smart guy and a good writer. I was dismayed a few days ago when he went off in this direction
in one of his posts. If Aaron is holding back, maybe he feels a little sorry about him,
too.
John Feffer, one more decent person lost to the McCarthyite pod people, for whom I can no
longer have a shred of respect. Is that going too far?
I could have gotten the same exact "depth" of analysis from watching CNN. Or MSNBC. Or
what have you.
Even the interviewer was off the ball – by the time he identified KASPERSKY as a
"Russian hacker" I was essentially howling with laughter. And by the time the interviewee
started insinuating that Russia is supporting far-right neo-nazi type groups in the West
yeah. No. Incidentally, the West [i]is[/i] doing just that in specific places, but that is a
different conversation.
Finally the stamement: "So I don't think anybody, much less Vladimir Putin, could have
predicted the turn U.S.-Russian relations would take " pretty much discredits the interviewee
as any kind of analyst or expert on the subject. Because on every single US-Russia flashpoint
2017 was a direct continuation of 2016 (and 2015, and 2014 ) – and that was pretty much
the "base case" to begin with, since it is silly to imagine that either nation will just
"surrender" and stop pursuing its policies whether in Europe, Asia or the Middle East. The
"Trump == unpredictable-loose-cannon-maverick" talking point, much as it has been bandied
about, applies mainly to Trump's twitter account and decidedly not the ACTUAL foreign policy
steps taken by the US.
And so I reiterate the point – why is this blog suddenly carrying MSNBC-level
content? Because that's why we come here in the first place?
Sometimes when this whole things goes several shades of crazy you have to pull back and
try to look at it from a historical level. I try to imagine what people will be saying some
20 years from now when there is a new generation in place. What will their text books say
about what is happening now. And I realize that we are going to be mocked but hard by them.
Can you imagine what comedians routines on us will say? It will be embarrassing. So, getting
back to the present, I pull up the news this morning and I find a CNN reporter checking out
trash dumpsters next to the 'troll farm' in Russia – which is no longer even there. Uh,
OK.
Maybe some people in government and the media should go back on their meds again and have
a nice warm cup of shut-the-xxxx-up. Just because Trump won the election does not mean that
the 'establishment' gets to have an epic triggering – and take the rest of the country
with it. Are there criminal charges to be laid against certain people? Absolutely. Thing is,
they don't have Russian addresses but more likely American ones and I think that a lot of
people are starting to realize this which may partially explain the increasing support for
the GOP. You can only keep up evidence free accusations so long until somebody shout
"Call!".
If you want to know about election meddling, ask the Russians ( https://www.rt.com/op-ed/419371-election-meddling-us-russia/
) as they have much experience here. And that story doesn't cover even half of what went on.
Getting back to seeing things from a historical level, my own idea is that what we are seeing
is a power that has dominated the world for decades now finding itself with peer competitors
arising and the people in charge are unable to deal with this. There are far too many careers
at stake. Too many lucrative contracts at risk. Too many rice bowls to be broken. It's too
many powerful people not being able to get their way – and being unable to handle it.
This is what I think that we are seeing.
Foreign interference in the U.S. is nothing new. Its why we are so divided.
"The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before
the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the
United States, if they remained in one block and as one nation, would attain economic and
financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world. The
voice of the Rothschilds prevailed Therefore they sent their emissaries into the field to
exploit the question of slavery and to open an abyss between the two sections of the
Union."
Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor, 1865
This is a great example of why I think I've gone crazy. This guy Feffer seems more
reasonable than most of the Russiagaters I see on other blogs, but when Mate points out the
lack of evidence he acknowledges that and then goes right on as if he had refuted it. He
acknowledges that the Dutch "revelation" is unsupported, and regrets that, and then goes
right ahead as if that is irrelevant. His whole method of argument seems to be, "Well, we
have a pattern of other Russian involvement, " and then cites speeches by Putin that probably
are not relevant to the case. I mean, supporting white nationalism? This is something you
want to blame Russia for? Spreading divisiveness? Undermining confidence? Kill me now.
Jerrold Lewis Nadler is an American attorney and politician who serves as the US
Representative from New York's 10th congressional district. So it is reasonable to assume that this guy is a stooge of financial
oligarchy and as such died in the wool globalist
When Congressman Jerrold Nadler equated Internet Trolls with Pearl Harbor that does not mean
that his a paranoiac. That means that he is a sleazy opportunist, for whom Party line is more
important then truth. That's why he repeated DemoRats Party like in the color revolution against
Trump. In which NeoMcCartyism is a fundamental component, creating the necessary prerequisites
for the witch hunt on Trump conducted by Mueller. He just can' deviate from the story.
"Have you no decency left, sir? At long last, have you no decency left?" applies
This "slash and burn" style of internal politician debates is another sign of the deep crisis
of neoliberalism in the USA. The crisis that led to election of Trump.
Tactically all this noise is a preemptive move to save Strzokgate participants scalps by putting a smoke screen on Nunes memo as well as
the forthcoming report of Inspector General.
Notable quotes:
"... When MSNBC's Chris Hayes pressed, Nadler doubled down: The Russians "are destroying our democratic process." While the Russian trolling may not equal Pearl Harbor in its violence, said Nadler, in its "seriousness, it is very much on a par" with Japan's surprise attack. Trump's reaction to the hysteria that broke out after the Russian indictments: "They are laughing their (expletives) off in Moscow." ..."
"... While Mueller's indictments confirm that Russians meddled in the U.S. election, what explains the shock and the fear for "our democracy"? Is the Great Republic about to fall because a bunch of trolls tweeted in our election? Is this generation ignorant of its own history? Before and after World War II, we had Stalinists and Soviet spies at the highest levels of American culture and government. ..."
"... As for Russian trolling in our election, do we really have clean hands when it comes to meddling in elections and the internal politics of regimes we dislike? ..."
"... Sen. John McCain and Victoria Nuland of State egged on the Maidan Square crowds in Kiev that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine. ..."
"... "Have we ever tried to meddle in other countries' elections?" Laura Ingraham asked former CIA Director James Woolsey this weekend. With a grin, Woolsey replied, "Oh, probably." "We don't do that anymore though?" Ingraham interrupted. "We don't mess around in other people's elections, Jim?" "Well," Woolsey said with a smile. "Only for a very good cause." Indeed, what is the National Endowment for Democracy all about, if not aiding the pro-American side in foreign nations and their elections? ..."
"... "One cannot observe democracy objectively without being impressed by its curious distrust of itself -- it's apparent ineradicable tendency to abandon its philosophy at the first sign of strain. I need not point to what invariably happens in democratic states when the national safety is menaced. All the great tribunes of democracy, on such occasions, convert themselves into instant despots of an almost fabulous ferocity." H.L. Mencken ..."
According to the indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Russian trolls, operating out
of St. Petersburg, took American identities on social media and became players in our 2016
election. On divisive racial and religious issues, the trolls took both sides. In the
presidential election, the trolls favored Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein and Donald Trump, and
almost never Hillary Clinton.
One imaginative Russian troll urged Trumpsters to dress up a female volunteer in an orange
prison jump suit, put her in a cage on a flatbed truck, then append the slogan, "Lock Her
Up!"
How grave a matter is this?
This Russian troll farm is "the equivalent (of) Pearl Harbor," says Cong. Jerrold Nadler,
who would head up the House Judiciary Committee, handling any impeachment, if Democrats retake
the House.
When MSNBC's Chris Hayes pressed, Nadler doubled down: The Russians "are destroying our
democratic process." While the Russian trolling may not equal Pearl Harbor in its violence,
said Nadler, in its "seriousness, it is very much on a par" with Japan's surprise attack.
Trump's reaction to the hysteria that broke out after the Russian indictments: "They are
laughing their (expletives) off in Moscow."
According to Sunday's Washington Post, the troll story is old news in Russia, where
reporters uncovered it last year and it was no big deal.
While Mueller's indictments confirm that Russians meddled in the U.S. election, what
explains the shock and the fear for "our democracy"? Is the Great Republic about to fall
because a bunch of trolls tweeted in our election? Is this generation ignorant of its own
history? Before and after World War II, we had Stalinists and Soviet spies at the highest
levels of American culture and government.
The Hollywood Ten, who went to prison for contempt of Congress, were secret members of a
Communist Party that, directed from Moscow, controlled the Progressive Party in Philadelphia in
1948 that nominated former Vice President Henry Wallace to run against Harry Truman.
Soviet spies infiltrated the U.S. atom bomb project and shortened the time Stalin needed to
explode a Soviet bomb in 1949.
As for Russian trolling in our election, do we really have clean hands when it comes to
meddling in elections and the internal politics of regimes we dislike?
Sen. John McCain and Victoria Nuland of State egged on the Maidan Square crowds in Kiev
that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine. When the democratically elected regime
of Mohammed Morsi was overthrown, the U.S. readily accepted the coup as a victory for our side
and continued aid to Egypt as tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members were
imprisoned.
Are the CIA and National Endowment for Democracy under orders not to try to influence the
outcome of elections in nations in whose ruling regimes we believe we have a stake?
"Have we ever tried to meddle in other countries' elections?" Laura Ingraham asked
former CIA Director James Woolsey this weekend. With a grin, Woolsey replied, "Oh, probably."
"We don't do that anymore though?" Ingraham interrupted. "We don't mess around in other
people's elections, Jim?" "Well," Woolsey said with a smile. "Only for a very good cause."
Indeed, what is the National Endowment for Democracy all about, if not aiding the pro-American
side in foreign nations and their elections?
Did America have no active role in the "color-coded revolutions" that have changed regimes
from Serbia to Ukraine to Georgia?
When Republicans discuss Iran on Capitol Hill, the phrase "regime change" is frequently
heard. When the "Green Revolution" took to the streets of Tehran to protest massively the
re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, Republicans denounced President Obama for
not intervening more energetically to alter the outcome.
When China, Russia and Egypt expel NGOs, are their suspicions that some have been seeded
with U.S. agents merely marks of paranoia?
The U.S. role in the overthrow of Premier Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, and of Jacobo Arbenz in
Guatemala in 1954, and of President Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon in 1963 are established facts.
This "hysteria" as Buchanan accurately describes it is very characteristically American, in
its sheer hypocritical dishonesty.
The US has made a regular practice for a century or more of pushing and attacking others,
via political interference, subversion, diplomacy or outright military aggression, until they
respond, and then screaming hysterically about "unprovoked aggression" against America.
Of several factual mistakes in your piece, Pat, why do you slip in crap like this
"Yet we do have evidence that a senior British spy and Trump hater, Christopher Steele,
paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC to dig up dirt on Trump, colluded with Kremlin
agents to produce a dossier of scurrilous and unsubstantiated charges, to destroy the
candidacy of Donald Trump"
bs claiming 'Kremlin agents' when it would appear the entire hit job on Trump originated
with s ** t made up on the USA end, and Steele was little more than a cut-out to give the
USA's DoJ (and more likely CIA) cover? Isn't that more than just a bit like playing the
insider game? If you"re going to take a shot at Hillary, why not bring up the actual Russia
collusion concerning uranium?
And pushing the 'hack' line
"What do these indictments of Russians tell us? After 18 months, the James Comey-Robert
Mueller FBI investigation into the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails has yet to
produce evidence of collusion"
giving cover to the 'Russians did it' hack bs when it is clear the DNC 'hack' was actually
an insider leak? You're no better than yellow rag Marcy Wheeler's 'empty wheel' blog:
Destroying the democratic process? A president was shot dead in full view of the nation and
it was never properly investigated, the same goes for 9/11. Endless and unconstitutional wars
that have bankrupted the nation. I'd say that it was destroyed a long time ago and all that
remains is nostalgia. Buckle up my colonial cousins!
Addendum, lifted from comment (#3) of Ronald Thomas West:
"What do these indictments of Russians tell us? After 18 months, the James Comey-Robert
Mueller FBI investigation into the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails has yet to
produce evidence of collusion." Are you still unaware of the forensic evidence and credible
analysis of people like Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity that the DNC emails
were leaked, not hacked?
Columnists like Pat Buchanan and Andrew Napolitano may help people find this website, but
week in and week out they show themselves as sloppy, at best. There may be something to be
said for putting them up here, where they can be compared to Dinh, Giraldi, Hopkins, Sailer,
Whitney, et al.
I read their columns closely when it comes to Russia, and comment when I see them serving
the Establishment line. It has become apparent that "Judge" is purposeful in his Eastasia
bulls ** t. I am reaching the same conclusion about Mr. Buchanan.
And it's still going on under the guise of NGOs. So if Russians tweeting stuff is an act
of war, then the US is already at war with a bunch of countries.
Before and after World War II, we had Stalinists and Soviet spies at the highest levels
of American culture and government.
During WW2, too.
They were running some of the biggest banks and corporations, too. It was fashionable for
the trust fund kiddies and some of the money bags "upper crust" to play commie as well. Still
is, apparently.
Famous names, Vanderbilt, Lamont, Whitney, Morgan, mingled with those of communist
leaders. The Russian Institute was so respectable that it was allowed to give in-service
courses to New York City schoolteachers for credit.
When MSNBC's Chris Hayes pressed, Nadler doubled down: The Russians "are destroying our
democratic process." While the Russian trolling may not equal Pearl Harbor in its violence,
said Nadler, in its "seriousness, it is very much on a par" with Japan's surprise
attack.
"One cannot observe democracy objectively without being impressed by its curious
distrust of itself -- it's apparent ineradicable tendency to abandon its philosophy at the
first sign of strain. I need not point to what invariably happens in democratic states when
the national safety is menaced. All the great tribunes of democracy, on such occasions,
convert themselves into instant despots of an almost fabulous ferocity." H.L.
Mencken
This is an excellent article summarizing the major issues presented. Though I have views
which vary somewhat about the postwar witchhunt in the US which sort of sets the beginning
precedent for this one the fact situation described is correct. As for whether it is an act
of war, I say that it is, but not by the Russians. It is an act of war by out of control
extra-legal yankee authorities against any individual, foreign or domestic, who would choose
to resist them in any fashion, including those just trying to make money like the Russians in
this case from farming US internet subscribers.
Russiagate is a starched and stuffed empty suit. Buchanan is right to demean its
significance. And yes, there is the shameful fact of rank US hypocrisy in all this. No doubt.
But the relatively modest impact of Russian 'meddling' in the last US election, coupled with
the moral emptiness within the entire Russiagate investigation, is what's most revealing.
Indeed, not only does the US routinely interfere (and even overthrow) other sovereign
states, but Russian machinations in America pales besides other extranational interference,
particularly Israel's.
When it comes to pushing around Washington and shaping US public opinion, Israel is in a
class by itself. You haven't noticed?
Not only do crypto-Israelis own or supervise most American mass media (including hard
news) but hundreds of young, paid Jewish/Israeli trolls regularly clog US social media sites,
American internet news comments sections, and Wikipedia entries.
Israelis (and their US-based cousins) are the masters of political chicanery. No one else
comes close.
Then there's the overbearing influence of AIPAC, the ADL, and dozens of other
crypto-Israeli pressure groups. These highfalutin lobbies have managed to buy their way into
the halls of Congress, the White House, and onto national TV. It's a continuous phenomena.
But we're not supposed to notice or be concerned. After all, they're our best friends!
By comparison, Russian access and interference in American life is infantesimal.
Does this shock you? It shouldn't. It's been this way in America for decades.
Incredibly, it's publicly examining, discussing, and criticizing this odd situation that
becomes 'shocking' (and career-ending). That's the scary part.
Crypto-Israelis have dominated, and continue to dominate, a vast swath of American
culture; especially news and entertainment.
Henry Ford, Charles Lindburgh, and Marlon Brando all complained about this unique and
dangerous situation. And conditions have not improved since they did. If anything, Zionist
power in America has only hardened.
This makes far-away Russia even more of a bit player in our corrupt political circus. And
this is why Russiagate is such a farce.
In Hollywood, on Wall Street, as well as in Washington, the top dog (and most sacred
cause) involves Israel. Every US politician recognizes this unpublicized fact. Just read
their speeches. See how they vote. And those public servants who don't recognize Israel's
unique status in Washington tend to fade rapidly into oblivion. This is Jewish power.
Zio-Americans helped steer Washington into its preemptive and criminal annihilation of
Libya and Iraq and, if they have their way again, there will be additional American wars
fought on behalf of the Jewish state.
Due in large part to Zionist dictates, Assad's Syria is being targeted by Washington right
now. Iran is next. All foes of Israel end up in Washington's crosshairs.
America has been quietly captured and domesticated by Zionists.
Sadly, even referring to the overriding impact of Zionist power in America is taboo.
Buchanan and others have learned this lesson the hard way. But this explosive fact ultimately
renders the entire Russiagate 'scandal' little more than a contrived distraction.
Call it Jewish political theater if you like. But it's mostly a charade.
Mr. Buchanan is correct, of course, that we interfere in other countries. But defending
foreign hostility to America by pointing to America's own misdeeds is a traditional leftist
line.
It's not a "leftist line" (at least in this case), it's one that's basic to human nature
– don't dish it out if you can't take it in turn, and don't whine like a hypocritical
two year old when you do get some back. Nothing "left wing" about that.
There's nothing wrong with us taking our own country's side.
No, not if you don't mind being a hypocrite.
But hypocrisy is a very American thing – throughout your history you've been
manipulated into wars by the very weakness you adhere to here. "We can do it but if anyone
does it back to us that's unacceptable, because we're special" has been pretty much the way
the US has been kept interfering around the world for decades.
The answer is to stop doing it yourself, then complain about other people doing it.
But that isn't going to happen, is it? Your lords and masters are going to keep poking their
noses into other countries' affairs all over the world, and people like you are going to
complain like bitches if you get any back, and those complaints will justify further
aggression in response to supposedly unacceptable foreign "unprovoked"
aggression/interference against your country.
And I write that while being pretty much the very opposite of anything that could be
described as "left wing", just as a foreigner weighing US behaviour.
'Yet we do have evidence that a senior British spy and Trump hater, Christopher Steele, paid
by the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC to dig up dirt on Trump, colluded with Kremlin agents
to produce a dossier of scurrilous and unsubstantiated charges, to destroy the candidacy of
Donald Trump. And the FBI used this disinformation to get FISA Court warrants to surveil and
wiretap the Trump campaign.'
Correct except for 'Kremlin agents' Steele hadn't been to Russia in more than 20 years.
The 'dossier' is full of ridiculous mistakes about Russia. It's just as likely he made the
whole thing up, or was fed stuff by the CIA, not the Kremlin.
When Napoleon Bonaparte executed the Duc d'Enghien in 1804 for what seemed like trumped-up
treason charges, the implications extended far beyond questions of French justice and even
beyond the borders of France. European leaders were shocked, and the episode helped crystallize
anti-Bonaparte sentiment throughout the Continent and in Britain. The famous French diplomat
Charles de Talleyrand captured the moment when he said: "It was worse than a crime; it was a
blunder."
That might well be said now about the Russian effort to manipulate the 2016 presidential
election by using social media to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, promote the
candidacy of Donald Trump, and generally sow discord throughout the American body politic.
Three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens were indicted by U.S. authorities Friday on
charges of engaging in a three-year, multimillion-dollar effort to interfere in the election.
Americans naturally are shocked at this brazen effort to unravel the political fabric of their
country.
But it isn't really all that shocking. To understand why it was more of a blunder than a
crime -- and a blunder with likely tragic consequences -- it is important to absorb five
fundamental realities surrounding this important development in U.S.-Russian relations.
First, countries have been doing this sort of thing for centuries. It is a fundamental part
of tradecraft -- the use of covert actions to undermine the internal workings of rival nations.
No country likes being on the receiving end, but few refrain from such activity when they think
it will thwart national security threats.
Second, no nation has been more aggressive than the United States in pursuing efforts,
covert and even overt, to destabilize other regimes. In part that's because, as the leading
global power since World War II, the Unites States has had more at stake in events of
significance throughout the world. In part also, it's because America has had the greatest
capacity for bringing the latest technology and the greatest covert capabilities to meet the
challenge.
In any event, the U.S. record in this area is beyond dispute. A New York Times
piece by Scott Shane over the weekend quoted a University of Georgia professor named Loch
Johnson as saying, "We've been doing this kind of thing since the CIA was created in '47. We've
used posters, pamphlets, mailers, banners -- you name it." Among other things, he adds, the
United States has planted false information in foreign newspapers and distributed "suitcases of
cash" to influence foreign elections. Steven L. Hall, a 30-year CIA veteran (now retired) with
extensive experience leading the Russia desk, told Shane that the United States "absolutely"
engaged in such activities, "and I hope we keep doing it."
Shane cites a study by Dov H. Levin of Carnegie Mellon that sought to quantify "election
influence operations" by the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia between 1946 and 2000.
He counts 81 by the United States and 36 by the Soviet Union or Russia (though he figures there
were more ops initiated from Russian soil than we know about).
Beyond that, there is what has become known as the "democracy industry" -- legions of U.S.
NGOs, many funded with federal money, that fan out through the world to remake regimes they
consider insufficiently imbued with Western values. Writer and thinker David Rieff, writing in
The National Interest a few years ago, attacked these democracy promotion adherents as
people who "will not or cannot acknowledge either the ideological or the revolutionary
character of their enterprise." He likened the democracy promoters in propaganda terms to
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 boast to America that "we will bury you."
Third, the greatest interference in the internal affairs of foreign nations, aside from
invasion, is regime change, and here the United States is by far the leader in the post-World
War II era. We know of major efforts -- covert or overt, successful or not -- by America to
upend regimes in Iran, Guatemala, South Vietnam, Chile, Nicaragua, Grenada, Serbia, Iraq,
Libya, Syria, and Ukraine.
Leaving aside the case-by-case merits, this is a powerful record, and it has implications
far beyond U.S. domestic politics. Like Bonaparte's execution of the Duc d'Enghien, it
generates concerns and fears among foreign leaders. In the case of America's regime change
zest, it sends chills down the spines of leaders fearful that they may be next on the list of
U.S. regime change targets. Certainly the resolve of North Korea's Kim Jong-un to develop
nuclear weapons with a delivery capacity to the United States is partly a product of such
fears.
Fourth, America and its allies bear by far the greater share of the blame for the current
tensions between the West and Russia. It was all predictable back in 1998 when NATO fashioned
its policy of aggressive eastward expansion toward the Russian border. George F. Kennan, the
highly respected U.S. diplomat and Russia expert, predicted the outcome in particularly stark
terms. He called it "the beginning of a new cold war a tragic mistake." He foresaw that of
course the Russians would react badly, as any nation would, and then the NATO expansionists
would say, see, we always said the Russians were aggressive and couldn't be trusted. "This is
just wrong," Kennan warned.
But if NATO expansion was a provocative policy destined to elicit a strong Russian response,
the provocation was heightened hugely when America helped perpetrate a regime change initiative
in Ukraine, which is not only next door to Russia but has been a crucial part of Russia's
sphere of influence going back to the mid-17th century. Further, Russia lies vulnerable to
invasion. The unremitting grassy steppes of the nation, extending from Europe all the way to
the Far East, with hardly a mountain range or seashore or major forest to hinder encroachment
by army or horde, has fostered a national obsession over the need to control territory as a
hedge against incursion. Such incursions from the West occurred three times in the 19th and
20th centuries.
Ukraine is crucial in this Russian sense of territorial imperative. It's a tragically split
country, with part tilting toward the West and part facing eastward toward Russia. That makes
for a delicate political and geopolitical situation, but for centuries that delicate political
and geopolitical situation has been overseen by Russia. Now the West wants to end that.
Upending a duly elected (though corrupt) Ukrainian president was part of the plan. Getting
Ukraine into NATO is the endgame.
Note that the Ukrainian revolution occurred in 2014, which just happened to be the year,
according to the U.S. indictments, that Russia initiated its grand program to influence
America's 2016 elections. Kennan was right: Russia inevitably would react badly to the NATO
encirclement policy, and then America's anti-Russian cadres would cite that as evidence that
the encirclement was necessary all along. That's precisely what's happening now.
Which brings us to the fifth and final fundamental reality surrounding the revelation of
Russia's grand effort to influence the U.S. election. It was an incredible blunder. Given all
that's happened in U.S.-Russian relations this century, there probably wasn't much prospect
that those relations could ever be normalized, much less made cordial. But that is now utterly
impossible.
Donald Trump campaigned on a platform of seeking better relations with Russia. After getting
elected he repeatedly asserted in his first news conference that it would be "positive,"
"good," or "great" if "we could get along with Russia." Unlike most of America's elites, he
vowed to seek Moscow's cooperation on global issues, accepted some U.S. share of blame for the
two countries' sour relations, and acknowledged "the right of all nations to put their
interests first."
This suggested a possible dramatic turn in U.S.-Russian relations -- an end to the
encirclement push, curtailment of the hostile rhetoric, a pullback on economic sanctions, and
serious efforts to work with Russia on such nettlesome matters as Syria and Ukraine. That was
largely put on hold with the narrative of Russian meddling in the U.S. election and vague
allegations of campaign "collusion" with Russia on behalf of Trump's presidential
ambitions.
It doesn't appear likely that investigators will turn up any evidence of collusion that
rises to any kind of criminality. But it doesn't matter now, in terms of U.S.-Russian
relations, because these indictments will cement the anti-Russian sentiment of Americans for
the foreseeable future. No overtures of the kind envisioned by Trump will be possible for any
president for a long time. It won't matter that every nation does it or that America in
particular has done it or that the West's aggressive encirclement contributed to the Russian
actions. The U.S.-Russian hostility is set. Where it leads is impossible to predict, but it
won't be good. It could be tragic.
Robert W. Merry, longtime Washington, D.C., journalist and publishing executive, is
editor of The American Conservative . His latest book,President McKinley: Architect of the American Century, was
released in September.
I'm disgusted that people are taking this garbage indictment seriously A bunch of Russian
private citizens working for a privately-funded NGO (allegedly funded by an owner of a
restaurant chain) using faked social media accounts to carry out political activism, and no
evidence of Russian government involvement, and this clown Mueller thinks this is some
evidence for "Russian meddling" in elections? It wouldn't be so laughable except that the US
spook agencies do this sort of thing as a routine .
This is just Mueller doing as he was told to do by his Establishment leash-holders, and
come up with any old steaming pile of garbage to be packaged as "evidence" to support this
Cold War 2 paranoia mindset and promote the unfounded allegation of Trumps "collusion" with
Russians in order to undermine his Presidency.
The US continues to disappoint me This country seems to be utterly incapable of getting
things into perspective or acting rationally. A nation run by amoral psychopaths who are
completely obsessed with power and wealth and control, and who will stoop to anything in
order to achieve their unspoken power agendas.
The sad fact is the Mr. Merry is probably right. The die is cast. Enmity is almost certainly
now permanent, with the increasingly likely result indeed tragic.
With this latest indictment, the bogus "Russian collusion" charge has finally achieved its
primary goal -- which was not to remove Trump (that's 3; goal 2 was to elect Hillary), but to
ensure unchangeable hostility towards Russia. The fact that Trump even now controverts what
H.R. McMaster calls "incontrovertible" is nice but irrelevant. It hardly matters what the
president thinks at all. (Besides, for whom does McMaster work, Trump or Mueller?)
Everybody now agrees that "Romney was right." There's nothing Trump can do about it.
Ruthenia delenda est. The madness may now become terminal – for everybody.
Notice too how everyone, including Trump's cheering section at Fox News, has immediately
lost sight of the REAL collusion within the US government (with a little help from "hands
across the water"): Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Comey, Bruce Ohr, Andrew McCabe, Rod
Rosenstein (remember, he signed one of the FISA requests to spy on the Trump team), John O.
Brennan, Christopher Steele, Andrew Wood (former British ambassador to Russia who peddled the
Steele dossier), Loretta Lynch, Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, and of course Barack Obama.
They'll all skate. No surprise there.
All that said, it would have been nice to explain who "the Russians" are we're talking
about. This looks less like a government op than a clickbait scam of the sort hundreds of
firms in dozens of countries engage in:
Donald Trump campaigned on having better relations with Russia(?). Ok, why? A) Is he a deep
well read strategic thinker on Russian US relations and envisioned better relations as a
positive step towards world peace or B) he admires Putin for being a white right nationalist
that he is coupled with his deep business ties to Russian oligarchs which have the potential
of being un earthed by that Witcher hunter himself Robert Mueller?
This is a good article, but I feel that it would have been stronger if Mr. Merry had
elaborated on the reasons why elevated hostility between Russia and the West represents a
tragedy for both parties.
The geopolitical argument for a modus vivendi between America and Russia can be summarised
with a single phrase: 'the rise of China'. As an immense body of commentators have argued for
years, the #1 geostrategic imperative for the U.S. in the foreseeable future is thwarting
Chinese ambitions to become the military, political, and economic hegemon of Asia. China also
threatens to displace Russia's influence in Central Asia, and menaces the security of its
hold on the thinly populated territories of Siberia. So it would seem that there is a common
interest to build on.
Unfortunately, Russia will always value the security of its western lands above all other
priorities, and so Eastern Europe remains an enduring sticking point in its relations with
the U.S.A. Regardless of whether or not the expansion of NATO back in the 1990s was wise or
not, America cannot let go of its commitments there without incurring an unacceptable loss in
prestige and credibility. An adversarial relationship appears to be locked in on both
sides.
Even if Russia hadn't attempted to influence the 2016 election, I suspect that attempts to
forge a new detente would have proven unavailing – just like the infamous 'reset'
attempted by Obama. What neither Obama or Trump seem to have understood is the first rule of
successful diplomatic resets: 'Only Nixon can go to China'. It takes a leader with genuine
credibility on the issue to make such a thing stick. Otherwise the whole thing collapses as
soon as the political cycle rotates.
"Which brings us to the fifth and final fundamental reality surrounding the revelation of
Russia's grand effort to influence the U.S. election. It was an incredible blunder."
_________________________________
I'm not all sure what we are talking about here in the grand effort: the troll army,
thefacebook/twitter "massive" campaign, the DNC "hacking" which by all accounts did not
happen?
I fear that we are falling into the trap of actually believing the press and the
hysterical democrats.
My sense is that it was a minor effort in terms of financial expenditures and people
involved-I am very skeptical that any votes were influenced to any degree.
So where is the there in all of this smoke and hoopala?
There is a worst outcome of these events, never mind the massive hypocrisy of the US
establishment. It will not be possible to have another Bernie Sanders, or even Trump movement
in the US, because such movements will be blamed on Russia.
Pro-social ideas and more political diversity in the US are dead and the country will be
even more overtly move towards a corporatism, militarist regime.
The time will come that even TAC and likes of Daniel Larson will be accused of being
Russian puppets.
My Grandfather (God rest his soul) was born in 1910 and was a brutally honest (and frank) man
who never shied away from giving you his opinion on anything. When I was a teenager in the
mid 1990's we'd watch the CBS evening news together. Him on his recliner and me on the couch
we'd watch the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and he'd turn to me and say, "You know why
every other country hates America?". Of course I'd say I didn't know and he'd say to me,
"it's because we've got our nose up everybody's ass. We should mind our own Goddamn
business!". That was my Grandfather's take on foreign policy. Most might try to dismiss it
out of simplicity but his opinion on the matter was not without wisdom. My Grandfather lived
through two World Wars (and served in the US Navy during WWII and the Korean War) and worked
for the VA hospital during the Vietnam War. Had Washington followed my Grandfather's advice
(which has been echoed here at TAC by Patrick J. Buchanan and the rest of the gang for almost
two decades now) then there wouldn't be a New Cold War with Russia or China.
Trump's constant assertions of "nothing to see here" are certainly the acts of someone
guilty. Hard to believe there is nothing there. Too many around him have been shown to have
ties to Russia, Trump wasn't even in office yet when he promised to remove sanctions on
Russia, and his loyalty to Russia over the US in the election meddling is telling. If large
numbers of Republicans want to be useful idiots, that's their business, but ducks that quack
and walk, and all that
Was the Russian election meddling a blunder? It was certainly successful. It has fractured
our society. I believe we will come back stronger from this, but it showed the rot in
society, in our religious institutions, and our political institutions. You have to identify
the rot to get in there and clean it out, so the Russians gave us that advantage, but it has
brought us to the brink.
Again, a blunder? Were we really going to get closer to Russia? I don't think so. Trump
tried his best and it didn't work. Not being politically minded, he had to have personal gain
as a motivation to promote closer ties with Russia. So if the odds politically of having
better ties with Russia were next to nothing at this time, again, Russia won with their troll
campaign. While the duped continue to refuse to admit they were duped, Russian influence
remains strong, and the duped can be duped again.
This article trots out the usual inaccuracies about NATO expansion and Eastern European
history. There is no conceivable scenario in which the Eastern European countries admitted to
NATO threaten Russia. Estonia has no invasion plans. NATO does not war game invading Russia
and has no capacity to do so. Russia is not by any reasonable measure encircled by anyone.
She is the largest country in the world and has managed to survive with Turkey as a NATO
member at its doorstep for years.
It's also absurd to make the case that having been invaded three times in the past two
centuries makes Russia especially sensitive to invasion. Many European countries have had
that experience and aren't annexing bits and bobs of their neighbors if things don't go their
way. The Baltic States were invaded three times in FIVE years in World War II, twice by
Russia. Now, they have cause for paranoia.
For that matter, Russia hasn't been invaded three times in the 19th and 20th century. In WWI,
Russia invaded East Prussia. Most of the war took place in what is now Poland and Belarus,
not Russia.
Please stop trying to buttress your commitment to a non-aligned US with dubious statements
about Eastern Europe.
Why can't we trade and exchange with Russia and just get along? Why so much hostility to a
country that did the heavy lifting in WW2? Why not call out Isreal (mainly) and Saudi Arabia
for trying to manipulate us as their attack dog on a very short and disciplined leash? Recall
when Netanyahu addressed the full U.S.Congress (screaming and yelling like rabid fans at a
Beatles concert) and a sitting president was forced to watch on TV? Recall how Johnson let
Israel attack the USS Liberty for hours and would not let our planes splash the aggressors?
What has happened to our values of democracy, dignity, international human rights and above
all national independence, especially from relatively client states? P.T. Barnum's "You can
fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time will take
hold." Enough dying and resource wasting on designer wars, not in our interest.
Post WW 2 we have a history of cozing up to Dictators or questionable regimes, then turning
on them. Our adversaries especially China and Russia understand this very well.
Excellent analysis of America's foolish and perhaps fateful policy of encirclement,
encroachment and permanent alienation of Russia. Buy why expect Russia to remain passive?
Surely they could be forgiven for picking out Trump as a possible source of a more rational
and peaceable policy, and saying: let's help this guy get elected. And doing it with their
usual clumsiness. Why would they stand by and let the warmongering Hillary push the policy to
its ultimate conclusion: war?
Mr. Merry does a brilliant job–the best I have read–of contextualizing the Russia
election interference story. But his analysis is also telling, and typical, in what it omits:
any consideration of what in fact the Russians did, and how and to what extent it mattered.
And this for a reason that says everything that does matter in our time: the truth of the
allegations is irrelevant. Everything is the "narrative".
So, he is correct. Relations will be poisoned for decades. We may even go to war. And the
underlying cause will be something that may or may not have happened and, if it did,
was–relative to the actual presidential election–inconsequential.
I would only add that in a world more than ever shaped and driven by contesting
narratives, the question should be: who benefits most from the Russia indictments,
evidence-based or not?
The answer is the dominance of American hawkishness and interventionism, which can now
accelerate and expand, unopposed, out to infinity.
@Terrence Maloney. Expansion of NATO to the Baltics puts OUR troops on Russia's border.
The Washington Post put out an article yesterday interviews a Russian journalist who
published a detailed report on the Russian troll factory back in October.
"Zakharov (the journalist) explained how it was a strange feeling seeing something he had
so closely investigated become a major issue in the United States, when it had not been a
"bombshell" when he published his report at home."
You would think the major news organizations like NYT and WaPo would have the resources to
constantly research foreign publications. Evidently not, because if the MSM thinks that an
indictment of 13 Russian trolls is a bombshell, surely they would think 90 Russian Trolls, as
described in the Russian news report and $2M would be an even bigger bombshell. And yet it
was never picked up on in this country. It goes to show our big media are navel gazers.
But in any event its NOT a bombshell at all. 90 trolls with $2M in a multi-billion
election? I believe what really upsets our self-proclaimed adults, is that the vast unwashed
masses' opinions can be changed by comments on facebook or any other outlets where they
cannot control the message.
This whole "Russia ate our homework" thing is to divert attention from the corrupt use of
the Justice Department and intelligence agencies to spy on political opponents.
@Terrence Moloney, it's not an issue of Latvia invading Russia it's an issue of those
countries being used as missile platforms and choke points against their navy.
The game goes like this, the U.S. keeps encircling Russia with NATO expansion. If Russia
doesn't resist, great, it continues. If Russia resists then that is evidence of 'aggression'
that justifies a military buildup on existing NATO countries.
Russia lost an area the size of the United States when the Soviet Union collapsed 1991.
After an earthquake there are after shocks.
Crimea never wanted to be part of Ukraine. In 1992 they created their own constitution
only to have it nullified by Ukraine. Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in 1992. Is
1992 early enough for you? You act like Moses created these boundaries.
Putin has stated that Russia will not invade the Baltics or Kiev. That it is wrong to try
to rule over an unwilling population, that Russia has more than enough land for their people.
The premise behind the Crimean annexation was that it was the population's will.
So Democrats are suppose to simply turn a blind eye towards the Trump campaign then? After
years of Benghazi! and Birtherism during Obama. And do you think Russians would have been as
effective with Marco Rubio running? Or how the Russian activity started against Democrats
Congress in the late election?
Or how the Republican fought against Obama on announcing this activity to the country?
2016 was a God-awful election and conservative have been incredibly smug on their slight
victory. And President Trump is DOING NOTHING on this activity so I assume he is hoping for
their assistance in 2018. (And notice how much they were active they were on the David Nune
memo.)
13 Russians illegally volunteered for Trump's campaign?
So what!
The establishment is straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel.
Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans illegally voted for Hillary Clinton.
Worse, billionaires whose first loyalty is to Israel, such as Haim Shaban and Paul Singer,
exercise immense influence over American foreign policy.
Immense resources are being devoted to investigating minuscule Russian activity. Why?
1. Because the establishment wants to overturn the results of the 2016 Presidential
election.
2. They also hope to find some connection between the Russian government and the American
hard right (via Dugin) which can be used to jail the leading figures of the American hard
right, thus doing what the ADL, SPLC and Antifa have failed to do – nullify the First
Amendment.
This is arguably the most serious assault ever on the Constitution of the United
States.
Putin requires hostility with the west in order to remain in power. He doesn't want a war, he
just needs Russian citizens to feel aggrieved against outsiders so that they don't react to
the kleptocrats running the country. It's classic 'strong man' strategy.
"Which brings us to the fifth and final fundamental reality surrounding the revelation of
Russia's grand effort to influence the U.S. election. It was an incredible blunder."
What a second. You call that a "grand effort?" A few Facebook accounts and some organized
trolling? That is anything but a "grand effort" and I question why anyone would characterize
it as such. Especially in the context of what we Americans have done and do (which you touch
on).
At some point the US needs to turn away from it's "Do as we say, not as we do" mentality.
Only thing it's gotten us is a world that doesn't trust us anymore. Unfortunately that day
won't come until the day the American Empire collapses and America returns to it's roots as a
Republic.
The Ukrainian president wasn't toppled; he fled,doubting the loyalty of his own security
forces and despite an agreement with the opposition to stay in power pending a new election
within 10 months.
@celery "Was the Russian election meddling a blunder? It was certainly successful. It has
fractured our society. I believe we will come back stronger from this, but it showed the rot
in society, in our religious institutions, and our political institutions. You have to
identify the rot to get in there and clean it out, so the Russians gave us that advantage,
but it has brought us to the brink. "
An apt comment. And in this connection it's crucially important that henceforth we hold
other countries to the standards we're holding Russia.
I'm thinking of Israel in particular, which has meddled in and distorted American politics
to a degree that the Russians can only dream of. One need say only "Sheldon Adelson" to
suggest its corrupting, distorting influence. What if a Russian oligarch came here and did
for Russia what Adelson and so many others do for Israel? Would we have American politicians
grovelling for the millions that a Russian oligarch could lavish on those who promise to do
Putin's bidding – as they already do for Adelson and Netanyahu?
If the end result of this "Russian meddling" case is criminalization of this behavior (or
even just reinvigorated enforcement of existing laws, like FARA and the Espionage Act), and
if that serves to end Israeli meddling in our political process, then all to the good.
Meddling by foreign countries in our political process is indeed "rot", as you put it –
and as George Washington urgently warned in his Farewell Address. It must be stopped at all
costs, for reasons so obvious that we shouldn't even have to discuss them.
Sorry, there is still no 'Russian Meddling' of any kind. The indictments were against a
commercial marketing scheme, using clickbait to build reputations that could be used to sell
ads. That is why the posts have no coherence. Some are for Trump, some against, some for
Hillary, some against, and of course there is the post that is definitely for, puppies.
Again, there is nothing here, about 'Russia'. Even Mueller's team of liars did not claim
any involvement by the Russian government.
What these indictments mean is that being a foreigner, and posting opinions during an
election, without registering as a foreign agent, means you can be indicted for 'defrauding'
the US.
Since Washington is rolling in a slush fund of billions in foreign lobbying money from
countries overwhelmingly not Russia, why is this influence peddling not the real issue? One
guy with a million bucks has more influence with Washington than a million guys with one
buck, and there are thousands of former elected and unelected government officials flush with
their cash doing the bidding of well moneyed foreign states other than Russia, not that of
the hundreds of millions of ordinary Americans.
Now we have the chimera of an indictment against 13 ham sandwiches with Russian dressing
which can never be eaten – there will be no actual trials as the people accused are
people in a foreign country. So, as has become the new standard for public belief in this and
other politicized matters, such findings of fact are unnecessary – accusations become
the same as proof, the very definition of witch hunt hysterias, from McCarthy to McMartin
preschool.
Far from benign foreign influences with far more effective and vast resources were bent on
running interference to make sure that Hillary Clinton was elected, since they believed her
ascendancy was in their best interests. Because millions of Americans knew that her policy
predilections were not in their own best interests, does that make them unwitting tools of a
Russian conspiracy? It's a witch hunt by powerful domestic forces not acting in Americans'
best interests, but those of elites who feel threatened by their own country's heartland and
its increasingly dispossessed.
This, I assume, is the latest pro-Putin propaganda line. With Putin openly interfering in the
Italian election in favour of the Lega Nord, it is now impossible to deny his interference in
the US election. So now the interference is admitted but of course it couldn't possibly be
nice Mr Putin's fault. It was just a blunder and, as we've come to expect, it was all
provoked anyway by the ever dastardly US! The rest is just a re-has of the "let Putin win in
Ukraine" pretexts that we've all heard a thousand times.
I'll say it again. One of the oldest tricks any regime uses when it begins to feel insecure
is to create an enemy for its people to focus on. Our oligarchy has chosen Russia, probably
because China makes them too much money.
Who, specifically, was indicted? Let's hear some names! From whom did they get their marching
orders? How did they "meddle" in the election? Examples please. And, most importantly, where
are they? If ( as rumor has it) they are in Russia then those indictments aren't worth the
paper they're written on.
Yes, please stop the Russian meddling! And please stop all the other foreign meddling while
you're at it. We're sick of doing the spending, fighting, and dying for foreign countries.
An American here. How can I think the Russians for interfering in American elections? I trust
Putin more than our own so-called "leaders." I say, interfere away (and let Hungary and
Poland join in)! Maybe then Americans will have the chance to break free of the chains of the
two-party sham, neocon foreign policy, and corporate globalism.
Interesting how the Trumpeteers have gone so swiftly from "Fake News" to "So What!". (I guess
Oceania has Always been at war with Eurasia.)
What people are missing, including the NeverTrumpers and the ForeverTrumpers is this even
betting there was no collusion (because not even ham-fisted Ruskies would cozy up too close
with such a band of inept jerks as the Trump Campaign) it shows Trump is a Chump.
Donnie the Strong Man is a clueless loser who was USED by the Russian troll factory
because he would be pliable (ie easily manipulated) to give them what they wanted.
