Do the US intelligence agencies influence the US Presidential elections?
Now the story unfolds that three FBI Mayberry Machiavellians prevented Sanders from becoming the candidate from Democratic Party
and delivered the victory to Trump, rigging the US Presidential elections. And they enjoyed the support of Brennan and Clapper in
their attempts to prevent the elections of Trump.
Recall that there was an attempted military coup d’état, which was exposed by
General Butler in a public address
in 1933, against the Presidency of FDR who was only inaugurated that year. One could say that there was a very marked
disapproval from shadowy corners for how Roosevelt would organise the government.
One key element to this reorganisation under Truman was the dismantling of the previously existing foreign intelligence bureau
that was formed by FDR, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) on Sept 20, 1945 only two weeks after WWII was officially declared
over. The OSS would be replaced by the CIA officially on Sept 18, 1947, with two years of an American intelligence purge and the
internal shifting of chess pieces in the shadows.
In addition, de-facto President Truman would also found the United States National Security Council on Sept 18, 1947, the same day
he founded the CIA. The NSC was a council whose intended function was to serve as the President’s principal arm for coordinating
national security, foreign policies and policies among various government agencies.
The natural tendency of intelligence agencies (like financial institutions) is to escape civilian
control and in turn try to control the government. So after a while tail is wagging the dog. The temptation of get themselves involved
in determining or at least facilitating the most favorable result of elections might be too strong to resist and FBI was involved in
this since Hoover days.
There are several facts which suggest that employees of CIA, the Department of Justice, and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sympathetic to the neoliberal/globalist wing of Democrat Party (Clinton wing), used the power of their offices and
(with the assistance of
foreign nationals) tried to influence the 2016 election in favor of Hillary Clinton, first to exonerate her and then obtain information to
prevent the election of Donald Trump, to collect "insurance" -- compromising materials on him in case he win, and after his
surprise win, to provide a basis for his impeachment and removal from the Office by forcing on his administration the Special
Prosecutor.
From the Congressional investigations involving the Department of Justice and the FBI it looks like that those institutions
are protecting themselves at the expense of transparency and accountability to the American people.
In other words, the government employees involved consider the survival of the Deep State more important than the survival of the
Constitution. That is the definition of National Security State... The basic scheme of the most recent intelligence gambit in
this area was as following: using Steele dossier for obtaining FICA order for wiretapping Trump team, launching Russiagate
investigation of Trump team under false premises, creating "17 agencies memo" to damage Trump, unleashing MSM Russiagate hysteria,
dismissal of Comey (sacrificial bishop), Comey leaks to NYT,
Rosenstein appointment of the Special Prosecutor Mueller with a very wide mandate, fishing expedition in order to force Trump to
resign or impeach him
When we dig deep into the Russiagate, we will find that is fought by very influential group (including belong already known FBI
"gang of three", some senior figures in CIA, Justice Department, MIC and Wall Street, all of whom
are profoundly interested in continuation of the existence of global neoliberal led by the USA empire.
And they are ready to fighting for
this lucrative for them personally goal to the last American, excluding, of course, their own families. On the other side of this battle are much weaker forces which
understand that the USA needs to retrench and revise neocon foreign policy, and regroup concentrating on solving internal
economic problems coursed by outsourcing and rampant offshoring of manufacturing first. They also want to stop or at least downsize the imperial wars
that cost a lot of money, but often do not provide tangible benefits or even worsen the USA geostrategic position. Essentially those wars for
remaking Middle East and the expansion of neoliberal empire facilitated semi-alliance of Iran (81 million people), Russia (144
million people), and China (1.4 billion), which despite being very fragile is a real threat to the USA hegemony.
Published evidence suggests that there were at least four intelligence organization were possibly involved in rigging the US
Presidential elections (by pushing Sanders under the bus and then trying to install Hillary on the throne):
- FBI ( Hoover was the pioneer of intelligence agencies interference and collecting dirt of politicians to survive. Now it was Brennan, Comey, Clapper and probably some other
highly place officials via control of Hillary Clinton email investigation and initiating surveillance of Trump team.
- CIA (Brennan probably via FBI "gang of three" and also via the level of control of the MSM, Stele dossier and 17 agencies
memo). In the past CIA chief
Allen Dulles is viewed by many as the person who might be instrumental in FDR murder.
- MI6 via Steele Dossier and possible help with surveillance of Trump Team and Trump tower.
- NSA -- via intercepting Trump team communications and participating (although via selected by Brennan few analysts) in "17 agencies memo".
All other including Mossad, Russian intelligence services, as well as intelligence agencies some European countries other then
Great Britain ( Ukraine, France,
Germany, Italy,
http://theduran.com/ukraines-collusion-with-hillary-clinton-to-meddle-in-us-elections-now-exposed/)) as well as Asia countries (
Pakistan (Avan brothers), KSA, China ) were probably the second
league players. Although Pakistan-related story of Imran Awan is really interesting in its own right due to
his connection to
Debbie Wasserman (of DNC email scandal fame) and fall
out of this classification.
Looks like sometimes foreign intelligence agencies were used as outsourcers/subcontractors to do work for
CIA (possibly in case of
Steele dossier and spying on Trump), sometime
they might provide some
important information that helps to discredit one of the candidates (although during the last election Trump was in their
hairlines, most of them probably got a lot of
information against Hillary due to Clinton foundation activities as well as her amateurish and completely incompetent "private" email
server setup, see
Understanding Hillary Clinton email scandal )
Sanders would definitely became Democratic Party candidate if Hillary was charges with "gross negligence" for her "bathroom"
email server. As of December 2017 we have some information that the "gang of three" (Comey, McCabe and Strzok) conspired to
swipe the dirt under the carpet and exonerate Hillary from any wrongdoing.
Probably not without direct pressure from Justice Department and indirect from the President Obama.
It is now probably provable that Sanders was deprived the position of Democratic Party candidate in the last Presidential
election cycle due to activities of FBI. In now way Hillary could became candidate if she would have been charged with
"gross negligence". And this charge was 100% provable.
Much of this like with JFK assassination is hidden and might surface in a decade or two. Currently we know very little. The
key elements of this scheme at the center of which is Steele dossier cutting are as following:
- Creation of Steele dossier which later was the key for obtaining the warrant in FICA courst for some members of Trump team
and launching "Russiagate" investigation against Trump.
- The use of DNC leak -- presenting it as DNC hack and implicating Russians (via Crowdstrike)
- Unleashing vicious witch hunt against Trump and Russia in MSM based on completely unproved charges.
- Obtaining FICA order to wiretap members of Trump team (might also be done via MI6, details are currently unclear).
- Creation of 17 agencies memo (Brenna and Clapper) with the direct goal of fueling Russiagate and prepare the ground for Trump
impeachment or trumped charges.
- Attempt to hijack election college.
- Publishing Steele dossier and pother attempts disrupt inauguration.
- Removal of Flynn from Trump team and charging him with the collision with Russians.
- Appointment of the special prosecutor gambit.
The basic chronology might be as following (partially based on Stefan Molyneux YouTube presentation):
- [Aug 01, 2014]: Brennan caught spying on Senate torture probe.
John Brennan Faces Calls to Resign After CIA
Admits to Spying on Senate Torture Probe - Democracy Now!
- [Mar 02, 2015]: Hillary Clinton emailgate scandal broke lose.
NYT reports that "Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct
government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated
federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record. Mrs.
Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department.
Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time,
as required by the Federal Records Act"
- [Jun 13, 2015]: CrowdStrike was financed to the tune of $100 million by Google Capital. Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, has been a
staunch and active supporter of Hillary Clinton and is a longtime donor to the Democratic Party. (Stefan Molyneux)
- [Oct ?? 2015]: Fusion GPS became key anti-Trump player -- the dirt digger. During the Republican
primary campaign, The
Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website primarily funded by Republican donor
Paul Singer, hired the
American research firm Fusion GPS to conduct opposition
research on Trump and other Republican presidential candidates.[1]
Please note that Christopher Steele at this time is not yet in the picture. This will happen six months later when the
investigation became funded by Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC.
For months, Fusion GPS gathered information about Trump, focusing on his business and entertainment activities. When Trump became
the presumptive nominee on May 3, 2016, The Free Beacon stopped funding research on him.[21][22][23]
- [Mar ??, 2016]: Fusion GPS supposedly approached the Hillary Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee
through the law firm Perkins Coie offering to continue their opposition research into Donald Trump in return for payment.[Wikipedia]
- [Apr ??, 2016]: The Hillary Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee used lawyer Marc E. Elias to retain and
fund Fusion GPS. At this time Christopher Steele came into picture, may be via his ties with McCabe and FBI activities to derail
Trump. In April 2016, the investigation contract
and funding were taken over by Marc Elias, a partner in
the large Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie and
head of its Political Law practice. Elias was the attorney of record for the
Democratic National
Committee (DNC) and the
Clinton presidential campaign.[6]
In total, Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS $1.02 million in fees and expenses, $168,000 of which was paid to Orbis Business
Intelligence, a private British intelligence firm, and used by them to produce the dossier.[24]
Glenn R. Simpson of Fusion GPS has stated
that Steele did not pay to any of his sources.[25][Wikipedia]
- [Apr-Jun, 2016]: Wikileaks obtains something like 53,000 [DNC] emails and 17,000 attachments
- [Jun ??, 2016]: After Wikileaks possession of leaked emails became known, a cover-up operation was started by
DNC and Clinton campaign. The decision was made to used Russia as a scapegoat for the leak accusing them in hacking. False
flag operation using Crowdstrike was staged to make this plausible. Dirty former MI6 officer Christopher Steele (who was expelled from Moscow for espionage more then 20
years ago and as such is a "person non grata" in Moscow) and his company Orbis Business Intelligence are hired
by Fusion GPS to investigate Trump’s possible connections to Russia. This company previously was used to Statement from Christopher Steele: “Between June
and early November 2016 Orbis was engaged by Fusion to prepare a series of confidential memoranda based on intelligence
concerning Russian efforts to influence the US Presidential election process and links between Russia and Donald Trump.”
- [Jun 9, 2016]: Entrapment plot against Trump Jr. Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort attended a meeting arranged by publicist Rob Goldstone
with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (the client of Fusion FPS) supposedly for opposition
research on Hillary Clinton, but Veselnitskaya instead focused on the opposition to the Magnitsky Act. President Trump's Outside
Counsel Mark Corallo later remarked “Specifically, we have learned that the person who sought the meeting is associated with
Fusion GPS, a firm which according to public reports, was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the
president and which commissioned the phony Steele dossier.”
- Crowdstrike investigates DNC leaks and promptly attributes it to Russians. FBI is deprived of any access to factual information and uses
Crowdstrike findings. After very damaging for Hillary DNC leak (iether by Seth Rich or some other disgruntled DNC
staffer) which proved corruption of DNC and the plot to deny Sanders any changed to become Democratic Party candidate, as well as
the level of control of DNC by Clintons, the decision was made to blame Russia for the lean (using Crowdstrike which has
connections both with CIA and FBI as well as Clinton team) and use Trump connection with Russia to undermine the prospect of his
election. The CrowdStrike attribution are not independently verified as the DNC refused to turn over its equipment to the FBI. .
The connection between CrowdStrike and Perkins Coie should raise additional questions. (Stefan Molyneux)
- [Jun 14, 2016]: Russiagate smear campaign against Trump was launched in by major US MSM. The Washington Post published an article entitled “Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole
opposition research on Trump" which reported: “DNC leaders
were tipped to the hack in late April. Chief executive Amy Dacey got a call from her operations chief saying that their
information technology team had noticed some unusual network activity.” “That evening, she spoke with Michael Sussmann, a DNC
lawyer who is a partner with Perkins Coie in Washington. Soon after, Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor who handled computer
crime cases, called [CrowdStrike President Shawn Henry], whom he has known for many years. "Within 24 hours, Crowdstrike had
installed software on the DNC’s computers so that it could analyze data that could indicate who had gained access, when and how.
" Charging good money after the horse has left the barn; it's funny that clearly political action of "attribution"
(qualified cyber adversary like CIA leaves zero traces in such cases or deliberately leaves false traces ) is hidden under tech
jargon -- my God, a "super sophisticated" system was installed that now, when intruders are long gone will truck them ;-). From
presentations available on YouTube Crowdstrike are typical security snake oil salesmen promising a lot but delivering very
little (much like ISS in the past). It is impossible fully compensate for architectural flaws of Windows without
imposing "military base" regime which is unacceptable for organizations like DNC. Moreover good adversary would use Crowdstrike
software for perpetration much like CIA used Kaspersky software in the past.
- [Jun 15, 2016]: Crowdstike published its finding on thier site. Dmitry Alpherovidh blames Russians in his article
Bears in the Midst Intrusion into
the Democratic National Committee »
- [Jun 15, 2016]: A blog post to a WordPress site authored by an individual using the moniker Guccifer 2.0
claimed credit for breaching the Democratic National Committee. This blog post presents documents alleged to have originated from
the DNC.
- [Jun 26, 2016] Bill Clinton has a 30 min meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch
at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport. The encounter took place ahead of the public release Tuesday morning of
the House Benghazi Committee's report on the 2012 attack on a US consulate in Libya. the meeting looks like a quid pro quo
of "protect Hillary and you'll get a new great job Loretta under Hillary administration"...
- [Jun 30, 2016] The new about the meeting reached MSM. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said on
The Mike Gallagher Show that the meeting was “so terrible” and “one of the big stories of this week, of this month, of this
year.” Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tweeted: “Lynch & Clinton: Conflict of interest? An attorney, cannot represent two
parties in a dispute and must avoid even the appearance of conflict.”
LA Times. Later it became known that Loretta Lunch instructed Comey to call Hillary email scandal "a matter".
During May 2017 testimony James Comey, that it marking the moment he decided that the Department of Justice was not capable
of an independent investigation into Hillary Clinton.
The moment Comey lost faith in DOJ's Clinton probe - CNNPolitics
- [Jul 02, 2016]: Hillary Clinton was interviewed by Peter Strzok, who gave her special "HQ treatment". The interview lasted approximately three and a half
hours and was not conducted under oath. No transcripts of the meeting exist. Later Hillary Clinton claimed that she gave a "voluntary interview" to the FBI today
regarding her email arrangements while she was secretary of state. James Comey admitted: Loretta Lynch's tarmac meeting with Bill
Clinton was the turning point in the email investigation.
Business Insider Director Comey claimed that she did not lied to FBI during
this interview. Director Comey admitted that he did not participate himself in the FBI’s interview of Hillary Clinton, nor did he
talk to all of the agents who were present at the interview. While there was no recording or full transcript of the interview,
there is an analysis which may or may not be provided to Congress.
- [Jul 05, 2016]: Comey hijacks the role of Justice Department role and exonerate Hillary. At this point email scandal was
swiped under the carpet. No criminal changes were filed.
Statement by FBI Director James B. Comey on the Investigation of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s Use of a Personal E-Mail System
- [Jul 06, 2016]: Attorney General Loretta Lynch closed the case based on the FBI’s recommendation. Justice Department
formally closes Clinton email investigation with no charges -
LA Times. Atty. Gen Loretta Lynch said she had met late Wednesday with Comey and career prosecutors and agents who conducted
the investigation.
- [Jul 10, 2016]: Seth Rich was killed.
- [Jul 22, 2016]: Wikipeak published leaks emails and attachments. A cache of more than 19,000 e-mails was leaked
on July 22, 2016.
- [Jul 22, 2016]: Another false flag operation to implicate Russians ? Major MSM report about previous unknown hacker going by the moniker "Guccifer
2.0" who claimed on a WordPress-hosted blog to have been
acting alone in hacking the DNC. Might be a false flag operation by rogue elements of the US intelligence services, a part of effort to implicate Russians in DNC leak.
- [Jul 24, 2016]: It became clear the DNC has thrown Sanders under the bus, but the role of FBI is depriving him from
being Democratic Party candidate still remains hidden. Sanders urged Wasserman
Schultz to resign following the leaks and stated that he was "disappointed" by the DNC email leaks, but said that he was "not shocked.
In reality he was robbed in daylight. But not only by Wasserman Schultz but also by the "gang of three at FBI who
essentially prevented his nomination by swiping the dirt about Hillary Clinton handing of classified emails on the private email
server under the carpet. Peter Strzok supposedly played outside role in this fateful decision. But that became known only in
December 2017.
- [Jul 25, 2016]: Democratic Convention 2016 opens in at the
Wells Fargo
Center in Philadelphia Hillary became
the Democratic party nominee. Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to reside due
to her role in derailing Sanders candidacy. Sanders switched camps and endorsed Hillary Clinton instead of fighting her
nomination. As Trump sarcastically commented about Sanders endorsement of Hillary: 'Bernie is now
officially part of the rigged system': Trump unloads on Sanders for 'selling out,' says it's like Occupy Wall Street endorsing
Goldman Sachs
Donald Trump unloads on Bernie Sanders for 'selling out' Daily Mail Online
- [Jul 25, 2016]: The
FBI announced
that it would investigate the DNC hack.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
The same day, the DNC issued a formal apology to Bernie Sanders and his supporters, stating, "On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to
Senator Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email," and that the
emails did not reflect the DNC's "steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process."[12]
(Wikipedia aka Ciapedia ;-)
- [Jul ??, 2016] Steele dossier reaches FBI. Steele, on his own initiative, supplied a report he had written to an FBI agent
in Rome.[23] His
contact at the FBI was the same senior agent with whom he had worked when investigating the FIFA scandal.[11] By
early October 2016, he had grown frustrated at the slow rate of progress by the FBI investigation, and cut off further contact
with the FBI.[21]
At this point Steele dossier got to the desk of Peter Strzok, adamantly anti-Trump FBI
official with strong links to CIA and probably personally Brennan.
- [July ??, 2016] Crowdstrike attribution is used for increasing the scope of vicious anti-Russian campaign was launched in the media with the full support and encouragement of Obama administration
to swipe the dirt about DNC pushing Sanders under the bus and Clinton emailgate scandal as well as the problem with Hillary
health.
- [Aug 25, 2016]: Brennan makes the "all in" move adopting a highly political role and endorsing
Steele dossier: according to NYT reports, CIA Director John Brennan briefed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on ,
and alleged that “unnamed advisers to Mr. Trump might be working with the Russians to interfere in the election.” (Stefan Molyneux)
- [Aug ??, 2016]: Reid had
written to Comey and demanded an investigation of the “connections between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s
presidential campaign,” and in that letter he indirectly referred to Carter
Page, an American businessman cited by Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers, who had financial ties to Russia and had
recently visited Moscow.
- [Sep ??, 2016]: Steele, following instructions from Fusion GPs briefed several MSM. On Sep 23, 2016 Yahoo News published an
article about possibilities of ties between Carter Page and Kremlin.
- [Sep ??, 2016] Following a report from the Daily Mail in September 2016, Weiner was investigated by the FBI for
sexting with a 15-year-old girl. His laptop was seized and emails related to the
Hillary
Clinton email scandal were found on it, causing a controversy late in the presidential election. On May 19, 2017, Weiner
pled guilty to one count of transferring obscene material to a minor. His wife,
Huma Abedin, filed for divorce prior to Weiner's
guilty plea. In September, he was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. On November 6, 2017, Weiner began his sentence.
(Wikipedia)
- [Sep ?? 2016]: FBI applied to FISA court to establish surveillance on unknown number of members of Trump team (at
least Carter Page) possibly using Steele dossier as a pretext.
Looks like rogue elements in FBI used "Steele Dossier" to obtain court order for wiretapping some members of
Trump team such as Carter Page (Strzokgate).
With the dirt explicitly planned to be used as "insurance" in case of Trump victory.
- [Sep ??, 2016]: FISA warrant was authorized against Page, just after he left the Trump campaign (WaPo).
- [Oct 7, 2016]: Damaging for Trump "17 agencies memo" surfaced. This "17 agencies memo" was
cooked by Brennan (with possible support of Clapper) by using small pre-selected team of "analysts" (in which probably Peter
Strzok played the leading role) and presented as the view of the whole US intelligence community. On October
7, 2016 . On Oct. 7, the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued
a joint statement on behalf of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The USIC is
made up of 16 agencies, in
addition to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Yes,
17 intelligence agencies really did say Russia was behind hacking
)
- The 17 agencies memo was used for amplification of the anti-Russian campaign in MSM. Neo-McCarthyism campaign in the USA reached high pitch.
- [Oct ??, 2016]: The FBI reached an agreement with Steele to pay him to continue his work. Looks like the agreement
never materialized as Steele was unable to provide the necessary verification for his claims.
- [Oct ?? 2016]: [Wikipedia propagates questionable info about how David Corn got the
dossier, in view of role of
Top FBI Lawyer Who Was
Demoted Now Linked To Leaking Bogus Trump Dossier to MSM] On instructions from Fusion PGS Steele personally compiled 33 pages and passed on what he discovered so far to the anti-Trump reporter
David Corn from Mother Jones magazine.[26][Wikipedia].
On Dec 22, 2017 it became known that another possible source was not Steele but FBI Lawyer James Baker who
communicated with David Corn at this time and was demoted later for the leak.
- [Oct 28, 2016]: Due to the pressure from NYC FBI office who uncovered Comey announced that the investigation into Hillary "bathroom" email server is resumed based on new
emails uncovered in probe into Anthony Wiener sexing scandal (which actually were available to FBI since September, so "why now"?
). FBI reopening
investigation into Hillary private email server - Business Insider. Strzok was assigned to conduct the investigation
with predictable results. But the problem with this announcement is that it was made just a 10 days before the elections and
violates the notion of "quite period" before election where such news should not be released. Looks like Comey has second
thoughts after throwing Sanders under the bus.
- [Oct 31, 2016]: In the clear attempt to prevent election on Trump rabid Hillary Clinton supported David Corn, a Mother Jones reporter, leaked the existence
of the Steele dossier
A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump – Mother Jones. This leak
can be viewed as a countermove on the Comey announcement, which damaged Clinton campaign:
Mother Jones has reviewed that report and other memos this former spy wrote. The first memo, based on the former
intelligence officer’s conversations with Russian sources, noted, “Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and
assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance.”
It maintained that Trump “and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his
Democratic and other political rivals.” It claimed that Russian intelligence had “compromised” Trump during his visits to
Moscow and could “blackmail him.” It also reported that Russian intelligence had compiled a dossier on Hillary Clinton based
on “bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls.”
The former intelligence officer says the response from the FBI was “shock and horror.” The FBI, after receiving the first
memo, did not immediately request additional material, according to the former intelligence officer and his American
associates. Yet in August, they say, the FBI asked him for all information in his possession and for him to explain how the
material had been gathered and to identify his sources. The former spy forwarded to the bureau several memos—some of which
referred to members of Trump’s inner circle. After that point, he continued to share information with the FBI. “It’s quite
clear there was or is a pretty substantial inquiry going on,” he says.
“This is something of huge significance, way above party politics,” the former intelligence officer comments. “I think
[Trump’s] own party should be aware of this stuff as well.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding the memos. In the past, Trump has declared, “I have
nothing to do with Russia.”
- [Nov 06, 2016]: WikiLeaks released a second batch of DNC emails, adding 8,263 emails to its collection.[13]
(Wikipedia), This was another deliberate attempt to influence an election as this should be a "quite" period" for such things.
- [Nov 06, 2016]: FBI closes the investigation of "Wiener's laptop copy of Hillary Clinton
emails". FBI chief James Comey told leaders in Congress hours earlier that a review of 650,000 emails discovered on a laptop
belonging to Anthony Weiner had reinforced his July 5 decision to let her off the hook.
FBI will not change decision regarding Hillary Clinton's emails Daily Mail Online
- [Nov 09, 2016]: Trump was elected in a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton
in a stunning repudiation of
the establishemnt . United States elections,
2016 - Wikipedia
- [Nov 10, 2017]: After Trump election massive
NeoMcCartyism was launched. Any contact with Russian officials were
deemed criminal and the betrayal of the country.
- [Nov 17, 2016]: Retired general Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was appointed as the national security adviser.
Trump appoints Michael Flynn as national security adviser report - NY Daily News.
Like Trump, Flynn sees a military ally in controversial Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he was seated next to at a
banquet in Moscow last year. Flynn has also appeared several times on the state-owned TV station, Russia Today, which the U.S.
State Department has accused of being a mouthpiece for Putin.
... ... ...
Flynn's convention appearance puzzled many generals he had served with, as it broke their unofficial code of not picking
sides in presidential races.
Flynn gained further notoriety when he retweeted an anti-Semitic tweet that said, "Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore." He later
apologized for the retweet, claiming it was a "mistake."
- Obama administration engaged in fierce campaign of "unmasking" the result of surveillance of Trump team in which
several members of its administration participated (Susan Rice in primary role). With the goal of discrediting Trump team
and specifically removal of Flynn from the team.
However, there are 20 high-ranking officials within the U.S. government who have to power to approve requests to reveal
those identities if they deem that information is necessary to understanding the value of the intelligence. That process is
called "unmasking," and Rice had the authority to do so while serving as national security adviser.
- [Nov 18, 2016]: Sir
Andrew Wood, British ambassador to Moscow from 1995 to 2000, met with U.S. Senator John
McCain at the Halifax
International Security Forum in Canada, and told McCain about the existence of the collected materials about Trump.[28] Wood
vouched for Steele’s professionalism and integrity.[29] In
early December, McCain obtained a copy of the dossier from David
J. Kramer, a former U.S. State Department official working at Arizona
State University.[27] On
9 December 2016 McCain met personally with FBI Director James
Comey to pass on the information.[28]
- [Nov ??, 2016]: McCain got the dossier and spread it within Washington circles.
- [Dec 09, 2016]: President Obama ordered the entire
United
States Intelligence Community to conduct an investigation into Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election — and
provide a report before he leaves office on January 20, 2017
- [Dec 29, 2016]: Obama makes his last New Year present to Russia a fuels Russiagate hysteria. He expelled 35 Russian
diplomats and seized Russian property in the USA under the pretext of Russia influencing
the US Presidential elections.
Along with 17 agencies memo that fueled further neo-McCarthyism campaign again Russia and damaged Trump team.
[46][47][48]
(Wikipedia)
- Another entrapment plot -- this time against Flynn: Attempt of Flynn to limit the damage of the this move later were used for Flynn removal from the Trump team. All
his conversation were wiretapped and later leaked. In a way this was entrapment as the conversations were recorded. later
the recoding were used first to oust Flynn from Trump team and later by Mueller to
indict him on technical charge of lying to FBI to get additional dirt of Trump.
- [Early January 2017]: a two-page summary of the Trump dossier was presented to President Barack Obama and
President-elect Donald Trump in meetings with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA
Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.
Christopher Steele - Wikipedia
- [Jan 10, 2017]: Steele goes into hiding.
- [Jan 10, 2017]: Just before inauguration, Steele dossier was published by Buzzfeed. Clinton claimed to be
unaware and unconnected to the event. [Wikipedia]
On January 10, 2017, CNN reported that classified documents presented to Obama and Trump the previous week included allegations
that Russian operatives possess "compromising personal and financial information" about Trump. CNN stated that it would not
publish specific details on the memos because it had not "independently corroborated the specific allegations".[32][33]
Following the CNN report,[34]
BuzzFeed published a 35-page dossier that it said was the
basis of the briefing, including unverified claims that Russian operatives had collected "embarrassing material" involving Trump
that could be used to blackmail him.[35][36][33][37]
NBC reported that a senior U.S. intelligence official said that Trump had not been previously briefed on the contents of the
memos,[38]
although a CNN report said that a statement released by
James Clapper in early January confirmed that the
synopsis existed and had been compiled for Trump.[39]
- [Jan 12, 2017]:
Obama's EO12333 expansion made sure that whatever anti-Trump information got picked up by the intelligence community could be
spread widely, and would be hard to trace it back to an individual source . See also
Obama Expands Surveillance Powers
on His Way Out Electronic Frontier Foundation
- [Jan 20, 2017]: Trump inauguration was accompanied some protests like is common in color revolution scenarios, but
is atypical for the US inauguration. They did failed to achieve the necessary scale in order to serve as a "trigger for
further disturbances" nessesary to trigger further color revolution protests. There were no charges of policy brutality. Only 217 protesters were arrested.
Trump inauguration protest
damages parts of downtown Washington - CBS News
The bulk of the criminal acts happened at 10:30 a.m. when 400 to 500 people on 13th Street destroyed property, Interim
Police Chief Peter Newsham said. The protesters were armed with crowbars and threw objects at people and businesses,
destroying storefronts and damaging vehicles. Police used pepper spray to diffuse the situation.
- [Jan 21, 2017]: Campaign for Flynn removal from Trump team started. After inauguration dirt of several member of Trump team was surfaced
and first of all on general Flynn (who was important link to intelligence agencies in Trump administration) General Flynn served
as the
director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from July 2012 to his retirement from the military in August 2014. The fact the
Flynn lobbied Russians to take more consolatory stance on Israel actions and not to retaliate for expulsion of 35 diplomats will
become known much later. At this time his meetings are presented by MSM as a clear collision with the direct goal to discredit
him and remove him from the team.
- [Jan 23, 2017]: Was this connected with Trump team wiretapping? Robert Hannigan, the director of GCHQ, has
resigned from his job as head of one of the three Government intelligence agencies after just two years.
GCHQ would only say that Mr Hannigan had left his post for "personal reasons" and that he was not sacked or subject to
disciplinary proceedings. He had been director general of defense and intelligence at the Foreign Office before that. At the time
he took on the job, GCHQ had been forced onto the defensive following the leak of information about mass surveillance by Edward
Snowden, a former CIA employee.
GCHQ boss Robert
Hannigan quits for 'personal reasons' after just two years
- [Feb 13, 2017]: The first victim of Russiagate -- former general Flynn was forced to resign from Trump administration.
- [Mar 04, 2017]: Trump complains about British MI6 surveillance on him and members of his team.
White House does not
know if alleged surveillance of Trump was by wiretap US news The Guardian
- [Mar 07, 2017]: Steele suddenly and unexpectedly emerged form hiding.
Former MI6 agent behind Trump dossier returns to work UK news The Guardian
- [Mar 22, 2017]: Politico published an article entitled "Nunes claims some Trump transition
messages were intercepted" reporting: "House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes declared Wednesday that members of Donald Trump’s transition team, possibly including Trump himself, were under inadvertent
surveillance following November’s presidential
election." Immediately Nunes get under fire and gets investigated.
- [Apr 2, 2017]: Mike Cernovich claimed that Susan Rice was identified as the person who unmasked members of Trump
transition team.
- [Apr 5, 2017]: Susan Rice unmasking frenzy was confirmed.
What you need to know about Susan
Rice and the unmasking controversy - ABC News
- [May 8, 2017]: Comey was fired by Trump. Mr. Trump explained the firing by citing Mr. Comey’s handling of the
investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, even though the president was widely seen to have benefited
politically from that inquiry and had once praised Mr. Comey for his “guts” in his pursuit of Mrs. Clinton during the campaign
- [May 9-May 17, 2017]: The "appointment of the special prosecutor" gambit was launched. After the success with the removal
of Flynn (who might still have good connections with Military intelligence as as such was especially dangerous for plotters
appointment of the special prosecutor gambit was engineered. The included usage of Comey as sacrificed pawn and was supported by
the atmosphere of NeoMcCartyism already created in the country
and rogue elements in the Department of justice.
- [May 16, 2017]: Comey leaks information was published by NYT. Which was a deliberate criminal act on his part as such
memos belong to the government. the idea was to trigger the appointment of the Special prosecutor and it worked.
Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation - The New York Times
Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the
day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. It was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created
documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s
contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.
- [May 17, 2017]: Rosenstein appoints Mueller as the Special Prosecutor to investigate Trump-Russia connections and
possible Russia influence on the elections. With the indirect goal for force Trump resignation: shortly before
Mueller was interviews by Trump for the position of the director of FBI and was rejected. Now Comey destiny as a
leaker of government information hinged on the results on Mueller investigation. And they are long time friends.
Mr. Comey revealed for the first time that he turned over memos about his conversations with Mr. Trump to the special counsel,
Robert S. Mueller III.
- [May ??, 2017]: Mueller took his task to provide a pretext to depose Trump seriously and hired rabid anti-Trump prosecutors including Peter Strzok and
Andrew Weissmann (whom NYT called
Mueller’s Legal Pit Bull) creating
witch-hunt that paralyzed Trump administration. As if it is difficult to find less biased competent prosecutors in
this country. In other words Mueller cards were revealed.
- [Jun 8, 2017]: During his testimony Comey before before the Senate Intelligence Committee
Comey admitted to be the source of leaks to media which triggered the appointment of the Special Prosecutor by
Rosenstein, but refused to answer question about FBI role in propagating and financing Steele dossier.
Mr. Comey acknowledged for the first time that the FBI. was investigating Trump team but personally Mr. Trump. .
Comey Testimony The 8 Big Questions James Comey Refused
to Answer
- [July ??, 2017]: Arrest of Imran Awan and possible role of
Debbie Wasserman Schultz in
organizing private spying on the members of Congress for the benefits of DNC and Democratic Party.
- [July 20, 2017] FBI finally produced text messages from Strzok to Lisa Page that Horowitz office requested. Those
texts uncovered by Inspector General provided ample information about the level of his bias against Trump
- [July ?? 2017]: Peter Strzok his illicit lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page
leaves Mueller team
- [July 27, 2017]: Mueller and Rosenstein were informed about Peter Strzok text messages to Lisa Page
- [Aug ??, 2017]: Peter Strzok was quietly removed from the Mueller investigation and demoted in FBI. Neither
Rosenstein, no Congress were informed.
- [Oct 18, 2017]: Three Fusion GPS partners plead the Fifth in response to subpoenas to testify before the House
Intelligence Committee
dailycaller.com
"In August, Simpson, the point-man on the dossier project, met with the Senate Judiciary Committee for 10 hours. That meeting was
held after Simpson and Fusion threatened to plead the Fifth in response to a subpoena threat from the Judiciary panel."
- [Oct 21, 2017]: Fusion GPS that financed Steele dossier asks court to stop lawmakers from seeing financial records
- [Oct 25, 2017]: It was revealed that Steele dossier was funded by Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC via Fusion GPS.
Hillary Camp Paid For Fusion GPS Steele Dossier – FBI Covered Steele’s Travel Expenses, The WaPo article claims the 2016
presidential campaign of Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee paid for the Fusion GPS
dossier alleging Russian ties with the presidential campaign of Republican Donald Trump and sordid phony personal smears of
Trump. The Post reported that Clinton campaign and DNC lawyer Marc Elias and his law firm Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS $168K to
continue researching Trump after a Republican donor who originally funded the research pulled out in April 2016.The Clinton
campaign and the DNC continued to fund Steele’s research through the end of October.
The Dirty Truth About the Steele Dossier
Vanity Fair
- [Nov 6, 2017]: Flynn was indicted by Mueller team along with another hapless staffer.
Business Insider
The indictment of Michael Flynn seems to have been partly
intended to shield Mueller from dismissal and to keep his Russiagate investigation alive.
- [Dec 1, 2017]: Michael Flynn pleads guilty to
lying to FBI. He was previously entrapeed by Peter Strzok and charged with lying to FBI. This move by-and-large was viewed as
a desperate attempt of Mueller to survive under the barrage of revelations about Peter Strzok. And it suceccededed. Mueller probe
survives althouth he personally from this point was discredited as a partisan hack (which he was since 9/11).
- [Dec 2, 2017]: Information about Peter Strzok removal comes to light and the texts between him and Lisa Page were disclosed.
FBI Agent Kicked-Off
Mueller Team for Anti-Trump Messages - Breitbart
- [Dec 7, 2017]:
Bruce Ohr, Top DOJ Official, Demoted for Ties to Fusion GPS, Trump Dossier. Information that Steele was also directly in touch with high level Obama’s Justice Department official Bruce Ohr
and that brse Ohr wife worked for Fusion GPs in anti-Trump research comes to light.
- [Dec 10, 2017]: Suspicions about the anti-trump plot within Justice Department and several intelligence agencies including
FBI were openly voiced during Congressional hearings. The "insurance policy" email suggested the existence of a
conspiracy within the FBI to rig the Presidential Election.
During the exchanges between Wray
and Jordan at the hearing in the House Judiciary Committee Jordan also had this to say:
Here’s what I think — I think Peter Strozk (sic)… Mr. Super Agent at the FBI, I think he’s the guy who took the
application to the FISA court and if that happened, if this happened, if you have the FBI working with a campaign, the
Democrats’ campaign, taking opposition research, dressing it all up and turning it into an intelligence document so they can
take it to the FISA court so they can spy on the other campaign, if that happened, that is as wrong as it gets
- [Dec 11, 2017]: During his interview Michael Morell admitted the existence of the plot to remove Trump within
intelligence agencies.
Conservative
Daily Post
- [Dec 17, 2017]: BBC became really alarmed at the perspective of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate FBI
and/or reopening the probe about Hillary Clinton email server which can expose the role of British government in Steele dossier
saga (Trump-Russia inquiry- Why attacks on Robert Mueller are mounting by Anthony Zurcher
) :
All of it could be setting the ground for new investigations into the FBI or Democrat Hillary Clinton's actions while
secretary of state - something Mr Trump himself has suggested - or perhaps even for the president to order the end of Mr
Mueller's probe.
Such an action would provoke a major political crisis and could have unpredictable consequences. For Mr Trump's
defenders, it may be enough simply to mire Mr Mueller's investigation in a partisan morass. Here are some are some of the ways
they're trying to do that.
- [Dec 19, 2017]: One of the central figures in "anti-Trump putsch" within Justice Department and intelligence agencies
Andrew McCabe was grilled for seven and a half hours by House Republicans in Russia meddling probe -
Washington Times
“I’ll be a little bit surprised if [Mr.
McCabe‘s] still an employee of the FBI this
time next week,” Mr. Gowdy told Fox News in a separate interview.
Washington Times.
Now it looks like there is investigation of Mueller collision with the "FBI gang of
three" along with Mueller investigation of Trump. this became rteally convoluted but the degrees of freedom for Mueller
were severy cut now.
- [Dec 20, 2017]: Several other key figures connected with "insurance policy" email are expected to testify under
oath to House intelligence committee. The list include Ohr, his wide, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.
- [Dec 22, 2017] More than 170 House Democrats signed a
letter supporting Mueller this week, and Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, took to the
floor of the Senate on Wednesday to warn that ousting the special counsel could spark a constitutional crisis.
- [Dec 22, 2017]: Top FBI Lawyer James Baker who was recently demoted was linked to leaking bogus Steele Dossier to MSM.
The GOP sources said the documents — made available recently to lawmakers by the Department of Justice — revealed that James
Baker, the FBI’s general counsel, communicated with Mother Jones reporter David Corn in the weeks leading up to the November 2016
election. Corn was the first
to report the existence of the dossier on Oct. 31.
Top FBI Lawyer Who Was
Demoted Now Linked To Leaking Bogus Trump Dossier to MSM – True PunditTrue Pundit
- [Dec 23, 2017]: Andrew McCabe announced his intention to resign from FBI in 90 days (when he can get full
pension). Trump sarcastically commented on this decision in a twit.
- [Dec 26, 2017]: Damage control efforts and attempt to regroup and save Mueller skin in view of Peter Strzok role in the
Hillary email server investigation and pushing Steele dossier started. NYT tried to lower the expectations about year and half "Russiagate" investigation by rabidly
anti-Trump team does not provide enough information to change President with "collision" (BTW there is no such rime in Us
criminal codex). Now NYT pleads "give me dirt, any dirt on Trump" The End of Trump and
the End of Days - The New York Times:
Fury isn’t strategy, and there’s no need to extrapolate beyond the facts already in our possession. Take the inquiries into
the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia. They could screech to a halt tomorrow and we’d be left with more than enough
evidence of corrupt business dealings, conflicts of interest, shady back channels, awful judgment and outright lies among
Trump’s intimates to present voters with a powerful case against his fitness for office.
But by obsessing over clear “collusion” and insisting on visible puppet strings by which Vladimir Putin controlled
Trump, we have set the bar dangerously high. Mueller’s ultimate findings could be plenty ugly and still be deemed
underwhelming.
Under the smoke screen of Russian hackers we probably more complex picture which might
include attempts
of at least two of the US intelligence agencies (specifically CIA and FBI; most probably CIA via FBI) to influence the elections. The role of Brennan in this whole story is still a
mystery, but recent hearings does not inspire any confidence in him and methods that he used (John
Brennan, Obama loyalist and CIA director, drove FBI to investigate Trump associates - Washington
Times).
It was then-CIA Director John
O. Brennan, a close confidant of Mr. Obama’s, who provided the information — what he termed
the “basis” — for the
FBI to start
the counterintelligence investigation last summer.
Mr. Brennan served on the
former president’s 2008 presidential campaign and in his
White House.
Mr. Brennan told the House
Intelligence Committee on May 23 that the intelligence community was picking up tidbits on
Trump associates making
contacts with Russians. Mr.
Brennan did not name either the Russians or the Trump people. He indicated he did not know
what was said.
... ... ...
Mr. Brennan, who has not
hidden his dislike for Mr. Trump,
testified he briefed the investigation’s progress to Mr. Obama, who at the time was trying to aid
Hillary Clinton in her
campaign against the Republican nominee.
... ... ...
It could well be that the role of Steele dossier might be create a pretext of using total
surveillance on Trump team on the part of FBI. Which was a pretty devious plot, indeed. And they are real specialists in
this area due to their track record of implementing
color
revolutions in various parts of the globe, and, especially, in former Soviet Union and its
former satellites.
Unprecedented rate of hacking of emails of officials around the globe is really disturbing. but
in the USA it might well came not so much from
external as internal sources, including possible false flag operations. Intrusion onto political process happened
before. One telling example is JFK assassination.
Interference in foreign election is also a proven fact: CIA role in "fixing" Italian elections
of 1948 is a historical fact.
Tensions between CIA and Pentagon is well know due to events in Syria, where they sometimes found
themselves on the opposite sides of barricades. So Military intelligence might well play restraining
role on CIA and probably, not accidentally, General Flynn got into Trump's team
(BREAKING CIA Director John Brennan Targeted General Flynn and Sean Hannity For Surveillance):
GotNews’ Chuck Johnson went on to explain the feuding history of Brennan and General Flynn…
The motivations for Brennan’s dislike of Flynn date back years. The two had publicly feuded
during Flynn’s time as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Flynn was producing
intel documents that showed how the supposed Syrian moderates were actually assets of Saudi
Arabia and Qatar.
Brennan also brought in disgraced Syria analyst Elizabeth O’Bagy to brief the CIA. O’Bagy was
outed by this reporter for manufacturing her credentials and for being paid by the Syrian rebels.
O’Bagy worked for the defense industry funded Institute for the Study of War, a neocon think tank
headed by the Kagans, a controversial family which advised David Petraeus. Petraeus was brought
down. Intel sources I’ve spoken to believe Brennan was behind his ousting.
Former CIA agent John Kiriakou discussed John Brennan’s “deep-seated hatred of Trump” and
decision to make “Russian intervention… the hammer he is going to hit Trump with.” “Flynn has
been screwed by the agency in the past and Flynn has had a difficult personal relationship with
Brennan,” Kiriakou said in January. “Even though Brennan is gone, the CIA is still being run by
Brennan’s people.” Both Flynn and Trump called for reorganizing the CIA –- a direct threat to
Brennan’s remaking of the CIA.
Brenna also have had a peculiar relationship with Obama, who most people would expect should be very
vary of CIA and its influence on White House and Congress (heonce mentioned that he does not want to became another JFK). But on the contrary, "in the 67
years since the C.I.A. was founded, few presidents have had as close a bond with their intelligence
chiefs as Mr. Obama has forged with Mr. Brennan." (Obama
and Brennan):
Obama is not Brennan’s puppet, nor the other way. Both are electrified by mutual contact and
support. The reporters note friction between the White House and Langley “after the release of
the scorching report,” Brennan having “irritated advisers… by battling Democrats on the committee
over the report during the past year.” They do not point out Obama did the same, stalling
release, suffocating criticism of CIA hard-ball tactics against the committee, of which later;
yet they make up for that with, given that this is NYT, an astonishing statement: “But in the
67 years since the C.I.A. was founded, few presidents have had as close a bond with their
intelligence chiefs as Mr. Obama has forged with Mr. Brennan. It is a relationship that has
shaped the policy and politics of the debate over the nation’s war with terrorist organizations,
as well as the agency’s own struggle to balance security and liberty.” What they don’t say is
that counterterrorism is part of the larger US position of counterrevolution, issuing in
confrontations with Russia and China and regime change wherever American interests are
challenged. Nor do they say, the Agency’s struggle to balance security and liberty was lost
before it had fairly begun, assassination and regime change hardly indicative of liberty, a
no-contest battle.
... A parallel aside, CIA and NSA, both on Obama’s watch, joined at the hip in one important
respect, their sphere of unrestrained activity, contempt for Constitutional oversight, and
connivance in the latter by the president, adding up to a state-within-the-state signaling the
wider potential for totalitarianism in America.
...Ron Wyden (Dem., Or.), like Udall, a strong critic, here, of NSA, stated that “the dealings
between spy agencies and their congressional overseers were crippled by a ‘culture of
misinformation.’” Wyden, the year before, caught Clapper in a flat lie about “whether
intelligence agencies were collecting any bulk information about Americans,” Clapper saying “they
were not,” and later, “he had to apologize for that answer
There is also always some level of inter-fighting
between different US intelligence agencies, for example NSA vs CIA.
Connections between Bush clan and CIA are well documented. Strange biography of Barack Obama also
raises interesting questions. And Clintons also seems to be connected to the US intelligence one way
or the other due to their
Arkansas past. Amazing level of confidence of Bill Clinton (and to a lesser extent Hillary
Clinton) that he/she is above the law might well be connected with this fact.
In this sense anti-Russian campaign and accusations of Russia in interfering into the US election
(after the US interfered in Russian election of 2011-2012, trying to stage a color revolution in
this country) might be just a smoke screen.
Also it is not clear why Russia would prefer Trump to Hillary. Here is one post that addresses
this issues (Economist's
View What’s Behind a Rise in Ethnic Nationalism Maybe the Economy, Oct 14, 2016):
likbez -> pgl... ,
Friday, October 14, 2016 at 07:43 PM
Paradoxically Pravda in old times did have real insights into
the US political system and for this reason was widely read
by specialists. Especially materials published by the
Institute of the USA and Canada -- a powerful Russian think
tank somewhat similar to the Council on Foreign Relations.
As for your remark I think for many people in the USA
Russophobia is just displaced Anti-Semitism.
JohnH remark is actually very apt and you should not
"misunderestimate" the level of understanding of the US
political system by Russians. They did learn a lot about
machinations of the neoliberal foreign policy, especially
about so called "color revolutions."
Hillary&Obama has had a
bloody nose when they tried to stage a "color revolution" in
2011-2012 in Russia (so called "white revolution). A typical
US citizen probably never heard about it or heard only about
"Pussy riot", Navalny and couple of other minor figures. At
the end poor ambassador Michael McFaul was recalled. NED was
expelled. Of course Russia is just a pale shadow of the USSR
power-wise, so Obama later put her on sanctions using MH17
incident as a pretext with no chances of retaliation.
They
also successfully implemented regime change in Ukraine --
blooding Putin nose in return.
But I actually disagree with JohnH. First of all Putin
does not need to interfere in a way like the USA did in
2011-2012.
It would be a waist of resources as both candidates are
probably equally bad for Russia (and it is the "deep state"
which actually dictate the US foreign policy, not POTUS.)
The US political system is already the can of worms and
the deterioration of neoliberal society this time created
almost revolutionary situation in Marxists terms, when Repug
elite was not able to control the nomination. Democratic
establishment still did OK and managed to squash the
rebellion, but here the level of degeneration demonstrated
itself in the selection of the candidate.
Taking into account the level of dysfunction of the US
political system, I am not so sure the Trump is preferable to
Hillary for Russians. I would say he is more unpredictable
and more dangerous. The main danger of Hillary is Syria war
escalation, but the same is true for Trump who can turn into
the second John McCain on a dime.
Also the difference between two should not be exaggerated.
Both are puppets of the forces the brought them to the
current level and in their POTUS role will need to be
subservient to the "deep state". Or at least to take into
account its existence and power. And that makes them more of
prisoners of the position they want so much.
Trump probably to lesser extent then Hillary, but he also
can't ignore the deep state. Both require the support of
Republican Congress for major legislative initiatives. And it
will be very hostile to Hillary. Which is a major advantage for
Russians, as this excludes the possibility of some very
stupid moves.
Again, IMHO in no way any of them will control the US
foreign policy. In this area the deep state is in charge
since Allen Dulles and those who try to deviate too much
might end as badly as JFK. I think Obama understood this very
well and did not try to rock the boat. And there are people
who will promptly explain this to Trump in a way that he
understands.
In other words, neither of them will escape the limit on
their power that "deep state" enforces. And that virtually
guarantee the continuity of the foreign policy, with just
slight tactical variations.
So why Russians should prefer one to another? You can
elect a dog as POTUS and the foreign policy of the USA will
be virtually the same as with Hillary or Trump.
In internal policy Trump looks more dangerous and more
willing to experiment, while Hillary is definitely a "status
quo" candidate. The last thing Russians needs is the US stock
market crush. So from the point of internal economic policy
Hillary is also preferable.
A lot of pundits stress the danger of war with Russia, and
that might be true as women in high political position try to
outdo men in hawkishness. But here Hillary jingoism probably
will be tightly controlled by the "deep state". Hillary
definitely tried to be "More Catholic then the Pope" in this
area while being the Secretary of State. That did not end
well for her and she might learn the lesson.
But if you think about the amount of "compromat" (Russian
term ;-) on Hillary and Bill that Russians may well already
collected, in "normal circumstances" she might be a preferable counterpart for Russians. As in "devil that we
know". Both Lavrov and Putin met Hillary. Medvedev was burned
by Hillary. Taking into account the level of greed Hillary
displayed during her career, I would be worried what Russians
have on her , as well as on Bill "transgressions" and
RICO-style actions of Clinton Foundation.
And taking into account the level of disgust amount the
government officials with Hillary (and this is not limited to
Secret Service) , new leaks are quite possible, which might
further complicate her position as POTUS.
In worst case, the first year (or two) leaks will continue.
Especially if damaging DNC leaks were the work of some
disgruntled person within the USA intelligence and not of
some foreign hacker group. That might be a plus for Russians as
such a constant distraction might limit her possibility to
make some stupid move in Syria. Or not.
As you know personal emails boxes for all major Web mail
providers are just one click away for NSA analysts. So
"Snowden II" hypothesis might have the right to exist.
Also it is quite probably that impeachment process for
Hillary will start soon after her election. In the House
Republicans have enough votes to try it. That also might be a
plus for s for both Russia and China. Trump is extremely
jingoistic as for Iran, and that might be another area were
Hillary is preferable to Russians and Chinese over Trump.
Also do not discount her health problems. She does have
some serious neurological disease, which eventually might
kill her. How fast she will deteriorate is not known but in a
year or two the current symptoms might become more
pronounced. If Bill have STD (and sometime he looks like a
person with HIV;
http://joeforamerica.com/2016/07/bill-clinton-aids/)
that
further complicates that picture (this is just a rumor, but
he really looks bad).
I think that all those factors make her an equal, or even
preferable candidate for such states as Russia and China.
The way Trump "lewd" tale (aka
Steele dossier) surfaced also creates
a lot of questions about role on intelligence
agencies in the elections. Same about Trump surveillance authorized by Obama administration as well
as possible unauthorized surveillance outsourced to MI6. God knows what information "friendly
intelligence agencies" provided the USA if and when requested, and the hypothesis that such requests
were made, circulated in the media and have a lot more credibility then Steele dossier ;-)
That fact the CIA personnel was spying on Senate Intelligence Committee is an established fact (Is
CIA Spying on Senate Intelligence Committee ) If so, were other senators, or political
candidates with view that are opposed to view of CIA on important issues, or Obama
himself, or several of his official are immune from being watched ? From this
point nobody is off-limit.
See also Brennan and Clapper
Elder Statesmen or Serial Fabricators, by Mike Whitney - The Unz Review
Recety it was revelased the
We also have Loretta Lynch tarmac story and her recommendation to Comey to call Clinton email investigation "a matter".
Susan Rice was involved in a very suspicious campaign of unmasking the results of
wiretaps of Trump transition team and campaign during the last days of Obama administration
In a
massive scoop, on Monday morning Eli Lake of
Bloomberg reported that Barack Obama’s national
security advisor, Susan Rice, repeatedly requested information from the intelligence community on members of
the Trump transition team and campaign, unmasking them to an audience beyond the intelligence community in the
process. Normally, raw intelligence masks the identity of American citizens caught up in legal surveillance of
other targets.
Here’s Lake:
In February [National Security Council senior director for intelligence] Cohen-Watnick discovered Rice's
multiple requests to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports that related to Trump transition
activities. He brought this to the attention of the White House General Counsel's office, who reviewed more
of Rice's requests and instructed him to end his own research into the unmasking policy. The intelligence
reports were summaries of monitored conversations – primarily between foreign officials discussing the Trump
transition, but also in some cases direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign
officials. One U.S. official familiar with the reports said they contained valuable political
information on the Trump transition such as whom the Trump team was meeting, the views of Trump associates
on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration.
Rice denied that she knew anything about members of the Trump transition caught up in incidental
intelligence gathering last month. As Lake also points out, the revelation that Rice requested the documents
would explain House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes’ trip to the White House two weeks ago – he needed to go
there to view Rice’s missives. It would also explain why Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the most ardent Trump critic
on wiretapping and leaks, suddenly went silent over the weekend after seeing documents the White House
presented to him.
This is indeed a huge story for the Trump White House. It doesn’t change the inaccuracy of Trump’s
accusations that he was wiretapped by the Obama administration – there is still zero evidence to support that
claim. But it demonstrates that the Trump team was not only targeted by members of the Obama intelligence
community for unmasking and likely leaking, but that such unmasking went to the very top of the Obama
administration.
And here’s another inconvenient fact for Democrats: despite Susan Rice requesting and apparently receiving
raw intelligence regarding the Trump team, the Democrats have been unable to substantiate any allegedly
nefarious activity between Trump’s people and foreign adversaries. Which means that the only scandal here is
the apparent targeting and leaking of names from the Trump team in order to smear them by high-ranking Obama
officials.
There’s another question that requires an answer, however: why didn’t Trump merely declassify this material
as soon as his White House found out about it in February? Why attempt to channel it through Nunes?
Obama was pressed by US intelligence agencies to react and at the last days of his administration fueled promoted by
Intelligence agances (and first of all by Brennan and Clapper) Russiagate witch hunt by ordering (supposedly relying on Brennan's 17
agencies memo and other flaky evidence) 35 Russian diplomats to leave the USA and seizing of Russian property. Please note
that after proved attempts to stage a color revolution (nicknamed
White revolution) in Russia
in 2012 election circle (to prevent re-election of Putin) and Snowden revelations Obama really looks like that
the pot calling the kettle black. Here is how
neoliberal (and rabidly pro-Obama and Hillary Clinton) Guardian described this witch hunt (Obama
expels 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for US election hacking, Dec 30, 2016)
The Obama administration on Thursday announced its retaliation for Russian efforts to interfere with the US presidential
election, ordering sweeping new sanctions that included the expulsion of 35 Russians.