Trump has SUCKER written all over his face. He should go play a round of golf and tweet
out pathetic insults to everyone. What else has he left.
For those who have projected their own agenda onto Trump's blatherings (just like the
Lefties did with Obama's vague platitudes), when will it occur to you that if you have to
keep making excuses and attacking those who point out the obvious, you have backed the wrong
horse's ***.
I know he can put on his Admiral-General uniform and review the troops, just like the
Ruskie leadership. Tanks, rocket launchers, ICBMs and goose-stepping soldiery (just like the
Russians). That will Prove he has *large hands*. "I'll Show You!"
Putin got elected because Russians were tired of Western rapacious capitalists trying to use
the broken Soviet Union to make money.. Putin then used his KGB thugs to turn the Russian
government into a mafioso.. The chosen, Putin enablers, looted the country.. The looters want
to free their stolen money to buy things in the west, cause who wants old soviet crap..
Western capitalists who dont care are more than willing to take their cut.. This is Trump,
who could not get a loan in this country.. This article is repugnant, it reduces the USA to
the level of these thieves in Russia.. God help us all.
"All that said, it would have been nice to explain who 'the Russians' are we're talking
about."
Bingo! I'd like to see names, who their bosses were (if they had any), places from which
they did their deeds. I'd like more specifics on exactly "what" they did and how. Most
importantly, and to paraphrase the Fermi (UFO) Paradox, "where are they?" Rumor has it
they're in Rooshia. If so, fuggedaboudit! We ain't EVER gonna seem them.
Indictment! As the saying goes "you can indict a ham sandwich."
"All that said, it would have been nice to explain who "the Russians" are we're talking
about. This looks less like a government op than a clickbait scam of the sort hundreds of
firms in dozens of countries engage in:"
Russia has very tight control of net communications within its borders. This could not
have happened without their support, or at least their tacit approval.
This is falling right into the trap of the neocon and neoliberal warmongerers.
1) No I don't believe Russia wants to reconstitute either the Russian Empire or the Soviet
Empire. Its about territorial integrity and relevancy on the world stage.
2) The US and EU backed Russia into the corner with the tug of war in Ukrainian elections
between pro-Russian candidates and pro-EU candidates then threatening Ukraine to take Crimea
away from the Russian navy. A clear threat to Russian territorial integrity and Russia would
be irrelevant without its warm water port in the Black Sea.
3) US and EU and Israel spy and influence elections around the world. Its concerning yes, but
does the US and EU expect Russia not to reciprocate?
4) I don't care what anyone says, everyone in the US owes Russia a debt of gratitude. I will
thank any nation that tried to tell the US citizenry what an evil, shrill, bipolar,
incompetent, traitorous woman Hillary Clinton was and still is! Hillary and Obama and their
administration should be in jail for murder, corruption and collusion.
This blunder will force a further deterioration between the US and Russia when both the US
and EU need friendly relations with Russia now more than ever. There are threats in this
world far greater than Russia like terrorism and nuclear proliferation and radical islam etc.
This means the US will have to tackle these issues without the help of Russia because it will
be punishing Russia. Mr. Trump, we need a master negotiator now more than ever to get Russia
out past this scandal and build a better relationship with them.
What is distressing is not that it happened. We are an open society (and I use that term in a
general sense, not teh Karl Popper sense). So it is easy to do so.
What is distressing to me is that it may have worked.
One of the strangest things about this whole matter is that it was just a few years ago that
Obama and Clinton were talking about trying to have a "reset" in our relations with Russia,
and the Right was apoplectic that they would even consider trying to talk to the implacable
enemy that was just waiting for the chance to destroy us. Now, with clear evidence that
Russia has in fact caused us harm, those exact same people are the ones saying "No problem,
nothing to see here. We trust Putin implicitly, he would never do anything to hurt us."
A very timely article indeed- one only needs the most basic outline of Russian history of the
last millennium to understand that their foreign policy has always been primarily
defensive.
One thing, though, needs to be corrected: The next president will indeed have an opportunity
to demonstrate a broad understanding of the situation and stretch out a cautiously friendly
hand.
This can't happen with Trump for two reasons- he hasn't demonstrated any understanding of the
context of the issue, and he has thoroughly poisoned the well by only seeing recent events in
terms of his own personal repuatation, not of the nation that he was hired to represent.
"... Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is www.councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected]. ..."
inter alia allegedly later ran a clandestine operation seeking to influence opinion
in the United States regarding the candidates in the 2016 election in which it favored Donald
Trump and denigrated Hillary Clinton. The Russians identified by name are all back in Russia
and cannot be extradited to the U.S., so the indictment is, to a certain extent, political
theater as the accused's defense will never be heard.
In presenting the document, Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, stressed that there was
no evidence to
suggest that the alleged Russian activity actually changed the result of the 2016
presidential election or that any actual votes were altered or tampered with. Nor was there any
direct link to either the Russian government or its officials or to the Donald Trump campaign
developed as a result of the nine-month long investigation. There was also lacking any mention
in the indictment of the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton and Panetta e-mails, so
it is to be presumed that the activity described in the document was unrelated to the WikiLeaks
disclosures.
Those of the "okay, there's smoke but where's the fire" school of thought immediately noted
the significant elephant in the room, namely that the document did not include any suggestion
that there had been collusion between Team Trump and Moscow. As that narrative has become the
very raison d'etre driving the Mueller investigation, its omission is noteworthy.
Meanwhile, those who see more substance in what was revealed by the evidence provided in the
indictment and who, for political reasons, would like to see Trump damaged, will surely be
encouraged by their belief that the noose is tightening around the president.
Assuming the indictment is accurate, I would agree that the activity of the Internet
Research Agency does indeed have some of the hallmarks of a covert action intelligence
operation in terms how it used some spying tradecraft to support its organization, targeting
and activity. But its employees also displayed considerable amateur behavior, suggesting that
they were not professional spies, supporting the argument that it was not a government
intelligence operation or an initiative under Kremlin control. And beyond that, so what? Even
on a worst-case basis, stirring things up is what intelligence agencies do, and
no one is more active in interfering in foreign governments and elections than the United
States of America, most notably in Russia for the election of Boris Yeltsin in 1996, which was
arranged by Washington, and more recently in Ukraine in 2014. From my own experience I can cite
Italy's 1976 national election in which the CIA went all out to keep the communists out of
government. Couriers were discreetly dispatched to the headquarters of all the Italian right
wing parties dropping off bags of money for "expenses" while the Italian newspapers were full
of articles written by Agency-paid hacks warning of the dangers of communism. And this all went
on clandestinely even though Italy was a democracy, an ally and NATO member.
Does that mean that Washington should do nothing in response? No, not at all. Russia, if the
indictment is accurate, may have run an influencing operation and gotten caught with its hand
in the cookie jar. Or maybe not. And Washington might also actually have information suggesting
that Russia is preparing to engage in further interference in the 2018 and 2020 elections,
as claimed by the heads of the intelligence agencies, though, as usual, evidence for the
claim is lacking. There has to be bilateral, confidential discussion of such activity between
Washington and Moscow and a warning given that such behavior will not be tolerated in the
future, but only based on irrefutable, solid evidence. The leadership in both countries should
be made to understand very clearly that there are more compelling reasons to maintain good
bilateral working relations than not.
With that in mind, it is important not to overreact and to base any U.S. response on the
actual damage that was inflicted. The indictment suggests that Russia is out to destroy
American democracy by promoting "distrust" of government as well as sowing "discord" in the
U.S. political system while also encouraging "divisiveness" among the American people. I would
suggest in Russia's defense that the U.S. political system is already doing a good job at
self-destructing and the difficult-to-prove accusations being hurled at Moscow are the type one
flings when there is not really anything important to say.
I would suggest that Moscow might well want to destroy American democracy but there is no
evidence in the indictment to support that hypothesis. I particularly note that the document
makes a number of assumptions which appear to be purely speculative for which it provides no
evidence. It describes the Russian company Internet Research Agency as "engaged in operations
to interfere with elections and political processes." Its employees were involved in
"interference operations targeting the United States. From in or around 2014 to the
present, Defendants knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (and with persons
known and unknown to the Grand Jury) to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing,
and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose
of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential
election of 2016."
The theme of Russian subversion is repeated throughout the indictment without any compelling
evidence to explain how Mueller knows what he asserts to be true, suggesting either that the
document would have benefited from a good editor or that whoever drafted it was making things
up. Internet Research Agency allegedly "conduct[ed] what it called 'information warfare against
the United States of America' through fictitious U.S. personas on social media platforms and
other Internet-based media." The indictment goes on to assert that
"By in or around May 2014, the ORGANIZATION's strategy included interfering with the 2016
U.S. presidential election, with the stated goal of 'spread[ing] distrust towards the
candidates and the political system in general'"
with a
"strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S.
presidential election. Defendants posted derogatory information about a number of candidates,
and by early to mid-2016, Defendants' operations included supporting the presidential
campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ("Trump Campaign") and disparaging Hillary
Clinton. Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying
political advertisements on social media in the name of U.S. persons and entities. Defendants
also staged political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S. grassroots
entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION
affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates.
Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association,
communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other
political activists to seek to coordinate political activities."
Two company associates
"traveled in and around the United States, including stops in Nevada, California, New
Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Texas, and New York to gather intelligence.
After the trip, [they] exchanged an intelligence report regarding the trip. The conspiracy
had as its object the opening of accounts under false names at U.S. financial institutions
and a digital payments company in order to receive and send money into and out of the United
States to support the ORGANIZATION's operations in the United States and for
self-enrichment . Defendants and their co-conspirators also used the accounts to
receive money from real U.S. persons in exchange for posting promotions and advertisements on
the ORGANIZATION-controlled social media pages. Defendants and their co-conspirators
typically charged certain U.S. merchants and U.S. social media sites between 25 and 50 U.S.
dollars per post for promotional content on their popular false U.S. persona accounts,
including Being Patriotic, Defend the 2nd, and Blacktivist. All in violation of Title 18,
United States Code, Section 1349."
Note particularly the money laundering and for-profit aspects of the Internet Research
scheme, something that would be eschewed if it were an actual intelligence operation. There is
some speculation that it all might have been what is referred to as a click-bait commercial
marketing scheme set up to make money from advertising fees. Also note how small the entire
operation was. It focused on limited social media activity while spending an estimated $1
million on the entire venture, with Facebook admitting to a total of $100,000 in total ad buys,
only half of which were before the election. It doesn't smell like a major foreign government
intelligence/influence initiative intended to "overthrow democracy." And who attended the phony
political rallies? How many votes did the whole thing cause to change? Impossible to know, but
given a campaign in which billions were spent and both fake and real news were flying in all
directions, one would have to assume that the Russian effort was largely a waste of time if it
indeed was even as described or serious in the first place.
And apart from the money laundering aspect of the alleged campaign was it even illegal apart
from the allegations of possible visa fraud and money laundering? If the Russians involved were
getting their financial support from the Moscow government then it would be necessary to
register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938, but if not, they would be
protected by the Constitution and have the same First Amendment right to express their opinions
of Hillary Clinton on blogs and websites while also associating with others politically as do
all other residents of the United States. Many of the commenters on this Unz site are foreign
and are not required either by law or custom to state where they come from.
And, of course, there is one other thing. There always is. One major media outlet
is already suggesting that there could be consequences for American citizens who wittingly
or unwittingly helped the Russians, identified in the indictment as "persons known and
unknown." A former federal prosecutor put it another way, saying "While they went to great
pains to say they are not indicting any Americans today, if I was an American and I did
cooperate with Russians I would be extremely frightened " Politico
speculates that "Now, a legal framework exists for criminal charges against Americans " and
cites a former U.S. district attorney's observation that "Think of a conspiracy indicting
parties ' known and unknown' as a Matroyshka doll. There are many more layers to be
successively revealed over time."
Under normal circumstances, an American citizen colluding with a foreign country would have
to be convicted of engaging in an illegal conspiracy, which would require being aware that the
foreigners were involved in criminal behavior and knowingly aiding them. But today's overheated
atmosphere in Washington is anything but normal. Russia's two major media outlets that operate
in the U.S., Sputnik and RT America, have been forced to register under FARA. Does that mean
that the hundreds of American citizens who appeared on their programs prior to the 2016
election to talk about national politics will be next in line for punishment? Stay tuned.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National
Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation that seeks a more interests-based
U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is www.councilforthenationalinterest.org,
address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected].
The original piece is about an internet marketing scheme that is supposed to have influenced
U.S. elections. It is thus amusing that the retweeting bots are part of an internet marketing
scheme that is supposed to influence U.S. elections.
But why do they use the line "Omg. Fish is priceless"?
1. The first retweet shown above, which introduced the 'fish' line, is from a real person.
Debbie Lusigman, the @saneprogessive , who has her own video channel
with lots of legit content. The other tweets though are copies (not regular retweets) of the
first retweet.
(h/t
oldandyoung and
integer )
2. The other personalities are likely bots that may well be run by one Scott Dworkin , a grifter who runs the
fundraising campaign Democratic Coalition and channels most of
the funds to a company he owns. Geoff Miamifound the connection and
reported on it at Progressive Army .
(h/t
Demeter )
Posted by b on February 19, 2018 at 07:36 AM | Permalink
@saneprogressive is a real account; the rest appear to be bots. The bots RT some posts and
appropriate others as their own. For instance, another one of @saneprogressives posts was
also posted by @SenWarren2020 as its own yesterday. These are simple bots that attach
themselves to certain accounts that have been deemed to be in the right ideological sphere,
one suspects.
I know those bots. @GeoffMiami has called them
out as accounts controlled by Scott Dowrkin (@funder) and his "resistance organization" The
Dem Coalition (@TheDemCoalition). "They hope to grift off Bernie supporters by using
Bernie-themed bot accounts to push their propaganda."
Dworkin's Super PAC promotes fear through a repeating cycle of Russian-based propaganda,
which garners donations, which pay consultants that generate those stories over and over
again, garnering yet more donations. As to what purpose his Super PAC actually serves, it
appears to be little more than a Möbius strip of self-serving opportunism.
@Bobby Mueller @6
"because they are not re-tweeting your post from MOA - they are re-tweeting
@saneprogressive's re-tweet of your MOA post."
No - the 2nd to 8th account are not "retweeting" the 1st. They copied and reposted its
content.
If those were legit one click "retweets" a la normal Twitter it would says so (XYZ retweeted
ABC) and lock different. The form they used as shown above would require several clicks to 1.
go to my original tweet, 2. retweet that with comment, 3. type (or copy) the fish line, 4.
send.
I am not sure that I have taken enough of the right drugs but here goes
1. The retweets are secret messages from "saneprogressive" that bots are trained to
retweet so others know to read your posting as it is priceless
2. The retweets are NSA manipulation to deprecate and make light of your posting by making
it unserious
3. Twitter/NSA has developed bots behind the scene to manipulate public focus and it is
just coming out of Beta testing
4. Some blogs have weekly cat pictures but this is clear evidence that MoA needs to have
at least weekly sock puppet pictures.
5. All this focus on sock puppets and fish on America's president's day is unpatriotic and
taking focus away from the current president's tweets which cannot be tolerated.
6. If this fish is so priceless, why is it stealing focus from humanity's more pressing
problems like determining if this persons G in OMG is the same as that persons G in their
OMG
It is just at freezing in Portland OR with a light dusting of snow from last night on all
but the roads and the sun is shining.....Happy day/life to all!
I updated the piece above with the information provided by oldandyoung, integer, and
Demeter.
Thanks folks!
Sebastian Dangerfield , Feb 19, 2018 1:57:44 PM |
30
This is an absolutely hilarious illustration of your argument. While I don't think the
argument that the Internet Research Agency was a marketing endeavor is conclusive, it
certainly is a compelling explanation, especially given the ridiculous nature of the content
that it produced. It's like everyone simply ignored the fact that there are gazillions of
these click-harvesting schemes and that the 2016 election, being a perpetual internet outrage
machine, was especially fertile ground for them. They all (probably deliberately) ignored the
reporting about, say, the Macedonian bullshit farm, which was generating mostly pro-Trump
posts in order to harvest clicks.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo?utm_term=.ynwo9nn2#.rvBVyoo3
The sock puppet does look a bit like a fish and maybe Debbie Lusignan saw a pun in there that
is lost on the bots retweeting her Tweet.
"Fish" is good for "fishing" and "phishing" = collecting clicks (and possibly personal
information attached to metadata generated by clicks) to forward on to third parties willing
to pay for that information.
I have been tweeting your article, not the fish picture, frequently, as I am tired of even
supporters of Trump spouting a false narrative. #IamnotaRussianbot or bot of any sort, just a
human who wants to pass on the excellent info you wrote. I hope it gets new followers to your
blog!
I've been following Debbie Lusignan since early in the 2015/2016 Primaries. She was a Bernie
supporter who documented the election fraud better than any other source. She has since come
to see Bernie as a sell-out at least, if not a sheep dog from the start. And her focus since
has been on discarding the "right/left paradigm" and joining in common causes against the
global, plutocratic, warmongering powers.
I've posted links to MoA articles on her sites several times, so maybe her following b is
my fault. ;-)
The fact that Mueller politicized the action of Russian Internet scammers (who are at best petty criminals) suggest that
he has nothing more significant to offer hungry US Russophobes.
At this point Mueller turned his investigation into pure political propaganda
Notable quotes:
"... My impression has been that the "fake news" of dubious sources that circulates on social media is much better at generating money through clicks and shares in appealing to existing bias than it is at changing opinions. ..."
"... information that is true & irrefutable can hardly be considered harmful to the function of democracy, no matter the self-interested motive of the source: the electorate will consider it with their own self-interest in mind. And if any meaningful number of the American electorate – reaching up, say, to triple or even quadruple digits – was duped into texting their vote instead of going to their precinct then we need to resolve to get wise to this trick and not get fooled again. ..."
"... Poor Russia cant get a break, neither can Americans get a break from this USA 'get Russia' monkey circus. The monkeys now reach back a year ago to get Russia on a cyber attack. ..."
"... This a great article: it summarizes the poverty of the entire "Russians done it" meme. Let's not forget: this is another BIG LIE, on par, if not worse than the Iraq fiasco LIES ..."
"... "U.S. law bans foreign nationals from making certain expenditures or financial disbursements for the purpose of influencing federal elections. U.S. law also bars agents of any foreign entity from engaging in political activities within the United States without first registering with the Attorney General." When are we going to indict Israeli nationals for the above-mentioned crimes? When are we going to single out Bibi as a foreign national who engages with childlike enthusiasm in political activities within the United States? ..."
"... It's even more depressing than that. The indictments are against what is probably just (one of a million) commercial marketing scams. That is why the posts have no coherence. Some are for Trump, some against, some are for Hillary and some against, and of course there is the post that is for puppies. These are clickbait to establish the trolls as leaders so they can get advertisers to purchase ads. ..."
"... The word Lügenpresse has has entered German dictionaries, 'lying press', I hope a similar expression will enter USA dictionaries soon. In Germany this expression also is used with regard to TV. ..."
"... How creepy these pyschopaths are is hard for most people to understand, but gradually they are. Also, Trump has powerful opponents, one of which is the inability of most people to politically wake up quickly. He is the front man for a Military, Political, and Scientific Alliance making war against entrenched elitist, sociopathic, self-centered, control freak cabals that almost seized complete power in our country. Give him some slack okay. He's / they are doing pretty good considering the incredibly dangerous situation they took over. Keep writing Mike Whitney! ..."
"... It appears that Mueller is intent on prolonging his little fishing trip. My own cynicism suggests to me that his motive is, at least partially, financial. Sure, the media has said that he's being paid what will amount to only $200k or so per year for his "service" and that he has given up a position that pays him closer to $3 million for the same amount of time in order to act as Special Counsel. ..."
"... This indictment has publicised for the whole world that US has a 'law' that prohibits free speech by foreigners in foreign countries if they dare to speak disparagingly of US politicians. That is a PR disaster. People will be laughing about this for decades. Why do something so obviously stupid? ..."
"... Many countries have bad laws – in Thailand people can go to jail for offending the king. But to apply it to free speech by foreign people living abroad is self-destructive. To my best knowledge no country has ever attempted to charge people living abroad with 'disparaging comments' about their politicians. By that standard, literally millions of people are daily breaking the 'law' – e.g. all the bad stuff people say about Trump. During 2016 election there were literally millions of people in foreign countries who expressed 'disparaging' views about Trump. And some about Clinton. ..."
"... Doing nothing would had been better than becoming a laughing stock. How is Washington going to preach freedom of speech and internet after this self-inflicted fiasco? What if Russia starts 'indicting' millions of people who expressed negative comments about Putin? ..."
Robert Mueller's Friday night indictment-spree, is a flagrant and infuriating attempt to
divert attention from the damning revelations in the Nunes memo (and the Graham-Grassley
"criminal referral") which prove that senior-level officials at the FBI and DOJ were engaged in
an expansive conspiracy to subvert the presidential elections by spying on members of the Trump
campaign. The evidence that the FBI and DOJ "improperly obtained" FISA warrants to spy on Trump
campaign affiliate, Carter Page, has now been overshadowed by the tragic massacre in Parkland,
Florida and the obfuscating indictments of 13 Internet "trolls" who have not been linked to the
Russian government and who are being used to conceal the fact that the 18 month-long witch hunt
has not yet produced even one scintilla of hard evidence related to the original claims of
"hacking or collusion".
Think about what's Mueller is really up to: He's not just moving the goalposts, he's loading
them onto a spaceship and putting them on another planet. Where's the evidence that Russia
hacked the DNC computers and stole their emails? Where's the proof that members of the Trump
campaign colluded with Russia? That's what we want to know, not whether some goofy Russian
troll was spreading false information on Facebook. That has nothing to do with the original
charges. It's just politically-motivated gibberish that proves Mueller has nothing to support
his case. After a full year, the investigation has failed to produce anything but a big goose
egg.
According to the indictment, the alleged Russian trolls "posted derogatory information about
a number of candidates" and its "operations included supporting the presidential campaign of
then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Clinton."
Big whoop. If people are so malleable that they can be brainwashed by some suggestive
posting on Facebook, then maybe we should abandon democracy altogether. But that's not what
this is really about, is it? Because if it was, Mueller would have posted the contents of those
nefarious Russian comments in the indictment WHICH HE DIDN'T because he knows it's all
obfuscating bullsh** designed to make the sheeple think evil Putin is dabbling in our precious
elections.
Oh, and here's a little tidbit the MSM managed to overlook in their typically-hysterical
coverage. This is from journalist Alexander Mercouris at the pro-Russia website, The Duran: (If
you think your delicate mind might be brainwashed by Russian propaganda, please, shield your
eyes!)
"The third thing to say about the indictment – and a point which has been almost
universally overlooked in all the feverish commentary about it – is that it makes no
claim that the Russian government was in any way involved in any of the activities of the
persons indicted.
Nowhere in the indictment is the Russian government or any official of the Russian
government or any agency of the Russian government mentioned at all. Nor at any point in the
indictment is it suggested that any of the persons indicted were employed by the Russian
government or were acting under its instructions or on its behalf ." (The Duran, Alexander
Mercouris)
No Ruskis involved? But how can that be? We were assured that diabolical Russia is behind
everything bad that happens in America. Has evil Putin been sleeping on the job??
Yes, it's true that the Internet Research Agency, LLC, is in fact located in St. Petersburg
but–as yet–there is no known connection between the company and the government.
And, if there was, you can bet that Mueller would have exploited it for all it's worth.
By the way, Mueller's presumption that the hackers were trying to influence the election, is
just that, a presumption. It has no basis in fact whatsoever. It is mere speculation like the
rest of the claptrap he's come up with. The more reasonable explanation is that the hackers
were trying to make a little dough on "pageviews or clicks" rather than trying to persuade
voters to vote for one candidate or the other. Here's more from the indictment:
" Defendants and their co-conspirators began to track and study groups on U.S. social
media sites dedicated to U.S. politics and social issues. In order to gauge the performance
of various groups on social media sites, the organization tracked certain metrics like the
group's size, the frequency of content placed by the group, and the level of audience
engagement with that content, such as the average number of comments or responses to a
post."
WTF! Isn't this what everyone is doing, including the Intel agencies, advertisers, media and
corporations? So now it's a crime? Give me a break!
Here's a blurb from the comments-line at Sic Semper Tyrannis:
"The "conspiracy" started in 2014, and cost a whopping $1.2 MILLION, which includes
salaries, tech support, and bonuses. The indictment includes info that the Russians ran ads
supporting Black Lives Matter, Muslims, Jill Stein, Ted Cruz, Rubio, and Trump. They also
organized rallies in support of, and in opposition to Trump and Hillary Clinton. They
continued their activities up into 2017, still organizing pro-Clinton and pro-Trump rallies.
At one point, the indictment says that the Russians ran an ad that reached 59,000 people,
which is laughable, people with a camera in their kitchen get more views than that.
Essentially, after about 1.5 years of investigating "Russian collusion" this is all they've
come up with." –London Bob, Sic Semper Tyrannis
And here's more from the indictment:
"U.S. law bans foreign nationals from making certain expenditures or financial
disbursements for the purpose of influencing federal elections. U.S. law also bars agents of
any foreign entity from engaging in political activities within the United States without
first registering with the Attorney General."
This is mind-numbingly stupid. Does Mueller really think he can cobble together a case
against 13 foreign-born defendants based on the thin gruel of Russian support for "Black Lives
Matter, Jill Stein and Donald Trump?" Good luck with that, Bob.
Political analyst Paul Craig Roberts summarizes how absurd the indictments are in a Friday
article tiled "The Result of Mueller's Investigation: Nothing":
"How did the 13 Russians go about sowing discord? Are you ready for this? They held
political rallies posing as Americans and they paid one person (unidentified) to build a cage
aboard a flatbed pickup truck and another person to wear a costume portraying Hillary in
prison clothes ."
The whole thing is ridiculous and anyone with half a brain knows it's ridiculous. The only
reason this fiasco continues to drag on, is because the mandarins in the US National Security
State run everything in America and they've decided that they can invent whatever reality suits
their foreign policy agenda and the rest of us will simply accept it in silence or be denounced
as "Putin apologists" or "Kremlin stooges". Fortunately, facts and reason appear to be getting
the upper hand which why the deep state powerbrokers are getting so desperate. They're now
genuinely concerned about what might "come out" and who might be exposed.
Do the names John Brennan or Barack Obama ring a bell?
Indeed. I'm sure both names would factor quite large in any seriously impartial and thorough
investigation of the Russiagate conspiracy.
One last thing for all you supporters of Donald Trump. I suggest you carefully examine his
latest tweet on the topic. Here it is:
"Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run
for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing
wrong – no collusion!" Donald Trump, Twitter
As I expected, Trump is going to save his own skin, but allow the "Bigger Lie" to persist.
It looks to me that Trump may have cut a deal with his deep state antagonists to support their
spurious claims of Russian meddling as long as they exonerate him on the charges of collusion.
That means, he will NOT use his power as President to try to uncover the roots of Russia-gate
fabrication. (that would probably expose the former Directors of the CIA and NSA and, perhaps,
even the former president of the United States, who likely gave Brennan the greenlight to set
the wheels in motion.) All of these suspects will go uninvestigated, unindicted, and unpunished
just like the perpetrators of the Iraq War, just like the perpetrators of the Financial
Meltdown, and just like the perpetrators of all the major crimes against the American people.
As always, it is complete and total immunity for Parasite Class while the rest of us have to
play by the rules. But you probably already knew that.
Trump will get off the hook while the rest of us languish in permanent ignorance of how the
shadow government really works. You heard it first here.
After all of the concern expressed in the abstract I'd like to see some concrete examples of
the material used to change opinions of American voters. My impression has been that the
"fake news" of dubious sources that circulates on social media is much better at generating
money through clicks and shares in appealing to existing bias than it is at changing
opinions.
In any event, in this new environment – absent some form of censorship as
with authoritarian states – any interested party such as a foreign government may
introduce anonymously, by way of levels of remove, political content intended to change
opinion. Of course, information that is true & irrefutable can hardly be considered
harmful to the function of democracy, no matter the self-interested motive of the source: the
electorate will consider it with their own self-interest in mind. And if any meaningful
number of the American electorate – reaching up, say, to triple or even quadruple
digits – was duped into texting their vote instead of going to their precinct then we
need to resolve to get wise to this trick and not get fooled again.
Now, if this Mueller investigation would set out anew with a determination to find some
Russian government involvement in fomenting the red hot molten lava of Identity Politics
bubbling out of our universities – the obscene notion that a "patriarchy" of white
males, acting as some kind of an informal fraternity in favoring themselves in the economy to
the detriment of the outsiders, needs to get taken down in status in order to make America
great – then they'd be cooking with gas toward the concern of harming the bonds of our
civil union.
Poor Russia cant get a break, neither can Americans get a break from this USA 'get Russia'
monkey circus. The monkeys now reach back a year ago to get Russia on a cyber attack.
White House blames Russia for 'reckless' NotPetya cyber attack
3 days ago – WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) – The White House on Thursday blamed
Russia for the devastating 'NotPetya' cyber attack last year , joining the British
government in condemning Moscow for unleashing a virus that crippled parts of Ukraine's
infrastructure and damaged computers in countries across the
Best advice for Americans believe nothing, trust nothing that issues from a
government.
The experts:
John McAfee, founder of an anti-virus firm, said:
"When the FBI or when any other agency says the Russians did it or the Chinese did something
or the Iranians did something – that's a fallacy," said McAfee.
"Any hacker capable of breaking into something is extraordinarily capable of hiding their
tracks. If I were the Chinese and I wanted to make it look like the Russians did it I would
use Russian language within the code. "I would use Russian techniques of breaking into
organisations so there is simply no way to assign a source for any attack – this is a
fallacy."
I can promise you – if it looks like the Russians did it, then I can guarantee you
it was not the Russians."
Wikileaks has released a number of CIA cyber tools it had obtained. These included
software specifically designed to create false attributions.
Per the preceding, my own observation would be, when your lead investigator/special
prosecutor's known history is framing people for crimes they didn't commit, sandbagging &
sinking criminal investigations into international narcotics & arms trafficking,
protecting related money laundering & hired killers, and providing cover for the
perpetrators (intelligence agencies), we know why any reasonably honest & intelligent
person wouldn't give two cents credibility to, and possess a rat's ass level of sympathy for,
'special' counsel Robert Mueller. The real question is, why the Boyd Cathy and Mike Whitney
types don't go after these guys at the level the deserve; pointing to their established
international criminal mafioso (read intelligence agency) crimes sprees and history of
impunity:
From a different Anonymous ..Mr. Whitney I can see the point of Donald Trump doing the kind
of deal you suggest if there was enough for him to fear as you suggest but do not
demonstrate. Why shouldn't we believe that it's all over, the indictments show there's
nothing to be concrrned about?
Before your suggestion of the deal I had already concluded that you had not made a case
against the indictments. Are you in fact willing to say that they should not have been
instituted? If so, why?
Are they so completely hopeless in law, or as a matter of practicality in terms of their
ever being got to court that it is an abuse if Mueller's position to support them? And if, as
seems likely, nothing will come of them (certainly Russia won't help with extradition), is
there not a case for using these indictments to clear the air on the law and, possibly, by
the courts throwing the cases out on weakness of the matters of fact alleged? Could there
even be a Machiavellian desire to have arguments put which would embarrass the Israel
Lobby?
This should not be allowed either. CNN . 'Israel has 200,000 eligible American voters, according to the non-partisan organization
IVoteIsrael, which registers American Israelis to vote.
Mike Whitney. Do you think Mueller should have avoided bringing the indictments even though
US law appears to make what was done illegal? If so, why?
Could Mueller be justified by thinking it could help to sort out a bad law, especially if
lawyers appear for the named defendants and move for the dismissal of the case on the facts
alleged. Or, as has also been suggested, ia this a move which might allow the defendant's
case to embarrass the Lobby? Would Mueller or the FBI be upset by that.
"Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media
"Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American
propaganda
"Jeff Jarvis: Washington shows the morals of a clumsy spammer"
This a great article: it summarizes the poverty of the entire "Russians done it" meme.
Let's not forget: this is another BIG LIE, on par, if not worse than the Iraq fiasco
LIES.
Nor is it, per se, about Trump. This is about State &political actors using State
agencies & the MSM to prevent/ bring down an elected president. Its a plain unadorned
assault on what's left of US democracy. (The fact that the vast majority of DNC voters can't
-- WONT see this demonstrates how successful Elites have been in morally &
psychologically corrupting the US public.
How many BIG LIE narratives can a State take ? Or do we just whistle & say " oh, but we
live in a post truth age" as if that's not somehow morally equivalent to being a Moloch
worshipper out for sunny day icecream.
"U.S. law bans foreign nationals from making certain expenditures or financial disbursements
for the purpose of influencing federal elections. U.S. law also bars agents of any foreign
entity from engaging in political activities within the United States without first
registering with the Attorney General."
When are we going to indict Israeli nationals for the above-mentioned crimes? When are we
going to single out Bibi as a foreign national who engages with childlike enthusiasm in
political activities within the United States?
Law enforcement of course doesn't bring every case which meets the definition of a crime.
If it did, nearly everyone would be involved in the criminal justice system.
Discretion is used. And here, the evidence points directly to Mueller's discretion being
used to protect the asses of the FBI and security state.
This indictment will not see the light of day. It's a bit like declaring faux victory in
Iraq and leaving (what should have been done in that case). No lawyer will have the
opportunity to refute th bull shit.
This is also why Meuller just indicted Gates, to strengthen the Manafort case. The only
thing of note that will come out of this debacle of an investigation. He's giving up on
Russia and going after Manafort, the low hanging fruit.
This is all nonsense, The very idea that Trump, or Clinton is being attacked by the FBI or
CIA, or "Deep State", while doing exactly what he was hired to do, is ludicrous.
Trump is a PRODUCT, just like Obama, and Clinton, all paid whores of the Zionist money
machine.
The CIA and FBI are merely players in this game of distraction. The whole Russia gate BS
was a cleaver rouse to further Zionists goals: Distract Americans from the real foreign
interference by Zionist Jews, and to further demonize Christian Russia to the left, opening
up the support for war with Russia.
Washington, Trump, Congress all lie, the media all lies, yet time and time again I see
their lies playing as truth. Are you just stupid or part of the problem? Nothing comes form
any of this, just distraction and divide and conquer. Trump continues to ACT like an Israeli
firster while he TALKS about Ameirca first, and idiots keep focusing on his words and NOT HIS
ACTIONS!
Trump ran on anti-immigration, building a wall, and getting out of conflicts. Yet, Trump is pushing for AMNESTY FOR DREAMERS, is building no wall, and is pushing
conflict in the Middle East. Seems to me, this should be the ONLY topics of conversation. Trump is a wolf in sheep's
clothing, a Zionist traitor, and these FBI/Russia/Clinton back and forth accusations are just
the Zionist Jews giving Trump cover.
This is all theater, the Zionists rule DC, 9/11 was the culmination of their control over
DC, and now they play is like a Hollywood movie, full of intrigue and misdirection. None of
this amounts to anything, yet, time and again it is front page news, while TRUMP's TREASON,
HIS AMNESTY GO IGNORED???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It seems there is very little Zionist money cannot buy
Does the writer want us to believe that a bunch of private Russians, with no connection to
the government, decided for their own amusement to spend millions of dollars to play games
with American voters' heads?
It's even more depressing than that. The indictments are against what is probably just (one
of a million) commercial marketing scams. That is why the posts have no coherence. Some are
for Trump, some against, some are for Hillary and some against, and of course there is the
post that is for puppies. These are clickbait to establish the trolls as leaders so they can
get advertisers to purchase ads.
I think and hope that USA citizens have not lost their minds, but are using it, maybe just
for the second time.
The first time then was when the USA refused to ratify Versailles, after USA citizens had
discovered that their sons had die overseas for JP Morgan and British imperialism.
The word Lügenpresse has has entered German dictionaries, 'lying press', I hope a
similar expression will enter USA dictionaries soon.
In Germany this expression also is used with regard to TV.
Here in the Netherlands our Minister of Foreign Affairs Halbe Zijlstra had to resign after
the newspaper Volkskrant, in very unusual opening a can of worms, publicised that Zijlstra
never had been in Putin's dacha where Putin had explained what 'greater Russia' was:
including White Russia, Ukraine, Baltic states and Khazakstan.
USA press, this time hitting the mark, called him 'the lying Dutchman'.
Zijlstra's friend, prime minister Rutte, already for years has the nickname Pinochio, his
lies are well known.
Rutte must have known that Zijlstra lied at his party's congress, VVD, in 2016.
A poll now seems to show that more than half the Dutch have had enough with Rutte.
This seems to be the era in which nothing is trusted any more, politicians, media,
experts, and so on.
For me one of the greatest nations on this earth is small insignificant Denmark.
It does not wage wars far from home, it does not allow foreigners to buy houses or land, it
has an excellent pension system and social security system, and an excellent health care
system.
It does not welcome large numbers of migrants, has a very low crime rate.
There may be very rich Danes, but they do not display their wealth.
The only thing I blame Denmark for is the oversized and luxurious post offices.
The country side is not impressive, nor what farmers produce, sugar beets.
And so the Danes are the happiest people on earth, surveys conclude.
"According to the indictment, the alleged Russian trolls "posted derogatory information about
a number of candidates" and its "operations included supporting the presidential campaign of
then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Clinton."
This is straight out of the Stalin and/or Mao playbook: those people thought bad thoughts
and said some things that did not support us, which proves they are EVIL and must be
destroyed for the good of all.
Jewish money 'bought' Oliver Cromwell, the chief epitome of WASP culture, not because it
was an impossible offer to resist, but because Anglo-Saxon Puritanism was a Judiaizing
heresy, and Cromwell naturally saw Jews as the best allies for WASPs.
You cannot solve the Jewish problem without also solving the WASP problem.
Good article and thank you for keeping your presentation a reasonable length. Unreasonable
length is a problem for many authors and preachers!
The Florida school massacre, can be orchestrated by simply ignoring significant warnings. For
instance, a rogue FBI leadership intentionally ignores warnings from many different locations
on the likely danger, and just waits for it to happen. When it does happen the rogue FBI cell
can claim plausible deniability, claiming incompetence or stupidity, instead of intention.
Then tens of millions of Americans are distracted from recently released information exposing
the rogue FBI cell.
How creepy these pyschopaths are is hard for most people to understand,
but gradually they are. Also, Trump has powerful opponents, one of which is the inability of
most people to politically wake up quickly. He is the front man for a Military, Political,
and Scientific Alliance making war against entrenched elitist, sociopathic, self-centered,
control freak cabals that almost seized complete power in our country. Give him some slack
okay. He's / they are doing pretty good considering the incredibly dangerous situation they
took over. Keep writing Mike Whitney!
It's wide open, your packets are shooting all over the place, nice n' secure. Hail
Fatherland Security! When you read propaganda, they know all about you and what you're
reading in advance. Us, them, Russians – to the farm junior!
It appears that Mueller is intent on prolonging his little fishing trip. My own cynicism
suggests to me that his motive is, at least partially, financial. Sure, the media has said
that he's being paid what will amount to only $200k or so per year for his "service" and that
he has given up a position that pays him closer to $3 million for the same amount of time in
order to act as Special Counsel.
Still, the total cost of his exploration has been over $6.5 million so far. This, I would
have to guess, is all in legal costs, fees paid to attorneys he has selected to do the
investigative work. That amount of money is in excess of what he is supposedly giving up in
order to conduct this investigation.
Looking at his motivation from this angle, it would make sense that a lawyer, especially a
greedy, power hungry lawyer, would set up a system of kickbacks for attorneys he appoints to
do the work. Mueller may be suspected of ensuring himself an equal income to what he is
supposed to have given up.
Any time his fishing trip comes under fire for failing to catch any fish big enough for a
meal, he issues indictments. This time he has indicted some foreign nationals who will
probably never even be arrested, let alone prosecuted. Still, he's allowed to keep
fishing.
All true. Good comment. Also, Denmark appears to have a genetic advantage when it comes to
happiness, its lousy weather notwithstanding! See "National Happiness and Genetic Distance: A
Cautious Exploration," by
Eugenio Proto and Andrew J. Oswald, University of Warwick.
Abstract
This paper studies a famous unsolved puzzle in quantitative social science. Why do
some nations report such high levels of mental well-being? Denmark, for instance,
regularly tops the league table of rich countries' happiness; Britain and the US enter
further down; some nations do unexpectedly poorly. The explanation for the long observed
ranking -- one that holds after adjustment for GDP and other socioeconomic
variables -- is currently unknown. Using data on 131 countries, the paper cautiously
explores a new approach. It documents three forms of evidence consistent with the
hypothesis that some nations may have a genetic advantage in well-being.
Anon from TN
People who generated lies have vested interest in perpetuating them. They will gladly use new
lies to "confirm" the old ones. Even Trump figured that the red herring of Russian
interference in the elections made the US a laughing stock in Russia. That's an
understatement, though: this red herring made the US a laughing stock of 90% of the world
population (the remaining 10% have no sense of humor).
Where are the indictments of the foreign nationals in California, who openly attacked Trump
supporters in San Jose? They attempted to affect the election through criminal assaults and
batteries, much more than a simple Facebook post. This is the newly unveiled America, the
citizens are not running anything, we are bought and paid for by interests that Gen.
Washington would have deemed treasonous.
How do US Courts have jurisdiction to prosecute speech originating in another country?
If is was said here out in public, fine, but saying something on the internet in another
country does not seem to be prosecutable. Some countries have speech laws, and I would hate
to find myself in their court system for something I say here that violates their deal.
Do you think Mueller should have avoided bringing the indictments even though US law
appears to make what was done illegal?
This indictment has publicised for the whole world that US has a 'law' that prohibits free
speech by foreigners in foreign countries if they dare to speak disparagingly of US
politicians. That is a PR disaster. People will be laughing about this for decades. Why do
something so obviously stupid?
Many countries have bad laws – in Thailand people can go to jail for offending the
king. But to apply it to free speech by foreign people living abroad is self-destructive. To
my best knowledge no country has ever attempted to charge people living abroad with
'disparaging comments' about their politicians. By that standard, literally millions of
people are daily breaking the 'law' – e.g. all the bad stuff people say about Trump.
During 2016 election there were literally millions of people in foreign countries who
expressed 'disparaging' views about Trump. And some about Clinton.
Doing nothing would had been better than becoming a laughing stock. How is Washington
going to preach freedom of speech and internet after this self-inflicted fiasco? What if
Russia starts 'indicting' millions of people who expressed negative comments about Putin?
"... Rosbalt said that when Anikeyev's business reached national levels, he started using new techniques. For example, Anikeyev would go to restaurants and cafes popular among officials, and with the help of sophisticated equipment he created fake Wi-Fi and mobile phone connections. ..."
"... Unsuspecting officials would connect to the network through the channel created by the hacker and he would have access to the information on their devices. ..."
"... Through the Looking Glass, ..."
"... The Anonymous International website was opened in 2013 and content stolen from the phones and emails of Russian politicians immediately started appearing on it. According to Life News , only the correspondence of the public officials and businessmen who refused to pay was published. At the same time members of Shaltai-Boltai positioned themselves as people with an active civil stance. ..."
"... Mikhailov tracked down Anonymous International at the beginning of 2016 and decided to take it under his control, as well as make some money from blackmail along the way. According to Life News , there is another theory - that Mikhailov had been managing the Shaltai-Boltai business from the start. ..."
"... Whatever the truth, Mikhailov and Dokuchayev have now been charged with treason. Anikeyev and Stoyanov will be prosecuted under a different charge - "unauthorized access to computer information." According to Rosbalt , the treason charges against Mikhailov and Dokuchayev are to do with Anonymous International's involvement in leaking to Ukraine the private correspondence of presidential aide Vladislav Surkov. ..."
"... Shaltai-Boltai's website has not been updated since Nov. 26 and its Twitter account since Dec. 12. The group's remaining members, who are believed to live in Thailand and the Baltic States, have been put on an FSB wanted list. ..."