US intelligence services believe Russia ordered cyber-attacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Hillary Clinton’s
campaign and other political organizations, in an attempt to influence the election in favor of the Republican candidate, Donald
Trump.
In a statement issued two weeks after the president said he would respond to cyber-attacks by Moscow “at a time and place of
our choosing”, Obama said Americans should “be alarmed by Russia’s actions” and pledged further action.
“I have issued an executive order that provides additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to
interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners,” Obama said in the
statement, released while he was vacationing with his family in Hawaii.
“Using this new authority, I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence
services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU’s cyber operations.
“In addition, the secretary of the treasury is designating two Russian individuals for using cyber-enabled means to cause
misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information.” He also announced the closure of two Russian compounds in the
US.
Obama added that more actions would be taken, “some of which will not be publicized”.
... ... ...
Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, was quoted
by the RIA news agency as saying the US move represented “the death throes of political corpses”.
The Twitter feed of the Russian embassy in London, meanwhile, called the Obama administration “hapless” and attached a picture
of a duck with the word “LAME” emblazoned across it.
One guardian reader asked an interesting qurestion:
Grrrant 29 Dec 2016 16:47
If Putin can influence the result of elections why did Ukraine get a pro Europe President in 2014?
geneob 29 Dec 2016 16:47
Remember the Maine.... Gulf of Tonkin... Russia hacked the election.
Obama just can't assept that clinton wing of Democratic party looks like an Ayn Rand clique compared to the Eisenhower
Republicans of the 1950s and that election of Trump singnigy the crisi of neoliberalism in the USA (and deep crisis of the civil
society, see Neoliberalism and Christianity) , not so
much Russian interference (which probably was a magniture less then Izraile, GB (stele dossier) and KSA interference to mane a few).
A common attitude of British public was aptly expressed by kriticon:
kritikon 29 Dec 2016 16:46
1. It's a last ditch petulant political move by Obama to discredit Trump. Which is pointless as it'll be like water off a
duck's back. Trump's already made noises that he wants to thaw out relations with Russia..which is one of the few sensible
things he's made noise about.
2. If Russia did indeed hack the DNC...far better to not put yourself in a position where you can get caught out, no? If
your party does things that will discredit you...either make sure your security is up to scratch or even better...don't do the
sneaky things in the first place. If the Dems were clean the Russians wouldn't be able to discredit them. Obvious.
3. Obama waits 8 years to do anything? This is the very first time Russia has done anything naughty in 8 whole years? Really?
4. Don't shit in the pot when it's still on top of the cooker. Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Grenada, Cuba...in fact pretty well
the whole continent of S. America...the US has never interfered in anyone's internal politics themselves?
Trump may be an orange moron, but Obama hasn't exactly covered himself in glory, and just where has constant enmity to
Russia got us since the fall of the USSR? We push and nudge and face off for decades against the Soviets (rightly IMO) and
then give them no encouragement to become a decent friendly country post cold war afterwards. Then we're surprised that Russia
becomes a dictatorship? Surprised that they still face off with the West when we constantly still face off with them?
Obama has to be one of the most ineffective presidents the US has ever had. Good at PR but not much else.
In any case this is a deliberate and petty attempt to provide fundament for continuation of neocon foreign policy and tie Trump
hands. It also logically led to Flynn meeting with the Russian ambassador
Sergey Kislyak which in this sense can be considered as an entrapment (In a November 2016 speech at
Stanford University, Kislyak denied that
Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.[25]
In the same speech, Kisylak accused the United States of waging a "huge propaganda campaign against Russia" and stated that the
American-Russian relationship was currently at "the worst point in our relations after the end of the Cold War. You've re-entered a
policy of containing Russia … You've tried to contain Russia through economic pressure and through sanctions."[5])
No, because he is deliberately making the US-Russia relationship worse than it already is - and it's his administration that's
responsible for it being so grim to start with. Attack Russia with sanctions, paint them into a corner publicly, and you should
not be surprised if the bear decides to bite back.
Milton an opinion 29 Dec 2016 16:44
No I think we agree Hillary is shit. It's just that she lost (well, won by 3m votes) against a stupid, arrogant, spoiled,
bigoted, misogynist, racist, multiple bankrupt lying turd who was, amazingly enough, an even more loathsome human being than
she.
Possibily even more stupefyingly unbelievable is that either one of these wretches is to succeed America's first black
president, who proved that intelligence does not a good leader make if unaccompanied by wisdom or insight, but who managed to
look good, after a fashion, because he was preceded by one of the stupidest humans ever to pollute the Oval Office.
Obama's legacy will be that he was a useless president distinguished only by the fact that he was both preceded and succeeded
by arrogant cretins.
- 20210724 : Steele Dossier Peddlers Confirm Its Substance With New Forgeries ( Jul 16, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210721 : Civilized nations' efforts to deter Russia and China are starting to add up ( Jul 21, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210626 : So Much Of What The CIA Used To Do Covertly It Now Does Overtly - ZeroHedge ( Jun 22, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210626 : Late Stage Globalism- When Anything That Is Not Censored Is A Lie ( Jun 23, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210620 : Why Big Business Ends Up Supporting The Regime ( Jun 20, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210614 : Jessica Ashooh- The Taming of Reddit and the National Security State Plant Tabbed to Do It ( Jun 14, 2021 , www.mintpressnews.com )
- 20210608 : RFK's False-Flag Assassination, and the forgotten Palestinian patsy by Laurent Guyénot ( Jun 08, 2021 , www.unz.com )
- 20210601 : Through a collaboration with Danish intelligence, the United States has conducted targeted espionage against senior politicians and officials in Norway, Sweden, Germany and France ( May 30, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210528 : Is The Pentagon's UFO PsyOps Fueling Russia, China War Risk by Finian Cunningham ( May 22, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210528 : Attorney General Bill Barr threatened to quit last year over Trump's attempts to fire FBI Director Chris Wray ( May 09, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210528* Accused Russiagate Spy Kilimnik Speaks -- and Evidence Backs His No Collusion Account ( May 24, 2021 , www.realclearinvestigations.com ) [Recommended]
- 20210528 : EU Parliament report says regime change needed in Russia, recommends Brussels launch propaganda TV channel to help it happen ( May 20, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210528 : More Hacks, More Baseless Accusations Against Russia ( May 11, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210528 : Was the Colonial Pipeline Co. ransomware attack a false flag operation ? ( May 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210524 : Laurent Guy not makes a compelling case that both Kennedys were assassinated by Mossad ( May 24, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210520 : Peddlers Of Russiagate Won t Take Truth For An Answer ( May 20, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210520 : Peddlers Of Russiagate Won t Take Truth For An Answer ( May 20, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210512 : Reds under the bed? Or forgot to take the antipsychotics today? ( May 12, 2021 , www.wsj.com )
- 20210512 : Taibbi- Reporters Once Challenged The Spy State. Now, They're Agents Of It - ZeroHedge ( May 12, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210510 : Biden says 'no evidence' Russia responsible for pipeline cyberattack but Russia has 'some responsibility' ( May 10, 2021 , www.rt.com )
- 20210509 : As the world has become more complex, people have relied more and more on stereotypes and simplifications to help them interpret and filter events around them ( May 09, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210509 : Abolish The FBI by Dinesh D'Souza ( May 03, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210509 : Wokism and Russiagate ( May 09, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210509 : The CIA from its inception it has recruited an unusual number of closeted homosexuals ( May 09, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210503 : FISA And The Still Too Secret Police ( May 03, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210503 : US new Foreign Malign Influence Center is just official cover for American intelligence interference in domestic politics by Scott Ritter ( May 03, 2021 , www.rt.com )
- 20210503 : US generals to the Director of DNA: Either supply the facts or shut up ( May 03, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210503 : The NYT is simply a propaganda organ of the corporate oligarchy. Whenever the US does something bad, it is always "alleged". When opponents of US hegemony are accused of doing something bad, it is never "alleged" ( Apr 27, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210503 : The CIA Used To Infiltrate The Media... Now The CIA Is The Media by Caitlin Johnstone, ( Apr 16, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210503* U.S. Four Star Generals Ask DNI To Stop Lying ( May 03, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20210503 : FISA And The Still Too Secret Police ( May 03, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210427 : Czech counterintelligence finds no proof of Russians presence in Vrbetice - president (TASS, April 25, 2021) ( Apr 27, 2021 , tass.com )
- 20210427 : These days evidence no longer has to be presented for a claim because the accusation of Russia is a loyalty test for the Amerikastani Empire and vassal citizens. ( Apr 27, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210427 : Bounties- What Bounties ( Apr 27, 2021 , www.strategic-culture.org )
- 20210427 : The CIA Used to Infiltrate the Media " Consortiumnews ( Apr 27, 2021 , consortiumnews.com )
- 20210425 : Exactly what does the US gain by constantly smacking down Russia? better jobs, higher education, better health maybe? less debt/smaller deficits for US citizens? ( Apr 25, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210425 : Putin remarked how to "attack Russia" has become a sport, a new sport, who makes the loudest statements ( Apr 25, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210425* The danger for American elites is not that more Americans might begin to question neoliberal deindustrialization, uncontrolled immigration and the consequences of maintaining the US global hegemony at the expense of the standard of living of ordinary Americans ( Jan 07, 2021 , Another Guardian article from this week warns of "pro-Kremlin outlets" spreading "coronavirus disinformation". ( Apr 25, 2021 , off-guardian.org )
- 20210425 : Angelina Jolie s MI6 Interview Shows Just How Connected Hollywood Is To the Deep State ( Nov 30, 2020 , www.mintpressnews.com )
- 20210425 : FBI Releases Documents On Investigation Into Death Of DNC Staffer Seth Rich by Zachary Stieber ( Apr 25, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210419 : I think Scott Ritter is engaging in an imaginative future if he thinks the 'hate russia' team has no successors. The academy will be full of them just itching for an interns job with a congresscritter. ( Apr 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210419 : Two decades a coordinated anti-Russia propaganda originating from the U.K. [MI-6 its former spies Khodorkovsky - The Interpreter - Henry Jackson Society] and Washington DC a nest of anti-Russia lobbyists [Atlantic Council BellingCat, etc] ( Apr 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210419 : Why Washington's Anti-Russian Policies Are Likely To Intensify ( Apr 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210419 : Two decades a coordinated anti-Russia propaganda originating from the U.K. [MI-6 its former spies Khodorkovsky - The Interpreter - Henry Jackson Society] and Washington DC a nest of anti-Russia lobbyists [Atlantic Council BellingCat, etc] ( Apr 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210419 : No one fact check's the claims made by the intelligent agencies ( Apr 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210419 : One Man Stands in the Way of NATO's Run Onward to Moscow - ZeroHedge ( Apr 19, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210419 : It's not only that USians are unaware of much of what's happening in other countries, it's the fact they are completly misinformed and misled about current events in foreign countries and deliberatly so ( Apr 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210407 : Operation Mockingbird 2: How Russia 'Weaponizes' everthing she touches ( Apr 07, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210407 : The fate of Durham probe ( Apr 07, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210404* US Intelligence Community Increasingly Involving Itself In Domestic Politics by Glenn Greenwald ( Mar 24, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
- 20210403* The Spy Who Loved Me- Check It Out by Ted Rall ( Apr 01, 2021 , www.wsj.com ) [Recommended]
- 20210402 : Both coups in Brazil in 1964 and Indonesia 1965 very much departed from JFK policies. ( Apr 02, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210330 : Another day another lie ( Mar 30, 2021 , asiatimes.com )
- 20210326 : The origin on neo-McCarthysim is that the empire so far does not have China, Russia and Iran fully in its control ( Mar 26, 2021 , www.unz.com )
- 20210324 : US "intelligence" i.e the people who leak made up BS via anonymous sources to their media mouthpieces ( Mar 24, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210322 : US-Russia ties nosedive after Biden-Putin tit-for-tat ( Mar 18, 2021 , abcnews.go.com )
- 20210322 : Operation Mindfuck: The origins of the Illuminati conspiracy fraud and how it became popular in our times ( Mar 22, 2021 , t.co )
- 20210319 : The USA neoliberal elite is far more Russophobic then than Sinophobic. ( Mar 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210309 : The New York Times and The Washington Post have long been, and continue to be, stenographers for the State Dep't and CIA -- why is anyone surprised at these recent campaigns? ( Mar 09, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210308 : Solomon- New Declassified Texts Expose FBI's -Media Leak Strategy- Used To Influence Election, Trump Presidency - ZeroHedge ( Mar 08, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210227 : Probably whatever Durham was investigating will receive a quiet burial ( Feb 27, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210225 : Censorship Gone Bonkers - 'Be A Good Citizen!' ( Feb 25, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210219 : McCarthyism=cancel culture: The cancel culture was pioneered by the red baiting of the capitalist elites and their shock troops in agencies such as the FBI to break, often through violence, radical movements and labor unions. Tens of thousands of people, in the name of anti-communism, were cancelled out of the culture. ( Feb 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210216 : Opening The CIA's Can Of Worms by Edward Curtin ( Feb 16, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210203 : Brennan lied about the CIA spying on Senate members, was the architect of the drone program, supported the torture program used on 9/11 prisoners and was behind the Russia collusion hoax. ( Feb 03, 2021 , www.theguardian.com )
- 20210129 : John F Kennedy had Addison's disease ( Jan 29, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210129 : A Domestic Terrorism Law- War on Dissent Will Proceed Full Speed Ahead -- It could be Russiagate all over again, with a claimed foreign threat being used to conceal civil rights violations being committed by the federal government at home. ( Jan 29, 2021 , www.strategic-culture.org )
- 20210129 : No one's above the law- FBI lawyer who altered evidence to enable spying on Trump gets PROBATION instead of jail -- RT USA New ( Jan 29, 2021 , www.rt.com )
- 20210128 : Russiagate was BS to cover for Clinton being a horrible candidate. ( Jan 28, 2021 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
- 20210128 : Ukraine is become a Wild West for spies and mercenaries. Perhaps that was whole intent of coup ( Jan 28, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210127 : There are far more similarities between Putin-tards and Q-tards than is generally admitted. ( Jan 27, 2021 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
- 20210127 : typical ( Jan 27, 2021 , www.extremetech.com )
- 20210127 : Was there a better way for Trump to telegraph (or tweet, whatever) to the public that the establishment had no idea who was behind the hack? ( Jan 27, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210127 : I have no direct knowledge of SolarWinds specifically, but if Boeing hired HCL (formerly Hindu Computer Limited) to develop software for its 737 max, I'll make a wild guess and assume that SolarWinds too probably hired a bunch of Indian kids worth $10/hour each, who come and go every few months. ( Jan 27, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210127 : Solar Winds was an Israeli penetration- Not Russia- - Sic Semper Tyrannis ( Jan 27, 2021 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
- 20210127 : More Cyber Crimes, Attributed To Russia, Are Shown To Have Come From Elsewhere ( Jan 27, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210125 : I wonder how many people picked up Pres. Biden's passing reference to Russia paying bounties for American scalps (in Afghanistan). It was a 24-hr. story long ago and died quickly for lack of evidence and logic. But Biden keeps using it, as he did in one of the 'debates' with Trump. ( Jan 25, 2021 , consortiumnews.com )
- 20210125 : What is particularly hard to fathom is not so much the gross dishonesty and malice of politicians like H. Clinton and Pelosi but the boneheaded stupidity and ignorance of the broad population that accepts fables like Russiagate as fact ( Jan 25, 2021 , consortiumnews.com )
- 20210124 : Russiagate Ain't Over ( Jan 22, 2021 , consortiumnews.com )
- 20210124 : That the emails were indeed leaked to Wikileaks, not provided to Assange by mysterious, non-existing "Guccifer 2.0" hackers ( Jan 24, 2021 , consortiumnews.com )
- 20210124 : What is particularly hard to fathom is not so much the gross dishonesty and malice of politicians like H. Clinton and Pelosi but the boneheaded stupidity and ignorance of the broad population that accepts fables like Russiagate as fact ( Jan 24, 2021 , consortiumnews.com )
- 20210124 : I wonder how many people picked up Pres. Biden's passing reference to Russia paying bounties for American scalps (in Afghanistan). It was a 24-hr. story long ago and died quickly for lack of evidence and logic. But Biden keeps using it, as he did in one of the 'debates' with Trump. ( Jan 24, 2021 , consortiumnews.com )
- 20210122 : Neoliberal international order needs Russia as enemy to galvanize West ( Jan 22, 2021 , www.rt.com )
- 20210122 : Strong parallels between the demonization of him and Russia and how Jews were blamed for just about everything during the Thirties by Ray McGovern ( Jan 21, 2021 , original.antiwar.com )
- 20210122 : Another Mega Group Spy Scandal- Samanage, Sabotage, And The SolarWinds Hack by Whitney Webb ( Jan 22, 2021 , www.unz.com )
- 20210121* Sometimes you drain the swamp sometimes the swamp drains you ( Jan 21, 2021 , off-guardian.org ) [Recommended]
- 20210120 : Russiagate now will be swiped under the rug ( Jan 20, 2021 , www.thegatewaypundit.com )
- 20210120 : LOL: Clinton, Pelosi ask "Was Russia/Putin involved in the riots?" ( Jan 20, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210119 : Trump's movement does not hold a monopoly on xenophobic conspiracy theories in response to election failures. Just look at Hillary and Pelosi ( Jan 19, 2021 , twitter.com )
- 20210119* So create a situation when people would be at each other's throats over the obvious differences, even while they were fabricated or were minor is the essence of age-old strategy of divide and conquer by Edward Curtin ( Jan 19, 2021 , off-guardian.org ) [Recommended]
- 20210119 : "Paranoia strikes deep -- into my soul it creeps": Internet and phone lines cut off in the Russian consulate in New York ( Jan 19, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210119 : US expands sanctions against Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, targeting ships Russian firms working on vital pan-European projec ( Jan 19, 2021 , www.rt.com )
- 20210117 : Guardian Smears Syria's President With Implausible Link To Beirut's Port Blast ( Jan 17, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210117 : A lesson in cyber spying vs. cyber attack by Anatol Lieven ( Jan 17, 2021 , responsiblestatecraft.org )
- 20210117 : It seems political appointees have transformed Hoover's FBI into an operation engaged in the manufacture of "boogeyman" groups to sustain budgets and political narritaves. ( Jan 17, 2021 , www.unz.com )
- 20210115 : The leaders of Transition Integrity Project (TIP) believe that a mass mobilization will help them to achieve what Russiagate could not, that is, the removal Donald Trump via an illicit coup conjured up by behind-the-scenes powerbrokers and their Democrat allies. by Mike Whitney ( Sep 17, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20210115 : Will the Senate Confirm Coup Plotter Victoria Nuland- - ( Jan 15, 2021 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
- 20210115 : When we say "russian hacking" we mean CIA by Larry C Johnson It is illegal, or at least on paper it is, for the CIA to spy on American citizens on American soil. So why was the CIA spying on Mr. Edward Butowsky and/or Matt Couch? If you have read Joe Hoft's excellent piece ( It is illegal, or at least on paper it is, for the CIA to spy on American citizens on American soil. So why was the CIA spying on Mr. Edward Butowsky and/or Matt Couch? If you have read Joe Hoft's excellent piece ( It is illegal, or at least on paper it is, for the CIA to spy on American citizens on American soil. So why was the CIA spying on Mr. Edward Butowsky and/or Matt Couch? If you have read Joe Hoft's excellent piece ( see here ) on the latest trials and travails of Ty Clevenger, an intrepid attorney battling the Deep State, who has been fighting for more than three years to secure the release of damning documents exposing the Russia hoax and sedition by the Obama Administration, you know he is forcing the FBI to cough it up. But the latest response also contained this bombshell--the CIA was spying on his clients as well. Ty's latest account of this new info dump from the US Department of Justice is posted at But the latest response also contained this bombshell--the CIA was spying on his clients as well. Ty's latest account of this new info dump from the US Department of Justice is posted at But the latest response also contained this bombshell--the CIA was spying on his clients as well. Ty's latest account of this new info dump from the US Department of Justice is posted at LawFlog . Here are some key snippets: ( www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210114 : SolarWinds spyware attack - NSA and CIA did it? ( Jan 14, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210113 : What to do with big tech octopus ( Jan 13, 2021 , www.unz.com )
- 20210111 : Is America's Future a Civil War, by Paul Craig Roberts - ( Jan 11, 2021 , www.unz.com )
- 20210111* A note from exCIA MobBoss John "Struggle Sessions" Brennan ( Jan 11, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20210111 : A note from exCIA MobBoss John "Struggle Sessions" Brennan ( Jan 11, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210111 : Fake news in action: the backdoor "resembles" a tool that is only "tied to" a hacking group which "Estonian authorities" "have said" (i.e. claim without evidence) serves the FSB. ( Jan 11, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210110* Trump's Last Stand, by Israel Shamir ( Jan 10, 2021 , www.unz.com ) [Recommended]
- 20210109 : American exceptionalism hurt by violent Capitol debacle, expect Biden to push aggressive foreign policy in bid to repair damage by Fyodor Lukyanov ( Jan 09, 2021 , www.rt.com )
- 20210106 : The whole point of US and Western MSM obsession with demonizing Russia is to divert public attention away from the crisis of neoliberalism at home ( Jan 06, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210106 : Ex-AG Barr Reportedly Met With Jeffrey Epstein's Last Cellmate - Newsmax.com ( Jan 06, 2021 , www.newsmax.com )
- 20210106 : Again the 'highly likely' -- US spies accuse Russia of SolarWinds hack in repeat of Russiagate hysteria by Nebojsa Malic ( Jan 06, 2021 , www.rt.com )
- 20210106 : New York Times Still Stoking Alarm At 'Russian Hacking' by Ray McGovern ( Jan 06, 2021 , original.antiwar.com )
- 20210105 : The Democrats Have Stolen the Presidential Election by Paul Craig Roberts ( Nov 12, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20210104 : Another day another leak: A transcript of President Donald Trump's call published by the Washington Post: ( Jan 04, 2021 , dailymail.co.uk )
- 20210104 : I believe that in fueling Russiagate hysteria US intelligence and MIC were motivated to pull rank/take the reins due to the threat posed by the Russia-China alliance. ( Jan 04, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210104 : That's where NSA/FBI Deep State friends are paid for. ( Jan 04, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210104 : Brick Lives Matter: Vandalis carefully avided speing pain on brick while vandalising Pelosi's garage door under watchful eyes of Secret service agents ( Jan 04, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20210103 : Ex-CIA congressman says disputing election results helps America's enemies STEAL ELECTIONS just what the CIA always did! ( Jan 03, 2021 , www.rt.com )
- 20210102 : Russiagate has dual purpose: depose Trumpvia color revolution and to initiate a new McCarthyism. Both goals were evnetually achieved ( May 10, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210102 : Aaron Mate pushes back:- "Stephen F. Cohen on Russia's democratization and how US meddling undermines it" ( Jan 02, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210102 : Pull My Finger- - (Afghan Edition) ( Jan 02, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20210101 : Spooky Western Journalists Regurgitate CIA and Collaborate With Spy Agencies - Antiwar.com Blog ( Jan 01, 2021 , www.antiwar.com )
- 20201229* Surprising uniformity of opinions about Steele dossier following by surprising uniformity of actions ( Nov 28, 2020 , twitter.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201229 : The major media outlets all sing from the same hymn sheet and the CIA and other western intel operations ( Dec 29, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201229 : Denying the Holocaust threatens democracy. So does denying the election results ( Dec 29, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201227 : The comical and impotent figures of Comey, Mueller, Clapper, Rosenstein, Barr, Schiff, Nader, and such filled the stage during a production of the Russiagate farce. ( Dec 27, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20201227 : Welcome To RussiaGate 2.0, Right On Schedule - ZeroHedge ( Dec 27, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201227 : Roger Stone Announces $25M Lawsuit Against DOJ, Mueller, Comey, Barr And Brennan - ZeroHedge ( Dec 27, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201225 : With Biden's New Threats, the Russia Discourse is More Reckless and Dangerous Than Ever - Glenn Greenwald ( Dec 25, 2020 , greenwald.substack.com )
- 20201222 : The transition of the yoke of the yoke of Russophobic activism in EU ( Dec 22, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201222 : Snow job! SolarWinds Russian hack story proves the CIA writes US foreign policy, not the White House by Robert Bridge ( Dec 21, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201222 : Neoliberal MSM di not have enough of Russiagate, they again are playing judge, jury and executioner by Robert Bridge ( Dec 21, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201222 : Those Russkies really kick butt. They are everywhere these days. The Onion puts out less ridiculous stories than the US "intelligence" agencies. ( Dec 22, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201221 : Kicking the CIA out of power would be a very positive change for America. Without the CIA serving as the nervous system the Deep State would collapse ( Dec 21, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201221 : A Pandemic of 'Russian Hacking' by Ray McGovern and Joe Lauria ( Dec 21, 2020 , consortiumnews.com )
- 20201221 : To Blame Russia For Cyber-Intrusions Is Delusional ( Dec 21, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201221 : To Blame Russia For Cyber-Intrusions Is Delusional - A Treaty Is The Only Way To Prevent More Damage ( Dec 19, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201221 : It make sense to look for articles written by qualified specialists and ignore neoliberal MSM coverage ( Dec 21, 2020 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
- 20201221 : Boomerang returns: methods pioneered in Stuxnet and Flame return and bite the USA in the butt ( Dec 21, 2020 , arstechnica.com )
- 20201221 : Are you insinuating the fake news factory aka The NY Times is not a credible source ;) ( Dec 21, 2020 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
- 20201221 : The Russian 'Cyber Pearl Harbor' That Wasn't ( Dec 21, 2020 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
- 20201220 : American political theater is funny in a bleak way, now the republicans are trying to reclaim mccarthyism from the democrats; instead of russia cubed it's china cubed. ( Dec 20, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201220 : In 2012 Kaspersky Russian Virus Lab detected, decrypted a unknown computer Virus which is now named the Flame Virus ( Dec 20, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201220 : Caitlin Johnstone- Secret, invisible evidence of Russian hacking is not actually evidence by Caitlin Johnstone ( Dec 18, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201220 : Operation SNOWGLOBE: the forward-looking 2015 FBI DOJ/FBI HRC $18M bribe-taking sting/blackmail plan to keep Obama/Deepstate in the catbird seat, and Hilary in line and under DOJ's thumb after she won the 2016 election. ( Dec 20, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201220 : Another 'Russiagate' Like Trump Scandal Which Isn't One ( Dec 20, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201220 : Our politicians blow over a trillion dollars a year on US "security" and they can't figure out a way to keep hackers off of our hard drives? ( Dec 20, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201220 : Once the general attitude of disreputability has been established the secret services can sit back and relax really, the antirussian mindset gets a momentum of its own and generates its own new antirussian storylines. ( Dec 20, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201220 : Trump Blasts Exaggerated Media Claims Of -Russia, Russia, Russia- In Cyberattack After Seeing Intel - ZeroHedge ( Dec 20, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201218 : Russia hasn't just hacked our computer systems. It's hacked our minds by Fareed Zakaria ( Dec 17, 2020 , www.washingtonpost.com )
- 20201217* For Russiagate I have been waiting for the excuse makers to offer something like they did with "Saddam's own fault". That is, the Russians - Putin -, wanted the FBI, CIA, Hillary, MSM, etc to fall for Russiagate. ( Dec 17, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20201217 : The CIA had the ability to attach certain metadata to its own hacking activities, to insinuate that Russian or Chinese hackers were responsible (and thus put future investigators on a wrong trail away from the actual culprits) ( Dec 17, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201217 : Media Blame Russia For Cyber Intrusions Without Providing Evidence ( Dec 17, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201217 : 'People familiar with the issue' say 'Russia is believed to be responsible'. Well, some kids familiar with wobbly teeth believe in the tooth fairy. What is that 'believe' based on? ( Dec 17, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201212 : The Steele Dossier was real. -The protests were peaceful. -The Hunter Biden story was Russian disinformation. And now? They tell you we shouldn't ask questions about the integrity of the 2020 election ( Dec 12, 2020 , twitter.com )
- 20201211 : After entanglement with Chinese spy, Eric Swalwell warned of 'influx of Russians' in US politics under Trump - Fox News ( Dec 11, 2020 , www.foxnews.com )
- 20201211 : There is no 'Russian secret war' on the US, but WaPo fantasy risks Biden starting a very real one by Nebojsa Malic ( Dec 11, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201211 : Is The Media Burying The Russiagater Swalwell Story ( Dec 11, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201211 : FBI Has Files From Seth Rich's Laptop Computer ( Dec 11, 2020 , www.theepochtimes.com )
- 20201210 : Chidems and Russiagate: The pot calling the kettle black ( Dec 10, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201210 : Remember the Kennedys! by Laurent Guyénot ( Dec 10, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20201210 : That was really quick: before November 3 we have a full blown Russian collision and now magically we have such a fair election that even question of investigating "irregularities" is preposterous ( Dec 10, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201210 : US Election -Success-... And Hey Presto -Russian Interference- Disappears - ( Dec 10, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201206* Russiagate vs Swampgate ( Dec 06, 2020 , turcopolier.typepad.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201201 : Discredited Intel "Professionals" Push Lie About Russian Interference by Larry C Johnson - Sic Semper Tyrannis ( Dec 01, 2020 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
- 20201201 : How DHS and FBI officials spun a dubious Russian election threat days before voting - The Grayzone ( Dec 01, 2020 , thegrayzone.com )
- 20201201 : Biden pick for OMB director has a Steele dossier problem ( Dec 01, 2020 , www.washingtonexaminer.com )
- 20201129 : Derek (Lid on Likes) (#Kraken Emeritus) on Twitter- -8-So easy to set up headfakes when the media is committed to attacking e ( Nov 29, 2020 , twitter.com )
- 20201128 : Congress created the five-member Assassination Records Review Board in 1992 as part of a law requiring the release of all Kennedy assassination documents within 25 years. ( Nov 28, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20201128 : U.S. Election 'Success' And Hey Presto 'Russian Interference' Disappears ( Nov 28, 2020 , www.strategic-culture.org )
- 20201127 : Congress created the five-member Assassination Records Review Board in 1992 as part of a law requiring the release of all Kennedy assassination documents within 25 years. ( Nov 27, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20201127 : The CIA knew that Russiagate was a hoax, yet would not offer a smidgen of help to Trump. They probably heard it straight from the horse's mouth and have it on tape. They sat on it ( Nov 27, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20201126 : Big Lie that Won't Die- Russiagate Still Around by Stephen Lendman ( Nov 24, 2020 , www.globalresearch.ca )
- 20201126 : The Cunning Plot to Kill Kennedy - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Globalization ( Nov 26, 2020 , www.globalresearch.ca )
- 20201126 : The Ruling Elite's War on Truth by Chris Hedges ( Nov 23, 2020 , scheerpost.com )
- 20201126 : Propaganda, Election Fraud and the Death of Journalism ( Nov 26, 2020 , www.realclearpolitics.com )
- 20201125* New York Times job listing shows how Western propaganda operates by Caitlin Johnstone - ( Nov 21, 2020 , caitlinjohnstone.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201125 : America desperately needs its Two Minutes of Hate against other countries like a meth addict needs his next hit ( Nov 25, 2020 , caitlinjohnstone.com )
- 20201125 : Biden's foxes guard the henhouse ( Nov 25, 2020 , thegrayzone.com )
- 20201125 : Biden NSA Pick Called Steele Dossier 'Perfectly Appropriate' - Newsmax.com ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.newsmax.com )
- 20201124* 'Manipulative BULLS--T'- Glenn Greenwald defends calling NBC a CIA mouthpiece, mocks accusation of 'endangering journalists' ( Nov 22, 2020 , www.rt.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201123 : JFK was assassinated 57 years ago today ( Nov 23, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201122* The Unfinished Work of the Church Committee, by Marisol Nostromo ( Nov 08, 2020 , marisol-nostromo.medium.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201122 : How NYT Select Their Foreign Correspondents ( Nov 22, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201122 : America's "Color Revolution". For those readers who may be unfamiliar - by Marisol Nostromo - Medium ( Nov 22, 2020 , marisol-nostromo.medium.com )
- 20201121 : How 'Western' Media Select Their Foreign Correspondents ( Nov 21, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201120 : Why Facebook, Twitter, Google, Fox News, CNN, and more giant corporations keep screaming at us that there was no election fraud ( Nov 20, 2020 , www.nytimes.com )
- 20201119 : Former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence suggests the way to deal with US illusion of democracy once and for all by adopting Iranian model ( Oct 02, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201118* When any Washington Swamp creature talks about "threats to US national security" in reality they are talking about threats to the USA global hegemony ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20201118* A short summary of Trump achivements: Good -- a cut of State department regime change budget; Bad -- extra 149 billion to MIC via Pentagon budget ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20201118 : Fear and Russia-Loathing in the National Lawyers Guild - Black Agenda Report ( Nov 18, 2020 , blackagendareport.com )
- 20201118 : 77th Brigade revisited - Sic Semper Tyrannis ( Nov 18, 2020 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
- 20201118 : As the German newspaper editor Udo Ulfkotte revealed in his book, Bought Journalism, the European and US media speak with one voice -- the voice of the CIA ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20201116 : Dominion also refuted allegations that its machines changed votes from Trump to Biden on Election Day and beyond ( Nov 16, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
- 20201116 : What Is John Brennan So Worried About- - Antiwar.com Original ( Nov 16, 2020 , original.antiwar.com )
- 20201116 : How Russiagate Ruined Everything ( Nov 16, 2020 , www.antiwar.com )
- 20201116 : The American Coup d' tat Against President Donald Trump- - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Globalization ( Nov 16, 2020 , www.globalresearch.ca )
- 20201115 : For weeks vs four years: Rep. Jordan -- Democrats Spent Four Years on Russia Hoax and Don't Want to Spend Four Weeks on 2020 Election ( Nov 15, 2020 , www.breitbart.com )
- 20201115 : Why Fake News About Iran, Russia, China dominate US news now? ( Nov 15, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201115* The War Is Over...GloboCap Triumphs! by C.J. Hopkins ( Nov 15, 2020 , www.unz.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201113 : Who's meddling now- Zuckerberg tells employees it's 'clear' Biden won still-contested US election ( Nov 13, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201112 : Trump allies clash with top intelligence officials in quest to declassify more Russia documents by Zachary Cohen, Jamie Gangel and Evan Perez ( Nov 12, 2020 , www.msn.com )
- 20201112* Initiators or Russiagate panicking about the possibility of additional disclosure ( Nov 12, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20201112* Caitlin Johnstone- Americans didn't vote against Trump, they voted against more media psychological abuse by Caitlin Johnstone ( Nov 12, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201110 : Neoliberal Dems, Russia and neo McCarthyism campaign in the USA in 2016-2020 ( Nov 10, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20201109 : First gaslight, then calls for unity: Why should Biden get any more unity than Trump four years ago? by Wayne Dupree ( Nov 09, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201109 : When Brennan's already purple face almost burst because Trump disputed a CNN story, we ALREADY had proof that its the CIA who SPONSORS CNN, that without that support CNN could simply not exist. ( Nov 09, 2020 , www.breitbart.com )
- 20201109 : R ( Nov 09, 2020 , www.rt.com )
- 20201107 : CIA, FBI and the USA elections ( Nov 07, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201107* If they can do the three year long Russia-gate conspiracy, they can certainly do a three day long vote conspiracy. ( Nov 07, 2020 , www.unz.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201107 : Was Q is 666D professional psyop created by CIA/FBI/NSA/MI5/FSB/Mossad (pick your choice of originator) to manipulate trailer park rednecks for (pick your choice of secret plan). ( Nov 07, 2020 , www.unz.com )
- 20201106 : Why Are These Anti-Russian And Anti-Chinese Narratives So Similar by Bernard ( Nov 06, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201106* Can a Biden presidency put an end to Russiagate, or will Democrats continue to wield Neo-McCarthyism to consolidate power- -- RT Russia Former Soviet Union ( Nov 06, 2020 , www.rt.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201104 : Who has more to loose on case Trump loses? Who has benefitted mostly from Trump s presidency? A clue, it is not the US people... ( Nov 04, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201103 : Elections as a continuation of color revolution run by intelligence agencies against Trump ( Nov 03, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201103 : How DHS and FBI Officials Spun a Dubious Russian Election Threat Days Before Voting ( Nov 03, 2020 , original.antiwar.com )
- 20201102 : Sacha Baron Cohen, Propagandist - The American Conservative ( Nov 02, 2020 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
- 20201102 : Glen Greenwald is at his peak in his Tucker Carlson interview, talking of infiltration of "the left" by the agencies. ( Nov 02, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201102 : All the so-called social media platforms have become near totally taken over by the intelligence agencies and their allies ( Nov 02, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20201021* This Is Not A Russian Hoax 'Nonpublic Information' Debunks Letter From '50 Former Intel Officials' ( Oct 21, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201020* Glenn Greenwald- Media and Intel Community Working Together To Manipulate The American People - Video - RealClearPolitics ( Oct 20, 2020 , www.realclearpolitics.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201019* The Emails Are Russian- Will Be The Narrative, Regardless Of Facts Or Evidence by Caitlin Johnstone ( Oct 19, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201019* The neocon/NATO aggressive expansionism and anti-Russian hysteria has many purposes, but one is surely domestic repression: to gaslight and cause fear-the-foreign-bogeyman trauma among the American and British people ( Oct 19, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20201011* Putin on the US Presidential race and the myth that Trump, one of the most hostile to Russia presidents in history, is somehow a "Putin puppet" ( Oct 11, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
- 20201001* 'Clueless' former FBI Director James Comey admits the agency's Trump-Russia probe was a ball of bungled confusion by David Haggith ( Oct 01, 2020 , www.rt.com ) [Recommended]
- 20200930* DNI Letter Supports Allegation That Hillary Clinton Created 'Russiagate' ( Sep 30, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20200925 : Do a search on "Danchenko and Fiona Hill", the latter being one of those who testified with Marie Yovanovich and was sainted by the media. ( Sep 25, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
- 20200925 : Fiona Hill still pushes "Russian Meddling" narrative ( Sep 25, 2020 , newschant.com )
- 20200925* US standard "negotiating" techniques ( Sep 25, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20200923* How fake media actually works: reporter are given the narrative and they should rehash their stories to fit it ( Sep 23, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20200923* Another sign of the crisis of legitimacy of neoliberal elite: FBI Agent Who Discovered Hillary's Emails On Weiner Laptop Claims He Was Told To Erase Computer ( Sep 23, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
- 20200923* The deviousness of Russians is completly off the charts. ( Sep 23, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
- 20200921* Stephen F. Cohen- The Ukrainian Crisis - It s not All Putin s Fault ( Sep 21, 2020 , www.youtube.com ) [Recommended]
- 20200921* Stephen Cohen at the AJC 2017 Forum, about Russia and Terrorism ( Jun 23, 2017 , www.youtube.com ) [Recommended]
- 20200920* CJ Hopkins Exposes The Final Act In 'The War On Populism' ( Sep 20, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
- 20200920* Darren Beattie Tucker Carlson Discuss Color Revolutions The Plot To Oust President Trump ( Sep 16, 2020 , www.youtube.com ) [Recommended]
- 20200920* Norm Eisen And The Colour Revolution Playbook! ( Sep 16, 2020 , www.youtube.com ) [Recommended]
- 20200920* THE TAKE-DOWN OF TRUMP ALA THE "COLOR REVOLUTION"- NORM EISEN'S REVOLUTIONARY PLAYBOOK A Deeply Embedded (Demster) Lawfare Operative; Regime Change Professionals More. What's Going On- Conservative Firing Line ( Sep 20, 2020 , conservativefiringline.com ) [Recommended]
For the list of top articles see Recommended Links section
Today the Guardian published another fake 'Russiagate' story:
Kremlin papers appear to show Putin's plot to put Trump in White House
Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a "mentally unstable" Donald Trump in the 2016 US
presidential election during a closed session of Russia's national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked
Kremlin documents.
...
Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined
them. The papers, seen by the Guardian, seem to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin.
Yaawwwnn ...
We know, without reading it, that the story is fake because its main author is Luke Harding. Harding also authored the story which
claimed that Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manaford met Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. That story was
proven to be false but the Guardian , to its shame, still has it
up on its website .
In 2017 Luke Harding abruptly ended an interview with Aaron Maté after Harding was challenged over false claims he had made in
his book about 'Russiagate'. The last five minutes of that video are
quite amusing .
The Guardian story claims that the 'leaked' nonsense paper was discussed in high level Kremlin meeting in January 2016.
It was then decided, it alleges, to support Trump. But in January 2016 there was no one, not even Donald Trump himself, who thought
that he would win the Republican primary or even the presidency. But the Kremlin is supposed to have discussed him at the highest
level well before anyone thought he could win?
Various people make interesting remarks about the new Guardian fakery:
Tara McCormack @McCormack_Tara - 12:13
UTC · Jul 15, 2021
I am seriously coming to the conclusion that Luke Harding is a Russian operative who has been put in place as part of a long
term dastardly plan to make British journalism appear ridiculous.
---
Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg - 12:02 UTC
· 15 Jul 2021
The next Luke Harding MI6 hoax.
Passing off forged Kremlin minutes saying things like "It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his [Trump's]
election to the post of US president."
Hilarious
theguardian.com/world/2021/jul"¦
---
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald - 12:07 UTC ·
15 Jul 2021
The part of the media that feigns anger at misinformation is uncritically promoting a story today by Luke Harding that Russia
was blackmailing Trump -- the same Harding who has published many false stories, championed the Steele Dossier and claimed Trump
was long a Russian agent.
...
Now suddenly, Harding claims he obtained leaked, highly sensitive Kremlin documents that just so happen to prove all the lies
he's been peddling for years, that not even Mueller's huge team found. Because it advances liberals' interests, journalists are
uncritically spreading it.
...
I will once use this shabby behavior to against highlight 2 points:
1) The contempt and loss of trust people harbor for the corporate media is completely justified and well-earned.
2) These outlets are by far the most prolific and destructive disseminators of disinformation.
Even people who are typically inclined to promote all kinds of anti-Russian nonsense are cautious on this item.
Thomas Rid @RidT - 12:38 UTC · 15 Jul 2021
This Guardian story is likely to make big waves. I would remain somewhat cautious for now, however. For a "leak" of this magnitude,
we need at least some details on the chain of custody. Also note the Guardian's own hedging ("papers appear to show") theguardian.com/world/2021/jul"¦
---
Pwn All The Things @pwnallthethings -
14:40 UTC · 15 Jul 2021
Also, just putting this out there, if the US had this and thought it was real, how likely is it that it would have survived
the waterfall of leaks of the past few years? And yet, here we are, with this as exclusive by the UK's Guardian, and conspicuously
not, say, WaPo or NYT.
Christopher Steele, the 'former' British intelligence officer who peddle the fake dossier about alleged Russian Trump kompromat
on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign, worked and still works for Orbis Intelligence, a British private outlet run by 'former'
British spies.
They are still at it ...
Orbis Business Intelligence @OrbisBIOfficial -
10:48 UTC · Jul 15, 2021
Great reporting on an important story.
Luke Harding @lukeharding1968 - 10:02
UTC · Jul 15, 2021
Exclusive: Leaked Putin papers appear to show #Russia's plot to put a "mentally unstable" Donald Trump into the White House
"" my story with @julianborger in Washington and @dansabbagh in London
Kremlin papers appear to show Putin's plot to put Trump in White House
"Great reporting.. " "..important story"
Yeah. Sure. Whatever.
Posted by b on July 15, 2021 at 15:20 UTC |
Permalink
Bemildred , Jul 15 2021 15:31 utc |
1
They embarass us all with this sort of stupidity. And being British, of course, they double down on it.
" REVEALED: Iran plotted to kidnap Iranian-American journalist from Brooklyn, transport her by speedboat to Venezuela and
then fly her to the Islamic republic because she criticized regime, FBI say"
You just cannot get much more ludicrous than that.
Bemildred , Jul 15 2021 15:33 utc |
2
And lots of projection too, we all know who lies and indulges in all sorts of chicanery to silence critics (like Assange, say).
james , Jul 15 2021 15:50 utc |
3
damn you gottlieb! look what you started, lol...
thanks b... these intel agencies running the "free press" sure are getting boring really fast....
james , Jul 15 2021 15:52 utc |
4
@ 1 bemildred.... i knew it was a lie when i heard it on the cbc radio yesterday... if the cbc is running with it - it is an outright
made up lie... accept everything on the surface and never question anything!!! be a good citizen, lol...
Bigben , Jul 15 2021 16:00 utc |
5
The articles from The Guardian and all don't prove anything about Russia's plans. The cite the January 26 meeting of the Security
Council as Proof of Putin's plans. If I were in Putin's place, I would also have been happy with Trump's election and its likely
socioeconomic impact on the US society.
Tuyzentfloot , Jul 15 2021 16:12 utc |
6
Harding strikes me as someone who's completely into the business of selling stories. He senses where the money is , looks at his
sales numbers and concludes he's doing great because that is how he measures things. No concept of 'truth' other than financial
success in the market of ideas. I suspect he makes a lot of money.
the pair , Jul 15 2021 16:18 utc |
7
damn, i wish i had it in me to be a cult leader...i'd make a beeline to the guardian office and have an army of kool-aid drinking
simps at my disposal. when they aren't harrassing and firing women writers for calling out "female identifying" sex offenders
in dresses or stirring up imaginary "anti-semitism" they're peddling this delusional nonsense and LARPing as MI6 spooks. truly
in their own little world. i'll guess some LSD in the water cooler and a decent powerpoint presentation is all it would take to
be the limey jim jones.
Ð"жММ , Jul 15 2021 16:35 utc |
8
The chunks of the supposed document that the Guardian included with its article really give it away. The text - supposedly from
an internal Kremlin communication - reads as no more or less than a chunk of English passed through Google Translate. Idiomatically,
it is chock full of awkwardness and simple ridiculous phrasings. There are even grammatical errors! "..во Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð¿Ñ€ÐµÐ±Ñ‹Ð²Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ
его..." is simply incorrect. In Russian, the last two words are reversed in order.
It recalls the recent Putin's Palace story, with the "комната грÑзи".
It's just shameful how little pride the propagandists take in their work. I understand that they hold their audience in only
the lowest of regard (not without cause, to be fair), but it's not like there is any shortage of Russian-speakers in the west
they could go to for proofreading, if not copy writing.
vk , Jul 15 2021 16:55 utc |
9
Kremlin's response came out:
Peskov called the article
by The Guardian about the authorities of Russia and Trump a fiction
"Of course, this is such a continuation of absolutely low-quality publications. Either the newspaper is trying to somehow increase
its popularity, or the newspaper continues such a frenzied Russophobic line. Of course, all this does not and cannot correspond
to the truth. This, in fact, is not true ... This is a continuation of the exercises on total demonization of Russia and Putin,
which The Guardian sometimes likes to do, or is it a desperate attempt to attract some new readers by publishing such tales,
"Peskov said.
Stonebird , Jul 15 2021 17:18 utc |
10
"REVEALED: Iran plotted to kidnap Iranian-American journalist from Brooklyn, transport her by speedboat to Venezuela and then
fly her to the Islamic republic because she criticized regime, FBI say", Bemildred | Jul 15 2021 15:31 utc | 1
I TOLD you all that the FBI needed new script writers. Either that or they have so little imagination that they
have to use up all the scripts from a couple of years back, as they cannot afford new ones.
******
Don't underestimate stupidity
pnyx , Jul 15 2021 17:18 utc |
11
Luke 'Skywalker' Harding defeats the evil empire. Part 13.
Citizen621 , Jul 15 2021 17:58 utc |
12
Doesn't matter - the MSNBC watchers will never accept this. I still try to punch through the armor of confirmation bias now and
then. My last jab was: "I think Russiagate is every bit as much evidence-free bullshit as Quanon!". No effect whatsoever. Willing
to agree with half of what I said - just like Fox watchers.
Unfortunately, I don't think my fellow citizens here in the heart of Pindostan will pay attention until things get bad enough
that they know actual hunger - and then they will serve the elites by fighting each other.
Sorry for the pessimism, the one positive thing I do think I can do is tend my vegetable garden!
jo6pac , Jul 15 2021 18:07 utc |
13
Amerikan intel agrees it fake but they will walk it back soon I'm sure
https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/trump-and-kremlin/
QA , Jul 15 2021 18:53 utc |
14
Ð"жММ:
"во Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð¿Ñ€ÐµÐ±Ñ‹Ð²Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ ÐµÐ³Ð¾", maybe awkward but semikosher, many examples can be found Googling it ---like during
stay of his vs. during his stay (e.g. kamchatka.mid.ru can be found to say: "ÑвÑÐ·Ð°Ð½Ð½Ñ‹Ñ Ñ Ð´ÐµÐ¹ÑтвиÑми и поÑтупками
пригÐ"ашаемого во Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð¿Ñ€ÐµÐ±Ñ‹Ð²Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ ÐµÐ³Ð¾ в РФ, в том чиÑÐ"е, в ÑÐ"учае депортации").
Thomas , Jul 15 2021 20:22 utc |
15
Jeez, it just gets worse-as soon as I saw the name Luke harding, I knew it was a pile of trash; really, who in the hell reads
this without a sense to vomit.
Well, there there is Orbis: "great reporting."
MI6 and prob cia has this clown on the payroll; I tried to watch the last 5 minutes of the video but could not get past the
first minute; the guy is absolutely repulsive and they continue to double down on this garbage.
Cadence calls , Jul 15 2021 20:28 utc |
16
Headlines on Democratic Underground and Daily KOS:
"Explosive evidence that Putin supported a Trump Presidency"
Commenters: "I knew it!"
Thomas , Jul 15 2021 20:30 utc |
17
Ð"жММ-8
I think you really nailed it; we see it every day, with this latest pail of s___, that these purveyors absolutely have no shame
or embarrassment, but believe their audience, the sheeple, are complete idiots or stupid. The question is who is stupid as this
level of stupidity cannot be fixed or underestimated.
librul , Jul 15 2021 21:41 utc |
18
I remember the scene in the movie "The Big Short" where Steve Carell
was saying, "they knew all along!".
Goldman Sachs, et al, had over-leveraged the housing mortgages and "they knew all along"
if and when it all crumbled the government would cover Wall Street's bad bets with taxpayer debt.
They knew all along it was bs but they did it anyway.
The MSM is a different arena but has the same arrogant attitude towards average joe citizen.
The MSM knows it is selling bs but they don't care.
What I see is they are counting on the "Reiteration Effect" (look it up, it is a real thing).
"Russia bad", "Russia bad", "Russia bad", "Russia bad", "Russia bad", "Russia bad".
There have been a steady stream of "Russia bad" stories and "Russia helped Trump" stories, and over time
the fact that these stories are one by one debunked does not matter. The "Reiteration Effect" is what matters.
"Say something a million times and it becomes true" is not a mere cynical phrase, it actually works - the "Reiteration Effect".
Keep putting out these "Russia bad" stories and "Russia helped Trump" stories and over time people will accept the basic message
as true.
The MSM has known all along they were selling bs, but they don't care.
vk , Jul 15 2021 22:11 utc |
19
@ Posted by: librul | Jul 15 2021 21:41 utc | 18
They definitely didn't know 2008 would happen. On the contrary: they thought they had discovered the elixir of immortality
for capitalism.
The USA was caught completely off-guard in September 2008. You have to search with a magnifying glass to find the ten people
who predicted the crisis would happen in its nature and more or less its timing - but even then, most of them were Marxists, i.e.
outside the commanding heights of the USG.
librul , Jul 15 2021 22:23 utc |
20
@Posted by: vk | Jul 15 2021 22:11 utc | 19
Goldman Sachs began to short mortgage bonds and like instruments before the crash of 2008.
Regardless, they *knew* their bets were covered by the government.
---
Were you aware that Henry Paulson began to ready a coup in 2008?
Tuyzentfloot , Jul 15 2021 22:41 utc |
21
I like the idea of the makers of this thing deciding that it's a shoddy job which only Harding will take. Also Harding gets all
the attention but let's not forget the honourable mentions in this story: Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh.
librul , Jul 15 2021 22:49 utc |
22
@Posted by: librul | Jul 15 2021 22:23 utc | 20 ....continued
I saved this from somewhere (?) years ago. Doesn't matter, you can read Paulson's coup document for yourself.
The WSJ link still works but you hit a pay wall. You can put the following url at
http://web.archive.org/
and read the original WSJ publication and Paulson's coup document dated Sept 20, 2008 at the WSJ.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/09/20/treasurys-financial-bailout-proposal-to-congress/
**** "shall not be subject to judicial review" ****
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/09/20/treasurys-financial-bailout-proposal-to-congress/
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion,
and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
Did you catch that? Paulson went further. Not just the courts are cut out but "any adminstrative agency" as well.
Paulson also was giving to Himself the authority to APPROPRIATE any funds He wished.
"Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed
appropriated at the time of such expenditure."
HE could pass ANY legislation He wanted to:
"(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities
of this Act."
The word "term" has a duel meaning. It also refers to TIME, as in length of a term.
Give powers to anyone and hire anyone He wished to:
"(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;"
What miscellaneous authorities did G-d Paulson give Himself? Answer: Authority over the police and the military.
"In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for""
(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and
"providing stability OR". That OR makes for confusion (intentional confusion). Stability is a word used often in the context
of economics but it is also used in the context of police action. Get it? He wants to create his own SS. See the very next
word: "protecting", as in "We Serve and Protect".
(2) protecting the taxpayer."
The last one is my favorite. Who is a *taxpayer*? Hmmm, is not everyone, even candy purchasing kids liable to pay tax? Corporations
are also taxpayers...
G-d Paulson covered all his bases.
Even the one about being G-d Forever:
"Sec. 9. Termination of Authority.
The authorities under this Act, with the exception of authorities granted in sections 2(b)(5), 5 and 7, shall terminate
two years from the date of enactment of this Act."
Paulson wants you to believe this terminates in two years. However, 2(b)(5) does NOT terminate and that one says he can
just place the crown back on His own head:
"(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities
of this Act."
Cheers
A coup! A massive scandal that has been totally missed.
Michael888 , Jul 15 2021 23:01 utc |
23
@Posted by: librul | Jul 15 2021 21:41 utc | 18
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only
for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus
becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the
lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."-- Joseph Goebbels (Luke Harding's Father?)
corvo , Jul 15 2021 23:16 utc |
24
@ Cadence calls | Jul 15 2021 20:28 utc | 16:
We can take some comfort in the fact that Daily Kos readership has fallen precipitously over the last few years. Nobody takes
it seriously anymore.
Dim sim , Jul 15 2021 23:31 utc |
25
In 2017 Luke Harding abruptly ended an interview with Aaron Maté after Harding was challenged over false claims he had made
in his book about 'Russiagate'. The last five minutes of that
video are quite amusing.
I'm not normally a follower of this topic even though one of our sleazers, Downer, was involved but needing something to smile
at while in our CV lockdown I watched the link.
What an understatement! It's a hilarious 28m:51s train wreck interview with a complete dick. Thanks b for sharing it.
mismatch , Jul 15 2021 23:49 utc |
26
@Vk, I'm sorry to contradict you but if you pick up a copy of the Financial Times in 2008 before the crash, everyone was predicting
it. I checked recently, and sure enough, it was all over the paper.
TEP , Jul 16 2021 0:18 utc |
27
Luke Harding. Nuff said.
TEP.
Erelis , Jul 16 2021 0:22 utc |
28
Once again super duper evil genius ex-KGB spy cannot keep state secrets secret.
Christian J. Chuba , Jul 16 2021 0:24 utc |
29
Painful video to watch. Harding is using the Hitler argument.
'My evidence that Trump colluded with Putin (Saddam has WMD) is that Putin is Hitler. If you don't believe me, you are supporting
Adolf Hitler'.
Harding is Satan's minion, and Jesus said, 'Satan is a liar and a murderer, when he lies, he speaks his native language'
Lies kill.
vk , Jul 16 2021 0:39 utc |
30
@ Posted by: mismatch | Jul 15 2021 23:49 utc | 26
By 2007, the financial elite already knew something would happen - but not a structural crisis. In fact, they predicted nothing:
the chain of bankruptcies started at the end of 2006; September 2008 was just the date it "leaked" to the "real economy".
Not every crisis is bad for capitalism. Cyclical crisis are natural and beneficial to capitalism. The crisis of 2008 was not
a cyclical crisis, but a structural one. They probably thought it was either a cyclical crisis (a la Dotcom crisis of 2000) or,
if something more serious, something the free market would easily be able to "self-regulate" out of.
Lysander , Jul 17 2021 11:31 utc |
2
...WaPo columnist George Will then asserts:
Henry Kissinger has said, not unreasonably, that we are in "the foothills" of a cold war
with China. And Vladimir Putin, who nurses an unassuageable grudge about the way the Cold
War ended, seems uninterested in Russia reconciling itself to a role as a normal nation
without gratuitous resorts to mendacity. It is, therefore, well to notice how, day by day,
in all of the globe's time zones, civilized nations are, in word and deed, taking small but
cumulatively consequential measures that serve deterrence.
If arrogance were a deadly disease, George Will would be dead.
George Will has been an
ass clown since I first had the displeasure of watching him in the 1970s. Age has not brought
an ounce of wisdom. Nevertheless, this total lack of self reflection and ability to project
American sins on others is unfortunately not unique to our man George. It seems a habit
throughout the entire US political spectrum. The ability to view, for example, the invasion
of Iraq as perfectly normal behavior, while viewing any resistance to US/Israeli dominance as
beyond the pale is the character of the decaying American superpower. George Will is but one
manifestation of it. It was once infuriating. But now it's simply like listening to the
ravings of a schizophrenic. More pathetic than anything else.
Dao Gen , Jul 17 2021 11:35 utc |
3
What do you expect from George Swill? He is a pathetic, disoriented refugee from his home in
Victorian England, when barbarism never set for a single instant on the British Empire.
Donbass Lives Matter , Jul 17 2021 11:45 utc |
4
There's a way to get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from the
mainstream news media. Just look at their propaganda and ask yourself, "Why do they want me
to believe this particular lie?" If you can figure that you, you will have the truth.
alaff , Jul 17
2021 11:52 utc |
5
Well, you know, the white man's burden...
The funny thing is that they seriously consider themselves a "superior race", while behaving
like wild barbarians.
Such opinions/articles of "Western civilized people" cause only a condescending smile,
nothing more. So let's let George Will entertain us.
Midville , Jul 17 2021 11:57 utc |
7
I find it pretty bizzarre how western media obsessively try to portray the Defender
incident as a some sort of "victory" for "civilized nations".
What exactly is the victory here? The fact that Russia only resorted to warning fire and
didn't blow up the ship?
Perimetr , Jul 17 2021 12:16 utc |
11
Decades of propaganda masquerading as news has led most "educated" Americans into a Matrix
of false narratives. Should you dare mention election fraud or question the safety of COVID
vaccines in the presences of anyone who considers the NY Times and Wash Post as the "papers
of record", they will be happy to inform you that you are "captured" by false news. Dialogue
with these true believers has become almost impossible. We are the indispensable, civilized
nation, don't you understand basic facts?
My sister, who is truly a good-hearted person, unfortunately keeps CNN and MSNBC on most
of the day in her small apartment, and lives for The NY Times, which she pours over,
especially the weekend edition. She knows that Putin is evil and Russia is a bad place to
live, etc etc. I got rid of my TV ten years ago and started looking elsewhere for my
information. I live in a rural area of a Red state, she lives in Manhattan. We have to stick
to topics that revolve around museums, gardening, and food.
Ayatoilet , Jul 17 2021 12:50 utc |
16
This is precisely the type of arrogance that has led to US leaving Afghanistan with their
pants down - having spent untold Trillions of dollars and having nothing to show for it. And
soon, leaving Iraq and Syria too. It reminds me of how the US left Vietnam and Cambodia.
The 'White' establishment in Washington and across the US military industrial complex, has
an air of superiority and always seem to feel that they can subjugate via throwing money at
people! This in effect turns everyone they deal with into Whores (yes, prostitutes). Its
fundamentally humiliating, and sews the seeds of corruption - both economic and moral. Then,
they are shocked that there's a back clash!
The Taliban succeeded not with arms - but by projecting a completely different narrative
of "Morality (i.e. non-corruption), honor, and even intermingled nationalism with their
narrative". They projected a story that suggested that new Afghan daughters would not turn
into Britney Spears or porn stars.
And, believe it or not, the Chinese see themselves as having been fundamentally humiliated
by the West and couch their efforts as a struggle for their civilization (its not ideological
or even economic) - they are fighting for honor and respect.
Western Civilization (and western elite) on the left and right are fundamentally
materialistic. They worship money, and simply don't understand it when others don't. When
they talk about superiority, they are basically saying the worship of money rules supreme.
You sort of become dignified in the west if you have a lot of wealth. They want to turn the
whole world into prostitutes. Policy and laws are driven by material considerations.
Now, I am not saying that spirituality or religion is good; and in fact, the Chinese are
not driven by religious zeal (they are, on the whole, non-religious). What I am saying is
that - no matter how its expressed - be it through religion, through culture, through
rhetoric, etc. - all this back clash is really a struggle for respect, 'honor' and thus a
push back to Western Arrogance, and the humiliation it has caused. The West simply doesn't
understand that there are societies - especially in the east, that value honor over other
things.
When Trump calls other people losers, he is basically saying he is richer, they are
poorer. In his mind, winning, is all about money. When people write articles about the
superiority of a civilization - they are implicitly putting other people down. That's not
just arrogant, its rude and disrespectful. Its basically like a teenager judging their
parents. How dare a newly formed nation (the US), judge or differentiate or even pretend to
be superior to the Chinese, Persians etc.?
Our foreign policy (and rhetoric) in the West has to completely change. We have to be
really careful, because, (honestly), it won't be very long before these other (inferior)
civilizations actually take over global leadership. Then how will we want to be treated?
Don't for a second think these folks can't build great gadgets that go to Mars! Oh, did China
just do that? Does Iran have a space program? Did they just make their own vaccines? Once
they start trading among themselves without using the USD greenback, we are finished.
We need them, they don't need us.
Et Tu , Jul 17 2021 13:07 utc |
18
Some notable recent achievements of 'civilised' nations include:
-Illegal invasion and bombing of multiple non-aggressor nations
-Overthrowing of democratically elected Governments
-Support of extremist and oppressive regimes
-Sponsoring of terrorism, including weapon sales to ISIS
-Corruption of once trusted institutions like the UN and OPCW
Oh, the civility...
Petri
Krohn , Jul 17 2021 14:05 utc |
26
HOW DID RUSSIA BECOME THE ENEMY?
...when all she did was offer slight resistance to Western aggression? The key event was
the August 2013 false-flag
gas attack and massacre of hostages in Ghouta in Damascus.
What really angered the West was the Russian
fleet in the Mediterranean that prevented the NATO attack on Syria. (You will not find a
single word of this in Western media.) This is why Crimea needed to be captured by the West.
As revenge and deterrence against the Russian agression.
I wrote about these events in
2016:
The standoff was first described by Israel Shamir in
October 2013:
"The most dramatic event of September 2013 was the high-noon stand-off near the Levantine
shore, with five US destroyers pointing their Tomahawks towards Damascus and facing them -
the Russian flotilla of eleven ships led by the carrier-killer Missile Cruiser Moskva and
supported by Chinese warships.
Apparently, two missiles were launched towards the Syrian coast, and both failed to
reach their destination."
A longer description was published by Australianvoice in
2015:
"So why didn't the US and France attack Syria? It seems obvious that the Russians and
Chinese simply explained that an attack on Syria by US and French forces would be met by a
Russian/Chinese attack on US and French warships. Obama wisely decided not to start WW III
in September 2013." Can Russia Block Regime Change In Syria Again?
In my own comments from 2013 I tried to understand the mission of the Russian fleet. This
is what I believed Putin's orders to the fleet were:
- To sink any NATO ship involved in illegal aggression against Syria.
- You have the authority to use tactical nuclear weapons in self-defense.
I am sure NATO admirals understood the situation the same way. I am not sure of the
American leadership in Washington.
Billb , Jul 17 2021 14:15 utc |
28
Insulting language aside, the narrative they are trying to create is that there is an
anti-Russia, anti-China trend developing and that those sitting on the fence would be wise to
join the bandwagon.
This will be particularly effective on the majority of folks who barely scan headlines and
skim articles. Falun Gong/CIA mouthpiece Epoch Times is on board with this, based on recent
headlines.
Petri
Krohn , Jul 17 2021 14:44 utc |
33
Democracy grows in darkness
Wikipedia has a list of reliable
and unreliable sources . "Reliable" are those sources that are under the direct control
of the US regime. Any degree of independence from the regime makes the source "unreliable."
WaPo and NYT are at the top of the list of reliable sources.
This is the diametric opposite of how Wikispooks defines reliability.
Reliability of sources is directly proportional to their distance *from* power.
At A Closer Look on Syria (ACLOS) we only trust primary sources.
Andres , Jul 17 2021 14:58 utc |
35
Civilization vs Uncivilization
Makes me remember the cornerstone work from former Argentine president DF Sarmiento, who
dealt with "Civilization or Barbarism" in his book "Facundo". Of course, his position was the
"civilized" one.
Those "civilized" succeeded in creating a country submitted to the British rule, selling
cheap crops and getting expensive manufactures, with a privileged minority living lavishly
and a great majority, in misery.
Also, their "civilized" methods to impose their project was the bloody "Police War"
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerra_entre_la_Confederaci%C3%B3n_Argentina_y_el_Estado_de_Buenos_Aires#Segunda_guerra_contra_el_Chacho
Same language used now, for the same undisclosed intentions.
lysias , Jul 17 2021 15:10 utc |
36
In Russian, to be uncivilized (nekulturny) is a bad thing.
Mar man , Jul 17 2021 16:14 utc |
44
This article is fundamentally about propaganda and "soft power".
Soft power in foreign policy is usually defined when other countries defer to your
judgement without threat of punishment or promise of gain.
In other words, if other countries support your country without a "carrot or stick"
approach, you have soft power.
For years, the US simply assumed other "civilized" of the western world would dutifully
follow along in US footsteps due to unshakeable trust in America's moral authority. The
western media played a crucial role by suppressing news regarding any atrocities the western
powers committed and amplifying any perceived threats or aggressions from "enemies".
Now, with the age of the internet, western audiences can read news from all over the world
and that has been a catastrophe for western powers. We can now see real-time debunking of
propaganda.
In the past, the British would have easily passed off the recent destroyer provocation as
pure Russian aggression and could expect outrage from all western aligned countries. The EU
and US populations could have easily been whipped into a frenzy and DEMANDED reprisals
against Russia if not outright war. Something similar to a "Gulf of Tonkin" moment.
But, that did not happen. People all over the world now know NOTHING from the US or
British press is to be trusted. People also now know NATO routinely try to stir up trouble
and provoke Russia.
So, Americans and even British citizens displayed no widespread outrage because they
simply did not believe their own government's and compliant media's side of the story.
US and British "soft power" are long gone. No one trusts them. No one wants to follow them
into anymore disastrous wars of aggression.
Western media still do not understand this and cannot figure out why so many refuse
western vaccines or support the newest color revolutions.
We simply do not believe it.
librul , Jul 17 2021 17:04 utc |
55
This site appears to be the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/deceiving-the-public
They cast Germany as a victim or potential victim of foreign aggressors, as a peace-loving
nation forced to take up arms to protect its populace or defend European civilization
against Communism.
I remember a tv history program that had interviews with German soldiers.
I recall one who had seen/participated in going from village to village in the USSR
hanging local communist leaders. He said they had been taught that by doing this
they were "protecting civilization".
fx , Jul 17 2021 19:01 utc |
68
Arrogance is not a deadly disease or even a hindrance for mainstream presstitutes; it is a
job qualification, making them all the more manipulable and manipulative. And so, as with
Michael Gordon, Judith Miller, Brett Stephens and David Sanger (essentially all of them
pulling double duty for the apartheid state), people will die from their propaganda, but they
will advance.
Max , Jul 17 2021 19:48 utc |
72
Name a democracy that isn't a suzerainty.
Name a leader with moral courage and integrity among suzerainties (private plantations).
Nations without integrity and filled with Orcs (individuals without conscience), can't be
civilized. They're EVIL vassals of Saruman & Sauron, manipulated by Wormtongue.
"The true equation is 'democracy' = government by world financiers."
– J.R.R. Tolkien
Henry Kissinger, in his interview with Chatham House stated, "the United States is in a
CRISIS of confidence... America has committed great moral wrongs." What are U$A's core
values?
According to a CFR member :
"How lucky I am that my mother studied with JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis and WH Auden and that
she passed on to me a command of language that permits me to "tell the story" of the world
economy in plain English. She would have been delighted that I managed to show that the evil
Gollum from Tolkien's tales lives above the doorway in the Oval Office, which he
certainly does. I saw him there myself. He may have found a new perch over at The Federal
Reserve Bank as well."
– Excerpt From, Signals: The Breakdown of the Social Contract and the Rise of
Geopolitics by Dr Philippa Malmgren
The Financial Empire has ran out of LUCK. "In God We Trust"
Why
Mordor Failed... Sauron's hegemonic collapse holds potent lessons
"A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims
but accomplices."
Tuyzentfloot , Jul 17 2021 21:08 utc |
78
I thought moral superiority was the official position of NATO. The explicit intent is to
weaponize human rights and democracy . So it is not merely the mundane 'our group is better'
or the somewhat nostalgic western form of moral superiority, it's weaponized moral
superiority.
Erelis , Jul 17 2021 21:27 utc |
79
George Will looking good I tellya. Anybody know who does his embalming?
Doesn't Will's article reek of Nazi propaganda against the Russians as a mongrel Asiatic
uncivilized people? Of course to attack the Chinese as uncivilized? China uncivilized? 5,000
years of continuous culture? The Russians and Chinese must join up with civilization.
Unfortunately at least in the West race is only about skin color. It certainly wasn't the
case with the original Nazis. Will's piece is blatantly racist out of the tradition of
Nazism.
Rob , Jul 17 2021 22:41 utc |
83
American exceptionalism's finest spokesman -- George F. Will
circumspect , Jul 18 2021 1:38 utc |
88
Oxford and the Ivy League. The training grounds for the Anglo American deep state and the
cheerleaders of the empire. Expect nothing more of these deeply under educated sudo
intellectuals.
Tom_Q_Collins , Jul 18 2021 5:00 utc |
95
Posted by: Ayatoilet | Jul 17 2021 12:50 utc | 16
Plenty of people who work for the MIC and in various policy circles/think tanks have
plenty "to show for it" where all these wars are concerned. Many billions of dollars were
siphoned upwards and outwards into the bank accounts and expensive homes of the managerial
and executive classes (even the hazard pay folks who actually went to the places "we" were
bombing) not just at Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Booz Allen, etc. but plenty of lesser known
"socioeconomically disadvantaged" Small Businesses (proper noun in this context) companies
who utilized the services of an army of consultants to glom onto the war machine. In most
cases of the larger firms, Wall Street handled the IPOs long ago, and these companies have
entire (much less profitable) divisions dedicated to state and local governments to
"diversify" their business portfolios in case the people finally get sick of war. But that
rarely happens in any real sense because the corporate establishment "legacy media" makes
sure that there's always an uncivilized country to bomb or threaten....and that means the
"defense" department needs loads of services, weapons, and process improvement consultants
all the time. War is a racket; always has been, always will be.
Tom_Q_Collins , Jul 18 2021 5:03 utc |
96
In what ways is the USA like Darth Vader's Galactic Empire in Star Wars?
Constantine , Jul 18 2021 7:33 utc |
98
Posted by: Mar man | Jul 17 2021 16:14 utc | 44
Unfortunately, it seems that truly large segments of the population in the developed
western countries and especially in the Anglo-sphere believe the propaganda emanating from
the imperial mouthpieces. The US citizenry is a case study in manipulating the public.
Indeed, the DNC liberals are effectively the vanguard of the pro-war movement, espouse
racist Rusophobia and conitnue Trump's hostility to China. The so-cslled conservatives follow
their own tradition of imperial mobilization behind the Washington regime: Chin,Latin
America, the very people who berated the 'Deep State' now paise its subversive activities
against the targeted left-wing governments.
As for the moribund left - it would be better described as leftovers - it is often taken
for a ride as long as the imperial messaging is promoted by the liberal media. The excuses
for imperialism are a constant for many of them (even as they call themselves
anti-imperialists) and the beleaguered voicesfor the truth are far and few. The latter often
face silencing campaigns not just from the establishment hacks, but from their own supposed
ideological comrades, who are, of course, in truth nothing of the sort.
All in all, despite the consistent record of manipulative propaganda and utter criminality
the imperial regime never loses the support of the critical masss of the citizenry.
Bemildred , Jul 18 2021 7:48 utc |
99
All in all, despite the consistent record of manipulative propaganda and utter criminality
the imperial regime never loses the support of the critical masss of the citizenry.
Posted by: Constantine | Jul 18 2021 7:33 utc | 98
Maybe 50% of the people here bother to vote, in IMPORTANT elections. Can be a lot less if
the election is not important. The only people still engaged politically here at all are the
people with good jobs. The American people have given up. And there are a lot of angry people
running around, with guns. Claiming the citizenry here support the government is imperial
propaganda. Why do you think they like mercenaries and proxies so much? And this is all in
great contrast to when I was young 50 years ago.
Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,
In the later years of an abusive relationship I was in, my abuser had become so confident in
how mentally caged he had me that he'd start overtly telling me what he is and what he was
doing. He flat-out told me he was a sociopath and a manipulator, trusting that I was so
submitted to his will by that point that I'd gaslight myself into reframing those statements in
a sympathetic light. Toward the end one time he told me "I am going to rape you," and then he
did, and then he talked about it to some friends trusting that I'd run perception management on
it for him.
The better he got at psychologically twisting me up in knots and the more submitted I
became, the more open he'd be about it. He seemed to enjoy doing this, taking a kind of
exhibitionistic delight in showing off his accomplishments at crushing me as a person, both to
others and to me. Like it was his art, and he wanted it to have an audience to appreciate
it.
me title=
Close 168.1K Pfizer CEO on mRNA Vaccine Creation,
R&D, Drug Costs
me scrolling=
I was reminded of this while watching a recent Fox News appearance by Glenn Greenwald where he
made an observation we've discussed here
previously about the way the CIA used to have to infiltrate the media, but now just openly
has US intelligence veterans in mainstream media punditry positions managing public
perception.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/jU58mrEpPvU
"If you go and Google, and I hope your viewers do, Operation Mockingbird, what you will
find is that during the Cold War these agencies used to plot how to clandestinely manipulate
the news media to disseminate propaganda to the American population," Greenwald
said .
"They used to try to do it secretly. They don't even do it secretly anymore. They don't
need Operation Mockingbird. They literally put John Brennan who works for NBC and James
Clapper who works for CNN and tons of FBI agents right on the payroll of these news
organizations. They now shape the news openly to manipulate and to deceive the American
population."
In 1977 Carl Bernstein published an article titled " The CIA and the Media " reporting
that the CIA had
covertly infiltrated America's most influential news outlets and had over 400 reporters who
it considered assets in a program known as
Operation Mockingbird . It was a major scandal, and rightly so. The news media are meant to
report truthfully about what happens in the world, not manipulate public perception to suit the
agendas of spooks and warmongers.
Nowadays the CIA collaboration happens right out in the open, and the public is too
brainwashed and gaslit to even recognize this as scandalous. Immensely influential outlets like
The New York Times uncritically pass on CIA disinfo which is then spun as fact by cable news
pundits . The sole owner of The Washington Post is a CIA contractor ,
and WaPo has never once disclosed this conflict of interest when reporting on US intelligence
agencies per standard journalistic protocol. Mass media outlets
now openly employ intelligence agency veterans like John Brennan, James Clapper,
Chuck Rosenberg, Michael Hayden, Frank Figliuzzi, Fran Townsend, Stephen Hall, Samantha
Vinograd, Andrew McCabe, Josh Campbell, Asha Rangappa, Phil Mudd, James Gagliano, Jeremy Bash,
Susan Hennessey, Ned Price and Rick Francona, as are known
CIA assets like NBC's Ken Dilanian, as are
CIA interns like Anderson Cooper and CIA applicants like
Tucker Carlson.
They're just rubbing it in our faces now. Like they're showing off.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=879036821954539520&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fso-much-what-cia-used-do-covertly-it-now-does-overtly&sessionId=f90acd7ceb3bc7675f43696376e59f5ebdc79571&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px
And that's just the media. We also see this flaunting behavior exhibited in the US
government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a propaganda operation geared at
sabotaging foreign governments not aligned with the US which according to its own founding
officials was set up to do overtly what the CIA used to do covertly. The late author and
commentator William Blum
makes this clear :
[I]n 1983, the National Endowment for Democracy was set up to "support democratic
institutions throughout the world through private, nongovernmental efforts". Notice the
"nongovernmental"" part of the image, part of the myth. In actuality, virtually every penny
of its funding comes from the federal government, as is clearly indicated in the financial
statement in each issue of its annual report. NED likes to refer to itself as an NGO
(Non-governmental organization) because this helps to maintain a certain credibility abroad
that an official US government agency might not have. But NGO is the wrong category. NED is a
GO.
"We should not have to do this kind of work covertly," said Carl Gershman in 1986, while
he was president of the Endowment. "It would be terrible for democratic groups around the
world to be seen as subsidized by the C.I.A. We saw that in the 60's, and that's why it has
been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that's why the endowment
was created."
And Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, declared in 1991:
"A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
In effect, the CIA has been laundering money through NED.
We see NED's fingerprints all over pretty much any situation where the western power
alliance needs to manage public perception about a CIA-targeted government, from Russia to
Hong
Kong to Xinjiang to the
imperial propaganda operation known as Bellingcat.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1278456656305643521&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fso-much-what-cia-used-do-covertly-it-now-does-overtly&sessionId=f90acd7ceb3bc7675f43696376e59f5ebdc79571&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1337063301113581568&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fso-much-what-cia-used-do-covertly-it-now-does-overtly&sessionId=f90acd7ceb3bc7675f43696376e59f5ebdc79571&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px
Hell, intelligence insiders are just openly running for office now. In an article titled "
The CIA
Democrats in the 2020 elections ", World Socialist Website documented the many veterans of
the US intelligence cartel who ran in elections across America in 2018 and 2020:
"In the course of the 2018 elections, a large group of former military-intelligence
operatives entered capitalist politics as candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination
in 50 congressional seats" nearly half the seats where the Democrats were targeting
Republican incumbents or open seats created by Republican retirements. Some 30 of these
candidates won primary contests and became the Democratic candidates in the November 2018
election, and 11 of them won the general election, more than one quarter of the 40 previously
Republican-held seats captured by the Democrats as they took control of the House of
Representatives. In 2020, the intervention of the CIA Democrats continues on what is arguably
an equally significant scale."
So they're just getting more and more brazen the more confident they feel about how
propaganda-addled and submissive the population has become. They're laying more and more of
their cards on the table. Soon the CIA will just be openly selling narcotics door to door like
Girl Scout cookies.
Or maybe not. I said my ex got more and more overt about his abuses in the later years of
our relationship because those were the later years. I did eventually expand my own
consciousness of my own inner workings enough to clear the fears and unexamined beliefs I had
that he was using as hooks to manipulate me. Maybe, as humanity's consciousness continues to
expand , the same will happen for the people and their abusive relationship with the
CIA.
* * *
The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is
to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email
notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely
reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around,
following me on Facebook , Twitter , Soundcloud or YouTube , or throwing some money into
my tip jar on Ko-fi ,
Patreon or Paypal . If you want to read more you
can buy my books .
Everyone, racist platforms excluded,
has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else
I've written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand,
and what I'm trying to do with this platform,
click here .
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Money quote: " Zerohedge has more traffic than Huffington Post, Vox, Vice, The Atlantic and
pretty well any of the other bluecheck day camps for aspiring establishment shills."
Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,
Late Stage Globalism Is A Tale of
Narratives vs Networks
Over the past few weeks in my weekly
#AxisOfEasy newsletter I've been covering how Big Tech and the corporate media tried,
unsuccessfully, to keep a lid on the Wuhan Lab origin narrative. At one point I half-joked
"I'll shut up about this when it's safe to talk about Ivermectin" . This week, I did end up
writing a piece about Ivermectin, namely how doctors can't even mention it in their videos or
podcast appearances without being penalized by social media platforms.
Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biologist who has studied bats (from which COVID-19
purportedly originated) was recently on
Triggernometry , the UK based podcast that my company, easyDNS , has been sponsoring since mid-2020. It turns out that
neither Weinstein nor Triggernometry can say the word "Ivermectin" in their shows. If they do
they'll get an automatic takedown by YouTube and a strike on Facebook for violating community
standards.
Matt Taibbi recently posed the question " Why has
"˜Ivermectin' become a dirty word? " He cites Dr. Pierre Kory in his testimony to a
US Senate Committee hearing on medical responses to COVID-19 in December 2020. Kory was
referring to an existing medicine that was already FDA approved that he was describing as a
"wonder drug" in treating COVID-19, that drug was Ivermectin.
This Senate testimony was televised and viewed by approximately 8 million people. YouTube
removed the video of this exchange. They later suspended the account of the United States
senator who invited Dr. Kory to speak. (Kory also appeared on Brett Weinstein's show and they
took down that as well).
Associated Press for their part "fact
checked" the senate testimony, and because, in their words "there is no evidence that
Ivermectin is a "˜miracle drug' against COVID", they labeled it as false:
CLAIM: The antiparasitic drug ivermectin "has a miraculous effectiveness that obliterates"
the transmission of COVID-19 and will prevent people from getting sick.
AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. There's no evidence ivermectin has been proven a safe or effective
treatment against COVID-19.
... ... ...
But I'm looking beyond that, outside of network TV. The hottest news outlets are fast
becoming independent journalists like Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald , self-publishing via their Substack.
That's mainly email.
Joe Rogan has a larger audience than Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon combined. So too does Steve
Bannon, btw. The few times I've been on his
Warroom I was astounded at the reach of his audience. According to company sources he's
doing between 2.5 and 3.5 million downloads per day. The last people I would ever expect to be
tuning into Bannon are telling me "I saw you on Warroom". (It's mind-blowing).
Zerohedge has more traffic than Huffington Post, Vox, Vice, The Atlantic and pretty well any
of the other bluecheck day camps for aspiring establishment shills.
It's because of independent, renegade journalists and people writing outside of major
outlets that these stories are starting go mainstream despite the best efforts of Big Tech,
enforcing whatever canon the corporate press deems to be truth, or the establishment anointed
"fact checkers" who try to step in whenever something looks to gain traction:
The Wuhan lab origin was suspected for over a year (and the Fauci emails prove it).
Zerohedge was on it almost immediately and
got deplatformed for their troubles. It was finally pushed over the line in a
Medium post by Nicholas Wade over a year later.
Ivermectin may be next round and it looks like if it gets anywhere it will be thanks to
people like Matt Taibbi and Bret Weinstein.
What is the common thread here? It's the power of decentralized networks and open source
protocols vs narrative control that is promulgated from global governments, amplified by the
corporate media, and enforced by technocratic platforms.
... ... ...
It may seem like the censorship is absolute and that the narrative and the spin is
overwhelming. But take solace that it only appears that way because the facade is breaking.
As more people realize that the centralized technocratic system is failing, those who's
privilege and position are premised on it have to double down, triple down. They have to burn
the boats.
They're fully committed now and because they have no other choice they have to overstep and
overreach. Too much, too soon. Too late.
In reality big tech is the part of neoliberal elite that control the politics and politician
(the USA politics and politicians were privatized during Reagan and nothing changed since that
period). They also has strong ties with intelligence community often emerging from some some
intelligence agency plan and DAPRA or CIA funds. So it is strange to be suprozed that they will
always take the side of the government -- they control the goverment...
The Democrats in Congress want comprehensive regulation of social media which will
ultimately allow regime regulators to decide what is and what is not "disinformation." This has
become very clear as Congress has held a series of Congressional hearings designed to pressure
tech leaders into doing even more to silence critics of the regime and its preferred
center-left narratives.
Back in February, for instance, Glen Greenwald reported:
For the third time in
less than five months , the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies
to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more
content from their platforms.
House Democrats have made no secret of their ultimate goal with this hearing: to exert
control over the content on these online platforms. "Industry self-regulation has failed,"
they said, and therefore "we must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media
companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation." In other words, they
intend to use state power to influence and coerce these companies to change which content
they do and do not allow to be published.
(The February hearing wasn't even the end of it. Big Tech was
summoned yet again on March 25 .)
Greenwald is probably right. The end game here is likely to create a permanent "partnership"
between big tech in which government regulators will ultimately decide just how much these
platforms will deplatform user and delete content that run afoul of the regime's messaging.
It might strike many readers as odd that this should even be necessary. It's already become
quite clear that Big Social Media is hardly an enemy of mainstream proregime forces in
Washington. Quite the opposite.
Jack Dorsey, for instance, is exactly the sort of partisan regime apparatchik one expects
out of today's Silicon Valley. For example, during October of last year ,
Twitter locked down the account of the New York Post , because the Post reported a story on
Hunter Biden that threatened to hurt Biden's chances for election.
Over 90 percent of political donation money coming out of Facebook and Twitter goes to
Democrats.
Yet, it's important to keep in mind that this isn't going to be enough to convince
politicians to pack up and decide to leave social media companies alone. The regime is unlikely
to be satisfied with anything other than full state control of social media through permanent
regulatory bodies that can ultimately bring the industry to heel. Regardless of the ideological
leanings of the industry players involved, they're likely to see the writing on the wall. As
with any regime where the regulators and legislators hold immense power -- as is the case in
Washington today -- the regime will generally be able to win the "cooperation" of industry
leaders who will end up taking a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" position.
Silicon
Valley Is Ideologically Allied with the Regime. But That's Not Enough.
It's been abundantly clear for at least a decade that ideologically speaking, Silicon Valley
is as
politically mainstream as it gets. The old early-2000s notion that Silicon Valley harbors
secret libertarian, antiestablishment leanings has been disproven dozens of times over.
Moreover, Washington has a long history of co-opting tech "geniuses" to serve the whims of
the regime. Even back in 2013 Julian Assange already saw the "ever closer union" between
government agents and Silicon Valley. Assange saw how federal agencies were hiring Silicon
Valley workers as "consultants" and saw where the "partnership" was headed. He concluded "The
advance of information technology epitomized by Google heralds the death of privacy for most
people and shifts the world toward authoritarianism."
But even if Silicon Valley is packed full of stooges for the NSA --
as appears to be the case -- this still doesn't mean that Silicon Valley firms are willing
to happily hand over their property to the federal government. After all, Silicon Valley CEOs,
managers, and stockholders are all still at least partly in it for the money. All else being
equal, they prefer profit to loss, and they want freedom to make decisions free of regulatory
control. They probably don't care about freedom in the abstract, but they care about it for
themselves.
The Threat of Regulation Creates Support for the Regime
On the other hand, once federal policymakers and regulators start making threats, the game
changes entirely. All of a sudden, it makes a lot of sense to pursue "friendly" relations with
the state as a matter of self-preservation. If Washington has the ability to destroy your
business -- and if it has become impossible to "fly under the radar" -- then it makes a lot of
sense to make Washington your friend.
Under these circumstances, there's little to be gained from blanket opposition to federal
regulation, and a lot to be gained from embracing regulation while merely working to ensure
that regulation benefits you and your friends.
Big Business versus Small Business
So, it should never surprise us when big business ultimately ends up siding with the regime.
It would be folly not to, especially if one has the means to hire lobbyists, attorneys, and PR
consultants which can help Big Business negotiate effectively with regulators. Needless to say,
the outcomes of these negotiations are likely to end up helping the big players at the expense
of smaller ones who aren't even present at the negotiating table.
For small firms that have little hope of influencing federal policy, it still makes sense to
simply oppose federal activism altogether and hope for the best. But if your firm manages to
get a seat "at the table" it's best to seize the opportunity. To quote an old saying among
lobbyists: "if you're not at the table, you're on the menu."
But let us not forget that even when private firms can bring immense amounts of resources to
bear for purposes of influencing public policy and negotiating with bureaucrats: the regime
itself ultimately holds the advantage. No private firm in the world has the resources to ignore
or veto the wishes of the regime's army of regulatory, prosecutors, and tax collectors. No
private firm enjoys anything approaching the coercive monopoly power of the state.
But this doesn't mean those firms can't share in this power. And that's very often what
happens. Faced with a "join us or be destroyed" ultimatum from federal regulators or lawmakers,
most private firms choose the "join us" option. Of course, many smaller firms aren't even
offered the choice.
Tillyoudrop 9 minutes ago (Edited)
Wwwwrong.
BIG BUSINESS is the Regime, they own this fxxxing place, and they control you by the
balls.
AriusArmenian 3 minutes ago remove link
All the major social media companies in the US were funded and controlled by the CIA
from startup.
There is not a future end-game - it has been the CIA's agenda from the beginning.
The CIA along with Watt Street and the MIC owns and controls the US from top to bottom -
and they intend for the lumpen white people to fall on their swords. This is all to the
interests of the rich and powerful button pushers. I pity the young people like idiots so
easily used by the elites.
freedommusic 10 minutes ago
Well when DARPA, the DOD, CIA, et al, created your company what choice do you have?
What did you think this company is YOURS Mr Z?
We created LifeLog with The Peoples money, handed it
over to you so there is plausible deniability, and are now weaponizing this data against
the very people who have funded it.
Welcome to the MO of monolithic government.
bunnyswanson 1 minute ago
Big Business is the regime. Unfair competition is the name of their game. Monopolizing
their industry is their goal. Oversight committees should have stopped them but simple men
who define themselves by what they own sell out eagerly.
Reddit is one of the world's most influential news and social media platforms. The website
attracted
over 1.2 billion visits in April 2021 alone, making it the United States' eighth most visited
site, ahead of other leviathans like Twitter, Instagram and eBay. Now majority-owned by a much
larger corporate publishing empire, Reddit is also far ahead of more established news sites,
garnering three times the numbers of Fox News and five times those of The New York
Times .
That is why it was so surprising that so little was made of the company's decision to
appoint foreign policy hawk Jessica Ashooh to the position of Director of Policy in 2017, at
which time it was also the eight most visited site in the U.S. Ashooh, who had been a Middle
East foreign policy wonk at NATO's think tank the Atlantic Council, was appointed at around the
same time that the Senate Select Intelligence Committee was
demanding more control over the popular website, on the grounds that it was being used to
spread disinformation. In her role as Director of Policy, she oversees all government relations
and public policy for the company, in addition to managing content, product and advertising.
Yet a Google search for "Jessica Ashooh Reddit" filtered between late 2016 and early 2017
(after she was appointed) elicits
zero relevant results, meaning not one media outlet even mentioned the questionable
appointment.
This is all the more hair-raising, given her resume as a high state official -- all of which
raises serious questions about the extent of collaboration between Silicon Valley and the
national security state.
A hawk's talons on Syria
The Atlantic Council is the de-facto brains of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and
takes
funding from the military alliance, as well as from the U.S. government, the U.S. military,
Middle Eastern dictatorships, other Western governments, big tech companies, and weapons
manufacturers. Its board of directors has been and
continues to be a who's who of high U.S. statespeople like Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and
Condoleezza Rice, as well as senior military commanders such as retired generals Wesley Clark,
David Petraeus, H.R. McMaster, James "Mad Dog" Mattis, the late Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, and
Admiral James Stavridis. At least seven former CIA directors are also on the board. As such,
the council chooses to represent both political wings of the national security
state.
Ashooh's LinkedIn resume epitomizes the troubling relantionship between think tanks and big
tech
Between 2015 and 2017, Ashooh was Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council's Middle East
Strategy Task Force, working directly with and under Madeline Albright and Stephen Hadley. This
is particularly noteworthy, given both these individuals' roles in the region. As Bill
Clinton's secretary of state, Albright oversaw the Iraq sanctions and the Oil for Food Program,
denounced as "genocide" by the
successive United Nations diplomats charged with
carrying them out. In an infamous interview with 60 Minutes , Albright casually brushed
off a question about her role in the killing of half a million children,
stating "the price is worth it." Meanwhile, Hadley was deputy or senior national security
advisor to the government of George W. Bush throughout the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions,
surely the greatest crimes against humanity thus far in the 21st century.
Ashooh appears to be as hawkish as her bosses. Her particular area of expertise is the war
in Syria, regarding which she has been among the most belligerent voices, constantly calling
for more American intervention to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. In a 2015
interview with Al
Jazeera , she praised the U.K. government's decision to bomb the country, claiming that the
British public was "coming around" to the idea of war. A shocked interviewer asked "how will
the British airstrikes [on] Syria make the British public any safer?" Ashooh replied that it
was "generally a positive decision" because "it goes a long way in improving international
consensus on the way forward on Syria," although she lamented that there wouldn't be "much
improvement in the situation without ground troops." There will be "no political solution
without a military element," she predicted, essentially making the pitch for war.
https://cdn.jwplayer.com/players/bhFBUukP-YuKiCfZc.html
Ashooh has also constantly praised and supported Syria's opposition forces. In 2016, she
said that she was
very happy that "fighters on the ground from a number of key factions" were uniting against the
"Assad regime." She condemned Russia for claiming these opposition forces were members of
terrorist groups like Al-Nusra, Jaysh al-Islam or ISIS, insisting that these were "moderate"
rebels.
Of course, the idea that there was still any measurable distance between "moderate" rebels
and outright militant jihadists by 2016 was
hard to maintain . Even The Washington Post by this time was
admitting as much, noting that so-called moderates were now so "intermingled" with al-Nusra
that it was difficult to tell them apart.
Nevertheless, the New Hampshire native took to the pages of The New York Times to
demand that the U.S. arm the opposition. Of course, it was already doing so, the CIA
spending
$1 billion per year fielding rebel mercenary armies in the conflict -- with one in every 15
dollars the agency
spent going to this endeavor. All of this Ashooh surely knew, yet she maintained that the
West must continue to "jack up the price" of Russia defending Assad. "As long as [Assad]
remains in power and remains the figurehead of the Syrian government this conflict won't end,"
she said , laying out
her regime-change-or-bust position. Just weeks before unexpectedly taking over at Reddit,
Ashooh seemed to still be in full foreign-policy-hawk mode, condemning Obama in the pages of
The Washington Post for his apparent softness on Syria and
demanding that Trump "restore U.S. credibility" by "order[ing] targeted, punitive strikes
against the Assad regime."
Ashooh attends British Polo Day at Abu Dhabi's Ghantoot Racing and Polo Club. Photo | Ahlan
Dirty war, dirty warrior
Ashooh is actually even more involved in the Syrian conflict than one might realize from her
hawkish opinions alone. Between 2011 and 2015, she worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the United Arab Emirates, in her own words , "[p]rovid[ing] senior decision
makers with policy analysis and strategic advice, with a particular focus on Syria."
At that time the UAE was using its enormous financial clout to arm and fund a myriad of
jihadist groups attempting to overthow the secular strongman Assad and establish some kind of
Islamic state. Far from a conspiracy theory, this comes straight from the horse's mouth, as
then-Vice President Joe Biden revealed in a Q&A session in 2014. The future president
frankly stated :
The Saudis, the Emiratis, what were they doing? They poured hundreds of millions of
dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad,
except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist
elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world. "
Under pressure, he later apologized
for his loose lips.
MintPress News asked the Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs to comment on precisely
what Ashooh's role was, but they failed to respond.
Ashooh is pictured during her time as a "consultant" in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo |
Academyalumni
Ashooh herself appears to have been a relatively major player in the Syrian Civil War. In
her previously mentioned Washington Post
article , she notes that her boss was a former Emirati Air Force General and that she was
flown to Istanbul in 2013 to attend an emergency meeting with leaders of the Syrian opposition,
as well as ambassadors from unnamed Arab and Western states, in order to plan a response to a
reported chemical weapons attack and to help the U.S. "coordinate with the Syrian
opposition."
At the same time as she was advising the nation on Middle Eastern affairs, the UAE was
widely accused of flying ISIS and al-Qaeda leaders into Yemen to help them intensify the
Saudi-led onslaught on the impoverished nation and of smuggling
U.S.-made weaponry -- including small arms, TOW missiles and Oshkosh fighting vehicles -- to
the jihadist groups. While Ashooh's writing is careful to maintain a distinction between the
"moderate" rebels she supports and the fundamentalist radicals she does not, it certainly is
noteworthy that the entities she worked for consistently seem to end up in league with the most
regressive forces in the region. MintPress also reached out to Reddit for comment on why
they appointed Ashooh, given her past history, and on the wider phenomenon of government
penetration of social media. The company initially promised to issue a response to the inquiry
but has not followed through with it.
An
Unholy Alliance: Did the US-Backed UAE Fly ISIS Leaders into Yemen's Killing Fields? The
US-allied United Arab Emirates (UAE stands accused of flying ISIS leaders from Syria into Yemen
to use in the Saudi-led Coalition war.
MintPress News | Alexander
Rubinstein | Mar 6, 2019 Opposing some dictatorships, supporting others
Regime change is on the table for more than just one Middle Eastern nation. In a 2017
paper for the
Center for the National Interest -- a think tank established by former Republican President
Richard Nixon and the "Godfather of Neoconservatism,"
Irving Kristol -- Ashooh explores the different options for forcing regime change in Iran,
but concludes that overthrowing the "odious regime" is an impossible task right now, and
criticizes the idea as a quixotic dream.
Nevertheless, she is far from an Iran dove. An Atlantic Council report
she co-wrote insists that "Iranian interference in the Arab world must be deterred," and that
"America's friends and partners must be reassured that the U.S. opposes Iranian hegemony and
will work with them to prevent it."
Ashooh's commitment to fighting against Middle Eastern dictatorships might seem more
principled if she did not appear so enamored of the least democratic one of them all. In 2016,
she accompanied Albright and Hadley to Saudi Arabia and praised the monarchy's dynamic
leadership on the economy and its nurturing of a new generation. "It was really really exciting
to see that level of energy and the level of government support for these young people who were
interested in shaping their own futures it was just wonderful," she
said . In an
article about her experience for business news website Market Watch , she waxed
lyrical about how forward-thinking the Saudi government is and how the country has become "a
hub for the dynamic and positive change that is swelling up throughout the region." Presumably,
this excludes Yemen, a nation they were bombing
relentlessly . In a 2020
interview , Ashooh revealed that her dream job would be U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
One of her
earliest comments on her public Reddit page (made before she began working
there) is deflecting the Kingdom from criticism of its dreadful
treatment of women.
Ashooh's Reddit account, which doesn't identify her real identity, uses the moniker,
arabscarab
As part of the Atlantic Council, Ashooh was tasked with envisaging a new Middle East for the
21st century. Given her output
, it seems that she advocates for a transition towards a more privatized, free-market economic
setup, not completely unlike the shock therapy tried in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s.
"We have to "encourage states to make the reforms that move economies from state-based to ones
that support entrepreneurship, because the age of state-based economies is over," she
said at a
talk at New York University in 2015, adding:
You've got to move to support entrepreneurship in the region and let people take advantage
of the natural industrial tendencies of people in the Middle East. My God, if you've ever
been to a Turkish bazaar or a market in Cairo you know that these countries are perfectly
capable of having functioning market economies. But the state has gotten in the way.
Ashooh's LinkedIn
profile also notes that in 2010, she worked as an advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning "on
a variety of strategic and economic development issues," but does not go into any more detail
about what those issues were. A further biography merely states that her
consultancy agency "provid[ed] strategic and management consulting services to the Ministry of
Planning of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Northern Iraq." Unsurprisingly, the
organization has links to the U.S. military; the agency's lead partner being a former Army
captain.
Think Tankie
Ashooh comes from a relatively prominent New Hampshire family of Lebanese descent, the most
notable of which is probably her uncle Richard . Richard Ashooh was Donald
Trump's Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration and a former executive at weapons
manufacturer BAE Systems. Unlike her uncle, Jessica appears to lean more Democratic, having
donated money to a number of local politicians, as well as to anti-Trump Republican groups
aimed at convincing them to vote blue, such as Right Side PAC and the now infamous Lincoln
Project. However, she also appears to have great respect for many Republicans, having written
her
doctoral thesis at Oxford University on the Middle East policy of the George W. Bush
administration. She also
stated that the person she would have most liked to have met was 41st President George Bush
Senior, describing him as possessing "incredible amounts of strategy, finesse and restraint."
Thus, her political views appear to be exactly in the center of the neoliberal "
blob " in Washington.
Ashooh also worked
for the right-wing think tank the CATO Institute and is a Term Member of the more
Democratic-aligned Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR's term member program is
intended to, in its own words, "cultivate the next generation of foreign policy
leaders."
Surveillance Valley
How and why, then, did a hawkish young mandarin hothoused at elite universities and in the
halls of state power end up an executive at an anarchic messageboard site with an
anti-establishment reputation? Virtually everyone else in senior roles at Reddit has relevant
backgrounds in marketing or tech, having worked with comparable companies such as Yelp, Expedia
and Snapchat.
Tom Secker -- a journalist, podcaster and
researcher who runs SpyCulture.com ,
an online archive about government involvement in the entertainment industry -- was deeply
skeptical. "That someone whose entire career has been in international relations and foreign
affairs is now the senior policy wonk at Reddit is simply bizarre. Given her ties to the CFR,
Atlantic Council and the like, it's downright suspicious," Secker told MintPress .
Underneath the surface, however, the Atlantic Council has been rapidly expanding its
influence and control over big social media companies. In 2018, it announced that it would be
partnering with Facebook to promote trustworthy sources and derank, demote and even delete low
quality or fake news, thus effectively curating what the platform's
2.85 billion worldwide users see in their news feeds. But the effect of recent algorithmic
changes has been to throttle alternative media traffic in favor of establishment sources such
as CNN , Fox News and The New York Times . Even such more mainstream
liberal sites as Mother Jones have seen their numbers crater. Facebook later
admitted that they were directly targeting Mother Jones because of its left-leaning
content, raising the question that if such a middle-of-the-road liberal outlet was being
penalized, wasn't the collapse in traffic to more radical publications surely deliberate? Given
the Atlantic Council's funding and the identities of those on its board , their control over
social media is tantamount to state censorship on a global level.
Earlier this year, Facebook also hired NATO press officer Ben Nimmo to be its intelligence
chief, in another move that
dismayed free-speech advocates. In the past, Nimmo has identified a Welsh pensioner and an
internationally known Ukranian pianist as Russian bots, raising more questions about the
suitability of the Atlantic Council to be an arbiter of truth online.
The Facebook-Atlantic Council link mirrors that of Microsoft with
NewsGuard , a new piece of software purportedly trying to fight fake news by placing either
green shields or red warning logos, corresponding to an outlet's credibility, beside all links
in its browser, Microsoft Edge -- this credibility being decided entirely by NewsGuard itself.
Newsguard pushed Microsoft to install the software on all its products as standard. Again,
however, NewsGuard's system rated establishment websites like Fox News and CNN as
trustworthy but independent media as suspect. And again, a glance at its advisory board makes it clear that
this is a state operation. Those in key positions included George W. Bush's Secretary of
Homeland Security and former NSA and CIA Director General Michael Hayden; ex-White House
Communications Director Don Baer; and former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Worse still, NewsGuard is also linked to a PR agency
employed in whitewashing the Saudi
government's human-rights record and its role in the carnage in Yemen.
Twitter, too, has some extremely troubling links with state power. In 2019 Gordon MacMillan,
a senior Twitter executive responsible for the Middle East region, was
outed as an active duty officer in the British Army's 77th Brigade, a unit dedicated to
online operations and psychological warfare. Far from causing a scandal, only one major U.S.
outlet even mentioned
the story, and the journalist in question resigned from the profession weeks later,
claiming the existence of a network of top-down state censors who quash stories that
threaten the power and prestige of the national security state. To this day, MacMillan remains
in his post at Twitter, strongly suggesting the social media company knew of his role before he
was hired.
Over the past few years, Twitter, Reddit and Facebook have
announced the deletion of hundreds of thousands of accounts linked to sources in Russia,
Iran, China and other enemy states,
often on the recommendation of Western governments or state-sponsored intelligence
organizations. However, they never seem willing or able to find any manipulation of their
platforms by Western governments. Thus, the upshot of this has been to slowly dissuade critics
of Western foreign policy from using their services.
"The mainstream media-politik establishment has managed to get a hold over Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram -- shadow-banning and downrating posts considered 'Russian propaganda' or
whatever other excuse they use to marginalize perspectives and content outside of the
mainstream," Secker told MintPress . "Audiences for this sort of content are
increasingly pissed off and alienated by the major social media sites."
Facebook,
Social Media Giants Admit to Silencing Palestinian Voices Online Social media companies
including Facebook have admitted to MintPress that pro-Palestinian posts were removed, blaming
mistakes in the algorithm.
MintPress News | Jessica
Buxbaum | May 14
Increasingly, unwelcome political voices are either brushed off by centrist pundits as
repeating Russian talking points or smeared as being amplified by Kremlin-based bot farms. The
popularity of movements on the left like
Black Lives Matter or the Bernie
Sanders' campaign were written off as partially linked to Russia, while others
suggested that the January 6 insurrection in Washington was essentially a Russian
operation.
The irony is that many of the wildest accusations against Putin that have fed this climate
of suspicion began life in Atlantic Council documents. For example, the organization has
published a series
of studies that suggest that virtually every European political party challenging the
neoliberal status quo in some way -- from Labour and UKIP in the U.K. to Syriza and Golden Dawn
in Greece and PODEMOS and Vox in Spain -- are secretly controlled by Russia, functioning as the
"Kremlin's Trojan Horses," in its words.
The Atlantic Council is also deeply intertwined with a U.K. government-funded organization
called the Integrity Initiative, something that purports to be a group defending democracy from
disinformation. However, in practice, it appears to be doing the opposite: planting
disinformation about politicians' supposed links to Russia in order to undermine them. The
Integrity Initiative is a government-backed cluster of journalists who operate in unison to
conduct propaganda blitzes on
unsuspecting publics. In 2018, it
launched a successful operation to prevent Colonel Pedro Baños being appointed
Spain's head of national security. Considering Baños too soft on Russia for the Atlantic
Council and other hawks' liking, the initiative sprung into action, creating a storm of protest
that led to another individual being chosen.
New
Documents Reveal Covert UK Military-Intelligence Smear Machine Meddling In US Politics With
the help of John Rendon and the State Department's Global Engagement Center, the Integrity
Initiative brings its disinformation campaign to the US.
MintPress News | Mark Ames |
Jan 9, 2019
Reddit actually played a key role in a 2019 propaganda blitz against anti-war Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn. A few days before the U.K.'s general election, Corbyn promoted documents leaked
on the platform that showed that Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson was negotiating with
American companies, putting much of the country's National Health Service up for sale. With
just days to go before polls opened, it could have proved a game changer. Reddit quickly came
to Johnson's rescue, however,
asserting that the documents were part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The story in
the pliant British press switched from "Boris Johnson is selling off the NHS" to "Corbyn
promotes Russian disinfo," thus greasing the skids for an easy victory for the hardline
anti-Russia Conservative Party, an outcome the hawks at the Atlantic Council were no doubt
relieved by, given Corbyn's open skepticism about war, empire and nuclear weapons. The veracity
of the documents was not challenged.
For a while
Founded in 2005, Reddit has grown to become one of the world's largest and most influential
websites. However, it began life as an anarchistic messageboard whose culture was profoundly
libertarian and anti-establishment. For years, the company's administrators took a near free
speech absolutist position. Aaron Swartz, Reddit's co-founder, was an open source hacktivist
and even attempted to download and publish the entirety of academic publisher Jstor's library.
When authorities got wind of what he was doing, they threatened him with 40 years in prison, an
action that caused him to take his own life in 2013.
Reddit's own position on free information and free speech was often so extreme it caused
huge controversy. The site became the internet's largest source of child pornography. It was
only after CNN began reporting on it to a nationwide audience that
things began to change. Other, grossly offensive communities like /r/BeatingWomen and
/r/CoonTown were also protected.
Nevertheless, the culture established by anarchistic tech bros remained for some years, with
the site resembling darker corners of the internet like 4Chan and 8Chan as much as more
family-friendly mainstream social media like Facebook.
Ashooh's arrival in 2017 coincided with a new era in the site's history. Gone were the days
of protecting communities that would bring in bad publicity. Her team quickly
brought in a new content policy and began to delete communities that violated it. Last
year, she oversaw the banning of over
2,000 communities in a single day, including /r/The_Donald, the main Donald Trump
subreddit, and /r/ChapoTrapHouse, the most active left-wing community. These decisions have
helped the money flow in; since 2017 revenue has more than tripled .
However, what has been lost across the internet is the liberatory potential of these
technologies. In the 1990s and 2000s, many predicted that the internet would usher in a new era
of egalitarianism and genuine democracy, helping even to reduce barriers and tensions between
nations. For a while, the new medium allowed political actors to challenge the status quo and
gain huge followings quickly. Alternative media was easily outperforming legacy media, and
challenging the status quo when it came to news. Seeing that, the reaction since 2016 has been
swift, as the elite have moved to retighten their grip over the means of communication.
Ashooh's jump from national security state official to Reddit Director of Policy is just one
more point of reference on that chart.