The alleged leader of the Anonymous International hacker group, also known as
Shaltai-Boltai, has been arrested along with important officials in the security services who
collaborated with the group. For several years Shaltai-Boltai terrorized state officials,
businessmen and media figures by hacking their emails and telephones, and threatening to post
their private information online unless blackmail payments were made. "The price tag for our
work starts at several tens of thousands of dollars, and I am not going to talk about the upper
limit," said a man who calls himself Lewis during an interview with the news website,
Meduza ,
in January 2015.
Lewis, whose name pays hommage to the author Lewis Carroll, is the leader of Anonymous
International, the hacker group specializing in hacking the accounts of officials and
businessmen. Another name for Anonymous International is
Shaltai-Boltai, Russian for "Humpty-Dumpty."
Several years ago Lewis and his colleagues prospered thanks to extortion. They offered their
victims the chance to pay a handsome price to buy back their personal information that had been
stolen. Otherwise their information would be sold to third persons and even posted online. In
the end, Russian law-enforcement tracked down Lewis, and in November he was arrested and
now awaits trial . His real
name is Vladimir Anikeyev.
Shaltai-Boltai's founding father
"One's own success is good but other people's failure is not bad either," said the profile
quote on Vladimir Anikeyev's page on VKontakte , Russia's most popular social network.
Vladimir Anikeyev / Photo: anikeevv/vk.com
Rosbalt news website said that in the 1990s Lewis worked as a journalist in St. Petersburg
and specialized in collecting information through various methods, including dubious ones. "He
could go for a drink with someone or have an affair with someone's secretary or bribe people,"
Rosbalt's
source said.
In the 2000s Anikeyev switched to collecting kompromat (compromising material).
Using his connections, he would find the personal email addresses of officials and
entrepreneurs and break into them using hackers in St. Petersburg, and then blackmail the
victims. They had to pay to prevent their personal information from ending up on the
Internet.
Fake Wi-Fi
Rosbalt said that when Anikeyev's business reached national levels, he started using new
techniques. For example, Anikeyev would go to restaurants and cafes popular among officials,
and with the help of sophisticated equipment he created fake Wi-Fi and mobile phone
connections.
Unsuspecting officials would connect to the network through the channel created by the
hacker and he would have access to the information on their devices.
In the beginning Anikeyev was personally involved in the theft of information but later he
created a network of agents.
The business grew quickly; enormous amounts of information were at Anikeyev's disposal that
had to be sorted and selected for suitability as material for blackmail. In the end, according
to Rosbalt, Anonymous International arose as a handy tool for downloading the obtained
information.
Trying to change the world
The second name of the group refers to the works of Lewis Carroll, according to Shaltai-Boltai members. The crazy world of
Through the Looking Glass, with its inverted logic, is the most apt metaphor for
Russian political life. Apart from Lewis Anikeyev, the team has several other members: Alice;
Shaltai, Boltai (these two acted as press secretaries, and as a result of a mix-up, the media
started calling the whole project, Shaltai-Boltai); and several others, including
"technicians," or specialist hackers.
The Anonymous International website was opened in 2013 and content stolen from the
phones and emails of Russian politicians immediately started appearing on it. According to
Life News , only the correspondence of the public officials and businessmen who refused to
pay was published. At the same time members of Shaltai-Boltai positioned themselves as people
with an active civil stance.
"We can be called campaigners. We are trying to change the world. To change it for the
better," Shaltai told the Apparat website. In interviews members of the group
repeatedly complained about Russian officials who restricted Internet freedom, the country's
foreign policy and barriers to participation in elections.
Hacker exploits
Shaltai-Boltai's most notorious hack was of an explicitly political nature and not about
making money. It hacked Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's Twitter account. On Aug. 14,
2014 tweets were
posted on the account saying that Medvedev was resigning because he was ashamed of the
government's actions. The `prime minister' also had time to write that Putin was wrong, that
the government had problems with common sense, and that the authorities were taking the
country back to the past.
On the same day Anonymous International posted part of the prime minister's
stolen archive, admitting that, "there is nothing particularly interesting in it."
"The posted material was provided by a certain highly-placed reptilian of our acquaintance,"
the hackers joked
.
Medvedev is far from being Shaltai-Boltai's only victim. The hackers published the private
correspondence of officials in the presidential administration: Yevgeny Prigozhin, a
businessman close to Vladimir Putin; Aram Gabrelyanov, head of the pro-Kremlin News Media
holding company; and of Igor Strelkov, one of the leaders of the uprising in east Ukraine.
Lewis, however, insisted that only material that had failed to sell ended up on the
Internet.
Law-enforcement links
Anikeyev was detained in November, and the following month Sergei Mikhailov, head of the 2nd
operations directorate of the FSB Information Security Center, was also arrested. According to
Kommersant , Mikhailov was a
major figure in the security services who, "was essentially overseeing the country's entire
internet business."
Mikhailov's aide, FSB Major Dmitry Dokuchayev, and a former hacker known as Forb, was also
arrested. Shortly after, Ruslan Stoyanov, head of the department for investigating cybercrime
at the antivirus software company Kaspersky Lab, was also detained. Stoyanov also worked
closely with the secret services.
According to Rosbalt , Anikeyev revealed
information about the FSB officers and the Kaspersky Lab computer expert and their close
involvement with Shaltai-Boltai.
Mikhailov tracked down Anonymous International at the beginning of 2016 and decided to
take it under his control, as well as make some money from blackmail along the way. According
to
Life News , there is another theory - that Mikhailov had been managing the Shaltai-Boltai
business from the start.
Shaltai-Boltai had a big fall
Whatever the truth, Mikhailov and Dokuchayev have now been charged with treason.
Anikeyev and Stoyanov will be prosecuted under a different charge - "unauthorized access to
computer information." According to Rosbalt , the treason charges
against Mikhailov and Dokuchayev are to do with Anonymous International's involvement in
leaking to Ukraine the private correspondence of presidential aide Vladislav
Surkov.
Shaltai-Boltai's website has not been updated since Nov. 26 and its Twitter account
since Dec. 12. The group's remaining members, who are believed to live in Thailand and the
Baltic States, have been put on an FSB wanted
list.
Anyway, Shaltai-Boltai anticipated this outcome. "What awaits us if we are uncovered?
Criminal charges and most likely a prison sentence. Each member of the team is aware of the
risks," they said dispassionately in the interview with Apparat in 2015.
"... Anikeev immediately began to cooperate with the investigation and provide detailed evidence, which repeatedly mentioned Mikhailov as being associated with the Shaltai-Boltai's team," said the source of Rosbalt. And in December 2016, Mikhailov and his "right hand," another official of the Information Security Center, Dmitry Dokuchaev, were arrested. The Court took a decision on their arrest. Another ISC official was also detained, but after questioning, no preventive measures involving deprivation of liberty were applied to him. ..."
"... After the summer, Shaltai-Boltai began to work exclusively with the content given to it by the curator. ..."
"... later it switched to civil servants' email that contained information that could bring serious trouble. When it became known that Surkov's correspondence "leaked" to Ukraine, it broke the camel's back. "Mikhailov's a magnificent expert. Best in his business. One can say that the ISC is Mikhailov.. But he crossed all possible borders," told a source of Rosbalt. ..."
The story around the arrest of a high-ranking ISC official, Sergey Mikhailov, is
becoming an actual thriller.
The creator of Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty Dumpty) website, which containted the correspondence
of officials, journalist Vladimir Anikeev, better known in some circles as Lewis, was arrested
on arrival from Ukraine, where he is supposed to have been involved in the publishing on a
local site of presidential aide Vladislav Surkov's correspondence. In his testimony, Lewis said
about the employee of the Information Security Center, Mikhailov.
As a source familiar with the situation told Rosbalt, Vladimir Anikeev was detained by the
FSB officers at the end of October 2016, when he arrived in St. Petersburg from Ukraine. "The
operation was the result of a long work. There was a complicated operative combination with the
aim to lure Lewis from Ukraine, which he didn't indend to leave," said the source to the news
agency. Anikeev was taken to Moscow, where the Investigation department of the FSB charged him
under Article 272 of the Criminal Code (Illegal access to computer information).
First and foremost the counterintelligence was interested in the situation with the
"leakage" of Vladislav Surkov's correspondence: by the time it was known that it was in the
hands of the Shaltai-Boltai's team. Since it was e-mail with from the .gov domain, the
situation caused great concern in theFSO. As a result of this, the correspondence was published
on the website of a Ukrainian association of hackers called Cyber-Junta. In reality, it is
suspected that Anikeev was involved in that affair. He'd been constantly visiting this country,
his girlfriend lived there, and, according to available data, he was not going to return to
Russia. Lewis was also asked about other officials' correspondence, which already appeared on
the Shaltai-Boltai website.
" Anikeev immediately began to cooperate with the investigation and provide detailed
evidence, which repeatedly mentioned Mikhailov as being associated with the Shaltai-Boltai's
team," said the source of Rosbalt. And in December 2016, Mikhailov and his "right hand,"
another official of the Information Security Center, Dmitry Dokuchaev, were arrested. The Court
took a decision on their arrest. Another ISC official was also detained, but after questioning,
no preventive measures involving deprivation of liberty were applied to him.
According to the version of the agency's source, the situation developed as follows. At the
beginning of 2016, the department headed by Mikhailov received an order to "work" with
Shaltai-Boltai's website, which published the correspondence of civil servants. The immediate
executor was Dokuchaev. Officers of the ISC were able to find out the team of Shaltai-Boltai,
which participants nicknamed themselves after Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland": Alice, the
March Hare, etc. The website creator and organizer, Anikeev, was nicknamed Lewis. In the summer
there were searching raids in St. Petersburg, although formally for other reasons.
According to the Rosbalt's source, just after the summer attack the team of Shaltai-Boltai
appeared to have the owner, or, to be exact, the curator. According to the source, it could be
Sergey Mikhailov. As the result, the working methods of the Lewis's team also changed, just as
the objects whose correspondence was being published for public access. Previously, Lewis's
people figured out objects in places where mobile phone was used. They were given access to the
phone contents by means of a false cell (when it came to mobile internet) or using a
false-Wi-FI (if the person was connected to Wi-FI). Then the downloaded content was sent to
member of the Lewis's team, residing in Estonia. He analyzed to to select what's to be put in
the open access and what's to be sold for Bitcoins. The whole financial part of the
Shaltai-Boltai involved a few people living in Thailand. These Bitcoins were cashed in Ukraine.
Occasionally the Lewis published emails previously stolen by other hackers.
After the summer, Shaltai-Boltai began to work exclusively with the content given to it
by the curator. Earlier, it published correspondence of rather an "entertaining"
character, as well as officials whose "secrets" would do no special harm; but later it
switched to civil servants' email that contained information that could bring serious trouble.
When it became known that Surkov's correspondence "leaked" to Ukraine, it broke the camel's
back. "Mikhailov's a magnificent expert. Best in his business. One can say that the ISC is
Mikhailov.. But he crossed all possible borders," told a source of Rosbalt.
At the time of their arrests in December, Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchayev were
officers with the FSB's Center for Information Security, a leading unit within the FSB involved
in cyberactivities.
Pavlov confirmed to RFE/RL the arrest of Mikhailov and Dokuchayev, along with Ruslan
Stoyanov, a former employee of the Interior Ministry who had worked for Kaspersky Labs, a
well-known private cyber-research company, which announced Stoyanov's arrest last month.
The newspaper Kommersant reported that Mikhailov was arrested at a meeting of FSB officers
and was taken from the meeting after a sack was put on his head.
The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, meanwhile, said that a total of six suspects --
including Mikhailov, Dokuchayev, and Stoyanov -- had been arrested. The state news agency TASS
reported on February 1 that two men associated with a well-known hacking group had also been
arrested in November, but it wasn't immediately clear if those arrests were related to the FSB
case.
There has been no public detail as to the nature of the treason charges against Mikhailov,
Dokuchayev, and Stoyanov. The Interfax news agency on January 31 quoted "sources familiar with
the situation" as saying that Mikhailov and Dokuchayev were suspected of relaying confidential
information to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Pavlov told RFE/RL the individuals were suspected of passing on classified information to
U.S. intelligence, but not necessarily the CIA.
"... Bottom line if Hillary was not such an abysmal candidate the Russians couldn't have affected anything. Any traction any narrative gained was a reflection of the dismal status of maybe the most corrupt candidate in American political history. ..."
"... This Russian gambit is to forestall prosecutions of Treason. Hillary was engaged in a Conspiracy to defraud a Federal election. Her campaign gave money to foreign nationals against the law. Conspiracy not collusion. From Brennan and Clapper and Comey in down you have obvious perjury. ..."
"... The Schiffs and the Warners have committed Treason by promulgating this patently false fairy tale to the detriment of the American people. ..."
So "Russian interference" in our elections are some Facebook trolls? Are you freakin'
kiddin' me? After 18 months of investigation not one shred of evidence has been presented.
Has even one voting machine been hacked?
I seem to remember Nuland and McBraintumor on the barricades in the Ukraine.
These Russian
trolls are exercising what used to be called Political speech. Good or bad I don't think you
will be able to stop it.
Bottom line if Hillary was not such an abysmal candidate the
Russians couldn't have affected anything. Any traction any narrative gained was a reflection
of the dismal status of maybe the most corrupt candidate in American political history.
This Russian gambit is to forestall prosecutions of Treason. Hillary was engaged in a
Conspiracy to defraud a Federal election. Her campaign gave money to foreign nationals
against the law. Conspiracy not collusion. From Brennan and Clapper and Comey in down you
have obvious perjury.
The Schiffs and the Warners have committed Treason by promulgating this patently false
fairy tale to the detriment of the American people.
If one needed proof that Mueller's investigation was an utter farce, they were
in for a treat this morning when the Deputy Attorney General announced the indictment of indicted 13
"Russian trolls," for allegedly interfering in the 2016 Presidential election by posting on social
media accounts.
Laying Mueller's disregard of the First Amendment aside, the indictment is blatantly hypocritical
in light of active social media intervention by pro-Clinton David Brock and his multi-million dollar
efforts to 'Correct The Record.'
Julian Assange
tweeted on the matter:
The
indictment
alleges that: "Beginning
in or around June 2014, the ORGANIZATION obscured its conduct by operating through a number of Russian
entities, including Internet Research LLC, MediaSintez LLC, GlavSet LLC, MixInfo LLC, Azimut LLC, and
NovInfo LLC."
The indictment further
alleges
that:
"The ORGANIZATION sought, in part, to conduct what it called information warfare against the United
States of America through fictitious U.S. personas on social media platforms and other Internet-based
media."
According to the indictment, the co-conspirators "engaged in operations primarily intended to
communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted
Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump."
The indictment represents the latest mutation of Russian interference allegations that have dragged
on for over a year. As
this
author previously noted
, the definition of Russian interference has shifted from unsubstantiated
claims of Russian hacking, to Russian collusion, and finally to Russian social media trolling.
Wikileaks
tweeted on the
subject:
The
Washington Post
reported in 2015 that David Brock's Correct The Record would work directly with
the Clinton Campaign, "testing the legal limits" of campaign finance in the process. How did Correct
The Record skirt campaign finance law?
The
Washington Post
tells us: "by relying on a 2006 Federal Election Commission regulation that
declared that content posted online for free, such as blogs, is off-limits from regulation." And post
online, Brock's PAC did: "disseminating information about Clinton on its Web site and through its
Facebook and Twitter accounts, officials said."
Time
reported the opinion of a lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center who characterized Correct The
Record as: "creating new ways to undermine campaign regulation." Meanwhile,
The
New York Times
detailed the "outrage machine" that Brock and fellow Clinton supporter Peter Daou
had created:
"Peter Daou sat with his team at a long wooden table last week, pushing the buttons that
activate Mrs. Clinton's outrage machine. Mr. Daou's operation, called
Shareblue
,
had published the article on Mr. Trump's comment on its website and created the accompanying
hashtag. "They will put that pressure right on the media outlets in a very intense way," Mr. Daou,
the chief executive of Shareblue, said of the Twitter army he had galvanized. "By the thousands."
Going further, the
New
York Times
details fervently the $2 million budget of Daou's Shareblue and admits that the intent
of the entire operation is interference in the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election in favor of
Hillary Clinton: "Beyond creating a boisterous echo chamber, the real metric of success for Shareblue,
which Mr. Brock said has a budget of $2 million supplied by his political donors, is getting Mrs.
Clinton elected. Mr. Daou's role is deploying a band of committed, outraged followers to harangue Mrs.
Clinton's opponents."
The
New York Daily News
put
the matter most bluntly: "Hillary Clinton camp now paying online trolls to attack anyone who
disparages her online."
The
LA Times
described the active election interference: "It is meant to appear to be coming
organically from people and their social media networks in a groundswell of activism, when in fact it
is highly paid and highly tactical."
Despite the millions of dollars poured into a pro-Clinton 'outrage machine' bent on her support,
Clinton inexplicably lost the election to Donald Trump, a fact which still seems not to have sunk in
for the former First Lady and Secretary of State.
But why bring up this apparently old news, in the face of Mueller's latest mockery of the
American judicial process and the First Amendment? Because it reveals in the words of the legacy press
that by definition Mueller's circus has zero interest in campaign or election integrity and is solely
interested in getting scalps for Clinton and for the unelected powers she represented.
Despite obvious hypocrisy given the actions of Shareblue and David Brock's Correct The Record,
corporate media ignored all double standards and attempted to report on "Russian twitter trolling"
with a straight face.
Business
Insider
wrote: "Russian Twitter Trolls Tried To Bury Or Spin Negative Trump News Just Before
Election," as if that wasn't what Correct The Record spent millions on doing for the benefit of
Clinton.
The double standards applied to Clinton for her benefit goes beyond hypocrisy. Many have claimed
that constantly metamorphosing allegations of Russian interference represents an insidious effort to
silence dissent and anti-establishment political discourse: for example, by turning third-party,
anti-establishment or conservative voices into "Russians" by proxy of their opposition to Clinton.
By converting legitimate American free speech into insidious "Russian bots," a pretext is created
to silence dissent across the board. Without the Russian interference circus, the efforts to breach
the First Amendment would be overtly authoritarian and would be inexcusable even by the most corrupt
establishment media standards.
The results of such a clamp-down on free and effective speech have manifested in censorship
crackdowns across large social media platforms including
Twitter
,
Youtube,
and
Facebook
,
with Twitter admitting to actively censoring roughly 48% of tweets that included the "#DNCEmails"
hashtag. It seems anyone with an opinion the establishment doesn't like is liable to be memory-holed.
"The ORGANIZATION sought, in part, to conduct what it
called information warfare against the United States of
America through fictitious U.S. personas on social media
platforms and other Internet-based media."
What in the statement hasn't been going on since the
internet came into existence? The social internet was
founded on bullshit personas. When you can open a Faecesbook
account, and become an internet sensation as a fucking dog,
what about the above doesn't look patently ridiculous?
These twats are living in La La Land, and its getting
beyond disturbing.
And another thing, from what I understand Grand
Inquisitor Mueller indicted these 13 Russian
internet trolls for being "foreign agents" trying
to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.
So
when is he going to indict
Christopher
Steele
for being
an actual
bonafide foreign agent
trying to affect
the outcome of the 2016 election? ;-)
None of them will be hopping on a
plane to come here and I doubt very seriously
that Vlad will play along with this kind of
stupidity...although it would be a fun trial
to have...lol.
Defense counsel opening statement: "My
clients have voluntarily come here to America
to assert their universal free speech rights
in much the same way that Hillary crony David
Brocks "Correct the Record" paid internet
troll army from India did and we look forward
to exposing all of Hillary's and Obama's
astroturfing paid bots in this venue.
Grand Inquisitor Mueller: "Ahem. Your
honor, may we approach the bench?"
And the rest as they say, would be
jurisprudence history.
It was nothing but a contrived media ploy
by Mueller to say he
had found...RUSSIANS!...(insert audible gasp
here) "somewhere" and surprisingly enough, he
found them, in of all places, Russia...lol.
Its stupid to the tenth power...he's
losing. Badly ;-)
Well, I don't run my life trying to keep up
with the comings & goings of Jews and what
they may want or don't want but...
Weinstein raised money for Hillary.
This crooked as a dogs hind leg Weissmann is
Muellers lead attack dog and Rosenstein
appointed Mueller.
On the other hand, Trumps son-in-law is
Jewish so really to me this is more about
left vs right...statists vs individuals.
Now I'm sure someone more consumed with
"Just what the hell are (((they))) up
to today?!"
(lol) can pick
my statement apart and call me a rabbi or
hasbra troll or any other damned thing they
want but I just don't live in that Catholic
vs Protestant vs Black vs White vs Aryan vs
Slav etc Balkanized world.
Not to the degree they do anyways.
It's clear to me a gross miscarriage of
justice is happening
(and has been
happening)
and those are just the
facts, regardless of any skulking Israeli
or Russian supermen others may see hiding
behind every blade of grass who seem to
"control everything" because clearly they do
not or we wouldn't be having this
conversation ;-)
Very weak analysis The authors completely missed the point. Susceptibility to rumors (now
called "fake new" which more correctly should be called "improvised news") and high level of
distrust to "official MSM" (of which popularity of alternative news site is only tip of the
iceberg) is a sign of the crisis and tearing down of the the social fabric that hold the so
social groups together. This first of all demonstrated with the de-legitimization of the
neoliberal elite.
As such attempt to patch this discord and unite the US society of fake premises of Russiagate
and anti-Russian hysteria look very problematic. The effect might be quite opposite as the story
with Steele dossier, which really undermined credibility of Justice Department and destroyed the
credibility o FBI can teach us.
In this case claims that "The claim that, for example, Mrs. Clinton's victory might aid Satan
" are just s a sign of rejection of neoliberalism by voters. Nothing more nothing less.
Notable quotes:
"... It has infected the American political system, weakening the body politic and leaving it vulnerable to manipulation. Russian misinformation seems to have exacerbated the symptoms, but laced throughout the indictment are reminders that the underlying disease, arguably far more damaging, is all American-made. ..."
"... A recent study found that the people most likely to consume fake news were already hyperpartisan and close followers of politics, and that false stories were only a small fraction of their media consumption. ..."
That these efforts might have actually made a difference, or at least were intended to,
highlights a force that was already destabilizing American democracy far more than any
Russian-made fake news post: partisan polarization.
"Partisanship can even alter memory, implicit evaluation, and even perceptual judgment," the
political scientists Jay J. Van Bavel and Andrea Pereira wrote in a recent paper . "The human attraction to fake and
untrustworthy news" -- a danger cited by political scientists far more frequently than
orchestrated meddling -- "poses a serious problem for healthy democratic functioning."
It has infected the American political system, weakening the body politic and leaving it
vulnerable to manipulation. Russian misinformation seems to have exacerbated the symptoms, but
laced throughout the indictment are reminders that the underlying disease, arguably far more
damaging, is all American-made.
... ... ...
A recent study found
that the people most likely to consume fake news were already hyperpartisan and close followers
of politics, and that false stories were only a small fraction of their media
consumption.
Americans, it said, sought out stories that reflected their already-formed partisan view of
reality. This suggests that these Russians efforts are indicators -- not drivers -- of how
widely Americans had polarized.
That distinction matters for how the indictment is read: Though Americans have seen it as
highlighting a foreign threat, it also illustrates the perhaps graver threats from
within.
An Especially Toxic Form of Partisanship
... ... ...
"Compromise is the core of democracy," she said. "It's the only way we can govern." But, she
said, "when you make people feel threatened, nobody compromises with evil."
The claim that, for example, Mrs. Clinton's victory might aid Satan is in many ways just a
faint echo of the partisan anger and fear already dominating American politics.
Those emotions undermine a key norm that all sides are served by honoring democratic
processes; instead, they justify, or even seem to mandate, extreme steps against the other
side.
In taking this approach, the Russians were merely riding a trend that has been building for
decades.
Since the 1980s , surveys have found that Republicans and Democrats' feelings toward the
opposing party have been growing more and more negative. Voters are animated more by distrust
of the other side than support for their own.
This highlights a problem that Lilliana Mason, a University of Maryland political scientist,
said had left American democracy dangerously vulnerable. But it's a problem driven primarily by
American politicians and media outlets, which have far louder megaphones than any Russian-made
Facebook posts.
"Compromise is the core of democracy," she said. "It's the only way we can govern." But, she
said, "when you make people feel threatened, nobody compromises with evil."
The claim that, for example, Mrs. Clinton's victory might aid Satan is in many ways just a
faint echo of the partisan anger and fear already dominating American politics.
Those emotions undermine a key norm that all sides are served by honoring democratic
processes; instead, they justify, or even seem to mandate, extreme steps against the other
side.
Russia is a perfect scapegoat which ensure lucrative levels of funding for both intelligence
agencies and MIC. "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't"
Notable quotes:
"... "Turns out, there've been 13 people, in the opinion of the US Justice Department. 13 people interfered in the US elections? 13 against billions budgets of special agencies? Against intelligence and counterespionage, against the newest technologies? Absurd? – Yes." ..."
"... The indictment, however, is the "modern American political reality," Zakharova added, jokingly suggesting that the number 13 was picked due to its negative associations. ..."
"... "The Americans are very emotional people, they see what they want to see. I have great respect for them. I am not at all upset that I am on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them," ..."
"... "supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump...and disparaging Hillary Clinton." ..."
"... "no allegations" ..."
"... On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that supporting Donald Trump has never been an official Russian policy, even if some Russians did express their backing of the new US leader. ..."
"... "It's a pity that under Donald Trump, for more than a year of his presidency, our relations have not improved compared to the period of the Democratic administration. Even worsened to a certain extent," ..."
"Turns out, there've been 13 people, in the opinion of the US Justice Department. 13
people interfered in the US elections? 13 against billions budgets of special agencies? Against
intelligence and counterespionage, against the newest technologies? Absurd? – Yes."
Zakharova said in a Facebook post
.
The indictment, however, is the "modern American political reality," Zakharova added,
jokingly suggesting that the number 13 was picked due to its negative associations.
One of the indicted, Russian businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, said he was not really upset by
the accusations.
"The Americans are very emotional people, they see what they want to see. I have great
respect for them. I am not at all upset that I am on this list. If they want to see the devil,
let them," Prigozhin told RIA Novosti.
The entities and individuals were indicted by a US federal grand jury on Friday of
"supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump...and disparaging
Hillary Clinton."
However, there are "no allegations" that the suspected activities of the Russian
nationals somehow affected the polls, according to the US Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that supporting Donald Trump has
never been an official Russian policy, even if some Russians did express their backing of the
new US leader.
The Minister has expressed his discontent with the apparently continuing nosedive in the
US-Russia relations. "It's a pity that under Donald Trump, for more than a year of his
presidency, our relations have not improved compared to the period of the Democratic
administration. Even worsened to a certain extent," Lavrov told Euronews.
The indictment of 13 Russians is the latest twist in the "meddling saga," which has
persisted in the US politics and media for over a year. The illicit activities attributed to
Russia include, but are not limited to, "hacking" into Democratic National Committee
(DNC) computers during the 2016 elections campaign, maliciously leaking emails filled with
unsavory revelations, meddling through media coverage and fake social media accounts. However,
no solid evidence to back the numerous allegations has been presented yet.
"... Mikhailov tracked down Anonymous International at the beginning of 2016 and decided to take it under his control, as well as make some money from blackmail along the way. According to Life News , there is another theory - that Mikhailov had been managing the Shaltai-Boltai business from the start. ..."
"... Whatever the truth, Mikhailov and Dokuchayev have now been charged with treason. Anikeyev and Stoyanov will be prosecuted under a different charge - "unauthorized access to computer information." According to Rosbalt , the treason charges against Mikhailov and Dokuchayev are to do with Anonymous International's involvement in leaking to Ukraine the private correspondence of presidential aide Vladislav Surkov. ..."
"... Shaltai-Boltai's website has not been updated since Nov. 26 and its Twitter account since Dec. 12. The group's remaining members, who are believed to live in Thailand and the Baltic States, have been put on an FSB wanted list. ..."
The alleged leader of the Anonymous International hacker group, also known as
Shaltai-Boltai, has been arrested along with important officials in the security services who
collaborated with the group. For several years Shaltai-Boltai terrorized state officials,
businessmen and media figures by hacking their emails and telephones, and threatening to post
their private information online unless blackmail payments were made. "The price tag for our
work starts at several tens of thousands of dollars, and I am not going to talk about the upper
limit," said a man who calls himself Lewis during an interview with the news website,
Meduza ,
in January 2015.
Lewis, whose name pays hommage to the author Lewis Carroll, is the leader of Anonymous
International, the hacker group specializing in hacking the accounts of officials and
businessmen. Another name for Anonymous International is
Shaltai-Boltai, Russian for "Humpty-Dumpty."
Several years ago Lewis and his colleagues prospered thanks to extortion. They offered their
victims the chance to pay a handsome price to buy back their personal information that had been
stolen. Otherwise their information would be sold to third persons and even posted online. In
the end, Russian law-enforcement tracked down Lewis, and in November he was arrested and
now awaits trial . His real
name is Vladimir Anikeyev.
Shaltai-Boltai's founding father
"One's own success is good but other people's failure is not bad either," said the profile
quote on Vladimir Anikeyev's page on VKontakte , Russia's most popular social network.
Vladimir Anikeyev /
Photo: anikeevv/vk.com
Rosbalt news website said that in the 1990s Lewis worked as a journalist in St. Petersburg
and specialized in collecting information through various methods, including dubious ones. "He
could go for a drink with someone or have an affair with someone's secretary or bribe people,"
Rosbalt's
source said.
In the 2000s Anikeyev switched to collecting kompromat (compromising material).
Using his connections, he would find the personal email addresses of officials and
entrepreneurs and break into them using hackers in St. Petersburg, and then blackmail the
victims. They had to pay to prevent their personal information from ending up on the
Internet.
Fake Wi-Fi
Rosbalt said that when Anikeyev's business reached national levels, he started using new
techniques. For example, Anikeyev would go to restaurants and cafes popular among officials,
and with the help of sophisticated equipment he created fake Wi-Fi and mobile phone
connections.
Unsuspecting officials would connect to the network through the channel created by the
hacker and he would have access to the information on their devices.
In the beginning Anikeyev was personally involved in the theft of information but later he
created a network of agents.
The business grew quickly; enormous amounts of information were at Anikeyev's disposal that
had to be sorted and selected for suitability as material for blackmail. In the end, according
to Rosbalt, Anonymous International arose as a handy tool for downloading the obtained
information.
Trying to change the world
The second name of the group refers to the works of Lewis Carroll, according to Shaltai-Boltai members. The crazy world of
Through the Looking Glass, with its inverted logic, is the most apt metaphor for
Russian political life. Apart from Lewis Anikeyev, the team has several other members: Alice;
Shaltai, Boltai (these two acted as press secretaries, and as a result of a mix-up, the media
started calling the whole project, Shaltai-Boltai); and several others, including
"technicians," or specialist hackers.
The Anonymous International website was opened in 2013 and content stolen from the phones
and emails of Russian politicians immediately started appearing on it. According to
Life News , only the correspondence of the public officials and businessmen who refused to
pay was published. At the same time members of Shaltai-Boltai positioned themselves as people
with an active civil stance.
"We can be called campaigners. We are trying to change the world. To change it for the
better," Shaltai told the Apparat website. In interviews members of the group
repeatedly complained about Russian officials who restricted Internet freedom, the country's
foreign policy and barriers to participation in elections.
Hacker exploits
Shaltai-Boltai's most notorious hack was of an explicitly political nature and not about
making money. It hacked Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's Twitter account. On Aug. 14,
2014 tweets were
posted on the account saying that Medvedev was resigning because he was ashamed of the
government's actions. The `prime minister' also had time to write that Putin was wrong, that
the government had problems with common sense, and that the authorities were taking the
country back to the past.
On the same day Anonymous International posted part of the prime minister's
stolen archive, admitting that, "there is nothing particularly interesting in it."
"The posted material was provided by a certain highly-placed reptilian of our acquaintance,"
the hackers joked
.
Medvedev is far from being Shaltai-Boltai's only victim. The hackers published the private
correspondence of officials in the presidential administration: Yevgeny Prigozhin, a
businessman close to Vladimir Putin; Aram Gabrelyanov, head of the pro-Kremlin News Media
holding company; and of Igor Strelkov, one of the leaders of the uprising in east Ukraine.
Lewis, however, insisted that only material that had failed to sell ended up on the
Internet.
Law-enforcement links
Anikeyev was detained in November, and the following month Sergei Mikhailov, head of the 2nd
operations directorate of the FSB Information Security Center, was also arrested. According to
Kommersant , Mikhailov was a
major figure in the security services who, "was essentially overseeing the country's entire
internet business."
Mikhailov's aide, FSB Major Dmitry Dokuchayev, and a former hacker known as Forb, was also
arrested. Shortly after, Ruslan Stoyanov, head of the department for investigating cybercrime
at the antivirus software company Kaspersky Lab, was also detained. Stoyanov also worked
closely with the secret services.
According to Rosbalt , Anikeyev revealed
information about the FSB officers and the Kaspersky Lab computer expert and their close
involvement with Shaltai-Boltai.
Mikhailov tracked down Anonymous International at the beginning of 2016 and decided to
take it under his control, as well as make some money from blackmail along the way. According
to
Life News , there is another theory - that Mikhailov had been managing the Shaltai-Boltai
business from the start.
Shaltai-Boltai had a big fall
Whatever the truth, Mikhailov and Dokuchayev have now been charged with treason.
Anikeyev and Stoyanov will be prosecuted under a different charge - "unauthorized access to
computer information." According to Rosbalt , the treason charges
against Mikhailov and Dokuchayev are to do with Anonymous International's involvement in
leaking to Ukraine the private correspondence of presidential aide Vladislav
Surkov.
Shaltai-Boltai's website has not been updated since Nov. 26 and its Twitter account
since Dec. 12. The group's remaining members, who are believed to live in Thailand and the
Baltic States, have been put on an FSB wanted
list.
Anyway, Shaltai-Boltai anticipated this outcome. "What awaits us if we are uncovered?
Criminal charges and most likely a prison sentence. Each member of the team is aware of the
risks," they said dispassionately in the interview with Apparat in 2015.
"... A Moscow court has sentenced two Russian hackers to three years in prison each for breaking into the e-mail accounts of top Russian officials and leaking them. ..."
"... The 2016 arrests of the Shaltai-Boltai hackers became known only after Russian media reported that two officials of the Federal Security Service's cybercrime unit had been arrested on treason charges. ..."
A Moscow court has sentenced two Russian hackers to three years in prison each for breaking
into the e-mail accounts of top Russian officials and leaking them.
Konstantin Teplyakov and Aleksandr Filinov were members of the Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty Dumpty
in Russian) collective believed to be behind the hacking of high-profile accounts, including
the Twitter account of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The two were found guilty of illegally accessing computer data in collusion with a criminal
group.
Earlier in July, Shaltai-Boltai leader Vladimir Anikeyev was handed a two-year sentence
after striking a plea bargain and agreeing to cooperate with the authorities.
The 2016 arrests of the Shaltai-Boltai hackers became known only after Russian media
reported that two officials of the Federal Security Service's cybercrime unit had been arrested
on treason charges.
Russian media reports suggested the officials had connections to the hacker group or had
tried to control it.
A notorious Russian hacker whose exploits and later arrest gave glimpses into the
intersection of computer crime and Russian law enforcement has been sentenced to two years in
prison.
The Moscow City Court issued its ruling July 6 against Vladimir Anikeyev in a decision made
behind closed doors, one indication of the sensitivity of his case.
"... The stories implicating Mikhailov gained credence when Russian businessman Pavel Vrublevsky made similar accusations. He asserted that Mikhailov leaked details of Russian hacking capabilities to U.S. intelligence agencies. ..."
In January, the Kremlin-linked media outlet Kommersant suggested that the heads of Russia's
Information Security Center (TsIB) were under investigation and would soon leave their posts.
The TsIB is a shadowy unit that manages computer security investigations for the Interior
Ministry and the FSB. It is thought to be Russia's largest inspectorate when it comes to
domestic and foreign cyber capabilities, including hacking. It oversees security matters
related to credit theft, financial information, personal data, social networks and reportedly
election data -- or as some have claimed in the Russian media, "election rigging." Beyond its
investigative role, it is presumed that the TsIB is fully capable of planning and directing
cyber operations. A week after the initial Kommersant report surfaced, Andrei Gerasimov, the
longtime TsIB director, resigned.
Not long after Gerasimov's resignation at the end of January, reports emerged from numerous
Kremlin-linked media outlets in what appeared to be a coordinated flood of information and
disinformation about the arrests of senior TsIB officers. One of the cyber unit's operational
directors, Sergei Mikhailov, was arrested toward the end of last year along with his deputy,
Dmitri Dokuchaev, and charged with treason. Also arrested around the same time was Ruslan
Stoyanov, the chief investigator for Kaspersky Lab, which is the primary cybersecurity
contractor for the TsIB. There is much conjecture, but Mikhailov was apparently forcibly
removed from a meeting with fellow FSB officers -- escorted out with a bag over his head, so
the story goes -- and arrested. This is thought to have taken place some time around Dec. 5.
His deputy, a well-respected computer hacker recruited by the FSB, was reportedly last seen in
November. Kaspersky Lab's Stoyanov was a career cybersecurity professional, previously working
for the Indrik computer crime investigation firm and the Interior Ministry's computer crime
unit. Novaya Gazeta, a Kremlin-linked media outlet, reported that two other unnamed FSB
computer security officers were also detained. Theories, Accusations and Rumors
Since the initial reports surfaced, Russian media have been flooded with conflicting
theories about the arrests; about Mikhailov, Dokuchaev and Stoyanov; and about the accusations
levied against them. Because the charges are treason, the case is considered "classified" by
the state, meaning no official explanation or evidence will be released. An ultranationalist
news network called Tsargrad TV reported that Mikhailov had tipped U.S. intelligence to the
King Servers firm, which the FBI has accused of being the nexus of FSB hacking and intelligence
operations in the United States. (It should be noted that Tsargrad TV tends toward
sensationalism and has been used as a conduit for propaganda in the past.) The media outlet
also claimed that the Russian officer's cooperation is what enabled the United States to
publicly
accuse Moscow of sponsoring election-related hacking with "high confidence."
The stories implicating Mikhailov gained credence when Russian businessman Pavel
Vrublevsky made similar accusations. He asserted that Mikhailov leaked details of Russian
hacking capabilities to U.S. intelligence agencies. Vrublevsky, however, had previously
been the target of hacking accusations leveled by Mikhailov and his team, so it is possible
that he has a personal ax to grind. To further complicate matters, a business partner of
Vrublevsky, Vladimir Fomenko, runs King Servers, which the United States shut down in the wake
of the hacking scandal.
This article is almost a year old but contains interesting information about possible involvement of Shaltai Boltai in
framing Russia in interference in the USA elections.
Notable quotes:
"... Also called Anonymous International, Shaltai-Boltai was responsible for leaking early copies of Putin's New Year speech and for selling off "lots" of emails stolen from Russian officials such as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ..."
"... Later media reports said that the group's leader, Vladimir Anikeyev, had recently been arrested by the FSB and had informed on Mikhailov, Dokuchaev and Stoyanov. ..."
The FBI just indicted a Russian official for hacking. But why did Russia charge him with treason? - The Washington Post
But what is less clear is why one of the men has been arrested and
charged with treason in Russia. Dmitry Dokuchaev, an agent for the cyberinvestigative arm of the FSB, was arrested in
Moscow in December. He's accused by the FBI of "handling" the hackers, paying "bounties" for breaking into email
accounts held by Russian officials, opposition politicians and journalists, as well as foreign officials and business
executives. The Russian targets included an Interior Ministry officer and physical trainer in a regional Ministry of
Sports. (The full text of the indictment, which has a full list of the targets and some curious typos, is
here
.)
Reading this hackers indictment. I'm pretty sure there is no such position as the "deputy
chairman of the Russian Federation"
pic.twitter.com/DOWXYNoWjZ
Dokuchaev's case is part of a larger and mysterious spate of arrests of Russian cyber officials and experts. His
superior, Sergei Mikhailov, deputy chief of the FSB's Center for Information Security, was also arrested in December and
charged with treason. According to Russian reports, the arrest came during a plenum of FSB officers, where Mikhailov had
a bag placed over his head and was taken in handcuffs from the room. Ruslan Stoyanov, a manager at the Russian
cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, was also arrested that month. Stoyanov helped coordinate investigations between the
company and law enforcement, a person who used to work at the company said.
Below are some of the theories behind the Russian arrests. Lawyers for some of the accused have told The Washington
Post that they can't reveal details of the case and, because of the secrecy afforded to treason cases, they don't have
access to all the documents.
None of the theories below has been confirmed, nor are they mutually exclusive.
1. Links to U.S. election hacking
: With attention focused on the hacking attacks against the U.S.
Democratic National Committee allegedly ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, some Russian and U.S. media
suggested that Dokuchaev and Mikhailov leaked information implicating Russia in the hack to the United States. The
Russian Interfax news agency, which regularly cites government officials as sources, reported that "Sergei Mikhailov and
his deputy, Dmitry Dokuchaev, are accused of betraying their oath and working with the CIA." Novaya Gazeta, a liberal,
respected Russian publication, citing sources, wrote that Mikhailov had tipped off U.S. intelligence about King Servers,
the hosting service used to support hacking attacks on targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona in
June. That had followed reports in the New York Times, citing one current and one former government official, that
"human sources in Russia did play a crucial role in proving who was responsible for the hacking."
Nakashima wrote yesterday that "the [FBI] charges are unrelated to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee
and the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. But the move reflects the U.S.
government's increasing desire to hold foreign governments accountable for malicious acts in cyberspace."
2. A shadowy hacking collective called Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty-Dumpty)
:
Also called
Anonymous International, Shaltai-Boltai was responsible for leaking early copies of Putin's New Year speech and for
selling off "lots" of emails stolen from Russian officials such as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. In a theory first
reported by the pro-Kremlin, conservative Orthodox media company Tsargrad, Mikhailov had taken control
of Shaltai-Boltai, "curating and supervising" the group in selecting hacking targets. Later media reports said that the
group's leader, Vladimir Anikeyev, had recently been arrested by the FSB and had informed on Mikhailov, Dokuchaev and
Stoyanov. A member of the group who fled to Estonia told the Russian media agency Fontanka that they had recently
acquired an FSB "coordinator," although he could not say whether it was Mikhailov. None of the hacks mentioned in the
FBI indictment could immediately be confirmed as those carried out by Shaltai-Boltai.
Lawyers contacted by The Post said that in documents they had seen, there was no link to Shaltai-Boltai in the case.
3.
A grudge with a cybercriminal
: A Russian businessman who had specialized in spam and malware had
claimed for years that Mikhailov was trading information on cybercriminals with the West. Mikhailov had reportedly
testified in the case of Pavel Vrublevsky, the former head of the payment services company Chronopay, who was imprisoned
in 2013 for ordering a denial of service attack on the website of Aeroflot, the Russian national airline. Vrublevsky
claimed then that Mikhailov began exchanging information about Russian cybercriminals with Western intelligence
agencies, including documents about Chronopay. Brian Krebs, an American journalist who investigates cybercrime and
received access to Vrublevsky's emails,
wrote in January
: "Based on
how long Vrublevsky has been
trying
to sell this narrative
, it seems he may have
finally found a buyer
."
4.
Infighting at the FSB:
The Russian government is not monolithic, and infighting between and
within the powerful law enforcement agencies is common. The Russian business publication RBC had written that Mikhailov
and Dokuchaev's Center for Information Security had been in conflict with another department with similar
responsibilities, the FSB's Center for Information Protection and Special Communications. The conflict may have led to
the initiation of a criminal case, the paper's sources said.
As Leonid Bershidsky, founding editor of the Russian business daily publication Vedomosti,
wrote in January, the dramatic arrests of two high-level FSB officers -- Sergei Mikhailov , the deputy head of the FSB's
Information Security Center, and Major Dmitry
Dokuchaev , a highly skilled hacker who had been recruited by the FSB -- on treason charges
in December offers a glimpse into "how security agencies generally operate in Putin's
Russia."