Feature photo | Graphic by Antonio Cabrera
Alan MacLeod is Senior
Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books:
Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and
Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent , as well as a
number of academic articles . He has also
contributed to FAIR.org ,
The Guardian ,
Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , and
Common Dreams
.
RFK's False-Flag Assassination, and the Forgotten Palestinian Patsy
LAURENT
GUYÉNOT JUNE 5, 2021 3,600 WORDS
150 COMMENTS REPLY Tweet Reddit 1 Share Share 4 Email
Print More 5 SHARES RSS
Share to Gab
On June 6, 1968, Robert Kennedy had just won the California Democratic presidential primary,
when he was shot dead, five years after his brother. David Talbot has shown in his book
Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years , published in 2007 by Simon &
Schuster, that Robert had never believed in the conclusion of the Warren Commission Report, and
that, had he succeeded in becoming the next American president, he would have done his utmost
to set up a new investigation. Whether he would have been able to get to the bottom of it is
another matter. But it is a reasonable assumption that the forces that had killed John were the
same that killed Robert on his way to reclaim the White House. After all, as Laurence Leamer
writes in Sons of Camelot : "Bobby had been the president's alter ego and protector. . .
. He had loved his brother so intensely and served him so well that within the administration
it was hard to tell where one man ended and the other began."
[1] After 1963, Robert was still his brother's continuation. He was the heir and the
avenger.
That is why I have argued before -- and I repeat in
my new book -- that the ultimate key to the JFK whodunit is in RFK's assassination, which
has a very clear, unmistakable Israeli signature. RFK's assassination is a masterwork of false
flag operation, designed by a supremely intelligent, Machiavellian, and organized cabal, the
same that orchestrated one year earlier, with Johnson's complicity, the attempted false flag
attack on the USS Liberty (watch the new groundbreaking four-part documentary film
Sacrificing
Liberty ).
What is truly extraordinary, and demonstrates an unmatched expertise in the industry of
lies, is that the conspirators succeeded to get rid of Robert Kennedy while at the same time
blaming the assassination on their enemies -- the Palestinians -- and thereby giving themselves
both an alibi and a victim's role: through RFK, Israel was the target, they claim.
Sirhan Sirhan, the "virulent anti-Semite"
Just hours after Robert's assassination, the press informed the American people, not only of
the identity of the assassin, but also of his motive, and even of his detailed biography.
[2] Twenty-four-year-old Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was born in Jordan, and had moved to the
United States when his family was expelled from West Jerusalem in 1948. After the shooting, a
newspaper clipping was found in Sirhan's pocket, quoting Robert's following statement: "The
United States should without delay sell Israel the 50 Phantom jets she has so long been
promised." Handwritten notes by Sirhan found in a notebook at his home confirmed that his act
had been premeditated and motivated by his hatred of Israel.
That became the mainstream storyline from day one. Jerry Cohen of the Los Angeles
Times wrote a front page article, saying that Sirhan is "described by acquaintances as a
'virulent' anti-Israeli" (Cohen changed that into "virulent anti-Semite" in an article for the
Salt Lake Tribune ), and that: "Investigation and disclosures from persons who knew him
best revealed [him] as a young man with a supreme hatred for the state of Israel." Cohen infers
that "Senator Kennedy . . . became a personification of that hatred because of his recent
pro-Israeli statements." Cohen further revealed that, about three weeks before the shooting,
Sirhan wrote "a memo to himself" that said, "Kennedy must be assassinated before June 5, 1968,"
that is, Cohen notes, "the first anniversary of the six-day war in which Israel humiliated
three Arab neighbors, Egypt, Syria and Jordan."
[3]
After September 11, 2001, the tragedy of Robert's assassination was rewritten and installed
into the Neocon mythology of the "Clash of Civilizations" and the "War on Terror." A book
entitled The Forgotten Terrorist, by Mel Ayton (2007), purports to present "a wealth of
evidence about [Sirhan's] fanatical Palestinian nationalism," and to demonstrate that
"[Sirhan's] politically motivated act was a forerunner of present-day terrorism."
In 2008, on the occasion of the 40 th anniversary of Bobby's murder, Sasha
Issenberg of the Boston Globe recalled that the death of Robert Kennedy was "a first
taste of Mideast terror." He quotes Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz saying: "It was in some
ways the beginning of Islamic terrorism in America. It was the first shot. A lot of us didn't
recognize it at the time."
[4] That Sirhan was from a Christian family was lost on Dershowitz.
Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin took care to mention it
in The Forward , only to add that Islamic fanaticism ran in his veins anyway:
"But what he shared with his Muslim cousins -- the perpetrators of September 11 -- was a
visceral, irrational hatred of Israel. It drove him to murder a man whom some still believe
might have been the greatest hope of an earlier generation. . . . Sirhan hated Kennedy because
he had supported Israel."
And so, the Forward insists: "One cannot help but note the parallel between [Robert]
Kennedy's assassination and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In both tragic cases,
Arab fanaticism reared its ugly head on American soil, irrevocably changing the course of
events in this country."
[5] And the lesson: "In remembering Bobby Kennedy, let us remember not just what he lived
for, but also what he died for -- namely, the precious nature of the American-Israeli
relationship."
[6] In other words: let's propagate the narrative, for it is good for Israel.
On the fiftieth anniversary, the narrative was
well rehearsed : Robert got killed because he was "pro-Israel".
[7] Therefore his murder was a crime against Israel.
For anyone familiar with the history of the Kennedy clan, there is something odd in the
notion that the assassination of Robert Kennedy was a crime against Israel. Robert had not
been, in his brother's government, a pro-Israel Attorney General. He had infuriated Zionist
leaders by supporting an investigation led by Senator William Fulbright and the Committee on
Foreign Relations, aimed at registering the American Zionist Council as a "foreign agent",
which would had considerably hindered its efficiency.
[8]
In 1968, Robert Kennedy had not suddenly turned pro-Israel. He was simply trying to attract
Jewish votes, as everyone else. Robert's statement in an Oregon synagogue, mentioned in the May
27 Pasadena Independent Star-News article found in Sirhan's pocket, didn't exceed the
minimal requirements. Its author David Lawrence had, in another article entitled "Paradoxical
Bob," underlined how little credit should be given to such electoral promises: "Presidential
candidates are out to get votes and some of them do not realize their own inconsistencies."
[9] In fact, as Arthur Krock has noted, the supposed motive for RFK's murder is itself
paradoxical: "If this motive was his position that the United States was committed to preserve
Israel as a nation, his statement was made with more moderation than that of other important
political persons who said the same thing."
[10]
All things considered, there is no ground for believing that Robert Kennedy would have been,
as president of the U.S.A., particularly Israel-friendly.
Did Sirhan kill Robert Kennedy?
If we trust official statements and mainstream news, the assassination of Robert Kennedy is
an open-and-shut case. The identity of the killer suffers no discussion, since he was arrested
on the spot, with the smoking gun in his hand.
In reality, ballistic and forensic evidence shows that none of Sirhan's bullets hit Kennedy.
According to the autopsy report of Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner Thomas Noguchi, Robert
Kennedy was hit by three bullets, while a fourth went through his coat. All these bullets were
shot from behind Kennedy: two of them under his right armpit, following an upward angle, and
the third, the fatal bullet, behind his right ear, at point blank range. Dr. Noguchi reaffirms
his conclusion in his memoirs, Coroner (1983) . Yet the sworn testimonies of
twelve witnesses established that Robert had never turned his back on Sirhan and that Sirhan
was five to six feet away from his target when he fired. Moreover, Sirhan was physically
overpowered by Karl Uecker after his second shot, and, although he continued pressing the
trigger mechanically, his revolver was not directed towards Kennedy anymore.
By tallying all the bullet impacts in the pantry, and those that wounded five people around
Kennedy, it has been estimated that at least twelve bullets were fired, while Sirhan's gun
carried only eight. On April 23, 2011, attorneys William Pepper and Laurie Dusek gathered all
this evidence and more in a 58-page file submitted to the Court of California, with a request
that Sirhan's case be reopened. They pointed out major irregularities in the 1968 trial,
notably that the serial number of Sirhan's pistol did not match the serial number of the pistol
by which were test fired the bullets compared with those extracted from Robert's brain.
[11] Pepper also provided a computer analysis of audio recordings during the shooting, made
by engineer Philip Van Praag in 2008, which confirms that two guns are heard.
[12] Paul Schrade, a Kennedy confidant who was behind Robert during the shooting and
received one of Sirhan's bullets, has long believed there was a second shooter. He
testified at Sirhan's 2016 parole hearing, and told him: "the evidence clearly shows that
you were not the gunman who shot Robert Kennedy."
[13] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his sister Kathleen have joined Schrade and
support the call for a reinvestigation of the assassination.
[14]
The presence of a second shooter was mentioned by several witnesses and reported on the same
day by a few news outlets. There are strong suspicions that Robert's real assassin was Thane
Eugene Cesar, a security guard hired by the Hotel Ambassador, property of Zionist businessman
Myer Schine. Cesar was stuck behind Kennedy at the moment of the shooting, and some people saw
him draw his pistol. One of them, Don Schulman, positively saw him fire.
[15] Incredibly, Cesar's weapon was never examined, and he was never interrogated, even
though he did not conceal his hatred for the Kennedys.
[16]
Even if we assumed that Sirhan did kill Robert Kennedy, a second aspect of the case raises
question: Sirhan seemed to be in a state of trance during the shooting, and of disorientation
just after. More importantly, Sirhan has always claimed that he has never had any recollection
of his act. Fifty years after the facts, he continues to declare: "I was told by my attorney
that I shot and killed Senator Robert F. Kennedy and that to deny this would be completely
futile, [but] I had and continue to have no memory of the shooting of Senator Kennedy." He also
claims to have no memory of "many things and incidents which took place in the weeks leading up
to the shooting."
[17] Some repetitive lines written of a notebook found in Sirhan's bedroom, which Sirhan
recognizes as his own handwriting but does not remember writing, are reminiscent of automatic
writing: there is a whole page of fifteen repetitions of "RFK must die, Robert F. Kennedy
must be assassinated, assassinated, assassinated, assassinated," suddenly turning to "I
have never heard please pay to the order of of of of of."
[18]
Psychiatric expertise, including lie-detector tests, has confirmed that Sirhan's amnesia is
not faked. Therefore, experts in hypnosis and mental manipulation believe that Sirhan has been
submitted to hypnotic programming. "It was obvious that he had been programmed to kill Robert
Kennedy and programmed to forget that he had been programmed," stated Dr. Robert Blair.
[19] In 2008, Harvard University professor Daniel Brown, a noted expert in hypnosis and
trauma memory loss, interviewed Sirhan for a total of 60 hours, and concluded that Sirhan, whom
he classified among "high hypnotizables," acted involuntarily under the effect of hypnotic
suggestion: "His firing of the gun was neither under his voluntary control, nor done with
conscious knowledge, but is likely a product of automatic hypnotic behavior and coercive
control." During his sessions with Dr. Brown, Sirhan could remember having been accompanied by
an attractive woman, before suddenly finding himself at a shooting range with a weapon he did
not know. According to Brown's report, "Mr. Sirhan did not go with the intent to shoot Senator
Kennedy, but did respond to a specific hypnotic cue given to him by that woman to enter 'range
mode,' during which Mr. Sirhan automatically and involuntarily responded with a 'flashback'
that he was shooting at a firing range at circle targets." Later, attorney William Pepper found
an entry in the police file that showed that, just days before the assassination, Sirhan had
visited a firing range, accompanied by an unknown instructor.
[20]
Mossad, Mental control, and false-flag terrorism
We know that in the 1960s, American military agencies were experimenting on mental control.
Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, son of Hungarian Jews, directed the infamous CIA MKUltra project, which,
among other things, were to answer questions such as: "Can a person under hypnosis be forced to
commit murder?" according to a declassified document dated May 1951.
[21] As Larry Romanoff has pointed out , MKUltra was an
overwhelmingly Jewish enterprise, with people like Dr. John Gittinger, Harris Isbell, James
Keehner, Lauretta Bender, Albert Kligman, Eugene Saenger, Chester Southam, Robert V. Lashbrook,
Harold Abramson, Charles Geschickter, and Ray Treichler.
[22]
In his book Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted
Assassinations (2018), Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman has revealed that, in May 1968, the
month preceding Robert Kennedy's assassination, the Israeli Military Intelligence (AMAN) was
planning to assassinate Yasser Arafat by hypnotically programming a Palestinian. The idea was
proposed by a Navy psychologist named Binyamin Shalit, who claimed that, "if he was given a
Palestinian prisoner -- one of the thousands in Israeli jails -- with the right
characteristics, he could brainwash and hypnotize him into becoming a programmed killer. He
would then be sent across the Jordan, join the Fatah there, and, when the opportunity arose, do
away with Arafat." The proposal was approved. Shalit selected a 28-year-old Palestinian from
Bethlehem, whom he deemed easily suggestionnable. The operation failed, but it proves that, in
1968 precisely, Israel was practicing a method of assassination identical to the one used
against Robert Kennedy.
[23]
Moreover, manipulating Palestinians to make them commit crimes, or committing crimes and
blaming Palestinians for them, bears the signature of Israel. According to former Mossad agent,
Victor Ostrovsky, in 1991 elements of the Mossad were plotting an attempt on the life of
President George H. W. Bush. Bush had resisted an unprecedented pro-Israel lobbying campaign
that called for $10 billion to help Jews immigrate from the former Soviet Union to Israel,
complaining in a televised press conference on September 12 that "one thousand Jewish lobbyists
are on Capitol Hill against little old me."
[24] Worse, there was his policy of pressuring Israel to the negotiating table at the
Madrid Conference by freezing their loan guarantees. Israel had had enough of him. The plan was
to leak words to the Spanish police that terrorists were on their way, kill Bush and, in the
midst of the confusion, release three Palestinians captured earlier and kill them on the spot.
[25]
It is well known that Israel has a long history and a grand expertise in false flag
terrorism. A report of the U.S. Army School for Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), quoted by the
Washington
Times on September 10, 2001, described the Israeli Intelligence agency as: "Wildcard.
Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target U.S. forces and make it look like a
Palestinian/Arab act."
[26] That statement was made public on the day before 9/11.
The pattern dates from before the creation of the Jewish State, with the bombing of the King
David Hotel, headquarter of the British authorities in Jerusalem, in the morning of July 22,
1946. Six terrorists of the Irgun dressed as Arabs brought 225 kg of explosives hidden in milk
churns into the building. When a British officer became suspicious and gunshot ensued, the
Irgun members fled after igniting the explosives. The explosion killed 91 people, mostly
British, but also 15 Jews.
The strategy was repeated in Egypt during the summer of 1954, with Operation Susannah. The
goal was to compromise the British's withdrawal from the Suez Canal, demanded by Colonel Abdul
Gamal Nasser with support from President Eisenhower. Egyptian Jews trained in Israel bombed
several British targets, then put the blame on the Muslim Brotherhood. The accidental
detonation of an explosive device allowed the exposure of the conspiracy, which led to the
"Lavon Affair", from the name of the Defense Minister who was held responsible.
There are more of the same stories in Gordon Thomas's Gideon's Spies: the Secret History
of the Mossad (2009).
[27] By definition, false-flagged Arab terrorism is only exposed when it fails, and we
cannot know how many such operations have been set up by the Mossad. But from the revelations
of Ronen Bergman in Rise and Kill First, Sirhan sure looks like a typical made-in-Mossad
Palestinian patsy.
There are still, of course, unanswered questions, such as: How did Sirhan find himself in
the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel at midnight on June 6, 1968, with a pistol in his
pocket? Sirhan himself declared it was by accident, or by mistake, but then he doesn't remember
much of that evening. Another question is: Why did Kennedy, after finishing his speech, exit
the ballroom through the kitchen pantry, instead of walking through the crowd of his
supporters, as he usually did? To this question, there is an answer: according to a campaign
volunteer present at the scene and interviewed by Michael Piper, it was Frank Mankiewicz who
insisted that Robert go this way.
[28] Now, isn't it awkward that Mankiewicz had started his career in public relations "as
civil rights director for the western branch of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith," as
he mentions in his autobiography.
[29] (The ADL, remember, was founded in 1913 by the B'nai B'rith to defend the
convicted child rapist and murderer Leo Frank .)
[30] In 1991, Mankiewicz handled publicity for Oliver Stone's film JFK .
Content of my new book,
The Unspoken Kennedy Truth :
Watch the video based on my earlier Kennedy research:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/a_kh5tb7PtA?feature=oembed
Laurent Guyénot, Ph.D., is the author of
The Unspoken Kennedy Truth (2021),
"Our God is Your God Too, But He Has Chosen Us": Essays on Jewish Power (2020), and
From Yahweh to Zion: Jealous God, Chosen People, Promised Land (2018).
Vinnie O , says:
June 5, 2021 at 5:09 pm GMT • 2.3 days ago
Bobby Kennedy was killed by a single shot to the back of his head. The shot was fired at a
range close enough to singe the hair on the back of his neck.
Sirhan was of course standing IN FRONT of Bobby, firing BLANKS. The reason for firing
those blanks was to cover up the sound of the OTHER gun.
The ONLY person who could have fired such a shot was one of the FBI "bodyguards".
Bobby was murdered because he had a good chance to be elected Prez o' US. And if Bobby
EVER became Prez, he would have re-opened the investigation of the murder of his brother,
JFK. So RFK was killed by the same people who killed JFK.
Although NO ONE talks about the "plane crash" that killed JFK, Jr., that was also an
assassination for the purpose of ensuring that NO ONE EVER made an honest investigation of
the murder of JFK, Sr.
Laurent
Guyénot , says:
June 5, 2021 at 6:39 pm GMT • 2.2 days ago
@Vinnie O
Agreed. I did talk about JFK Jr. here:
https://www.unz.com/article/the-broken-presidential-destiny-of-jfk-jr/
And I have a chapter on him in my new Unspoken Kennedy Truth book
Katy , says:
June 5, 2021 at 9:18 pm GMT • 2.1 days ago
Sirhan's safety is often in my mind since the death of Epstein and the attempt on
Sirhan.
Looks like Barr was trying to clean up CIA tracks.
Katy , says:
June 5, 2021 at 9:28 pm GMT • 2.1 days ago
My understanding is that Maheu was the conduit between the CIA and the Mafia
in at least the JFK assassination. Mafia includes both Italian and Jewish/Israeli groupings.
But the order and primary coverup was from the CIA (or acting former CIA). You don't usually
hear about military generals, but they had to be in on it too. LBJ was clearly not a
mastermind though must have been involved to a degree. Same with Hoover.
I was a college student in LA at the time of the RFK assassination,
not that it makes me an expert, but it made me aware then and concerned and
investigating ever since.
I have read all of Laurent Guyenot's works and most of it was powerfully eye opening,
especially about the history and "purpose" of the Old Testament Bible. I am grateful to him
for this work.
He seems to me on less solid ground when it comes to who can control things in the US.
Notsofast , says:
June 5, 2021 at 10:45 pm GMT • 2.1 days ago
m.k.ultra/cia/mossad cannot be separated. creating unwitting assassins is a major part of
why the program was created. sirhan sirhan's handler "the girl in the polka dot dress" was
seen by 25 witnesses but dismissed as a figment of the imagination of an overwrought campaign
worker who claimed she heard her say "we shot him, we shot him". the camel faced woman of the
joe/camel administration refused to allow sirhan sirhans parole even though bobby kennedy jr.
requested it. guess that handlers have to have to watch out for each other.
Mulga
Mumblebrain , says:
June 6, 2021 at 5:46 am GMT • 1.8 days ago
US and Western political invertebrates don't pander for Jewish votes-they grovel for
Jewish MONEY, the Universal Lubricant of electoral success.
Mulga
Mumblebrain , says:
June 6, 2021 at 5:51 am GMT • 1.8 days ago
@Godfree Roberts
And he attacked the Israel A-bomb program and wanted to end the Federal Reserve, that
financial yeshiva. They were lining up to top him, then his brother.
Katy , says:
June 6, 2021 at 2:11 pm GMT • 1.4 days ago
@The Alarmist
I agree that it's a mystery he is still alive. Other than it would need someone in the DOJ
with the determination to see that he was carefully assassinated. You know there was a recent
attempt on his life, don't you? Right around the time Epstein died. As long as Barr was head
of DOJ I was extremely concerned about Sirhan.
Of course, originally they expected him to be executed and the California had the audacity
to eliminate the death penalty.
Anon [213] Disclaimer , says:
June 6, 2021 at 2:50 pm GMT • 1.4 days ago
FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat
https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html
lloyd , says:
Website June 6, 2021 at 8:40 pm GMT
• 1.2 days ago
To understand Robert Kennedy's support for Israel, we have to enter the mental world of
post World War Two. Robert wanted Israel' s nuclear programme ended because the Cold War
required a bi polar between nuclear powers, US and USSR. A nuclear Israel would make Israel a
super power as has indeed happened. Otherwise Robert, a war vet, loved Israel as an epitome
of frontier America. Also Israel's social programme as contrasted with America's predatory
capitalism greatly appealed. Robert's visit to Israel and deprecation of the Arabs fitted
that era. The Arabs and Islam were not popular as backward peoples except for some Arabian
Nights nostalgia. I have read a book that Iranian agents were also involved in his
assassination. This was the era of the Shah who was covertly allied to Israel
S , says:
June 7, 2021 at 2:31 am GMT • 21.9 hours ago
@Franz
I once read of a security expert who had been around during the 60's who believed RFK's
assassination was almost inevitable as RFK routinely disregarded security protocols regarding
his exposure to large crowds.
Morton's
toes , says:
June 7, 2021 at 4:15 am GMT • 20.2 hours ago
@RoatanBill
That others were involved is a given and the 'system' has protected them for decades,
just as it protected the assassins who killed JFK.
Since a president Robert would have been determined to get to who killed his brother, it
is practically a foregone conclusion they were both killed by the exact same crew.
Alden , says:
June 7, 2021 at 4:57 am GMT • 19.5 hours ago
Sirhan Sirhan wasn't a Muslim he was Christian Greek Orthodox variety. In 1948 When he was
4 years old armed Israeli troops cane to his family's 10 room house and gave them one hour to
pack up what they could carry and get out. His father was fired from his city of Jerusalem
water department job as soon as Zionists bribed blackmailed and threatened United Nations
delegates to declare Israel a nation.
The family went to live in a Greek Orthodox pilgrim hostel. 7 kids mostly boys youngest 4
how'd you like that. One of the boys was killed in a Zionist terrorist bombing at a crowded
rush hour intersection about a year before. The Church refugee program brought the Sirhan to
Pasadena Ca. They bought a house and settled in.
Having been kicked out of his home at age 4 by armed troops Sirhan was righteously
resentful of the Zionists. He grew more anti Zionist at Pasadena community college because of
pro Israel Jewish professors.
Kennedy ran in the California primary. He promised arms and support to Israel. So Sirhan
shot him.
Robert Kennedy was as anti White as his brothers. He lobbied for the 1965 and 1968
unlimited non White immigration and affirmative action bills. He marched at the head of MLK's
funeral, practically shoving the widow out of the way for photo opportunities. He also
massively supported the Hispanic cause and was one of the first anti White Democrats to lobby
for Hispanics to get affirmative action benefits. Although that didn't happen until 1970. By
the time JFK was elected, Robert was a hard core anti White.
He's dead. Sirhan Sirhan confessed to shooting Kennedy because of Kennedy's support for
Israel and the Israelis who stole his family's home.
If you're pro Israel and love the American politicians who give more to Israel than to the
American taxpayers, you would have lived Kennedy at the time.
If you're anti White and pro black and brown you should mourn Kennedy as an anti White,
pro black and brown pro black on White crime and pro affirmative action discrimination
against White Americans dead martyr.
If you are pro White and against affirmative action discrimination against White Americans
you are a misinformed ignoramus if you mourn Robert Kennedy.
If you are pro Palestinian and anti the Israeli property grabbers you are a misinformed
ignoramus if you mourn the pro Israel Kennedy.
All 3 Kennedy brothers were anti White. March 1961 less than 2 months after he became
President JFK issued executive order 10925 I believe it was mandating that all federal
agencies SHALL take affirmative action to hire blacks over Whites.
Ted lobbied for the 64 civil rights for all but Whites act, the 65 unlimited non White
immigration act. The 68 affirmative action act and every anti White law and judicial
appointment in his long career.
And Robert disdained Whites and slobbered over MLK Jesse Jackson Cesear Chavez and every
black and brown activist in existence. And he was a vociferous supporter of Israel and the
anti White Jewish organizations in America.
Someone shot him. Sirhan Sirhan claimed he shot Robert Kennedy. Robert was as much an
enemy of Whites and Palestinians as Johnson was.
Had Robert Kennedy become President he would have been as anti White as Nixon or
worse.
Sirhan Sirhan had an excellent motive; revenge. The Jews didn't. Robert Kennedy was a
puppet of jews both in domestic ( anti White) and foreign affairs.
Robert Kennedy was pro school de segregation and bussing , pro affirmative action, pro
Hispanic pro black soft on black crime and anti White.
Any White man who mourns the Kennedys is anti White negro lover and Zionist.
Colin Wright ,
says: Website June 7, 2021 at
5:12 am GMT • 19.2 hours ago
The following topics come to mind.
Israel does indeed have a history of unmasked false-flag operations: the Lavon Affair, the
attack on the Liberty, their proven awareness beforehand that the 9/11 attacks were going to
happen, where, and how.
So unless we're to assume they're invariably incompetent, it follows that there must also
have been false-flag operations that were never uncovered. Like, say, the assassination of
Robert Kennedy. But this is hardly proof that this was in fact what happened. It merely
demonstrates that it's not inconceivable.
Then there's Sirhan Sirhan himself. What was he like? Had he had similar episodes in the
past: committing violent acts and having no memory of them? Was he deranged in some way that
suggested such behavior was possible? We know, for example, that the young Adolf Hitler was
transported when he saw Wagner's Rienzi -- the story of a man who rises to become the
savior of his people. Obviously, this prefigured Hitler's later career. Was there anything in
Sirhan's life that prefigured an assassination attempt?
Was there other evidence that Sirhan was worked up about Kennedy and Israel? Surely there
should have been more than reading a clipping that Kennedy was for an arms sale. What was he
saying to people? What had he been reading? Was Sirhan even aware of who was running for
President?
If Israel was in fact behind the killing, how were they sure they would benefit? Was it,
in June, clear that if Kennedy lived, he would get the nomination and beat the Republican
nominee, and that if he did, that he would be dramatically worse for Israel than the apparent
alternatives at that point?
Franklin
Ryckaert , says:
June 7, 2021 at 5:21 am GMT • 19.1 hours ago
@The Alarmist
Sirhan doesn't remember anything (because of his hypnosis), therefore he is not
dangerous.
The Jews made a mistake by choosing a Christian Palestinian as their "typical
fanatical Muslim terrorist", but they hoped the gullible American public would not notice,
which of course was the case.
Colin Wright ,
says: Website June 7, 2021 at
5:35 am GMT • 18.9 hours ago
This bit from Wikipedia is worth mentioning.
' On February 10, 2016, at his 15th parole hearing, he [Sirhan] was denied
parole again. One of Sirhan's shooting victims from that night, Paul Schrade, aged 91 at the
time of the hearing, testified in his support, stating his belief that a second shooter
killed Kennedy and that Sirhan was intended to be a distraction from the real gunman by an
unknown conspiracy '
Lee , says:
June 7, 2021 at 10:48 am GMT • 13.6 hours ago
@Vinnie O ense.
Kennedy had been shot three times. One bullet was fired at a range of perhaps 1 inch (3
cm) and entered behind his right ear, dispersing fragments throughout his brain.[41] The
other two entered at the rear of his right armpit; one exited from his chest and the other
lodged in the back of his neck.[4
Wiki
Five other people were wounded by the "blanks" that SS fired after RFK had been shot.
Five other people were wounded: William Weisel of ABC News, Paul Schrade of the United
Automobile Workers union, Democratic Party activist Elizabeth Evans, Ira Goldstein of the
Continental News Service, and Kennedy campaign volunteer Irwin Stroll.[24]
Ron Unz , says:
June 7, 2021 at 11:43 am GMT • 12.7 hours ago
@Triteleia Laxa g seems to point in a certain obvious direction, but Bergman's recent
book also includes a major new revelation. At exactly the same moment that Sirhan was being
wrestled to the floor of the Ambassador Hotel ballroom in Los Angeles, another young
Palestinian was undergoing intensive rounds of hypnotic conditioning at the hands of Mossad
in Israel, being programmed to assassinate PLO leader Yasir Arafat; and although that effort
ultimately failed, such a coincidence seems to stretch the bounds of plausibility.
https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-mossad-assassinations/#final-judgment-on-the-jfk-assassination
Triteleia Laxa
, says:
June 7, 2021 at 12:17 pm GMT • 12.2 hours ago
@Ron Unz e when compared back to the real world.
Had a sinister grouping discovered how to create hypnotised assassins a half a century ago,
there is no interest of theirs that they would not be able to achieve by now.
Yet the group you accuse has not even been able to deal with the Palestinians. In the
meantime, countless peace settlements, successful ethnic cleansings, large scale massacres, and
more, have taken place around the world, ignored and/or forgiven.
My impression is that you paint the Israelis/"deep state neocons"/Jews as Saturday morning
cartoon villains. They are all powerful, utterly ruthless, constantly scheming, and yet somehow
never achieve more than the most ordinary of their aims. This is too funny.
Joe Levantine ,
says:
June 7, 2021 at 12:22 pm GMT • 12.1 hours ago
@Franklin Ryckaert
And that made them bold enough to pin 9/11 on a bunch of Islamic terrorists. The system is
superb; when discussing 9/11 in 2011 with one of my American cousins, he looked at me like I
had come from Mars when I asked him about the the third building (7) falling down without being
hit. His answer was " what building you are talking about". That got me curious and I
researched to find out if my cousin's reaction was a rarity and to my big surprise it turned
out that up to that date only 25% of the American public were aware of the fall of three
buildings all in all. Free US media indeed!
MLK , says:
June 7, 2021 at 12:26 pm GMT • 12.0 hours ago
@Godfree Roberts After all, whatever else you might say of him, long-reigning Erdogan, is
the poster boy for leader hubris yet he's still there.
Though if you make too many powerful enemies eventually someone is going to take a shot.
Think of it as the coalition of the willing.
We all crave and grow comfortable with the coutours of what did and didn't happen as if was
ordained. Thus Kerry made fun of W. Bush for sitting in that elementary school classroom on
live TV as if, regardless of what he (W) and those protecting him knew, he was safe as a
kitten.
I've mentioned the Vincennes/Lockerbie as elucidating in terms of the functionality of the
resolve. With the US and Iran, the two indisputable moving parties, conspiring to make Libya
the dirty dog.
Old and Grumpy
, says:
June 7, 2021 at 1:14 pm GMT • 11.2 hours ago
@Colin Wright
Richard Nixon, via Henry Kissinger, was very good for the Israelis. Would mystery votes in
Illinois and Texas happen for Bobby like they did for John? We will never know. Joe Kennedy was
a ruthless, power driven man, which is why the Kennedy mystique has always been both amusing
and a mystery. Perhaps Joe could have pulled another presidential election off for another
son.
christoso , says:
June 7, 2021 at 1:14 pm GMT • 11.2 hours ago
According to campaign workers at the scene, RFK wanted to exit the ballroom through the
crowd, but his press secretary, Frank Mankiewicz insisted that he leave through the pantry,
having arranged a midnight press briefing in a nearby room. Kennedy was told that he needed to
hold the briefing so that he could appear on the morning news the following day. Oddly,
Mankiewicz later denied having played this role, contradicting the accounts of Kennedy's staff.
As Guyenot points out, Mankiewicz was formerly a publicist for the Zionist ADL. Collins Piper,
by the way, goes off on a tangent suggesting that Iran somehow had a hand in the RFK
assassination.
Another loose end is of course the girl with the polka dot dress. Who was she? where did she
go? Here is one authors novel assessment: http://www.surfs-up.net/Downloads/RFK.pdf If
this writer is correct, the ADL also played a role in the silencing of the polka dot dress
girl.
EuroNat , says:
June 7, 2021 at 1:32 pm GMT • 10.9 hours ago
@Triteleia Laxa ts. "Confused" was an oft repeated adjective to describe the victims state
of mind.
Vice made a documentary years ago that can easily be found on the internet, "worlds scariest
drug" was titled if memory serves me. Here's also some safety advice for travelers to Colombia,
proof of how common this is:
https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/south-america/colombia/drugs-in-colombia
Now could someone be ordered to kill someone else while high on scopolamine? I have read of
no reports. But one thing is clear, a hypnotized like state – in which victims blindly
follow directions from strangers – can be induced chemically.
Notable quotes:
"... Through a collaboration with Danish intelligence, the United States has conducted targeted espionage against senior politicians and officials in Norway, Sweden, Germany and France. That was one of the conclusions in an explosive report made by four employees of the Danish intelligence service (FE), according to Danmarks Radio (DR). ..."
"... Last year, NRK reported that the Danish-American spy cooperation was aimed at targets in Norway, but it was then unknown who the surveillance was aimed at. The new information indicates that the extent of espionage against Norway was far greater than previously known. ..."
Zapekk , May 30 2021 23:11 utc |
24
Sources for Danmarks Radio: The USA has spied on Norwegian politicians from Denmark
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&u=https://nrkbeta.no/2021/05/30/kilder-til-danmarks-radio-usa-har-spionert-pa-norske-politikere-fra-danmark/
A top-secret investigation called "Operation Dunhammer" was the start of the Danish intelligence scandal, say sources to Danmarks
Radio.
Through a collaboration with Danish intelligence, the United States has conducted targeted espionage against senior politicians
and officials in Norway, Sweden, Germany and France. That was one of the conclusions in an explosive report made by four employees
of the Danish intelligence service (FE), according to Danmarks Radio (DR).
NRK mentions the Danish public broadcaster's findings as part of an international collaboration with Danmarks Radio, SVT, NDR,
WDR, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Le Monde.
Over several months, DR has met nine people with access to classified information from the intelligence service. All information
in the case has been confirmed to DR by at least two, often several, independent sources.
Last year, NRK reported that the Danish-American spy cooperation was aimed at targets in Norway, but it was then unknown
who the surveillance was aimed at. The new information indicates that the extent of espionage against Norway was far greater than
previously known.
NRK and DR do not know which Norwegian politicians and officials have been subjected to targeted espionage, but as one of DR's
sources says:
- It would not have been interesting for an intelligence service to spy on municipal politicians.
Authored by Finian Cunningham via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
There are reasons to be skeptical. After decades of stonewalling on the issue, suddenly
American military chiefs appear to be giving credence to claims of UFOs invading Earth.
Several viral video clips purporting to show
extraordinary flying technology have been "confirmed" by the Pentagon as authentic. The
Pentagon move is unprecedented.
The videos of the Unidentified Flying Objects were taken by U.S. air force flight crews or
by naval surveillance and subsequently "leaked" to the public. The question is: were the
"leaks" authorized by Pentagon spooks to stoke the public imagination of visitors from space?
The Pentagon doesn't actually say what it believes the UFOs are, only that the videos are
"authentic".
A Senate intelligence committee is to receive a report
from the Department of Defense's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force next month.
That has also raised public interest in the possibility of alien life breaching our skies
equipped with physics-defying technology far superior to existing supersonic jets and
surveillance systems.
Several other questions come to mind that beg skepticism. Why does the phenomenon of UFOs or
UAP only seem to be associated with the American military? This goes back decades to the
speculation during the 1950s about aliens crashing at Roswell in New Mexico. Why is it that
only the American military seems privy to such strange encounters? Why not the Russian or
Chinese military which would have comparable detection technology to the Americans but they
don't seem to have made any public disclosures on alien encounters? Such a discrepancy is
implausible unless we believe that life-forms from lightyears away have a fixation solely on
the United States. That's intergalactic American "exceptionalism" for you!
Also, the alleged sightings of UFOs invariably are associated with U.S. military training
grounds or high-security areas.
Moreover, the released videos that have spurred renewed public interest in UFOs are always
suspiciously of poor quality, grainy and low resolution. Several researchers, such as Mick
West, have cogently debunked
the videos as optical illusions. That's not to say that the U.S. air force or naval personnel
were fabricating the images. They may genuinely believe that they were witnessing something
extraordinary. But as rational optics experts have pointed out there are mundane explanations
for seeming unusual aerial observations, such as drones or balloons drifting at high speed in
differential wind conditions, or by the crew mistaking a far-off aircraft dipping over the
horizon for an object they believe to be much closer.
The military people who take the videos in good – albeit misplaced – faith about
what they are witnessing are not the same as the military or intelligence people who see an
opportunity with the videos to exploit the public in a psychological operation.
Fomenting public anxieties, or even just curiosity, about aliens and super-technology is an
expedient way to exert control over the population. At a time when governing authorities are
being questioned by a distrustful public and when military-intelligence establishments are
viewed as having lost a sense of purpose, what better way to realign public respect by getting
them to fret over alien marauders from whom they need protection?
There is here a close analogy to the way foreign nations are portrayed as adversaries and
enemies in order to marshal public support or least deference to the governing establishment
and its military. We see this ploy played over and over again with regard to the U.S. and
Western demonization of Russia and China as somehow conveying a malign intent towards Western
societies. In other words, it's a case of Cold War and UFOs from the same ideological
launchpad, so to speak, in order to distract public attention from internal problems.
However, more worrying still is that there is a dangerous reinforcing crossover of the two
propaganda realms. The fueling of UFO speculation is feeding directly into
speculation that U.S. airspace is being invaded by high-tech weapons developed by Russia or
China.
U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers from the Pentagon about whether the aerial "encounters"
are advanced weaponry from foreign enemies who are surveilling the American homeland at will.
Some U.S. air force aviators have recently expressed to the
media a feeling of helplessness in the face of seeming superior technology.
At a time of heightened animosity towards Russia and China and febrile talk among Pentagon
chiefs about the
possibility of all-out war, it is not difficult to imagine, indeed it is disturbingly easy
to imagine, how optical illusions about alien phenomena could trigger false alarms attributed
to Russian or Chinese military incursions.
The stoking of UFO controversy appears to be a classic psyops perpetrated by U.S. military
intelligence for the objective of population control. Its aim is to corral the citizenry under
the authority of the state and for them to accept the protector function of "our" military. The
big trouble is that the psyops with aliens are, in turn, risking the exacerbation of fears and
tensions with Russia and China.
With all the Pentagon-assisted chatter, it is more likely that an F-18 squadron could
mistake an errant weather balloon on the horizon for an alien spacecraft. And amid our new Cold
War tensions, it is but a small conceptual step to further imagine that the UFO is not from
outer space but rather is a Russian or Chinese hypersonic cruise missile heading towards the
U.S. mainland.
Once Deep State always Deep State... So Barr was essentially Trump handler from the Deep
State.
play_arrow
CheapBastard 39 minutes ago (Edited) remove link
(Coward) Attorney General Bill Barr threatened to quit last year over Trump's attempts
to fire FBI Director Chris Wray
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/attorney-general-bill-barr-threatened-to-quit-last-year-over-trump-s-attempts-to-fire-fbi-director-chris-wray/ar-BB1gxWEQ?li=BB141NW3&ocid=mailsignout
Should never have appointed these swamp creatures to begin with.
Highly recommended!
Money quite from comments: " more importantly it is devastating information about the dishonesty of our government. What have we
come to? What recourse is available?"
By Aaron Maté , RealClearInvestigations
May 19, 2021
The man cast as a linchpin of debunked Trump-Russia collusion theories is breaking his silence to vigorously dispute the U.S.
government's effort to brand him a Russian spy and put him behind bars.
In an exclusive interview with RealClearInvestigations, Konstantin Kilimnik stated, "I have no relationship whatsoever to any
intelligence services, be they Russian or Ukrainian or American, or anyone else."
Konstantin Kilimnik: Decries the U.S. government's "senseless and false accusations." AP Photo
Kilimnik, a longtime employee of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, spoke out in response to an explosive
Treasury Department statement declaring that he
had "provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy" during the 2016 election.
That press release, which announced an array of sanctions on Russian nationals last month, also alleged that Kilimnik is a "known
Russian Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf."
Treasury 's
claim came shortly after two other accusatory U.S. government statements about the dual Ukrainian-Russian national. In March,
a U.S. Intelligence Community
Assessment accused Kilimnik of being a "Russian influence agent" who meddled in the 2020 campaign to assist Trump's reelection.
A month earlier, an FBI
alert offered $250,000 for information leading to his arrest over a 2018 witness tampering charge in Manafort's shuttered Ukraine
lobbying case, which was unrelated to Russia, collusion, or any elections.
Treasury provided no evidence for its claims, which go beyond the findings of the two most extensive Russiagate investigations:
the 448-page report issued in 2019 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the 966-page report issued in August 2020 by the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence.
Treasury has declined all media requests for elaboration on how it reached conclusions that those probes did not. Two unidentified
officials
told NBC News that U.S. intelligence "has developed new information" about Kilimnik "that leads them to believe " (emphasis
added) that he passed on the polling data to Russia. But these sources "did not identify the source or type of intelligence that
had been developed," nor "when or how" it was received.
"Nobody has seen any evidence to support these claims about Kilimnik," a congressional source familiar with the House and Senate's
multiple Russia-related investigations told RCI.
Adam Schiff: Treated the Treasury claim about Kilimnik as the Trump-Russia smoking gun. "That's what most people would call collusion,"
he said. (Al Drago/Pool via AP)
Despite the absence of evidence, the Treasury press release's one-sentence claim about Kilimnik has been widely greeted as the
Trump-Russia smoking gun. Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who heads the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC that Treasury's
assertion about Kilimnik proved that Russian intelligence was "involved in trying to help Trump win in that [2016] election. That's
what most people would call collusion."
Speaking to RCI in fluent English from his home in Moscow, Kilimnik, 51, described these U.S. government assertions as "senseless
and false accusations."
His comments are backed up by documents, some previously unreported, as well as by Rick Gates, a longtime Manafort associate and
key Mueller probe cooperating witness. (Gates pleaded guilty to making a false statement and to failing to register as a foreign
agent in connection to his lobbying work in Ukraine.) The evidence raises doubts about new efforts to revive the Trump-Kremlin collusion
narrative by casting Kilimnik as a central Russian figure.
"They needed a Russian to investigate 'Russia collusion,' and I happened to be that Russian," Kilimnik said.
Highlights from the interview and RCI's related reporting:
- Kilimnik denies passing 2016 polling data to Russian intelligence, or any Russian for that matter. Instead, Kilimnik says
he shared publicly available, general information about the 2016 American presidential race to Ukrainian clients of Manafort's
in a bid to recover old debts and drum up new business. Gates told RCI that the Mueller team "cherry-picked" his testimony about
Kilimnik to spread a misleading, collusion-favorable narrative. The U.S. government has never publicly produced the polling data
at issue, nor any evidence that it was shared with Russia.
- Despite his centrality to the Trump-Russia saga, Kilimnik says no U.S. government official has ever tried get in touch with
him. "I never had a single contact with [the] FBI or any government official," Kilimnik says.
- Kilimnik shared documents that contradict the Special Counsel's effort to prove that he has Russian intelligence "ties." Photos
and video of his Russian passport and a U.S. visa in his name, shared with RCI , undermine the Mueller report's claim that Kilimnik
visited the United States on a Russian "diplomatic passport" in 1997. To judge from the images, he travelled on a civilian
passport and obtained a regular U.S. visa. The Mueller team has never produced the "diplomatic passport."
- Kilimnik denies traveling to Spain to meet Manafort in 2017. If true, this would undercut the Mueller team's claim that Manafort
lied in denying such a meeting. That denial was used to help secure a 2019 court ruling that Manafort breached a cooperation agreement.
The Special Counsel never furnished evidence for the alleged Madrid encounter.
- While the Treasury Department and Senate Intelligence Committee claim that Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer, no
U.S. security or intelligence agency has adopted this characterization.
- Kilimnik has never been charged with anything related to espionage, Russia, collusion, or the 2016 election. Instead, the
Mueller team indicted Kilimnik on witness-tampering charges in a case pertaining to Manafort's lobbying work in Ukraine.
- Meanwhile, t he FBI's $250,000 bounty for Kilimnik is larger than most rewards it offers for the capture of violent fugitives,
including those accused of child murder .
Reviving the Polling Data Conspiracy Theory
Kilminik has provided an inviting target for proponents of Trump-Russia conspiracy theories. He was born in 1970 in Ukraine when
it was part of the Soviet Union, and later worked for Paul Manafort as a translator and aide there. This background makes him one
of the few people in the broad Trump 2016 campaign orbit to possess a Russian passport.
To this Mueller and others have added a series of ambiguous and disputed allegations to say that the FBI "assesses" him to "have
ties to Russian intelligence." This characterization, first made in a 2017 court filing, quickly transmogrified into a presumed fact
of the collusion narrative.
Rather than prosecute Manafort for any crime related to Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, the Mueller team instead pursued
him on financial and lobbying charges involving his pre-Trump stint as a political consultant in Ukraine. In 2018, it accused Kilimnik
of seeking to pressure two "potential witnesses" by sending them text messages about Manafort's Ukraine lobbying work.
As the Russia probe came to a close without a single indictment related to a Trump-Kremlin conspiracy, the Mueller team used Kilimnik
to suggest collusion without formally alleging it.
In January 2019, the Mueller team accused Manafort of breaching their cooperation agreement by lying about his interactions with
his Russian employee. Topping the list were alleged false statements about
sharing election
polling data with Kilimnik in 2016.
Andrew Weissmann: Despite this lead Mueller prosecutor's suggestion otherwise, the Mueller report "did not identify evidence of a
connection between Manafort's sharing polling data and Russia's interference in the election," as the report itself stated. NYU Law
"This goes to the larger view of what we think is going on, and what we think is the motive here," lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann
told Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. "This goes, I think, very much to the heart of what the
special counsel's office is investigating."
Weissmann's musings became collusion fodder. Media pundits and influential Democrats, namely Congressional intelligence leaders
Schiff and Mark Warner, speculated that Kilimnik shared Trump campaign polling data with Russian intelligence officers as they allegedly
worked to turn the election in Trump's favor. "This appears as the closest we've seen yet to real, live, actual collusion," Warner
told CNN . "Clearly, Manafort was trying to collude
with Russian agents."
But soon after, the Mueller team quietly undercut Weissmann's "larger view" and the conspiratorial innuendo that it had fueled.
One month after igniting the frenzy about the polling data, Weissmann submitted a
heavily
redacted court filing that
walked back some of his
claims. The following month, the Special Counsel's final report acknowledged that its musings and speculations about Kilimnik could
not be corroborated. The Mueller team not only "did not identify evidence of a connection between Manafort's sharing polling data
and Russia's interference in the election," as the report stated, but also "could not assess what Kilimnik (or others he may have
given it to) did with it."
Rick Gates: Ex-Manafort aide says the Mueller team "cherry-picked" his testimony about Kilimnik to spread a misleading, collusion-favorable
narrative. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
"I have no idea who made up the lies about 'detailed' or 'sensitive' polling data, or why they did it," Kilimnik says. "They were
mostly quotes of the polls from the media, such as LA Times and others. They would be 'Clinton "" 43, Trump "" 42.' Never anything
more detailed. I never got even a page printed out with either polling data or any other info."
This public data was shared, Kilimnik says, with Ukrainian clients of Manafort's as part of both regular political chatter and
an effort to encourage future business. "I shared this info with a lot of our clients in Ukraine, who were closely following the
race and who were excited about Paul working for [Trump]," Kilimnik says.
If any government official did receive his polling data, Kilimnik adds, they were not Russian but rather from Ukraine or even
the United States. "I would share it with our political contacts in Ukraine, basically to keep their interest to Paul and our Ukrainian
business alive. Also I shared it with the U.S. and other embassies, basically offering the opinion that the election is not over."
Kilimnik's account is corroborated by Gates, the ex-Manafort associate and Trump campaign official whose testimony was used by
the Mueller team "" deceptively, he says "" to suggest a connection between the polling data and possible Trump-Russia collusion.
The Special Counsel's office "relied heavily on Mr. Gates for evidence" about the polling data, the
New York Times noted in
February 2019.
According to Gates, that reliance entailed significant creative license by Mueller's prosecutors, particularly Weissmann. Gates
says he told the Special Counsel's Office that the polling data was not sensitive information, but rather publicly available figures
taken from media outlets.
"I explained to them, over the course of many interviews, what the polling data was about, and why it was being shared," Gates
told RCI. "All that was exchanged was old, topline data from public polls and from some internal polls, but all dated, nothing in
real time. So for example, Trump 48, Clinton 46. It was not massive binders full of demographics or deep research. No documents were
ever shared or disclosed. And this is part of what Mueller left out of the report. They cherry-picked and built a narrative that
really was not true, because they had pre-determined the conclusion."
Happier times: Manafort and colleagues, with Kilimnik far left and the boss seated in white shirt, red tie. AP Photo
Asked why Manafort shared any polling data with clients in Ukraine, Kilimnik and Gates stressed the same reason: money. "The were
some outstanding debts, which we were working to get repaid, which never happened," Kilimnik says. "And there was also Paul's reputation.
He was very well known to a lot of people in Kiev, and he hoped [he] could generate some new business" by showcasing his work for
Trump's campaign.
"This was a way that Paul was using to let people in Ukraine know that he was doing very well in the United States running the
election of Donald Trump, and that he was trying to collect the remaining fees that he was owed," for prior work in Ukraine, Gates
says. "He was trying to position himself. This is not unlike any other political operative, Republican or Democrat, in politics.
They all do it."
The Mueller report itself quietly bolsters Gates' and Kilimnik's converging recollections. "Gates' account about polling data
is consistent [redacted]," it states, ""¦ with multiple emails that Kilimnik sent to U.S. associates and press contacts" in the summer
of 2016. "Those emails referenced 'internal polling,' described the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort's role in it, and assessed
Trump' s prospects for victory." The corresponding footnote cites eight emails from Kilimnik to these "U.S. associates and press
contacts." This indicates that the Mueller team obtained direct evidence of the polling data that was shared; how it was discussed;
and with whom it was shared.
Rather than highlight the Kilimnik emails that it obtained, and Gates' account that the polling data was shared for financial
reasons, the Mueller report mentioned this information only in passing and ultimately concluded that it "could not reliably determine
Manafort's purpose in sharing" the information.
Weissmann did not respond to a request for comment.
The Kilimnik Passport Kilimnik's passport from the time in question "" to judge from photos and a video he shared with RCI
"" was issued in the standard red ... Konstantin Kilimnik via RealClearInvestigations ... not in the green of the diplomatic corps.
Mueller cited a Kilimnik "diplomatic passport" as evidence of "ties to Russian intelligence." Government of Russia/Wikimedia
Although the Mueller report walked back Weissman's innuendo regarding polling data, its assertion that Kilimnik has "ties to Russian
intelligence" remains a foundation of the Russia collusion narrative.
Putting aside the fact that the government has never produced any evidence that Kilimnik communicated with Russian intelligence
or the Kremlin, RCI has obtained documents that undercut the government's basis for assuming those unspecified "ties."
In Mueller's own telling, Kilimnik's only direct link to the Russian government was his enrollment in a Soviet military academy
from 1987 to 1992, where he trained as a linguist. "It's a language school, similar to what you guys have in Fort Monterey," Kilimnik
said, referring to the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, in Monterey, California. "It's a university that trains
military translators, mostly for the army, not for the intelligence services. Basically it was a military training, for five years,
focusing on English and Swedish. In normal circumstances, I would actually go and serve in the army, but because Soviet Union was
falling apart, I was able to get a job as the instructor of Swedish at the university. I never served in the real army. If teaching
Swedish counts as spying "" that will be very surprising."
To substantiate Kilimnik's alleged Russian intelligence "ties," the Mueller team wrote that Kilimnik "obtained a visa to travel
to the United States with a Russian diplomatic passport in 1997." (Intelligence operatives often travel to foreign countries under
diplomatic cover.)
Kilimnik's U.S. visa shows an "R" for "regular." (The typo in his last name was corrected on a later visa.) Konstantin Kilimnik via
RealClearInvestigations
But Kilimnik's passport from that period "" to judge from the images he shared with RCI via a messaging app "" was issued in the
standard red color, not in the green color of the diplomatic corps. The document also contains a regular U.S. visa issued on October
28, 1997 "" the same date the Mueller report claims he traveled to the U.S. "with a Russian diplomatic passport." The U.S. visa to
Kilimnik is issued under the category of "R" "" which stands for Regular "" and "B1/B2," the designation for a temporary visa for
business and tourism.
The Mueller team's claim that he possessed and travelled on a diplomatic passport is "a blatant lie," Kilimnik told RCI. "I never
had a diplomatic passport in my life. It's one of many very sloppy things in the Muller report, which don't make sense."
The Mueller report cites Kilimnik's "travel to the United States with a Russian diplomatic passport."
Mueller report, Page 133
Told of the Mueller report's apparent error concerning Kilimnik's passport, a Justice Department spokesperson declined comment.
Former Special Counsel Mueller and former lead prosecutor Weissmann did not respond to emailed queries.
Ironically, at the time when Mueller team claims that he visited the U.S. on behalf of the Russian government, Kilimnik was in
fact working for the U.S. government at the U.S. Congress-funded International Republican Institute (IRI) in Moscow. As RealClearInvestigations
has
previously reported , Kilimnik's 10-year IRI tenure is among several substantial Western government connections that have
been ignored in amid efforts to accuse him of ties to the Russian government. "I gave IRI my CV which clearly said which school I
graduated from, and gave my detailed background," Kilimnik recalls. "I never concealed anything."
Kilimnik: No Madrid Meeting With Manafort
When it comes to his travel history, Kilimnik says that the Special Counsel's Office made another significant error: falsely claiming
that he and Manafort held a meeting in Spain .
"I have never been to Madrid in my life," Kilimnik says. Wikimedia
When Manafort denied that he and Kilimnik met in Madrid in 2017, the Mueller team accused him of lying and cited this as one of
several alleged breaches of their cooperation agreement. The Mueller report claims that the two met in the Spanish capital on Feb.
26, 2017, "where Kilimnik had flown from Moscow."
It also states that Manafort initially denied the Madrid meeting in his first two interviews with the Special Counsel's office,
but then relented "after being confronted with documentary evidence that Kilimnik was in Madrid at the same time as him."
But Kilimnik tells RCI that no such meeting occurred, and that he believes that Manafort was coerced into changing his story.
"I have never been to Madrid in my life," Kilimnik says. The "documentary evidence" referenced in the Mueller report was, he speculates,
a flight booking that was ultimately cancelled. "I was thinking about going to Madrid, and I discussed it with Paul," he says. "But
it made no sense. And ultimately, it was too expensive. So I didn't go."
Had he actually visited Madrid, Kilimnik says, the Mueller team would have "easily found proof "" tickets, boarding passes, border
crossings "" all that stuff. It's not rocket science to get it. The European Union is a pretty disciplined place. There would be
at least be a record of me crossing the border somewhere in the EU."
Kilimnik told RCI that the last time he saw Manafort was one month before the alleged Madrid trip, around the time of Trump's
inauguration in Janaury 2017. "I did not attend any of the inauguration events myself," he recalls. "But I spent some time to meet
with Paul, and to catch up. That was our last meeting in-person, in Alexandria [Virginia]."
Asked why Manafort would have admitted to a Madrid meeting that did not in fact take place, Kilimnik said that his former boss
faced heavy pressure while locked up by the Mueller team, which included a long stint in solitary confinement. "I don't know why
he said that. I have difficulties to imagine Paul's psychological state when he was jailed. A guy who [had] a very high-level life.
Jail is a tough place. I still get the shudders to think what he had to go through."
The allegation that Manafort lied to the Mueller team proved consequential. In February 2019, U.S. District Judge Jackson
sided
with the Special Counsel and voided
Manafort's plea deal. No longer bound to give him a reduced sentence for cooperating, Jackson
nearly doubled Manafort's
prison term on top of his earlier conviction and excoriated him for telling "lies." President Trump pardoned in Manafort in December
2020.
Told that Kilimnik denies ever visiting Madrid, and asked whether the Special Counsel's office collected concrete evidence to
the contrary, both former Special Counsel Mueller and lead prosecutor Weissmann did not respond. A Justice Department spokesperson
declined comment.
FBI Alert Contradicts Senate-Treasury Spy Claim
Over one year after Mueller closed up shop, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) unilaterally upgraded Kilimnik's
alleged Russian intelligence status. The panel's
August 2020 report
declared that Kilimnik, far from merely having "ties" to the GRU as Mueller had claimed, is in fact a full-fledged "Russian intelligence
officer."
The Senate made the leap despite offering no new public evidence to support its explosive "assessment", and even acknowledging
that its "power to investigate" "" as well as "its staffing, resources, and technical capabilities" -- ultimately "falls short of
the FBI's."
Richard Burr and Mark Warner, Republican chair and Democratic co-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The FBI and Justice
Department do not endorse their panel's judgment that Kilimnik is a "Russian intelligence officer." AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The Senate also labelled Kilimnik a Russian spy despite simultaneously presenting new evidence that he was, in the Committee's
own words, a "valuable resource" for officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, with whom he was "in regular contact."
In September 2020,
RCI asked the FBI and Justice Department whether it shares the SSCI's judgment that Kilimnik is a "Russian intelligence officer."
A DOJ spokesperson replied that "the Mueller report speaks for itself," and advised that the public "defer" to how Kilimnik was characterized
in the Mueller report and the Special Counsel Office's indictments. This strongly suggested, RCI reported, that the FBI has not adopted
the SSCI's view that Kilimnik is a Russian spy.
The FBI's February "alert"
offering $250,000 for information leading to Kilimnik's arrest bolsters this reporting. It once again states that Kilimnik is "assessed
by the FBI to have ties to Russian intelligence" "" shunning the SSCI's spy language and reverting to Mueller's original, ambiguous
characterization.
The wording of the FBI alert underscores that while the Senate Intelligence Committee and Treasury Department have declared that
Kilimnik is a Russian spy, the nation's top law enforcement agency has never adopted that assessment. When Manafort's legal team
asked the Special Counsel's Office for any communication between Manafort and "Russian intelligence officials,"
they
were told that "there are no materials responsive to [those] requests." In unsealed notes from early 2017, Peter Strzok "" the
top FBI counterintelligence agent who opened the Trump-Russia investigation ""
wrote :
"We are unaware of ANY Trump advisers engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials."
Asked whether the FBI has altered its characterization of Kilimnik in light of Treasury's claim that he is a "known Russian Intelligence
Services agent", an FBI spokesperson declined comment.
The FBI's alert was also remarkable for the size of the Kilimnik bounty, which is more than double the amount of most members
of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. While the bureau is offering $100,000 each for information regarding six alleged murderers,
and $200,000 for another, the FBI is offering $250,000 for help nabbing Kilimnik on a lone witness tampering charge in Manafort's
Ukraine lobbying case.
The Mueller team
accused Kilimnik of sending text messages to two individuals with whom Manafort had worked during his Ukraine lobbying days.
Kilimnik's aim, the Special Counsel's Office alleged, was to pressure the pair to attest that their prior work was focused on lobbying
officials in Europe, not in the United States. These individuals "" identified in court documents as "Person D1" and "Person D2"
"" were not active witnesses for the Mueller probe, but instead, according to the Special Counsel's Office, "potential witnesses."
The 13 Kilimnik messages to these "potential witnesses"
cited by Mueller include the following:
-
[Person D2], hi! How are you? Hope you are doing fine. ;))
-
My friend P [Manafort] is trying to reach [Person D1] to brief him on what's going on.
-
If you have a chance to mention this to [Person D1] - would be great.
-
Basically P wants to give him a quick summary that he says to everybody (which is true) that our friends never lobbied in the
U.S., and the purpose of the program was EU.
-
Hi. This is [Kilimnik]. My friend P is looking for ways to connect to you to pass you several messages. Can we arrange that.
Kilimnik says that he was not trying to tamper with anyone. "I do not understand how two messages to our old partners who helped
us get out the message about Ukraine's integration aspirations in EU, and asking them to get in touch with Paul, can be interpreted
as 'intimidation' or 'obstruction of justice,'" he says.
Whether or not Kilimnik sought to tamper with "potential witnesses" in Manafort's Ukraine lobbying case, the alleged 2018 infraction
has nothing to do with 2016 Trump-Russia collusion.
The FBI alert from February raises questions about the bombshell Treasury Department claims released two months later. If the
U.S. government stands by Treasury's claims about Kilimnik, why is he wanted only on a minor, non-Russia related witness-tampering
charge, and not for taking part in alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election? If Kilimnik indeed passed on "sensitive information
on polling and campaign strategy" to Russian intelligence while working as a spy, why has he not been indicted alongside the Russian
social media company charged by Mueller in February 2018, or the Russian intelligence officers charged by Mueller in July 2018?
To Kilimnik, the answer is found on that same Russian passport that Mueller mischaracterized. "It is clear to me that the indictment
of 2018 was pulled out of the thin air, simply to have a Russian face in the mix," he says. "I understand that they needed a Russian
to investigate 'Russia collusion,' and I happened to be that Russian," he says.
"The funny thing is that I'm not hiding. And I would have explained the same thing to the FBI or anyone who never reached out
to me. They don't because they don't want the truth."
From Russian Spy to "Influence Agent"
In Kilimnik's eyes, his utility as a Russian national for the Trump-Russia collusion narrative also explains his prominent inclusion
in the recent U.S. Intelligence
Community Assessment , released in March one month after the FBI alert for his arrest.
In yet another new iteration of how Kilimnik is described by the U.S. government, the ICA does not call him a Russian intelligence
officer, but instead a "Russian influence agent."
The ICA does not define the term "Russian influence agent," or explain how it reached that new assessment about Kilimnik. Nor
does it put forth any evidence for the alleged Russian influence activities ascribed to him .
The report alleges that Kilimnik was part of a "network of Ukraine-linked individuals "¦ connected to the Russian Federal Security
Service (FSB)" who "took steps throughout the [2020] election cycle to damage U.S. ties to Ukraine, denigrate President Biden and
his candidacy, and benefit former President Trump's prospects for reelection."
Andriy Derkach: "I have never met him in my life," Kilimnik says of this Ukrainian lawmaker with reputed Kremlin ties. Petro Zhuravel/Wikimedia
As part of this alleged meddling network, the ICA asserts that Kilimnik tried to influence U.S. officials; helped produce a documentary
that aired on U.S. television in January 2020; and worked with Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker alleged to have Kremlin ties.
"Derkach, Kilimnik, and their associates sought to use prominent U.S. persons and media conduits to launder their narratives to U.S.
officials and audiences," the ICA states.
Kilimnik says the U.S. intelligence officials who wrote those words are using their anonymity and power to launder their false
narratives about him.
"I have no idea what they're talking about," he says. "I would really love to see at least one confirmation of the things they
allege. Pulling me into this report with zero evidence really shows that [U.S. intelligence] people high up do not give a damn about
the truth, facts, or anything."
As for Derkach, "I have never met him in my life," Kilimnik says. "I don't know why, or on what basis, they're making claims that
he has any relationship to me."
"I had zero meetings with anybody related to the Trump campaign. In fact, I have tried to do my best "" understanding how I've
gotten into this mess "" to stay as far as possible from any U.S. politics." If he had held such meetings, Kilimnik adds, "this should
be easy to prove."
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.
No Effort to Contact Russiagate's Top Russian
Even though Kilimnik's name fills dozens of pages of the Mueller and Senate Intelligence reports after years of federal scrutiny
and he is the target of a $250,000 FBI reward, this seemingly critical Russiagate figure has never been contacted by a single U.S.
government official, to judge from the public record as well as Kilimnik's account.
The lack of contact is similar to the way FBI, Mueller, and Senate investigators treated other supposedly central Russiagate figures.
When Joseph Mifsud, whose conversations with George Papadopoulos triggered the FBI's Trump-Russia probe, visited the U.S. in early
2017, the FBI subjected him to
a light round of questioning and then let him leave the country. The Mueller team later claimed in its final report that Mifsud
had lied to FBI agents, yet inexplicably did not indict him. Despite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's central role in publishing
the stolen Democratic Party emails supposedly hacked and supplied by Russia, the
Mueller team never contacted him and the Senate Intelligence Committee
shunned an offer to interview him .
Kilimnik believes that this avoidance is deliberate. "The FBI and others could have had the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv or Moscow, or
have any of my numerous contacts in the U.S., reach out and start a conversation, if they wanted info," he says. "But they do not
really need it. All they is need is a scarecrow. And as one of the few people within reach of the Trump campaign who has a Russian
passport, they picked me."
"They never reached out to me," he adds. "I never had a single contact with FBI or any government official, basically since charges
were brought [on] Paul. Nobody ever tried to talk to me because they know the truth. They understood damn well that I will tell them
what I'm telling you."
Kilimnik says that he has had only minimal contact with Manafort since the former Trump campaign chairman was released to home
confinement in March 2020 and subsequently pardoned by Trump in late December. "We had one short contact after he got out of jail,
basically catching up about family and kids and everything," Kilimnik recalls. "I want to give him time to just basically get his
life back to normal. We have not spoken on the telephone."
After years in Ukraine working with Manafort, Kilimnik now lives full-time in Moscow with his wife and two children. "I have been
pretty open all my life, and have not been hiding from anyone," Kilimnik says. "I would have been happy to answer any questions from
the FBI, or whoever. But I refuse to be a toy in bizarre political games and have my life ruined more than it has been because of
the senseless and false accusations."
Despite being labeled a Russian spy who meddled in the 2016 election, Kilimnik has no plans to return to the U.S. and try to clear
his name. "I am not going to the U.S. on my own dime, with no visa in COVID times only to be crucified by the media, having zero
chance of justice," he says. "This is a sad continuation of a deeply wrong story. I thought it would be over with Trump gone and
the need to create lies about his 'ties to Russia.' But obviously, I was wrong."
This and all other original articles created by RealClearInvestigations may be republished for free with attribution. (These terms
do not apply to outside articles linked on the site.)
We provide our stories for free but they are expensive to produce. Help us continue to publish distinctive journalism by making
a contribution today to RealClearInvestigations.
- roc993 19 May, 2021 Did the Democrats and the media ever apologize for spending 2 years claiming the election was stolen by
Trump? The drumbeat was continuous - ratcheting up day by day - "Walls closing in" - right up to the point Mueller threw cold
water on the entire thing. Then they slinked away without another word. And no censorship of those entities and individuals by
FaceBook and Twitter? Fascinating. Reply 40 11 2 reply
- N notenough 19 May, 2021 What are the odds that the FBI/Treasury Dept, CIA, etc are lying to the public about this whole mess
THEY created....100%. These are all political organizations, tasked with protecting the status quo, the status quo being the protection
of Empire. Reply 30 7 1 reply
- A AJMG 19 May, 2021 "In his speech before a joint session of Congress last week, President Biden complained about "Russia's
interference in our elections," even though his intelligence czar had released a report the previous month formally dismissing
the idea Moscow had interfered in the 2020 election or the 2016 election." Reply 23 7 1 reply
- D daniel155 19 May, 2021 No one, even those on the other side, believes there was Russian collusion though they will never
admit it. Hillary still says the Russia stole the election from her. I guess she uses that to cope with the fact that she blew
a very winnable election. Reply 28 7
- A AJMG 19 May, 2021 Trump opposed Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, & today we learn that Biden has accepted it. If Putin favored
Trump, it was a bad miscalculation since Trump was way more tough on Russia than any Democrat. Reply 36 6 1 reply
- DH Derrick Hand 19 May, 2021 Hate to tell you guys but the Russia collusion discussion is over, no matter who is right. The
Media has succeeded in mudding the water and destroying any trust in finding the truth with respect to anything political, including
any election and that includes the coming one in 2022. This is like an argument at a table for four in a raucous high school cafeteria.
You should be more concerned where this total loss of trust is going to lead us and that is not a good place. Reply 16 6 3 reply
- W Wisewerds 19 May, 2021 A wholly partisan, politically biased prosecutor lied and cherry-picked information to support a
pre-determined conclusion in an effort to savage an opponent and jail his supporters? I would put on my shocked face, but its
currently at the cleaners. Instead, I will just suggest that this is now standard operating procedure for our left-fascist oppressors.
Reply 21 4 1 reply
- C Crutch 19 May, 2021 I can't wait for 2022 House win by Republicans. The first thing they should do is haul Adam Schiff in
under oath to discuss his every utterance, then expel him from the House. Reply 40 9 5 reply
- A archon27 19 May, 2021 It not sedition if the democrats try to oust a legally elected president on a falsified premise...
because THEIR "evidence" was believable... This is literally the mantra of the left. Reply 27 6 3 reply
- Mark H 19 May, 2021 If the wider media do not pick this up then the matter of Trump campaign's collusion with Russia can never
be cleared up, and will continue to serve the intention of the establishment. VAPOR 19 May, 2021 The media portrayed both Obama
and Biden as uninvolved. But now we know they both actively followed the investigation. According to former acting attorney general
Sally Yates, she was surprised that Obama knew about the investigation and knew more than she did at the time. Obama called upon
former FBI director James Comey to stay after a meeting to discuss the investigation. Comey had mentioned using the Logan Act
to charge Flynn, even though the unconstitutional law has never been used successfully in a prosecution since the country was
founded. Biden has repeatedly denied knowledge of the investigation. Just a day before the latest disclosure, George Stephanopoulos
asked Biden in an interview what he knew of the Flynn investigation. Biden was adamant that he knew nothing about "those moves"
and he called it a diversion. But that is not true if he took the relatively uncommon action for a vice president of demanding
the unmasking of Flynn information.
Justis 20 May, 2021 Thank you for your continued work. This is all hidden from Americans in this age of media coverage. But more
importantly it is devastating information about the dishonesty of our government. What have we come to? What recourse is available?
- VAPOR 19 May, 2021 Carter Page Sues FBI, Comey, McCabe for Millions Nov 28, 2020" Former Trump campaign aide Carter Page filed
a $75 million lawsuit against the FBI and several former high-ranking bureau officials ... Reply 6 1 1 reply
- V VAPOR 19 May, 2021 Just a reminder that Obama and his minions committed the greatest political crime in US history when
they weaponized government agencies to influence and discredit a presidential election and frame Trump. Reply 7 3 1 reply
- V VAPOR 19 May, 2021 Obama needs to answer questions about his involvement with the Fake Russian Dossier and the weaponization
of government agencies to get Trump. He basically planted evidence and then said prosecute Trump by the book.
futbolfan 19 May, 2021 I respect all the dogged investigators who root out the truth of the crimes and corruption of our "justice
department", and FBI. I hope they keep up the good work. Personally I have no more faith in anything which was soaked in the hate
and insanity of the Obama thug regime...
- Jerubbesheth xx 19 May, 2021 Give it up already. The Russia Trump Collusion was already disapproved by Mueller. Americans
are tired of the disinformation and propaganda. Bolshevik Schiff is a pathological liar. If anyone colluded with Russia it was
certainly Liberal Commie Democrat Clinton. The reason Bolshevik Schiff doesn't investigate Clinton? Schiff and Clinton are part
of the swamp. Clinton bought and paid for colluded with an ex-British Spy on a false dossier on Trump. Clinton was already in
Putin's pocket. Clinton approved the sale of Uranium one to the Russians, and then Clinton receives $145 Million from Russian
Oligarchs for her Corrupt Clinton Foundation. Mueller was FBI director at the time. So now who is colluding with the Russians.
I guess Clinton's colluding with the Russians is the good kind for the liberal commie Democrats, while the Liberal commie Democrats
deflect the bad colluding onto to Trump. Colluding is colluding anyway you cut it. Hillary's colluding wasn't disapproved. Reply
10 3 3 reply
- C chuckstephens06 19 May, 2021 While the Special prosecutor office was capable of any transgression or corruption, one needs
to realize that it wouldn't have been possible without the assistance of corrupt lefty operative Judge, Amy Berman Jackson...
Jackson's non legal, political approach to decision making, has been the example that all corrupt lefty judges follow... Plus
her questionable relationship with Weissman outside of the Courtroom... Reply 6 2
- K kochcomics 20 May, 2021 Lets see what we have here: 1)Kilimnik says he has no ties to the Russian government. OK. Do you
really believe that no one in the Putin's government has directly or indirectly debriefed him. Really? Do you think he would have
a choice in the matter? Do you know anything about Putin at all? Does he believe in democracy,. You clearly know little about
Trump. We've had Trump here for 40 years - from the NY Post page six to Howard Stern. Its a joke. Hey, he was proposing running
with Oprah as his VP in 2002. Then he tricked into the birther stuff. Lets check out the apologies from the Donald and the push
back from Republicans (apart from McCain) 2) There were enough sympathetic Russians around (Putin included) to raise concerns.
As the Donald himself made clear, he would have no problem with outside foreign help. The investigation took place. It was damning,
but not pretty clear that no . The collusion was possible but speculative, but as Jared himself said, the campaign was too chaotic
for any collusion to really get off the ground (though you are still stuck with Manafort as a conflicted party). But in Donald
world, everything is a bout big pronouncements... See more Reply 2 2
- F futbolfan 19 May, 2021 For years, we on the right knew who had done what, and who should be arrested, Comey, Rosenstein,
Strzok, Mueller, etc. But I am not a lawyer, and I am not sure what crimes, exactly, these evil and sick creeps would be charged
with, if they ever were arrested. For me, the key question now is, if they WERE charged with whatever the appropriate offence
would be, what is the statute of limitations on those types of crimes? There is NO statue on treason, as far as I know. But what
about conspiracy? Obstruction of justice? Betrayal of oath of office? Sedition? The reason these questions are still alive is,
obviously there are people still patiently digging into the twisting trails of the conspirators, and eventually they may reel
in some live prospects for prosecution. Maybe even including "the big guy with black skin" Obama himself. Nothing would make me
happier than to see that African nightmare in handcuffs. Reply 4 4 2 reply
- DC dana crow 20 May, 2021 Can't blame them for running with lies, innuendo and conspiracy theories when all Trump and Republicans
could ever muster in response was nuh-uh or let-mueller-finish-his-work. "Ties to [insert boogeyman]" is always a tell. It literally
means NOT the boogeyman. And since the "ties" are conveniently redacted, he probably ordered borscht from someone whose second
cousin gave a talk at a charity event hosted by a retired russian intel gofer. The election interference/russia collusion business
was always a cynical ploy to isolate Trump from his friends and bog down his administration. And it was wildly successful.
will.ganness 20 May, 2021 Who is calling the January 6th Protests the biggest threat the the country since the Civil war? The Democratic
Party, the MSM, The FBI.... Who produced and directed Russiagate? The same three!! If progressives think they should get on board
with Insurrectiongate, they should have more sense! VAPOR 19 May, 2021 The Fake Russian Dossier do it by the book Crossfire Hurricane
insurance policy to overturn a presidential election and frame Trump. Where is Professor Misfud and why won't Steele talk to Durham?
Call in Mary Jacoby and ask her what she discussed with Obama at the white house.
- spinbag48 1 day ago Adam Schiff is a fool who told us he had the goods on Trump, but it turns out he is a liar. I do have
a question... The FBI spent 2 years and $35 million dollars investigating Trump only to find out they didn't have a case. But
when the pipeline got hacked Biden said the FBI told him that the Kremlin wasn't involved within a day of two. How is it they
got that good so quick? Same with the election within a couple of days they knew that the election was fair and square. Even though
I saw many people of TV say they saw corruption right in front of them. But the shooting of Andrew Brown took a month when they
had numerous videos that they couldn't release until the investigation was complete. I have lost all faith in the FBI, and the
press. They don't even pretend they are fair or truthful. Reply 1 1
- CA Clear 4 All 19 May, 2021 The USIC and media has destroyed their own name. Nothing that the Russia collusion purveyors say
now has value on any topic. Russia didn't do that.
Justis 20 May, 2021 Why did Horowitz not discover this in his investigation? Was that investigation another coverup, finding just
enough to look authentic? Is he too, untrustworthy?
Notable quotes:
"... A draft report published online by the assembly's Committee on Foreign Affairs caused consternation in Russian media on Monday, after statements came to light that argued the bloc "should establish with the US a transatlantic alliance to defend democracy globally" and "deter Russia" from supposed aggression in Eastern Europe. ..."
vk , May 19 2021 22:31 utc |
35
Very aggressive stuff from the EU:
EU Parliament report
says regime change needed in Russia, recommends Brussels launch propaganda TV channel to help it happen
A draft report published
online by the assembly's Committee on Foreign Affairs caused consternation in Russian media on Monday, after statements came
to light that argued the bloc "should establish with the US a transatlantic alliance to defend democracy globally" and "deter
Russia" from supposed aggression in Eastern Europe.
As part of its "vision" for future ties with Moscow, the paper concludes that the EU should put forward a number of incentives
designed to persuade Russians that a turn to the West would be beneficial, including visa liberalization and "free trade investment."
[...]
At the same time, the committee puts forward a number of extreme steps that it says the bloc should take. It insists that
Brussels "must be prepared not to recognize the parliament of Russia and to ask for Russia's suspension from international
organizations with parliamentary assemblies if the 2021 parliamentary elections in Russia are recognized as fraudulent."
The success or failure of this operation will depend entirely on the Russian people. Will it fall for the Western European
honey trap once again?
After Putin is gone, bets are off. Also, the EU continues to suffer from refugee waves from Syria and Libya, and its economy
continues to deteriorate (recession confirmed for Q1 2021). The whole system is so exhausted that they don't talk about even of
the absorption of Moldova anymore (the Moldovan president had to bring that up to the Kremlin; good they remembered them).
--//--
US waives sanctions against
Nord Stream company and CEO as Blinken & Lavrov meet in Iceland
This looks like Biden had some surge of sanity, but it's not: I read an article on Izvestia some days ago and it seems Russia
won the war for the Arctic and has expelled the USA from that sea. That, combined with the fact that Russia has been ramping up
investment on the sector, results in the fact that, soon enough, Russia will also have the infrastructure to deliver cheaper LNG
by ship to Europe, too.
That means the USA has given up on the NordStream II in order to hurt the Russian LNG investments. Yes, people, that's the
insanity of the situation: the USG is completely lost. It still has its ace in the hole, though: the Green Party is set to win
the next German general elections, and they're rabid Atlanticists. Like, this would cost Germany dearly and they wouldn't last
two years in government, but at least Russian gas to Europe through a non-Ukrainian route would be stopped.
Speaking of the Ukraine, this whole situation makes us reflect: it is patent at this point in time that the EU is a subsidiary
of NATO - it expands eastwards after those countries become NATO members. They're the "socioeconomic" version of NATO. This has
created a huge problem for the EU, though, because the Ukraine is a massive financial black hole to the American economy (through
the IMF) and the USA is pressuring the EU to make it a member quick, so that this black hole goes to European (i.e. German) hands.
The thing is Germany obviously doesn't want that, because it needs the Euro to keep at where it is or stronger (you can only enter
the EU by entering the EZ nowadays). The Ukraine is salivating to become an EZ member - that's the whole point of the Maidan coup
in the first place - so Ukraine entering the EU without entering the EZ is out of the table. The EU must've told the USA that
no, the Ukraine must first become a NATO member, then they'll make it an EZ-EU member. The Ukraine is the proverbial hot potato.
All of that coupled with the hard economic fact that, without the Russian gas transit exclusivity, you can't leverage Ukraine's
debt, because, after Maidan, all of the public goods and infrastructure were privatized to American capitalists. That means we
have the absurd situation where Germany has to give up cheaper gas for itself (which would be essential for its economic recovery)
in order to make the Ukraine happy so that it enters the EU, so that it becomes a financial black hole... to the German economy!
Germany has to pay the Ukraine for the privilege of having to pay it even more, for eternity.
The price of nation-building has become more and more expensive to the capitalist world. Turns out those Third World shitholes
have learned something after all those decades.
--//--
Well, well, well... how the tables have turned:
Iron Curtain reversed? EU agrees to open up
to foreign tourists fully vaccinated against Covid-19, but NOT to those who've had Russia's Sputnik V jab
Taiwan is also suffering from a significant brain drain to the Mainland. They're trying to solve the problem by demonizing
those people by calling them "traitors".
Interesting times.
--//--
Colonial Pipeline CEO confirms paying
$4.4 million ransom to hackers, says he did it for America
This is USSR-of-the-1980s level of propaganda.
Either way, give that man a statue in D.C.!
P.S.: this is the quotation of what the CEO really said, so you don't accusing me of just reading the headline:
"[it was very hard, difficult to me etc. etc.] But it was the right thing to do for the country," Blount, who leads the company
since 2017, added.
--//--
No shit, Sherlock:
Russian Sputnik V Covid-19
vaccine hasn't been approved by EU due to political pressure from top officials – Moscow's spy chief
More Hacks, More Baseless Accusations Against Russia
In January police in various countries took down the Emotet bot-network that was at that
time the basic platform for some 25% of all cybercrimes.
Based on hearsay Wikipedia and other had falsely attributed Emotet to Russian actors.
The real people behind it were actually
Ukrainians :
The operating center of Emotet was found in the Ukraine. Today the Ukrainian national police
took control of it during a raid (video). The police found dozens of
computers, some hundred hard drives, about 50 kilogram of gold bars (current price
~$60,000/kg) and large amounts of money in multiple currencies.

bigger
Emotet had nothing to do with Russia.
Now the U.S. is accusing Russia of somehow having part in another cybercrime :
President Joe Biden said Monday that a Russia-based group was behind the ransomware attack
that forced the shutdown of the largest oil pipeline in the eastern United States.
The FBI identified the group behind the hack of Colonial Pipeline as DarkSide, a shadowy
operation that surfaced last year and attempts to lock up corporate computer systems and
force companies to pay to unfreeze them.
"So far there is no evidence ... from our intelligence people that Russia is involved,
although there is evidence that actors, ransomware is in Russia," Biden told reporters.
"They have some responsibility to deal with this," he said.
Three days after being forced to halt operations, Colonial said Monday it was moving
toward a partial reopening of its 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) of pipeline" the largest
fuel network between Texas and New York.
Biden however is badly informed. There is no evidence that DarkSide has anything to do with
Russia. It is, like Emotet, a commercial
'ransomware-as-a-service' criminal entity that wants to make money and does not care about
geopolitics.
Yes, a version of the DarkNet software does exclude itself from running on system with
specific
language settings :
The DarkSide malware is even built to conduct language checks on targets and to shut down if
it detects Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Armenian, Georgian, Kazakh, Turkmen, Romanian, and
other languages ...
That is a quite long list of east European languages and Russian is only one of it. Why the
authors of DarkNet do not want their software to run on machines with those language settings
is unknown. But why would a Russian actor protect machines with Ukrainian or Romanian language
settings? Both countries are hostile towards Russia. To claim that this somehow points to
Russian actors is therefore baseless.
Russia strongly rejected
Biden's accusation:
The Kremlin has once again pointed out the importance of cooperation between Moscow and
Washington in tackling cyberthreats amid a cyber-attack on Colonial Pipeline, a US company.
"Russia has nothing to do with these hacker attacks, nor with the previous hacker attacks,"
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Preskov assured reporters on Tuesday.
"We categorically reject any accusation against us, and we can only regret that the US is
refusing to cooperate with us in any way to counter cyber-threats. We believe that such
cooperation - both international and bilateral - could indeed contribute to the common
struggle against this scourge [known as] cyber-crime," Peskov said.
The U.S. seems notoriously bad at attributing computer hacks. It claims that the recent
SolarWinds attack which intruded several government branches was also done by Russia. But that
attack
required deep insider knowledge and access to SolarWinds' computers
and processes :
The recently discovered deep intrusion into U.S. companies and government networks used a
manipulated version of the SolarWinds Orion network management software. The Washington borg
immediately attributed the hack to Russia. Then President Trump attributed it to China. But
none of those claims were backed up by facts or known evidence.
The hack was extremely complex, well managed and resourced, and likely required insider
knowledge. To this IT professional it 'felt' neither Russian nor Chinese. It is far more
likely, as Whitney Webb finds, that
Israel was behind it .
Indeed - the programmers of an Israeli company, recently bought up by SolarWinds, had all
the necessary access for such a hack. However the U.S. sanctioned Russia over the SolarWinds
hack without providing any evidence of its involvement.
If the U.S. continues to blame Russia without any evidence for each and every hack there may
come a time when Russia stops caring and really starts to hack into or destroy important U.S.
systems. The U.S. should fear that day.
Posted by b on May 11, 2021 at 17:31 UTC |
Permalink
David G Horsman , May 11 2021 17:48 utc |
1
Thanks b. I don't think Russia is going to escalate destructive attacks any time soon.
There's no upside.
They might even be reluctant to reveal their capabilities in the Ukraine.
For the moment, mockery is the best remedy while they up their game.
psychohistorian , May 11 2021 17:56 utc |
2
@ b who ended with
"
If the U.S. continues to blame Russia without any evidence for each and every hack there may
come a time when Russia stops caring and really starts to hack into or destroy important U.S.
systems.
"
How can you write such assertions that vary from the approach that both Russia and China
are taking?....strong defense but no offense.
Now if empire tried to hack into a Russian or Chinese system/network then appropriate
takedowns of malicious systems/networks would seem logical....and I expect they know
how...but will not do it on the basis of another avenue of empire lies and deceit.
anon48 , May 11 2021 18:20 utc |
3
You should have titled the post "Killing Two Birds With One Stone".
This pipeline is huge, running from Texas through the Southeast and all the way up to New
England. It's condition is beyond awful with multiple leaks along the route some of which
lose more than a million gallons per month and much more than can be determined since some of
the gasoline / jet fuel went into the aquifers. These faults have been well known for decades
and although some of the areas are heavily populated no remediation was done. The local
outcry recently caught the attention of the press when kids reported a gasoline smell along
the pipeline route to the police. The locals demanded the pipeline be closed for repairs and
sought answers from state officials and Federal authorities as to why this situation was
allowed. To blame the Russians for the closure of the pipeline which results in a surge in
prices and limited availability of gas for the summer is an absolute stroke of genius.
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/ncdeq-colonial-pipeline-spill-huntersville/275-70e16fb6-c945-4634-b933-3975d0573f2e
Ike , May 11 2021 18:27 utc |
4
Great article. Russia must be getting so pissed off with the idiots in Washington.The
uninformed and easily manipulated Western people surely get the governments they deserve.
Paul Craig Roberts highlights this with another bit of truth telling from Tucker Carlson
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/05/11/the-proof-is-in-tony-fauci-is-responsible-for-the-creation-of-the-covid-19-virus/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_proof_is_in_tony_fauci_is_responsible_for_the_creation_of_the_covid_19_virus&utm_term=2021-05-11
DG , May 11 2021 18:43 utc |
5
@all
I need to ask this: What do you think about the vaccination of children?
...
Josh , May 11 2021 18:44 utc |
6
It is odd that certain elements of the us intelligence community, along with negative
factions within the us political establishment, continue to absolutely refuse to enter into
verifiable and mutually binding international agreements on cyber security with exactly the
nation states that they accuse (without evidence) of malicious activity in the same sphere,
while at the same time operating in this field in an openly declared hostile manner under the
secrecy deemed necessary for 'national security'.
Probably it was not a false flag. First of all the state of IT security at Colonial Pipeline
was so dismal that it was strange that this did not happened before. And there might be
some truth that they try to exploit this hack to thier advantage as maintenance of the
pipeline is also is dismal shape.
Notable quotes:
"... "As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went." If you are right about the perpetrators, my guess would be that it went into the black-ops fund, two birds one stone. ..."
"... I have become so used to false flags, I am going to be shocked when a real intrusion happens! ..."
"... an in depth article researching solarwinds hack - looks like it was Israel, not a great leap to see that colonial was a false flag https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/01/investigative-reports/another-mega-group-spy-scandal-samanage-sabotage-and-the-solarwinds-hack/ ..."
"... Regarding the ownership of Colonial Pipeline: 'IFM Investors, which is owned by 27 Australian union- and employer-backed industry superannuation funds, owns a 16 per cent stake in Colonial Pipeline, which the infrastructure manager bought in 2007 for $US651 million.' ..."
"... 'The privately held Colonial Pipeline is valued at about $US8 billion, based upon the most recent sale of a 10 per cent stake to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell in 2019.' ..."
Blackhat , May 19 2021 18:51 utc |
6
The Colonial Pipeline Co.,ransomware attack was a false flag. They wanted to blame Russian
hackers so they could derail Nordstream II
It is common knowledge that the only real hackers that are able of such sabotage is CIA
and Israeli. It's the same attack types they do to Iranian infrastructure on a regular
basis.
The Russians are not that stupid to do something they know will be blamed on them and is
of no political use to them. And could derail Nordstream2.
As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went. CEO is ultra corrupt. They
never ever invested in their infrastructure so when it went down they came up with a
profitable excuse. Just look at their financials/balance sheet over the years. No real
investment in updating and maintaining infrastructure. Great false flag. Corruption and
profiteering.
MarkU , May 19 2021 19:04 utc |
7
@ Blackhat | May 19 2021 18:51 utc | 6
"As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went." If you are right
about the perpetrators, my guess would be that it went into the black-ops fund, two birds one
stone.
james , May 19 2021 19:08 utc |
9
@ 6 blackhat..
I have become so used to false flags, I am going to be shocked when a real intrusion
happens!
abee , May 19 2021 19:21 utc |
10
@ blackhat 6
an in depth article researching solarwinds hack - looks like it was Israel, not a
great leap to see that colonial was a false flag
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/01/investigative-reports/another-mega-group-spy-scandal-samanage-sabotage-and-the-solarwinds-hack/
vinnieoh , May 19 2021 20:05 utc |
15
Blackhat | May 19 2021 18:51 utc | 6
I'm not familiar with your handle - hello. IMO, it would be counterproductive for Russia
to initiate such a hack. What really affects and debilitates US oil and gas interests is low
prices, both at the pump and on the stock exchange. The hack helped jack up prices (which
were already being jacked-up despite demand still lagging behind supply) which only HELPS
those energy interests. It has long been known, the math isn't complicated, what level crude
must trade at for US domestic oil & gas operations to be profitable. Remember that just
as the pandemic was emerging Russia and Saudi Arabia once again sent the global crude market
into the depths of despair.
I do agree the hack can be interpreted in light of the desperation of US energy interests
to try to kill NS2. I have not yet read the recent articles discussing Biden's recent moves
in that regard. If these moves are a recognition that US LNG to Europe (and elsewhere) are
diametrically opposed to climate responsibility, I'd welcome those moves. As is usually the
case though, environmental responsibility is probably the least likely reason.
vk
, May 19 2021 22:31 utc |
35
Colonial Pipeline CEO
confirms paying $4.4 million ransom to hackers, says he did it for America
This is USSR-of-the-1980s level of propaganda. Either way, give that man a statue in
D.C.!
P.S.: this is the quotation of what the CEO really said, so you don't accusing me of just
reading the headline:
"[it was very hard, difficult to me etc. etc.] But it was the right thing to do for the
country," Blount, who leads the company since 2017, added.
--//--
No shit, Sherlock:
Russian Sputnik V
Covid-19 vaccine hasn't been approved by EU due to political pressure from top officials
– Moscow's spy chief
Paul , May 19 2021 23:42 utc |
42
Posted By Oldhippy @28
Thanks for your comment.
Regarding the ownership of Colonial Pipeline: 'IFM Investors, which is owned by 27
Australian union- and employer-backed industry superannuation funds, owns a 16 per cent stake
in Colonial Pipeline, which the infrastructure manager bought in 2007 for $US651
million.'
also
'The privately held Colonial Pipeline is valued at about $US8 billion, based upon the
most recent sale of a 10 per cent stake to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell in 2019.'
see Australian Financial Review 6 days ago.
Koch may well own another multi million $ stake.
Grieved , May 24 2021 1:39 utc |
103
Laurent Guyénot makes a compelling case that both Kennedys were assassinated by
Mossad:
Did
Israel Kill the Kennedys?
Robert would have become president, and then reopen the investigation into his brother's
murder.
A generation later, JFK's son, John F. Kennedy, Jr, who was also undoubtedly heading
toward the presidency or at least high politics, died when his small plane suddenly
nose-dived into the ocean. The chain of potential justice has been successively cut off.
The Mossad fingerprints are all over Robert's death and also Oswald's. And the Israeli
connection is conspicuously absent from the decades of conspiracy investigations that seem to
have been deliberately led to the CIA - Michael Collins Piper being the notable exception who
linked to Israel.
Dimona was the principal reason, says Guyénot, and shows that Lyndon Johnson put
paid to all opposition to Dimona coming from the US.
~~
I am not a student of this affair, but I've never seen much made of the fact that JFK was
already embarked upon issuing US currency directly - the USA Note rather than the Federal
Reserve Note that we call dollars today. This was canceled under Johnson, of course.
Presidents don't get to issue greenbacks. We had already seen how that worked out for
Lincoln.
Not a student of this, as I say. But I tend to see the world's power pyramid with
debt-issuers at the top, and all the other factions on lower steps. So, Dimona, yes, the main
incentive for Israel, and all the lesser motivations that caused rejoicing in many other
groups - but the money control at the top, in my view, is the force that gives the nod to
these various factions and approves the hit.
librul , May 24 2021 5:00 utc |
115
No one has asked but the most fascinating suspect in Dealey Plaza that fateful day was
Lamar Hunt.
Yes, that Lamar Hunt. The Lamar Hunt Trophy is in honor of that very guy.
He was the son of H.L. Hunt the billionaire oilman who had his main offices in Dealey
Plaza. Lamar Hunt was in his thirties at the time (31) and flew to Mexico minutes after the
shooting (this is a matter of record).
Lamar was escorting two men around Dealey Plaza that day. One was arrested coming out of a
building, arrested because he was reported/fingered as suspicious, someone that didn't belong
there.
The guy said he was looking for a phone booth to call his mother. This was James Braden a
known mafia hit man (who, by the way, was in the vicinity of the hotel where RFK was
assassinated). Braden was detained and then released. The other person, that had arrived with
Braden, checked out of his hotel minutes after the assassination and was gone.
Paul , May 24 2021 6:01 utc |
118
Posted by: Grieved | May 24 2021 1:39 utc | 103
Skiming through the JFK chapter of Guyenot's book, 'From Yahweh to Zion' it is obviously a
number of compelling 'reasons' JFK and his brother were despised by the Zionists.
First was their father Joe Kennedy. Out with the Swiss Army Knife of words, again.
Dimona also figured large. This was also covered by Seymour Hirsh in, 'The Sampson
Option., Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.' Note, Hersh writes in the
introduction, he refused to travel to the Bandit State because of the wall to wall censorship
imposed on ALL journalists.
Importantly, JFK visited a Palestinian refugee camp in 1956 and 'expressed sympathy' for
the Palestinians. The Zionists worst fears were his proposals to have them registered a
Foreign Agents.
KFK also advocated UN resolution 194, The Right of Return.
_K_C_ , May 24 2021 6:21 utc |
122
Posted by: Paul | May 24 2021 6:01 utc | 118 - and others on the JFK thing
I think it was the detente he intended to enter into with the USSR in addition to a few
other things.
For one, he wasn't murdered in Dallas, TX for no reason. That was the city where big oil
co-joined with the newly powerful "intelligence" community of the Dulles and Bush families.
The depletion allowance was a big deal and JFK was one of, if not the, first to suggest he
might end it.
Then there was the Cuba situation.
Finally there was the infamous quote about rendering the CIA into a thousand shards and it
blowing into the wind or something of that nature.
He managed to piss off and threaten all the main powers that be, including those with very
high level mafia connections.
If anyone gets the chance to visit it, the museum in Dallas in the former book repository
on the fifth (?) floor of that building is quite worth a visit. I thought I'd be bored as
hell when my wife and her younger sister dragged me and the family there one Saturday
afternoon, but it ended up being fascinating. That said, if I were a left-leaning or
anti-corporate/oil president to this day I'd stay TF away from Dallas or Houston, TX save for
an airfield-only visit. Well, until Iran can create the capability to murder our
politicians/diplomats from the air with no repercussions (still, anyone heard from Ayatollah
Mike in the last 6 months? Asking for a friend).
uncle tungsten , May 24 2021 8:10 utc |
127
Grieved #103
Re the Kennedy story ~ beware the US Navy.
Thank you, what a timely tale.
vato , May 24 2021 11:41 utc |
140
Posted by: Grieved | May 24 2021 1:39 utc | 103
Starter's reading list (a must list IMO for every American) for you in order to understand
the Kennedy assassination (no, Israel had nothing to do with it):
James W. Douglass - JFK and the Unspeakable
David Talbot - Devil's Chessboard
James DiEugenio - Destiny Betrayed/ The JFK Assassination
Mark Lane - Rush to Judgement
Peter Dale Scott - Deep Politics and the Death of JFK
For more literature go to Our
Hidden History which is a treasure trove of all things US Deep State politics from Heroin
Trade in the Golden Triangle to Vietnam to JFK, to Watergate, Iran-Contra etc...
Notable quotes:
"... What is clear is that the FBI is taking a thumb-screws page from the playbook of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who deployed the little-used Foreign Agents Registration Act to pursue the white whale of collusion. As Lee Smith reported for RealClearInvestigations , just three people had pleaded guilty to FARA violations in the half-century before Mueller deployed it to pressure and punish Trump allies. ..."
"... And note, the FBI's zeal to crack down on unregistered foreign agents does not extend to the president's son Hunter Biden, who, Paul Sperry reported for RCI, "failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials." It appears that we have two tiers of justice: one for Biden administration enemies, another for its family and friends. ..."
Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics.com,
The Biden administration is vigorously pursuing key figures from the phony Trump/Russia collusion scandal that roiled the nation
for four years. But instead of trying to punish the liars who perpetrated that fraud, it is targeting the truth-tellers who challenged
and exposed the conspiracy to negate the 2016 election.
Working from the same playbook used to smear dozens of Trump associates, the administration and its allies are planting stories
based on blind quotes in friendly media outlets to seek revenge.
On April 16,
Washington
Post columnist David Ignatius reported that the Justice Department is investigating Kash Patel – who had worked with Rep. Devin
Nunes and later the Trump administration to reveal the Russiagate hoax – for the "possible improper disclosure of classified information."
Ignatius said he received the tip from "two knowledgeable sources" who "wouldn't provide additional details."
Violating the bedrock principles of American justice and journalism, this article is an exercise in thuggery as the government
uses a powerful media outlet to intimidate and besmirch a citizen without evidence. With nothing to respond to, how can Patel defend
himself? If Patel is lucky, the federal government has only placed a sharp sword over his head that may not fall. If not, he might
be dragged into a lengthy court battle that could drain his finances and also cost him his freedom.
We don't know if Patel broke the law, but note that the administration has shown no interest in pursuing former FBI leaders such
as
James Comey and
Andrew McCabe , who improperly disclosed information regarding Russiagate.
Trump's former lawyer Rudolph Giuliani is also in the "cross hairs of a federal criminal investigation," according to
an April 29
article in New York Times that relied on "people with knowledge of the matter."
At issue, those anonymous sources say, is whether Giuliani was serving two masters when he counseled Trump to remove Marie L.
Yovanovitch as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in 2019. "Did Mr. Giuliani go after Ms. Yovanovitch solely on behalf of Mr. Trump,
who was his client at the time?" the Times reports. "Or was he also doing so on behalf of the Ukrainian officials, who wanted her
removed for their own reasons?"
I'll leave it to the lawyers to determine the wisdom of bringing a case based on the parsing of tangled motives. What is clear
is that the FBI is taking a thumb-screws page from the playbook of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who deployed the little-used Foreign
Agents Registration Act to pursue the white whale of collusion.
As Lee Smith reported for RealClearInvestigations , just three people had pleaded guilty to FARA violations in the half-century
before Mueller deployed it to pressure and punish Trump allies.
And note, the FBI's zeal to crack down on unregistered foreign agents does not extend to the president's son Hunter Biden, who,
Paul Sperry reported for RCI, "failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in
Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials." It appears that we have two tiers of justice:
one for Biden administration enemies, another for its family and friends.
The targeting of Giuliani looks especially suspect and politically motivated after three main news outlets that have driven much
of the false Russiagate coverage – the New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News –
were forced to correct a recent story , once again based on anonymous sources, claiming the FBI had warned Giuliani in 2019 "that
he was a target of a Russian disinformation campaign during his efforts to dig up unflattering information about then-candidate Joe
Biden in 2019." Giuliani was never given such a briefing.
Considering the numerous instances in which the press published bogus information from "informed sources" during Russiagate, one
has to ask why they continue to serve as vehicles for falsehoods. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me
a dozen times and you're not fooling me – we're acting in concert. As RCI editor
Tom Kuntz has argued, journalistic integrity demands, at the very least, that these organizations tell their audience who exactly
had misled them. Confidentiality agreements should not protect liars.
A third example of the Biden administration's effort to punish Russiagate figures is its renewed effort to put former Manafort
associate Konstantin V. Kilimnik behind bars. In an extensive new article for RCI,
Aaron Maté reports that the Treasury Department provided no evidence to support its recent claim that Kilimnik is a "known Russian
Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf." It also refuses to explain how it was able to discover
the truth of Kilimnik's identity, which the two most extensive Russiagate investigations – the 448-page Muller report and the 966-page
Senate Intelligence report – failed to uncover.
This absence of evidence has not stopped the peddlers of the Trump/Russia conspiracy theory from claiming vindication. Democrat
Rep. Adam Schiff casts Treasury's unsubstantiated claim as smoking-gun evidence of collusion. The New York Times reports that the
claim demonstrates that "there had been numerous interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence during the year
before the [2016] election."
Who needs proof when the government says it's so?
The FBI is also putting the screws to Kilimnik, offering $250,000 for information leading to his arrest on witness-tampering charges
involving text messages he sent in 2018 to two people who have only been identified as "potential witnesses" involving Manafort's
lobbying work for Ukraine, not Russiagate.
In an exclusive interview, Kilimnik told Maté, "I don't understand how two messages to our old partners who helped us get out
the message about Ukraine's integration aspirations in [the] EU, and asking them to get in touch with Paul, can be interpreted as
'intimidation' or 'obstruction of justice.'"
Maté also reports that the $250,000 bounty on Kilimnik is more than double the amount the FBI is offering for information leading
to the arrest of murder suspects.
The Biden administration's campaigns against Patel, Giuliani and Kilimnik suggest how the winners of the 2020 election are attempting
to rewrite the history of Russiagate. Having been debunked and rebuked by their own investigators, the conspiracists are taking a
second bite at the poisoned apple. Using anonymous sources to make unsubstantiated charges in the nation's most influential news
outlets, they are seeking to punish people for the crime of exposing their malfeasance.
Notable quotes:
"... What is clear is that the FBI is taking a thumb-screws page from the playbook of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who deployed the little-used Foreign Agents Registration Act to pursue the white whale of collusion. As Lee Smith reported for RealClearInvestigations , just three people had pleaded guilty to FARA violations in the half-century before Mueller deployed it to pressure and punish Trump allies. ..."
"... And note, the FBI's zeal to crack down on unregistered foreign agents does not extend to the president's son Hunter Biden, who, Paul Sperry reported for RCI, "failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials." It appears that we have two tiers of justice: one for Biden administration enemies, another for its family and friends. ..."
Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics.com,
The Biden administration is vigorously pursuing key figures from the phony Trump/Russia collusion scandal that roiled the nation
for four years. But instead of trying to punish the liars who perpetrated that fraud, it is targeting the truth-tellers who challenged
and exposed the conspiracy to negate the 2016 election.
Working from the same playbook used to smear dozens of Trump associates, the administration and its allies are planting stories
based on blind quotes in friendly media outlets to seek revenge.
On April 16,
Washington
Post columnist David Ignatius reported that the Justice Department is investigating Kash Patel – who had worked with Rep. Devin
Nunes and later the Trump administration to reveal the Russiagate hoax – for the "possible improper disclosure of classified information."
Ignatius said he received the tip from "two knowledgeable sources" who "wouldn't provide additional details."
Violating the bedrock principles of American justice and journalism, this article is an exercise in thuggery as the government
uses a powerful media outlet to intimidate and besmirch a citizen without evidence. With nothing to respond to, how can Patel defend
himself? If Patel is lucky, the federal government has only placed a sharp sword over his head that may not fall. If not, he might
be dragged into a lengthy court battle that could drain his finances and also cost him his freedom.
We don't know if Patel broke the law, but note that the administration has shown no interest in pursuing former FBI leaders such
as
James Comey and
Andrew McCabe , who improperly disclosed information regarding Russiagate.
Trump's former lawyer Rudolph Giuliani is also in the "cross hairs of a federal criminal investigation," according to
an April 29
article in New York Times that relied on "people with knowledge of the matter."
At issue, those anonymous sources say, is whether Giuliani was serving two masters when he counseled Trump to remove Marie L.
Yovanovitch as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in 2019. "Did Mr. Giuliani go after Ms. Yovanovitch solely on behalf of Mr. Trump,
who was his client at the time?" the Times reports. "Or was he also doing so on behalf of the Ukrainian officials, who wanted her
removed for their own reasons?"
I'll leave it to the lawyers to determine the wisdom of bringing a case based on the parsing of tangled motives. What is clear
is that the FBI is taking a thumb-screws page from the playbook of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who deployed the little-used Foreign
Agents Registration Act to pursue the white whale of collusion.
As Lee Smith reported for RealClearInvestigations , just three people had pleaded guilty to FARA violations in the half-century
before Mueller deployed it to pressure and punish Trump allies.
And note, the FBI's zeal to crack down on unregistered foreign agents does not extend to the president's son Hunter Biden, who,
Paul Sperry reported for RCI, "failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in
Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials." It appears that we have two tiers of justice:
one for Biden administration enemies, another for its family and friends.
The targeting of Giuliani looks especially suspect and politically motivated after three main news outlets that have driven much
of the false Russiagate coverage – the New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News –
were forced to correct a recent story , once again based on anonymous sources, claiming the FBI had warned Giuliani in 2019 "that
he was a target of a Russian disinformation campaign during his efforts to dig up unflattering information about then-candidate Joe
Biden in 2019." Giuliani was never given such a briefing.
Considering the numerous instances in which the press published bogus information from "informed sources" during Russiagate, one
has to ask why they continue to serve as vehicles for falsehoods. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me
a dozen times and you're not fooling me – we're acting in concert. As RCI editor
Tom Kuntz has argued, journalistic integrity demands, at the very least, that these organizations tell their audience who exactly
had misled them. Confidentiality agreements should not protect liars.
A third example of the Biden administration's effort to punish Russiagate figures is its renewed effort to put former Manafort
associate Konstantin V. Kilimnik behind bars. In an extensive new article for RCI,
Aaron Maté reports that the Treasury Department provided no evidence to support its recent claim that Kilimnik is a "known Russian
Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf." It also refuses to explain how it was able to discover
the truth of Kilimnik's identity, which the two most extensive Russiagate investigations – the 448-page Muller report and the 966-page
Senate Intelligence report – failed to uncover.
This absence of evidence has not stopped the peddlers of the Trump/Russia conspiracy theory from claiming vindication. Democrat
Rep. Adam Schiff casts Treasury's unsubstantiated claim as smoking-gun evidence of collusion. The New York Times reports that the
claim demonstrates that "there had been numerous interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence during the year
before the [2016] election."
Who needs proof when the government says it's so?
The FBI is also putting the screws to Kilimnik, offering $250,000 for information leading to his arrest on witness-tampering charges
involving text messages he sent in 2018 to two people who have only been identified as "potential witnesses" involving Manafort's
lobbying work for Ukraine, not Russiagate.
In an exclusive interview, Kilimnik told Maté, "I don't understand how two messages to our old partners who helped us get out
the message about Ukraine's integration aspirations in [the] EU, and asking them to get in touch with Paul, can be interpreted as
'intimidation' or 'obstruction of justice.'"
Maté also reports that the $250,000 bounty on Kilimnik is more than double the amount the FBI is offering for information leading
to the arrest of murder suspects.
The Biden administration's campaigns against Patel, Giuliani and Kilimnik suggest how the winners of the 2020 election are attempting
to rewrite the history of Russiagate. Having been debunked and rebuked by their own investigators, the conspiracists are taking a
second bite at the poisoned apple. Using anonymous sources to make unsubstantiated charges in the nation's most influential news
outlets, they are seeking to punish people for the crime of exposing their malfeasance.
D
Reds under the bed? Or forgot to take the antipsychotics today? D David Keating
For any fairly recent US posters on this site, here is a hint to the wise.
There is a significant Russian presence on the WSJ comments. Basically our Russian
visitors dominate these comments - at a ratio perhaps of 8-1 - or even worse.
The best way to get your footing on this site is to understand that these Russians are
educated, fluent in English, knowledgeable about us, oftentimes quite funny ( sometimes not.
) And the Russians are seeking to pass as Americans.
In this capacity, the Russians will often be earnest & insightful. As well as say
horrible things about Republicans and about Democrats.
They are here to stoke division and conflict. They seek to amplify partisanship and
misinformation.
As soon as you understand these essential facts, you will find it quite easy to work the
thread.
Reds
under the bed? Or forgot to take the antipsychotics today? D David Keating
For any fairly recent US posters on this site, here is a hint to the wise.
There is a significant Russian presence on the WSJ comments. Basically our Russian
visitors dominate these comments - at a ratio perhaps of 8-1 - or even worse.
The best way to get your footing on this site is to understand that these Russians are
educated, fluent in English, knowledgeable about us, oftentimes quite funny ( sometimes
not. ) And the Russians are seeking to pass as Americans.
In this capacity, the Russians will often be earnest & insightful. As well as say
horrible things about Republicans and about Democrats.
They are here to stoke division and conflict. They seek to amplify partisanship and
misinformation.