At the time of their arrest, Dokuchaev (who was one of the Russian officials indicted for
the Yahoo breach) and Mikhailov had been trying to cultivate a Russian hacking group known as
"Shaltai Boltai" -- or "Humpty Dumpty" -- that had been publishing stolen emails from Russian
officials' inboxes, according to Russian media reports.
"The FSB team reportedly uncovered the identities of the group's members -- but, instead of
arresting and indicting them, Mikhailov's team tried to run the group, apparently for profit or
political gain," Bershidsky wrote. Shaltai Boltai complied, Bershidsky wrote, because it wanted
to stay afloat, and didn't mind taking orders from "government structures."
"We get orders from government structures and from private individuals," Shaltai Boltai's
alleged leader said in a 2015
interview. "But we say we are an independent team. It's just that often it's impossible to
tell who the client is. Sometimes we get information for intermediaries, without knowing who
the end client is."
It appears that Dokuchaev and Mikhailov got caught running this side project with Shaltai
Boltai -- which was still targeting high-level Russian officials -- when the FSB began
surveilling Mikhailov. Officials targeted Mikhailov after receiving a tip that he might have
been leaking information about Russian cyber activities to the FBI, according to the
Novaya Gazeta.
Short of working against Russian interests, hackers "can pursue whatever projects they want,
as long as their targets are outside of Russia and they follow orders from the top when
needed," said Bremmer, of Eurasia Group. The same goes for FSB officers, who are tactically
allowed to "run private security operations involving blackmail and protection," according to
Bershidsky.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that the hack on the Democratic National Committee
during the 2016 election was likely one such "order from the top" -- a directive issued by
Russian President Vladimir Putin and carried out by hackers hired by the GRU and the FSB.
It is still unclear if the Yahoo breach was directed by FSB officials at the instruction of
the Kremlin, like the DNC hack, or if it was one of those "private security operations"
Bershidsky alluded to that some Russian intelligence officers do on the side.
Bremmer said that it's possible the Yahoo breach was not done for state ends, especially
given the involvement of Dokuchaev, who was already caught up in Shaltai Baltai's operations to
steal and sell information for personal financial gain.
"... As the days since Mueller's latest indictment have passed, the failure of his investigation to make any claim of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia has begun to sink in, even amongst some of Donald Trump's most bitter enemies. ..."
"... Even the Guardian – arguably the most fervid of Donald Trump's British media critics, and the most vocal supporter of the Russiagate conspiracy theory – has grudgingly admitted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has "once again failed to nail Donald Trump" ..."
"... In fact the latest indictment when considered properly is a further huge nail in the coffin of the Russiagate conspiracy theory and in the already disintegrating credibility of the Trump Dossier, which is the foundation document for that theory ..."
"... Notwithstanding claims to the contrary, the Russiagate conspiracy theory is laid out in its most classic form in the Trump Dossier, and it is the Trump Dossier which remains the primary and indeed so far the only 'evidence' for it ..."
"... This theory holds that Donald Trump was compromised by the Russians in 2013 when he was filmed by Russian intelligence performing an orgy in a hotel room in Moscow, and he and his associates Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Cohen subsequently engaged in a massive criminal conspiracy with Russian intelligence to steal the election from Hillary Clinton by having John Podesta's and the DNC's emails stolen by Russian intelligence and passed on by them for publication by Wikileaks. ..."
"... The Trump Dossier never mentions Jared Kushner's four conversations with Russian ambassador Kislyak, including the famous meeting between Kislyak and Kushner in Trump Tower on 1st December 2016 (which Michael Flynn also attended) over the course of which the setting up of a backchannel to discuss the crisis in Syria is supposed to have been discussed (Kushner denies that it was). ..."
"... The last entry of the Trump Dossier is dated 13th December 2016 ie. twelve days after this meeting took place, and given its high level a genuinely well-informed Russian source familiar with the private ongoing discussions in the Kremlin might have been expected to know about it. ..."
"... Nor does the Trump Dossier mention the now famous meeting in Trump Tower between the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Junior – which Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner also attended – which took place on 9th June 2016. ..."
"... Now Special Counsel Mueller has provided further details in his latest indictment of actual albeit unknowing contacts between members of the Trump campaign and various Russian employees of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Internet Research Agency, LLC, apparently both in person and online. ..."
"... The Trump Dossier has however nothing to say about these contacts either, just as it has nothing to say about the Internet Research Agency, LLC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, or the entire social media campaign set out in such painstaking detail by Special Counsel Mueller in his indictment. ..."
"... I only remembered Helmer's 18th January 2017 article about the Trump Dossier after I wrote my article about Senator Grassley's and Senator Lindsey Graham's memorandum to the Justice Department on 6th February 2018. ..."
"... This is most unfortunate, not only because Grassley's and Lindsey Graham's memorandum resoundingly vindicates Helmer's reporting, but because it shows that a genuine expert about Russia like Helmer was able to spot immediately the holes in the Trump Dossier, which only now – a whole year and months of exhaustive investigations later – are starting to be officially admitted. ..."
"... Heroic efforts to elevate Papadopoulos's case and the meeting between Donald Trump Junior and the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya into 'evidence' of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia which exists supposedly independently of the Trump Dossier fail because as I have discussed extensively elsewhere (see here and here ) they in fact do no such thing. ..."
"... With the Trump Dossier – the lynchpin of the whole collusion case – not just unverified and discredited but proved repeatedly to have been completely uninformed about events which were actually going on, why do some people persist in pretending that there is still a collusion case to investigate? ..."
As the days since Mueller's latest indictment
have passed, the failure of his investigation to make any claim of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia has begun to sink
in, even amongst some of Donald Trump's most bitter enemies.
Even the Guardian – arguably the most fervid of Donald Trump's British media critics, and the most vocal supporter of the
Russiagate conspiracy theory – has grudgingly
admitted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has "once again failed to nail Donald Trump"
There will be understandable disappointment in many quarters that the latest indictments delivered by Robert Mueller, the special
counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, once again failed to nail Donald Trump. Although
the charges levelled against 13 Russians and three Russian entities are extraordinarily serious, they do not directly support
the central claim that Trump and senior campaign aides colluded with Moscow to rig the vote.
The Times of London meanwhile has
admitted
that the latest indictment contains "no smoking gun"
The Department of Justice, however, offered no confirmation to those still smarting from the election in November 2016, who
believe that, in the absence of Russian interference, Hillary Clinton would be in the White House today. Friday's allegations
offered no evidence that the outcome had been affected. Sir John Sawers, former head of MI6, said yesterday that Donald Trump's
victories in the key swing states were his own.
There was further comfort for Mr Trump, which he was quick to celebrate with a tweet. The investigation uncovered no evidence
"that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity". That includes, so far, anybody involved in the
Trump campaign. If there is a smoking gun it has yet to emerge, though Robert Mueller's investigation will grind on. President
Vladimir Putin is a malign and dangerous mischief maker. It has not been proved that he is an evil genius with the ability to
swing a US election.
In fact the latest indictment when considered properly is a further huge nail in the coffin of the Russiagate conspiracy theory
and in the already disintegrating credibility of the Trump Dossier, which is the foundation document for that theory.
Notwithstanding claims to the contrary, the Russiagate conspiracy theory is laid out in its most classic form in the Trump
Dossier, and it is the Trump Dossier which remains the primary and indeed so far the only 'evidence' for it
This theory holds that Donald Trump was compromised by the Russians in 2013 when he was filmed by Russian intelligence performing
an orgy in a hotel room in Moscow, and he and his associates Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Cohen subsequently engaged in
a massive criminal conspiracy with Russian intelligence to steal the election from Hillary Clinton by having John Podesta's and the
DNC's emails stolen by Russian intelligence and passed on by them for publication by Wikileaks.
Belief in this conspiracy dies hard, and an interesting
article in the Financial Times by Edward
Luce provides a fascinating example of the dogged determination of some people to believe in it. Writing about Mueller's latest indictment
Luce has this to say
Mr Mueller's report hints at more dramatic possibilities by corroborating contents of the "Steele dossier", which was compiled
in mid-2016 by the former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele -- long before the US intelligence agencies warned
of Russian interference. Mr Steele, who is in hiding, alleged that the Russians were using "active measures" to support the campaigns
of Mr Trump, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic runner-up to Hillary Clinton, and Jill Stein, the Green party nominee. Mr Mueller's
indictment confirms that account.
Likewise, Mr Mueller's indictment confirms the Steele dossier's claim that Russia wished to "sow discord" in the US election
by backing leftwing as well as rightwing groups. Among the entities run by the IRA were groups with names such as "Secured Borders",
"Blacktivists", "United Muslims of America" and "Army of Jesus".
What is fascinating about these words is that none of them are true.
Christopher Steele is not in hiding.
The actua l
Trump Dossier does
not allege "that the Russians were using "active measures" to support the campaigns of Mr Trump, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic
runner-up to Hillary Clinton, and Jill Stein, the Green party nominee".
Bernie Sanders is mentioned by the Trump Dossier only in passing. By the time the Trump Dossier's first entries were written Bernie
Sanders's campaign was all but over and it was already clear that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic Party's candidate for the
Presidency.
Jill Stein is mentioned – again in passing – only once, in a brief mention which refers to her now infamous visit to Russia where
she attended the same dinner with President Putin as Michael Flynn.
Nor does the Trump Dossier anywhere claim that "Russia wished to "sow discord" in the US election by backing leftwing as well
as rightwing groups".
On the contrary the Trump Dossier is focused – exclusively and obsessively – on documenting at fantastic length the alleged conspiracy
between the Russian government and the campaign of the supposedly compromised Donald Trump to get him elected US President.
Supporters of the Russiagate conspiracy theory need to start facing up to the hard truth about the Trump Dossier.
At the time the Trump Dossier was published in January 2017 little was known publicly about the contacts which actually took place
between members of Donald Trump's campaign and tranisiton teams and the Russians during and after the election.
Today – a full year later and after months of exhaustive investigation – we know far more about those contacts.
What Is striking about those contacts is how ignorant the supposedly high level Russian sources of the Trump Dossier were about
them.
Thus the Trump Dossier never mentions Jeff Sessions's two meetings with Russian ambassador Kislyak, or the various conversations
Michael Flynn is known to have had with Russian ambassador Kislyak, some of which apparently took place before Donald Trump won the
election.
The Trump Dossier never mentions Jared Kushner's four conversations with Russian ambassador Kislyak, including the famous
meeting between Kislyak and Kushner in Trump Tower on 1st December 2016 (which Michael Flynn also attended) over the course of which
the setting up of a backchannel to discuss the crisis in Syria is supposed to have been discussed (Kushner denies that it was).
The last entry of the Trump Dossier is dated 13th December 2016 ie. twelve days after this meeting took place, and given its
high level a genuinely well-informed Russian source familiar with the private ongoing discussions in the Kremlin might have been
expected to know about it.
Nor does the Trump Dossier mention the now famous meeting in Trump Tower between the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
and Donald Trump Junior – which Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner also attended – which took place on 9th June 2016.
This despite the fact that the Trump Dossier's first entry is dated 20th June 2016 i.e. eleven days later, so that if this meeting
really was intended to set the stage for collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia – as believers in the Russiagate conspiracy
theory insist – a well informed Russian source with access to information from the Kremlin would be expected to know about it.
Nor does the Trump Dossier have anything to say about George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign aide who had the most extensive
contacts with the Russians, and whose drunken bragging in a London bar is now claimed by the FBI to have been its reason for starting
the Russiagate inquiry.
In fact George Papadopoulos is not mentioned in the Trump Dossier at all.
This despite the fact that members of Russia's high powered Valdai Discussion Club were Papadopoulos's main interlocutors in his
discussions with the Russians, and Igor Ivanov – Russia's former foreign minister, and a senior albeit retired official genuinely
known to Putin – was informed about the discussions also, making it at least possible that high level people in the Russian Foreign
Ministry and conceivably in the Russian government and in the Kremlin were kept informed about the discussions with Papadopoulos,
so that a genuinely well-informed Russian source might be expected to know about them.
By contrast none of the secret meetings between Carter Page and Michael Cohen and the Russians discussed at such extraordinary
length in the Trump Dossier have ever been proved to have taken place.
Now Special Counsel Mueller has provided further details in his latest indictment of actual albeit unknowing contacts between
members of the Trump campaign and various Russian employees of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Internet Research Agency, LLC, apparently both
in person and online.
The Trump Dossier has however nothing to say about these contacts either, just as it has nothing to say about the Internet
Research Agency, LLC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, or the entire social media campaign set out in such painstaking detail by Special Counsel
Mueller in his indictment.
The only conclusion possible is that if the Trump Dossier's Russian sources actually exist (about which I am starting to
have doubts) then they were extraordinarily ignorant of what was actually going on.
That of course is consistent with the fact – recently revealed in the heavily redacted memorandum sent to the Justice Department
by Senators Grassley and Lindsey Graham – that many of the sources of the Trump Dossier were not actually Russian but were American.
John Helmer – the most experienced journalist covering Russia, and a person who has a genuine and profound knowledge of the country
– made that very point – that many of the Trump Dossier's sources were American rather than Russian – in an
article he published on 18th January 2017, ie. just days after the Trump Dossier was published.
In that same
article Helmer also made this very valid point about the Trump Dossier's compiler Christopher Steele
Steele's career in Russian intelligence at MI6 had hit the rocks in 2006, and never recovered. That was the year in which the
Russian Security Service (FSB) publicly exposed an MI6 operation in Moscow. Russian informants recruited by the British were passed
messages and money, and dropped their information in containers fabricated to look like fake rocks in a public park. Steele was
on the MI6 desk in London when the operation was blown. Although the FSB announcement was denied in London at the time, the British
prime ministry confirmed its veracity in 2012.Read more on Steele's fake rock operation
here , and the attempt by the Financial Times to cover it up by blaming
Putin for fabricating the story.
Given that Steele was outed by Russian intelligence in 2006, with his intelligence operation in Russia dismantled by the FSB that
year, it beggars belief that ten years later in 2016 he still had access to high level secrets in the Kremlin.
What we now know in fact proves that he did not.
I only remembered Helmer's 18th January 2017 article about the Trump Dossier after I wrote my
article
about Senator Grassley's and Senator Lindsey Graham's memorandum to the Justice Department on 6th February 2018.
This is most unfortunate, not only because Grassley's and Lindsey Graham's memorandum resoundingly vindicates Helmer's reporting,
but because it shows that a genuine expert about Russia like Helmer was able to spot immediately the holes in the Trump Dossier,
which only now – a whole year and months of exhaustive investigations later – are starting to be officially admitted.
For my part I owe Helmer an apology for not referencing his 18th January 2017 article in my article of 6th February 2018. I should
have done so and I am very sorry that I didn't.
I have spent some time discussing the Trump Dossier because despite denials it remains the lynchpin of the whole Russiagate scandal
and of the claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Heroic efforts to elevate Papadopoulos's case and the meeting between Donald Trump Junior and the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
into 'evidence' of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia which exists supposedly independently of the Trump Dossier fail
because as I have discussed extensively elsewhere (see
here and
here ) they in fact do no
such thing.
Despite Edward Luce's desperate efforts to argue otherwise, Mueller's latest indictment far from corroborating the Trump Dossier,
has done the opposite.
With the Trump Dossier – the lynchpin of the whole collusion case – not just unverified and discredited but proved repeatedly
to have been completely uninformed about events which were actually going on, why do some people persist in pretending that there
is still a collusion case to investigate?
Internet Research Agency: Russian journalist who uncovered election interference left confounded by Mueller - The
Washington Post
A
37-page
indictment
issued by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team on Friday brings fresh American attention to one
of the strangest elements of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election: The Internet Research Agency (IRA), a
state-sponsored "troll factory" in St. Petersburg.
But much of the information Mueller published on Friday about the
agency's efforts to influence the election had already been published last October -- in an article by a Russian business
magazine, RBC.
In a 4,500-word report titled "
How the 'troll
factory' worked the U.S. elections,
" journalists Polina Rusyaeva and Andrey Zakharov offered the fullest picture yet
of how the "American department" of the IRA used Facebook, Twitter and other tactics to inflame tensions ahead of the
2016 vote. The article also looked at the staffing structure of the organization and revealed details about its budget
and salaries.
Zakharov agreed to answer some questions for WorldViews about his reaction to the details about the IRA in Mueller's
indictments (Rusyaeva left journalism after the story came out, although she stresses she did not do so because of a
reaction to the story). Zakharov explained how it was a strange feeling seeing something he had so closely investigated
become a major issue in the United States, when it had not been a "bombshell" when he published his report at home.
"... Situation goes up and down based on money paid. Look at Saudi, things starts to go wrong the moment they try challenge US. Same goes for Israel too. But once the account is filled back up, every problem disappear. ..."
"... Russia stopped payment to Deep State and even dared to try expose Clinton their candidate. Of course Russians got to pay.... ..."
"... All you need to see to know the MSM is fake and biased is to look at the front page the last two weeks. Congressional memo detailing FBI malfeasance in obtaining secret warrants for surveillance of US citizens, two paragraphs on page 13. Mueller indicts random Russian internet trolls that will never be arrested or extradited, front page headline, all caps. ..."
"... We live at a time when every honest and decent person who can and wants to think on his own, automatically receives a label of a supporter of Russia and Putin personally. ..."
"... If 13 Internet trolls are really able to influence the choice of the president in a certain country, then this is a third world country. Or the fourth world. Thus, Mueller publicly recognized America, a third world country. Or the country of the fourth world. ..."
There is no double standards, It is always the same for everyone. Saudi paid good money to meddle in US elections, immigration policies among others. Israel arranges payback thru their countless organizations operating and manipulating US. Hey even the lightweight Ukraine paid good money.
Situation goes up and down based on money paid. Look at Saudi, things starts to go wrong the moment they try challenge US.
Same goes for Israel too. But once the account is filled back up, every problem disappear.
Russia stopped payment to Deep State and even dared to try expose Clinton their candidate. Of course Russians got to pay....
All you need to see to know the MSM is fake and biased is to look at the front page the last two weeks. Congressional memo
detailing FBI malfeasance in obtaining secret warrants for surveillance of US citizens, two paragraphs on page 13. Mueller indicts
random Russian internet trolls that will never be arrested or extradited, front page headline, all caps. Flynn gets charged with
lying to the FBI about something that had nothing to do with the investigation, and has resulted in no indictments, front page
headline, all caps. Manafort indicted for errors in financial paperwork that happened before he even joined the campaign, and
had nothing to do with Russia, front page, all caps.
We live at a time when every honest and decent person who can and wants
to think on his own, automatically receives a label of a supporter of
Russia and Putin personally.
That is, if a person has reason,
conscience and his own opinion different from the opinion of the Faux
news and CNN, such a person will always receive accusations as a "secret
agent of the Kremlin,"
regardless of his citizenship and
nationality.
If 13 Internet trolls are really able to influence the choice of the
president in a certain country, then this is a third world country. Or
the fourth world.
Thus, Mueller publicly recognized America, a third world
country.
Or the country of the fourth world.
But every honest and decent person is realizing since 2008 the whole
economy is a ponzi and in fact with ZIRP on pension growth the future
looks like poverty on a massive scale.
World will go to rat shit
now, as they try to raise rates on their centrally planned NIRP
economy destroying the economy more when the economy is really
calling out for NIRP across the board to make money cheap once again.
Mueller needs to keep spinning his tune for a long time as
when the music stops the war starts.
Or he could be waiting for the economic implosion to kick it off.
It's possible. If the economy crashes to depression levels while
Trump is in office, which wouldn't shock most of us, what better
time to try and impeach him than when he's got his own party
gunning for him? That's the reason they went after him so
quickly. They were trying to grab what they thought was
low-hanging fruit, only to find nothing there, and now Trump's
numbers are up, and Republicans have fallen in line, making
impeachment impossible without a major smoking gun. Their only
hope now is that the economy tanks. Hence all the wooden faces
during the SotU speech, when Trump told them about how well the
Democrat voting demographics were doing financially
Facebook VP of advertising, Rob Goldman, tossed a hand grenade in the Russian meddling
narrative in a string of tweets responding to Mueller's indictment of
13 Russian nationals running a "bot farm" which, according to Mueller (via Deputy AG Rod
Rosenstein), was unsuccessful at influencing the 2016 election.
... ... ...
Notably, Goldman points out that the majority of advertising purchased by Russians on
Facebook occurred after the election - and was designed to "sow discord and divide Americans",
something which Americans have been quite adept at doing on their own ever since the Fed
decided to unleash a record class, wealth, income divide by keeping capital markets
artificially afloat at any cost.
This is a very good overview that presents convincing hypothesis why Mueller made himself a
joke. Along with desire to preserve his franchise they needed a smoke screen to distract people
from the evidence of a color revolution against Trump, a palace coup d'état which involved
two dozens or so highly placed officials in Obama administration, including CIA (Brennan), FBI
(Comey, McCabe, Strzok, James A. Baker, etc) and Justice Department (Loretta Lynch, Bruce Ohr to
name a few . In other words this is nothing more then " a well-timed effort to distract
Americans' attention from the real collusion rotting the core of our public life by shifting
attention to a foreign enemy. Many of the people behind it are the very officials who are
themselves complicit in the rot. But the sad fact is that it will probably work."
Notable quotes:
"... And yet, "collusion" still lives! But while there is no actual allegation (much less evidence) that any American, much less anyone on the Trump team, "colluded" with the indicted Russians, the indictment makes it clear that Moscow sought to support Trump and disparage Hillary. ..."
"... Any and every Russian equals Putin. Incredibly, nothing in the indictment points to any connection of those indicted to the Russian government! ..."
"... Are you reading this commentary? ..."
"... The Mueller indictment against the Russians is a well-timed effort to distract Americans' attention from the real collusion rotting the core of our public life by shifting attention to a foreign enemy. Many of the people behind it are the very officials who are themselves complicit in the rot. But the sad fact is that it will probably work. ..."
For weeks the unfolding story in Washington has been how a cabal of conspirators in the
heart of the American federal law enforcement and intelligence apparat colluded to
ensure the election of Hillary Clinton and, when that failed, to undermine the nascent
presidency of Donald Trump. Agencies tainted by this corruption include not only the FBI and
the Department of Justice (DOJ) but the Obama White House, the State Department, the NSA, and
the CIA,
plus their British sister organizations MI6 and GCHQ , possibly along with the British
Foreign Office (with the involvement of former
British ambassador to Russia Andrew Wood ) and even Number 10 Downing Street.
Those implicated form a regular rogue's gallery of the Deep State: Peter Strzok (formerly
Chief of the FBI's Counterespionage Section, then Deputy Assistant Director of the
Counterintelligence Division; busy bee Strzok is implicated not only in exonerating Hillary
from her email server crimes but initiating the Russiagate investigation in the first place,
securing a FISA warrant using the dodgy "Steele Dossier," and nailing erstwhile National
Security Adviser General Mike Flynn on a
bogus charge of "lying to the FBI "); Lisa Page (Strzok's paramour and a DOJ lawyer
formerly assigned to the all-star Democrat lineup on the Robert Mueller Russigate inquisition);
former FBI Director James Comey, former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, former
Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and – let's not forget – current Deputy Attorney
General Rod Rosenstein,
himself implicated by having signed at least one of the dubious FISA warrant requests .
Finally, there's reason to believe that former CIA Director John O.
Brennan may have been the mastermind behind the whole operation .
Not to be overlooked is the possible implication of a pack of former Democratic
administration officials, including former Attorney General Loretta Lynch,
former National Security Adviser Susan Rice , and President Barack Obama himself, who
according to text communications between Strzok and Page "wants to know everything we're
doing." Also involved is the DNC, the Clinton campaign, and Clinton operatives Sidney
Blumenthal and Cody Shearer – rendering the ignorance of Hillary herself totally
implausible.
On the British side we have "former" (suuure . . . ) MI6 spook Christopher Steele, diplomat
Wood, former GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan (who resigned a
year ago under mysterious circumstances ), and whoever they answered to in the Prime
Minister's office.
The growing sense of panic was palpable. Oh my – this is a curtain that just cannot be
allowed to be pulled back!
What to do, what to do . . .
Ah, here's the ticket – come out swinging against the main enemy. That's not even
Donald Trump. It's Russia and Vladimir Putin. Russia! Russia! Russia!
Hence the unveiling of an indictment against 13 Russian citizens
and three companies for alleged meddling in U.S. elections and various ancillary crimes.
For the sake of discussion, let's assume all the allegations in the indictment are true,
however unlikely that is to be the case. (While that would be the American legal rule for a
complaint in a civil case, this is a criminal indictment, where there is supposedly a
presumption of innocence. Rosenstein even mentioned that in his press conference, pretending
not to notice that that presumption doesn't apply to Russian Untermenschen – certainly not to
Olympic athletes and really not to Russians at all, who are presumed guilty on "genetic"
grounds .)
Based on the public announcement of the indictment by Rosenstein – who is effectively
the Attorney General in place of the pro forma holder of that office, Jeff Sessions
(R-Recused) – and on an initial examination of the indictment, and we can already draw a
few conclusions:
Finally, "collusion" is dead! If Mueller and the anti-constitutional cabal had any
hint that anyone on the Trump team cooperated with those indicted, they would have included
it. They didn't. That means that after months and months of "investigation" – or
really, setting "perjury traps" and trying to nail people on unrelated accusations, like Paul
Manafort's alleged circumvention of lobbying and financial reporting laws – and wasting
however many millions of dollars, Mueller and his merry band got nothing. Zip. Zilch. Bupkes.
Nada.The fake charge that Trump colluded with the Russians is exposed as the fraud it always
was.
And yet, "collusion" still lives! But while there is no actual allegation (much
less evidence) that any American, much less anyone on the Trump team, "colluded" with the
indicted Russians, the indictment makes it clear that Moscow sought to support Trump and
disparage Hillary. Thus, Trump is guilty of being favored by Russia even if there
was no actual cooperation. It's a kind of zombie walking dead collusion, collusion by intent
(of someone else) absent actual collusion. Its purpose in the indictment is to discredit
Trump as a Russian puppet, albeit an unwitting one. The indictment says the Russian
desperados supported
Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein too – so they're also Putin's dupes.
Any and every Russian equals Putin. Incredibly, nothing in the indictment points
to any connection of those indicted to the Russian government! This is on a par with
the hysteria over social media placements by "Russian interests" on account of which
hysterical Senators
demanded that tech giants impose content controls , or dimwit
CIA agents getting bilked out of $100,000 by a Russian scam artist in Berlin in exchange
for – well, pretty much nothing. ( The CIA denies it , which
leads one to suspect it is true.) Paragraph 95 of the indictment points to what amounted to a
click-bait scam to fleece American merchants and social media sites from between $25 and $50
per post for promotional content. Paragraph 88 refers to "self-enrichment" as one motive of
the alleged operation. That makes a lot more sense than the bone-headed claim in the
indictment that the Russian goal was to "sow discord in the U.S. political system" by posting
content on "divisive U.S. political and social issues." What! Americans disagree about stuff?
The Russians are setting us against each other! In announcing the indictment,
Rosenstein said the Russians wanted to "promote discord in the United States and
undermine public confidence in democracy. We must not allow them to succeed." (He wagged his
finger with resolve at that point.) It evidently doesn't occur to Rosenstein that he and his
pals have undermined public confidence in our institutions by perverting them for political
ends.
Demonizing dissent. Those indicted allegedly sought to attract Americans'
attention to their diabolical machinations through appeal to hot-button issues (immigration,
Black Lives Matter, religion, etc.) and popular hashtags (#Trump2016, #TrumpTrain, #MAGA,
#Hillary4Prison). Have you taken a stand on divisive issues, Dear Reader? Have you used any
of these hashtags? Are you reading this commentary? You too might be an unwitting
Russian stooge! Vladimir Putin is inside your head! Hopefully DOJ will set up a hotline where
patriotic citizens influenced without their knowledge can now report themselves, now that
they've been alerted. Are you a thought criminal, comrade ?
An amateurish, penny-ante scheme with no results – compared to what the U.S.
does. At worst, even if all the allegations in the indictment are true – a big
"if" – it would still amount to the kind of garden-variety kicking each other under the
table that a lot of countries routinely engage in. As described in the indictment this
gargantuan Russian scheme was (as reported
by Politico ) an "expensive [sic] effort that cost millions of dollars and
employed as many as hundreds of people." Millions of dollars! Hundreds of
people! How did the American republic manage to survive the onslaught? Rosenstein was keen to
point out for the umpteenth time that nothing the Russians are alleged to have done (never
mind what they actually might have done, which is far less) had any impact on the election.
That stands in sharp contrast to the lavishly funded, multifaceted, global political
influence and meddling operations the U.S. conducts in nations around the world under the
guise of "democracy promotion." The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), along with its
Democratic and Republican sub-organizations, can be considered the flagship of a community of
ostensibly private but government-funded or subsidized organizations that provides the soft
compliment to American hard military power. The various governmental, quasi-governmental, and
nongovernmental components of this network – sometimes called the " Demintern " in
analogy to the Comintern , an organization
comparable in global ambition if differing in ideology and methods – are also
coordinated
internationally at the official level through the less-well-known " Community of Democracies ." It is often
difficult to know where the "official" entities (CIA, NATO, the State Department,
Pentagon, USAID) divide from ostensibly nongovernmental but tax dollar-supported groups (NED,
Freedom House, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) and privately funded organizations that
cooperate with them towards common goals (especially the Open Society organizations funded by
billionaire George Soros). Among the specialties of this network are often
successful "
color revolutions " targeting leaders and governments disfavored by Washington for regime
change – a far cry from the pathetic Russian operation alleged in the indictment.
"
Mitt Romney was right." Already many of Trump's supporters are not only
crowing with satisfaction that the indictment proves there was no collusion but refocusing
their gaze from the domestic culprits within the FBI, DOJ, etc., to a bogus foreign
threat. "This whole saga just brings back the 2012 election, and the fact that Mitt
Romney was right" for "suggesting that Russia is our greatest geopolitical foe," is
the new GOP meme . To the extent that Russiagate was less about Trump than ensuring that
enmity with
Russia will be permanent and will continue to deepen , this latest Mueller indictment is
a smashing success already.
The Mueller indictment against the Russians is a well-timed effort to distract
Americans' attention from the real collusion rotting the core of our public life by shifting
attention to a foreign enemy. Many of the people behind it are the very officials who are
themselves complicit in the rot. But the sad fact is that it will probably work.
So "Russian interference" in our elections are some Facebook trolls? Are you freakin'
kiddin' me? After 18 months of investigation not one shred of evidence has been presented.
Has even one voting machine been hacked?
I seem to remember Nuland and McBraintumor on the barricades in the Ukraine. These Russian
trolls are exercising what used to be called Political speech. Good or bad I don't think you
will be able to stop it. Bottom line if Hillary was not such an abysmal candidate the
Russians couldn't have affected anything. Any traction any narrative gained was a reflection
of the dismal status of maybe the most corrupt candidate in American political history.
This Russian gambit is to forestall prosecutions of Treason. Hillary was engaged in a
Conspiracy to defraud a Federal election. Her campaign gave money to foreign nationals
against the law. Conspiracy not collusion. From Brennan and Clapper and Comey in down you
have obvious perjury.
The Schiffs and the Warners have committed Treason by promulgating this patently false
fairy tale to the detriment of the American people.
The irony of this indictment is so thick that it is overwhelming.
The US has as far back as I can recall, as an political aware person, say 1973, been implicated in regime change or meddling.
In Europe less violent than the rest of the world, but never the less they were there, as was the USSR. Spending money, influencing,
subverting, coercing and in some cases resorting to violence, in order to get their government of choice. Italy and Greece
were places that were sought out because of the strong left. And things did get violent from both sides. Those not old enough
, look it up, there is plenty of evidence, declassified documents available. Northern Ireland was another place they meddled
quite openly.
In the rest of the world, especially in South America, it was far, far more violent and less covert, almost all South American
countries suffered.
It is blatantly hysterical, mind boggling hysterical, that Israel's influence and is silently accepted, but Israeli influence
is so huge that opposition can be suppressed.
To counter foreign "meddling" the US is quietly regulating the Internet, introducing the Great US Firewall. What a pathetic
nation, what a joke....
For hundred times it is all provocation against Russia, psyop that intensified since Putin
returned to power and started rebuilding Russian military after another western provocation
in Georgia and later in Moldova, it became exponential after Ukrainian putsch in 2014.
Ultimately removal and Putin and now Xi who will follow Putin to be elected four times
breaking the western imposed rotation of CIA agents in the Chinese and Russian leadership is
the ultimate goal of the Western globalists to be replaced by oth Chinese and Russian
oligarchs with more consmopolitan autlooke devoid of notions of nation states but rather
global imperial provinces of US western emporium.
These are neocons sick dreams but as we see they will not be stopped without real bottom
up anti oligarchic revolution and instead escalate into preprogrammed chaos and global
conflict among people while harmony among oligarchy.
@liburl @20 - "Could you comment on this. All things being equal the marketing scheme would
have spread
their positive and derogatory posts equally to any given candidate, yet Mueller says
Hillary was under attack."
Aside from the "Russian influence" there were commercial fake-news site created and run
from Macedonia. These were widely reported about. for example by Wired: Inside the Macedonian
Fake-News Complex .
The people running these sites did not care who would win the election. But they found
that stories about Trump generated MORE TRAFFIC than pro Clinton stories. (BTW: U.S. main
stream media found the same and was therefore full of Trump stories.) More traffic/followers
is their sole point.
What Veles produced, though, was something more extreme still: an enterprise of cool, pure
amorality, free not only of ideology but of any concern or feeling about the substance of
the election. These Macedonians on Facebook didn't care if Trump won or lost the White
House.
...
Trump groups seemed to have hundreds of thousands more members than Clinton groups,
which made it simpler to propel an article into virality. (For a week in July, he
experimented with fake news extolling Bernie Sanders. "Bernie Sanders supporters are among
the smartest people I've seen," he says. "They don't believe anything. The post must have
proof for them to believe it.") He posted under his own name but also under the guise of
one of 200 or so bogus Facebook profiles that he'd purchased for this purpose. (A fake
profile with a Russian name cost about 10 cents; for an American name, the price went up to
50 cents.)
"... The sole point of creating a diverse army of sock-puppets with large following crowds
was to sell the 'eyeballs' of the followers to the paying customers of the marketing company
[Concord Catering] ..."
In other words, what Prigozhin's company is doing is hardly much different from what
Facebook originally was set up to do: sell its followers, their details and their behaviours
to paying customers, be they marketing organisations or the US government.
No Russian influence-just more fake news, more lies, more manipulation, more of the same
pantomime politics starring puppet politicians and directed by the dangerous psychopaths who
rule us and who are rushing us down a one way street to extinction... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078L8K9H3
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 alleged members of a Russian troll farm
is leading to calls for escalation with Russia, exacerbating tensions that are already at
historic – and dangerous – lows, observes Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
U.S. empire loyalists are so close to telling the truth when they babble about "Russian
propaganda." They are openly admitting that it is wrong to use media to manipulate the ways
that Americans think and vote. Now all we need is for them to admit that they themselves
do this constantly , and we'll be on the right track.
St. Petersburg's Internet Research Agency building, the alleged Russian troll factory that
has sown discord in U.S. politics, according to Robert Mueller's indictment.
The word "Russians" is America's top
trend on Twitter at the time of this writing because of a Mueller indictment of 13 alleged
members of a Russian troll farm, those nefarious supervillains who posted pictures of puppies and
promoted Bernie Sanders to "sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016
U.S. election."
Predictably, no evidence is added to cohesively tie the establishment Russia narrative
together with allegations of Russia hacking the Democratic Party and giving their emails to
WikiLeaks, meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. at Trump Tower, any shenanigans with well-hydrated
Russian prostitutes, or indeed anything tying the troll farm to Trump or the Russian government
at all.
The focus instead is on people disguising their identities to troll Americans on social
media, which we
have now learned constitutes a "conspiracy to defraud the United States." As Disobedient
Media's Elizabeth Lea Vos
rightly points out , it is also behavior that the Hillary Clinton campaign is known to have
funded and engaged in extensively.
We are
already at an extremely dangerous point in the ongoing trend of continuous escalations with
a country that is armed with thousands of nuclear warheads. And these deranged lunatics want
more.
"Special Counsel Mueller's indictments are further proof that Vladimir Putin directed a
campaign to interfere with our elections, with the goal of tipping the outcome," tweeted Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "Given these indictments, @realDonaldTrump should implement the
sanctions that Congress passed immediately."
Steven Schmidt, MSNBC analyst and former strategist for George W. Bush and John McCain,
said that the word
"meddling" is not a sufficiently inflammatory word, because "What Russia did is ATTACK the
United States. Trump and the Corrupted GOP majority refuse to defend the sovereignty of the
country from this outside THREAT from a hostile state actor."
Congressmen Ted Lieu and Adam Schiff , Senator
Bernie
Sanders , popular commentators Preet Bharara and Joe Walsh have
all joined in the pile-on, along with many, many others, all demanding that the president do
more to escalate tensions with Russia even further than he already has.
This is exactly what renowned U.S.-Russian relations expert Stephen Cohen
has been warning of : an extremely dangerous mixture of continually escalating Cold War
tensions coexisting with hot proxy wars between two nuclear superpowers, with a president
facing immense political pressures to keep advancing and never, ever back down. A narcissist in
the White House being baited by his political enemies into a game of nuclear "chicken," without
the ability to swerve when necessary.
Meanwhile what are Republicans talking about? Why, they're all crowing about the fact that
these Russia revelations began on Obama's watch and don't show collusion, of course.
Do you see what is happening here? There is never, ever going to be any proof of
Trump-Russia collusion, because that has never been what this is about. We've
talked about this before : America's unelected power establishment doesn't care about
impeaching Trump, it cares about hobbling Russia in order to prevent the rise of a potential
rival superpower in its ally China. All this lunacy makes perfect sense when you realize this.
The U.S. deep state is using the hysterical cult of anti-Trumpism to manufacture support for
increasing escalations with Russia, and the anti-Trumpists are playing right along under the
delusion that pushing for moves against Russia will hurt Trump.
Well they will not hurt Trump, because there has never been any Trump-Russia collusion. If
there had been it would have been picked up by America's sprawling surveillance networks and
leaked to the Washington Post before the end of 2016, and if Trump were a Putin puppet he
wouldn't be continually escalating toward direct conflict with Russia in ways his predecessor
Obama never would have dreamed of doing. They aren't hurting Trump with these loud cries for
increased sanctions and hawkishness, they're imperiling us all.
Democrats, it is time to stop letting them bait you into calling for even more escalations
with a nuclear superpower and start calling for detente instead. Republicans, it is time for
you to stop putting partisan politics ahead of the survival of our species and start pushing
against these dangerous escalations that your president has been playing right along with.
These escalations are extremely dangerous and getting ever more so, and in the name of all that
is holy I implore you to stop before the unthinkable happens.
On my knees I beg you all to stop this madness, for the sake of my children and yours. You
lunatics on both sides of the political divide are going to get us all killed. In God's name,
stop. Please.
"... Besides that Rosenstein did his duty, as to redirect our attention from those nasty FISA court accusations, made by the Nunes Memo how conveniently timed. Although, Mueller's fantastic work (not my words but Rachel's) did not implicate any Russian involvement, and to the disappointment of many Democrates Mueller didn't imply that Vladimir Putin gave his permission to flip Hillary's win, but all the same .the Russians are up to no good, period. ..."
"... Mueller's Russia investigation is the le creme de le crumb of FBI investigations ..."
"... Fox news was thrilled, and patted themselves on the back for knowing it was a lie all along, at least the part where Russia helped Trump get elected. However they continued with their anti-Russia rhetoric and repeatedly brought up Hillary's sale of Uranium to Russia. Now Trump is out there acknowledging, yes Russia interfered in our elections. Our interventionism on a world wide scale makes this all quite nauseating. ..."
"... Those Russians created discord, well, they really didn't have to bother since Americans were so good at it, they didn't need any outside help. I haven't had the stomach to see how CNN, and MSNBC are going to handle this since they were such proponents of Russia-gate. ..."
"... Annie I'm glad you bring up the predictable timing of Rosenstein's release of the Mueller Russia-gate investigation, for these new allegations of Russian interference could replace the news of that awful shooting down in Florida ..."
"... I am now convinced that the indictment is a fraud upon the court deserving of sanctions being imposed on Mueller by the Court. ..."
"... The Mueller indictment is a highly unusual document. It's extraordinarily verbose for an indictment. Coupled with the fact that Mueller knew there was no way he would ever be required to prove what was charged (the U.S. has no extradition treaty with Russia), the indictment is not in reality addressed to a judge or jury; it's fodder for propaganda purposes and as discussed below, is intended to protect the indictment's entire subject matter from Freedom of Information Act requests. ..."
"... The document is overflowing with information that would be filed under seal if it was not fictional. A host of classified intelligence sources and methods would be on full display if the information in the indictment was factual. E.g., we get internal Russian company documents and private emails. Those records would have to be authenticated at trial with admissible proof of how DoJ and the FBI acquired them (sources and methods) if the indictment was intended for a judge and jury. But we get a 37-page detailed document without a single redaction for classified information. Are we to seriously believe that the Deep State is willing to burn the identities of private actor spies in Russia so they can testify that they stole company documents and emails in a foreign country? Or are we to believe that the FISA Court issued search warrants for FBI or NSA to penetrate the company's networks for a criminal rather than foreign intelligence purpose? ..."
"... Since we are purportedly dealing with Russians, one would also expect at least most of the quotes to be in Russian, requiring translation to English, yes? But we have here perfect English language smoking gun quotes and lots of them, without any indication that they have been translated from Russian as would be required if they had been. And they all speak for themselves, without need for interpretation. Even one such quote would be rare in criminal cases. But to have a bunch of them, all in English? It beggars belief. ..."
This Mueller revelation of 13 Russians flipping a combined campaign amount of 6.9 billion
dollars spent by both American presidential candidates, is awl inspiring, and convinces me to
if I were to run for public office I would do myself well to get these 13 Russians to work
for my campaign utterly amazing, these Russian trolls could flip such an overly expensive
long term election with so little.
Besides that Rosenstein did his duty, as to redirect our attention from those nasty FISA
court accusations, made by the Nunes Memo how conveniently timed. Although, Mueller's
fantastic work (not my words but Rachel's) did not implicate any Russian involvement, and to
the disappointment of many Democrates Mueller didn't imply that Vladimir Putin gave his
permission to flip Hillary's win, but all the same .the Russians are up to no good,
period.
This story barely tops the exclusion of Russian athletes from the Olympics for drug
doping, but Mueller's Russia investigation is the le creme de le crumb of FBI investigations
. Florida 19 year old shooter, not so much.
In the end, this will just be another day in an America life, while Mueller and company
wind this thing down, and with the hopes the open sore FISA court insinuation goes away.
Joe, you do have to ask yourself why Mueller came out with their non-findings on Friday
when everyone's attention was drawn to the school shootings in Florida where the FBI was
given warnings, but neglected to pay attention, and the governor of Florida is calling for
Wray's resignation, and heads to roll.
Fox news was thrilled, and patted themselves on the back for knowing it was a lie all
along, at least the part where Russia helped Trump get elected. However they continued with
their anti-Russia rhetoric and repeatedly brought up Hillary's sale of Uranium to Russia. Now
Trump is out there acknowledging, yes Russia interfered in our elections. Our interventionism
on a world wide scale makes this all quite nauseating.
Those Russians created discord, well, they really didn't have to bother since Americans
were so good at it, they didn't need any outside help. I haven't had the stomach to see how
CNN, and MSNBC are going to handle this since they were such proponents of Russia-gate.
Joe Tedesky , February 17, 2018 at 3:10 pm
Annie I'm glad you bring up the predictable timing of Rosenstein's release of the Mueller
Russia-gate investigation, for these new allegations of Russian interference could replace
the news of that awful shooting down in Florida.
I actually picture Mueller & Rosenstein as planning this long before the shooting, and
I can just see them figuring out that during the next mass shooting on a Friday before a
weekend news cycle, that bringing up the Russia thing would not only distract our attention
away from how the FBI dropped the ball on catching a 19 year old shooter who had tons of red
flags surrounding him, while adding some new life to all that is bad about Russians, was the
go to point.