As soon as you understand these essential facts, you will find it quite easy to work the
thread.
Taibbi: Reporters Once Challenged The Spy State. Now, They're Agents Of It BY TYLER
DURDEN WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021 - 04:20 PM
Authored by Matt Taibbi via TK News ,
What a difference a decade makes.
Former
CIA director John Brennan was a media villain, now he's media himself.
Just over ten years ago, on July 25, 2010, Wikileaks released 75,000 secret
U.S. military reports involving the war in Afghanistan . The New York Times, The Guardian ,
and Der Spiegel helped release the documents, which were devastating to America's intelligence
community and military, revealing systemic abuses that included civilian massacres and an
assassination squad, TF 373, whose existence the United States
kept "protected " even from its allies.
The Afghan War logs came out at the beginning of a historic stretch of true oppositional
journalism, when outlets like Le Monde, El Pais, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, The New York Times,
and others partnered with sites like Wikileaks. Official secrets were exposed on a scale not
seen since the Church Committee hearings of the seventies, as reporters pored through 250,000
American diplomatic cables, secret files about every detainee at Guantanamo Bay, and hundreds
of thousands of additional documents about everything from the Iraq war to coverups of
environmental catastrophes, among other things helping trigger the "Arab Spring."
There was an attempt at a response -- companies like Amazon, Master Card, Visa, and Paypal
shut Wikileaks off, and the Pentagon flooded the site with a "denial of service" attack -- but
leaks continued. One person inspired by the revelations was former NSA contractor Edward
Snowden, who came forward to unveil an illegal domestic surveillance program, a story that won
an Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize for documentarian Laura Poitras and reporters Glenn Greenwald and
Jeremy Scahill. By 2014, members of Congress in both parties were calling for the resignations
of CIA chief John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, both of whom had
been caught lying to congress.
The culmination of this period came when billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar launched
The Intercept in February 2014. The outlet was devoted to sifting through Snowden's archive of
leaked secrets, and its first story described how the
NSA and CIA frequently made errors using geolocation to identify and assassinate drone targets.
A few months later, former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden admitted, "We kill people based
on metadata."
Fast forward seven years. Julian Assange is behind bars, and may die there. Snowden is in
exile in Russia. Brennan, Clapper, and Hayden have been rehabilitated and are all paid
contributors to either MSNBC or CNN, part of a
wave of intelligence officers who've flooded the airwaves and op-ed pages in recent years,
including the FBI's Asha Rangappa, Clint Watts, Josh Campbell, former counterintelligence chief
Frank Figliuzzi and former deputy director Andrew McCabe, the CIA's John Sipher, Phil Mudd, Ned
Price, and many others.
Once again, Internet platforms, credit card companies
like Visa and MasterCard , and payment processors like PayPal are working to help track
down and/or block the activities of "extremists." This time, they're on the same side as the
onetime press allies of Wikileaks and Snowden, who began a course reversal after the election
of Donald Trump.
Those outlets first began steering attention away from intelligence abuses and toward
bugbears like Trumpism, misinformation, and Russian meddling, then entered into partnerships
with Langley-approved facsimiles of leak sites like Hamilton 68 ,
New Knowledge , and especially
Bellingcat , a kind of reverse Wikileaks devoted to exposing the misdeeds of regimes in
Russia, Syria, and Iran -- less so the United States and its allies. The CIA's former deputy
chief of operations for Europe and Eurasia, Marc Polymeropolous, said of the group's work, "
I don't
want to be too dramatic, but we love this ."
After the Capitol riots of January 6th, the War on Terror came home, and "domestic
extremists" stepped into the role enemy combatants played before. George Bush once launched an
all-out campaign to pacify any safe haven for trrrsts, promising to "smoke 'em out of their
holes." The new campaign is aimed at stamping out areas for surveillance-proof communication,
which CNN security analyst and former DHS official Juliette Kayyem described as any online
network "that lets [domestic extremists] talk amongst themselves."
Reporters pledged assistance, snooping for evidence of wrongness in digital rather than
geographical "hidey holes." We've seen The Guardian warning about the
perils of podcasts , ProPublica arguing that Apple's lax speech
environment contributed to the January 6th riot, and reporters
from The Verge and
Vice and
The New York Times listening in to Clubhouse chats in search of evidence of dangerous
thought. In an inspired homage to the lunacy of the War on Terror years, a GQ writer even went
on Twitter last week to chat with the author of George
Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech about imploring the "authorities" to use the "Fire in a
Crowded Theater" argument to shut down Fox News.
Multiple outlets announced plans to track "extremists" in either open or implied cooperation
with authorities. Frontline, ProPublica , and Berkley Journalism's Investigative Reporting
Program used " high-precision digital forensics "
to uncover "evidence" about the Boogaloo Bois, and the Huffington Post worked with the
"sedition hunters " at the Twitter activist group "Deep State Dogs" to help identify a
suspect later arrested for tasering a Capitol police officer. One of the Huffington Post
stories, from February, not only spoke to a willingness of the press to work with law
enforcement, but impatience
with the slowness of official procedure compared to "sleuthing communities":
The FBI wants
photos of Capitol insurrections to go viral , and has published images of more than 200 suspects.
But what happens when online sleuthing communities identify suspects and then see weeks go by
without any signs of action ? There are hundreds of suspects, thousands of hours of video,
hundreds of thousands of tips, and millions of pieces of evidence the FBI's bureaucracy isn't
necessarily designed to keep organized.
The Intercept already saw founding members Poitras and Greenwald depart, and shut down the
aforementioned Snowden archive to, in their words, "focus on other editorial priorities" --
parent company First Look Media soon after launched a partnership with "PassionFlix," whose
motto is, " Turning your favorite romance
novels into movies and series ." Last week, they announced a new project in tune with
current media trends:
Are there legitimate stories about people with racist or conspiratorial views who for
instance shouldn't be working in positions of authority, as cops or elected officials or
military officers? Sure, and there's a job for reporters in proving that out, especially if
there's a record of complaints or corruption to match. It gets a little weird if the
newsworthiness standard is "person with a job has abhorrent private opinions," but it's not
like it's impossible that a legit story could be found in something like the Gab archive,
especially if it involves a public figure.
But that depends on the media people involved having a coherent standard for outing
subjects, which hasn't always (or even often) been the case.
Here The Intercept is announcing it considers QAnon devotee Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alex
Jones "violent white supremacists" -- they're a lot of things, but "violent white
supremacists"? In the first piece about "extremists" on Gab, reporter Micah Lee claimed to have
found an account belonging to a little-known conservative youth figure; the man's attorney
later reached out to deny the account was his, leading to a correction .
When asked about his process, Lee responded, sarcastically, that he "certainly wouldn't want to
accidentally do investigative journalism about white supremacist domestic terrorists." When
asked how he defined a terrorist, and if he'd be naming public figures only, the sarcastic
answer this time was, "Of course I won't be naming anyone. Racist white people must be defended
at all costs."
Greenwald left the organization among other things after an editor asked that he address the
"disinformation issue" in a piece about Hunter Biden's laptop, a reference to a claim made by
50 intelligence officers that the story had "the classic earmarks of a Russian disinformation
campaign." He found it inappropriate then for a publication with The Intercept's history to be
pushing an intelligence narrative, and the Gab project struck him in a similar way.
"The leap from disseminating CIA propaganda to doing the police work of security state
agencies is a short one," says Greenwald, "and with its statements about what they are doing
with this Gab archive, The Intercept and its trite liberal managers in New York have now taken
it."
Read the rest
here . .. play_arrow
safelyG 1 hour ago
we need to find a way to keep stories like this from being reported.
lovingly,
rachel maddow's wife
ted41776 1 hour ago remove link
they hate us for our freedumb
was anyone punished for that WMD lie that cause the death of hundreds of thousands of
Iraqi civilians and a few thousand US troops?
i mean it is a widely accepted fact now, isn't it? that it was a lie that caused a
genocide and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people?
where are the nuremberg trials? UN? anyone?
crickets
Lt. Shicekopf 1 hour ago
Operation Mockingbird has paid immense dividends, one of the most successful programs
ever.
Maltheus 1 hour ago remove link
I dunno. What's the name of the program to infiltrate the schools? Gives Mockingbird a run
for its money.
fishpoem 32 minutes ago
Use the titles of any of the books written by members of the Frankfurt School. Start with
Marcuse. How such circular reasoning, boring prose, and patently bogus arguments became
mandatory reading material in every college in America is a puzzle future historians will
have to unravel.
Well, if the ruling Marxist Democrats allow historians to exist in the future...which they
probably won't. Truth, in that era, will be what "art" became in Hitler's Germany and
Stalin's Russia: cliched state-worship.
Wait. Isn't that what we've already got?
Argon1 1 hour ago
https://schoolhistory.co.uk/notes/operation-mockingbird/
DesertEagle 37 minutes ago
Most of the "reporters" for the big media cartel were always enemies of the American
people.
tedstr 57 minutes ago
News organizations have always been agents of the IC. Just as they are agents of Hollywood
and the biz news are agents of corporations. They no longer have the staffs to truely "do
news" so they rely on being spoon fed from their sources. they will never bite the hand.
Steve in Greensboro 1 hour ago remove link
Lee Smith on Bannon's Warroom 53 in December 2019.
Lee Smith: " Here's something that boggles me still that there are still people after what
we have seen and after I've documented in the book what the press has become what the WaPo
what the prestige brands of American journalism have become and nonetheless there are
Republicans only blocks from here who are more than happy to treat whether it's the WaPo,
NYT, CNN, MSNBC as though these are regular news networks still. Even after three years of
seeing them operate exactly like media operatives "
Steve Bannon: "You believe they are the opposition party media. Right?
Lee Smith: "It's not a media, it's a platform for intelligence operations. It's not media
at all. This is like the Arab press."
Joe Davola 1 hour ago
Maybe a curious investigative reporter might look into why "financial services" companies
jump right in whenever the deep state needs them.
NewMouldy 1 hour ago
Kabuki theatre..
College deans, professors, teachers were all bought and paid for decades ago by the deep
state. The very people that educate upcoming politicians, reporters and scientists.
This is how we got to where we are now.
US Banana Republic 6 minutes ago
When media "personalities" like Cuomo, Madcow, and Cooper make more than $10 million
dollars a year from corporate sponsors towing the corporate/government line then NOBODY want
to be a hard hitting investigative reporter. Everybody wants to be a corporate/government
boot licker.
As always, follow the money.
Isn't Life Gland 15 minutes ago
Ali Watkins is my favorite. "Worked" her way all the way up to the pinnacle gig at the New
York Crimes..on her back.
A cyberattack that crippled the US fuel supply wasn't the work of Russia, President Joe
Biden said. Confusingly, Biden then said that Russia bears "some responsibility" for the
attack.
A ransomware attack on Friday shut down a gasoline and diesel pipeline running 5,500 miles
along the entire US East Coast. Operated by the Colonial Pipeline Company, the vital fuel
artery normally transits 100 million gallons per day from Texas all the way to New York. The
Biden administration responded by invoking emergency powers to enable truckers to transport
more fuel, as traders scrambled to import fuel by sea from Europe.
... ... ...
Home USA News Biden says
'no evidence' Russia responsible for pipeline cyberattack but Russia has 'some
responsibility' 10 May, 2021 19:52 Get
short URL
Joe Biden speaks on the Colonial Pipeline attack as Vice President Kamala Harris stands by at
the White House in Washington, DC, May 10, 2021 © Reuters / Kevin Lamarque 14 Follow RT on
A cyberattack that
crippled the US fuel supply wasn't the work of Russia, President Joe Biden said. Confusingly,
Biden then said that Russia bears "some responsibility" for the attack.
A ransomware attack on Friday shut down a gasoline and diesel pipeline running 5,500 miles
along the entire US East Coast. Operated by the Colonial Pipeline Company, the vital fuel
artery normally transits 100 million gallons per day from Texas all the way to New York. The
Biden administration responded by invoking emergency powers to enable truckers to transport
more fuel, as traders scrambled to import fuel by sea from Europe.
ALSO ON RT.COM Reported
cyberattack on major US pipeline sends oil & gasoline prices higher
Addressing the attack on Monday, Biden initially threw cold water on the claims of Russian
involvement, instead blaming "transnational criminals."
"So far there's no evidence from our intelligence people that Russia is involved,"
Biden told reporters. However, he followed that statement by saying that the ransomware used
"is in Russia," and Russia therefore has "some responsibility to deal with
this."
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=RT_com&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1391819003560144900&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fusa%2F523420-biden-colonial-pipeline-russia-responsiblity%2F&sessionId=8bea10ea6256a9d086ef25229613f3d67d97cfb5&siteScreenName=RT_com&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px
Rumors of Russian involvement were stoked by several mainstream media outlets over the
weekend, after it emerged that 'DarkSide,' a criminal hacking organization believed by CNN's
anonymous sources to be based in "a Russian-speaking country," was responsible for the
attack. In a short statement on Monday, the FBI confirmed "that the DarkSide ransomware is
responsible for the compromise of the Colonial Pipeline networks."
Other media outlets took the opportunity to link the hackers to the Russian government,
"whether they work for the state or not," in the words of one cybersecurity consultant
to NBC.
Notable quotes:
"... As the world has become more complex, people have relied more and more on stereotypes and simplifications to help them interpret and filter events around them. Propaganda manipulates this desire for simplicity – handing people easy answers rather than winning them over with rational arguments. Society then rallies around these stereotypes and squashes dissents with 'herd mentality', an irrational set of psychological behaviors where individuals are swept along with a group, overriding their own rational assessments ..."
psychohistorian , May 5
2021 19:47 utc |
85
Below is a repeat of a Glenn Diesen quote from karlof1 comment # 57
"
"As the world has become more complex, people have relied more and more on stereotypes and
simplifications to help them interpret and filter events around them. Propaganda manipulates
this desire for simplicity – handing people easy answers rather than winning them over
with rational arguments. Society then rallies around these stereotypes and squashes dissents
with 'herd mentality', an irrational set of psychological behaviors where individuals are
swept along with a group, overriding their own rational assessments."
"
Think about the vaccine situation and what just happened to the medical profession in the
West....they got railroaded into agreeing that there was not an off the shelf "ivermectin" to
the virus and guaranteed future income to Big Pharma is more important.
Hey docs!!! Do no harm! Your complicity in this war crime against humanity is noted. What
are the responsible and humanistic actions to take now and why does the public not see
evidence that you are organizing to do them?
karlof1 , May 5 2021 19:50
utc |
86
Until the reality of the CIA--to undermine peaceful relations and promote wars required
for Military Keynesianism--is taught in grade school, it will always find recruits. As with
the FBI, government sponsored propaganda was and remains required to manufacture the reasons
for their existence. Nations that promote an equitable polity have no need for a secret
police force, but do need some force to counter attempts from the outside to foment
destabilization. For example, today's Russia is freer than at any previous time in its
history as only extremist ideologies are banned while Communism--still deemed extremist by
the West--is relegated to a normal ideology with status as a normative political party.
Indeed, I'd argue that Russia remains the only genuine Liberal Western nation, which is a
reality Russophobes are unable to accept or even contemplate. The same also applies to the
concept of Communism thanks to the unwillingness to even attempt to understand Marx. And as
Western thought gets subsumed by Wokeness, the ideological divide between Neoliberal nations
and all others will continue to grow.
Notable quotes:
"... They have looted businesses, burned churches, assaulted police officers, attacked and harassed ordinary citizens eating in restaurants or going about their normal lives "and all with impunity." No FBI raids, no systematic arrests, no dissemination of "Wanted" images on social media. ..."
"... Now I turn to my second contrast: the recent FBI raid on Rudy Giuliani's home and office, while there has been no raid on the home or office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo . Start with Giuliani: The ostensible justification for the raid was to look for evidence Giuliani violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. ..."
"... Moreover, Giuliani had for several months been offering the FBI clear evidence, corroborated by texts and emails, that Hunter Biden not only allegedly failed to register as a foreign agent, but also that he was allegedly involved in child pornography, money laundering, and an elaborate Biden family scheme to sell their political access in exchange for millions of dollars in personal gain. ..."
"... Giuliani seems warranted in concluding that the agency's conduct is a "clear example of a corrupt double standard": "One for high-level Democrats whose blatant crimes are ignored, such as Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, and Joe Biden" and quite another for "Republicans who are prominent supporters and defender of President Trump." ..."
Authored by Dinesh D'Souza, op-ed via The Epoch Times
For a long time, the FBI
has stood as the admirable symbol of a police agency of government, implacably going after the bad guys and neutrally enforcing
the laws. This is the FBI of the movie "The Untouchables," in which special agent Eliot Ness leads his devoted crew of armed
agents in a heroic battle against the forces of organized crime.
Well, forget about the Untouchables. Today's FBI has quite obviously been
corrupted from the top. This is a process that seems to have begun under President Barack
Obama, endured during the Donald Trump years, and has now reached its unfortunate nadir under
President Joe Biden. It's time for conservatives and Republicans to start
thinking about getting rid of the FBI.
I want to highlight two sets of contrasting episodes that give us a window into how biased
and partisan this once-respected agency has now become.
Contrast the treatment the FBI has given to Jan. 6 activists with that it has afforded to
Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters.
The FBI has unrelentingly hunted down Jan. 6 protesters, in many cases confronting Trump
supporters who were merely in Washington at the time, or at the mall rally but not involved in
entering the Capitol. Those who have been arrested have been treated like domestic terrorists,
captured in raids involving drawn weapons, even though the charges against most of them amount
to little more than trespassing or entering a government facility without proper permission.
Nonviolent offenders have been given the same brutal treatment as violent ones. And to this day
the FBI promulgates images "a grandma here, a teenager there" asking
the public to help them track down still-at-large individuals who had something, anything, to
do with the events of Jan. 6.
Contrast this concentrated effort with the lackadaisical, even disinterested, approach of
the FBI to the Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists. Over a period of many months, those
activists have proven far more violent. They have killed a number of people, in contrast to the
Trump activists who killed nobody. (The only person killed on Jan. 6 was Ashli Babbitt, a Trump
supporter shot in the neck by a Capitol police officer.) They have looted businesses, burned
churches, assaulted police officers, attacked and harassed ordinary citizens eating in
restaurants or going about their normal lives "and all with impunity." No FBI raids, no systematic arrests, no dissemination of
"Wanted" images on
social media.
Now I turn to my second contrast: the recent FBI raid on Rudy Giuliani's
home and office, while there has been no raid on the home or office of New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo . Start with Giuliani: The ostensible justification for the raid was to look for evidence
Giuliani violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Giuliani pointed out in a statement
released by his lawyer, however, that he offered to sit down with the FBI and the Biden
Department of Justice (DOJ) and show them to their satisfaction that there had been no
violation of law. Moreover, Giuliani had for several months been offering the FBI clear
evidence, corroborated by texts and emails, that Hunter Biden not only allegedly failed to
register as a foreign agent, but also that he was allegedly involved in child pornography,
money laundering, and an elaborate Biden family scheme to sell their political access in
exchange for millions of dollars in personal gain.
Both the FBI and the DOJ showed no interest in any of that. Consequently, Giuliani seems
warranted in concluding that the agency's conduct is a "clear example of a corrupt double standard": "One for high-level Democrats whose blatant crimes are ignored, such as
Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, and Joe Biden" and quite another for "Republicans who are prominent supporters and defender of President
Trump."
Giuliani
further revealed that the FBI and DOJ had in late 2019 obtained access to his email
database without notifying him. This means that while Giuliani was advising his client Donald
Trump during the impeachment process""a relationship fully protected by attorney""client privilege""the FBI violated the law while supposedly
investigating Giuliani and Trump's possible violations of law.
Here, again, the FBI's extreme diligence in going after Giuliani can be
contrasted with the FBI's failure to act in the case of Gov. Cuomo. Cuomo is
currently involved in two separate scandals, one involving multiple women who have accused him
of sexual harassment, and another involving his direct involvement in a cover-up scheme to hide
the magnitude of nursing home deaths caused by his own policies.
According to the New York
Times , the Cuomo administration was far more culpable than previously known in
deliberately undercounting nursing home deaths over a period of five months.
Let's recall that these deaths need not have occurred. At the direction of
the Trump administration, the U.S. Navy dispatched a hospital ship Comfort to New York to
accept non-coronavirus patients and thus lessen the burden on New York hospitals.
Gov. Cuomo, however, turned the ship away to spite the Trump administration and instead
ordered New York nursing homes to accept the overflow of COVID-19 patients, helping the virus
to spread among vulnerable nursing home populations and thus causing thousands of unnecessary
deaths.
Then, when the Trump administration inquired about the nursing home data in New York, Cuomo
instructed his state health officials, including the health commissioner Howard Zucker, not to
release the true death toll to the federal government, state officials, or the general public.
Cuomo also suppressed a research paper that revealed the data and blocked two letters by
Zucker's department from being sent to state legislators.
While Giuliani's offense remains unclear, Cuomo is guilty of obvious
abuses of power ""actions that have not only put people in their graves but also
amounted, in a statistical sense, to "hiding the bodies." Again,
the FBI is nowhere to be found, and the reason for its absence appears to be that Cuomo is a
Democratic governor who seemingly enjoys immunity as far as today's FBI and
Biden's DOJ are concerned.
Enough is enough! When justice no longer involves the neutral or equal application of the
laws, it ceases to be justice. I realize, of course, that there will be no FBI reform under
Biden. Therefore, I strongly urge the Republican Party to make abolition of the
FBI""shutting down the agency and then reconstructing it from the ground
up""key provisions of its campaigns both in 2022 and 2024.
* * *
Dinesh D'Souza is an author, filmmaker, and daily host of the Dinesh
D'Souza podcast.
Notable quotes:
"... No, people get their belief systems (religious, political, economic, cultural) from their identity groups. **Then** (if called upon) they apply the intellect to rationalize the beliefs that they **already** hold. ..."
"... Rationalizing the Russiagate nonsense was seemingly inevitable with the 24/7 help of the MSM, and the continuous chirping of Democrat politicians. The intellect was not a lighthouse beacon that led intelligent Democrats through the fog of 24/7/52 issued propaganda, rather; the intellect was the tool that solidified vaporous forms into false-reality. ..."
librul , May 5 2021 18:00 utc |
61
re: Wokism
My two cents. People are mimics. It is fascinating when you realize this.
People don't muse, contemplate and chew over the circumstances and issues in their environment and then resolve - "aha! I have
got it." That is not where people get their belief systems. For example, a million and more people didn't all independently study
the Bible and then realize that their interpretation was fully consistent with those of the Roman Catholics and therefore they
should go join the Catholic Church.
No, people get their belief systems (religious, political, economic, cultural) from their identity groups. **Then** (if
called upon) they apply the intellect to rationalize the beliefs that they **already** hold.
The epiphany came to me when I observed intelligent people falling for Russiagate. WTF !! I thought intelligent people
would get it. Russiagate would be a flash-in-the-pan that would disappear in a few days (or less!). Boy was I wrong. The intellect
does not rule, group identity does. Those that identified Democrat (generalizing here, of course) fell in step with the beliefs
common to Democrats, including Russiagate.
Rationalizing the Russiagate nonsense was seemingly inevitable with the 24/7 help of the MSM, and the continuous chirping
of Democrat politicians. The intellect was not a lighthouse beacon that led intelligent Democrats through the fog of 24/7/52 issued
propaganda, rather; the intellect was the tool that solidified vaporous forms into false-reality.
To find one's identity in groups is deeply human. People are dominated by their need to be group-accepted. It is unsurprising
that group acceptance and group identity produce what we call fashion - fashion in style, fashion in vocabulary, fashion in beliefs.
This applies to Wokism. People are mimics.
You can even get them to wear Pussy Hats.
EoinW , May 5 2021 15:38 utc |
25
BrainRinsed | May 5 2021 15:20 utc | 15
Was it silly of us to think the Woke revolutionaires would get enough "bang for their buck" with trannie washrooms? Despite
winning every battle in the culture war, the Looney Left is never satisfied. What's scary is the latest front they've opened:
the Covid reformation of western society.
They won't have trouble finding 21st century Jews to de-humanize. Just label someone a Covid Denier or Anti Vaxxer and anything
will go!
A nice sentiment to think the Woke cancer can rot the CIA or US military. Afraid we've got bigger problems than that.
William Gruff , May 5 2021 18:13 utc |
65
The CIA is not "testosterone saturated" . Quite the opposite. From its inception it has recruited an unusual number
of closeted homosexuals. This somewhat makes sense in that a gay who is in the closet, particularly the less LGBTQWERTY-friendly
culture of the 1950s that the CIA arose in, will already have experience being being less than forthright with their intentions.
Such individuals can also be blackmailed more easily should their employer find the need.
While things have changed in American society and being outed as gay is no longer the social death sentence that it used to
be, the gayness had already established itself as part of the internal culture of The Company and so it persists.
Do not equate a psychotic enthusiasm for harming others with testosterone. They are not a bunch of Rambos; more like a gang
of Norman Bates.
corvo , May 5 2021 18:23 utc |
70
William Gruff @65:
Testosterone level has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Psychiatry tried dosing male homosexuals with testosterone in
the 1950s and 1960s to make them "manly"; this served only to increase their (homosexual) sex drive and, not surprisingly, their
aggressiveness. Similarly, there's no correlation between where one lies on the Kinsey scale and one's testosterone leve .
Your description of the CIA's use of homosexual agents during that time period, however, is spot on. One might add that the
CIA (and other agencies; just consider the kind of character who ran the FBI at the time) may have valued the kind of talent for
duplicity and secrecy that the homosexually-inclined had to nurture from an early age.
William Gruff , May 5 2021 14:50 utc |
5
"Generalized anxiety disorder" is what people who have a poor working relationship with reality often suffer from. The
anxiety arises from the divergence of what they believe the world to be from what they perceive about the world with their senses.
It is a permanent state of cognitive dissonance. The "woke" believe that the cure for this disorder is to create "safe
spaces" where exposure to elements of the real world that trigger the cognitive dissonance can be banned and cancelled. It
is an undeclared goal of the "woke" to extend these "safe space" reality exclusion zones to encompass the entire
planet.
Naturally, that goal is only attainable within the fantasy spaces of the "woke" reality exclusion zones themselves,
and those zones can only exist due to the pity and forbearance of the rest of the population. Currently the reality exclusion
zones only encompass educational establishments (primary and secondary schools; university campuses), some government agencies,
and some non-industrial workplaces (mass media, marketing, other strictly white collar enterprises).
Remember the "Havana Syndrome" , where CIA spooks under diplomatic cover at various US embassies, but mainly the one
in Cuba, developed psychogenic illnesses because they were convinced that they were being zapped by Soviet mind rays? This is
the result of taking individuals who already suffer from emotional and psychological damage like the cisgender millennial in the
linked CIA advertisement and placing them in postings where they are absolutely convinced that they are completely surrounded
by hostile enemies. Their delusion and paranoia feed off each other. Then, for the first time they hear crickets unlike anything
they ever experienced in their gated, manicured, bug-sprayed northern Virginia wealthy suburbs and their already fractured mind
shatters the rest of the way.
When you recall that the CIA is the "Mighty Wurlitzer" ; the conductor of the orchestra of mass media narratives, it
becomes clear why outfits like the New York Langley Times, the Washington Bezos Post, the
C IA N ews N etwork and such have been going off the rails with their absurd narratives these last several years.
Et Tu , May 5 2021 14:58 utc |
10
Yeah, that has to be one of the most hare brained Psyop fails ever. The US is a world leader alright, in mental retardation
and lack of self awareness.
Identity politics and wokeness meets imperialism. Makes you wonder how much longer they can unironically continue calling themselves
'intelligence' agencies.
Consistent with other brilliant 'Born in the USA', ideologically spawned own goals, like bank deregulation, privatising the
military, legalising bribes in politics, incentivising every idiot to own a gun, de-industrialising and outsourcing production
in China, and the inevitable coup de grace in waiting, leveraging the Dollar's status as reserve currency to impose sanctions...
because... exceptionalism and indispensability are just eternal, universally accepted virtues apparently.
If learning from mistakes makes us wiser, one can expect more than a few Buddhas of sorts to emerge from the US in a generation
or 3. Would not want to be there in the time between though, it's bound to be a rough ride.
jared , May 5 2021 15:20 utc |
16
Being juvenile, insane, self-obsensed
would not preclude them from being dangerous.
Really, on the whole and in various ways, the CIA acts against american interests.
But certainly in the interest of some.
Empire of Perfidious Albion.
vk , May 5 2021 15:28 utc |
18
Contrary to what recent history might suggest, the CIA was founded by, and has always served as the upper-middle-class/bourgeois
center-left bastion within the USG. During the Cold War, it was probably the main employer of Yale graduates, specially from the
Literature bachelor. A running joke during the Cold War was that the CIA was the the world's highest concentration of failed writers.
The reason for that is very simple: its predecessor - the OSS - organically evolved during WWII as the repository for the sons
of the Northeastern elite who wanted to experience the thrills of war without incurring the risk of death. By the time WWII ended,
the OSS was essentially an Ivy League fraternity.
Seward , May 5 2021 15:37 utc |
24
I worked there 10 fiscal years as a computer-systems contractor, 20 years ago. Interacted with a lot of Government types. Seemed
to me a huge bureaucracy, then, drowning in paperwork. Surprised if the whole place ever got anything done.
One oddity: people that went overseas, called DO then, absolutely mission critical, who often used initials for last names
(worked with a "Steven P." once), got shafted for promotions when abroad: out of sight, out of mind. Often paired in offices back
here, below the grade required for individual offices. Reputed to live high on the hog when away, but not back home.
With PRISM in place FICA court is redundant...
Notable quotes:
"... All an FBI supervisor has to do to get a FISA warrant on you is have one agent get a crooked snitch in a foreign country to send you a weird text message, and then have another bright eyed and bushy tailed agent who doesn't know the crook is a snitch write up a search warrant application affidavit and submit it to the FISA court. ..."
"... Nothing says "Unconstitutional (illegal) Deep State" like FISA. Hitler's Gestapo would be proud! ..."
"... Lisa and Peter removed any credibility the FBI had with the public. If they solved real crime they would go after the massive fraud and stolen ID criminals. Of course that takes real work and someone wanting get off their lazy rear end ..."
Authored by James Bovard,
The FBI continues to lawlessly use counterintelligence powers against American citizens...
The Deep State Referee just admitted that the FBI continues to commit uncounted violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act of 1978 (FISA).
If you
sought to report a crime to the FBI, an FBI agent may have illegally surveilled your email. Even if you merely volunteered
for the FBI "Citizens Academy" program, the FBI may have illegally tracked all your online activity.
But the latest FBI offenses, like almost all prior FBI violations, are not a real problem, according to James Boasberg, presiding
judge of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That court, among other purposes, is supposed to safeguard Americans'
constitutional right to privacy under FISA. FISA was originally enacted to create a narrow niche for foreign intelligence investigations
that could be conducted without a warrant from a regular federal court. But as time passed, FISA morphed into an uncontrolled yet
officially sanctioned privacy-trampling monster. FISA judges unleash the nuclear bomb of searches,
authorizing the FBI "to conduct, simultaneous telephone, microphone, cell phone, e-mail and computer surveillance of the U.S.
person target's home, workplace and vehicles," as well as "physical searches of the target's residence, office, vehicles,
computer, safe deposit box and U.S. mails."
In 2008, after the George W. Bush administration's pervasive illegal warrantless wiretaps were exposed, Congress responded by
enacting FISA amendments that formally entitled the National Security Agency to vacuum up mass amounts of emails and other communication,
a swath of which is provided to the FBI. In 2018, the FISA court
slammed the FBI for abusing that
database with warrantless searches that violated Americans' rights. In lieu of obeying FISA, the FBI created a new Office of Internal
Audit. Deja vu! Back in 2007, FBI agents were caught massively violating the Patriot Act by using National Security Letters to conduct
thousands of illegal searches on Americans' personal data. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.)
declared that
an Inspector General report on the abusive searches "confirms the American people's worst fears about the Patriot Act." FBI
chief Robert Mueller responded by creating a new
Office of Integrity and Compliance
as "another important step toward ensuring we fulfill our mission with an unswerving commitment to the rule of law."
Be still my beating heart!
The FBI's promise to repent after the 2018 report sufficed for the FISA court to permit the FBI to continue plowing through
the personal data it received from NSA. Monday's disclosure "a delayed release of a report by the court last November "revealed
that the FBI has conducted
warrantless searches of the data trove for "domestic terrorism," "public corruption and bribery," "health care fraud,"
and other targets "including people who notified the FBI of crimes and even repairmen entering FBI offices. As Spencer Ackerman
wrote
in the Daily Beast , "The FBI continues to perform warrantless searches through the NSA's most sensitive databases for routine
criminal investigations." That type of search "potentially jeopardizes an accused person's ability to have a fair trial since warrantlessly acquired information is supposed to be inadmissible. The FBI claimed to the court that none of the warrantlessly queried
material "˜was used in a criminal or civil proceeding,' but such usage at trial has happened before," Ackerman noted. Some illicit
FBI searches involve vast dragnets. As the
New York Times reported ,
an FBI agent in 2019 conducted a database search "using the identifiers of about 16,000 people, even though only seven of them
had connections to an investigation."
In the report released Monday, Judge Boasberg lamented "apparent widespread violations" of the legal restrictions for FBI searches.
Regardless,
Boasberg kept the illicit search party going: "The Court is willing to again conclude that the . . . [FBI's] procedures meet
statutory and Fourth Amendment requirements." "Willing to again conclude" sounds better than "close enough for constitutional."
At this point, Americans know only the abuses that the FBI chose to disclose to FISA judges. We have no idea how many other perhaps
worse abuses may have occurred. For a hundred years, the FBI has buttressed its power by keeping a lid on its crimes. Unfortunately,
the FISA Court has become nothing but Deep State window dressing "a facade giving the illusion that government is under the law.
Consider Boasberg's recent ruling in the most brazen FISA abuse yet exposed. In December 2019, the Justice Department Inspector
General reported that the FBI made "fundamental
errors " and persistently deceived the FISA court to authorize surveilling a 2016 Trump presidential campaign official. The
I.G. report said the FBI "drew almost entirely" from the Steele dossier to prove a "well-developed conspiracy" between Russians
and the Trump campaign even though it was "unable to corroborate any of the specific substantive allegations against Carter Page"
in that dossier, which was later debunked.
A former FBI assistant general counsel, Kevin Clinesmith, admitted to falsifying key evidence to secure the FISA warrant to spy
on the Trump campaign. As a Wall Street Journal
editorial noted , Clinesmith "changed an
email confirming Mr. Page had been a CIA source to one that said the exact opposite, explicitly adding the words "˜not a source'
before he forwarded it." A federal prosecutor declared that the "resulting harm is immeasurable" from Clinesmith's action.
But at the sentencing hearing, Boasberg gushed with sympathy,
noting that Clinesmith
"went from being an obscure government lawyer to standing in the eye of a media hurricane"¦ Mr. Clinesmith has lost his job in
government service"what has given his life much of its meaning." Scorning the federal prosecutor's recommendation for jail time, Boasberg gave Clinesmith a wrist
slap"400 hours of community service and 12 months of probation.
The FBI FISA frauds profoundly disrupted American politics for years and the din of belatedly debunked accusations of Trump colluding
with Russia swayed plenty of votes in the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential election. But for the chief FISA judge, nothing
matters except the plight of an FBI employee who lost his job after gross misconduct. This is the stark baseline Americans should
remember when politicians, political appointees, and judges promise to protect them from future FBI abuses. The FISA court has been
craven, almost beyond ridicule, perennially. Perhaps Boasberg was simply codifying a prerogative the FISA court previously awarded
upon FBI officials. In 2005, after a deluge of false FBI claims in FISA warrants, FISA Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly proposed
requiring FBI agents to swear to the accuracy of the information they presented. That never happened because it could have "slowed
such investigations drastically," the
Washington Post reported
. So, FBI agents continue to lie with impunity to the judges.
The FISA court has gone from pretending that FBI violations don't occur to pretending that violations don't matter. Practically
the only remaining task is for the FISA court to cease pretending Americans have any constitutional right to privacy . But if a sweeping
new domestic terrorism law is passed, perhaps even that formal acknowledgement will be unnecessary. Beginning in 2006, the court
rubber-stamped FBI requests that bizarrely claimed that the telephone records of all Americans
were "relevant" to a terrorism
investigation under the Patriot Act, thereby enabling NSA data seizures later
denounced by a federal judge as "almost Orwellian." FISA could become a peril to far more Americans if Congress formally creates
a new domestic terrorism offense and a new category for expanding FISA searches.
The backlash from Democrats after the January 6 clash at the Capitol showcased the demand for federal crackdowns on extremists
who doubted Biden's election, disparaged federal prerogatives, or otherwise earned congressional ire. If a domestic terrorism law
is passed, the FBI will feel as little constrained by the details of the statute as it does about FISA's technicalities. Will FBI
agents conducting warrantless searches rely on
the same
harebrained standard the NSA used to target Americans: "someone searching the web for suspicious stuff"? Unfortunately, unless
an FBI whistleblower with the same courage as former NSA analyst Edward Snowden steps forward, we may never know the extent of FBI
abuses
ebworthen 39 minutes ago
"You want to harass a political opponent? Sure, we can do that...
JaxPavan 42 minutes ago
All an FBI supervisor has to do to get a FISA warrant on you is have one agent get a crooked snitch in a foreign country to
send you a weird text message, and then have another bright eyed and bushy tailed agent who doesn't know the crook is a snitch
write up a search warrant application affidavit and submit it to the FISA court.
Joe Bribem 32 minutes ago
It's almost like we did this to Trump. But it'll never come to light. Oops it did. Not that anything will happen to us because
we own the corrupt DOJ and FBI.
Obama's own personal private army.
You_Cant_Quit_Me 7 minutes ago
A lot of tips come in from overseas. For example, the US spies on citizens of another country and then sends that country tips,
in exchange that country does the same by spying on US citizens and sending the FBI tips. Then it starts, "we are just
following up on a tip"
wee-weed up 36 minutes ago (Edited)
Nothing says "Unconstitutional (illegal) Deep State" like FISA. Hitler's Gestapo would be proud!
You_Cant_Quit_Me 37 minutes ago
Lisa and Peter removed any credibility the FBI had with the public. If they solved real crime they would go after the massive fraud and stolen ID criminals. Of course that takes real work and
someone wanting get off their lazy rear end
takeaction 58 minutes ago (Edited)
If you own a smart phone...everything you do is recorded...and logged.
"They" have been listening
to you for a long time if they want to.
If you own any smart device...they can listen and watch. They are monitoring what I am typing and this site. There really is no way to hide.
Scott
Ritter
is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of '
SCORPION KING : America's
Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump.' He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty,
in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector. Follow him on Twitter
@RealScottRitter 28 Apr, 2021 20:44
Get short URL
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines speaks during a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing about worldwide threats
© Reuters The Director of National Intelligence has ostensibly created a new “center†for the sharing and analysis of information
and intelligence about foreign interference in US elections. Its real focus is much more nefarious.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announced in a statement on Monday that it was
creating a
new intelligence “center†focused on tracking so-called “ foreign malign influence, †reported Politico. This new
entity, known as the Foreign Malign Influence Center, was mandated in the recent intelligence and defense budget authorization acts,
representing the reality that the impetus for its creation came from Congress, and not the intelligence community.
For example, the most recent
defense
expenditure authorization required that the ODNI establish a “ social media data analysis center †to coordinate and
track foreign social media influence operations by analyzing data voluntarily shared by US social media companies. Based upon this
analysis, the ODNI would report to Congress on a quarterly basis on trends in foreign influence and disinformation operations to
the public. As envisioned by Congress, the intelligence community would determine jointly with US social media companies which data
and metadata will be made available for analysis.
ALSO ON RT.COM The cynical hypocrisy of
the world’s No1 propagandist: US pledges $300mn to fund massive global anti-China media machine
In short, the intelligence community, using data obtained from the social media accounts of American citizens, will report to
Congress how this data influences the political decision making of these same American citizens.
If this does not make the most ardent defender of the US Constitution ill, nothing will.
It is not as if the US intelligence community wasn’t trending in this direction on its own volition. The straw that broke the
camel’s back, so to speak, was the publication in March 2021 of an
intelligence community assessment
entitled ‘Foreign Threats to the US 2020 Presidential Election’. In this document, the US intelligence community assessed that
“ Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed
at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence
in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US .â€
But the most damning portion of this assessment came when it delved into the specific methodology employed by Russia to achieve
these nefarious aims. “ Throughout the election cycle â€, the assessment declared, “ Russia’s online influence actors
sought to affect US public perceptions of the candidates, as well as advance Moscow’s long standing goals of undermining confidence
in US election processes and increasing sociopolitical divisions among the American people. During the presidential primaries and
dating back to 2019, these actors backed candidates from both major US political parties that Moscow viewed as outsiders, while later
claiming that election fraud helped what they called ‘establishment’ candidates. Throughout the election, Russia’s online influence
actors sought to amplify mistrust in the electoral process by denigrating mail-in ballots, highlighting alleged irregularities, and
accusing the Democratic Party of voter fraud. â€
As an American citizen who is politically engaged, I read the intelligence community assessment with a combination of interest,
concern, and outrage. The notion of “ Russian online influence actors †affecting “US public perceptions of the candidatesâ€
is as intellectually vacuous as it is factually unsustainable. The stupidity encapsulated by such analysis can only be excused by
the fact that the intelligence community assessment is a document produced more for the benefit of domestic political consumption
than a genuine effort at identifying and quantifying legitimate threats to the US.
The assessment itself is short on hard data. However,
the House Intelligence
Committee has documented some 3,000 social media ads bought by Russian “troll farms†between 2015-2017, at a cost of some
$100,000. These ads were in addition to so-called “organic posts,†some 80,000 of which were published on US social media, free
of charge, by alleged Russian “bots†resulting in 126 million “views†by Americans. These ads were crude, unfocused, and simply
inane in terms of their content.
ALSO ON RT.COM Putin should refuse Biden’s
offer of a summit: Americans will bring only political theatrics & threats, nothing will be achieved
To put the alleged Russian influence campaign into perspective, one need only reflect on the fact that during his short bid for
the Democratic nomination,
Michael Bloomberg spent nearly $1 billion underwriting the single most sophisticated public relations campaign, including hundreds
of millions of targeted social media ads put together by the most brilliant political minds money could buy. All this money, time
and effort, however, could not change the reality that, to the American public, Michael Bloomberg was an unattractive candidate â€"
in the end his $1 billion bought him exactly two delegates.
The fact is, the political opinions of most American citizens are formed based upon a lifetime of exposure to issues that matter
for them the most, whether it be education, right-to-life, gun control, social justice, agriculture, energy, environment, law enforcement,
or any other of the multitude of sources of causation that impact the day-to-day existence of the American electorate.
Some of these beliefs are inherited, such as the working-class attachment to unions. Some are driven by current affairs, such
as the growing awareness of climate change. But all are derived from the life experience of each American, and the thought that these
deeply held beliefs could be bought, changed, or otherwise manipulated by social media posts published by foreign actors, malign
or otherwise, is deeply insulting to me, and should be to every other American as well.
The irony is that by creating an intelligence organization whose task it is to help prevent the political Balkanization of America
by analyzing the social media accounts of Americans who hold differing political beliefs than “the establishment†the newly minted
Foreign Malign Influence Center ostensibly serves, the resulting process will only cause the further political division of the United
States.
Some 74 million Americans voted for a candidate, Donald Trump, who has promulgated the very issues that the Democratic-controlled
Congress seeks to denigrate and suppress through the work of this new intelligence center. These ideas will not simply disappear
because the Democrats in Congress have empowered a “center†within the intelligence community whose sole function is to demonize
any political thought that does not conform with the powers that be.
As it is currently focused, the Foreign Malign Influence Center is the living, breathing embodiment of politicized intelligence,
two words which, when put together, represent the death knell for any intelligence organization. Worse, the work it will be doing,
when turned over to a Democratically controlled Congress desperate to undermine the political viability of those 74 million American
citizens, will only further fracture an already divided nation.
ALSO ON RT.COM New York Times ‘bounties’
non-story shows US/UK media has got so used to blaming Russia, it's basically now doing it out of habit
The Foreign Malign Influence Center was specifically mandated to examine the social media influence campaigns operated by Russia,
China, Iran, and North Korea. It is particularly telling that they were not directed to investigate the two largest foreign sources
of political influence in America today, namely the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and the Murdoch media empire. President
Putin could only dream about being able to buy congressional seats the way AIPAC does, or control what information becomes magnified
(and, by extension, suppressed) by the newspapers, television and radio enterprises owned by Rupert Murdoch.
These are the true villains when it comes to foreign corruption of American politics. These foreigners, however, have a seat at
the establishment table. Their malign influence will never be labeled as such, and they will never have to withstand the ignominy
of having their work scrutinized under the politicized microscope of an intelligence community that has allowed itself to be corrupted
by domestic American politics to the point that it no longer serves the American people as a whole, but only a select class of American
persons.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those
of RT.
Congozebilu 4 hours ago 4 hours ago
Foreign Malign Influence Center sounds like something out of a cartoon.
AwareAussie2 Congozebilu 4 hours ago 4 hours ago
The catch words "freedom", "democracy" and "terrorism" don't work any more, they need to now use different phrases to con us.
John Titor 4 hours ago 4 hours ago
The Foreign Malign Influence Center is just the latest in the Democrat Government Propaganda machine.
frankfalseflag 4 hours ago 4 hours ago
Does Scott Ritter actually expect Americans to wake up to the fact that they are getting more lies and propaganda than the Germans
got from their Reich Chancellery in the 30s and 40s?
Stonebird , Apr 28 2021 18:38 utc |
18
These folks have had it with the constant stream of baseless propaganda U.S. intelligence is spilling over the world:
Dear Director of National Intelligence,
we, the the 4-star Generals leading U.S. regional commands all over the world, are increasingly concerned with about
the lack of evidence for claims you make about our opponents.
We, as true believers, do not doubt whatever judgment you make about the harmful activities of Russia, Iran and China.
However - our allies and partners do not yet subscribe to the bliss of ignorance. They keep asking us for facts that support
those judgments
Unfortunately, we have none that we could provide.
You say that Russia
thought to manipulate Trump allies and to smear Biden , that Russia and Iran
aimed to sway the 2020 election through covert campaigns and that China
runs
covert operations to influence members of Congress .
Media reports have appeared in which 'intelligence sources' claim that Russia, China and Iran are all paying bounties
to the Taliban for killing U.S. soldiers. Fortunately
no soldier got hurt
by those rumors.
Our allies and partners read those and other reports and ask us for evidence. They want to know how exactly Russia, Iran
and China are doing these things.
They, of course, hope to learn from our experience to protect their own countries.
Currently we are not able to provide them with such information. Your people keep telling our that all of it is SECRET.
We therefore ask you to declassify the facts that support your judgments. *
Sincerely
The Generals
----
PS: * Either that or shut the fuck up.
Look, The generals and the intelligence agencies haven't won a war for a long time. So now they will fight each other
. At least ONE of them will win this time ! Success.
Gerald Smith , Apr 27 2021 9:00 utc |
7
The NYT is simply a propaganda organ of the corporate oligarchy. Whenever the US does
something bad, it is always "alleged". When opponents of US hegemony are accused of doing
something bad, it is never "alleged" - for example, you won't read about the "alleged Douma
chemical attack" in the NYT.
Just a small point about English grammar: "alleged burglar", "alleged miracle" and
"alleged conspiracy" are all correct, because "alleged" is being used here as an adjective.
"Alleged antique vase", on the other hand, is incorrect because what is being alleged is not
that the object is a vase; what is being alleged is that the vase is antique. Because it is
being used to describe an adjective (antique), it is being used adverbially: therefore the
correct usage is "allegedly antique vase".
This reminds me of John Michael Greer's formulation: the "allegedly smart phone". I use it
all the time, to imply that intensive users of mobile devices may not be quite as intelligent
as is generally believed. Note that what is being is alleged is not that it's a phone, but
that it's smart!
Otter , Apr 27 2021 12:10 utc |
20
NYT does use "alleged" correctly. In the land of truth, one need merely state one's
statement. In the land of lies, one must insert "alleged", so that others know the statement
is truth.
There was a Soviet aphorism to this effect.
Authored by Caitlin Johnstone,
Back in the good old days, when things were more innocent and simple, the psychopathic
Central Intelligence Agency had to covertly infiltrate the news media to manipulate the
information Americans were consuming about their nation and the world. Nowadays, there is no
meaningful separation between the news media and the CIA at all.
me data-google-container-id=
Analysis: US
blinks first on Russia-Ukraine tensions
Journalist Glenn Greenwald just highlighted an interesting point about the reporting by The
New York Times on the so-called
“Bountygate†story the outlet broke in June of last year
about the Russian government trying to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack US soldiers in
Afghanistan.
“One of the NYT reporters who originally broke the Russia bounty story
(originally attributed to unnamed ‘intelligence
officials’) say today that it was a CIA claim,†Greenwald
tweeted .
“So media outlets - again - repeated CIA stories with no questioning:
congrats to all.â€
Indeed, NYT’s original
story made no mention of CIA involvement in the narrative, citing only
“officials,†yet this latest article speaks as though it had
been informing its readers of the story’s roots in the
lying, torturing , drug-running , warmongering Central
Intelligence Agency from the very beginning. The author even writes “The New
York Times
first reported last summer the existence of the C.I.A.’s
assessment,†with the hyperlink leading to the initial article which made no
mention of the CIA. It wasn’t until later that The New York Times began reporting that the CIA
was looking into the Russian bounties allegations at all.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382793565714153472&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fcia-used-infiltrate-media-now-cia-media&sessionId=77ef0dadbd05c9f3bcb1de7857a624713a43f3d8&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px
This would be the same “Russian bounties†narrative which was
discredited all the way back in September when the top US military official in Afghanistan
said no satisfactory evidence had surfaced for the allegations, which was further
discredited today with a new article by The Daily Beast titled “
U.S. Intel Walks Back Claim Russians Put Bounties on American Troops â€.
The Daily Beast , which has itself uncritically published many articles
promoting the CIA “Bountygate†narrative, reports the
following:
It was a blockbuster
story about Russia’s return to the imperial “Great
Game†in Afghanistan. The Kremlin had spread money around the longtime central
Asian battlefield for militants to kill remaining U.S. forces. It sparked a massive outcry
from Democrats and their #resistance amplifiers about the treasonous Russian puppet in the
White House whose admiration for Vladimir Putin had endangered American troops.
But on Thursday, the Biden administration announced that U.S. intelligence only had
“low to moderate†confidence in the story after all.
Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the
story is, at best, unproven â€" and possibly untrue.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382769897420296194&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fcia-used-infiltrate-media-now-cia-media&sessionId=77ef0dadbd05c9f3bcb1de7857a624713a43f3d8&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px
So the mass media aggressively promoted a CIA narrative that none of them ever saw proof of,
because there was no proof, because it was an entirely unfounded claim from the very beginning.
They quite literally ran a CIA press release and disguised it as a news story.
This allowed the CIA to
throw shade and inertia on Trump’s proposed troop withdrawals from
Afghanistan and Germany, and to continue ramping up
anti-Russia sentiments on the world stage , and may well have contributed to the fact that
the agency will
officially be among those who are exempt from Biden’s
performative Afghanistan “withdrawal†.
In totalitarian dictatorships, the government spy agency tells the news media what stories
to run, and the news media unquestioningly publish it. In free democracies, the government spy
agency says “Hoo buddy, have I got a scoop for you!†and the
news media unquestioningly publish it.
In 1977 Carl Bernstein published an article titled “ The CIA and the Media
†reporting that the CIA had
covertly infiltrated America’s most influential news outlets and had
over 400 reporters who it considered assets in a program known as
Operation Mockingbird . It was a major scandal, and rightly so. The news media is meant to
report truthfully about what happens in the world, not manipulate public perception to suit the
agendas of spooks and warmongers.
Nowadays the CIA collaboration happens right out in the open, and people are too
propagandized to even recognize this as scandalous. Immensely influential outlets like The New
York Times uncritically pass on CIA disinfo which is then spun as fact by cable news
pundits . The sole owner of The Washington Post is a CIA contractor ,
and WaPo has never once disclosed this conflict of interest when reporting on US intelligence
agencies per standard journalistic protocol. Mass media outlets
now openly employ intelligence agency veterans like John Brennan, James Clapper,
Chuck Rosenberg, Michael Hayden, Frank Figliuzzi, Fran Townsend, Stephen Hall, Samantha
Vinograd, Andrew McCabe, Josh Campbell, Asha Rangappa, Phil Mudd, James Gagliano, Jeremy Bash,
Susan Hennessey, Ned Price and Rick Francona, as are known
CIA assets like NBC’s Ken Dilanian, as are
CIA interns like Anderson Cooper and CIA applicants like
Tucker Carlson.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382777804014641152&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fcia-used-infiltrate-media-now-cia-media&sessionId=77ef0dadbd05c9f3bcb1de7857a624713a43f3d8&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px
This isn’t Operation Mockingbird. It’s so much worse.
Operation Mockingbird was the CIA doing something to the media. What we are seeing now is the
CIA openly acting as the media. Any separation between the CIA and the news media, indeed even
any pretence of separation, has been dropped.
This is bad. This is very, very bad. Democracy has no meaningful existence if
people’s votes aren’t being cast with a clear
understanding of what’s happening in their nation and their world, and if
their understanding is being shaped to suit the agendas of the very government
they’re meant to be influencing with their votes, what you have is the most
powerful military and economic force in the history of civilization with no accountability to
the electorate whatsoever. It’s just an immense globe-spanning power
structure, doing whatever it wants to whoever it wants. A totalitarian dictatorship in
disguise.
And the CIA is the very worst institution that could possibly be spearheading the movements
of that dictatorship. A little research into the many, many horrific
things the CIA has done over the years will quickly show you that this is true; hell, just
a glance at what the CIA was up to with the
Phoenix Program in Vietnam will.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-3&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382856410443186179&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fcia-used-infiltrate-media-now-cia-media&sessionId=77ef0dadbd05c9f3bcb1de7857a624713a43f3d8&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px
There’s a common delusion in our society that depraved government
agencies who are known to have done evil things in the past have simply stopped doing evil
things for some reason. This belief is backed by zero evidence, and is contradicted by
mountains of evidence to the contrary. It’s believed because it is
comfortable, and for literally no other reason.
The CIA should not exist at all, let alone control the news media, much less the movements
of the US empire. May we one day know a humanity that is entirely free from the rule of
psychopaths, from our total planetary behavior as a collective, all the way down to the
thoughts we think in our own heads.
May we extract their horrible fingers from every aspect of our being.
* * *
New book: Notes From The
Edge Of The Narrative Matrix .
The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is
to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email
notification for everything I publish. My work is
entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around,
liking me on Facebook
, following my antics on Twitter , or
throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi , Patreon or Paypal . If you want to read more you can buy
my books . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying
to do with this platform,
click here . Everyone, racist platforms excluded,
has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else
I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
19,360 115
Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... Dear Director of National Intelligence, ..."
"... we, the the 4-star Generals leading U.S. regional commands all over the world, are increasingly concerned with about the lack of evidence for claims you make about our opponents. ..."
"... We, as true believers, do not doubt whatever judgment you make about the harmful activities of Russia, Iran and China. However - our allies and partners do not yet subscribe to the bliss of ignorance. They keep asking us for facts that support those judgments ..."
"... Unfortunately, we have none that we could provide. ..."
"... You say that Russia thought to manipulate Trump allies and to smear Biden , that Russia and Iran aimed to sway the 2020 election through covert campaigns and that China runs covert operations to influence members of Congress . ..."
"... Media reports have appeared in which 'intelligence sources' claim that Russia, China and Iran are all paying bounties to the Taliban for killing U.S. soldiers. Fortunately no soldier got hurt by those rumors. ..."
"... Our allies and partners read those and other reports and ask us for evidence. They want to know how exactly Russia, Iran and China are doing these things. ..."
"... They, of course, hope to learn from our experience to protect their own countries. ..."
"... Currently we are not able to provide them with such information. Your people keep telling our that all of it is SECRET. ..."
"... We therefore ask you to declassify the facts that support your judgments. * ..."
"... PS: * Either that or shut the fuck up. ..."
These folks have had it with the constant stream of baseless propaganda U.S. intelligence is
spilling over the world:
Dear Director of National Intelligence,
we, the the 4-star Generals leading U.S. regional commands all over the world, are
increasingly concerned with about the lack of evidence for claims you make about our
opponents.
We, as true believers, do not doubt whatever judgment you make about the harmful
activities of Russia, Iran and China. However - our allies and partners do not yet subscribe
to the bliss of ignorance. They keep asking us for facts that support those
judgments
Unfortunately, we have none that we could provide.
You say that Russia
thought to manipulate Trump allies and to smear Biden , that Russia and Iran
aimed to sway the 2020 election through covert campaigns and that China
runs covert operations to influence members of Congress .
Media reports have appeared in which 'intelligence sources' claim that Russia, China
and Iran are all paying bounties to the Taliban for killing U.S. soldiers. Fortunately
no soldier got
hurt by those rumors.
Our allies and partners read those and other reports and ask us for evidence. They
want to know how exactly Russia, Iran and China are doing these things.
They, of course, hope to learn from our experience to protect their own
countries.
Currently we are not able to provide them with such information. Your people keep
telling our that all of it is SECRET.
We therefore ask you to declassify the facts that support your judgments.
*
Sincerely
The Generals
----
PS: * Either that or shut the fuck up.
The above may well have been a draft for the letter behind
this report :
America’s top spies say they are looking for ways to declassify and
release more intelligence about adversaries’ bad behavior, after a group
of four-star military commanders sent a rare and urgent plea asking for help in the
information war against Russia and China.
The internal memo from nine regional military commanders last year, which was reviewed by
POLITICO and not made public, implored spy agencies to provide more evidence to combat
"pernicious conduct."
Only by "waging the truth in the public domain against America’s 21st
century challengers†can Washington shore up support from American allies, they
said. But efforts to compete in the battle of ideas, they added, are hamstrung by overly
stringent secrecy practices.
“We request this help to better enable the US, and by extension its
allies and partners, to win without fighting, to fight now in so-called gray zones, and to
supply ammunition in the ongoing war of narratives," the commanders who oversee U.S. military
forces in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, as well as special operations troops, wrote to
then-acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire last January.
“Unfortunately, we continue to miss opportunities to clarify truth,
counter distortions, puncture false narratives, and influence events in time to make a
difference," they added.
The generals must have been seriously miffed to write such a letter. There have been a
number of published intelligence judgments where the NSA had expressed
low confidence in conclusions made mainly by the CIA. The NSA is part of the military.
Between two bureaucracies such an accusing letter or internal memo is the equivalent of a
declaration of war. It is doubtful that the intelligence folks would win that fight.
That gives some hope that the Office of the DNI and the agencies below it will now lessen
their production of nonsensical claims.
Posted by b on April 28, 2021 at 15:49 UTC | Permalink
Josh , Apr 28 2021 16:02 utc |
1
Right on man.
Thank You.
Kartoschka , Apr 28 2021 16:04 utc |
2
I hope you're right.
It could go the other way.
They will produce more "evidence"
psychohistorian , Apr 28 2021 16:12 utc |
3
Thanks for that b....is it rubber meets the road time?
I just read that the US is getting all its ambassadorial folk out of Afghanistan....maybe
somebody is believing May 1 is a firmer deadline than the Biden 9/11 myth.
The shit show is about to crash, IMO, but if it is in slow motion, this crazy could go on
for a while....what geo-political straw will break the camel's back?
Caliman , Apr 28 2021 16:25 utc |
4
Lewis Black, a pretty good US comedian, used to have a bit in the mid-2000's where he would
ask the W administration flacks why they didn't just make up evidence about the Iraq WMDs
after they "found out" that there were no weapons in the country. Black would tell them just
make it up; we're used to it. Just give us an excuse to believe in the BS for God's sake;
we'll do it!
I feel it's the same with our satrap nations around the world. At this time, is there
anyone who does not understand that US foreign policy is conducted for and by MICIMATT (look
it up)? So the generals have got nothing to worry about: keep pounding out that BS; there's a
willing, able, and ready corps of salesmen and women in the media who will make enough of the
public believe it for "democracy's" purposes.
Serg , Apr 28 2021
16:29 utc |
5
General Mackenzie who testified before the US House Armed Services Committee said
Iran’s widespread use of drones means that the US is operating without
complete air superiority for the first time since the Korean War.
Iran has time and again stated that its military capabilities are merely defensive and are
designed to deter foreign threats.
https://politnew.com/politics/4796-gen-kenneth-mckenzie-iran-possesses-one-of-most-capable-militaries-in-the-middle-east.html
librul , Apr 28 2021 16:30 utc |
6
General Flynn had been head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (military).
The CIA was out to get him. It took a while but they eventually hamstrung him good.
gottlieb , Apr 28 2021 16:36 utc |
7
"Dear Generals, who haven't won a war in 75 years, so much for the DIA huh? We'd love to
share our intelligence with you, our evidence showing the overwhelming and egregious misdeeds
of our hateful, spiteful disgusting enemies, whose questioning of our Word should be met with
charges of treason, but to give you evidence on top of our own unquestionable and 100%
correct threat estimations, would compromise our Intelligence Gathering Methods which are of
the strictest security and would threaten the ongoing ability of this Agency to gather and
disseminate the unquestionable facts that without fear of contradiction we know is the truth.
In short, dear Generals - work on winning a war, any war, and don't meddle in places that
befuddle your ability to follow orders. Hooah! The CIA."
librul , Apr 28 2021 16:51 utc |
8
This fight has been ongoing for years.
Bottom line: The CIA wants to control the messages and narrative.
Article from 2013, great lead photo. Robert Mueller, James Clapper, John Brennan
and General Flynn all seated near each other.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2013/07/intel-wars-dia-cia-and-flynns-battle-consolidate-spying/66716/
Headline and subtext:
Intel Wars: DIA, CIA and Flynn’s Battle to Consolidate Spying
The Defense Department wants in on the spying game. But will the CIA block their
efforts?
The CIA essentially absorbed the Pentagon’s only military-wide spying
agency seven years ago [2006]
when the Defense HUMINT Service was dismantled -- and now, the Pentagon wants it back.
The CIA is quietly pushing the Armed Services committees along, hoping that
Flynn’s DCS will be remembered by history as a failed power
grab.
Canadian Cents , Apr 28 2021 17:10 utc |
11
The CIA/FBI/17+ known/unknown agencies are clearly a security apparatus that's gone out of
control when even the USA's "nine regional [four-star general] military commanders" are out
of the loop and pleading to be better informed. Worryingly, though, they ask for "ammunition
in the ongoing war of narratives," which they apparently are ready to go right along
with.
Western news media, of course, has become but a compliant weaponized appendage of that
security apparatus, and democracy, which depends on informed voters, is nowhere in control of
any of this.
Down this slippery slope, lies fascism.
rgl , Apr 28 2021 17:31 utc |
13
I do not see how this is possible. Every major event, from Vietnam, to JFK, to 9-11, and a
myriad of others, had US lies baked into the cake. If the US ceased to lie, it would cease to
function as America functions today. It would be incapable of empire.
The US establishment, from the President on down, is based on lies. They cannot survive on
truth.
No. Nothing is going to change in this regard.
librul , Apr 28 2021 17:48 utc |
15
b ended his post with: " lessen their production of nonsensical claims."
"Nonsensical" misses the mark. They are *agenda-driven* claims.
I don't believe the Generals care one whit whether the spineless jellyfish pols
in other countries see through our lies. The Generals want the Pentagon to
have more participation in shaping the agenda and it's attendant narrative.
m , Apr 28 2021 18:13 utc |
17
The military used to be that part pf the US government apparatus ("deep state") that
emphasized the value and importance of allies the most.
IMHO what is happening here is that the generals sense the imcreasing cracks in the
US-centered alliance system. They attribute it to the work of the intelligence community,
which is certainly a contributing factor, but thr real cause is the relative decline in US
power and general unreliability due to political instability. The USA is less and less
attractive as a partner. When the generals ask another country for a favour as they had been
used to for decades they increasingly often get just questions and excuses in return.
Erelis , Apr 28 2021 20:31 utc |
26
Is this a sign of a struggle between the CIA and Pentagon as to who is the boss of foreign
and war policy? Anybody remember when CIA supported jihadists were fighting Pentagon
supported groups (were they jihadists?) in Syria. Seems like the Pentagon is the one deciding
on relations with the Syrian Kurds, and not the CIA. Flynn was actively helping the Damascus
with info about the CIA backed jihadists.
I would rather have the Pentagon win as they are not all that hot-to-trot for actual wars.
The CIA should just go back to running US media, law makers, corporation and ruining civil
liberties.
K_C_ , Apr 28 2021 22:26 utc |
28
Isn't it safe to assume that *anything* the CIA says publicly, either through direct
channels or their co-opted corporate media, is false? Cue the Mike Pimpeo quote: "We lied, we
cheated, we stole..." and of course the entire history of that useless agency, lol.
With PRISM in place FICA court is redundant...
Notable quotes:
"... All an FBI supervisor has to do to get a FISA warrant on you is have one agent get a crooked snitch in a foreign country to send you a weird text message, and then have another bright eyed and bushy tailed agent who doesn't know the crook is a snitch write up a search warrant application affidavit and submit it to the FISA court. ..."
"... Nothing says "Unconstitutional (illegal) Deep State" like FISA. Hitler's Gestapo would be proud! ..."
"... Lisa and Peter removed any credibility the FBI had with the public. If they solved real crime they would go after the massive fraud and stolen ID criminals. Of course that takes real work and someone wanting get off their lazy rear end ..."
Authored by James Bovard,
The FBI continues to lawlessly use counterintelligence powers against American citizens...
The Deep State Referee just admitted that the FBI continues to commit uncounted violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act of 1978 (FISA).
If you
sought to report a crime to the FBI, an FBI agent may have illegally surveilled your email. Even if you merely volunteered
for the FBI "Citizens Academy" program, the FBI may have illegally tracked all your online activity.
But the latest FBI offenses, like almost all prior FBI violations, are not a real problem, according to James Boasberg, presiding
judge of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That court, among other purposes, is supposed to safeguard Americans'
constitutional right to privacy under FISA. FISA was originally enacted to create a narrow niche for foreign intelligence investigations
that could be conducted without a warrant from a regular federal court. But as time passed, FISA morphed into an uncontrolled yet
officially sanctioned privacy-trampling monster. FISA judges unleash the nuclear bomb of searches,
authorizing the FBI "to conduct, simultaneous telephone, microphone, cell phone, e-mail and computer surveillance of the U.S.
person target's home, workplace and vehicles," as well as "physical searches of the target's residence, office, vehicles,
computer, safe deposit box and U.S. mails."
In 2008, after the George W. Bush administration's pervasive illegal warrantless wiretaps were exposed, Congress responded by
enacting FISA amendments that formally entitled the National Security Agency to vacuum up mass amounts of emails and other communication,
a swath of which is provided to the FBI. In 2018, the FISA court
slammed the FBI for abusing that
database with warrantless searches that violated Americans' rights. In lieu of obeying FISA, the FBI created a new Office of Internal
Audit. Deja vu! Back in 2007, FBI agents were caught massively violating the Patriot Act by using National Security Letters to conduct
thousands of illegal searches on Americans' personal data. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.)
declared that
an Inspector General report on the abusive searches "confirms the American people's worst fears about the Patriot Act." FBI
chief Robert Mueller responded by creating a new
Office of Integrity and Compliance
as "another important step toward ensuring we fulfill our mission with an unswerving commitment to the rule of law."
Be still my beating heart!
The FBI's promise to repent after the 2018 report sufficed for the FISA court to permit the FBI to continue plowing through
the personal data it received from NSA. Monday's disclosure "a delayed release of a report by the court last November "revealed
that the FBI has conducted
warrantless searches of the data trove for "domestic terrorism," "public corruption and bribery," "health care fraud,"
and other targets "including people who notified the FBI of crimes and even repairmen entering FBI offices. As Spencer Ackerman
wrote
in the Daily Beast , "The FBI continues to perform warrantless searches through the NSA's most sensitive databases for routine
criminal investigations." That type of search "potentially jeopardizes an accused person's ability to have a fair trial since warrantlessly acquired information is supposed to be inadmissible. The FBI claimed to the court that none of the warrantlessly queried
material "˜was used in a criminal or civil proceeding,' but such usage at trial has happened before," Ackerman noted. Some illicit
FBI searches involve vast dragnets. As the
New York Times reported ,
an FBI agent in 2019 conducted a database search "using the identifiers of about 16,000 people, even though only seven of them
had connections to an investigation."
In the report released Monday, Judge Boasberg lamented "apparent widespread violations" of the legal restrictions for FBI searches.
Regardless,
Boasberg kept the illicit search party going: "The Court is willing to again conclude that the . . . [FBI's] procedures meet
statutory and Fourth Amendment requirements." "Willing to again conclude" sounds better than "close enough for constitutional."
At this point, Americans know only the abuses that the FBI chose to disclose to FISA judges. We have no idea how many other perhaps
worse abuses may have occurred. For a hundred years, the FBI has buttressed its power by keeping a lid on its crimes. Unfortunately,
the FISA Court has become nothing but Deep State window dressing "a facade giving the illusion that government is under the law.
Consider Boasberg's recent ruling in the most brazen FISA abuse yet exposed. In December 2019, the Justice Department Inspector
General reported that the FBI made "fundamental
errors " and persistently deceived the FISA court to authorize surveilling a 2016 Trump presidential campaign official. The
I.G. report said the FBI "drew almost entirely" from the Steele dossier to prove a "well-developed conspiracy" between Russians
and the Trump campaign even though it was "unable to corroborate any of the specific substantive allegations against Carter Page"
in that dossier, which was later debunked.
A former FBI assistant general counsel, Kevin Clinesmith, admitted to falsifying key evidence to secure the FISA warrant to spy
on the Trump campaign. As a Wall Street Journal
editorial noted , Clinesmith "changed an
email confirming Mr. Page had been a CIA source to one that said the exact opposite, explicitly adding the words "˜not a source'
before he forwarded it." A federal prosecutor declared that the "resulting harm is immeasurable" from Clinesmith's action.
But at the sentencing hearing, Boasberg gushed with sympathy,
noting that Clinesmith
"went from being an obscure government lawyer to standing in the eye of a media hurricane"¦ Mr. Clinesmith has lost his job in
government service"what has given his life much of its meaning." Scorning the federal prosecutor's recommendation for jail time, Boasberg gave Clinesmith a wrist
slap"400 hours of community service and 12 months of probation.
The FBI FISA frauds profoundly disrupted American politics for years and the din of belatedly debunked accusations of Trump colluding
with Russia swayed plenty of votes in the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential election. But for the chief FISA judge, nothing
matters except the plight of an FBI employee who lost his job after gross misconduct. This is the stark baseline Americans should
remember when politicians, political appointees, and judges promise to protect them from future FBI abuses. The FISA court has been
craven, almost beyond ridicule, perennially. Perhaps Boasberg was simply codifying a prerogative the FISA court previously awarded
upon FBI officials. In 2005, after a deluge of false FBI claims in FISA warrants, FISA Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly proposed
requiring FBI agents to swear to the accuracy of the information they presented. That never happened because it could have "slowed
such investigations drastically," the
Washington Post reported
. So, FBI agents continue to lie with impunity to the judges.
The FISA court has gone from pretending that FBI violations don't occur to pretending that violations don't matter. Practically
the only remaining task is for the FISA court to cease pretending Americans have any constitutional right to privacy . But if a sweeping
new domestic terrorism law is passed, perhaps even that formal acknowledgement will be unnecessary. Beginning in 2006, the court
rubber-stamped FBI requests that bizarrely claimed that the telephone records of all Americans
were "relevant" to a terrorism
investigation under the Patriot Act, thereby enabling NSA data seizures later
denounced by a federal judge as "almost Orwellian." FISA could become a peril to far more Americans if Congress formally creates
a new domestic terrorism offense and a new category for expanding FISA searches.
The backlash from Democrats after the January 6 clash at the Capitol showcased the demand for federal crackdowns on extremists
who doubted Biden's election, disparaged federal prerogatives, or otherwise earned congressional ire. If a domestic terrorism law
is passed, the FBI will feel as little constrained by the details of the statute as it does about FISA's technicalities. Will FBI
agents conducting warrantless searches rely on
the same
harebrained standard the NSA used to target Americans: "someone searching the web for suspicious stuff"? Unfortunately, unless
an FBI whistleblower with the same courage as former NSA analyst Edward Snowden steps forward, we may never know the extent of FBI
abuses
ebworthen 39 minutes ago
"You want to harass a political opponent? Sure, we can do that...
JaxPavan 42 minutes ago
All an FBI supervisor has to do to get a FISA warrant on you is have one agent get a crooked snitch in a foreign country to
send you a weird text message, and then have another bright eyed and bushy tailed agent who doesn't know the crook is a snitch
write up a search warrant application affidavit and submit it to the FISA court.
Joe Bribem 32 minutes ago
It's almost like we did this to Trump. But it'll never come to light. Oops it did. Not that anything will happen to us because
we own the corrupt DOJ and FBI.
Obama's own personal private army.
You_Cant_Quit_Me 7 minutes ago
A lot of tips come in from overseas. For example, the US spies on citizens of another country and then sends that country tips,
in exchange that country does the same by spying on US citizens and sending the FBI tips. Then it starts, "we are just
following up on a tip"
wee-weed up 36 minutes ago (Edited)
Nothing says "Unconstitutional (illegal) Deep State" like FISA. Hitler's Gestapo would be proud!
You_Cant_Quit_Me 37 minutes ago
Lisa and Peter removed any credibility the FBI had with the public. If they solved real crime they would go after the massive fraud and stolen ID criminals. Of course that takes real work and
someone wanting get off their lazy rear end
takeaction 58 minutes ago (Edited)
If you own a smart phone...everything you do is recorded...and logged.
"They" have been listening
to you for a long time if they want to.
If you own any smart device...they can listen and watch. They are monitoring what I am typing and this site. There really is no way to hide.
I will allow myself to quote from b’s link:
Czech counterintelligence finds no
proof of Russians’ presence in Vrbetice - president (TASS, April 25,
2021)
PRAGUE, April 25. /TASS/. The evidence that some "Russian agents" were present at the ammo
depot in the village of Vrbetice was not mentioned in the reports of the Czech
Republic’s Security Information Service, Czech President Milos Zeman said
in his emergency televised address in connection with the 2014 incident on Sunday.
"I can state that the report of the Security Information Service says and I underline this
- that there is neither proof nor evidence [of eyewitnesses] that these two agents [the
Russians who were accused of involvement in the incident - TASS] were at the [ammo depot] in
Vrbetice. When the premises of the second depot were examined right before the explosion
there, no explosive device was found there," Zeman said in his address broadcast by Prima and
CNN Prima News TV channels.
The president stressed that the suspicion about the alleged role of two foreign agents in
the 2014 ammo depot explosions in Vrbetice came to the surface over the past weeks. "The
Security Information Service had never before mentioned the incident in Vrbetice over the
past six years," he noted.
…
In the Russian-language version of the same story Zeman also talks about the possibility
that the explosives were not properly handled:
Zeman: counterintelligence has no evidence of the involvement of "agents of the Russian
Federation" in the explosions in Vrbetica (TASS, April 25, 2021 â€" machine
translated from Russian)
…
Zeman also said that careless handling of ammunition is being considered as the cause of the
explosions and the possible involvement of foreign intelligence services is being considered.
"We are working with two versions - that the explosions [in Vrbetica] occurred as a result of
careless handling of ammunition, and the second version - that agents of foreign special
services are to blame for this," Zeman said.
…
Zeman also provided an indirect hint as to who might have coordinated the scandal on the
Czech side and on whose orders:
Czech President questioned the effectiveness of the CIA (TASS, April 25, 2021
â€" machine translated from Russian, emphasis mine)
PRAGUE, April 25. / TASS /. Czech President Milos Zeman questioned the effectiveness of the
American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in connection with incorrect information, on the
basis of which the United States made an erroneous decision on a military operation against
Iraq.
"The CIA is the intelligence agency that informed the US government that there are weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq. And this [CIA allegation] was not only not confirmed, but was
[completely] refuted," Zeman said Sunday in an interview with Prima and CNN. Prima NEWS . -
The consequences [of this step by the CIA] were terrible - thousands of lives, enormous
material damage, and so on. Is this how a high-quality intelligence service works? "
The head of state made such a statement, answering the question whether he intends to
confer the rank of general on the head of the Security and Information Service -
counterintelligence of the Czech Republic - Michal Koudelka, who was recently awarded the CIA
medal in the United States . Zeman said that he would consider the possibility of his
promotion next year and only if the version of the Czech special services about the
involvement of foreign agents in the explosions at the ammunition depot in the village of
Vrbetice in 2014 is confirmed.
Earlier Zakharova noted that the local authorities didn’t even know who
operated the ammo depot:
Zakharova commented on the investigation of the explosions in Vrbetica (RT, April 20, 2021
â€" machine translated from Russian)
…
“Seven years have passed. Did the trial take place? There was no court.
Two people died ... Here is the answer to your question, including - who is the beneficiary
of all this marasmic parade. There was an investigation, there was an investigation - nothing
came of it, " RIA Novosti quotes Zakharova.
…
She said that "the local authorities did not know that since 2006 the ammunition depot has
not been used by the army, and the Ministry of Defense is renting out the warehouse premises
to private arms companies."
Zakharova added that "the huge amount of weapons that were in the warehouses for eight
years were without any control from the authorities."
…
Posted by: S | Apr 25 2021 13:05 utc |
4
Biswapriya
Purkayast , Apr 25 2021 14:20 utc |
10
These days evidence no longer has to be presented for a claim because the accusation is a
loyalty test for the Amerikastani Empire and vassal citizens. The more outlandish the claim
the more they have to rush to prove their loyalty so outlandish evidence free claims are far
from as insane as they seem to be. They have a very definite purpose.
I do not want to talk about Covid though I'm Indian and my former teacher died today of
it. I am convinced that discussions about it inevitably work to split the anti Imperialist
resistance.
jared , Apr 25 2021 14:48 utc |
13
@ Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 25 2021 14:20 utc | 10
"I am convinced that discussions about it inevitably work to split the anti Imperialist
resistance."
That is an interesting take - world view.
My view is that:
The world is essentially run by and for and as it pleases wealthy and influential persons
and organizations. They can do this because they have money and power and are thereby able to
control access to money and power. These persons and organizations are the owners and the
effect of their influence where it is somewhat constructive is neoliberalism and where it is
less constructive is destabilization (surely there is a better term).
Beneath them are the operatives which serve them and thereby climb the ladder of wealth
and influence. These are the politicians and beauracrats and media and the military. The
beauracrats are particularly problematic because they are unelected, unaccountable, operate
unmonitored and collaborate.
In this system, the only means for yourselves and family to survive is to serve the owners
- via the structures created to enrich the beauracrats.
Please describe your view.
Notable quotes:
"... When truth is marginalized, the fringe is the only place where it’s to be found. ..."
When truth is marginalized, the fringe is the only place where it’s
to be found.
So it looks like Russia didn’t pay the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers
after all.
Last summer, the New York Times announced in a front-page
story that “American intelligence officials have concluded that a
Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants
killing coalition forces in Afghanistan â€" including targeting American
troops.â€
The article rang with certainty. “Some officials have theorized that the
Russians may be seeking revenge on NATO forces for a 2018 battle in Syria in which the American
military killed several hundred pro-Syrian forces, including numerous Russian
mercenaries,†it said. The operation, it went on, appears to be
“the handiwork of Unit 29155, an arm of Russia’s military
intelligence agency, known widely as the GRU. … Western intelligence
officials say the unit, which has operated for more than a decade, has been charged by the
Kremlin with carrying out a campaign to destabilize the West through subversion, sabotage and
assassination.â€
This was red meat for congressional Democrats eager to tar Trump with whatever brush was at
hand. Nancy Pelosi issued a call to arms, declaring: “Congress and the
country need answers now.†Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer adopted a tone of
mock disbelief: “Russia gives bounties to kill Americans and the
administration does nothing? Nothing? Donald Trump, you’re not being a very
strong president here as usual.†Joe Biden called the report
“horrifying†and said “there is no bottom to
the depth of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s depravity if
it’s true.â€
Except that it isn’t true now that we know that U.S. intelligence
agencies, according to the White House, view the report with only “low to
moderate confidence†â€" which, in layman’s language,
either means that it could be true â€" kind of, sort of, maybe â€" or
that it’s pure baloney. In any event, it’s hardly reason
to accus a sitting president of “a betrayal of every single American family
with a loved one serving in Afghanistan or anywhere overseas,†as Biden did the day
after the story broke.
Charlie Savage, whose byline appears on a number of last summer’s pieces,
offered a series of mealy-mouthed excuses for how he and his fellow Times reporters managed to
get it so wrong. “Former intelligence officials … have
noted that it is rare in the murky world of intelligence to have courtroom levels of proof
beyond a reasonable doubt about what an adversary is covertly doing,†he said . He
described the original intelligence findings as “muddiedâ€
because a key figure in the alleged plot “had fled to Russia â€"
possibly while using a passport linked to a Russian spy agency.â€
So it isn’t the Times’s or the
CIA’s fault, you see â€" it’s merely a hazard
of the trade. But isn’t it’s curious how words like
“murky†and “muddied†never
cropped up last summer when the Times was busily egging Democrats on with stories
charging that the bounties had led to “at least one U.S. troop
death†or maybe even
three ? “Father of Slain Marine Finds Heartbreak Anew in Possible
Russian Bounty,†a Times
headline declared. “American officials intercepted electronic data
showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by Russia’s
military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account,†another
claimed .
All of which was nonsense, as is now clear. Yet not only has the Times failed to apologize
but White House spokesman Jen Psaki managed to spin the story last week so that
it’s still Moscow’s fault and “there
are [still] questions to be answered by the Russian government.â€
Although the corporate media dutifully echoed the Times, a few skeptics did get it right.
Ray McGovern, an ex-CIA official who now heads a group calling itself Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity, called the
story “dubious†right off the bat. Scott Ritter, the ex-UN
weapons inspector who blew the cover off charges that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq
was bristling with weapons of mass destruction, wrote that
“there is no corroboration, nothing that would allow this raw
‘intelligence’ to be turned into a product worthy of the
name.†Caitlin Johnstone, who covers U.S. politics from Australia yet still does a
better job of it than most stateside reporters,
denounced the entire affair as a “malignant psyop,†adding:
“It really is funny how the most influential news outlets in the western
world will uncritically parrot whatever they’re told to say by the most
powerful and depraved intelligence agencies on the planet, and then turn around and tell you
without a hint of self-awareness that Russia and China are bad because they have state
media.â€
Then there’s someone named Dan Lazare who had pointed
out a few obvious facts in Strategic Culture a few days after the supposed Times scoop came
out:
“But the report doesn’t even make sense. Not only have
the Taliban been at war with the United States since 2001, they’re winning.
So why should Russia pay them to do what they’ve been happily doing on their
own for close to two decades? Contrary to what the Times wants us to believe,
there’s no evidence that Russia backs the Taliban or wants the U.S. to leave
with its tail between its legs. Quite the opposite as a quick glance at a map will attest.
Given that Afghanistan abuts the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and
Kyrgyzstan and is less than a thousand miles from Chechnya, where Russia fought a brutal war
against Sunni Islamist separatists in 1999-2000, the last thing it wants is a Muslim
fundamentalist republic in the heart of Central Asia.â€
The fact that the New York doesn’t even consider†the broad
geopolitical backdrop, the article added, “makes its reporting seem all the
more dubious†â€" words that are as appropriate now as they were
then.
None of this matters, however, because Strategic Culture, it turns out, is
“controlled by Russian intelligence†and publishes
“fringe voices and conspiracy theories.†Yes,
that’s what the Times
says , and its source, as usual, is nothing more than unnamed U.S. government sources
whispering in its ear. But if Strategic Culture is so marginal, how is it that it got the story
right while the Times’s own conspiracy tales turned out to be false?
When truth is marginalized, the fringe is the only place where it’s to be
found.
Notable quotes:
"... CaitlinJohnstone.com ..."
"... The New York Times ..."
"... The New York Times ..."
"... The Daily Beast ..."
"... The Daily Beast ..."
"... The New York Times ..."
"... The Washington Post ..."
"... Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix ..."
"... Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone ..."
"... Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers ..."
"... This article was re-published with permission. ..."
"... The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of ..."
"... Consortium News. ..."
The CIA Used to Infiltrate the Media April 20, 2021 Save
Now the CIA is the media. This isn’t Operation Mockingbird,
writes Caitlin Johnstone. It’s much worse.
(Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
By Caitlin
Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
B ack in the good old days, when things were more innocent and simple, the psychopathic
Central Intelligence Agency had to covertly infiltrate the news media to manipulate the
information Americans were consuming about their nation and the world. Nowadays, there is no
meaningful separation between the news media and the CIA at all.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald just highlighted an interesting point about the reporting by
The New York Times on the so-called
Bountygate story the outlet broke in June of last year about the Russian government trying
to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
“One of the NYT reporters who originally broke the Russia bounty story
(originally attributed to unnamed ‘intelligence
officials’) say today that it was a CIA claim,†Greenwald
tweeted .
“So media outlets â€" again â€" repeated CIA stories
with no questioning: congrats to all.â€
Indeed, the NYT’s
original story made no mention of CIA involvement in the narrative, citing only
“officials,†yet this latest article speaks as though it had been informing its
readers of the story’s roots in the
lying, torturing , drug-running , warmongering Central
Intelligence Agency from the very beginning. The author even writes “The New
York Times
first reported last summer the existence of the C.I.A.’s
assessment,†with the hyperlink leading to the initial article which made no
mention of the CIA. It wasn’t until later that The New York Times began reporting
that the CIA was looking into the Russian bounties allegations at all.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382793565714153472&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fconsortiumnews.com%2F2021%2F04%2F20%2Fthe-cia-used-to-infiltrate-the-media%2F&sessionId=f9f124f1ca8fb3f8d08d8c9bb0916072822c047d&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px
This would be the same “Russian bounties†narrative which was
discredited all the way back in September when the top U.S. military official in
Afghanistan
said no satisfactory evidence had surfaced for the allegations, which was further
discredited today with a new article by The Daily Beast titled “
U.S. Intel Walks Back Claim Russians Put Bounties on American Troops
.“
The Daily Beast , which has itself uncritically published many articles
promoting the CIA “Bountygate†narrative, reports the
following:
“It was a blockbuster
story about Russia’s return to the imperial “Great
Game†in Afghanistan. The Kremlin had spread money around the longtime central
Asian battlefield for militants to kill remaining U.S. forces. It sparked a massive outcry
from Democrats and their #resistance amplifiers about the treasonous Russian puppet in the
White House whose admiration for Vladimir Putin had endangered American troops.
But on Thursday, the Biden administration announced that U.S. intelligence only had
“low to moderate†confidence in the story after all.
Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the
story is, at best, unprovenâ€"and possibly untrue.â€
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382769897420296194&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fconsortiumnews.com%2F2021%2F04%2F20%2Fthe-cia-used-to-infiltrate-the-media%2F&sessionId=f9f124f1ca8fb3f8d08d8c9bb0916072822c047d&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px
So the mass media aggressively promoted a CIA narrative that none of them ever saw proof of,
because there was no proof, because it was an entirely unfounded claim from the very beginning.
They quite literally ran a CIA press release and disguised it as a news story.
This allowed the CIA to
throw shade and inertia on Trump’s proposed troop withdrawals from
Afghanistan and Germany, and to continue ramping up
anti-Russia sentiments on the world stage , and may well have contributed to the fact that
the agency will
officially be among those who are exempt from Biden’s
performative Afghanistan “withdrawal.â€
In totalitarian dictatorships, the government spy agency tells the news media what stories
to run, and the news media unquestioningly publish it. In free democracies, the government spy
agency says “Hoo buddy, have I got a scoop for you!†and the
news media unquestioningly publish it.
In 1977 Carl Bernstein published an article titled “ The CIA and the Media
†reporting that the CIA had
covertly infiltrated America’s most influential news outlets and had
over 400 reporters who it considered assets in a program known as
Operation Mockingbird . It was a major scandal, and rightly so. The news media is meant to
report truthfully about what happens in the world, not manipulate public perception to suit the
agendas of spooks and warmongers.
Nowadays the CIA collaboration happens right out in the open, and people are too
propagandized to even recognize this as scandalous. Immensely influential outlets like The
New York Times uncritically pass on CIA disinfo which is then spun as fact by cable news
pundits . The sole owner of The Washington Post is a CIA contractor ,
and WaPo has never once disclosed this conflict of interest when reporting on U.S.
intelligence agencies per standard journalistic protocol.
Mass media outlets
now openly employ intelligence agency veterans such as John Brennan, James
Clapper, Chuck Rosenberg, Michael Hayden, Frank Figliuzzi, Fran Townsend, Stephen Hall,
Samantha Vinograd, Andrew McCabe, Josh Campbell, Asha Rangappa, Phil Mudd, James Gagliano,
Jeremy Bash, Susan Hennessey, Ned Price and Rick Francona, as are known
CIA assets like NBC’s Ken Dilanian, as are
CIA interns like Anderson Cooper and CIA applicants like
Tucker Carlson.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382777804014641152&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fconsortiumnews.com%2F2021%2F04%2F20%2Fthe-cia-used-to-infiltrate-the-media%2F&sessionId=f9f124f1ca8fb3f8d08d8c9bb0916072822c047d&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px
This isn’t Operation Mockingbird. It’s so much worse.
Operation Mockingbird was the CIA doing something to the media. What we are seeing now
is the CIA openly acting as the media. Any separation between the CIA and the news
media, indeed even any pretence of separation, has been dropped.
This is bad. This is very, very bad. Democracy has no meaningful existence if
people’s votes are cast without a clear understanding of
what’s happening in their nation and their world. When their understanding
is being shaped to suit the agendas of the very government they’re meant to
be influencing with their votes, what you have is the most powerful military and economic force
in the history of civilization with no accountability to the electorate whatsoever.
It’s just an immense globe-spanning power structure, doing whatever it wants
to whoever it wants. A totalitarian dictatorship in disguise.
And the CIA is the very worst institution that could possibly be spearheading the movements
of that dictatorship. A little research into the many, many horrific
things the CIA has done over the years will quickly show you that this is true; hell, just
a glance at what the CIA was up to with the
Phoenix Program in Vietnam will.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-3&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfX0%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1382856410443186179&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fconsortiumnews.com%2F2021%2F04%2F20%2Fthe-cia-used-to-infiltrate-the-media%2F&sessionId=f9f124f1ca8fb3f8d08d8c9bb0916072822c047d&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ff2e7cf%3A1618526400629&width=550px
There’s a common delusion in our society that depraved government
agencies who are known to have done evil things in the past have simply stopped doing evil
things for some reason. This belief is backed by zero evidence, and is contradicted by
mountains of evidence to the contrary. It’s believed because it is
comfortable, and for literally no other reason.
The CIA should not exist at all, let alone control the news media, much less the movements
of the US empire. May we one day know a humanity that is entirely free from the rule of
psychopaths, from our total planetary behavior as a collective, all the way down to the
thoughts we think in our own heads.
May we extract their horrible fingers from every aspect of our being.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly
at Medium . Her work is
entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around,
liking her on Facebook , following her antics on Twitter , checking out her podcast on either
Youtube
, soundcloud , Apple
podcasts or Spotify , following her on
Steemit , throwing some
money into her tip jar on Patreon or Paypal , purchasing some of her sweet merchandise ,
buying her new book, Notes From
The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix , and her other books: Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin
Johnstone and
Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers .
This article was re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those
of Consortium News.
Wiffle , April 22, 2021 at 17:36
Go to any platform and 98% of commentators’
“opinions†are exact duplicates of what the unholy intel/press
partnership has trained them to say.
Hot Dog , April 21, 2021 at 19:00
Douglas Adams, brilliant author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, invented the
Infinite Improbability Drive to cross vast intersteller distances in a mere nothingth of a
second without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace. Following in his footsteps I
adopted the Infinite Improbability Filter, which I use to parse every statement from
governments. I recommend it. Afghans have to be paid by Russians to shoot the invaders and
occupiers of their country ?? Infinitely improbable. Saddam Hussein had nuclear bombs in
aluminum tubes that he could fly over US cities ?? ?? Infinitely improbable. A bunch of guys
in a cave can knock down a skyscraper in Manhattan ?? Infinitely improbable. Joe Biden will
put an end to war ?? ?? Infinitely improbable. The USA is spreading democracy in oil
producing nations ??? Infinitely improbable. Russia won the 2016 election ??? Infinitely
improbable. The CIA are the good guys ??? Infinitely improbable. Believe the corporate media
??? ??? Infinitely improbable. (hXXp://www.earthstar.co.uk/drive.htm). RIP Adams.
Rex Williams , April 21, 2021 at 18:52
“Drug-running�
Well done, Caitlin.First time I have seen any indication of that in the media and even I
have known about it for a decade. Not just drug-running, but the world control of heroin.
Australian soldiers filling in the role of protector of the crops in Afghanistan and also
killing innocent civilians, a matter now under investigation but proven already.
Thankfully, when you list the past members of that infamous group and the controlling role
they enjoy in today’s media, one should not forget the contributions made
by many ex-CIA personnel seen on the pages of Consortium News and what a valuable
contribution they have made to this publication. Many thanks to them.
I am sure that there will be many comments on this subject today.
rosemerry , April 21, 2021 at 15:22
Using the word “intelligence†for the nonsense that the USA
collects and tries to get us to believe is pathetic!! Use your brains, US people and do not
assume that because YOUR leaders want to attack and destroy designated enemies all over the
globe,that other people are just like you. You are NOT in existential danger from China,
Russia, Iran, North Korea- YOU are the ones doing the threatening, the attacking, the lying,
the sanctions, the offensive descriptions of leaders with no attempt to be diplomatic and
certainly no effort to understand the points of view of anyone outside your little circle of
“élite†elected or appointed or bought rich men
and women living in the Cold War years and educated into violent hatred of anyone
different.
robert e williamson jr , April 22, 2021 at 12:54
Hot Dog, I could not agree more, but Hot Damn there is more so much more. Is it possible
that the revelations in this book I discuss might free Julian? The book proves miss use of
secrecy classifications that were used to cover up an act of executive action with extreme
prejudice
The pivotal events that allow the re-opening of the JFK murder case are exposed in Josiah
Thompson’s “LAST SECOND IN DALLASâ€.
Like I have stated already please don’t take my word for this. Read the
book thanks to the Zapruder film and the recordings taken that day of police radios being
still of a quality to allow top notch analysis of them, irrefutable evidence has been
verified. The story of facts have changed the nature of what we now know to be true. Facts
that are provided with their mathematical proof.
If you believe in science, especially science as pursued in this investigation by
individuals of exculpatory character and honesty you will learn the latest scientific
interpretations of the evidence analysis.
Something that, as it turn out cannot be said about the Ramsey Panel.
Thompson’s investigation has neutered the Warren Commission and other
various government attempts, see the House Select Committee effort and the Ramsey
Panel’s efforts to cover up the truth.
This results in exposing the lies the CIA committed to trying to cover up their
involvement. Lies ironically exposed by individuals investigating the murder, lies discovered
in part by the release of JFK documents in 2017. Why did CIA lie from day one, Nov.
22,1963?
DECLASSIFY, DECLASSIFY, DECLASSIFY, Jimm you got it, and the curtain has been pulled back
slightly if not more by this investigation.
Time for all to pressure CIA for the truth.
Thanks CN
PEACE
Anonymot , April 21, 2021 at 10:11
Yes, excellent about the media, but there’s a far greater importance
than that; the CIA IS, yes IS the American government. Certainly, it manages the public
through its controlling influence on the MSM, but its controlling interest in foreign affairs
has been followed by its creeping increasingly into the domestic field, also. It has been
fighting for supremacy over both the State Department and the FBI for years and won the
former hands down via the Bush and Obama years. Hillary at the State Department was the
CIA’s dream! The devastation that followed, from the burning of everything
from Libya to the Ukraine was their wildest wishes come true.
Trump ran on the idea that the intelligence agencies were too invasive and he battled with
them from the beginning, but the CIA knows where everyone’s skeletons are
hidden and Trump has a pile of them. What the CIA then did was point out to him that he had
little room to squiggle or they would put him in jeopardy. As a sop, they allowed him to
spend four years not hating Russia and instead, hating China, climate change, the EU, etc.
while he allowed them to dictate what the CIA wanted done domestically, pipelines, the
border, etc. That made them tower over the FBI.
Now that the CIA helped dump Trump with their media control, they are back in the saddle
with Biden, Russia, the CIA’s favorite target for WW III, is back on the
front burner with its usual hocus pocus stories about the Ukraine, Iran is heating up and so
is China.
But America is now the mosquito attacking the elephant and the CIA with all of its ignorance
and incompetence is back, leading the dance with their partners in the military and the
military industrial complex.
It will be great fun to go out with a bang.
Philip Reed , April 21, 2021 at 10:08
Whatever happened to Carl Bernstein? Where is that guy from Watergate and Mockingbird? Now
turned into a CNN shill.
Sad. Thanks Caitlin for reiterating what most of us know but always needs your persistent
clarification.
Just a short beef with your article. Why did you feel it necessary to include Tucker in your
list of CIA connected media personalities? Especially based on a link to an article that was
an obvious hit piece on Tucker. Tucker has morphed into one of the only MSM personalities who
attacks hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle. He reports on subjects that none of the other
corporate media outlets won’t touch out of pure political felty to the
Democratic Party. He used to take sides years ago. No longer the case. He often has Glenn
Greenwald on in recent times and they are obviously simpatico with each other. Give Tucker a
break Caitlin. He’s the only one on MS corporate media who dares to
deviate from the “ chosen narrative “.
Stevie Boy , April 21, 2021 at 08:02
Unfortunately, this is also true of all the members of the ‘Five
Eyes’ sewer.
In the UK, MI6, MI5, GCHQ and the other related institutions infest the MSM. The BBC and the
Guardian being two obvious direct mouthpieces for the security services. And, the CIA run
their operations directly out of RAF bases (Eg. Anne Sacoolas and her husband).
During the World Wars, the security services maybe had a legitimate role in fighting obvious
enemies. However, now we are the enemy !
Can this sewer ever be drained ?
Donald Duck , April 21, 2021 at 06:19
A slow-burning coup has been emerging in the West since the 1990s.; it is now reaching its
full fruition. Political parties, the MSM, the military and spook organisations, state and
corporate bureaucracies, a trillionaire class, film and entertainment industries have
congealed into a massive technocratic centrist blob. Orthodox politics and ideology is now a
thing of the past. These now are the controlling force behind a quasi-religious narrative
that now seems unassailable. Where this is taking us in anybody’s guess.
Maybe into the eugenicist Brave New World or of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s
dystopian novel ‘We’ first published in 1924.
Well we’d better wake up soon, or we are not going to wake up at
all.
John Hagan , April 21, 2021 at
03:32
Tumour: A ‘body’ can be 99 percent healthy yet one
cancerous cell can cause much damage growing into a tumour. Although it realizes that by
destroying the very body it feeds on it is also destroying itself yet that end does not
prevent its greed for reproduction. Most US citizens are well aware where the tumour lies and
its progress.
For those who have the interest I made a short video illustrating the thesis above regarding
the possibility that US is suffering a malignant tumour in three areas.The three areas are
the war machine, wall street, education. It can be found on YouTube. John Hagan.
Dave , April 20, 2021 at 21:17
Ms Johnstone is spot on, as usual. The CIA â€" aka the Christian Investment
Authority â€" is no longer needed. Of course, it never was needed, given that the
USA taxpayer funds more than fifteen other “intelligenceâ€
agencies, including State Dept. intelligence, the FBI, the various military intelligence
groups, etc. The CIA was from its beginning an extra-legal, law-breaking, and often illegal
operative group representing the filth, the sleaze of America’s corporate
and banking empires. If the CIA is defunded, don’t worry about its work
force. They will re-emerge in the media, the think-tanks, the corporate bureaucracies, the
military-industrial complex, and foreign government sinecures. Anyway, good riddance to bad
rubbish…at least an honest and responsible American can hope the CIA is
disbanded as soon as possible.
S.P. Korolev , April 22, 2021 at 04:17
Haven’t heard that acronym before, excellent! My favourite is
‘Capitalism’s Invisible
Army’…
hooligan2009 11 hours ago
cui bono?
exactly what does the US gain by constantly smacking down russia? better jobs, higher
education, better health maybe? less debt/smaller deficits for US citizens?
why is it in the interest of the US to have open southern borders with tens of millions of
the poor, sick and stupid seeking to join the free **** army of entitled karens - and yet -
antagonize, vilify and belittle fellow white christians of russia?
the US is being invaded as we speak, its tax dollars are being siphoned off to pay for the
poor, sick and stupid flooding in.
it is not russia that is doing the invading.
it is economic migrants answering the siren call of the GOON squad and a criminal cabal
that is building a political base that cannot be defeated.
it is not russia that is bankrupting the US by forcing it to blow out spending beyond its
tax base to defend its citizens.
it is socialist policies like the "green new deal" and the response to a (yet to be
isolated) virus that are bankrupting the nation.
the enemy of the US is within and is ripping the country apart.
the enemy is socialism and the pursuit of the lowest common economic and educational
denominator by mentally challenged morons like the illlegal POTUS (POXONUS) and his illegal
immigrant VPOTUS (VPOXONUS).
looks so real 10 hours ago (Edited)
Colonize Russia and China the elites get off Scott free from persecution of international
crimes committed by them. Their rise is terrifying to the elites soon if not stopped will
impose international law on them, like going after the NazI's after WW2. They must feel the
noose tightening judging by the paranoid attacks. That said recent moves by the west looks
like they are ahead they are attacking on all fronts.
jusstpassinthru 9 hours ago (Edited)
Once again, it seems we're mistaking a corporation for a country. The United States
government and America are two totally different things. At present the US corporate
government is operating totally as a criminal organization.
cui bono? The corporation.
9 Corpus Juris Secundum, § 883
"The United States government is a foreign corporation with respect to a state." 19C.J.S.
Corporations § 883 citing In re Merriam's Estate, 36 N.Y. 505, 141 N.Y. 479(1894), and
affirmed in United States v. Perkins, 163 U.S. 625, 41 L.Ed. 287 (1896).
Putin remarked how to "attack Russia" has become "a sport, a new sport, who makes the
loudest statements." And then he went full Kipling: "Russia is attacked here and there for no
reason. And of course, all sorts of petty Tabaquis [jackals] are running around like Tabaqui
ran around Shere Khan [the tiger] – everything is like in Kipling's book – howling
along and ready to serve their sovereign. Kipling was a great writer".
The – layered – metaphor is even more startling as it echoes the late 19th
century geopolitical Great Game between the British and Russian empires, of which Kipling was a
protagonist.
Once again Putin had to stress that "we really don't want to burn any bridges. But if
someone perceives our good intentions as indifference or weakness and intends to burn those
bridges completely or even blow them up, he should know that Russia's response will be
asymmetric, swift and harsh".
"Tensions skirting wartime levels"
Now compare all of the above with the
White House Executive Order (EO) declaring a "national emergency" to "deal with the Russian
threat".
This is directly connected to President Biden – actually the combo telling him what to
do, complete with earpiece and teleprompter – promising Ukraine's President Zelensky that
Washington would "take measures" to support Kiev's wishful thinking of retaking Donbass and
Crimea.
There are several eyebrow-raising issues with this EO. It denies, de facto, to any Russian
national the full rights to their US property. Any US resident may be accused of being a
Russian agent engaged in undermining US security. A sub-sub paragraph (C), detailing "actions
or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in the United States or
abroad", is vague enough to be used to eliminate any journalism that supports Russia's
positions in international affairs.
Purchases of Russian OFZ bonds have been sanctioned, as well as one of the companies
involved in the production of the Sputnik V vaccine. Yet the icing on this sanction cake may
well be that from now on all Russian citizens, including dual citizens, may be barred from
entering US territory except via a rare special authorization on top of the ordinary visa.
The Russian paper Vedomosti has noted that in such paranoid atmosphere the risks for large
companies such as Yandex or Kaspersky Lab are significantly increasing. Still, these sanctions
have not been met with surprise in Moscow. The worst is yet to come, according to Beltway
insiders: two packages of sanctions against Nord Stream 2 already approved by the US Department
of Justice.
The crucial point is that this EO de facto places anyone reporting on Russia's political
positions as potentially threatening "American democracy". As top political analyst Alastair
Crooke has remarked, this is a "procedure usually reserved for citizens of enemy states during
times of war". Crooke adds, "US hawks are upping the ante fiercely against Moscow. Tensions and
rhetoric are skirting wartime levels."
It's an open question whether Putin's State of the Nation will be seriously examined by the
toxic lunatic combo of neocons and humanitarian imperialists bent on simultaneously harassing
Russia and China.
But the fact is something extraordinary has already started to happen: a "de-escalation" of
sorts.
Even before Putin's address, Kiev, NATO and the Pentagon apparently got the message implicit
in Russia moving two armies, massive artillery batteries and airborne divisions to the borders
of Donbass and to Crimea – not to mention top naval assets moved from the Caspian to the
Black Sea. NATO could not even dream of matching that.
Facts on different grounds speak volumes. Both Paris and Berlin were terrified of a possible
Kiev clash directly against Russia, and lobbied furiously against it, bypassing the EU and
NATO.
Then someone – it might have been Jake Sullivan – must have whispered on Crash
Test Dummy's earpiece that you don't go around insulting the head of a nuclear state and expect
to keep your global "credibility". So after that by now famous "Biden" phone call to Putin came
the invitation to the climate change summit, in which any lofty promises are largely
rhetorical, as the Pentagon will continue to be the largest polluting entity on planet
Earth.
... ... ...
Whatever happens next, for all practical purposes Iron Curtain 2.0 is now on, and it simply
won't go away. There will be more sanctions. Everything was thrown at the Bear short of a hot
war. It will be immensely entertaining to watch how, and via which steps, Washington will
engage on a "de-escalation and diplomatic process" with Russia.
The Hegemon may always find a way to deploy a massive P.R. campaign and ultimately claim a
diplomatic success in "dissolving" the impasse. Well, that certainly beats a hot war.
Otherwise, lowly Jungle Book adventurers have been advised: try anything funny and be ready to
meet "asymmetric, swift and harsh".
Lordflin 10 hours ago
Very true...
Also true... Kipling was a great writer... loved him as a kid... Still remember Rikki
Tikki Tavi... who couldn't...
War is coming... and Putin will get dragged to the party kicking and screaming... but he
has no choice but to show up...
zoghead 16 hours ago
Amazing how calm and composed Putin is when he talks of the West. I admire him for this
phenomenal restraint. No one knows more than him, how the West (politicos and press) bandy
him personally and his country around for absoutely no reason. The Russians are peaceloving
folks, and just want to be left alone.
wootendw PREMIUM 16 hours ago
Putin remarked how to "attack Russia" has become "a sport, a new sport, who makes the
loudest statements." And then he went full Kipling: "Russia is attacked here and there for
no reason. And of course, all sorts of petty Tabaquis [jackals] are running around like
Tabaqui ran around Shere Khan [the tiger] – everything is like in Kipling's book
– howling along and ready to serve their sovereign. Kipling was a great writer".
For those who haven't read The Jungle Book , Shere Khan is US - and the story doesn't end
well for him.
Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... THIS is why the U.S. maintains a rotating cast of "evil" countries to demonize. Whether its Russia, China, the DPRK, Iran, Cuba, or Venezuela, Americans will always find a way to externalize and blame the internal violence of their capitalist imperialist system on foreign foes. ..."
"... When will Americans get it through their head that the U.S. is NOT a "democracy" that needs to be "defended" because it was NEVER a democracy to begin with. The problem isn't other countries that you've been brainwashed to hate. It is YOUR capitalist imperialist system country. ..."
"... The definition of insanity is watching your colonial, capitalist, imperialist country time and time again inflict mass murder and violence both domestically and abroad and still thinking your country is a "democracy" that must be defended from "authoritarian" countries abroad. ..."
Jan 07, 2021 | Stephen Wertheim @stephenwertheim Jan 1
"The danger for American elites is not that the U.S. may become less able to accomplish geopolitical objectives. Rather, it is
that more Americans might begin to question the logic of U.S. global hegemony," writes
@RichardHanania :
Qiao Collective @qiaocollective Jan 1
Qiao Collective @qiaocollective
THIS is why the U.S. maintains a rotating cast of "evil" countries to demonize. Whether its Russia, China, the DPRK, Iran,
Cuba, or Venezuela, Americans will always find a way to externalize and blame the internal violence of their capitalist imperialist
system on foreign foes.
@qiaocollective 6h
@qiaocollective
When will Americans get it through their head that the U.S. is NOT a "democracy" that needs to be "defended" because it
was NEVER a democracy to begin with. The problem isn't other countries that you've been brainwashed to hate. It is YOUR capitalist
imperialist system country.
@qiaocollective 6h
@qiaocollective
The definition of insanity is watching your colonial, capitalist, imperialist country time and time again inflict mass
murder and violence both domestically and abroad and still thinking your country is a "democracy" that must be defended from "authoritarian"
countries abroad.
Notable quotes:
"... "Pro-Kremlin" and "pro-China" are labels which have literally lost all meaning in face of an almost totally unified global response to Covid19, and yet, if Nick has his way, they will be used to destroy any semblance of alternative media in Western society ..."