I'm not surprised, although disappointed, that FOX is on the anti-Russian band wagon. This
keeping Russia in the dog house has been discussed, and written about on this comment board,
so keeping Russia & especially Putin in the spot light of all that is evil, to me comes
as no surprise.
It would appear that the U.S. is eventually going to go to war with Russia, or do we dare?
Neocon's are good at dropping bombs on far away places, but will they be any good at ducking
them when the bombs drop here?
And yes we Americans don't need any help from any Russians in order to screw up our
democracy, we are perfectly great at doing that ourselves. Joe
I am now convinced that the indictment is a fraud upon the court deserving of sanctions
being imposed on Mueller by the Court. I'll add some reasons for believing that in my
follow-up comment.
Joe Tedesky , February 18, 2018 at 1:33 am
Paul that was the best so far of anything I read, or learned, about this
Mueller/Rosenstein travesty. Joe
john wilson , February 18, 2018 at 6:04 am
Also Paul, did you know that the vice chairman of Face book has just announced that most
of the Russian advertising spend happened AFTER the election. Read it for yourself on the
zero hedge site.
Yes, Joe. I'd really like to see VIPS dive into what b presented.
The Mueller indictment is a highly unusual document. It's extraordinarily verbose for an indictment. Coupled with the fact that Mueller knew
there was no way he would ever be required to prove what was charged (the U.S. has no
extradition treaty with Russia), the indictment is not in reality addressed to a judge or
jury; it's fodder for propaganda purposes and as discussed below, is intended to protect the
indictment's entire subject matter from Freedom of Information Act requests.
As further indications that the document is a work of fiction not intended for a judge or
jury:
1. The document is overflowing with information that would be filed under seal if it was
not fictional. A host of classified intelligence sources and methods would be on full display
if the information in the indictment was factual. E.g., we get internal Russian company
documents and private emails. Those records would have to be authenticated at trial with
admissible proof of how DoJ and the FBI acquired them (sources and methods) if the indictment
was intended for a judge and jury. But we get a 37-page detailed document without a single
redaction for classified information. Are we to seriously believe that the Deep State is
willing to burn the identities of private actor spies in Russia so they can testify that they
stole company documents and emails in a foreign country? Or are we to believe that the FISA
Court issued search warrants for FBI or NSA to penetrate the company's networks for a
criminal rather than foreign intelligence purpose?
2. There are way too many perfect smoking gun English language quotes. It's rare to get
smoking gun quotes from defendants and they almost always require context to interpret them.
Since we are purportedly dealing with Russians, one would also expect at least most of the
quotes to be in Russian, requiring translation to English, yes? But we have here perfect
English language smoking gun quotes and lots of them, without any indication that they have
been translated from Russian as would be required if they had been. And they all speak for
themselves, without need for interpretation. Even one such quote would be rare in criminal
cases. But to have a bunch of them, all in English? It beggars belief.
3. In a normal criminal case, an indictment's allegations would be tested at a public
trial and the public would then learn what the evidence actually is. But with a case where
the defendants will never be extradited to stand trial, the entire case file is exempt from
public disclosure under the law enforcement records Freedom of Information Act exemption so
long as the investigation is ongoing. By vastly increasing the level of detail beyond what is
required for an indictment, Mueller sweeps far more evidence into what is clearly exempt from
public disclosure.
4. Grand jury procedure permits what bernard describes, although it is highly unethical
and violates a lawyer's duty of candor to the grand jury and the court. In a grand jury, the
prosecution is not required to show any evidence tending to establish the defendants'
innocence. Just enough evidence for the grand jury to find that the prosecution can present a
prima facie case of guilt. That means Mueller did not have to show the grand jury any of the
Internet communications that favored Hillary Clinton rather than Trump. But we know from
bernard's October article and from MSM reports when the Facebook ads were disclosed to
Congress that the pro-Clinton communications exist too. In other words, Mueller apparently
cherry picked the evidence to support his charge that the communications all favored Trump
instead of Clinton.
5.The indictment presents a wacky theory that the defendants conspired to defraud the
United States that is riddled with First Amendment issues. Conspiracy to commit wire and mail
fraud, that's not obviously a bad argument. But that fraud conspiracy claim smells like a
very long distance stretch to me (caveat, I have not yet researched it thoroughly). But
what's fraudulent about reports you never filed with the FEC and DoJ? Why not just charge
them with not filing the reports? Is it just so you can trumpet "conspiracy to commit fraud
on the United States?"
There's more but those are the major points I've got so far.
Congressmen Ted Lieu and Adam Schiff, Senator Bernie Sanders , popular
commentators Preet Bharara and Joe Walsh have all joined in the pile-on .
It pains me to once again be confronted with the fact that Sanders is a neocon hack.
Joe Tedesky , February 17, 2018 at 1:30 pm
Your right Zachary in as much as Sanders has been inspiring, he along time ago should have
dispelled this Russia-gate Bull, and went forward promoting his progressive goals. Joe
LaNinya , February 17, 2018 at 2:44 pm
I wrote off Bernie Sanders as a serious contender when, upon losing the Democratic
nomination, instead of falling back on his life-long status as an Independent and socialist
to throw his support to the Stein/Baraka ticket, he full-throatedly exhorted his supporters
to vote for Hillary (Dick Cheney with lipstick) Clinton. Which, to me, indicated that he
lacks faith in his own convictions.
It's interesting, though, that running as a "socialist" he attracted such great crowds and
enthusiastic support. Remember how almost shocking that was? That anyone would be so bold as
to run for president as a "socialist"?
And yet it hasn't been that long ago that the Communist Party itself would routinely field
presidential candidates to run in the elections. Indeed, turns out John Brennan himself had
voted for the communist candidate (Gus Hall) back in 1976.
When and how did the United States allow it's political discourse to get so cramped and
narrow? Does anyone remember?
Joe Tedesky , February 17, 2018 at 3:19 pm
I think the U.S. was captured into the net as far back as maybe starting with the midnight
vote to establish the Federal Reserve in 1913. Another place would be the right wing Dem's
putting Harry Truman on the VP ticket in 1944. And how could we analyze this downfall without
including the assassination era, starting with JFK in 1963? Yes LaNinya it's been a long slow
process, and it ain't over until the fascist take total control.
The public's yearning to hear Socialist Sanders, is interesting, but does anyone for one
minute take the time to realize that Bernie at best is a tat to the right of an FDR new
Dealer? Although you go with the best you got, it is a shame that there aren't more truly
Leftist candidates, because I think Americans want them. Joe
Add to that the end of the draft in 1973, which we thought was a victory, only to see a
corporate military rise as the only means of access to "education" and "employment". A
military corporation dedicated to war, death and destruction for profit, as well as
censorship of its ultimate goals, and an industrial output of propaganda to encourage and
prop up its agenda.
Rave on Sasha Alexandre. Rave on Jara. I am not your enemy. 173 Oudezijds Achterburgwal,
Amsterdam Centrum.
Joe Tedesky , February 17, 2018 at 4:04 pm
You raise a memorial point, milkmild. I just got off active duty around the time the draft
was ended. As happy as I was, I also recall giving some thought to what would our military
do, without all of us Constitutional pesky civilians around to nag the warmongering brass, as
we did? Well now I know. Joe
mike k , February 17, 2018 at 3:07 pm
Sanders is a turncoat traitor to those he misled.
nonsense factory , February 17, 2018 at 3:51 pm
Sanders is interesting, in that he was basically running against Clinton just so she could
say that she had an opponent. The Sanders platform is basically FDR-limited, in that if you
look back to 1933 you can see FDR running on a very similar (but much more anti-Wall Street)
platform.
My one piece of advice on Sanders is, don't trust politicians in this system to fix
problems – we live in a seriously plutocratic system with remarkable similarities to
Brezhnev's Soviet Union. Our politics is largely theater – Sanders was to be the foil
to Clinton, and Trump's rise in the Republican Party was largely engineered by corporate
allies of Hillary Clinton who thought he'd be easier to defeat than GW Bush. The Republican
wing of the plutocracy wanted either Bush or Rubio, for similar reasons.
Trump was never supposed to win the general election, and Sanders was never supposed to
get anywhere near Clinton in the primary. Somehow the whole program went off the rails, and
the neolib/neocon crowd in Washington and Wall Street didn't see it coming. Now they're
trying to pick up the pieces. . .
But I don't think all the king's horses and all the king's men, will be able to put the
American Empire back together again. So I'm betting that the Soviet Union collapse scenario
is going to play out in the United States; Gorbachev,Yeltsin, Putin. If we can find someone
like Putin who will throw our politically-minded oligarchs in jail or exile them, as Putin
did with Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky and Gusinsky, then we'll be much better off and the pain
will not last as long.
As far as Russia vs. the USA, no, China holds all the cards, on renewable energy, on
technology, on diplomacy. We should all learn to speak Chinese and Russian, anyway . . . Just
so we can communicate with our equals on a level field. Bye bye Empire, bye bye. . .
"The U.S. deep state is using the hysterical cult of anti-Trumpism to manufacture support
for increasing escalations with Russia, and the anti-Trumpists are playing right along under
the delusion that pushing for moves against Russia will hurt Trump."
On the mark, but the strategy goes beyond the deep state which I take to mean actors
within our government. Cui bono, and that includes suspects that make no pretense of what
they are after. The problems with their plans is that it assumes they have their hand on the
switch that can turn this putsch on and off and somewhere in between.
Absolutely, politics is mostly theater, as nonsense factory stated. Tom Welsh and mike k,
what a great exchange on humans as stupid as sand fleas! The western nations are floundering
because of their slavish dependence on money and military might, and the US is set for
economic collapse soon with $20tn debt and unbelievable deficit and continuing to rise to aid
oligarchs; meanwhile with desperate masses, many of whom can't even put a roof over their
heads without help. The Goldman has Sacked US. Notice how Goldman Sachs has been in charge of
the gold since Bill Clinton? These fiends are using displacement because they have made the
bloodiest mess of American society so they blame Russia for what they do, they're
psychopathic. We've got to call them on it. Do read that article at The Saker, "A Brief
History of the Kremlin Trolls". The imprint of CIA is all over this.
jaycee , February 17, 2018 at 6:01 pm
The Mueller indictment describes a common clickbait operation through a most hysterical
and paranoid lens. Absurd madness. It's "commies are poisoning our vital bodily fluids" level
stuff. Imposing controls on the internet is one endgame here.
Gregory Herr , February 17, 2018 at 8:42 pm
I put myself through the excruciation of watching a bit of Chris Hayes tonight talking
with Nadler (D-NY) and some guy from the Clinton campaign who were both calling the so-called
"interference" an "attack" tantamount to Pearl Harbor. Hayes played the straight man and
poohed the comparison a bit, but they were insistent and Hayes suggested the logical
conclusion of what they were demanding in response was war. Nadler stopped short of that but
said the Russians must pay a heavy price (more sanctions) and the other guy said the new war
would be of the cyber variety. I think you are right that "imposing controls on the internet
is one endgame here".
David G , February 17, 2018 at 9:30 pm
The rhetorical slippery slope started with "hacking the DNC" (not that I'm conceding the
reality of that), and slid rapidly through:
"hacking the election" to
"hacking our democracy" to
"attacking our democracy" to
"attacking our country",
and now what you saw on MSNBC, Gregory Herr, is the norm.
I've seen: What is the difference between what the Russians did here and if they'd
occupied the Aleutian Islands?
How to rationally engage with argle-bargle paranoia like that?
David G , February 17, 2018 at 9:19 pm
jaycee, I think that is actually a key point that should be foregrounded in commentary on
this nonsense: the psychological drivers are concerns about *purity* and *contamination*.
I've read about studies that show such preoccupations correlate with right-wing, or
"conservative", political orientation, which absolutely describes the Russia-gate construct,
despite its demographic base on the Dem-partisan, allegedly liberal, side of the
aisle/populace.
KiwiAntz , February 17, 2018 at 6:26 pm
I'm from NZ so I'm going to use a Lord of the Rings analogy? America & it's Deepstate
is the evil "Sauron" of the World"? Sauron (like the US) is a cowardly bully who wants to
dominate all life on earth using his Ork minions (MIC) & one ring (nuclear weapons) to
rule them all? What did it take to stop Sauron (& what will it take to stop the US?) A
last alliance of men, elves & all the other people's of middle earth (planet earth)
uniting & standing together as one to confront this grave threat to life on earth?? JRR
Toiken understood the situation only to well I think? Simplistic solution,but a time is
coming when all Nations of the Earth are going to have to stand up too & destroy the
greatest existential threat too life on Earth, that has ever been, which is the American
Empire & USA? A greater threat than Nazi Germany ever was? The survival of the human race
is at stake as your lunatic leaders are leading us to permanent destruction! You'd be
surprised at the amount of rich Americans, think Peter Thiel for one example, buying end
times, survival prepper, bolt holes in my Country of NZ as they can see what your insane,
hysterical Nation is leading us too? When the rich start abandoning the Country, like rats
leaving a sinking ship, ITS TIME TO TAKE NOTICE? Just as one small hobbit, the most
unlikeliest of hero's changed the outcome & the fate of middle earth, it set a precedent
that ordinary people or small people of the World could stand up to & unite against EVIL
& become the most unlikeliest of heroes in order to SAVE our Earth? God help us all?
mike k , February 17, 2018 at 6:53 pm
Well said!
Joe Tedesky , February 17, 2018 at 7:12 pm
My dying last warning to you KiwiAntz while I'm stuck here on the USA mainland is when
those rich creeps of ours do come to your beloved New Zealand .immediately arrest them, and
put then in jail. Since I'm not big on capital punishment that's the best advice I can give
you, but if you would rather I could hand this over to my cousins in Jersey, because their
good at making things disappear. Be careful, watch yourself KiwiAntz. Joe
Good one, KiwiAntz! I agree with you and I also think that Mother Earth is sending
messages to humans, too. Too many people allowing (mis)leaders to lead us over a cliff.
mike k , February 17, 2018 at 7:00 pm
"Worse than Hitler" hits Uncle Sam right on the head. Our leaders learned a lot from
Hitler and his gang, but they have gone far beyond what Hitler accomplished. Racism, power
lust, torture, fiendish weapons, mass murder – we have the whole package now in
spades.
Marko , February 18, 2018 at 8:26 am
Worse , indeed , but what bothers me most is that we ( the American people ) have allowed
the situation to get this bad.
I used to wonder : " How could the German people have allowed Hitler to obtain and
maintain his power ? Were they blind , or were they just as evil as he was ? " Now I don't
have to wonder any more – I'm experiencing the phenomenon first-hand , in real time. If
the Guiness Book of World Records ever comes up with a category called " Nation With the Most
Irresponsible Populace " , Germany no longer has to fear being named the record-holder ,
thanks to us.
To say that what the Russians did had any effect on the election is like claiming it was
the fly fart in the tornado that blew the roof off.
Zachary Smith , February 17, 2018 at 7:45 pm
Lately I've seen some quips which are really memorable. "Fly fart in a tornado" is great,
and the one by mike k the other day also made my day:
Voting in a crooked system is like pissing in the ocean – it's OK if you have
nothing better to do .
jose , February 17, 2018 at 8:32 pm
You are correct when you assert that : "It's all been gossip and innuendo" Somebody ought
to tell Mr. Mueller " clay, clay, clay for without it, I cannot make bricks" I have not seen
anything remotely resembling hard evidence. This entire Russia debacle reminds me of the 2007
movie of Batman in which at the end the joker states the following: "Madness as you know is
like gravity, all it takes is a little push" The worse part in all this is that millions of
Americans believe this Russia meddeling as a given without demanding any solid prove. The
grip of the American doctrinal system is very powerful, indeed.
Everything written here by Caitlin Johnstone makes sense except that you can't beg a
psychopath to stop what they're doing. Like asking a serial killer not to kill you.
MLS , February 17, 2018 at 11:25 pm
The more I see the same commenters congratulating themselves on their respective
confident, cognitive bias-laden assertions, the more painfully obvious it becomes that while
posters here may know what they have read and heard, none have any clue what is going on.
Where exactly is the factual basis, for example, for this stunning paragraph:
"Well they will not hurt Trump, because there has never been any Trump-Russia collusion.
If there had been it would have been picked up by America's sprawling surveillance networks
and leaked to the Washington Post before the end of 2016, and if Trump were a Putin puppet he
wouldn't be continually escalating toward direct conflict with Russia in ways his predecessor
Obama never would have dreamed of doing. They aren't hurting Trump with these loud cries for
increased sanctions and hawkishness, they're imperiling us all."
?
Because Caitlin said so? If/then theoreticals? Please.
The great Robert Parry did research. Journalistic legwork.
The cynicism olympics of small-time blogsylvania is no substitute.
BobS , February 18, 2018 at 12:11 am
Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown.
backwardsevolution , February 18, 2018 at 4:35 am
MLS – well, where's the evidence? Please enlighten us.
My question is, is the American public wittingly or nonwittingly going along for the ride
on this Russia-gate bus to no where?
nonsense factory , February 17, 2018 at 4:00 pm
Based on what looks, at first glance, as widespread censorship of comment sections on this
story in the corporate media across the English-speaking world, I'm guessing that the general
public is not really buying it, outside the hardcore center of wealthy Clinton-Blair
supporters and MIC insiders. That's just my impression, though.
When empires begin to collapse, the centers of wealth and power draw inwards and set up
walls in a desperate bid to retain control; but the harder they try to grasp it the more
slips through their fingers. They also tend to blame external forces for their own
incompetence and Byzantine corruption, which is why all the finger-pointing at Russia. That's
what I'm seeing, anyway.
Prophecy is never to be trusted; who knows how this will turn out? But it sure doesn't
look good for the status quo of the Clinton-Bush-Obama era; those days are likely gone
forever. Trump is ramping up wealth inequality with his massive tax cuts and huge
military-industrial budget – again, much like the end days of the Soviet Union, when
the apparatchiks had their Black Sea villas while the rest of the country lived in
poverty.
Joe Tedesky , February 17, 2018 at 4:06 pm
I'm growing to like hearing from you nonsense factory, thanks for your input. Joe
nonsense factory , February 17, 2018 at 8:24 pm
Thans Joe, I have used a wide variety of outlets to post my samizdat commentary but
Consortium is one of the few places where both the publishers and the commentariat seem to be
honest people, not playing some manipulative game.
Joe Tedesky , February 18, 2018 at 1:36 am
That's great, and you fit right in. Stay with us, we all might learn something. Joe
Earlier in February, according to various Fox and Neoconservative pundits, Deputy Attorney
General Rod Rosenstein was close to being labeled "the devil incarnate," the man responsible
for naming Robert Mueller as Special Counsel (and who had basically given him carte
blanche to engage in a slow-burn campaign, an ideological investigative war, based on a
spurious made-up dossier, against President Trump). Calls went out that Rosenstein should be
replaced, even fired.
Now, a few days later -- and thirteen indictments from one of Mueller's grand juries,
announced by the very same Rosenstein, specifically against more "Russian players" who
reportedly "meddled" in the 2016 American elections, but without any connivance by the
Trump campaign -- and Rosenstein is feted as a veritable savior of the republic by those
same commenters. Those Neocons who now selectively support the president and those
bitterly anti-Russian Fox pundits (with the possible exception of Tucker Carlson) are
absolutely giddy with delight! For too long, in their defense of President Trump against the
charge of collusion, they had found themselves in the extremely uncomfortable situation (for
them) of having to mount an attempt to exculpate the Russians, or at least lessen their
culpability.
But now, Rosenstein has presented them with one of those exquisite "Aha!" moments: at last,
the onerous burden of disputing Russian connections with the Trump campaign has been lifted,
but they can still, with more reason, keep those evil Russkies in the cross hairs as the
supreme enemy of America!
And this fits to a tee their ideological predispositions. For the Neocons (and most of the
Fox punditry) -- who are the dominant voice of the so-called contemporary "conservative
movement" and the intellectual brain trust for much of the GOP -- are inveterate Russophobes.
It makes no difference to them that Russia in 2018 is definitely not Russia of the old Soviet
days; it makes little difference to them that since 1991 Russia has emerged as the leading
global power in opposition to the secularist New World Order, and that its political and
cultural trajectory is, if anything, more conservative and traditionalist. They ignore the fact
that Gorbachev voluntarily agreed with George H. W. Bush to dissolve the Warsaw Pact (which he
did), ending the Communist control of Eastern Europe, on condition that the United
States not advance NATO further east (which is exactly what the United States then proceeded to
do). They have repeatedly ignored and rejected Russian overtures for partnership, collaboration
and cooperation (not the subinfeudation and subjection that Paul Wolfowitz and Charles
Krauthammer demanded). They rip out of context Putin's statement that the dissolution of the
old Soviet Union was "a monumental catastrophe" for Russia, failing to understand that his
comments dealt specifically with the radical and disastrous ethnic and political
consequences of the break up, with millions of ethnic Russians now in regions that were always
part of Russia, now separated from the Mother Country, economically adrift and incapable of
true independence.
Back on February 6 , in an effort to briefly explain some of the background for this
zealous Russophobia, I wrote the following in a column:
"The Neocons, of course, owe their intellectual origin decades ago to that other major
stream of Marxist thought, identified with Leon Trotsky and his zealous internationalism.
Early on for those intellectual descendants of Trotsky their opposition to Soviet Communism
was just as much a hatred for Russia, which they saw as anti-Semitic (e.g., the infamous
"doctors' plot") and "reactionary," as it was for what they perceived as Stalin's (and
Brezhnev's) perversion of the original "humanist" and "democratic core" of Marxist theory.
Thus, even with the daily revelations, the reports and all the accounts of skulduggery by
agents of the Deep State that seem to seep out, the narrative of "the Russians Did It!" must
be maintained, by both Progressivists AND the Neocons. Either the Russians and that "new
Hitler" (to use Neocon Max Boot's ill-chosen comparison) Putin were somehow directing Donald
Trump like a puppet master controls a stick puppet, or the Russians and that "new Hitler"
were working with Hillary and the DNC to blacken Donald Trump's good name and unseat him.
Either way "the Russians Did It!"
So, now we hear the news from Rosenstein that thirteen individual Russians and Russian
organizations, beginning back in 2014, two years prior to the 2016 elections (and before
Donald Trump was even mentioned as a real candidate), are charged with "attempted meddling" in
our national elections using mainly the Internet and social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
But no American citizens were compromised, and there was no collusion with the Trump
campaign.
Duh. So? This is news? That a major world power spent a paltry million dollars (in a
campaign in which a total of billions of dollars were spent) in some rather uniformly
unsuccessful attempts to "meddle" here?
You would think that the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor or that Putin's Cossacks had landed
and seized Miami Beach! This story has nearly displaced the tragedy of the school shooting in
Broward County, at least on Fox. With obvious satisfaction, Laura Ingraham (whom I do like on
occasion), intoned on her Fox program: "I've been warning about the Russians for years!" But
when she asked her guest former CIA director Admiral R. James Woolsey if we ever
"meddled" in other countries' elections and governments, he simply laughed a bit nervously and
attempted to avoid answering. (The answer is of course we do and have done so for
decades : Guatemala, Iran, the Kennedy-approved assassination of President Diem, the recent
Ukrainian coup against a popularly-elected but pro-Russian president, our funding of candidates
subservient to our interests -- the list is endless.)
Another Fox pundit, Tucker Carlson on his program, briefly mentioned the "meddling" of
Chinese operatives and organizations in the United States (where literally billions of dollars
have been spent to shape American opinion and a major percentage of American commerce is now
controlled by Beijing). Where is the Special Counsel investigating Chinese "meddling" and
influence on American elections? Where are the congressional committees examining the
extraordinary control by the Chinese of American business?
And what about Mexico which, using its various consulates scattered across the United
States, helped engineer the registration of Mexican voters who would vote in the 2016
American elections? How many of those were -- are -- illegals? Except for such groups as
ALIPAC, NumbersUSA, NC Listen, FAIR, VDare.com, and a few others, not a word and certainly, no
congressional hearings.
Then, there is Saudi Arabia and the billions of oil-based petrodollars that have found their
way into the coffers of American political leaders. When was the last time that you heard a
serious critique of the Saudis (or their virtual, if remote responsibility for much of the
Islamic extremism in the Middle East)?
And, lastly, and most significantly -- and this is the white elephant in the room -- what
about the incredible influence of Israel in American politics? Okay, I recognize that you're
not supposed to notice this, at least not mention it, lest you be labeled an "anti-semite" --
an accusation, a stain, like the charge of racism that is difficult, if not impossible, to
expunge. Yet, can anyone rationally deny the immense influence of Israel -- and its "meddling"
-- in our elections and politics?
I will make no judgments here whether the issues advanced by Israel and its supporters, the
positions pushed, are good or bad, whether they are in our national interest or not. Israel has
been an ally since its foundation in 1948, and the cultural and political bonds between our two
nations have been and are very strong. But that doesn't change the facts: Israel is a major
player in our politics, and such extremely powerful lobbying/public interest groups like AIPAC
(American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) generally serve
the interests of the State of Israel and attempt to identify them with American interests.
"Meddling" is an understatement when it comes to Israel. Remember the Jonathan Pollard
espionage case? Pollard was a major American Israeli spy, whose spying and pilfering of top
American secrets on behalf of Israel got him life imprisonment. And, politically, we only need
to cast a brief glance to the past -- to the defeat of Senators J. William Fulbright (Arkansas)
and Chuck Percy (Illinois), and Congressman Paul Findley (Illinois), and the attempted defeat
of Representative Walter Jones Jr. more recently in North Carolina (e.g, Bill Kristol's
million-dollar campaigns to defeat Jones in GOP primaries) -- all of whom refused to go along
with unquestioning support of a pro-Israeli American agenda, or who raised some embarrassing
questions, even in the most respectful and mildest manner.
Years ago, when working with the founder of the older conservative movement, Dr. Russell
Kirk in Michigan, I met Dr. Alfred Lilienthal, a thoughtful Jewish opponent of Zionism and of
the kind of international entanglements that he sincerely believed gave the Jewish state and
Jews universally a negative reputation. Later on he presented me with copies of his major
documented study on the topic, The Zionist Connection (original edition, 1978, and
revised, 1982), which were revelatory for me.
More recently, Dr. Stephen J. Sniegoski's impressively documented, The Transparent Cabal:
The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel
(2008), and Drs. John Mearsheimer's and Stephen Walt's The Israel Lobby and U. S. Foreign
Policy (2007) have deepened aspects of Dr. Lilienthal analysis. And additional research and
discussion by such writers as Philip Giraldi ( "Are America's Jews
Driving America's Wars," 2017), and such distinguished authors of Jewish descent as
Professors Walter Block ( "Is It Permissible to
Criticize Jews?" January 2018) and Paul Gottfried ( his review of Neil Jumonville's
The New York Intellectuals , 2008, on the relationship between Russian Jewish emigres
centered in New York and their powerful influence in American culture and politics), have
raised questions that should be examined calmly and rationally, but probably won't.
The shadowy Russians purportedly spent a million dollars to "meddle" and "sow confusion" in
American politics, beginning two years before the 2016 elections. And the Neocon narrative, the
template that indicts Russia, is preserved, and that is all you need to know. An anti-Trump
"demonstration" in New York with forty-five sullen attendees, some fake ads on Facebook (which
is literally filled with millions of other fake ads), some cyber interference, some phony URLs
-- and the Russophobes go literally wild.
And all the while the major players in meddling and espionage and influence here in the US
-- they skate, are ignored with a wink-and-a-smile, dollar signs in the eyes of the supposed
guardians of the Republic!
Never mind, Mueller can now further boost his pension prospects by taking a leaf out of
Kenneth Starr's book and start investigating Trumpian payoffs to bimbos, and consider
indictments for adultery. That should give him another couple of years of pensionable Deep
State service.
"I swear that Russiagate is nothing more than trying to cover up the blatant corruption of
the DNC, Hillary Clinton, the FBI, CIA and The Department of Justice. Keep everybody busy with
Russiagate and don't allow the corruption (with the help of the press) to see the light of day.
Otherwise, people in high places would be going to jail.
Notable quotes:
"... As many commentators have pointed out, we are a country of completely brain washed people now. Schiff, Schumer, Sanders . . . they are all cut from the same cloth. There is not one politician left in the country who will challenge the The Ruling Power Structure's narrative. Even in Russia, there are lot of opposition leadership voices who are making noises against the System they disagree with. ..."
"... They can't make "hacking" stick 'cause it's false. They can't make "Trump is a Putin puppet" stick 'cause it's false. So now the whole damn dumb show–regurgitated by either shameless war profiteers or straight-faced useful idiots–comes down to so-called Russian social media trolls exercising the same "speech" that we are supposedly so proud to call "free" in this country. ..."
"... The Thought Police use surveillance and psychological monitoring to find and eliminate members of society who challenge the party's authority and ideology. ..."
"... Anyone who has questioned the intelligence agencies narrative that Russians and Trump colluded to win the election are viewed with suspicion as potential enemies of the state. ..."
"... What is the end goal? The end goal is to prop up a long in the tooth multi-decade cold war with Russia to justify massive military spending. Do you want to know the answer to your question of whether or not the US defense industry and our intelligence agencies are trying to spark a war with Russia? ..."
"... The answer is yes they are. As crazy as that sounds, the hungry defense industry with its insatiable appetite for more weapons has decided to go for the ultimate win the lottery strategy and foment war with Russia. It had been happening under Obama and now it is happening under Trump. They are trying to box him into a corner where he will feel enough pressure to go against Russia. Perhaps they can goad him into attacking Russia which is what I believe they want to do. Our national media plays along and is in bed with the intelligence agencies as much as ever just like they spouted the lies of Chalabi in Iraq War II falsely believing his claims that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and chemical and biological weapons. ..."
"... "Yet still they want more as Caitlin Johnstone pointed out. What they want now to do is to do the same thing they have been doing under Obama and enlist Trump on the grandest military adventure of all. War with Russia." ..."
"... The Russiagate affair has been going on for almost a year and I would think Mueller is under a lot of pressure to find something to stick. This indictment may be it. ..."
"... Once again, Russia's reputation will be taken down a few notches and made to suffer another humiliation. And the US will move on to the next allegation, "UK and US blame Russia for the malicious NotPetya cyberattack" (headline on BBC). ..."
Essentially, all Mueller did yesterday was to indict a bunch of private Russian citizens
for expressing their opinions about the candidates in the last presidential election via
public media (mainly Facedbook and Twitter), and the individual Russians contacted by the
press about it did not deny doing so. Mueller made no links to the Russian government, Putin,
the FSB or even their alleged puppet Donald Trump. Just private individuals being persecuted
for expressing an opinion on American politics in public because they are foreigners. Doesn't
matter whether the opinions were true, false, complementary or disparaging because they were
subjective just like anyone else's opinions (you know, opinions are like a-holes, everybody's
got one).
So, if that move by Mueller is allowed to stand and serve as a precedent in American
jurisprudence, doesn't that mean that journalists from foreign lands, like Caitlin herself,
are at risk of being indicated at any moment by the US Justice Department if they express
opinions that the insiders in the Deep State do not like? And, what about all the foreign
nationals who post here in this forum on this blog? I daresay most offer opinions not
complementary of the US government and its political menagerie. And, to be honest, many do so
in order to either change minds or solidify shared beliefs with others, including great
swirling drifts of snowflake Americans.
This free exchange of thoughts is now to be verboten because someone other than Uncle Sam
may have an influence or even change the mind of a precious American citizen? This is
madness. That the most educated and articulate amongst us do not see this, but rather
participate in the feeding frenzy upon the carcass of what is left of our liberal democracy
is absolutely stupifying. As I have been saying for some time now, someone or some force must
be imposing a form of mass hypnosis upon the population and only a few of us (including most
here) seem to be immune to its effects. Maybe something we consume acts as an antidote.
Perhaps your Italian grandma's muffalettas or calzones, Joe? Or my mother's German
rouladen?
Dave P. , February 17, 2018 at 5:01 pm
Realist –
"As I have been saying for some time now, someone or some force must be imposing a form of
mass hypnosis upon the population and only a few of us (including most here) seem to be
immune to its effects."
You are dead right on that. My wife was yelling and screaming last night that why I was
not watching this "Russia trolls" show with her on CNN, MSNBC, and PBS; to learn how the
Russians have destroyed our beautiful democracy. She had seen the World too, mostly for fun
and experiences; she taught English in Malaysia – British colony until 1957 – as
a peace Corps volunteer during 1960's. There you have it. As many commentators have pointed
out, we are a country of completely brain washed people now. Schiff, Schumer, Sanders . . .
they are all cut from the same cloth. There is not one politician left in the country who
will challenge the The Ruling Power Structure's narrative. Even in Russia, there are lot of
opposition leadership voices who are making noises against the System they disagree with.
Gregory Herr , February 17, 2018 at 6:21 pm
They can't make "hacking" stick 'cause it's false. They can't make "Trump is a Putin
puppet" stick 'cause it's false. So now the whole damn dumb show–regurgitated by either
shameless war profiteers or straight-faced useful idiots–comes down to so-called
Russian social media trolls exercising the same "speech" that we are supposedly so proud to
call "free" in this country. They not only take us for moronic fools, but they can't even see
that that they are insulting us further by insinuating that our voting decisions are
completely unsophisticated and easily swayed to the point that 13 Russians could have an
impact amidst a sea of election season campaign "propaganda" from both major parties and an
array of special interest influence peddling. Like the Clinton campaign didn't hire Facebook
trolls!
Bye Bye First Amendment no one in the halls of power takes it seriously enough to defend it
unless you're spouting groupthink right Bernie?
Zachary Smith , February 17, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Essentially, all Mueller did yesterday was to indict a bunch of private Russian citizens
for expressing their opinions about the candidates in the last presidential election via
public media (mainly Facedbook and Twitter), and the individual Russians contacted by the
press about it did not deny doing so.
I'll echo Drew Hunkins in calling this a brilliant condensation of the issue. What worries
me is what the morons-in-charge might have in mind as a follow-up to this lunacy.
CitizenOne , February 18, 2018 at 2:31 am
Perhaps we are entering into the Orwellian dawn of Thought Crimes which are any feelings
or thinking a Citizen has which are counter to the State Propaganda put out by the Ministry
of Truth. The Thought Police (thinkpol in Newspeak) are the secret police of the novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is their job to uncover and punish thoughtcrime. The Thought Police
use surveillance and psychological monitoring to find and eliminate members of society who
challenge the party's authority and ideology.
Anyone who has questioned the intelligence agencies narrative that Russians and Trump
colluded to win the election are viewed with suspicion as potential enemies of the state.
It would appear to be allegations of thought crime because 15 foreign nationals posted
things on social media. We have been under the perception that social media is a free forum
for discourse but now, like China, we are seeing the formation of a witch hunt for foreign
devils who have infiltrated the social mediascape and are on trial for the results of a
national election.
We are literally burning some innocent teenager for the calamity we are convinced was not
of our own making. We need to find a witch to brew some witchcraft to explain how our current
situation has arisen.
Not sure if anyone alive today believes the Salem Witch Trials served justice and created
a restoration of civil harmony. I'm fairly sure that everyone looks at those dark days as a
travesty of justice.
Yes we are living in a time of universal deceit and the act of telling the truth has
become a revolutionary act just as Orwell portrayed in his novel.
Thought crimes are fairly scary and they imply that our government is willing to indict
the thoughts of whoever it deems to be an enemy of the state and bring the thinkers of
thought crime as defined by the state as anyone who questions the official fake narrative of
Russia Gate to "justice".
What is the end goal? The end goal is to prop up a long in the tooth multi-decade cold war
with Russia to justify massive military spending. Do you want to know the answer to your
question of whether or not the US defense industry and our intelligence agencies are trying
to spark a war with Russia?
The answer is yes they are. As crazy as that sounds, the hungry defense industry with its
insatiable appetite for more weapons has decided to go for the ultimate win the lottery
strategy and foment war with Russia. It had been happening under Obama and now it is
happening under Trump. They are trying to box him into a corner where he will feel enough
pressure to go against Russia. Perhaps they can goad him into attacking Russia which is what
I believe they want to do. Our national media plays along and is in bed with the intelligence
agencies as much as ever just like they spouted the lies of Chalabi in Iraq War II falsely
believing his claims that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and chemical and biological weapons.
Even the analysis on North Korea which opines that NK will use all weapons first as a
first strike in a scenario the USA has called the "Use it or Lose it" fell short and was
proved a false scenario or that there were really no actual WMDs in Iraq as the UN
claimed.
Either way, the likely outcomes of a WMD armed Iraqi leader facing imminent demise which
would cause him to use all available weapons at his disposal did not happen. There are only
two conclusions to the outcome. Saddam did not have these weapons or the likely scenario of
"Use it or Lose it" is all wrong.
Either way the premise of the war was shown to be false.
Unfortunately in the aftermath of that war there was no US counterpart to the British
Chilcot Report and the US went on to engage in regime change in other nations like Ukraine,
Syria, Libya and elsewhere.
There is no sense to it other than to destabilize nations, foment violence and create
international tensions which have the effect of causing our elected leaders to pony up more
money for defense to combat the new enemies we just created.
Yet still they want more as Caitlin Johnstone pointed out. What they want now to do is to
do the same thing they have been doing under Obama and enlist Trump on the grandest military
adventure of all. War with Russia.
I agree with her assessment that this is crazy. This is the most irresponsible thing yet
but it has been enabled by a fake news press just as it was enabled by the fake news media
all the times before.
I agree with you Joe that a form of mass hypnosis has gripped our democrat officials and a
large segment of our population. We have been handed a leader they don't like and they are
ready and able to make hay with the election outcome to persuade us by force to support more
military adventures.
Dave P. , February 18, 2018 at 3:53 am
Citizen One –
"Yet still they want more as Caitlin Johnstone pointed out. What they want now to do is to
do the same thing they have been doing under Obama and enlist Trump on the grandest military
adventure of all. War with Russia."
I agree with her assessment that this is crazy. This is the most irresponsible thing yet
but it has been enabled by a fake news press just as it was enabled by the fake news media
all the times before."
Yes. This scenario is getting more and more likely. All steps point to that direction.
Skeptigal , February 17, 2018 at 11:10 pm
Unfortunately I'm not as confident. Here is the complete indictment at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43091945
. There are three counts (with almost 70 allegations): 1. Conspiracy to Defraud the United
States 2. Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud And Bank Fraud and 3. Aggravated Identity Theft. It
ends with a forfeiture allegation seeking property, real or personal from the defendants.
The Russiagate affair has been going on for almost a year and I would think Mueller is
under a lot of pressure to find something to stick. This indictment may be it. Mueller will
be the hero; Trump may be saved as the interference started in 2014, before his campaign
began; the Hillary emails and Nunes memo will be cast aside; and the USA can say to the world
"see I told you so."
Once again, Russia's reputation will be taken down a few notches and made to suffer
another humiliation. And the US will move on to the next allegation, "UK and US blame Russia
for the malicious NotPetya cyberattack" (headline on BBC).
Martin - Swedish citizen , February 18, 2018 at 1:15 am
If the allegations are true, they need to be put in perspective:
– what might be the rational behind? Eg tit-for-tat for Western meddling, arms
race,
– do other nations engage in similar projects? What are the scale of those?
Starting in 2014 could it have been triggered by the Kiev coup and Nuland's was it five
billion?
"... That "faction" is the trump regime (cough) justice department. They are who indicted the 13. Do the math. The trump regime is the "deep state". ..."
"... The 13 indictments were brought by Special Prosecutor Mueller. Due to Jeff Sessions recusal, he is answerable only to Deep State Globalist, Asst. AG Rod Rosenstein. 0% Trump involvement. ..."
"... The indictments are so sketchy they are almost certain to collapse. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/16/asst-attorney-general-rod-rosenstein-announces-robert-muellers-russian-election-interference-indictments/ ..."
On a related note . it is now apparently illegal to have opposed the Deep State's candidacy
of Hillary for President. 13 people indicted by the US prosecutors for "supporting the
presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton."
The faction in the USA that seems to desperately want a nuclear war is now prosecuting
people who opposed their candidate who virtually promised that nuclear war as a part of her
campaign platform. Trying to save humanity is no defence apparently against charges that one
interfered with the Deep State's plans for nuclear war.
Note, that this is not an isolated ruling. The people like priests and nuns who've
protested against America's nuclear arsenal have had judges rule in court that arguments
about the illegality of such programs (in violation of nuclear non-proliferation treaty) nor
the immorality of planning to kill every living human and wipe out the human race are not
permissible defenses to make against the charges filed against them.
Apparently one is now free to either die in a nuclear holocaust or to spend probably years
in a US prison. The land of the free!
"The faction in the USA that seems to desperately want a nuclear war is now prosecuting
people who opposed their candidate who virtually promised that nuclear war as a part of her
campaign platform."
That "faction" is the trump regime (cough) justice department. They are who indicted
the 13. Do the math. The trump regime is the "deep state".
The 13 indictments were brought by Special Prosecutor Mueller. Due to Jeff Sessions
recusal, he is answerable only to Deep State Globalist, Asst. AG Rod Rosenstein. 0% Trump
involvement.
Russia became a standard punch ball in the US political games. As in "Russia dog eat my homework."
Notable quotes:
"... This article is very important and outlines the destructive effort being done to Russia by the USA. It should be noted and clearly displayed by the psychopathic nature of USA meddling in Russian affairs. ..."
"... "With the current uproar about Russia interfering in the USA elections. It has to be noted that the Kremlin is very silent on this subject." ..."
"... It is extremely difficult and time consuming for an ordinary person to find the truth in the millions of pages on the Internet, the ordinary mushroom knowing that the MSM only serves you sh't and keeps you in the dark. ..."
"... Yea, just a common internet malpractice called spoofing, that any IT professional, especially one working in IT security, knows about. I suspected all along that most or all of this "Russian Hacking" and "Russians did it" was exactly that. ..."
With the current uproar about Russia interfering in the USA elections. It has to be noted that the Kremlin is very silent on this
subject. It is more important now than ever to bring forth information from Russia in exposing how serious the problem is from
the USA interfering in not only Russian affairs but how the intelligence community continues unabated in interfering in most countries.
This article is very important and outlines the destructive effort being done to Russia by the USA. It should be noted and
clearly displayed by the psychopathic nature of USA meddling in Russian affairs.
One has to wonder why people cannot see how the current government of the USA is totally out of control around the world.
Everything has its cycle of life and the USA is no exception to this theory. When humanity is controlled in such a fashion,
by that I mean that the USA is supported by the four pillars consisting of GREED, CORRUPTION, POWER and CONTROL. They are sitting
on the top of these structures and are desperately trying to maintain their grip over the world.
Perhaps the purpose is to "open Russia" to debunk those silly "Kremlin hacking" claims and give Empire more important information
inside Russia. E.g how to go deep through military security defense line.
Empire actually don't know what Russia don't know or do know. Is this chess where you have to sacrifice pawn or two or even
knight to secure queen and king? Or why to shoot fly with cannon?
"One has to wonder why people cannot see how the current government of the USA is totally out of control around the world." end
quote.
It is extremely difficult and time consuming for an ordinary person to find the truth in the millions of pages on the Internet,
the ordinary mushroom knowing that the MSM only serves you sh't and keeps you in the dark. The most reliable method (not
100 % though) is the "Follow the money" method, who has to gain by this or that development, but even that can lead to false conclusions.
Always count on that everyone has a hidden agenda, but watch out you are not gripped by paranoia.
Yea, just a common internet malpractice called spoofing, that any IT professional, especially one working in IT security,
knows about. I suspected all along that most or all of this "Russian Hacking" and "Russians did it" was exactly that.
What a pathetic waste of time. American society and government are really getting very low.
And, of course, reality is actually defined as "what you cannot change by speaking about it". You can change reality, a very
little bit at a time, by doing honest physical work.
"... Much later, in mid-2013, the idea of Shaltay-Boltay appeared. ..."
"... Anikeev had sources of information, the information itself, important and interesting one. Anikeev decided to leave the information and analytical structure for which he had been working, and start his own project. ..."
"... His role has been greatly exaggerated. He's just our mutual old friend. When we were getting significant numbers of files that had to be processed, we would ask Teplyakov to help, for a fee. We knew him and trusted him. ..."
"... Just then, I was beginning to get annoyed with the country, I decided to go to Thailand. When I started discussing this project with Anikeev, it seemed okay: you could engage in an interesting and promising business from home. What did I expect in financial terms? Definitely not the sale of arrays of information. I was rather thinking about advertising or administration fee. Lite-version. ..."
"... All the information came from Anikeev. I published the received information, perhaps, by illegal means, but I have nothing to do with how it was obtained. Yesterday, I sent a letter to the former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves. I think by our actions, especially in 2014, when we were working on the idea, I deserved asylum in Estonia. So far no response was received. ..."
"... The Anonymous International published a lot of information from the correspondence of officials and businessmen between 2014 and 2016. Among the disclosed information was Dmitry Medvedev's hacked Twitter, and e-mail, Facebook, iPhone and iPad of owner of NewsMedia Holding Aram Gabrellyanov; e-mail and WhatsApp of TV host Dmitry Kiselev, official correspondence between the employees of "Prosecutor's Office" and the "Ministry of State Security" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, and a lot of other, equally interesting information. ..."
"... Before Anikeev's detention, Shaltay-Boltay also obtained the correspondence of the presidential assistant Vladislav Surkov. ..."
St. Petersburg programmer Alexander Glazastikov, who was hiding under the mask of Shaltay-Boltay (Humpty Dumpty), hoping for a
political asylum reached out to the former President of Estonia. He is the only member of Anonymous International who remains at
large.
Fontanka has been chasing the last Shaltay-Boltay member for a week. One member of the mysterious hacker group, which has been
leaking e-mails of businessmen and officials for three years was found in Estonia, but shied away from a direct talk.
After the news came that Anonymous International members Vladimir Anikeev, Konstantin Teplyakov, and Filinov were arrested, it
was not difficult to single out their colleague Alexander Glazastikov. The 'scary hackers' themselves, as it turned out, were quite
unrestrained on social networks and left striking marks on the Internet.
Five days ago, Alexander Glazastikov gave an evasive answer to the straight question sent by Fontanka via e-mail. Three days ago,
he admitted to being one of the Anonymous International on condition of anonymity. Then, he agreed to an interview saying "Come to
Estonia".
When, on the arranged day, a Fontanka reporter arrived to Tartu, Alexander dropped a bombshell: "I'm on my way to Tallinn: already
twenty kilometers away from Tartu." He suggested: "I can wait at the gas station Valmaotsa. Drive up, let's go together." It was
the offer, from which one cannot refuse. A taxi was found quickly.
When the meeting took place, the Shaltay-Boltay member, who was easily recognizable due to the photos from the web, surprised
the journalist once again: he silently passed him the ignition keys from the SUV. After a question, he explained: "You will have
to drive, I was drinking beer while waiting." There wasn't much of a choice, and the correspondent of Fontanka drove the hackers
group member to Tallinn to meet with the crew of Dozhd TV-channel and Ksenia Sobchak. 180 kilometers and two hours of time was enough
to have a decent conversation.
- Alexander, you are probably the only member of the Anonymous International who managed to remain at large. You're in Estonia,
the Russian justice is far away, can I call you by your name and surname?
- Perhaps, you can. Anyway, tomorrow or the day after, I will officially reach out to the authorities for a political asylum.
The FSB already knows my name.
- They know the surname. And who are you in the Anonymous International: Shaltay or Boltay?
- Shaltay, Boltay ... what a mess. Initially, when starting this project, Shaltay-Boltay was supposed to be a spokesman for the
Anonymous International. Mainly, I was doing this job. Then, Anikeev started introducing himself to the reporters as Lewis and got
everyone confused.
- How many people initiated the Anonymous International?
- Me, Anikeev. Teplyakov helped with some things, but purely technical aspects.
- Who is Filinov, whose arrest was reported in connection with Shaltay-Boltay?
- I don't know the man. He was not involved in the creation of the Anonymous International. I think this is Anikeev's acquaintance,
who accidentally got under the press. I've heard his name for the first time, when the media wrote about his arrest.
- Have you known Anikeev and Teplyakov for a long time?
- For a long time... There was a resource called Damochka.ru. When basically no social networks existed, and VKontakte only began
to emerge, everyone was on this website, it was one of the most fun projects. In the real world, meetings of the website users were
held, some users just organized those parties – Dima Gryzlov, Nikolai Bondarik, and Anikeev. That's how we met. Much later, in
mid-2013, the idea of Shaltay-Boltay appeared.
- How? Did you just decide that you would steal e-mails of bad people?
- Anikeev had sources of information, the information itself, important and interesting one. Anikeev decided to leave the
information and analytical structure for which he had been working, and start his own project.
- Could this project be called a business?
- It depends It was assumed that the project will bring substantial financial result, but initially it was made partly out of
ideological considerations.
- But Anikeev is not a hacker at all, judging by the stories of his former colleagues.
- True. If he needed to install any software on the computer, he would usually ask me to do it.
- But Teplyakov is a programmer.
- His role has been greatly exaggerated. He's just our mutual old friend. When we were getting significant numbers of files
that had to be processed, we would ask Teplyakov to help, for a fee. We knew him and trusted him.
- And why did you join this project?
- Just then, I was beginning to get annoyed with the country, I decided to go to Thailand. When I started discussing this
project with Anikeev, it seemed okay: you could engage in an interesting and promising business from home. What did I expect in financial
terms? Definitely not the sale of arrays of information. I was rather thinking about advertising or administration fee. Lite-version.
- With a reference to the investigation, there was information that Shaltay-Boltay has a whole network of agents with special
equipment, who, at places popular among local officials, steal information by creating fake Wi-Fi connections. Do you have a network?
- Complete nonsense. There were discussions about getting to know technical possibilities like this. As far as I know, and I know
a lot, in fact, we didn't have it.
- Where did you get the information from, then?
- From specialized hacking sites, one can order hacking someone else's e-mail box for a few thousand rubles.
- It worked successfully. If you remember 2014 was the most fruitful year. Serious stories, serious figures, and no commerce.
Strelkov, Prigozhin...
- Out of the three years that the project existed, 2014 was the most significant. I am proud of that year.
- But, from 2015, the Anonymous International has become almost a purely commercial project. How much money did you manage
to earn?
- Only one or two million dollars.
- So, you are now a rich man?
- No. Most of the money was spent on operating expenses, so to speak. There were about fifty boxes in the work. Plus, there were
variants in which a transaction was made not via bitcoins, but with the help of Anikeev's friends; these intermediaries could ask
for two thirds of the whole amount.
- Was there anyone above you and Anikeev? For several years, people have been wondering who Shaltay-Boltay works for?
- Funny. Everyone is looking for conspiracy, but, in fact, it was a 'quick and dirty' project made by me and Anikeev. However,
at some point, in the summer or in the spring of 2016, Anikeev said that some person from the FSB found us, he knew our names. Allegedly,
military counterintelligence was looking for us, but the FSB found our meadow attractive and decided to take control of our petty
pranks. They, supposedly, were uninterested in the commercial part of the project: the scale was much bigger, but they wanted to
supervise the project and to have the veto right. Mikhailov's name was not voiced, in fact, no one's was. Nothing, actually, happened:
no one used the veto right and no one leaked any information. If these mysterious people existed at all. And who turned whom in:
they – Anikeev or Anikeev – them, or even third force got them all, I do not know.
- How quickly did you find out about Anikeev's arrest?
- The next morning. He sent me a selfie from Pulkovo Airport, wrote that he checked in and flies to Minsk. The next morning, it
was reported that he was arrested and transported to Moscow. Given the subsequent events, it could be the game of the FSB. Then,
he contacted me, convinced that he solved all the issues and now works under the control of the FSB, called in me to Russia, but
I didn't believe him for some reason.
- Did Teplyakov believe?
- Teplyakov, in the summer of 2016, moved from Thailand to Kiev. He had no permanent earnings, he depended on Anikeev. When the
game was on, and it was claimed that the project would continue, but he needs to come to Russia and work there under supervision,
for safety reasons, as well, Teplyakov didn't have much of a choice. He went to Russia.
- Is there somewhere a chest with Shaltay-Boltay's information?
- Good question. I need to think how to respond. Well no, not really. What was sold and purchased by the clients was deleted.
What was sold was fairly deleted and this information doesn't exist anymore. Perhaps, some of our customers are now concerned about
this question, but what was declared, was implemented. Some operative material that we had been working on, I also deleted. Maybe
a couple of screenshots were left in the trash bin, but nothing more.
- Alexander, you're going to submit a request for a political asylum. Aren't you afraid that Estonians will simply put you
in a cell? In this country, they are very sensitive to computer security, and the specificity of computer crimes lies in the fact
that, for committing them, one can be prosecuted in almost any country?
- My position is that I was not personally involved in the cracking of passwords and sending malicious links. To me all that information
was already delivered in an open form. Yes, it was, probably, stolen...
- So were you ordering its thefts or not?
- No.
- Who did, then?
- All the information came from Anikeev. I published the received information, perhaps, by illegal means, but I have nothing
to do with how it was obtained. Yesterday, I sent a letter to the former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves. I think by our
actions, especially in 2014, when we were working on the idea, I deserved asylum in Estonia. So far no response was received.
We drove to Tallinn. More and more texts came to Alexander's telephonefrom Dozhd TV journalists, who were preparing
to shoot with Ksenia Sobchak. After leaving the car in the parking lot, we said goodbye. Alexander Glazastikov promised to inform
when he receives a reply from the Estonian government.
It is to be recalled that Glazastikov's colleagues from the Anonymous International are awaiting trial in a predetention center.
The law enforcement agencies arrested Vladimir Anikeev and his two probable accomplices: Konstantin Teplyakov and Alexander Filinov.
The latter two were arrested as early as November 2016, and, on February 1, the judge of the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow extended
their detention until April. The alleged leader of the Anonymous International, who was acting under the nickname Lewis, was arrested
on January 28 after a short time spent in the company of police officers; he confessed.
All three are charged with the crimes stipulated under part 3 of Art. 272 of the Russian Criminal Code (Illegal access to legally-protected
computer information, which caused a major damage or has been committed because of vested interest or committed by a group of persons
by previous concert through his/her official position).
Initially, the media associated their criminal case with the investigation on the FSB staff and the manager of the Kaspersky Lab,
who were accused of treason, but later, the lawyer of one of the defendants denied this information.
The Anonymous International published a lot of information from the correspondence of officials and businessmen between 2014
and 2016. Among the disclosed information was Dmitry Medvedev's hacked Twitter, and e-mail, Facebook, iPhone and iPad of owner of
NewsMedia Holding Aram Gabrellyanov; e-mail and WhatsApp of TV host Dmitry Kiselev, official correspondence between the employees
of "Prosecutor's Office" and the "Ministry of State Security" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, and a lot of other,
equally interesting information.
Before Anikeev's detention, Shaltay-Boltay also obtained the correspondence of the presidential assistant Vladislav Surkov.
Taking oil price to 30th or 40th is a strategic goal of the USA in relation to Russia. Listen at 3:30.
Notable quotes:
"... Appeasing interview with a shockingly cheap incompetent former CIA head Woolsey. If this man seriously represents the intellectual level of the CIA, then the USA will implode even faster than in ten years. ..."
"... You are exactly right. U$ politicians are uninformed, stupid, detached from reality, selfish and they think like schoolyard kids do. ..."
"... They are the product of the US society as a whole. ..."
"... Craig Murray nailed this issue stone dead for all time a few years ago, when he wrote:"[neo]liberal interventionism, the theory that bombing brown people is good for them". ..."
"... In the former The Ukraine, the Jewish Quisling oligarch dictator, Poroshenko, has been appointing foreigners to positions of power (SackOfShvilli is but one). He supported this by stating: "Ukrainians are too corrupt to rule themselves." When will we in America hear such a statement from our leaders to justify the appointment of Jews and paid Judaeophiles to all positions of power? ..."
"... I'm just waiting for Yevgeny Prigozhin to hold a press conference in Russia to claim that Hillary Clinton paid him to run the Internet Research Agency to besmirch her opponent- watch the fireworks :) It's all a hall of mirrors. ..."
"... The Internet Research Agency couldn't have possibly been more ineffective, which points to it's main purpose being to besmirch Trump (more more likely it was just an unimportant hobby of Prigozhin). ..."
"... Sure the United States has, they have been doing it since 1953 with the overthrow of Iran, to as recently as 2012 Russian Election, 2014 Ukraine Election, the UK referendum on 23 June 2016 on Brexit and currently trying to overthrow it this year. These are just a few and there is a very long list of other countries also. The United States in now in Russia and Hungry today meddling it their elections. Got to get the right people in office so they will cow-tow to the United States. ..."
"... What an admission! trump doesn't want more drilling for oil to Americans to use. It is for export and for foreign interference ..."
"... and if the price of oil would go down to 30/40$ that would make a unhappy input and so would be the saudis and you fracking industry would go down the toilet and thy will drag the banks with them. What a moron. And US oil companies would like that alot too ..."
Another tiresome, butthurt yank/wank? Between the new One Belt, One Road Chinese initiative, the Russians taking control of
ME oil production and the fact that america has NO answers to help it's declining empire, it would seem to the non-partisan observer
that america is well and truly f***ed. You must be talking about their debt expansionism, $20 TRILLION and rising by the second.
Thank you Mario......let's not forget Ukraine, Kosovo, Bosnia, the entirety of eastern Europe, the entirety of northern Africa,
Rwanda, the Congo, Venezuela, Chili, Guatemala, Panama, Jeeeeeeeze etc......
Russia condemned and defined as the enemy of America with laughably little evidence (effing Facebook posts being about the
extent of it) .... not a word about JEWISH MONEY controlling the entire political system in the USA. When Netanyahu gets 29 standing
ovations from Congress should that not have triggered an FBI "Investigation"? Nah ... nothing happening there. It is breathtaking
that THIS is the Alice-In-Wonderland world we inhabit.
Appeasing interview with a shockingly cheap incompetent former CIA head Woolsey. If this man seriously represents the intellectual
level of the CIA, then the USA will implode even faster than in ten years.
Craig Murray nailed this issue stone dead for all time a few years ago, when he wrote:"[neo]liberal interventionism, the theory that bombing brown people is good for them".
Yeah, that's hilarious. Join the murdering creep in a giggle, Laura, that's cute. Here's a global criminal who should have
been hung years ago for crimes against humanity. No one in their right mind would treat this creep with anything but contempt
and horror, let alone find him funny.
In the former The Ukraine, the Jewish Quisling oligarch dictator, Poroshenko, has been appointing foreigners to positions of
power (SackOfShvilli is but one). He supported this by stating: "Ukrainians are too corrupt to rule themselves." When will we
in America hear such a statement from our leaders to justify the appointment of Jews and paid Judaeophiles to all positions of
power?
My profound and sincere condolences. You are getting the 'Democracy Treatment' by the West. I hope some of you survive to tell
the tale and take revenge.
Are those ears or bat-wings? WOW! Yet another Jewe, pretending not be be. I guess he would say that the USA murdered all the
Indians and enslaved Africans 'for their own good' as well.
Talmudo-Satanism is the pernicious underlying ideology of the people who have taken over, not just the USA, but, lets face it,
the entire West.
Lets not forget that the U.$.A. meddled in Australia's election of the Whitlam Government. (And several governments there after
as soon as they realised they could get away with it an nothing would happen to them). The United States are a bunch of sick puppies;
really sick puppies the way they have treated Australia.
So much for being allies. With allies like the United States you don't need enemies (Unless the U.$. doctors them up for you
to force you to pay them more money for weapons and protection).
And it makes me sick that so many 'naive' people around the world keep falling for the SH*T that comes out of their mouths.
When dealing with the United States there are a few rules to follow. (Apologies to the innocent Americans out there but 'they'
allow their government to do some unspeakable horrors to the world.)
Rule One: If an American politician is speaking, then they are lying to you.
Rule Two: If an American Politician is quiet, they they want you to believe a lie.
Rule Three: If you have relations with the United States, you will be lied to.
And that goes for the entire planet no matter who the United States is speaking to.
Worst part is the our Gov can't think ahead, if they keep antagonising China on behalf of the Seppo's China will eventually
pull their mineral imports and our economy will crash overnight.
Yes, nobody doubts that the US interferes with elections in other countries - we're the good guys, so this is ok :)
I'm just waiting for Yevgeny Prigozhin to hold a press conference in Russia to claim that Hillary Clinton paid him to run the
Internet Research Agency to besmirch her opponent- watch the fireworks :) It's all a hall of mirrors.
The Internet Research Agency couldn't have possibly been more ineffective, which points to it's main purpose being to besmirch
Trump (more more likely it was just an unimportant hobby of Prigozhin).
Sure the United States has, they have been doing it since 1953 with the overthrow of Iran, to as recently as 2012 Russian Election,
2014 Ukraine Election, the UK referendum on 23 June 2016 on Brexit and currently trying to overthrow it this year. These are just
a few and there is a very long list of other countries also. The United States in now in Russia and Hungry today meddling it their
elections. Got to get the right people in office so they will cow-tow to the United States.
Frederick the Great concluded that to allow governments to be dominated by the majority would be
disastrous: "A democracy, to survive, must be, like other governments a minority persuading a majority to let itself be led by
a minority."
and if the price of oil would go down to 30/40$ that would make a unhappy input and so would be the saudis and you fracking
industry would go down the toilet and thy will drag the banks with them. What a moron. And US oil companies would like that alot too
...and the US bombed half of the world's countries for their own good too. US made Libya a slave market for humanity's good
as well. Oboomer even got the Nobel Peace Prize for it.
"... . As usual, the most appropriate response amounts to contemptuous, refined amusement ..."
"... It's not as though we have a lack of ludicrous, ridiculous material. As the inventor of this site once described, how did the people in the late-era Soviet Union fight their declining regime? Jokes. ..."
Frankly, I don't really see too big a problem with people swallowing the hogwash about "Kremlin disinformation trolls" working
to undermine the West's irrepressible belief in itself. As usual, the most appropriate response amounts to contemptuous,
refined amusement:
"They seem to know indeed what they are talking about -- well worth their salary for doing
honest work."
If you cannot change the Weltanschau of Ziomedia addicts, then at least you're fully
entitled to have some fun at the slobs' expense.
Absolutely, humor is one of the best weapons around. The more pompous a person is, the more
they hate being dropped down to size. Pop goes the balloon of hot air.
Humor has probably
woken more people up than any other method.
It's not as though we have a lack of ludicrous,
ridiculous material. As the inventor of this site once described, how did the people in the
late-era Soviet Union fight their declining regime? Jokes.
"... What this guy did (who is not "Putin's Chef", a term that uses the ever-favorite smear of putting something next to Putin to make people think there is guilt among both parties) is what every sleazy purveyor of fake profiles and fake likes does. If you have done any work in marketing or social platforms, you will have seen dozens of the same outfits. ..."
"... They're also happy to sell you ads that will target these fake people, pocketing the cash without achieving any results for the business owner buying the ads. Meanwhile, the US Cointelpro operation continues, masquerading as an actual investigatio ..."
"... Of course the New York Times and Washington Post have reacted to this like US Cavalry coming to the rescue in the last reel of a 1950's B-movie by demanding that Trump apologizes and accepts that their stories about Russian interference in the elections, were true and had nothing to do with 'fake news.' How convenient for them! After all this time, this is what Mueller can come up with, give me a break! ..."
"... Maybe they should sue Mueller for libel, go on the offensive? So Mueller's accusations are 'free', cause he knows the Russians can't really reply. It's a kind of smear. ..."
"... And what about conflating 'Russians' with 'Russia' all the time? A hacker or troll living in Russia doesn't represent 'Russia.' There's this ghastly wave of hysteria sweeping the United States and it's dangerous. ..."
"... With this indictment: Rod Rosenstein has come clean and delivered on solemn oath that the entire Russiagate farrago is baseless and evidence free. The only thing he has truly indicted is the obvious and continually developing disassociation of the American ruling class psyche from reality. ..."
"... "'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." ..."
"... An empire of unreality that can no longer be connected to the experiential, discernible and true. Such men are the architects of the demise of the dominant culture of lies? ..."
"... "a grand jury would 'indict a ham sandwich,' if that's what you wanted." – Sol Wachtler ..."
"... Well, they (Cocaine Importing Authority) do have history ..."
"... I personally know almost all pro-Russian English-speakers that have an influence on English language alternative and social media. None of them are Russians. If they ever were, they emigrated decades ago. There is no one that can translate Russian talking points from Russian society and media into the English speaking world. ..."
"... When will we discover who in Britain gave Steele authority to send his Dossier to the Clinton campaign? He needed that approval because the information was gleaned when in post as the Head of the Russian Desk of MI6 in quite recent times, apart from the normal requirements of the Official Secrets Act. Given that MI6 are an Intelligence Agency it's fair to assume they knew the Dossier's destination and the purpose to which it was to be put. Wasn't that interfering in the US election? ..."
"... The absurdity is that America spends billions on doing exactly these sort of things. $5 billion on Ukraine before pulling off the coup, according to Nuland. But that's just a crumb of the total mis-information cake. It's what the CIA spends most of its time doing! ..."
"... Since 1992, the government has spent about $5.1 billion to support democracy-building programs in Ukraine, Thompson said, with money flowing mostly from the Department of State via U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as the departments of Defense, Energy, Agriculture and others. The United States does this with hundreds of other countries. ..."
"... About $2.4 billion went to programs promoting peace and security, which could include military assistance, border security, human trafficking issues, international narcotics abatement and law enforcement interdiction, Thompson said. More money went to categories with the objectives of "governing justly and democratically" ($800 million), "investing in people" ($400 million), economic growth ($1.1 billion), and humanitarian assistance ($300 million). ..."
"... The descriptions are a bit vague, which could lead people to think the money was used for some clandestine purpose. ..."
"... But let's be clear, by "democracy building programs" they mean sending in NGOs to promote the "values" of austerity and debt, and they mean funding candidates for elections approved by the IMF because they have agreed to promote austerity and debt. They aren't promoting democracy, they are promoting the western political belief system. They are also acting to disenfranchise and discredit people who don't support this system. Just as Yeltsin in Russia, so Yarushenko, Yatseniuk & Poroshenko in Ukraine – men prepare to tank the standard of living for ordinary people and asset-strip the country. ..."
"... An indictment is simply an accusation. Since all 13 (what a magical number) of these people are in Russia, and there's no extradition agreement with Russia, they will never be able to get a trial to exonerate themselves. ..."
"... Meanwhile, Clinton was running a fraudulent charity and accepted 145 million dollars in "donations" from Russian Banks. ..."
What this guy did (who is not "Putin's Chef", a
term that uses the ever-favorite smear of putting something next to Putin to make people
think there is guilt among both parties) is what every sleazy purveyor of fake profiles and
fake likes does. If you have done any work in marketing or social platforms, you will have
seen dozens of the same outfits.
I've even seen them in operation, delivering tons of fake
followers and such. The goal is straight up sleazy commerce, and it should be noted that ALL
the social platforms, especially Facebook, not only tolerate this but turn a blind eye as it
makes their platform appear to have more users than it actually does.
They're also happy to
sell you ads that will target these fake people, pocketing the cash without achieving any
results for the business owner buying the ads. Meanwhile, the US Cointelpro operation
continues, masquerading as an actual investigation.
It's a really awful sign of the times we live in, when the Guardian, supposedly a
beacon of truth and true liberal, left-of-centre values, is so eager to swallow stuff like
this latest report from Mueller on face value alone without any examination of the wider
internal US context; the people and forces Mueller represent.
Of course the New York Times and Washington Post have reacted to this like US Cavalry
coming to the rescue in the last reel of a 1950's B-movie by demanding that Trump apologizes
and accepts that their stories about Russian interference in the elections, were true and had
nothing to do with 'fake news.' How convenient for them! After all this time, this is what
Mueller can come up with, give me a break!
It's all so pathetic. There's no way these Russians will receive a fair trial in the
US, even if they decided to turn up for a hearing. Maybe they should sue Mueller for libel,
go on the offensive? So Mueller's accusations are 'free', cause he knows the Russians can't
really reply. It's a kind of smear.
And what about conflating 'Russians' with 'Russia' all the time? A hacker or troll
living in Russia doesn't represent 'Russia.' There's this ghastly wave of hysteria sweeping
the United States and it's dangerous. What's appalling is how the left/liberal press,
typified by the ghastly Guardian, goes along with it all, without a murmur of protest,
criticism or real searching analysis.
The title and description of the linked article is right from the Time Magazine web
site:
(( Yanks to the Rescue: the Secret Story of How American Advisors Helped Yeltsin Win
))
article description from Time's site –
"THE SECRET STORY OF HOW FOUR U.S. ADVISERS USED POLLS, FOCUS GROUPS, NEGATIVE ADS AND
ALL THE OTHER TECHNIQUES OF AMERICAN CAMPAIGNING TO HELP BORIS YELTSIN WIN"
What we do 'in secret' we must expect to be secretly arraigned against us, and the
knowledge that we do such thinks enforces the conviction the 'Other' is a deceiver, whatever
they say or do. Because such is our own false witness.
With this indictment: Rod Rosenstein has come clean and delivered on solemn oath that the
entire Russiagate farrago is baseless and evidence free. The only thing he has truly indicted
is the obvious and continually developing disassociation of the American ruling class psyche
from reality.
"'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality."
An empire of unreality that can no longer be connected to the experiential, discernible
and true. Such men are the architects of the demise of the dominant culture of lies?
Well the fact you find it per se impossible the CIA would run a fake "Russian troll"
outfit says more about your utter naivety than anything else. I'm not completely convinced
that is what is going on in Savushkina Street. I think MoA is closer in pointing out it's
just a slightly dodgy internet marketing outfit who are paid to say nice or nasty things
about a whole range of things, mostly non-political.
Well we had Goldman Sachs CEO splashed all over the BBC website demanding UK remain in EU.
After the Referendum. We had The Black Dude threatening to send us to the back of the queue
if we were not subservient little vassals voting Remain. That was Headline News too. None of
us asked the Black Dude to interfere in Our Referendum, but he did it anyway, because America
does what it wants and everyone else gets indicted if they do the same thing back.
Just ask yourselves this: if you had a mad dog fascist HillaryBilly campaigning for US
President saying: ' NUKE (insert your nation's name HERE)!', you would just sit by and say,
'Oh, none of my business'.
Basic lesson to subnormal, cretinous Yanks: as soon as your election campaigns on
foreign wars, foreign blockades, foreign threats to nation state sovereignty, it is no longer
just your business. Any politician eho says otherwise, in fact any Yank who says otherwise,
has lost all right to human rights. Why? Because you have said that the right to safety
within a doctrine of self-determination for the rest of the world does not exist without
kissing America's ass .
Stop treating Americans as anything other than violent, psychopathic cretins who should
be incarcerated for the safety of the world.
It is pointless treating them as human beings when they never behave like human beings
..
I treat others as I would in truth be treated, not as a result of any set of rules of
'deservability' made in my mind or acquired from any other, but because such is a core sanity
of being that does not give worthship to hate and thereby become the think it hates.
Oh I can feel hateful feelings – but these are MINE. and as mine they are in my power
to release, rather than be defined and driven by.
So I appreciate your points, but not your personal result.
The elites operate on this sort of thinking:
"It is pointless treating them as human beings when they never behave like human beings
."
WHO defines what is a human being and how they 'should' behave?
A set of rules?
I agree that cause and consequence belong together – for only in recognising and
accepting consequence can we reconnect with true cause – and so cause a different life
than an attempt to deny and displace consequence to 'others' deemed unlike our self.
Power class operates (manipulates) its population while people use others (manipulate)
to evade their own responsibilities ie they give power away in exchange for what they get, or
believe they have got rid of. For example, they have got rid of guilt by assigning blame to
others who failed to act as their 'rules' required. Except the results of guilt are still
active in their own minds and bodies and not in those who 'fail us'.
Manipulation in a pure sense would be for example holding a tool correctly so as to
attain the desired result, but in the sense of manipulative deceit, it holds the
consciousness in distortion so as to achieve a wished for result.
Manipulative thinking – not Americans – runs the global agenda – and
whatever agencies serve purpose, including the USA. It does so while conferring some sense of
power and protection, in self specialness.
If you are too angry to read and consider, that's ok. But to assign it to a blanket
blaming of Americans as unworthy of their humanity is playing the 'god' of vengeance. Perhaps
this 'god' is the nature of the Beast.
Playing 'god' is the attempt to make reality be as your own Word defines. The lack of
support, encountered rejection and sense of betrayal that follows is the 'wound' of a terror
that generates the 'god' of rage as power and protection.
With regard to 'headline news', what ISN'T a psyop?
Whilst I fully appreciate the wisdom in removing the log from your own eye before you
touch the splinter in someone else's eye, there comes a time when you have to take the f***er
out.
Mueller's indictment rests on the false claim that the suspended 'Russia-connected'
Twitter and Facebook accounts were controlled by a non-existent company and 13
Russian individuals in Saint Petersburg. The only thing that connects the anonymous U.S.
accounts to Russia or the hoax " Internet Research
Agency " is that they may have used some Russian VPN service to hide their identities
from NSA and FBI spies.
Twitter and Facebook self suspended the accounts based on some connection to Russia,
including use of Russian IP addresses or Cyrillic letters in administrator names. They had no
way of knowing if all accounts were controlled from a single "troll factory" or if that troll
factory was operated by a company named "Internet Research Agency". (If they had such
information, they would have said so.)
The whole thing is hoax. It is impossible for Russians to impersonate American internet
personalities, when they are unable to speak up in English under their own names. Russia does
not have the people and skills needed to maintain English language accounts that would
influence and resonate among the American audience and electorate – yet alone do this
at a minimum wage in a "troll factory" sweatshop.
I personally know almost all pro-Russian English-speakers that have an influence on
English language alternative and social media. None of them are Russians. If they ever were,
they emigrated decades ago. There is no one that can translate Russian talking points from
Russian society and media into the English speaking world.
The amerikans will be relying on the Russians never getting their day in an open court.
Can't have a repetition of the George Galloway business see here now can we?
The 'grand' jury process is even more corrupt deceitful and one sided than so called senate
inquiries. At least with shit hurled from the hill, a bloke does eventually get the
opportunity to speak against the allegations – albeit in a controlled environment where
the accuser chairs the meeting, but a Grand Jury, which is similarly controlled by the
prosecutor, provides no room for a defense argument.
The carefully hand selected 'jurors' unlike amerika's senators, most of whom are graduates of
amerika's prestigious law schools, lack any legal training.
The law they are charged with investigating breaches of, is complex, riven with contradictory
precedents and completely outside any retired contractor's area of expertise. So they rely on
the prosecutor to tell em what's what.
amerikans are forthright in their condemnation of everyone else's legal system but the
amerikan one has to be the most corrupt power serving travesty known to man.
Ask J. Assange who lives under the shadow of a so-called 'sealed indictment' which he's not
even meant to know exists, much less what is contained in it and what deceits have been told
by alleged 'co-conspirators' aka jailhouse snitches.
Assange will find out should he ever be kidnapped and abducted to amerika and held in
solitary isolation under the 1917 espionage act – otherwise like many others including
hundreds who have never even set foot in that arsehole of the universe, the us, also stitched
up by grand jury, he must live in ignorance of the accusations and with no right of
reply.
Thank you for the link to George Galloway's interrogation. He sure told them in no
uncertain terms. The US justice system seems to be corrupt beyond redemption. So glad I don't
live there and feel sorry for the ones that do to be honest.
When will we discover who in Britain gave Steele authority to send his Dossier to the
Clinton campaign? He needed that approval because the information was gleaned when in post as
the Head of the Russian Desk of MI6 in quite recent times, apart from the normal requirements
of the Official Secrets Act. Given that MI6 are an Intelligence Agency it's fair to assume
they knew the Dossier's destination and the purpose to which it was to be put. Wasn't that
interfering in the US election?
Former intel analyst and regular UK Column guest, Alex Thomson, named Sir Richard Dearlove
(he of dodgy dossier No1, seems to have had a hand in dodgy dossier N02?) However, I can't
find the exact day or time for reference.
The absurdity is that America spends billions on doing exactly these sort of things. $5
billion on Ukraine before pulling off the coup, according to Nuland. But that's just a crumb
of the total mis-information cake. It's what the CIA spends most of its time doing!
Politifact directly asked the State Department and looked at public information
released by the U.S. government since 2009 to sample what the money was spent on:
Since 1992, the government has spent about $5.1 billion to support democracy-building
programs in Ukraine, Thompson said, with money flowing mostly from the Department of State
via U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as the departments of Defense, Energy,
Agriculture and others. The United States does this with hundreds of other countries.
About $2.4 billion went to programs promoting peace and security, which could include
military assistance, border security, human trafficking issues, international narcotics
abatement and law enforcement interdiction, Thompson said. More money went to categories with
the objectives of "governing justly and democratically" ($800 million), "investing in people"
($400 million), economic growth ($1.1 billion), and humanitarian assistance ($300
million).
The descriptions are a bit vague, which could lead people to think the money was used
for some clandestine purpose.
But even if it that were so, the money in question was spent over more than 20 years.
Yanukovych was elected in 2010. So any connection between the protests and the $5 billion is
inaccurate.
The State Department created ForeignAssistance.gov to help taxpayers, journalists and
others find out where the money is going, but the data is limited in the number of years
available and not reported by all agencies.
From that website, we calculated the United States spent $456.4 million in Ukraine
since 2009. Again, that's an incomplete picture based on incomplete data reporting.
Some examples? The United States spent about $20 million on Peace Corps programs in
Ukraine over the past four years. It spent about $40 million through U.S. AID on health
programs in the countries since 2010 -- fighting HIV/AIDs, malaria and providing for maternal
and child health. The United States spent an additional $80 million or so working on projects
related to weapons of mass destruction , according to ForeignAssistance.gov.
Since 1992, the government has spent about $5.1 billion to support democracy-building
programs in Ukraine .
But let's be clear, by "democracy building programs" they mean sending in NGOs to
promote the "values" of austerity and debt, and they mean funding candidates for elections
approved by the IMF because they have agreed to promote austerity and debt. They aren't
promoting democracy, they are promoting the western political belief system. They are also
acting to disenfranchise and discredit people who don't support this system. Just as Yeltsin
in Russia, so Yarushenko, Yatseniuk & Poroshenko in Ukraine – men prepare to tank
the standard of living for ordinary people and asset-strip the country.
Whether that $5 billion was spent over ten years or twenty the result has been the
same.
The United States spent about $20 million on Peace Corps programs in Ukraine over the
past four years. It spent about $40 million through U.S. AID on health programs in the
countries since 2010 -- fighting HIV/AIDs, malaria and providing for maternal and child
health. The United States spent an additional $80 million or so working on projects related
to weapons of mass destruction, according to ForeignAssistance.gov.
Have you noticed how whatever money is allegedly spent on this worthy projects the
countries receiving never seem to improve? They all become debt-slaves, they all end up
exporting cheap goods to western countries and letting the IMF tell them how to run
things.
An indictment is simply an accusation. Since all 13 (what a magical number) of these
people are in Russia, and there's no extradition agreement with Russia, they will never be
able to get a trial to exonerate themselves.
Meanwhile, Clinton was running a fraudulent charity and accepted 145 million dollars in
"donations" from Russian Banks..
"... There is no possibility that any of the Russians named in the indictment will ever be extradited to the US to stand trial there. Special Counsel Mueller cannot therefore obtain convictions against these people, which begs the question of why an indictment was issued at all. ..."
"... The short answer is that the indictment is intended to give credence to the claim of 'Russian meddling' in the US election, which has been made both privately and publicly ever since campaigning in the US began in 2015. ..."
"... Presumably, by giving that claim credence, more reasons can now be offered for keeping Special Counsel Mueller in his job. ..."
"... Nowhere in the indictment is the Russian government or any official of the Russian government or any agency of the Russian government mentioned at all. Nor at any point in the indictment is it suggested that any of the persons indicted were employed by the Russian government or were acting under its instructions or on its behalf. ..."
"... I would add that the indictment shows that US intelligence has successfully hacked the Internet Research Agency, LCC, a fact which by the way suggests that its internal security systems are very weak. The result is that US intelligence is very well informed about its structure, funding, personnel and activities. ..."
Indictment describes botched and
amateur attempt to use social media, but no one in the Trump Campaign was involved
A recurring pattern of the Russiagate investigation is that whenever pressure increases on the FBI and on
Special Counsel Mueller an indictment appears.
This happened in October when following the FBI's admission that the Trump Dossier – the keystone in the
"evidence" of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia – could not be verified and the Wall Street
Journal called for Special Counsel Mueller to resign, indictments against Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and
George Papadopoulos appeared.
It happened again in December when growing demands from Congress – from Senator Lindsey Graham in
particular – for another Special Counsel to be appointed were followed by the indictment of Michael Flynn.
It has now happened again.
Hot on the heels of the publication of the GOP memorandum, which catalogued a succession of breaches of
due process by the Justice Department and the FBI in seeking surveillance warrants against Carter Page, we
have a new indictment, this time against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities.
In every case the indictment is received with rapture by the Russiagate conspiracy theorists.
In every case the indictment appears to be intended to give the impression that progress in the
Russiagate investigation is being made, presumably so as to justify keeping Special Counsel Mueller in his
job.
In every case it turns out that the indictment is a damp squib, taking the whole Russiagate conspiracy
theory no further forward.
The latest
indictment
against 13 Russian citizens and three Russian entities is a case in point.
The first thing to say about this indictment is that it is entirely declamatory.
There is no possibility that any of the Russians named in the indictment will ever be extradited to the
US to stand trial there. Special Counsel Mueller cannot therefore obtain convictions against these people,
which begs the question of why an indictment was issued at all.
The short answer is that the indictment is intended to give credence to the claim of 'Russian meddling'
in the US election, which has been made both privately and publicly ever since campaigning in the US began
in 2015.
Presumably, by giving that claim credence, more reasons can now be offered for keeping Special Counsel
Mueller in his job.
The second thing to say about the indictment is that as even Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has
admitted
, it makes no claim that any US citizen or any member of the Trump campaign in any way colluded
with Russia or with any of the persons named in the indictment either before or after the election.
Rosenstein was very clear about this in the
press conference
he held directly following the publication of the indictment
Now, there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this
illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome
of the 2016 election ..
QUESTION: On page 4 of the indictment, paragraph 6, it specifically talks about the Trump campaign,
saying that defendants communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign.
My question is, later in the indictment, campaign officials are referenced, not by their name; by
"campaign official 1" or "2" or "3." Were campaign officials cooperative, or were they duped? What is
their relationship with this?
ROSENSTEIN: Again, there's no allegation in this indictment that any American had any knowledge. And
the nature of the scheme was the defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appear that they were
ordinary American political activists, even going so far as to base their activities on a virtual private
network here in the United States so, if anybody traced it back to that first jump, they appeared to be
Americans.
President Trump is treating this admission as further confirmation that there was no collusion between
his campaign and Russia, and he is right.
Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I
would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing
wrong – no collusion!
The third thing to say about the indictment – and a point which has been almost universally overlooked in
all the feverish commentary about it – is that it makes
no
claim that the Russian
government was in any way involved in any of the activities of the persons indicted.
Nowhere in the indictment is the Russian government or any official of the Russian government or any
agency of the Russian government mentioned at all. Nor at any point in the indictment is it suggested that
any of the persons indicted were employed by the Russian government or were acting under its instructions or
on its behalf.
Again Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's
press conference
is most revealing about this, with him speaking of the persons named in the indictment
as if they were private persons
The indictment charges 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for committing federal crimes
while seeking to interfere in the United States political system, including the 2016 presidential
election.
The defendants allegedly conducted what they called information warfare against the United States,
with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.
According to the allegations in the indictment, 12 of the individual defendants worked, at various
times, for a company called Internet Research Agency, LLC, a Russian company based in St. Petersburg.
The other individual defendant, Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, funded the conspiracy through companies
known as Concord Management and Consulting, LLC; Concord Catering; and many affiliates and subsidiaries.
The conspiracy was part of a larger operation called Project Lakhta. Project Lakhta included multiple
components, some involving domestic audiences within the Russian Federation, and others targeting foreign
audiences in multiple countries.
Internet Research Agency allegedly operated through Russian shell companies. It employed hundreds of
people in its online operations, ranging from creators of fictitious personas, to technical and
administrative support personnel, with an annual budget of millions of dollars.
Internet Research Agency was a structured organization headed by a management group and arranged into
departments, including graphics, search engine optimization, information technology and finance
departments.
In 2014, the company established a translator project focused on the United States. In July of 2016,
more than 80 employees were assigned to the translator project. Two of the defendants allegedly traveled
to the United States in 2014 to collect intelligence for their American influence operations.
Note that there is nothing here that ties any of the individuals or entities named by Rosenstein to the
Russian government.
The arch conspirator is said to be a Russian businessman called Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is alleged to have
masterminded and funded the whole project.
Prigozhin has in fact long been identified in Russia as the owner of the notorious Internet Research
Agency, LLC, the supposed Russian "troll farm" operating out of a nondescript building in St. Petersburg
(shown in caption photograph).
It has moreover often been suggested in Russia that Internet Research Agency, LLC, is Prigozhin's own
personal project.
Certainly no public information linking the Internet Research Agency, LLC, to the Russian government or
to any Russian state institution has ever come to light.
Perhaps Rosenstein and Mueller have information that Prigozhin was indeed acting at the behest and on
behalf of the Russian government. Perhaps they may have some reason for not disclosing the fact in their
indictment.
However, for what it's worth, the indictment lends support to the theory that the Internet Research
Agency, LLC, is indeed Prigozhin's own personal project, and that the Russian government is not involved in
it.
I would add that the indictment shows that US intelligence has successfully hacked the Internet Research
Agency, LCC, a fact which by the way suggests that its internal security systems are very weak. The result
is that US intelligence is very well informed about its structure, funding, personnel and activities.
That suggests that if there really was some connection between the Internet Research Agency, LLC, and the
Russian government the US authorities would be well informed about it.
The fact that neither the indictment nor Rosenstein in his press conference had anything to say about
such a connection rather suggests that no evidence for a connection has been discovered, probably because it
does not exist.
I would add – though this will be fiercely denied by some people – that it would be a grave mistake to
think that it is impossible for an agency like the Internet Research Agency, LLC, to be set up in Russia on
someone's private initiative. On the contrary, those genuinely familiar with the country know that such
things go on there all the time.
The fourth thing to say about the indictment is that it centres exclusively on the social media
activities about which so much has been said in the last few months as the evidence of collusion between the
Trump campaign and Russia has failed to appear.
I have said very little about this aspect of the Russiagate affair up to now because I have felt that
this aspect of the affair was not in any way important.
This is because the social media activities of which the Internet Research Agency, LLC, and its employees
have been accused of have looked both astonishingly incoherent (witness that the indictment says that they
were promoting both pro- and anti-Trump rallies on the same day) and quantitatively insignificant, making
their impact on the election inconsequential.
The indictment gives no reason to change that view.
The highest number of followers of any of the bogus social media accounts that were set up is alleged by
the indictment to have been in the hundreds of thousands, whereas social media activity on any given day
runs into the tens of millions.
The social media advertisements mentioned in the indictment appear to have been par for the course during
the election, and to have attracted no special interest.
The indictment fails to give numbers for any of the rallies which the persons who have been indicted
allegedly tried to organise via social media; that suggests that the number of persons who attended these
rallies was insignificant.
That even some of those involved were not taking the project wholly seriously is shown by this frivolous
episode solemnly recorded in paragraphs 12 (a) and (b) of the indictment
a.PRIGOZHIN approved and supported the ORGANIZATION's operations, and Defendants and their
co-conspirators were aware of PRIGOZHIN's role.
b.For example, on or about May 29, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators, through an
ORGANIZATION-controlled social media account, arranged for a real U.S. person to stand in front of the
White House in the District of Columbia under false pretenses and hold a sign that read "Happy 55th
Birthday Dear Boss." Defendants and their co-conspirators informed the real U.S. person that the sign was
for someone who "is a leader here and our boss our funder." PRIGOZHIN's Russian passport identifies his
date of birth as June 1, 1961.
This silly stunt provides more reason for thinking Prigozhin was the author of the whole project.
I do not wish to trivialise what happened.
Assuming that the claims made in the indictment are true – as I believe they are – then multiple serious
crimes were committed.
These included cruel deceptions of innocent people, as well as cases of identity theft. The latter
especially is a very serious crime, the impact or seriousness of which should not be minimised.
However I cannot believe that any of this activity – which looks like a botched and amateur attempt by
Prigozhin to copy some of the highly professional 'colour revolution' activities carried out around the
world by various US and Western NGOs – had any conceivable bearing on the outcome of the US election.
No less a person than Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has moreover said as much
There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016
election
QUESTION: Jack, is there concern that this -- the (ph) indictment undermines the outcome of the
election?
ROSENSTEIN: Well, haven't I (ph) identified for you the allegations in the indictment? There's no
allegation in the indictment of any effect on the outcome of the election.
In summary, the latest indictment to have come from Special Counsel Mueller's team, far from causing
problems for President Trump, actually helps him.
In the one part of the Russiagate conspiracy theory in which some evidence of Russian activity exists –
the part relating to social media – it turns out that President Trump's campaign was not involved, and those
members of his campaign who got drawn into the activities of Prigozhin and his people were completely
innocent dupes.
As for the activity itself, the indictment shows that it was carried out on far too small a scale and in
far too amateur and disorganised a way for it to have had any impact on the election, and the US authorities
do not claim that it did.
It is also my personal view that what we are looking at is a private project cooked up by Yevgeny
Prigozhin, who appears to fancy himself a sort of Russian anti-Soros.
If I am right about that then it is clear that Prigozhin has neither the high level backing nor the skill
to play that role successfully, and his clumsy attempts to do so have instead simply caused Russia
embarrassment and trouble.
I accept that the latter view will be disputed by many – though the evidence in my opinion supports it –
but even if I am wrong about that, it does not detract from the fundamental fact that no evidence of
collusion between anyone in the Trump campaign and Russia appears in the latest indictment, and that the
activities catalogued in the indictment can have had no effect on the outcome of the election, and the US
authorities do not say that they did.
How is this "news"? The US has been meddling in foreign elections for hundreds of years. When we can't change the results,
we change the leader. We have assassinated foreign leaders. We have organized revolutions. We have carried out false flag "terrorist"
attacks to destabilize countries.
Russia has paid for a few Facebook trolls. Boo hoo. Better that than the typical US method of kidnapping and torturing opposition
leaders we don't like. Fuck America and it's brutish hypocrisy.
Woolsey is one of many profiles in the "machine" that turns out the worst socio/psychopaths called Langley!... Much like the
Department of Defense they train them to believe they are the most highly intelligent and capable in espionage even when they
"lose" and lose "badly"!
They look at themselves as superior beings in every way that deserve and expect no restraint. And are repeatedly rewarded with
pay and responsibility even when failure on missions includes the worst "blowback"!
If there ever was a government agency alongside the DOD that deserves the honorary title of total betrayal to their motto "
And You Shall Know The Truth And It Shall Set You Free "... that has economically and politically SINGLE HANDEDLY done the opposite
of EVERYTHING DEMOCRACY STANDS FOR in it's TOTAL DESTRUCTION -- this agency is the personification without equal and "without
question"!
"... Is this all he has to show for millions of dollars and how many damned months of investigation? How about all the NGOs that get foreign donations? When the hell are they going to get investigated for "defrauding" the United States? Better not ask, that would violate the narrative . God help us. ..."
"... And then there was a pink-pussy D.C. riot and the DisruptJ20 protest group riot against Trump. Have Mueller and Rosenstein had a sudden onset of dementia and forgotten the mass protests? ..."
In the Mueller indictment it also notes (page 23) that "Trump is Not my President" NYC,
November 12 2016, was a Russian idea. So by Mueller logic the Resistance is a Russian idea.
How many members of congress should get expelled over being Putin's puppets?
Is this all he has to show for millions of dollars and how many damned months of
investigation? How about all the NGOs that get foreign donations? When the hell are they
going to get investigated for "defrauding" the United States? Better not ask, that would
violate the narrative . God help us.
"Defendant ORGANIZATION had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system,
including the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Defendants posted derogatory information about
a number of candidates, and by early to mid-2016, Defendants' operations included supporting
the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ("Trump Campaign") and
disparaging Hillary Clinton."
-- Really? Somehow the righteous Mueller and Rosenstein have missed very important
Intel:
Comment section: "Sixteen thousand Facebook users said that they planned to attend a Trump
protest on Nov. 12, 2016, organized by the Facebook page for BlackMattersUS, a Russian-linked
group [?!!] that sought to capitalize on racial tensions between black and white Americans.
The event was shared with 61,000 users. As many as 5,000 to 10,000 protesters actually
convened at Manhattan's Union Square. They then marched to Trump Tower, according to media
reports at the time. ... The group's protest was the fourth [4th!] consecutive anti-Trump
rally in New York following election night, and one of many across the country."
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/358025-thousands-attended-protest-organized-by-russians-on-facebook
It sounds like the indictment makes 13 Russian trolls into felons. How many trolls do we
have? Where do they work, will other governments decide they are felons as well? This isn't a
"nothingburger", it's a "veginothingburger". Hasn't President Trump now been exonerated as
well, "unwittings" versus "colluders"?
Back during the Cold War we were told that the USSR would try to block or jam VoA/RFE
broadcasts from reaching their citizens.
So, my very sincere question is: Just how did U.S. efforts to influence the population of
the USSR via the broadcasts of VoA/RFE differ from the alleged efforts of Russia to support
what the media calls far-right parties and policies in the U.S. and Europe?
So these 13 Russians are accused of trolling and planting rumors?
Since the same thing is being done by Americans and, yes, Israelis, it seems ludicrous to
suggest this is really "meddling" in the election. More like "feeding red meat to grey dogs"
in the sense of stoking the fires of internecine culture wars already ongoing in this
country.
If we actually end up arresting any of these individuals there will be tit for tat since
there are still American financed NGOs operating in Russia whose personnel can be easily
arrested on similar charges of promoting chaos and discord. Maybe the Germans can rent us
that famous Berlin Bridge where "spies" were exchanged in various cold war movies.
See my comment in TTG's thread about who these "Internet Research Agency" people actually
are. Scott Humor over at The Saker dug deep into these people and determined that they are
actually anti-Russian Russians who were allegedly proven in court to be CIA spies!
I link to Scott's piece in the TTG thread. Hell, might as well link it here, too:
This is a clever move on Mueller's part -- indict a bunch of Russians who (some) already
have been arrested by the Russians and therefore are in no position to defend themselves
against a US indictment.
I suppose Brennan doesn't care that a bunch of Russians recruited as CIA assets get dumped
on their own resources. Good luck recruiting any more Russians to help you!
It's a measure of Mueller's desperation, nothing more.
PT, if I understand you correctly you think the 2017 IC "assessment" that Russia meddled does
not really reflect an IC consensus. If that is your view, how do you reconcile it with these
statements:
To summarize: in 2014, 13 Russians launched a campaign to interfere with the US political
system by "disparaging" candidates. This continued until ultimately Trump was elected,
meanwhile, "there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing
participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the
[Russians'] conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election."
----------------
How nice and simple and tidy. '13 Russians'... has nice ring to it... will make a great
propaganda movie.
Seriously though, will this face saving result in any way encourage the Dems to pick a new
strategy for "success" the Republicans? Or will they simply triple down on dumb?
Aren't the economic sanctions imposed upon Russia due to Russian meddling in our elections?
Might it not be prudent for Putin to round the 13 yokels up and put them on the next flight
to NY (with lots of publicity)?
During the campaign any voter using social media could come across literally hundreds of
posts effectively proclaiming "Hillary is trash" and "Trump is trash".
Or for that matter the voters could see much the same by reading the campaign literature
in their mailboxes, or listening to speeches on television.
Yet, somehow, a few Russian trolls posting online claims that were indistinguishable from
most of the "normal" election rhetoric is a threat to our democracy.
Imho, a far bigger threat to our elections is the massive amounts of money involved, and
the funding of candidates by oligarchs. But the msm seems confortable with that.
And it goes without saying that one of the most immediate threats to our democracy
generated by Russiagate are the ongoing attempts to silence alternative dissent to the
status-quo and label it as coming from Russianbots.
"anyone who was disparaging Clinton, may have "unwittingly" been a collaborator of the 13
Russian "specialists" who cost Hillary the election"
Sounds even more desperate than simply dumb to me. Comey and his kins seem so pressed by
(the lack of) facts and the overall incoherence of their ludicrous tale that they finally see
no other choice than resorting to the ultimate weapon in store : direct scolding and shaming
of ordinary citizen bold enough to object HRC's wrongdoings, past, present and future.
I this vein, I also read in earlier comment threads speculations regarding a new, very
cunning objective of the putative Russian attackers : getting willfully spotted in order to
spread chaos within the US politics and doubt within the heart of citizen. Frankly this
sounds a wee bit far-fetched, like machiavelous 2.3 with Putin and the Kremlin gang upgrading
to 4-D chess politics. Wouldn't it have been bold enough for them to bet on the universally
predicted loser Trump? What sense does it make to interfere ostenteously when precisely their
vowed nemesis is bound to win? How would that have tarnished her victory if she had won
despite their meddling? Doesn't hold any water to me, but desperation stimulates imagination,
and truly, confusion. Contenders of this view seem well engaged in a perillous intellectual
twister game.
Besides, such an account shows very little appreciation for the intelligence and critical
thinking of American voters. I bet that if many came to distrust their institutions, it is
out of their own experience and reflexion rather than out of foreign engineering.
Delusion, desperation, confusion, stupidity, whatever. But for sure the seams are
creaking.
The funny thing is that it looks like the Russian government jailed several people from IRA
last year. It would be prudent to look into it and try to figure out what is going on for
real.
You say: "Harry Reid was briefed by John Brennan on 25 August 2016, according to a 6 April
2017 NY Times piece by Eric Lichtblau.
Well, now that's pretty convenient timing, don't you think? After all, Trump didn't become
the GOP candidate for prez until the GOP convention on July 16, 2016. That gave the scheming
Brennan a month to make up this dumb story and start passing it around Capitol Hill.
Regarding your claim that Mueller concluded "unwittingly collaborated":
According to the text of the indictment that our host, Pat Lang, posted Mueller made no
such conclusion. I note you did not put it within quotation marks.
Is there a separate indictment floating around out there with those conclusions?
Well it is an organisation that has received a lot of publicity in the West for awhile so it
is an odd choice, I would have thought they would want a less public organisation for any IO.
Comey was telling the truth: he was still in the delusional belief he could weasel out of
it and continue on as FBI chief.
PT, in the latest, US indictment against a number of Russians, as its only example, cites a
US placard holder on the birthday of JFK as evidence of "Russian interference". Jeez, JFK was
a Russian? What a friggin shambles the empire has become.
Yes indeed. As I said before in another thread. If the election is "disrupted" by voters
altering their votes due to Russians posting on Facebook, then the problem is not that
Russians are posting on Facebook, the problem is that voters are altering their votes based
on posts they read on Facebook. There is little point in correcting the former problem
without correcting the latter and vastly more serious problem.
The indictment accuses Russia of attempting to "diminish the public's faith in
democracy," or some such thing. I really don't think our own voting public needs Russia's
help in doing that.
Nope, our crooked Politicians AND Intelligence/Law Enforcement entities are doing a good job
of diminishing the public's faith. I don't know how many of my fellow Americans I have talked
to have said to round them all the crooked politicians/intelligence/law enforcement and
eradicate them from the earth permanently. That is why we see more and more the crooked
politicians/intelligence/law enforcement understanding well their simmering public anger, and
because of their fear of the angry public that they have created the surveillance grids (has
nothing to do with misnomer terrorism), their legislation/laws that further restrict the
public's ability to fight back against their crooked ways.
Diminished public faith, that's putting it mildly.
The Democrats remember how well the Republicans ( with help from Truman and others)
made Loyalty Oathism and HUACism and McCarthyism work for them. So the Democrats have decided
to try making their own 2.0 version of Loyalty Oathism and HUACism and McCarthyism work for
them. They will spend the next several-to-many years running their Reverse McCarthyism 2.0
operation.
They will accuse any Bitter Berners rejectful of yet-one-more-Clintonite of witless
dupe-ness. If that doesn't win us over, they will accuse us of Russian subversive
Fellow-Traveller-ism. If that doesn't win us over, they will accuse us of being Russian
agents.
Of course they will try doing this to Republicans as well. If the Republicans complain,
the Democrats will say such complaints are proof of Republican secret-Russian-agent
subversionism; while quietly thinking to themselves " payback time for
McCarthy and HUAC").
I have no connection to intelligence agencies. I'm a mere citizen. I've been spending the
last few days making cold calls to registered party members here in CO, trying to get them
interested in the caucuses that are coming up. Remember how the caucuses became an issue when
Trump was running?
Almost no one responded that they were going to attend. Several said they were so sick of
politics they would definitely not attend. I'm beginning to believe that I and our precinct
captain and her husband will be the only ones there.
What a sad state our country is in. Your last line is true, to a great extent, but I have
to add to it. Yes, we need God to help American. And, yes, many Americans seem to have lost
their mind. But what makes me sadder is that most of us who have not lost our minds are
losing our belief that we could ever make a difference, to make things better.
All very good questions and one more either related to, or subsumed within #s 3 and 6 is
whether Steele/MI6 are "targetable" for having meddled in the 2016 election.
Rosenstein unaccountably failed to mention yesterday Mueller's having landed a really,
really big fish on February 2, the unwitting colluder and witless Ricard Pinedo (age 28), a
small town scammer who operates a fake ID business out of Santa Paula, CA, a 80% Hispanic
farm worker town in boondocks California. Pinedo plead guilty to one count of identify fraud
and had, apparently, profited to the extent of some $10,000 or so from the sale of identify
and banking information on-line with only a minimal amount sourced from any of the 13
defendants in the indictments.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-richard-pinedo-mueller-investigation-20180216-story.html.
The MSM, apparently, like Mr. Mueller has decided not to make a big deal out of the Pinedo
indictment for reasons which remain the subject of speculation.
Building a cage on a flatbed track with Hillary in prison uniform played by an actor inside is directly from Gene Sharp
playbook and could be
Otpor!
activity ;-) No that bad idea for a
anti-Hillary rally actually :-)
"... Mueller alleged that Russian operatives "communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign", but the indictment did not address the question of whether anyone else in Trump's team had knowingly colluded. ..."
"... Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, said at a press conference in Washington: "There is no allegation in this indictment that any American had any knowledge." Rosenstein added that the charges did not mean the Russian activity had an effect on the outcome of the election. ..."
"... In a statement on Friday, Trump suggested that what he called "outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories" relating to possible collusion were serving to further the Russian agenda. ..."
"... "This indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the internet," said Rosenstein. He alleged that the Russians had "worked to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy," adding: "We must not allow them to succeed." ..."
"... Prigozhin, who has also been linked to the Wagner Group, a shadowy Kremlin-linked private military contractor believed to be operating in Syria, -> was included on a US sanctions list in July . ..."
"... Speaking to the RIA Novosti state news agency on Friday, Prigozhin said: "The Americans are really impressionable people, they see what they want to see. I have great respect for them. If they want to see the devil -- let them see him." ..."
"... Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the allegations "absurd". "Thirteen people carried out interference in the US elections? Thirteen people against special services with a budgets of billions?" she wrote in a Facebook post. ..."
A 37-page indictment alleged that the Russians' operations "included supporting the presidential campaign of
then-candidate Donald J Trump ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton," his Democratic opponent.
Mueller alleged that Russian operatives "communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump
campaign", but the indictment did not address the question of whether anyone else in Trump's team had knowingly
colluded.
Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, said at a press conference in Washington: "There is no allegation
in this indictment that any American had any knowledge." Rosenstein added that the charges did not mean the
Russian activity had an effect on the outcome of the election.
Trump
and the White House seized on Rosenstein's remarks to falsely claim that the indictment proved there had
been no collusion and that the election result had definitely not been impacted.
In a statement on Friday, Trump suggested that what he called "outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false
allegations, and far-fetched theories" relating to possible collusion were serving to further the Russian agenda.
The Russians allegedly posed as Americans to operate bogus social media accounts, buy advertisements and stage
political rallies. They stole the identities of real people in the US to post online and built computer systems in
the US to hide the Russian origin of their activity, according prosecutors.
"This indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the internet," said
Rosenstein. He alleged that the Russians had "worked to promote discord in the United States and undermine public
confidence in democracy," adding: "We must not allow them to succeed."
The charges state that from as far back as 2014, the defendants conspired together to defraud the US by
"impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of government" through interference with the American
political and electoral processes.
One defendant, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is accused of using companies he controlled – including Concord Management
and Consulting, and Concord Catering – to finance the operations against the US. The operation at one stage had a
monthly budget of $1.25m,
according to Mueller, which paid for
operatives' salaries and bonuses.
Events were organised by Russians posing as Trump supporters and
as groups opposed to Trump such as Black Lives Matter
, according to prosecutors. One advertisement shortly
before the election promoted the Green party candidate Jill Stein, who is blamed by some Clinton backers for
splitting the anti-Trump vote.
In August 2016, Russian operatives communicated with Trump campaign staff in Florida through their "@donaldtrump.com"
email addresses to coordinate a series of pro-Trump rallies in the state, according to Mueller, and then bought
advertisements on social media to promote the events.
At one rally in West Palm Beach, a Russian operative is even alleged to have paid Americans to build a cage on
a flatbed truck and to have an actor posing as Clinton in a prison uniform stand inside.
->
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
55 Savushkina Street, St Petersburg, said to be the headquarters of Russia's 'troll army'. Photograph:
Shaun Walker for the Guardian
One defendant, Irina Kaverzina, is accused of admitting her involvement in the operation and a subsequent
coverup in an email to a relative in September last year, after Mueller's inquiry had begun. "We had a slight
crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity," Kaverzina allegedly wrote, "so I got preoccupied with covering
tracks together with the colleagues."
The Russians are also accused of working to suppress turnout among ethnic minority voters. They allegedly
created an Instagram account posing as "Woke Blacks" and railed against the notion that African Americans should
choose Clinton as "the lesser of two devils" against Trump.
In early November 2016, according to the indictment, the Russian operatives used bogus "United Muslims of
America" social media accounts to claim that "American Muslims [are] boycotting elections today."
Following Trump's victory, the Russian operation promoted allegations of voter fraud by the Democratic party,
according to Mueller's team. Around that time, Trump repeatedly claimed without evidence that he would have won
the popular vote if not for large-scale voter fraud.
The individuals charged are Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov, Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik, Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova,
Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva, Sergey Pavlovich Polozov, Maria Anatolyevna Bovda, Robert Sergeyevich Bovda,
Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly Aslanov, Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev, Gleb Igorevitch Vasilchenko, Irina Viktorovna
Kaverzina, Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin
and Vladimir Venkov.
All were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Three defendants were charged with conspiracy to
commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants were charged with aggravated identity theft.
Separately, Mueller's office announced that Richard Pinedo, of Santa Paula, California, had
pleaded guilty to identity
fraud
. Pinedo, 28, admitted to running a website that offered stolen identities to help customers get around
the security measures of major online payment sites. It was not made clear whether his service had been used by
the Russian operatives.
Rosenstein said no contact had been made with Russian authorities regarding the charges so far, but that US
officials intended to seek extradition of the defendants.
US intelligence agencies previously
concluded that Russians mounted
an attack on the US election system aimed at electing
->
Donald
Trump
to the presidency.
Mueller is conducting a criminal inquiry into interference by Russians and possible collusion by Trump's
campaign. Two Trump campaign advisers have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Two others have been charged with
federal crimes.
US investigators have long signalled their belief that Prigozhin, a 56-year-old billionaire businessman, is
behind Russia's internet troll factories.
Nicknamed the "Kremlin's chef", Prigozhin once ran Putin's favourite restaurant in St Petersburg, after which
he was awarded multi-billion pound state catering contracts. He provided catering for Dmitry Medvedev's presidential inauguration in 2008, and also has lucrative contracts
to feed Russia's army and Moscow's schoolchildren.
Prigozhin, who has also been linked to the Wagner Group, a shadowy Kremlin-linked private military contractor
believed to be operating in Syria,
->
was included on a US sanctions list in July
.
Speaking to the RIA Novosti state news agency on Friday, Prigozhin said: "The Americans are really
impressionable people, they see what they want to see. I have great respect for them. If they want to see the
devil -- let them see him."
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the allegations "absurd". "Thirteen people carried out interference in the US elections? Thirteen people against special services with a
budgets of billions?" she wrote in a Facebook post.
Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media he had not yet had a chance to study the
indictments.
"... The Russian organization named in the indictment - the Internet Research Agency - and the defendants began working in 2014 - so one year before the Trump candidacy was even announced - to interfere in U.S. elections, according to the indictment in Washington. ..."
"... 2014.......um, yeah, what a crock of bullshit. ..."
"... Seriously though, what is illegal about what they did? Sowing discord? Hell CNN and all of Soros' org would be guilty of the same thing wouldn't they? Isn't 'sowing discord' like the main mission of the CIA, both here and in other countries? ..."
"... B-but the Russians conspired ... to commit free speech. They obstructed ... by speaking . (The story doesn't mention if what was said was true.) Mr. Mueller, please stop wasting our time and money. ..."
The Russian organization named in the indictment - the Internet Research Agency - and the defendants began working in 2014
- so one year before the Trump candidacy was even announced - to interfere in U.S. elections, according to the indictment in Washington.
They used false personas and social media while also staging political rallies and communicating with "unwitting individuals"
associated with the Trump campaign, it said.
2014.......um, yeah, what a crock of bullshit.
Seriously though, what is illegal about what they did? Sowing discord? Hell CNN and all of Soros' org would be
guilty of the
same thing wouldn't they? Isn't 'sowing discord' like the main mission of the CIA, both here and in other countries?
Not a lawyer, but seems this cannot hold up in court.
Sounds to me like they're being indicted for exercising free speech. Does that only apply to citizens?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.
It restricts Congress .
I believe political speech is the most protected form of speech. I think there's a Supreme Court ruling on that topic.
B-but the Russians conspired ... to commit free speech. They obstructed ... by speaking . (The story doesn't mention if what
was said was true.) Mr. Mueller, please stop wasting our time and money.
I'm re-posting this from an earlier post someone else made. The Internet Research Agency is a CIA hacking group!
The best way to get information is to make it up.
Everything what we know now about the so-called "Kremlin trolls from the Internet Research Agency paid by Putin's favorite
chef," came from one source, a group of CIA spies that used the mascot of Shaltay-Boltay, or Humpty-Dumpty, for their collective
online persona.
This is the same online site which published Steele dossier
As for daily workloads those nasty Russians looks like real neoliberal slave owners not that
dissimilar to Amazon packers, or WalMart cashiers ;-) "The documents show instructions provided
to the commenters that detail the workload expected of them. On an average working day, the
Russians are to post on news articles 50 times. Each blogger is to maintain six Facebook accounts
publishing at least three posts a day and discussing the news in groups at least twice a day. By
the end of the first month, they are expected to have won 500 subscribers and get at least five
posts on each item a day. On Twitter, the bloggers are expected to manage 10 accounts with up to
2,000 followers and tweet 50 times a day. "
"... Osadchy told BuzzFeed he had never worked for the Internet Research Agency and that the extensive documents -- including apparent budgeting for his $35,000 salary -- were an "unsuccessful provocation." He declined to comment on the content of the leaks. The Kremlin declined to comment. The Internet Research Agency has not commented on the leak. ..."
"... "What, you think crazy Russians all learned English en masse and went off to comment on articles?" said Leonid Bershidsky, a media executive and Bloomberg View columnist. ..."
Plans attached to emails leaked by a mysterious Russian hacker collective show IT managers
reporting on a new ideological front against the West in the comments sections of Fox News,
Huffington Post , The Blaze, Politico , and WorldNetDaily .
The bizarre hive of social media activity appears to be part of a two-pronged Kremlin
campaign to claim control over the internet, launching a million-dollar army of trolls to mold
American public opinion as it cracks down on internet freedom at home.
"Foreign media are currently actively forming a negative image of the Russian Federation in
the eyes of the global community," one of the project's team members, Svetlana Boiko, wrote in
a strategy document. "Additionally, the discussions formed by comments to those articles are
also negative in tone.
"Like any brand formed by popular opinion, Russia has its supporters ('brand advocates') and
its opponents. The main problem is that in the foreign internet community, the ratio of
supporters and opponents of Russia is about 20/80 respectively."
The documents show instructions provided to the commenters that detail the workload expected
of them. On an average working day, the Russians are to post on news articles 50 times. Each
blogger is to maintain six Facebook accounts publishing at least three posts a day and
discussing the news in groups at least twice a day. By the end of the first month, they are
expected to have won 500 subscribers and get at least five posts on each item a day. On
Twitter, the bloggers are expected to manage 10 accounts with up to 2,000 followers and tweet
50 times a day.
They are to post messages along themes called "American Dream" and "I Love Russia." The
archetypes for the accounts are called Handkerchief, Gay Turtle, The Ghost of Marius the
Giraffe, Left Breast, Black Breast, and Ass, for reasons that are not immediately clear.
According to the documents, which are attached to several hundred emails sent to the
project's leader, Igor Osadchy, the effort was launched in April and is led by a firm called
the Internet Research Agency. It's based in a Saint Petersburg suburb, and the documents say it
employs hundreds of people across Russia who promote Putin in comments on Russian blogs.
Osadchy told BuzzFeed he had never worked for the Internet Research Agency and that the
extensive documents -- including apparent budgeting for his $35,000 salary -- were an
"unsuccessful provocation." He declined to comment on the content of the leaks. The Kremlin
declined to comment. The Internet Research Agency has not commented on the leak.
Definitively proving the authenticity of the documents and their authors' ties to the
Kremlin is, by the nature of the subject, not easy. The project's cost, scale, and awkward
implementation have led many observers in Russia to doubt, however, that it could have come
about in any other way.
"What, you think crazy Russians all learned English en masse and went off to comment on
articles?" said Leonid Bershidsky, a media executive and Bloomberg View columnist.
"If it looks like Kremlin shit, smells like Kremlin shit, and tastes like Kremlin shit too --
then it's Kremlin shit."
Despite efforts to hire English teachers for the trolls, most of the comments are written in
barely coherent English. "I think the whole world is realizing what will be with Ukraine, and
only U.S. keep on fuck around because of their great plans are doomed to failure," reads one
post from an unnamed forum, used as an example in the leaked documents.
Two senior FSB officers and a high-level manager of Russia's leading cybersecurity firm
Kaspersky Lab are facing official charges of treason in the interests of the US, a lawyer
representing one of the defendants has confirmed to Interfax. Ruslan Stoyanov, head of
Kaspersky Lab's computer incidents investigations unit, Sergey Mikhailov, a senior Russian FSB
officer, and his deputy Dmitry Dokuchayev are accused of "treason in favor of the US,"
lawyer Ivan Pavlov said on Wednesday, as cited by Interfax. Read more 70mn cyberattacks,
mostly foreign, targeted Russia's critical infrastructure in 2016 – FSB
Pavlov chose not to disclose which of the defendants he represents, adding, however, that
his client denies all charges.
The charges against the defendants do not imply they were cooperating with the CIA, Pavlov
added. "There is no mention of the CIA at all. [The entity] in question is the US, not the
CIA," he stressed, according to TASS.
The lawyer maintained the court files included no mention of Vladimir Anikeev, an alleged
leader of 'Shaltai Boltai', a hacking group that previously leaked emails from top Russian
officials, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The hacking group's name was in the news earlier in January, when Russian media reports
linked Mikhailov and Dokuchayev to 'Shaltai Boltai' . In an unsourced article last
Wednesday, Rosbalt newspaper claimed Mikhailov's unit was ordered in 2016 to work with the
group.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti on Wednesday the treason charges do not
relate to the US suspicions of Russia being behind the alleged cyberattacks on the 2016
presidential elections. He added that President Vladimir Putin is receiving regular updates on
the current investigation.
Russian media reports said Mikhailov was arrested during a conference of top FSB leadership.
He was reportedly escorted out of the room with a bag placed over his head. His deputy,
Dokuchayev, is said to be a well-known hacker who allegedly began cooperating with the FSB
several years ago. Kaspersky Lab manager Stoyanov was also placed under arrest several weeks
ago.
Stoyanov is still employed by Kaspersky Lab, the company told RIA Novosti later on
Wednesday, adding there were "no personnel changes" at this point.
Treason charges mean that the defendants could be handed a sentence of up to 20 years in
prison. The treason charges also mean any trial will not be public due to its sensitive
nature.
"... So, did Mueller address the crime committed by the then FBI head who refused to allow a FBI informant to address Congress on the Uranium One scam before it was authorized? Uh, that would be Mueller, his very self, so the answer is no. ..."
"... What is the definition of a "fake social media account"? What is the crime for operate a fake social medial account? Is this the standard by which we will all be judged? ..."
"... "In other words, anyone who was disparaging Clinton, may have "unwittingly" been a collaborator of the 13 Russian "specialists" who cost Hillary the election." No, not "in other words." That's not what he said at all. Idiot propagandist. ..."
"... And Hillary has done nothing criminal in the last 40 years. All of the evidence has been a fabrication. The Russians perfected time travel technology in the 70's, and have been conspiring against her and planting evidence since then. ..."
"... The goal of the MSM was the opposite. To unfairly disparage Trump and assist the election of Hillary Clinton. So why no indictments of members of the American MSM? ..."
"... What a bunch of horseshit. Mueller did nothing to locate just as much foreign or Russian support for Hillary. Grand Jury is just another one-sided court that passes judgment without any input from the other side. Now where have we seen that before? FISA. ..."
"... What is wrong with anyone doing what they want to support a candidate? If that is somehow illegal interference, why is Soros running loose in the world? ..."
"... I have a friend that was a US Federal Prosecutor. He once told me that the most un-American concepts that exist are grand juries and conspiracy laws. I'm sure he would have included FISA if it existed then. ..."
When does Mueller get charged? He is part of the fabric of the Clinton Gang along with Comey and others. How many people have
posted derogatory comments about Clinton on ZH alone. This sounds like when they ludicrously charged and entire unit of the Chinese
PLA.
Agreed, it's against the law to steal identities and operate bank accounts and all that. But really, compared to the fraud
committed by just one bank - Wells Fargo- this is smal small potatoes.
And did I miss it or did the indictment not even mention the value of the ads bought on Facebook - $100,000. (nope, not missing
any zeros).
And it all started in 2014 while Donald was playing golf and sticking his dick in some whore.
And a few ruskies got into the good ol USofA with false statements on their visas.
While the courts fought Trump on the fact that immigration from a few countries need to be stopped because there was not way
of checking data. I get it - somebody driving too fast gets a speeding ticket, and Muellers investigation gets to issue an indictment.
I'm sure we all feel better now.
So, did Mueller address the crime committed by the then FBI head who refused to allow a FBI informant to address Congress
on the Uranium One scam before it was authorized? Uh, that would be Mueller, his very self, so the answer is no.
What is the definition of a "fake social media account"? What is the crime for operate a fake social medial account? Is
this the standard by which we will all be judged?
Or is it that Mueller has NOTHING and is too big of a corrupt idiot to admit it.
Putin should define what a NGO is. He should tell the world how the US uses NGO's to destabilize elections. He wont do it because
he's digging tunnels for the big day.
"In other words, anyone who was disparaging Clinton, may have "unwittingly" been a collaborator of the 13 Russian "specialists"
who cost Hillary the election." No, not "in other words." That's not what he said at all. Idiot propagandist.
And Hillary has done nothing criminal in the last 40 years. All of the evidence has been a fabrication. The Russians perfected
time travel technology in the 70's, and have been conspiring against her and planting evidence since then.
What planet am I living on again? We have now stepped into the twilight zone. Facepalm.....
"Ultimately, and this is the punchline, the goal was to disparage Hillary Clinton and to assist the election of Donald Trump."
The goal of the MSM was the opposite. To unfairly disparage Trump and assist the election of Hillary Clinton. So why no
indictments of members of the American MSM?
What a bunch of horseshit. Mueller did nothing to locate just as much foreign or Russian support for Hillary. Grand Jury
is just another one-sided court that passes judgment without any input from the other side. Now where have we seen that before?
FISA.
What is wrong with anyone doing what they want to support a candidate? If that is somehow illegal interference, why is
Soros running loose in the world?
I have a friend that was a US Federal Prosecutor. He once told me that the most un-American concepts that exist are grand
juries and conspiracy laws. I'm sure he would have included FISA if it existed then.
The indictment adds that the Russians " were instructed to post content that focused on 'politics in the USA' and to 'use
any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump -- we support them)' ."
Criticizing Hillary Clinton constitutes election interference? This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Over half the United States said she was corrupt and morally bankrupt. Does that mean all those Americans interfered in the
election?
"Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals
associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities."
I thought this was our "shtick" for subverting and overthrowing government(s) since 194_?... Fast forward to 2012 and subverting
sovereign foreign government(s) using other means then election(s) ( https://jasirx.wordpress.com/
)
Just ask this person ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL_GShyGv3o
) who handed out cookies before starting an "overthrow of a sovereign government" right before a Winter Olympics?... And while
we're on the subject of subversion of sovereign Nation(s) "OCONUS" ask this fat shit how it's going in the Middle East with it's
"partners" (
https://southfront.org/meeting-between-us-state-secretary-and-lebanese-
) Nor should we forget 22 within the Russian diplomatic community in the last 6 years "eliminated" for early retirement courtesy
of the U.S. government...
And if all this is true why isn't Muelller indicting government officials within the FBI Department of immigration and Homeland
Security that would allow "some defendants" to impersonate Americans after 9/11 and the security infrastructure we built around
U.S. to prevent "future attacks" that were obviously (here illegally)???...
What a complete load of horseshit. Waste of time and money while the crimes of the clintons and collaborators remain unpunished,
including Mueller himself.
"Mueller describes a sweeping, years-long, multimillion-dollar conspiracy by hundreds of Russians aimed at criticizing Hillary
Clinton and supporting Senator Bernie Sanders and Trump"
Only in the idiot world of Liberalism and Conservatism is this not a laughable statement.
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller unveiled the details of a widespread and coordinated
campaign by Russians to influence the U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump,
delivering on his initial mandate by the Justice Department.
In an indictment disclosed in Washington on Friday, Mueller describes a sweeping,
years-long, multimillion-dollar conspiracy by hundreds of Russians aimed at criticizing
Hillary Clinton and supporting Senator Bernie Sanders and Trump. He charged 13 Russian
nationals and three Russian entities and accused them of defrauding the U.S. government by
interfering with the political process.
The Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization, and the defendants began working
in 2014 to interfere in U.S. elections, according to the indictment. They used false
personas and social media while also staging political rallies and communicating with
"unwitting individuals" associated with the Trump campaign, it said.
The documents point to a broader conspiracy beyond the pages of the indictment, saying
the grand jury has heard about other people with whom the Russians allegedly conspired in
their efforts.
Bloomberg News cited a "person with knowledge" of Mueller's investigation in a report on
Friday afternoon to note that this indictment is just the beginning of actions to be expected
and avenues to be explored by Mueller in the coming months ahead. Bloomberg's Chris Strohm
wrote .:
Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors haven't concluded their investigation
into whether President Donald Trump or any of his associates helped Russia interfere in the
2016 election, according to a person with knowledge of the probe. Friday's indictment of a
St. Petersburg-based "troll farm" and 13 Russian nationals should be seen as a limited slice
of a comprehensive investigation, the person said. Mueller's work is expected to continue for
months and also includes examining potential obstruction of justice by Trump, said the
person, who requested anonymity to discuss an investigation that is largely confidential.
The indictment targets 13 Russians as well as Internet Research Agency, LLC, which is a
Saint Petersburg-based organization that pushes influence operations on behalf of the Russian
government. The indictment alleges that those 13 Russians and Internet Research Agency, as well
as fellow Russian firms Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering,
knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (and with persons known and unknown
to the Grand Jury) to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the
lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering
with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of
2016.
The scheme, the indictment alleges, began as far back as 2014 and continued until after the
2016 presidential election. U.S. intelligence authorities and officials say the Russians intend
to engage in similar actions in 2018's midterm elections here in the United States, and future
elections thereafter.
While the indictment does not say how much money these Russian entities spent on this, it
does say that Concord and Russian oligarch and Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin "spent
significant funds to further" the operations of Internet Research Agency and "to pay the
remaining defendants" along with others not charged in this indictment but employed by Internet
Research Agency.
In a Friday report filed from Saint Petersburg, the New York Times' Neil
MacFarqhuar noted that Prigozhin is a Russian oligarch with deep connections to Putin.
"Despite his humble, troubled youth, Mr. Prigozhin became one of Russia's richest men,
joining a charmed circle whose members often share one particular attribute: their proximity to
President Vladimir V. Putin," MacFarqhuar wrote
. "The small club of loyalists who gain Mr. Putin's trust often feast, as Mr. Prigozhin has, on
enormous state contracts. In return, they are expected to provide other, darker services to the
Kremlin as needed."
Prigozhin himself, per the Times quoting him via Russian state media outlet Ria
Novosti, responded to the indictment in dark terms.
"The Americans are very impressionable people, they see what they want to see," Prigozhin
said. "I have a lot of respect for them. I am not upset at all that I ended up on this list. If
they want to see the devil, let them see him."
The Mueller indictment alleges that these Russian actors engaged in paid and other social
media efforts as well as staging political rallies and sowing discord in the United States
using identity politics by propping up causes like Black Lives Matter, pro-Islamic causes,
religious entities, and more. And they did it by posing as U.S. persons with falsified or
stolen identities. The indictment reads:
Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and creating false U.S. personas, operated social media
pages and groups designed to attract U.S. audiences. These groups and pages, which addressed
divisive U.S. political and social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists
when, in fact they were controlled by Defendants. Defendants also used the stolen identities
of real U.S. to post on ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts. Over time, these
social media accounts became Defendants' means to reach significant numbers of Americans for
purposes of interfering with the U.S. political system, including the presidential election
of 2016." Some of these Russia-based Defendants, the indictment alleges, "traveled to the
United States under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence" and obtained
and "procured and used computer infrastructure" that was partially American-based "to hide
the Russian origin of their activities and to avoid detection by U.S. regulators and law
enforcement.
The indictment also details contacts that these Russians, posing as Americans with assumed
or stolen identities, had multiple contacts with "unwitting" campaign officials with President
Trump's campaign.
Internet Research Agency, the indictment says, had a "strategic goal to sow discord in the
U.S. political system" and that the Defendants "posted derogatory information about a number of
candidates, and by early to mid-2016, Defendants' operations included supporting the
presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ('Trump Campaign') and disparaging
Hillary Clinton." The indictment reads:
Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying
political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities.
Defendants also stages political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S.
grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and
ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage
candidates. Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian
association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and
with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller's investigation after the
recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said in a press appearance announcing these
indictments that no real U.S. persons who communicated with these fake U.S. persons who were
really Russians actually knew that they were talking with Russians about these activities.
Presumably, Rosenstein's comments would include the various Trump campaign officials and
associates who were in contact with them. Rosenstein said at the press conference:
There is no allegation in this indictment that any American had any knowledge, and the
nature of the scheme was the Defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appear as though
they were ordinary American political activists even going so far as to base their activities
on a virtual private network based here in the United States. If anybody traced it back to
that first jump, they would appear to be Americans.
Rosenstein also said there is nothing in this indictment that suggests that the outcome of
the election was impacted. "There is no allegation in the indictment of any effect on the
outcome of the election," Rosenstein said.
But the allegation does detail a sophisticated scheme by which Russians tried to influence
the American political discourse at such a volatile time in U.S. politics -- and that they did
it through "fraud and deceit" by "making expenditures in connection with the 2016 U.S.
presidential election without proper regulatory disclosure" and "failing to register as foreign
agents carrying out political activities within the United States" as well as "obtaining visas
through false and fraudulent statements."
The indicted Russian organization Internet Research Agency allegedly created a team of
"specialists" who were "tasked to create social media accounts that appeared to be operated by
U.S. persons" then "divided into day-shift and night-shift hours and instructed to make posts
in accordance with the appropriate U.S. time zone." Internet Research Agency also allegedly
"circulated lists of U.S. holidays so that specialists could develop and post appropriate
account activity" and that said specialists were "instructed to write about topics germane to
the United States such as U.S. foreign policy and U.S. economic issues."
They created social media groups designed to enflame the fringes of American society,
including pushing Black Lives Matter, immigration control, religious groups, and certain
geographic areas inside the United States. Examples cited in the indictment include accounts
called things like Blacktivist, United Muslims of America, Army of Jesus, Secured Borders,
South United, and Heart of Texas.
"By 2016, the size of many ORGANIZATION-controlled groups had grown to hundreds of thousands
of online followers," the indictment says.
The Defendants also allegedly bought social media ads starting in or around 2015 designed to
promote their controlled entities, "spending thousands of U.S. dollars every month." They
falsely made a Twitter account called @TEN_GOP to make it appear as though they were the
Republican Party of Tennessee, a major political party in a U.S. State.
As Rosenstein detailed in the press conference, the indictment also explains how the
Russians allegedly hid their Russian identities by buying "space on computer servers located
inside the United States in order to set up virtual private networks ('VPNs')."
"Defendants and their co-conspirators connected from Russia to the U.S.-based infrastructure
by way of these VPNs and conducted activity inside the United States -- including accessing
online social media accounts, opening new accounts, and communicating with real U.S. persons --
while masking the Russian origin and control of the activity," the indictment says.
They also stole U.S. persons' identities -- or used stolen identities -- to engage in this
scheme so they could create PayPal accounts. The indictment says:
In or around 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators also used, possessed, and
transferred, without lawful authority, the social security numbers and dates of birth of real
U.S. persons without those persons' knowledge or consent. Using these means of
identification, Defendants and their co-conspirators opened account at PayPal, a digital
payment service provider; created false means of identification, including fake driver's
licenses; and posted on ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts using the identities of
these U.S. victims. Defendants and their co-conspirators also obtained, and attempted to
obtain, false identification documents to use as proof of identity in connection with
maintaining accounts and purchasing advertisements on social media sites.
Regarding the 2016 election, the Defendants' efforts began per the indictment as far back as
2014 -- and over time became clearer as to their intentions. "They engaged in operations
primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate
other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and
then-candidate Donald Trump," the indictment says.
In line-item number 45 on page 17 of the indictment, it says that the Russians "also used
false U.S. personas to communicate with unwitting members, volunteers, and supporters of the
Trump Campaign involved in local community outreach, as well as grassroots groups that
supported then-candidate Trump."
"These individuals [the American Trump backers referenced] and entities at times distributed
the ORGANIZATION's materials through their own accounts via retweets, reposts, and similar
means," the indictment says. "Defendants and their co-conspirators then monitored the
propagation of content through such participants."
In addition, via an Instagram account controlled by the Russian Internet Research Agency
called "Woke Blacks," in the weeks before the general election the account encouraged American
minorities not to vote at all. Another Russian-controlled Instagram account called
"Blacktivist" urged black people to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, something that
would hurt Hillary Clinton's chances. And in early November 2016, the indictment says a Russian
controlled "United Muslims of America" account encouraged Muslims not to vote for Clinton.
The indictment also says that the Russians from April 2016 through November 2016, while
using false identities, "began to produce, purchase, and post advertisements on U.S. social
media and other online sites expressly advocating for the election of then-candidate Trump or
expressly opposing Clinton."
"Defendants and their co-conspirators did not report their expenditures to the Federal
Election Commission, or register as foreign agents with the U.S. Department of Justice," the
indictment says about the ads.
In addition, to pay for the ads, the Russians "established various Russian bank accounts and
credit cards, often registered in the names of fictitious U.S. personas created and used by the
ORGANIZATION on social media." They also allegedly used PayPal accounts.
The ads, several examples of which are detailed on line-item number 50 in the indictment on
page number 20, are expressly political pleas to vote for Trump or oppose Clinton.
Perhaps even more significantly, the indictment alleges that these Russian operatives
engaged in the staging of political rallies in the United States to further their objectives,
starting approximately in June 2016.
"To conceal the fact that they were based in Russia, Defendants and their co-conspirators
promoted these rallies while pretending to be U.S. grassroots activists who were located in the
United States but were unable to meet or participate in person," the indictment says, adding
that the Russians used their social media presence and contacts at they had spent years
building to promote the rallies.
One particularly interesting tidbit comes on line-item 53 on page 21, where it says the
Russian-controlled group "United Muslims of America" promoted a rally titled: "Support Hillary.
Save American Muslims," a July 9, 2016 rally in Washington, D.C.
"Defendants and their co-conspirators recruited a real U.S. person to hold a sign depicting
Clinton and a quote attributed to her stating 'I think Sharia Law will be a powerful new
direction of freedom,'" the indictment says. "Within three weeks, on or about July 26, 2016,
Defendants and their co-conspirators posted on the same Facebook page that Muslim voters were
'between Hillary Clinton and a hard place.'"
In June, July, and August 2016, the indictment says, other pro-Trump Russian-controlled
social media accounts organized and promoted a variety of pro-Trump or anti-Clinton rallies in
New York and "offered money to certain U.S. persons to cover rally expenses."
They also pushed to create pro-Trump rallies in Florida around this time, and in
Pennsylvania. Then, after the election, the Russians organized rallies for and against
then-President-elect Donald Trump.
In the case of the Florida efforts, the indictment details how the Russians created a false
U.S. persona named "Matt Skiber" in August 2016 to communicate with real people connected with
the Trump campaign. The indictment says:
On or about August 15, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators received an email at one
of their false U.S. persona accounts from a real U.S. person, a Florida-based political
activist identified as the 'Chair of the Trump Campaign' in a particular Florida county. The
activist identified two additional sites in Florida for possible rallies. Defendants and
their co-conspirators subsequently used their false U.S. persona accounts to communicate with
the activist about logistics and an additional rally in Florida.
The Russians then allegedly used an Instagram account they controlled to buy ads to push the
rally. The indictment continues:
On or about August 18, 2016, the real 'Florida for Trump' Facebook account responded to
the false U.S. persona 'Matt Skiber' account with instructions to contact a member of the
Trump Campaign ('Campaign Official 1') involved in the campaign's Florida operations and
provided Campaign Official 1's email address at the campaign domain donaldtrump.com. On
approximately the same day, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the email address of a
false U.S. persona, [email protected], to send an email to Campaign Official 1 at that
donaldtrump.com email account
In the email, which is partially quoted, the Russian posing an American writes to the
unidentified unassuming Trump campaign official that they are organizing a rally on Aug. 20,
2016, to support Trump. The Russian wrote:
Let us introduce ourselves first. 'Being Patriotic' is a grassroots conservative online
movement trying to unite people offline [W]e gained a huge lot of followers and decided to
somehow help Mr. Trump get elected. You know, simple yelling on the Internet is not enough.
There should be real action. We organized rallies in New York before. Now we're focusing on
purple states such as Florida.
The email, per the indictment, identifies "thirteen 'confirmed locations' in Florida for the
rallies and requested the campaign provide 'assistance in each location.'"
They also sent money via wire transfer to a separate U.S. person "to build a cage large
enough to hold an actress depicting Clinton in a prison uniform" then communicated again with a
second Trump campaign official via official email -- and then the Russians used the fake "Matt
Skiber" Facebook account to communicate with a real third Trump campaign official in Florida.
The indictment then details several other rallies in Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania that
the fake Russians helped organize, including payment via interstate wire transfer for
costs.
That all is part of count one in the indictment, Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.
Count two, Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Bank Fraud, as well as counts three through
eight -- all Aggravated Identity Theft charges -- all build upon many of the revelations in the
first part of the indictment.
The Russian organization named in the indictment - the Internet Research Agency - and the
defendants began working in 2014 - so one year before the Trump candidacy was even announced
- to interfere in U.S. elections, according to the indictment in Washington. They used false
personas and social media while also staging political rallies and communicating with
"unwitting individuals" associated with the Trump campaign, it said.
2014.......um, yeah, what a crock of bullshit.
Seriously though, what is illegal about what they did? Sowing discord? Hell CNN and all of
Soros' org would be guilty of the same thing wouldn't they? Isn't 'sowing discord' like the
main mission of the CIA, both here and in other countries?
Not a lawyer, but seems this cannot hold up in court.
The United States, which has interfered in the domestic affairs of nearly every country on
the planet, including not only elections but armed attacks, government overthrows and
assassinations, was terribly hurt by some Facebook ads placed by people who conspired to
defraud this helpless government. The horrors!
from the indictment
From in or around 2014 to the present, in the Dustrict of Columbia and elsewhere,
Defendants, together with others known and unknown to the grand Jury, knowingly and
intentionally conspired to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and
defeating the lawful functions of the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Department of
Justice, and the U.S. Department of State in administering federal requirements for
disclosure of foreign involvement in certain domestic activities. . . here
The Russian organization named in the indictment - the Internet Research Agency -
and the defendants began working
in 2014
-
so one year before the Trump candidacy was even announced
- to interfere in U.S.
elections, according to the indictment in Washington.
They used false personas and social media while also staging
political rallies and communicating with "unwitting individuals" associated with the Trump campaign, it said.
2014.......um, yeah, what a crock of bullshit.
Seriously though, what is illegal about what they did? Sowing discord? Hell CNN and all of Soros' org would be gulty of
the same thing wouldn't they?
Isn't 'sowing discord' like the main mission of the CIA, both here and in other countries?
Not a lawyer, but seems this cannot hold up in court.
Sounds to me like they're being indicted for exercising free
speech.
Does that only apply to citizens?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances.
It restricts
Congress
.
I believe political speech is the most protected form
of speech. I think there's a Supreme Court ruling on that
topic.
B-but the Russians
conspired
... to commit free
speech. They
obstructed
... by
speaking
.
(The story doesn't mention if what was said was true.)
Mr. Mueller, please stop wasting our time and money.
I'm re-posting this from an earlier post someone else made.
The Internet Research Agency is a CIA hacking group!
The best way to get information is to make it up.
Everything what we know now about the so-called "Kremlin
trolls from the Internet Research Agency paid by Putin's
favorite chef," came from one source, a group of CIA spies
that used the mascot of Shaltay-Boltay, or Humpty-Dumpty,
for their collective online persona.
So 13 Russians managed materially influence the USA elections. Nice... As ne ZeroHedge
commenter noted "13 Russians can change the course of US history by going on-line and posting
stuff. Okay, sure I buy that BS"
For starters, MIKHAIL IVANOVICH BYSTROV is the former head of the Police in Moscow...While
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin is a businessman(Friend of Putin) with high-end Russian
restaurants all across the country(In Russia).
So now Russia will go after the NSA trolls and charge them with interfering with their
election, which we did do...
Part of the PsyOps going on as the US public (and really much of the world) becomes MORE
and MORE familiar with the Deep State operation undertaken by three letter agencies, FBI and
DOJ, and the White House in 2016 and expanded after Nov 2016. The Special Council now needs
to provide material to the rabid "Resist" crowd, and even though this entire set of
indictments cannot possibly demonstrate a material alteration of election results, in so
large a country as the USA, this would serve to feed the crowd who will believe this all to
be "definitive". These are primarily political battles, since no one is going to bring
Russian nationals over to the USA to serve time. This helps also to show "results" of the
expensive and mostly useless Special Counsel project.
Around page 12 the indictments says a total of two (2) Russian nationals entered the US
and toured for a short while. How they were able to get rally permits, hand out fliers
organize speakers etc isn't stated. So those claims remain entirely bogus.
The rest of the nefarious plot includes re-posting articles from the MSM or BLM sites...
zero impact... Pathetic nonsense.
Meanwhile Israeli agents and dual-passport types pour hundreds of millions into the
election. Crickets.
Plan: using students who go on delegations abroad on behalf of the Union (approximately
250 students a year) for hasbara purposes. Before each delegation the students will undergo
a hasbara workshop on behalf of the Ministry of Hasbara, which will give them the tools and
information to contend with the questions and the critical salvos and the ability to
present in their stead "a different Israel."
After selecting the students for a delegation, the students will undergo a hasbara
workshop given on behalf of the Ministry of Hasbara, where the logistics are coordinated by
the Department head. This training will be a condition for the student's going on any
delegation this year.
"With Israel coming under ever-increasing criticism for its human rights abuses and war
crimes against Palestinians and other Arabs, changing the subject is a common tactic for
Israel's PR flacks and official propaganda or hasbara efforts .
Attempting to shift the conversation over to Israeli technology in this way is sometimes
dubbed " techwashing ." Similar tactics include " greenwashing " – the effort to
market Israel as supposedly environmentally friendly (something Israel21c is involved in too ) – and "
pinkwashing "
– the effort to market Israel as LGBT-friendly and progressive as well as a welcoming
destination for
gay-male sex tourism .
The main point about such cynical strategies is that, even were these stories all true,
it would not in any way mitigate Israeli atrocities , such as its most recent round of
slaughter in the Gaza
Strip "
"But in fact, these are campaigns of organized lying, orchestrated with
government-approved talking points and crowdsourced volunteers and stipend recipients,"
Shunra added..."
"...Working in 30 languages, the students working this comment far target online forums
including so called "anti-Israel" pages on Facebook and comments sections of online
media."
Require valid ID to vote. How many mexicans vote multiple times? How many *activists* get
bused around from county to county, voting multiple times?
The blue team loves this so no go. It's racist to require ID because blacks are too stupid
to get one That's the democrats talking out of both sides of their mouths.
RT.com had to register as a foreign agent - and you know what, fair enough...
But AIPAC has been allowed to violate the law requiring them to do so by a DOJ that, admin
to admin, never enforces the law as to Israel.
Meanwhile the Jewish/Israel Lobby, with the eager support of US politicians, are
continuing their assault on the 1st Amendment. They want to criminalize boycotts and
criticism of the state/govt of Israel.
And the media is, predictably, silent - and for the record a number of Jewish lawyers and
libertarian writers have been vociferous in their opposition to the assault on free speech -
but the ADL/AIPAC/neocon matrix is all in to criminalize speech that is both fair and
factual.
Which brings me to this indictment, gents.
I'm no lawyer, and would be very happy to get comment/criticism/correction - but how in
the fuck is posting anti-Hillary (or anti-anyone) comments on facebook not protected 1st
Amendment speech?
So far as I know it is not a crime to pretend to be someone else on the internet absent
actual fraud/theft. Israelis quite literally are paid to do so all the time, and while
irritating - that's part of free speech and the free exchange of ideas.
This indictment, apart from more Deep State poking the bear, and distraction from the
FBI's obstruction of justice and felony misrepresentation to a federal judge... is a direct
assault on the 1st Amendment.
How is it 'interfering' with an election to present people with ideas? If presenting
slanted, even false information to voters is now a crime - why arent the executives of CNN
and the Times under indictment?
The Left's hatred of Trump (and I'm not a fan given his moves in Syria and deficit
spending etc) has made them absolutely boond to the dangers to civil liberties, nevermind
world war.
Apart from the idea of some internet trolls having any influence relative to the cia/dni
controlled media being absurd on its face, how can an 'indictment' to 'conspire' to talk
about some political issue even be brought given the 1st Amendment?
If they can indict some Russians for pretending to be Joe Six-pack to help a candidate -
who else can they try to jail for saying the Establishment candidate is a lying cheating
warmonger who belongs in prison?
Cruz was a Canadian until 2014. The People had enough with Obama.
The People had enough of Bush-Clinton from 1989 through 2008.
The odds are that Trump is controlled opposition.
The election process has been corrupted internally since the beginning.
Lincoln was installed by Northeast Industrialists and the Media. His opponent that was
promoted by the large newspapers was the Democrat least likely to threaten Lincoln in an
election.
Dr. Ron Paul received zero Media attention in 2012. Trump was in the news 24 by 7 in
2016.
Those people are only guilty of trolling and that is not a crime . I found ridiculous in
the extreme that Mueller thinks he can seize the property of the agency in question is Russia
! ah,ah,ah, Nobody has told that ass hole that the USA has no Jurisdiction in other countries
? ah,ah,ah !
And then how many times that USA has in the past and in the present tried to interfere
with Russian elections and those of other countries ? What about the coup d'etat in Kiev and
the colored revolution ? Has that buffoon got no memory ?
That buffoon is out of his mind , Who believes his bullshit ? There are a lot
personalities in the USA that buy favorable comments to their Facebook accounts . Thera ere
firms specialist in opening FAKE accounts and writing fake favorable comments for customers .
I am talking about tens of thousands and much more of favorable comments on Facebook and
others social BLS networks . In conclusion this is a fake trumped up operation to continue
with the farce
Exactly. They tried to change hearts and minds. Are we going to criminilaize politics
then? PACs and millions of peoplel try to argue often using anonymous or false identities.
What a load of horseshit this whole thing is.
Btw, the number 13 is a great number. That was my hockey jersey. Also my class rank after
my bitch choir and glee club teacher got the grade for my last 2 years and gave me cs and ds
despite the fact i was the president of the group. Dropped me from like 5th to 13th. Still
pisses me off. And the Templars were burned at the stake on Friday the 13th werent they? Good
enough for me
If we are chasing down foreign nationals attempting to influence the elections, I'm
waiting on the indictment against Vincente Fox.
"Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is urging US voters to look before they leap. The
global consequences would be dramatic if Donald Trump won the presidency, he told DW's James
Blears in Mexico City."
I'm with Schiff, there's ample evidence of election hacking if you are willing to see
it.
So true, the hypocrisy and I'll say glee at watching the unintended consequences of their
ill planned "findings", comments/ general stupidity (iq's just high enough to be a danger to
society, but not high enough to keep society working well)
There is against the violation of a persons civil rights, perjury, using government
resources for personal gain, knowingly introducing falsified evidence to a federal court,
unmasking individuals found by use of said falsified evidence, theft and destruction of
government documents.
Broadly called, a conspiracy and obstruction of justice ;-)
I'm going to start a go-fund-me page to buy mirrors for Rosenstein and Mueller, and the
love-birds (who I surmise have had their wings clipped) and others.
As a point of interest, Rosenstein is the only one left of those who signed off on the now
known to be specious FISA warrant or it's reauthorizations after this known false evidence
had been submitted to a federal court.
The reauthorizations are key, they knew what the "Steele intel dossier" was by then.
And Rosenstein appointed Mueller on the basis of Comey stealing government documents and
giving them to an unauthorized friend.
Basically, Mueller is illegitimate in everyone's eyes except the federal
bureaucracies...hell, even one of the FISA judges recused himself after it came to light that
the Hillary campaign paid Steele for what is, in essence, tabloid muck raking.
Maybe we'll be able to afford two mirrors for Rosie, so he can be doubly sure who the
bastards are.
Meanwhile, Mueller handing down these "indictments" is further making a joke of his
investigation. He's surrounded himself with all of the Hillary partisans, keeping them
closer. It will be worth all of the money and all of the spilled (digital) ink for the
investigation to be a self-discrediting evolution.
I'll disagree with your "everyone" statement--it is only creeping to 50%. It needs to get
up to landslide numbers (>60% or so) for a true black hole implosion.
This honestly looks like a surrender moment. He's saying there were bad people trying to
portray Hillary in a negative light (as if anyone really needed to do that) but Trump's team
were unwitting participants if they participated.
He had to show something for his work but clearly there's no trail of deliberate scheming
and collusion leading to the Trump team. He even throws in the caveat that they were also
working for Sanders.
Stick a fork in it..this is over and MSM once again are full of shit for all to see no
matter how they spin it.
13 Russians can influence US elections meanwhile US CIA and State Department spend $1
BIllion every year on opposition groups inside Russia without success.
"13 Russians can influence US elections meanwhile US CIA and State Department spend $1
BIllion every year on opposition groups inside Russia without success."
... and a billion is but a drop in the bucket compared to what Israel has spent
influencing US elections over the last 4 decades.
Israel has built a money machine. They spend money to bribe politicians in the form of
campaign contributions and PACS. They tell those politicians to vote on large aid packages to
Israel. They take a small portion of the money from those aid packages and spend it to bribe
politicians in the form of campaign contributions and PACS ... rinse and repeat forever. A
wonderful machine that they have built for themselves to endlessly siphon blood and treasure
from the USA for their benefit.
Yes. THIS is the real scandal. Israhell using U.S. aid (U.S. taxpayer dollars) to buy off
U.S. politicians who then undermine the U.S. taxpayers by increasing Israhelli control over
U.S. politics.
But according to Mueller the Zionist can buy members of Congress and the Senate , but
Russian trolls are not allowed ........ ah,ah,ah,ah,
So there is the "good interference" , when it is done by the Rogue state in the Middle
East and then there us the " bad " interference created by foreign trolls .
Concord Catering was serving Smirnoff for sure. That's very influential and definitely
swayed voters. The rest on the list are back ups in case.
What a farce this witch hunt is. USSA is on cruise control and everyone is in the back of
the Winnebago swinging at each other. This is neglect of the electorate and the country as it
spirals into bankruptcy. (again)
Defendants posted derogatory information about a number of candidates, and by early to
mid-2016, Defendants' operations included supporting the presidential campaign of
then-candidate Donald J. Trump ("Trump Campaign") and disparaging Hillary Clinton .
(now what could these people possibly tell me about that ridiculous cunt Hillary that I
didn't already know?)
No, they were Americans who did that (or, at least, "dual citizens"). "Subverting"
democracy in the US is only illegal if carried out by foreign agents.
... with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar...
Special Counsel Robert Mueller Indicts 13 Russians For Hacking During US Election
My response: ROFL!!!! Since they (MARXIST PROGRESSIVE LIBERALS) could NOT get TRUMP, they
have now decided that they are going after the RUSSIANS directly.
This action is probably really going to piss off PUTIN rightly or wrongly.
WAR DRUMS ARE BEATING AGAIN.
I now believe that a market CRASH is a real distinct possibility.
Mueller is cherry picking a small effect in the market place when there was huge
subversion by Hillary et al - In NYC 125,000 registrations went missing and "the party in
charge fired" at the Board of Elections who had direct line via family to Hillary -
overwhelming number denied access to primary vote were young new residents - white people to
Brooklyn - primarily Bernie voters
things elsewhere the same - Ohio / Iowa but not as much in your face
This is beginning of hit job by Mueller - is it sustainable?
I'd like to see from Muellers analysis how many votes that swayed. Curious if it's as many
as the illegal votes allowed in California. I'm sure the Russians had a huge impact in West
Virginia (being sarcastic)
Let's allow them to hack the next one and see who they pick...maybe we should start
thinking outside the box here...
God, this whole thing must just be an unending source of confusion for Putin. Guy's got to
be watching this, thinking, "What the fuck is wrong with these people?". In fact, anyone
expecting the US to be a source of leadership in the future has to feel like Shelley Duvall
after she found out that Jack Nickolsen's months of work consisted only of typewritten sheets
with "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." over and over and over again...Her face as
she flips through all those pages is EXACTLY how I imagine Putin's expression as he watches
this unfold...
"Oh my god, it's so much worse than I ever suspected, and winter's only half over..."
How about where was Mueller when the Tsarnov (sp) brothers (Boston Marathon) when Vladimir
warned him about them.
I see that on January 5th, somebody phoned the FBI about the soon-to-be Florida shooter.
This is not to be confused with the September contact which the FBI couldn't track down.
So where was the FBI? Certainly not manning up and resigning in protest about all of the
corruption anybody could see/smell on the 7th floor. Probably watching porn and whacking off
on the job like so many SEC employees.
Robert Peters: SEC pornography scandal shows harms of obscene material
New York City, N.Y., Apr 24, 2010 / 07:02 am ( CNA/EWTN News ).-
The exposure of workplace pornography use at the Securities and Exchange Commission while
the 2008 financial crisis was unfolding shows ........
SO, according to this indictment, if I'm reading it correctly, we also need to indict
every single foreigner that spoke highly, in a positive way, or tried to influence an
American citizen, about Killary? Looks like a lot of indictments to be handed out to pretty
much every Globalist on the planet.
Per the indictment, "Individuals had a strategic goal of sowing discord in the U.S.
political system"
That's a crock, we really didn't need Russian help to make our political system any more
broken and divided than it already is.
Come on, do you really believe the Russians were responsible for the absolute dismal
choice of the two candidates we were stuck with in the last election? And that their effort
made any difference in the outcome.
Read the documents. Read what Muller is actually accusing them of:
- Buying a few thousand bucks worth of ads
- Holding a sparsely attended fake rally
- Trying to contact members of the Trump campaign without identifying themselves (this
right here is the full limit of their vaunted "collusion", if it's even true)
Are any of those things even illegal? Does anyone, anywhere, actually think any of those
things influenced the election in the slightest?
Meanwhile the DNC was paying Russian spies for fake intel so they could use
illegally-obtained surveillance warrants to spy on US citizens and try to stage a coup on a
duly-elected President.
These indictments are basically just Mueller running out of ideas to prolong his meddling.
He had to do something, or else Congress was gonna start saying, "OK, so what do you have?
This has gone on long enough."
Look at the phrasing, "hacking the elections" which is a general term. Doesn't specify
they hacked any specific voting machines. Per CNBC
The defendants allegedly conducted "information warfare" against the United States
election process to help Donald Trump win.
The defendants used fake American personas, social media platforms, and other Internet
media to advance their scheme, according to an indictment.
So basically trolling online. 13 Russian internet trolls swayed the ENTIRE election,
therefore the entire anti-Russian rhetoric, sanctions and a new cold war is justified!.
20 security and espionage agencies! Hundreds of billions in counterintelligence operations
around the world. A fire-armed uprising around RUSSIA! And with just 13 people a few accounts
in faceboock and a few thousand dollars, what does not billions spent on political campaigns
achieve ???? Damn Russians!!??
Rosenstein explained it differently. He claims that these ads or whatever were done for
the benefit of both candidates because Russia wanted to sow dissension and rip the US
apart.
Soros did a much more effective job than that and certainly spent more than the
Russians.
But Mueller doesn't chose to see things as they were and are.
"... First defendant: The Internet Research Agency. On a very ..."
"... "Fake News and Bots May Be Worrisome, but Their Political Power Is Overblown" [ New York Times ]. "Much more remains to be learned about the effects of these types of online activities, but people should not assume they had huge effects. Previous studies have found, for instance, that the effects of even television advertising (arguably a higher-impact medium) are very small. According to one credible estimate, the net effect of exposure to an additional ad shifts the partisan vote of approximately two people out of 10,000. In fact, a recent meta-analysis of numerous different forms of campaign persuasion, including in-person canvassing and mail, finds that their average effect in general elections is zero." ..."
"The office of special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday announced indictments against 13
Russian nationals and a trio of Russian entities on charges related to the Kremlin's efforts
to interfere in the 2016 presidential election" [
Politico ]. "Charges in the indictment include conspiracy to defraud the United States,
conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and aggravated identity theft "Some
defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association,
communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other
political activists to seek to coordinate political activities," the indictment said."
Here's the indictment . Finally we get to look at some evidence? First defendant: The
Internet Research Agency. On a very quick read: The theory of the case is that the
defendants used social media to "sow discord"; a search on "vot" yields zero hits.
Realignment and Legitimacy
UPDATE "Fake News and Bots May Be Worrisome, but Their Political Power Is Overblown" [
New York Times ]. "Much more remains to be learned about the effects of these types of
online activities, but people should not assume they had huge effects. Previous studies have
found, for instance, that the effects of even television advertising (arguably a
higher-impact medium) are very small. According to one credible estimate, the net effect of
exposure to an additional ad shifts the partisan vote of approximately two people out of
10,000. In fact, a recent meta-analysis of numerous different forms of campaign persuasion,
including in-person canvassing and mail, finds that their average effect in general elections
is zero."
"From Where I Sit, The Trump Era Began In 2014" [ FiveThirtyEight
]. "Numbers can't prove that 2014 was a pivotal year for the Trumpian political era to come,
but they can show it was a year when Americans' institutional trust bottomed out, something
that would come into play in 2016. A few days after the election, I wrote about the erosion
of trust in American institutions over the past decade. There was a link, I wrote then,
between our loss of trust and electing a man who promised to start a new American order. And
in 2014, overall trust in American institutions, which started falling in the mid-2000s, hit
31 percent -- its lowest point since Gallup starting tracking the metric in 1993 . Trump's
ultimately brilliant political intuition was to burrow deep into this recess of the American
mind and to reflect back the sense of creeping disarray. He capitalized on racial and
economic fears, but his campaign kickoff proclamation that "the
American dream is dead" didn't just resonate with the people who might have voted for
populist and nativist campaigns of the past. Trump's appeal was broad, resonating with
the
relatively well-off and
the well-educated ."
UPDATE "A significant minority of Americans say they could support a military takeover of
the U.S. government" [
WaPo ]. "Our research finds that, in fact, substantial numbers of U.S. adults say they
would embrace ruptures in the constitutional order [and I thought I was the only
one who used this term routinely], which is in keeping with Bright Line Watch findings that
experts believe that measures of U.S. democracy have declined under President Trump . In
2017, about 25 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans said they favored a
military intervention if the country faced rampant crime or corruption. The figure below
shows the average support for a military coup when there is widespread corruption." More
Third World stuff! Indeed: "U.S. public opinion on these questions resembles that of
Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, countries with a history of military coups and dictatorships."
Let us not, however, focus only on the military! We have an intelligence community, too!
Don't see anything about the DNC or Podesta hacks in the indictment. Isn't that what this
whole thing was about? Changing the 'Russian hacking' meme to mean social media posts was an
amazing feat of goalpost-moving.
And changing "Russian puppet" to "Russian hacking" is also impressive.
That said, there may be more shoes to drop. People who are smarter about investigations than
I am can determine whether this is indicting the small fry to catch the big fish, or not. As a
layperson, it's not clear to me how you do that by indicting Russians, if, as my very
quick reading of the Politico story (and not the indictment), witting cooperation by the Trump
campaign is ruled out. No doubt there will be a good deal of commentary to come!
Rob P and Lambert Strether: The "vindicated" regular Democrats on my FacetoBook thread are
passing around Greg Sargent's WaPo column. Sargent's summary of the indictments:
"Falsely posing as Americans to operate social media to influence voters; employing active
efforts to suppress the turnout of minority groups; creating additional fictional U.S. personas
to sway public opinion; purchasing large numbers of ads on social media; and much more."
Russkies? Uber? Israelis? Saudis? Tell me more. And are those fictional personas swaying our
opinions, ohh, say, Apple and other tax avoiders?
Next up? The Democratic Party praying for a coup, on the assumption that their children
won't be dragged off to jail to be tortured. (Ask South Americans how that worked out.)
I think these indictments are to show credibility of a Russian issue.
I think the Popadopolous and now potentially Gates roll-ups are the missing links to connect
the dots between the campaign and the ongoing operation by the Russians. This really is how
organized crime investigations generally work.
I don't think the claim was ever that the campaign started the Russians doing things; simply
that they were willing to work with them towards a mutual goal. This would be similar to the
GOP claims about the Steele dossier; they leave out that it was begun by a conservative GOP
group and Clinton only got involved when the conservatives dropped out of the race.
Worse, now it is apparently unlawful for a non-US citizen to express in public a preference
with regard to a US election.
This in spite of the fact that UK and other non-US papers do so all the time, and even put
their preferences out there ON THE INTERNET where innocent trusting Americans may stumble upon
them. Not only that, the the Guardian even organized phone banks for Brits to call Ohio voters
in key districts and urge them to vote for Team D.
Surely indictments are forthcoming, right? But let's consider the implications – does
Yves need to check the citizenship status of every poster in a political thread? If not, is she
aiding and abetting "fraud against the United States"? Is Yves now an unindicted
co-conspirator?
Seriously, the implications of this move are terrifying. If that weren't enough, the
indictment was careful to mention Bernie Sanders' name at every opportunity. The insinuation
being that if you support any candidate outside the mainstream of Team D or Team R, then you
are supporting ..
"They engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about
Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Lyin' Ted Cruz and
Little Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald
Trump."
-- page 17 of Mueller's indictment
So now we know -- Bernie's candidacy was foisted on us by Russians sending thousands of
tainted $27 donations. /snark
' The mountains labored, and brought forth a ridiculous mouse. ' -- Latin proverb
Why couldn't the Russians have just sent better-looking cheerleaders from Moscow to this
country? Why did they keep their armies of beauties in their Motherland?
Hell, UK papers express their preferred outcomes for US elections all the time. And ZOMG! on
the INTERNET! where innocent Americans might stumble across them and be "influenced"! ZOMG!
The Guardian even organized phonebanking campaigns to urge Ohio voters in key districts to
vote Team D.
The "sowing discord" argument makes me crazy, because it's exactly like "outside agitators"
in the segregated South. If only it weren't for Russian bots, "those damned n*****s
voters wouldn't have gotten uppity."
I mean, does anybody really believe there was no discord in American politics before the
2016 elections and social media?
(This is not a theory of the case; something can be wrong and/or illegal even if there are
no ill effects; but to my cynical mind, this is all about creating a casus belli , and
that does require ill effects, I would think.)
Speaking as a Southerner I'd say you are exactly right. The assumption seems to be that
simple minded voters are the puppets of rabble rousers rather than intelligent beings able to
think for themselves.
A couple of things, Watched a lot of russians in the Olympics over the years and these names look incredibly
fake. Usually when you drop news on a Friday afternoon of a three day weekend you want it to get
buried.
MIKHAIL IVANOVICH BYSTROV, MIKHAIL LEONIDOVICH BURCHIK, ALEKSANDRA YURYEVNA KRYLOVA, ANNA VLADISLAVOVNA BOGACHEVA, SERGEY PAVLOVICH POLOZOV, MARIA ANATOLYEVNA BOVDA, ROBERT SERGEYEVICH BOVDA, DZHEYKHUN NASIMI OGLY ASLANOV, VADIM VLADIMIROVICH PODKOPAEV, GLEB IGOREVICH VASILCHENKO, IRINA VIKTOROVNA KAVERZINA, VLADIMIR VENKOV YEVGENIY VIKTOROVICH PRIGOZHIN
America was pure as snow. In fact, Russians are responsible for Jim Crow. Bear with me. The
Czar, an autocrat if there ever was one, sailed the White Fleet in support of Abraham Lincoln.
Perhaps, the British and French would have intervened on behalf of the CSA, thus allowing the
Southern states to secede. Logic dictates this would have meant no Jim Crow. Yes, slavery would
have continued, but it would be in a different country.
As noted by Rob P above, there is no mention of email hacking. Maybe that's coming later,
but I doubt it. Instead, they indicted alleged Russian operators of troll farms. The
implication, I guess, is that these people somehow swayed the election in favor of Trump. Some
questions I have:
– What was the volume of their social media posts? How does that compare to the total
volume of election-related social media posts? – When were these posts actually made? Did they all occur prior to the election? – Did these troll farms make any posts in favor of Clinton? Were there other Russians
posting items in favor of Clinton? – Is there any indication that these posts had any demonstrable impact on the outcome of
the election?
It would be interesting to see these people go on trial. I imagine that a competent defense
attorney would have fun with discovery. But, there's a part of me that suspects that these
Russians were indicted, with the expectation that they won't go on trial. After all, it's a lot
easier to control the narrative, when there's nobody pushing back against it.
So, what we're left with is the impression that the Russians were responsible for all the
bullshirt flying around during the election. Bullshirt being, of course, anything that was
anti-Hillary, or promoted an opponent of hers. All the pro-Hillary stuff doesn't count, of
course. I guess I'm a Russophile for asking the question, but is this really all that they've
got?
Also, I haven't read the indictment, but is there any allegation that these troll farms were
acting in any capacity on behalf of the Russian government?
The indictment indicates that there was some pro-Hillary posts/activity, but the bulk of it
was anti-Hillary/Pro-Trump. Posts were both prior to and after the election. It doesn't look
like the indictment is outright arguing that their activities swayed votes, but just that the
activities violated bank/wire fraud laws (including fraud via cryptocurrencies!) and
electioneering laws (which does not mean that votes were swayed; handing out flyers too close
to a polling site is a violation of electioneering laws).
Looks less like the ultimate smoking gun, and more like another move, such as with Manafort,
to get the small fry to tell on someone higher up.
That's the expectation for how a criminal investigation should take place. But, this is not
a normal criminal investigation. The small fry in this case are Russians, and I'm not sure if
indicting them has the same impact that it would for, say, a similar group of Americans. How
does Mueller flip these Russians? Doesn't he have to get them into custody first?
Indeed. The article on this much ado about not much done by the BBC:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said there was no allegation that any American was
"a knowing participant in this illegal activity" nor was it alleged that the meddling altered
the election outcome.
Which, of course, doesn't prevent the brainwashed from dancing with glee and attacking as a
Trump supporter anyone who so much as points out the above. The least offensive response I've
had today was that these things are incremental so this is likely just the starting point. It
no longer matters whether the alleged interference had any effect on the election -- all sense
of logic on this subject has evaporated even among people I know are intelligent enough they
should know better.
Why I added the information on how hard it is to actually change opinion. IIRC, most of the
contemporary hash tag tracking is coming from the highly dubious Hamilton68 dashboard, which is
being treated as an authority even though, last I checked, they hadn't exposed their data or
methods.
Adding, which is pretty funny, when you think about it; depending on whether the IRA was a
contractor for the Russian government, and what its actual mission was*, the Russian government
probably has a stronger case for fraud against them then Mueller does.
Putin's government overpaid for a intelligence tech contractor that promised way more than
it was capable of delivering? Perhaps the Russians aren't so different from us after all.
o "Fake News and Bots May Be Worrisome, but Their Political Power Is Overblown" [New York
Times] -- Oh, I dunno, methinks the Grey lady is being far too pessimistic here. After all, the
NYT's own fake-news project re. Saddam's WMDs 15 years back led to an actual large-scale hot
war, $trillions in juicy defense contracts for US and foreign mercenary/logistics firms and
upwards of a million dead Iraqis whose 'sacrifice', as former SoS and heroic liberal R2P
goddess Madeleine Albright reminded us, was "worth it". So maybe the high-profile-ness and
political connections of the fake news source might play a crucial role in its impact?
Madeleine Albright made that comment in response to a publishing of a study which found that
the US economic sanctions against Iraq resulted in the deaths of more than 500,000
children.
Otherwise your point is valid. As Yves herself has mentioned regarding Judith Miller, the
NYT did indeed publish a lot of "fake news" (also known as "propaganda") in the run-up to the
invasion of Iraq.
"... Thirteen Russian nationals were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Three defendants were also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Five defendants were charged with aggravated identity theft. Here's a rundown: ..."
The defendants are accused of working in conjunction with the St. Petersburg-based Internet
Research Agency, which is also under indictment for allegedly conducting information operations
to influence the 2016 election in the United States.
The Internet Research Agency operated what's become known as "troll farm" in Russian
President Vladimir Putin's hometown that employed hundreds of English speakers to pose as
Americans and gin up controversy and discord on Twitter, Facebook and other social media
websites during the months leading up to the election.
The company, referred to as the "ORGANIZATION" in the indictment, "had a strategic goal to
sow discord in the U.S. political system, including... supporting the presidential campaign of
then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton," according to the
indictment.
Thirteen Russian nationals were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Three defendants were also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Five
defendants were charged with aggravated identity theft. Here's a rundown:
Yevgeniy
Viktorovich Prigozhin
Prigozhin, 56, is a businessman from St. Petersburg who's been called "Putin's chef" by
Russian media because his restaurants and catering businesses have hosted dinners between Putin
and foreign dignitaries.
Prigozhin is on the list of those sanctioned by the U.S., according to the Associated
Press.
Prigozhin is accused of funding the Internet Research Agency, through companies he
controlled -- Concord Management and Consulting, and Concord Catering -- and using them to
launch operations against America. He paid the "ORGANIZATION," all the rest of the defendants
and other unnamed employees, the indictment said.
Prigozhin's co-defendants arranged through social media for a U.S. person to stand in front
of the White House on May 29, 2016, three days before Prigozhin's birthday, with a sign saying
"Happy 55th Birthday Dear Boss."
"The Americans are very impressionable people, they see what they want to see," Prigozhin
reportedly told the Russian state news agency Ria Novosti on Friday. "I have a lot of
respect for them. I am not upset at all that I ended up on this list. If they want to see the
devil, let them see him."
Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov
Bystrov allegedly was named the general director of the Internet Research Agency, and served
as the head of various other entities it used to mask its activities, including Glavset LLC,
where he was also listed as general director.
He is accused of holding regular meetings with Prigozhin around 2015 and 2016. Bystrov is a
retired police colonel, according to Voice of America.
Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik
According to the indictment, Burchik was named executive director of the "ORGANIZATION" as
of March 2014, holding the second-highest ranking position. During operations to interfere in
the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election, Burchik was a manager
involved in operational planning, infrastructure and personnel.
Burchik is described in a 2015 New York Times report as a young tech entrepreneur
connected to the "Masss Post" tool used to create bulk social media postings.
Aleksandra
Yuryevna Krylova
Krylova worked for the IRA from around 2013 to at least November 2014, according to the
indictment, and was its third-highest ranking employee. She allegedly entered the U.S. on false
pretenses in June 2014 and traveled through Nevada, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois,
Michigan, Louisiana, Texas and New York to "gather intelligence."
Sergey Pavlovich
Polozov
Polozov "served as the manager of the IT department and oversaw the procurement of US.
servers and other computer infrastructure that masked the Russian location when conducting
operations within the United States," according to the indictment.
An unnamed co-conspirator who worked for the company traveled to Atlanta in November 2016,
and shared information gathered with Polozov, according to the indictment.
He traveled to the U.S. to create virtual private networks to hide his organization's ties
to Russia, while communicating with U.S. citizens, the indictment said.
Anna
Vladislavovna Bogacheva
According to the indictment, Bogacheva oversaw the IRA's data analysis group, and allegedly
traveled through the U.S. in 2014 to gather intelligence along with Krylova.
Together with Krylova, Bogacheva planned travel itineraries, purchased equipment such as
cameras, SIM cards and disposable phones and discussed security measures, including "evacuation
scenarios" for defendants who traveled to the U.S., the indictment said.
Maria
Anatolyevna Bovda
Bovda worked at the company from November 2013 to October 2014 as head of the translator
project.
The project "focused on the U.S. population and conducted operations on social media
platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter," according to the
indictment.
Robert Sergeyevich Bovda
Robert Bovda served as deputy head of the translator project and tried to travel to the U.S.
under false pretenses to collect intelligence but could not obtain a visa, according to the
indictment.
Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina
The defendant is accused of admitting her involvement in the operation and a subsequent
coverup in an email to a relative in September last year, after Mueller's probe had
started.
"We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity," Kaverzina allegedly
wrote, "so I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues."
She also wrote: "I created all these pictures and posts and the Americans believed that it
was written by their people."
Dzheykhun "Jay" Aslanov
Aslanov was described by a manager at the ORGANIZATION's "troll farm" in St. Petersburg,"
according to an October interview on Moscow's Dozhd TV with former employee Alan Baskayev.
Baskayev was the third former troll to identify Aslanov as a supervisor at the facility,
according to the Moscow Times , which described the interview.
"Jay was a really bad manager: not the most competent in this field, well, frankly speaking,
generally incompetent, but he had assistants," Baskayev told Dozhd TV.
Vadim
Vladimirovich Podkopaev
Podkopaev allegedly was responsible for conducting U.S.-focused research and drafting social
media content for the IRA, according to the indictment.
Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko
Vasilchenko was allegedly "responsible for posting, monitoring, and updating the social
media content" for many IRA-controlled accounts "while posing as U.S. persons or U.S.
grassroots organizations."
Vladimir Venkov
Venkov allegedly "operated multiple U.S. personas, which he used to post, monitor, and
update social media content," the indictment stated.
BREAKING: Mueller concludes Russians posted
mean things on social media about Hillary Clinton
Mueller indicts 13 Russians and 3
companies for hacking the US election.
The indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three entities over allegations by the DOJ that
Russians interfered in US elections – but "did not alter the outcome of the 2016
election" nor that any American was a knowing participant in this activity – are absurd,
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
"13 people interfered in the US elections?! 13 against an intelligence services budget of
billions? Against intelligence and counterintelligence, against the latest developments and
technologies? Absurd? Yes," Zakharova
wrote in a post on Facebook .
Then again, what else could she say.
Furthermore, as noted in the DOJ complaint, the funding for the Russian operation came from
catering and management companies controlled by defendant Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, a
Russian businessman often referred to as "Putin's chef" in the media because his organizations
had hosted dinners for Russian President Vladimir Putin and foreign leaders, the AP
reported.
Prigozhin was quoted in Russian state media responding to the indictments, saying,
"Americans are really impressionable people. They see what they want to see. I greatly respect
them. I'm not upset at all that I am on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see
him."
This probably means that Russia will not exactly rush to extradite the 13 named officials to
the US.
"Have you had any assurances by the Russians that they will provide these individuals for
prosecution?"
Rosenstein: "We have no communications with the Russians about this. We will follow the
ordinary process of seeking cooperation and extradition." https://t.co/oShWvKYDRWpic.twitter.com/vOT0iH6Cu0
re:So Mueller indict russians for... talking about the american election in russia? What
farce have this become? Posted by: Anon | Feb 16, 2018 3:15:09 PM | 35
Farce is certainly the operative word; two of the 13 Russians are the former head of Moscow
Police and the other is a restaurateur friend of Putin.
And if there were " millions" spent then their is a financial paper trail certainly. Can't
wait to see it...
My favorite parts of this indictment: 1. Trump and his campaign are no longer involved, 2.
the Russians did NOT influence the election, 3. they were supposedly advocating for Bernie as
well as Trump.
Lastly,so much "news" in the last few days; we have a possible Florida false flag, Russia
hacking the world and now this. What are we not meant to see?? My first thought is they are
moving forward with the Syrian chemical attack psy op; next week perhaps?
Yeah, apparentlty these Russians sought to expand the political commentary and voice
support for candidates, how is this even illegal? Ridiculous but this will give the
anti-russia actors 100% more fuel for decades to come. That Trump will even talk with Putin
is out of the question by now unfortunately. WW3 just came closer sigh.
One of the best bits about the indictement is the mention ;"arranging for a Real US person
to stand in front of the White House in the district of Colombia with a sign that read;
"Happy 55th birthday dear boss" (May 29, in 2016)" America must have trembled. (or maybe they
were shaking with laughter?).
People read these accusational headlines, probably just the headlines, and it acts as a virus
and penetrates the membrane of the collective subconscious, without even a moments thought to
question the assertion.
In time, the virus breaks down the will of the rational consumer to
weigh evidence fairly, though it is also aided by further bombardment of fake news, which
increases the rate of infection. The virus then blossoms into a fairly beautiful and uniform
flower with clean, geometric edges and universal appeal which catches the gaze of others and
so is able to double the rate of infection from this secondary source.
This flower, the Ruskiesdidittous, is the result of haphazard propogation, though its ability to survive and
thrive is notable due to a carrier population already enfeebled by a diet of Dr. Pepper and a
lack of discernible vegetables.
The indictment includes charges not yet proven in a court of law, yet prominent Americans
are treating the indictment as fact. from CNN:
>House Speaker Paul Ryan called the Russians' alleged actions "a conspiracy to subvert
the process, and take aim at democracy itself." "We have known that Russians meddled in the
election, but these indictments detail the extent of the subterfuge," Ryan said in a
statement.
>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that given the indictments,
Trump should "immediately" implement the Russia sanctions that Congress passed last summer
to punish Moscow for its election meddling. "The administration needs to be far more
vigilant in protecting the 2018 elections, and alert the American public any time the
Russians attempt to interfere," Schumer said.
>House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that the indictments "make
absolutely clear" that Russians tried to influence the presidential election to support
Trump's campaign and continue to try to interfere with our elections. "We are on the eve of
the 2018 midterm elections," the statement added. "There is no time to waste to defend the
integrity of our elections and our democracy."
>Robby Mook, Clinton's former campaign manager, tweeted: "The intelligence community
has repeatedly told us Russia meddled. Now criminal indictments from DOJ. We were attacked
by a foreign adversary. Will our Congress and President stand strong and take action? Or
let it happen again?"
The Last but not LeastTechnology is dominated by
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt.
Ph.D
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