"... At one point in his incoherent diatribe he even cites "conspiracy theorists" alleged "antisemitism" (without any evidence to back it up). A beautiful example of what Huey Long called "fascism coming in the name of anti-fascism". ..."
"... Nick doesn't care about that. He's just here to promote authoritarianism and chew gum, and he's all out of gum. He's a massive hypocrite. Nothing more needs to be said. ..."
Censorship Saves Lives
Another Guardian article from this week warns of "pro-Kremlin outlets" spreading
"coronavirus disinformation".
Nick Cohen has an "
op ed on the same subject, urging action against free speech so that "Russian meddling"
doesn't persuade us all to break quarantine and rush outside like lunatics.
He spent the last four years comparing Jeremy Corbyn to Stalin, and now he's arguing that
Facebook and YouTube should do some Stalinist censoring of their platforms in line with
government policy.
Has no one at Graun HQ even noticed that the Kremlin (as well as China) is actually in
lockstep with the West on the issue of covid19? Or does no whisper of reality percolate through
their glassy walls any more?
"Pro-Kremlin" and "pro-China" are labels which have literally lost all meaning in face
of an almost totally unified global response to Covid19, and yet, if Nick has his way, they
will be used to destroy any semblance of alternative media in Western society
His article's headline " Social media no longer tolerates toxic lies? Don't believe a word
of it ", makes the intent plain. He is returning to the theme that big tech companies have to
do their part to make sure Russians and "conspiracy theorists" don't harm our society.
But this time he is overtly demanding wrong-thinking people (specifically David Icke in this
instance) should be un-personed and barred from social media to "protect public health".
At one point in his incoherent diatribe he even cites "conspiracy theorists" alleged
"antisemitism" (without any evidence to back it up). A beautiful example of what Huey Long
called "fascism coming in the name of anti-fascism".
Nick doesn't care about that. He's just here to promote authoritarianism and chew gum,
and he's all out of gum. He's a massive hypocrite. Nothing more needs to be said.
Notable quotes:
"... "Russia feels threatened by the quality of our alliances and, even in the current environment, the quality of our democratic institutions. It sets out to denigrate them, and it uses intelligence services to that end. It is a serious problem, and we should organize to prevent it," the British spook told the actress. ..."
"... To some, the pairing of a Hollywood star and a veteran spymaster might seem strange. But, in reality, the silver screen and the national security state have always been intimately intertwined. ..."
"... Jolie herself has slowly become a leading member of the U.S. national security apparatus, joining the influential and well-endowed Council on Foreign Relations think tank in 2007, and penning a joint op-ed in The New York Times ..."
"... "We talked to a lot of the women in the CIA," said Jolie of her experiences preparing for her role. She appeared to have nothing but admiration for the organization; "One after the other, they are just these lovely, sweet women that you can‟t imagine being put in a dangerous situation, but they really are," she added. Salt ..."
"... The level of state involvement in Salt ..."
"... In 2014, former Deputy Counsel or Acting General Counsel of the CIA, John Rizzo, wrote that his organization "has long had a special relationship with the entertainment industry, devoting considerable attention to fostering relationships with Hollywood movers and shakers -- studio executives, producers, directors, big-name actors." Many of America's most familiar faces have visited the organization's headquarters in Langley, VA, including Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Bryan Cranston, and Tom Cruise. ..."
"... "Probably Hollywood is full of CIA agents and we just don't know it. And I wouldn't be surprised at all to discover that this was extremely common," said "Batman" star Ben Affleck in 2012, before going to describe himself, perhaps jokingly, as a CIA agent himself. ..."
"... Democrat-aligned voters' opinion of the FBI has been steadily rising over the last decade, to the point that 77% hold a favorable view of the institution (and almost two-thirds of the country supports the CIA). ..."
With election fever still gripping the U.S., talk of rigging or interference in the democratic process is reaching new levels,
high enough that even Hollywood legend Angelina Jolie is talking about it. In an
extraordinary interview in Time magazine, the star of "Wanted, Maleficent, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," sat down with
the former head of the UK's MI6 spy network, Sir Alex Younger, to ask how worrying the threat from Russia or China really is.
"Russia feels threatened by the quality of our alliances and, even in the current environment, the quality of our democratic
institutions. It sets out to denigrate them, and it uses intelligence services to that end. It is a serious problem, and we should
organize to prevent it," the British spook told the actress.
Younger also went on to discuss the rise of China, and how the West must act to challenge the supposed threat Beijing poses. "We
are going to have two sharply different value systems in operation on the same planet for the foreseeable future. We mustn't be naïve.
We need to retain the capacity to defend ourselves," he told Jolie.
Never challenging him, Jolie even asked the head of perhaps the world's most notorious spying agency how we can protect ourselves
from fake information.
To some, the pairing of a Hollywood star and a veteran spymaster might seem strange. But, in reality, the silver screen and
the national security state have always been intimately intertwined. And as much as Jolie presents herself as a leading humanitarian,
even being appointed as a Special Envoy for the UN Commission for Refugees, she has spent an inordinate amount of her free time rubbing
shoulders with some of the world's worst human rights abuses.
At World Refugee Day in 2005, Jolie shared a stage with then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice was a key player in
the Bush administration, responsible for the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, two of the world's worst humanitarian and refugee crises
that continue to plague the planet to this day.
Jolie herself has slowly become a leading member of the U.S. national security apparatus, joining the influential and well-endowed
Council on Foreign Relations think tank in 2007, and penning a
joint op-ed in The New
York Times with John McCain two years ago calling for U.S. intervention in Syria and Myanmar. "Around the world, there
is profound concern that America is giving up the mantle of global leadership," they
questionably
asserted, decrying America's "steady retreat over the past decade" that has, "dangerously eroded the rule of law," and condemned
the Trump administration's inaction in Syria that could have "deterred mass atrocities," and reduced the refugee crisis.
Salt
Jolie's collaboration with high-level government officials is not limited to her personal life, however. The 45-year-old Californian
has also worked closely, and openly, with CIA officials as part of her movies. A case in point is the 2010 blockbuster Salt
, where Jolie plays a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy. The movie was released at the same time as the real-life Anna Chapman
scandal, where the Russian national was caught spying for her country inside the U.S., and marked the beginning of hardening American
relations with Moscow, ending up at the point where some
have declared the beginning of a new Cold War.
" Salt was the first big cultural product reflecting this geopolitical change, for most of the 2000s Hollywood had
no interest in evil Russians," Tom Secker, an investigative journalist with
SpyCulture.com told MintPress . "If you watch the film the Russian politicians are clearly based on Vladimir Putin and
Dmitry Medvedev."
Jolie, playing an evil Russian spy in Salt, chokes out an NYPD officer
"We talked to a lot of the women in the CIA," said Jolie of her experiences preparing for her role. She appeared to have nothing
but admiration for the organization; "One after the other, they are just these lovely, sweet women that you can‟t imagine being put
in a dangerous situation, but they really are," she added. Salt even hired a former CIA officer to be an on-set technical
advisor.
A CIA document Secker shared with MintPress highlights the extent of CIA involvement in Hollywood and their reasons for
doing so. "In an effort to ensure an accurate portrayal of the men and women of the CIA," it reads. "For years the Agency has worked
with creative artists from across the entertainment industry. [The CIA Office of Public Affairs] interacts with directors, producers,
screenwriters, authors, documentarians, actors and others to help debunk myths and provide authenticity, and of course to protect
Agency equities," it adds. But perhaps the most important reason stated is, "to help prevent inappropriate negative depictions of
the Agency," in mass media.
Propaganda on an enormous scale
The level of state involvement in Salt is far from abnormal. In fact, Alford and Secker's book "
National Security
Cinema " details how, since 2005, documents they obtained showed that the Department of Defense alone had closely collaborated
in the production of over 1,000 movies or TV shows. This includes many of the largest film franchises, such as "Iron Man," "Transformers,"
"James Bond," and "Mission: Impossible," and hit TV shows like "The Biggest Loser," "Grey's Anatomy," "Master Chef" and "The Price
is Right."
In general, the military or the CIA will offer free services to productions, such as the use of prohibitively expensive military
equipment, or technical direction, in exchange for editorial control over scripts. This allows the agencies to make sure the power,
prestige, and integrity of these organizations are not challenged. Sometimes entire movies are radically rewritten.
"The Department of Defense actually apologized in their covering letter to the producers of "Hulk" (2003), since the changes they
required were so extensive," Dr. Matthew Alford of the University of Bath told MintPress .
But really the disturbing thing here is the pattern and the scale What I suggest is that we focus on the deliberate, major,
secretive pressures that rewrite scripts -- and we find they're all on the side of the national security state. Systematically
scrubbed from the screen is an unsavoury century of military history including war crimes, illegal arms sales, racism and sexual
assault, torture, coups, assassinations, and weapons of mass destruction. It amounts to the airbrushing of an entire mediated
culture."
Thus, the large majority of big-budget productions featuring military or intelligence services have been greenlighted by the national
security state, who have negotiated for control over the message in order to better propagandize both Americans and the global public.
However, serious antiwar content rarely makes it to network TV or Hollywood drawing boards, so wholescale interference is usually
unnecessary.
In 2014, former Deputy Counsel or Acting General Counsel of the CIA, John Rizzo, wrote that his organization "has long had
a special relationship with the entertainment industry, devoting considerable attention to fostering relationships with Hollywood
movers and shakers -- studio executives, producers, directors, big-name actors." Many of America's most familiar faces have visited
the organization's headquarters in Langley, VA, including Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Bryan Cranston, and Tom Cruise.
In recent years, collaboration has become even more overt. The Department of Defense even
tweeted out during the Oscars how
proud it is to work so closely with Hollywood to further its own image.
https://twitter.com/deptofdefense/status/970461390283587585?lang=en
Meanwhile, the latest series of the hit spy show "Jack Ryan," for instance, has the eponymous CIA hero travel to Venezuela to
help overthrow tyrannical dictator Nicolas Reyes (a clear allusion to current president Nicolas Maduro). John Krasinski, who plays
Ryan, said that he worked closely with the Agency in order to make the show more realistic. Krasinski also
described the CIA as amazingly
"apolitical." "They're always trying to do the right thing," he said of them, claiming they "care about the country in a bigger,
more idealistic way."
Last month, a real CIA agent, Matthew John Heath, was
arrested
outside Venezuela's largest oil refinery carrying explosives, a grenade launcher, a submachine gun, and stacks of U.S. dollars.
"Probably Hollywood is full of CIA agents and we just don't know it. And I wouldn't be surprised at all to discover that this
was extremely common," said "Batman" star Ben Affleck in
2012, before going to describe himself, perhaps jokingly, as a CIA agent himself.
https://cdn.iframe.ly/VKxIpdm?iframe=card-small&v=1&app=1
Propaganda works
The effect of years of propaganda has been to improve the standing of the deep state and make the American public more conducive
to supporting the tactics of the CIA and the military. One
academic study found that showing torture
scenes from the hit spy series "24" to liberal college students made them far more likely to support the use of it against anyone
deemed an enemy of the state.
Democrat-aligned voters' opinion of the FBI has been
steadily rising over the last decade, to the point that 77% hold a favorable view of the institution (and almost two-thirds of
the country supports the CIA).
Thus, while the entertainment industry might be liberal in that it largely opposes Trump and donates to the Democratic Party,
it works closely to support and uphold the national security state, promotes ultra-patriotism and American aggression throughout
the world. While Jolie might present herself as a champion of human rights, working with the very institutions responsible for destroying
those rights around the globe undermines this assertion.
Feature photo | Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie addresses a press conference at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh,
Feb. 5, 2019. Photo | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing
his PhD in 2017 he published two books:
Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and
Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent . He has also contributed to
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting ,
The Guardian ,
Salon ,
The Grayzone ,
Jacobin Magazine ,
Common Dreams the
American Herald Tribune and
The Canary .
ZH comments suggest the crisis of legitimacy, aren't they?
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
The FBI has produced 68
pages relating to a Democrat National Committee (DNC) worker who was shot dead in 2016 in
Washington, including an investigative summary that appears to suggest someone could have paid
for his death.
... The newly
released files show top Department of Justice officials met in 2018 and discussed Rich's
murder. They reviewed Rich's financial records and did not identify any unusual deposits or
withdrawals.
...One witness saw an individual walking away from the location where Rich was killed but
thought Rich was merely drunk so did not alert authorities . They realized something bad had
happened when they saw a bloodstain on the ground in the same place the following day, as well
as police tape surrounding the scene.
A person whose name was redacted took Rich's personal laptop to his house , according to one
of the newly released documents. The page also indicates that authorities were not aware if the
person deleted or changed anything on Rich's personal laptop.
The FBI came into possession of Rich's work laptop, the bureau
previously revealed .
On another page, it was said that "given [redacted] it is conceivable that an individual or
group would want to pay for his death."
"That doesn't sound like a random street robbery," Ty Clevenger, a lawyer, told The Epoch
Times.
... ... ...
The files were released this week in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Texas resident Brian
Huddleston, who Clevenger represents.
Huddleston sued the FBI after it told him it would take 8 to 10 months in June 2020 to
respond to his Freedom of Information Act request. Huddleston asked the FBI to produce all
data, documents, records, or communications that reference Seth Rich or his brother, Aaron
Rich.
A federal judge earlier this year ordered the FBI to produce documents concerning Rich by
April 23. The FBI identified 576 relevant documents but only produced 68 of them to
Huddleston.
The FBI has declined to speak about the lawsuit. Attorneys for Rich's parents did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
The documents show that some reporting on Rich's death was wrong, such as an ABC News
report
that claimed the FBI was not involved in investigating the murder.
Clevenger said he found concerning how the government apparently does not know whether
anything was deleted from Rich's personal laptop.
The documents were largely redacted but the information that did get through "shows that
their whole narrative is falling apart," he added. "It's a step in the right direction."
The attorney plans to ask U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant, an Obama nominee, to produce
unredacted copies for his perusal. The judge could rule that some redactions were improper.
Defendants could also face repercussions for not producing all of the documents they have
concerning Rich, including fines.
U.S. Attorney Andrea Parker, who is representing the FBI, told the judge in a court filing
this week that the bureau can only process 500 pages per month for each Freedom of Information
Act request. She asked the court to give the bureau additional time to produce all of the
relevant records.
Clevenger told the judge in a court filing this week that the private sector routinely
processes 500 pages or more per day and that the government should be afforded no more than two
weeks to produce the remaining 1,063 pages.
RiverRoad 1 hour ago
Was a reward offered for solving his murder? A robbery murder with a nice reward attached
in DC gets solved pretty quickly. Is it correct that his parents were given a million dollars
by the FBI to agree that questions re his murder are only conspiracy theory?
Buzz-Kill 11 hours ago (Edited)
WoW! The FBI does exist. Wonder when they're gonna get on the Hunter Biden investigation.
Waiting with anticipation! /s
Brazillionaire 2 hours ago
I think Chris has that scheduled for 2025 early/mid summer. But, then again, no reasonable
prosecutor...
Nelbev 12 hours ago
And PETER STRZOK was the FBI agent handling the investigation? Not an important detail to
mention in article, guess he was familiar with Seth case after his work burying the Clinton
investigation, and obvious match, best FBI agent to pick for the investigation.;
Art link https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20690299-fbi-documents-on-seth-rich
Larry Dallas 12 hours ago
How did someone so gay get hired at the FBI?
Foe Jaws 11 hours ago
Comey, Mueller, Wray....totalfagotDrats
Nelbev 11 hours ago
Ask his wife at SEC who was just promoted by Xiden.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/01/29/sec-moves-peter-strzoks-wife-to-senior-enforcement-position/
Agstacker 5 hours ago
I guess you've never heard of J. Edgar Hoover...
McStain 11 hours ago remove link
He seems to be everywhere doesn't he?
Hillary.....Seth....Trump.....and covering up for dems and attacking repubs 100% of the
time.
LetThemEatRand 12 hours ago
Crazy conspiracy theories for f's sake. It is totally common in a robbery not to take the
guy's wallet.
williambanzai7 PREMIUM 12 hours ago
They solve all the cases involving known terrorist suspects with connections to the FBI.
But everything else is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma.
hackjealousy 12 hours ago
If only the attacker had dropped his passport at the scene.
LetThemEatRand 12 hours ago
"A person whose name was redacted took Rich's personal laptop to his house, according to
one of the newly released documents. The page also indicates that authorities were not aware
if the person deleted or changed anything on Rich's personal laptop."
Happens all the time. Wear your mask, take your jab, 9/11, WMDs.
r0mulus 11 hours ago
Yes- why exactly would anybody be handling Rich's personal laptop after he died? And why
would they need to have their name redacted?
Bunga Bunga 10 hours ago remove link
Here are the important details: [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]
Pardalis 12 hours ago
Seth Rich's murder was a political assassination. Did John Podesta have Seth Rich
murdered?
Soloamber 12 hours ago
Are the Kennedy's gun shy ?
Podesta wanted an example .
DNC ordered hit .
Seasmoke 12 hours ago remove link
Lost all respect for the FBI.
Tinfoil Masker 12 hours ago
You mean like 58 years ago right?
r0mulus 11 hours ago
At this point, it's been at least 75 years since they deserved any respect. Probably
longer.
lwilland1012 11 hours ago
Durham? What the Hell is a John Durham?
Dr Phuckit 11 hours ago
Summed up in three words
Russia Russia Russia
Redactions don't protect the Innocent, they protect the Guilty.
And it's obvious some people at the FBI were deeply involved.
sbin 11 hours ago
Epoch times
Surprised they didn't blame China.
Almost as believable as Bellingcat Gatestone White helmets or CNN.
DNC scum had Seth Rich murdered.
messystateofaffairs 10 hours ago
FBI released? Thats for disinformation purposes not part of a search for truth.
uhland62 9 hours ago
I thought NSA saves every keystroke people make. So when Seth's keystrokes happened, there
was a computer glitch?
ClamJammer 7 hours ago
Right, but they only use that for evidence to lock up the likes of you and me, not to
expose the crimes they themselves commit. Despite being funded by the tax-payer, i dont think
a FOI request works there.
El Chapo Read 12 hours ago
About as truthful as the 9/11 Commission Report.
Spare me.
NightWriter 12 hours ago
Just like the 2020 Election verdict:
The Deep State finds the Deep State not guilty.
Mzhen 12 hours ago
The Rich murder was a subject of discussion for FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa
Page.
Gringo Viejo 10 hours ago
5 years after the fact. What's the FBI's motive in releasing this information at this
time?
... ... ...
Soloamber 10 hours ago
The FBI motive ...They were told to .
Kanzen Saimin 9 hours ago
It's a clever tactic used by professional liars. If you can distract people for long
enough they will forget about what happened in the first place.
... ... ...
uhland62 9 hours ago
Same thing happened in Australia. What made Australia has been privatized, deregulated,
and digitized. And now we are payment slaves to a handful of global billionaires.
But today we celebrate national militarism day, Anzac Day and we get softened up by the
politicians to accept a war against China.
Nelbev 11 hours ago remove link
Wiki and Snopes - just propaganda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Seth_Rich
"Conspiracy theories ... Debunking
Rich family representative, Brad Bauman, responding to the conspiracy theorists' claim
that the FBI was investigating the case said, " The FBI is not now and has never been a party
to this investigation. "
" The FBI has indirectly denied investigating the case , which Washington police consider
a robbery gone wrong."
" Snopes.com looked
into the matter and stated: "We were able to confirm the FBI is not investigating Rich's
murder "
Kanzen Saimin 9 hours ago
Wikipedia wasn't allowed to be referenced when I attended university years ago. The
co-founder disavows it now.
And as for
Snopes. ..
ironmace II 12 hours ago remove link
Half a decade later, they still can't find their own ***.
That's the way it will stay.
sbin 12 hours ago
Barr and Dunham are looking into it.
gcjohns1971 1 hour ago
Given the sordid, lawless, partisan, and seditious history of the FBI since its founding,
why should anyone suspect their actions here are benign?
ThanksIwillHaveAnother 3 hours ago
Seth Rich supported Bernie Sanders. He saw how Hillary and Dems piped in cheers for
Hillary and detuned the real cheers for Bernie. He saw how the powers behind the curtain
manipulated Hillary into being the nominee. He sent the files to WikiLeaks. Now ask
yourself...would someone want him killed???
Chief Joesph 3 hours ago remove link
Really can't help to think Hillary Clinton had a hand in Rich's murder. Afterall, Rich
knew about her financial affairs, along with the rest of the Democratic party, and was
passing it on to Wikileaks. It also stands to reason why the Democrats would like to see
Julian Assange murdered too. Needless to say, Assange will never see any prospects for Biden
to pardon him.
But what doesn't make sense is if this murder was at the hands of someone wanting to rob
Rich, then why didn't they take his computer along with his wallet? (Neither was taken). The
Police invented that story for public consumption.
Dragon Breath 3 hours ago (Edited)
We're certain that Director Wray at the FIB is burning the midnight oil trying to solve
Seth Rich's murder, Wiener's laptop crimes, Clinton's computer server crimes, and any day now
Hunter Biden's crimes with evidence on his laptop that he "lost" at the computer repair shop.
Wray and the FIB have it all under control...
It's all under control...
DayWear 3 hours ago
"the bureau can only process 500 pages per month"
that is so laughable I can't believe the fbi attorney even agreed to say it.
MaF 33 minutes ago
500/month = 25 pages/day = 3 pages/hr.
Sounds like only 1 govidiot is doing all the "work."
fleur de lis 2 hours ago remove link
As if the FBI would even dare issue parking tickets to the DNC psychopaths whom they know
very well to be the plotters.
The FBI ain't what it used to be.
Only listen to Comey for one minute.
The FBI is just a security guard agency for whomever has the biggest checks and best
benefits.
TheySayIAmOkay 3 hours ago
Smartest criminal in DC. No traffic cams. No store cams. No gunshots. No witnesses. He
even stole stuff that wasn't there.
Vandal 2 hours ago
Yep...and the American Gestapo(FBI) is complicit in the coverup. True Deepstate kind of
stuff.
Blurb 3 hours ago
Let's see here...
The FBI would have benefited from this guy getting killed, and they're the ones
investigating the murder...
The media reports that the FBI are not investigating, which turns out to be a lie.
The FBI somehow ends up with Seth Rich's laptop, even admitting that 'someone might have
deleted something'.
The FBI won't turn over documents, many of which had redacted content.
These are the people we got glimpses of from 2016 to 2020. Now, they are back in the
shadows.
Weedlord Bonerhitler 3 hours ago
https://newspunch.com/fbi-fabricating-seth-rich/
I'll just leave this here, for anyone interested in a level of detail to this case that
most people aren't aware of.
tl;dr: The FBI may have provided the guns used to kill Rich. An FBI agent's car was broken
into the night of Rich's murder, and guns were stolen. Then the FBI ****** with the
timestamps of the event to make it look like it took place after the murder, when in fact, it
took place before.
Suzy Q 3 hours ago remove link
I remember that incident of the stolen guns. Very odd circumstances surrounding that
"theft" of FBI weapons.
TheRealBilboBaggins 4 hours ago
With all the obvious wrong-doing at the FBI, did any FBI agents come forward to denounce
it? Anyone? Anyone?
True Ferris Buehler moment looking for an FBI agent to testify against criminality.
Jung 5 hours ago
It was already a long while back when Julian Assange spoke about Rich and the so-called
Clinton email scandal: justice in the USA is worse than many a banana republic (more
sophisticated). Of course it was not Russia, it was proven to be no hack at all, but a
person, likely Seth Rich. At the end of time we'll know more.
US Banana Republic 4 hours ago
Guaranteed the Deep State (and that includes the FBI), the Clintons and the DNC all had
their fingers in it. But especially Hillary.
JOHNLGALT. 5 hours ago
Never mind. JOHN DURHAM is on the job. SARC.🆗
Fat Beaver 12 hours ago (Edited)
Never anything about the female fbi officer's duty weapon stolen off the front seat of her
suv 2 blocks away from the murder site 2 hours before the murder...she was apparently
shagging up with another agent and parked in his driveway and left the gun on the front seat
with passenger side window completely open...she reported it to police 2 hours before the
murder...this was found by a private investigator about a week after the murder and
published, never to be brought up again.
Nelbev 11 hours ago
It was a .40 caliber Glock and a rifle stolen out of the FBI vehicle, but no casings found
on ground at murder site, thus it is assumed that the murder weapon was a revolver (unless
someone picked up the casings).
Nelbev 11 hours ago remove link
Some informed person at the scene could have cleaned up, but doubt it. Rich was only
wounded at scene, not dead. As I remember there was funny business at the hospital too before
he died. I do not see reporting of the bullet's caliber.
JustSayNo 10 minutes ago
I don't need to read it. I won't believe a thing the FBI says and I also don't believe
that ANY US attorney actually does the job the American taxpayer pays them to do. I've got no
faith in any US attorney and the FBI has been a joke for longer ago than they shot that guys
wife and kid out west. FBI=coverup, period. And everyone knows it.
When I want to know what really happned to Seth Rich, the ZH comments section is actually
my best source
black rifles are cool 1 hour ago
Here is link to the redacted pages. http://www.e-try.com/black.htm
yerfej 3 hours ago
The federal bureaucracy, including the FBI, is now part of the democrat fascist regime in
TOTAL control in washington. Long ago these bureaucrats stopped working for the public and
began focusing on their own agenda where they don't have to answer to anyone. Reality is that
washington is a national Mafioso operation demanding extortion (protection) money from the
public, they serve themselves. The scary part is they don't just demand the protection money,
they demand everyone adhere to politically correct thoughts, speech, and actions, or you'll
be destroyed by the state.
Downhill from here 4 hours ago
What is the FBI's jurisdiction to conduct the investigation? He was not a state law
enforcement officer, he was not an interstate traveler, and was not a federal employee.
TheFederalistPapers 5 hours ago
The FBI is a brand and not a law enforcement agency.
rag_house 5 hours ago
Our government has a long history of having those that commit the crime then perform an
investigation on themselves. Wouldn't be surprised one bit if that is true here.
notfeelinthebern 12 hours ago remove link
All rats lead to Rome, is what they are not saying.
El Chapo Read 11 hours ago
All roads lead to Tel Aviv.
FIFY.
Dumpster Elite 23 minutes ago remove link
The FBI....they make the KGB look like a boy scout organization. Seriously...do you TRUST
the FBI, or do you view them as an enforcement tool of the Globalists.
DeeDeeTwo 25 minutes ago
Whew, it's a good thing Trump drained the swamp and declassified everything.
Totally_Disillusioned 26 minutes ago
The FBI has released their "findings" which we all know from previous "findings" released,
they are a mix of half-truth, manufactured evidence and outright lies. With our Federal law
enforcement, we will NEVER know the truth about matters they "investigate". Several quickly
come to mind such as Russiagate, Kennedy assassination, MLK assassination, explosion Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City, 9/11, Justice Anton Scalia's murder, Ruby Ridge, Dividian
Compound, as well as so many more to list.
PT 5 hours ago
Only five years late. Who knows what progress they might make in another five years?
fishpoem 16 minutes ago
A person whose name was redacted took Rich's personal laptop to his house If one follows
the bread crumbs through the forest, it will certainly lead straight to the Witch's
house.
Angelo Misterioso 19 minutes ago
Strange that not a single house on that street had any video or ring doorbell or stuff
like that...
Notable quotes:
"... The USA has striven to obtain full spectrum dominance and they appear to have gotten close in terms of public political imagination, western political elites almost entirely in the 'hate russia' camp, useful idiots snapping at the Russian and Chinese heels, permanent state of conflict awareness and uncertainty in the public mind, perfection of colour revolution technique and its social infrastructure development mechanism. ..."
uncle tungsten , Apr 19 2021 20:48 utc |
40
I think Scott Ritter is engaging in an imaginative future if he thinks the 'hate russia'
team has no successors. The academy will be full of them just itching for an interns job with
a congresscritter.
Speaking of warmongers, where is Tony Blair these days? Could he be the USA useful idiot
egging Boris on to sail a warship or two to the Black Sea? He never met a war he didn't like,
did the 'hard man' act for Bush the fool, and has been traipsing about any warzone
pontificating for a fat fee and would be right at home being the bumper-upper for Boris. It
would all be hush hush as he is hated in UK.
In 2018 Boris appointed the previous UK ambassador to Turkey, Richard Moore, to the Chief
of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He was formerly the Director General, Political, at
the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Moore attended St George's College,
Weybridge. Batchelor's degree at Worcester College, Oxford. He then won a Kennedy Scholarship
to study at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University. In 2007, he attended the
Stanford Executive Programme.
The ducks have been in alignment for some time.
powerandpeople , Apr 19 2021 20:49 utc |
41
Excellent article, B highlights that change won't come from the new administration BECAUSE
money flows to the congressional-industrial-military cabal only if the existing regime is in
power AND USA remains a 2 party system - one 'better' than China.
This principal was echoed in November 2020 by ex US Army Danny Sjursen
"...it's obvious that the Biden bunch has no desire to slow down, no less halt, the
"revolving door" that connects national security work in the government and jobs or
security consulting positions in the defense industry. The same goes for the think tanks
that the arms producers amply fund to justify the whole circus...
Or consider retired Marine Corps major general turned defense consultant Arnold Punaro
who recently said of Biden's coming tenure, "I think the industry will have, when it comes
to national security, a very positive view."
Given the evidence that business-as-usual will continue in the Biden years, perhaps it's
time to take that advice from Cornel West, absorb the truth about Biden's future national
security squad, and act accordingly. There's no top-down salvation on the agenda -- not
from Joe or his crew of consummate insiders. Pressure and change will flow from the
grassroots or it won't come at all."
Salvation can only COME FROM the good people of America
But the very voting system prevents other voices being heard. There is no proportional
representation, therefore no other views than the highly paid military-industrial
consultants, the merchants of violence.
The Tweedledum and Tweedledee American political system is ossified, inflexible,
suppressive.
A giant echo chamber.
Hello! Hello! anyone with a brain in there?
The echos bounce and fade. No reply.
American foreign policy is brain dead.
Until compulsory military service is Brought back to USA, all children of the highest
earning bracket straight to the front line, no soft touch deployments, no bone-spur
deferment.
Then, and only then, will foreign policy change under the US 2 party self-enrichment
system.
juliania , Apr 19 2021 21:04 utc |
43
Stonebird @ 36 writes:
"...For four years, both "choices" were hammered by the Democrats into the supine brains
of the US masses. which has given rise to "automatic" and forceful unthinking
attitudes..."
This is not true, and pardon me for saying so because indeed there are elements of truth
in what you are saying. It is NOT the US masses that are grabbing guns and ammunition and
commiting mayhem on their fellow citizens. It is the gullible and the weak and the mentally
disturbed, who are present in any large and stressed society. They probably match the one
percenters at the top and cohorts in the ten percent - (just a guess on my part) but they are
NOT the 'masses'.
The masses have bucked the mainstream mantras of the past O-T and now B years. We don't
have power - power is as you say with the rich, with the party demagogues, with the leeches,
and as b points out, their rule is coming to an end but they still hold the reins of power.
Whether or not Biden saw, or Trump saw, or even Obama saw, that this is not the way it ought
to be - they have each been powerless to do anything about it in a meaningful way so far.
Don't give up. It's a long haul but here's where I agree with the TINA principle. There is
no alternative. We just have to keep on keeping on. The Dems will lose power in Congress come
next elections. There will be inroads made, and if Republicans get elected, so be it. A few
more will have better souls, and inch by inch the oldies will have to yield. It's gonna
happen. And, in answer to a post above:
What has Putinist regime "restraint " achieved so far except brazen falsehood and enmity?
[Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 19 2021 17:17 ]
Putin and his cohorts have achieved the reinstatement of the Russian Federation with
alignment with China and the tipping of the balance of world understanding in their favor.
This is a force mightier than the US and western allies neoliberal, oligarchic agenda, and
with patience and firm commitment it will prevail.
Thank God.
uncle tungsten , Apr 19 2021 21:25 utc |
47
alaff #27
++
Thank you for that incisive statement. One only has to watch those 5 minute utoob by Steve
Pieczenic I posted to get a sense of the totality of USA dominance and imagined dominance and
the malign drivers of its reach. I know he is a blowhard but he was at the apex of the dirty
game. He is a rigid anticommunist, he talks as if Putin is one of their successes, he hates
Xi so he must be alarmed that they have been brought into anti empire unity.
The USA has striven to obtain full spectrum dominance and they appear to have gotten
close in terms of public political imagination, western political elites almost entirely in
the 'hate russia' camp, useful idiots snapping at the Russian and Chinese heels, permanent
state of conflict awareness and uncertainty in the public mind, perfection of colour
revolution technique and its social infrastructure development mechanism.
Conventional weaponry has slipped their grasp. But that is matched by an alternative that
they won't hesitate to use.
uncle tungsten , Apr 19 2021 21:42 utc |
50
juliania #43
Putin and his cohorts have achieved the reinstatement of the Russian Federation with
alignment with China and the tipping of the balance of world understanding in their favor.
This is a force mightier than the US and western allies neoliberal, oligarchic agenda, and
with patience and firm commitment it will prevail.
Thank you, that is the essence of diplomacy and the avoidance of conflict and even
war.
War must end. It is an ignorant reversal of human progress, it poisons minds and the earth
itself. Its legacy is one of tears and material loss. It give no one person of good will any
benefit. It slaughters the innocent!! children, women and men and our environment. It is the
game of ignorance asserting superiority over thought and imagination.
It is the daring imagination of betterment that motivates the development of OBOR and the
east to west transit corridor in Russia. It is imagination of betterment to build trade and
access to economy and elevation from poverty that is of the utmost benefit to us humans
sharing and caring for this beautiful planet.
If the west cast off its parasitic mentality toward the other and embraced the same daring
imagination for its people's betterment they might come close to the achievements we have
seen in Russia and China and elsewhere that the philosophy is paramount. There is always hope
and the chance that might come about.
uncle tungsten , Apr 19 2021 22:27 utc |
53
Intensifying anti Russian policies will result in the same outcomes the USA achieved in
their anti Iranian policies.
EJ Magnier reports on the recent JCPOA members meeting:
"The Islamic Republic proved to be a shark with sharp teeth during its negotiation with the
signatories (Russia, China, France, Great Britain and Germany) of the nuclear deal in
Vienna, leaving few choices to the negotiators. Iran showed how complex and inflexible its
position is with the most powerful county in the world, forbidding the US envoy to join the
mediators in the same room because Donald Trump revoked its 2015 nuclear deal agreement.
Moreover, Iran used the Israeli sabotage actions against the Natanz nuclear facility as an
excuse to hit Israel, the US and all European negotiators who side with the Americans...
...Iran did not ask for a guarantee against another Trump-like decision – which
revoked the nuclear deal – in the future because its nuclear capability is the
guarantee. Iran is not asking for a guarantee from China and Russia, which are under US
sanctions. Iran exhausted its patience in 2018 when it waited for an entire year without
using its right to gradually withdraw from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
Iran then believed Europe might come forward and hold to its commitments even if the US
pulled back. That was not the case, and Tehran is now aware that Europe and the US have the
same objectives hidden behind different behaviours.
Today it is known that Iran is enriching uranium up to 60% and can reach 90% in several
months. This does not mean Iran is necessarily producing nuclear weapons, but it is enough
to cross the West's red lines. If the US sanctions are not lifted or partially lifted, if
the deal is revoked or other sanctions are imposed in the future, Iran will fall back into
its complete nuclear cycle without any warning."
round-color: rgb(222, 227, 233); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">
Then, and only then, will foreign policy change under the US 2 party self-enrichment system.
Posted by: powerandpeople | Apr 19 2021 20:49 utc | 41
Stonebird @ 36 writes:
"...For four years, both "choices" were hammered by the Democrats into the supine brains of the US masses. which has given rise to
"automatic" and forceful unthinking attitudes..."
This is not true, and pardon me for saying so because indeed there are elements of truth in what you are saying. It is NOT the US
masses that are grabbing guns and ammunition and commiting mayhem on their fellow citizens. It is the gullible and the weak and the
mentally disturbed, who are present in any large and stressed society. They probably match the one percenters at the top and cohorts
in the ten percent - (just a guess on my part) but they are NOT the 'masses'.
The masses have bucked the mainstream mantras of the past O-T and now B years. We don't have power - power is as you say with the
rich, with the party demagogues, with the leeches, and as b points out, their rule is coming to an end but they still hold the reins
of power. Whether or not Biden saw, or Trump saw, or even Obama saw, that this is not the way it ought to be - they have each been
powerless to do anything about it in a meaningful way so far.
Don't give up. It's a long haul but here's where I agree with the TINA principle. There is no alternative. We just have to keep on
keeping on. The Dems will lose power in Congress come next elections. There will be inroads made, and if Republicans get elected, so
be it. A few more will have better souls, and inch by inch the oldies will have to yield. It's gonna happen. And, in answer to a
post above:
What has Putinist regime "restraint " achieved so far except brazen falsehood and enmity?
[Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 19 2021 17:17 ]
Putin and his cohorts have achieved the reinstatement of the Russian Federation with alignment with China and the tipping of the
balance of world understanding in their favor. This is a force mightier than the US and western allies neoliberal, oligarchic
agenda, and with patience and firm commitment it will prevail.
Thank God.
Posted by: juliania | Apr 19 2021 21:04 utc | 43
alaff #27
++
Thank you for that incisive statement. One only has to watch those 5 minute utoob by Steve Pieczenic I posted to get a sense of the
totality of USA dominance and imagined dominance and the malign drivers of its reach. I know he is a blowhard but he was at the apex
of the dirty game. He is a rigid anticommunist, he talks as if Putin is one of their successes, he hates Xi so he must be alarmed
that they have been brought into anti empire unity.
The USA has striven to obtain full spectrum dominance and they appear to have gotten close in terms of public political
imagination, western political elites almost entirely in the 'hate russia' camp, useful idiots snapping at the Russian and Chinese
heels, permanent state of conflict awareness and uncertainty in the public mind, perfection of colour revolution technique and its
social infrastructure development mechanism.
Conventional weaponry has slipped their grasp. But that is matched by an alternative that they won't hesitate to use.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 19 2021 21:25 utc | 47
juliania #43
Putin and his cohorts have achieved the reinstatement of the Russian Federation with alignment with China and the tipping of the
balance of world understanding in their favor. This is a force mightier than the US and western allies neoliberal, oligarchic
agenda, and with patience and firm commitment it will prevail.
Thank you, that is the essence of diplomacy and the avoidance of conflict and even war.
War must end. It is an ignorant reversal of human progress, it poisons minds and the earth itself. Its legacy is one of tears and
material loss. It give no one person of good will any benefit. It slaughters the innocent!! children, women and men and our
environment. It is the game of ignorance asserting superiority over thought and imagination.
It is the daring imagination of betterment that motivates the development of OBOR and the east to west transit corridor in Russia.
It is imagination of betterment to build trade and access to economy and elevation from poverty that is of the utmost benefit to us
humans sharing and caring for this beautiful planet.
If the west cast off its parasitic mentality toward the other and embraced the same daring imagination for its people's betterment
they might come close to the achievements we have seen in Russia and China and elsewhere that the philosophy is paramount. There is
always hope and the chance that might come about.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 19 2021 21:42 utc | 50
Intensifying anti Russian policies will result in the same outcomes the USA achieved in their anti Iranian policies.
EJ Magnier reports on the recent JCPOA members meeting:
"The Islamic Republic proved to be a shark with sharp teeth during its negotiation with the signatories (Russia, China, France,
Great Britain and Germany) of the nuclear deal in Vienna, leaving few choices to the negotiators. Iran showed how complex and
inflexible its position is with the most powerful county in the world, forbidding the US envoy to join the mediators in the same
room because Donald Trump revoked its 2015 nuclear deal agreement. Moreover, Iran used the Israeli sabotage actions against the
Natanz nuclear facility as an excuse to hit Israel, the US and all European negotiators who side with the Americans...
...Iran did not ask for a guarantee against another Trump-like decision – which revoked the nuclear deal – in the future because
its nuclear capability is the guarantee. Iran is not asking for a guarantee from China and Russia, which are under US sanctions.
Iran exhausted its patience in 2018 when it waited for an entire year without using its right to gradually withdraw from the
JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Iran then believed Europe might come forward and hold to its commitments even if the
US pulled back. That was not the case, and Tehran is now aware that Europe and the US have the same objectives hidden behind
different behaviours.
Today it is known that Iran is enriching uranium up to 60% and can reach 90% in several months. This does not mean Iran is
necessarily producing nuclear weapons, but it is enough to cross the West's red lines. If the US sanctions are not lifted or
partially lifted, if the deal is revoked or other sanctions are imposed in the future, Iran will fall back into its complete
nuclear cycle without any warning."
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 19 2021 22:27 utc | 53
sset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4689067">
https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4689067
Tom , Apr 17 2021 22:07 utc |
40
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 21:21 utc | 38
I suspect Sullivan and Blinken's next gig will be something like that. "We came here to
forget", but instead of the French Legion, it will be PMC Wagner.
Personally what I would do would be a Operation Bagration 2.0 at the slightest misstep by
Ukraine. There is may too much on the table here. Bio labs, nests of NATO rats, nuclear power
plants, NATO missiles on the Ukrainian and Belarus borders with Russia. Time to clear out the
rats including Lviv. After disinfecting this part of eastern Europe (again) of that other far
more dangerous virus, Nazism, life will be much more peaceful in that part of the world, and
likely by the domino effect (yes I actually said that!) to other places in the world plagued
by US exceptionalism.
Looks like neo-McCarthyism is really irreversible in the USA now...
Oui , Apr 19 2021 19:11 utc |
23
... two decades a coordinated anti-Russia propaganda originating from the U.K. [MI-6
– its former spies – Khodorkovsky - The Interpreter - Henry Jackson Society] and
Washington DC a nest of anti-Russia lobbyists [Atlantic Council – BellingCat, etc]. In
fact it's the vast majority with groundless and poor reasoning, these folks despise
everything left, Socialist and Communist. Too many years and too much wealth have pushed the
anti-Russia agenda. The new generation with social media lack comprehension what information
is published and with what political agenda.
Due to the 9/11 attacks on America. the US and UK gave new life and purpose to NATO. From
Afghanistan the expeditionary force was sent to Libya and Syria. The colour revolutions gave
blood to anti-Putin rhetoric. US politics of both parties tried to divide the EU into Old and
New Europe. The criminal acts of CIA torture, rendition and black sites made a number of
states accomplishes in war crimes. No issue a decade later with drone assassinations. Calling
out "Putin" as killer is ridiculous looking in the mirror how many tens and hundreds of
thousands have died on the battlefield at the hands of the UK/US and allies. And the sales of
arms, munitions and lethal weapons reach new heights in the Middle East and warring
parties.
OCCRP Report: The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2 Billion on Soviet-Style Arms for Syrian
Rebels
The Czech Republic is responsible for arms and munitions delivery to Bulgarian arms
dealers working with Pentagon contracts. These ended up in the Ukraine, Syria, Libya and
Yemen. The bomb blast in Vrbetice most likely saved many (innocent) lives.
Some repentants
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Op-Ed of Dec. 2017 - 'NATO should not have committed to
membership of Ukraine and Georgia'
In the recent past I have written about Legatum at a time Anne Applebaum found her employ
at the think tank. The red alert signs and alarm bells were up at the time and I gave some
background information. The first lady of Poland (almost) and her hubby former UK citizen and
CIA agent Radek Sikorski of Afghan and Angola fame.
Anne Applebaum's Confession
Anne Applebaum: how my old friends paved the way for Trump and Brexit | The Guardian
– July 2020 |
Les7 , Apr 19 2021 19:53 utc |
28
After 50 years of hate creation(cold war 1)
After 15 years of chaos creation
After 15 years of slander andback-stabbing
We are to believe this cabal of humanity hating zealots will fade into the
background??
Because facts will matter???
Facts have never mattered. In this post-modern illusion our leaders call a reset, facts
actually have negative value...sorta like negative interest rates.
Expect insanity to multiply at the same rate as the money supply expands
Patroklos , Apr 19 2021 20:02 utc |
29
Adam Curtis' new documentary series ("I Just Can't Get You out of my Head") deals (in
part) with the way the West's entire worldview sees everything in simplistic Manichean terms,
like Star Wars. The West is always good (even when they act immorally) and the baddies are
always lone rogues, like a spaghetti Western. WW2 shaped the West's entire thinking about its
role in the world: the Allies are on the side of decency and freedom while the enemy is
simply evil through and through, beyond redemption. A parade of baddies from Hitler to
Castro, Uncle Ho, Khomeini, Gaddafi, Hussein, Assad, Putin and Xi. Bond movies and Hollywood
write the scripts, the MSM pumps out the pulp. No one wants to hear that history is a tad
more complicated than bogeymen vs. Marvel superheroes, but then history does have a lovely
way of biting people on the ass...
Why Washington's Anti-Russian Policies Are Likely To Intensify Mina , Apr 19
2021 16:49 utc |
1
Thanks to a monoculture of anti-Russia hawks in U.S. policy institutions relations between
the U.S. and Russia are likely to further decline. But some hope might be seen at the
horizon.
Scott Ritter predicts the end of a
generation of anti-Russian influencers in Washington DC who depict Russia and is policies as
being run by just one man:
These "Putin whisperers" infiltrated every aspect of American culture and politics, their
writings achieving near-scripture-like reception in the pages of American newspapers and
political journals, and the authors of this intellectual dreck being offered prime seats at
the table of national security policymaking, either on the National Security Council, or as
a National Intelligence Officer.
...
These "Putin Whisperers" thrived during the administration of President Barack Obama, led
by the likes of Michael McFaul, and achieved near-critical mass during the Trump
administration, empowered by overly politicized claims of collusion with Russia by people
in the Trump circle. They continue to play an important role today, filling the airwaves
and pages with anti-Putin propaganda whose cumulative effect is to dumb down the American
public by demonizing Russia and its president to the point that any accusation will be
accepted at face value , regardless of the lack of corroborating evidence or the improbable
veracity of its claim; the recent scandal over allegations that
Russia paid the Taliban bounties to kill Americans in Afghanistan serves as an apt
illustration of this phenomenon.
Unfortunately the constant demonization of Russia's president by the 'Putin-whisperers'
has already led to some
tragic consequences :
A children's author and parish councillor died after a neighbour with mental health issues
shot him in the face and stamped on his head, believing he worked for Vladimir Putin and
was to blame for the spread of Covid-19, an inquest heard.
But the danger of seeing everything caused by just one man is much greater. It explains
the
confused policies of the Biden administration which may lead towards war.
Ritter argues that Biden trapped
himself:
Biden is a prisoner of his own anti-Russian rhetoric, influenced in large part by the need
to be seen as responding to a domestic political prerogative founded on decades of Russia -
and Putin-bashing at the hands of the "Putin whisperers" and their ilk. It is one thing to
spout off as a candidate for president; it is an altogether different reality to be serving
as president, where words and actions have life-or-death consequences.
As the realities set in the people and their policies will have to change:
These are policies pushed and promoted by the "Putin whisperers." For the moment, their
will continues to prevail. But their days are numbered, as realpolitik pragmatists in the
White House, Pentagon and Intelligence Community are recognizing the reality that the days
of taking for granted US global hegemony are over, and that for the United States to remain
relevant, it must adapt to the reality of a multi-polar world, and Russia's rightful role
therein. This will not happen overnight, but it is in the process of happening. In
promoting and supporting Biden's latest round of sanctions, the "Putin whisperers" have
reached their high-water mark. From here on out, their influence will begin to ebb as the
national security demand for fact-based assessments outstrips the domestic political need
for fact-free propaganda.
I am not that optimistic. The Blob is resistant to change because those who are inside it
tend to bite away anyone with even a slightly different view.
Consider the case of Matthew Rojansky, Director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is known as a middle-of-the-road expert of U.S.
and Soviet/Russian relations - not a hawk, but also not an appeaser.
Rojansky was supposed to chair the Russia desk in Biden's National Security Council. As
soon as that became know the 'Putin Whisperers' came out in force to fight the nomination.
Axios
led the charge :
Cont. reading: Why Washington's Anti-Russian Policies Are Likely To
Intensify
Posted by b at 16:38
UTC |
Comments (54)
I am surprised that the Russians did not "leak" a few videos from the EU-sponsored refugee
camps in Greece. People becoming mad, violence, suicide attempts, it would be enough to close
for good the debate on Russian prisons.
vetinLA , Apr 19 2021 16:51 utc |
2
Increasingly, people need to disregard all rhetoric coming from the U$A. We're immersed in a
society, at present, that is coming apart at the seams.
Just exactly what our ruling elites want, to "grease the ways" for the new feudalism to
thrive.
Donbass Lives Matter , Apr 19 2021 16:58 utc |
3
It will continue for these reasons:
1) Conflict is a career opportunity. Peace is a bad way to get the grants, bribe money,
and stature that the DC sociopaths want. No one whose career depends on conflict gets
promoted without conflict.
2) They believe (possibly correctly) that they can attack Russia indirectly, or directly via
proxy, and that Russia will only defend, rather than going on a counteroffensive.
3) Sociopaths have a psychological attachment to doing bad things. If a sociopath were given
a choice between scamming a client out of $1000 and earning that amount by selling a good
product, the sociopath would choose the former option every time, even if the profit and
effort were the same.
Bernard F. , Apr 19 2021 17:09 utc |
4
Thanks b.
A lot to read tonight at work :-))
When rats in the same group start fighting each other because neither domination nor
escape is possible, it is a good sign of collapse.
Willingness is not ability
https://youtu.be/xBWmkwaTQ0k
And, by the way, Washington (even american people) isn't the unique policy maker.
As James wrote
@ james | Apr 19 2021 4:19 utc | 62
[...]
russia leadership under putin and company have played their hand exceedingly well and have
not got sucked into playing the game the way the west has wanted them to[...]
I posted it in the morning
Putin, as a leader of a country with 180 millions citizens and a huge history (and the
wounds of USSR collapsus) must consider "Overton window". He done it very well.
As a "Commander in Chief", he must consider first, not to be defeated.
Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of
defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. #
To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating
the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
We must stay focuse have at some facts (not fake) news.
As b. focused, Russia weaponized...a lot
Russian new weapons/military doctrine since 2010, even not Russian propaganda.
https://spacenews.com/new-reports-highlight-russian-chinese-advances-in-space-weapons/
https://news.usni.org/2021/04/08/russian-and-chinese-nuclear-threats-pose-problem-for-u-s-deterrence-experts-say
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/11/18/russian_strategic_and_hypersonic_naval_nuclear_weapons_650130.amp.html
Carl D , Apr 19 2021 17:16 utc |
5
They gonna permanently change the meaning of "intelligence", till the word indicates
stupidity
Biswapriya Purkayast , Apr 19 2021
17:17 utc |
6
Sanity will never set in without a massive defeat for Amerikastani interests. The most
obvious two, which are not mutually exclusive, are Occupied Syria (including the Muhaysinic
Emirate of Idlibistan and the Kyrd zionistan) and Ukranazistan. Russia needs to move on both
immediately and Brook no further delay. What has Putinist regime "restraint " achieved so far
except brazen falsehood and enmity?
Virgile , Apr 19 2021 17:23 utc |
8
It is possible that Biden is acting tough with symbolic sanctions to divert the attention
from the reality that the Nord Stream 2 is well and soon alive. He also gets praise from the
anti-russia
elements in his government.
Yet Ritter is right in a way. The tit-for-tat that Russia has decided to start will escalate
to the point of a serious accident that may shake the USA. That Biden qualify Russia's
response to the sanctions as "escalatory" shows that he took note that Russia will not stop
retaliating. He is starting to worry that this path will lead to a paralysis of the
diplomatic exchange on several important issues and to violent consequences detrimental to
the USA and its allies.
Is Biden still mentally capable of an independent opinion?
vk
, Apr 19 2021 17:36 utc |
9
Let me consult the oracles...
Here's the answer they gave me:
US, allies
besieging Russia offers lesson for China: Global Times editorial
There are complex historical reasons for Central and Eastern European countries to tilt
toward the US and become "anti-Russia," which is difficult for outsiders to comment on. It
is a pity that internal disintegration rather than coercion from the US had directly led to
the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian Federation was one of the main promoters of
the disintegration, and the original agreement to replace the Soviet Union with the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was signed by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian
leaders who had destroyed the Soviet Union had no idea what would happen to their country
afterward.
The collapse of the Soviet Union has brought about geopolitical changes globally, and
the evaluation of the event is destined to vary from country to country and from time to
time. But it has become increasingly clear that Russia has been the biggest loser from that
collapse.
Many Russians once believed that when the Communist Party stepped down and the Soviet
Union collapsed, the US and the West would embrace Russia and respect them who had taken
the initiative to end the Cold War. The reality, however, is harsh. Moscow has received no
gratitude or kindness from the West. From the moment the Soviet Union collapsed, the US has
arrogantly treated Russia as a defeated country in the Cold War, engaging in all possible
moves to suppress Russia at will.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was a geopolitical disaster for Russia. As the dominant
power in the Soviet Union, if it chose to support reforms to solve problems at the
beginning, Russia could pay a much smaller price than the geopolitical price it would pay
in the following 30 years. Back then, Moscow had a broad sphere of influence and powerful
control capability that it could act independently and defiantly against Washington. But it
has ceded those geopolitical resources, giving up its advantages.
The US' vicious attitude toward Russia offers a glimpse into the brutality of great
power competition and helps people see through Washington's geopolitical manipulation
measures. The US portrayed its Cold War with the Soviet Union as an ideological
confrontation to conceal its intention to dominate the world alone. Many people, including
Russians, believed that a political change of course would fundamentally change their
relationship with the US, and that Russia could thus integrate into the West and become a
dignified member of the Group of Eight.
Feral Finster , Apr 19 2021 17:37 utc |
10
Swear to God that Ritter is correct.
However, if the foreign policy establishment learned nothing and suffered neither personal
nor professional consequences from the War on Iraq, what makes Ritter so sure that anything
will be different this time?
Ian2 , Apr 19 2021 18:02 utc |
14
The first cold war lasted 44 years. I wonder how long this one will last?
fyi , Apr 19 2021 18:04 utc |
15
Mr. vk
This attitude was not uncommon among others, such as the Eastern Europeans.
Before 1991, they were vassals of USSR, now they are vassals of vassals - a notch down the
pecking order.
In Iran, there have been several million people - largely inhabiting the Greater Tehran
area and rather influential - who shared an analogous attitude as the Russians did before
1991.
Fortunately for Iran, Judeo-Christians tried to destroy her by trying to destroy her
economy.
Now, that population, has no leg to stand on - they are discredited domestically as their
programme of productive engagement with the West turned out to be a fool's errand.
Russians, in 1991, did not expect USSR to break-up, they did not understand that USSR was
unified in the corpus of the Red Tsar - just like the Russian Empire was unified (like the
United Kingdom) in the person of the Emperor of Russia.
In an analogous manner, the "Secularist Liberals" in Iran, denizens of Tehran - should
they get to power, will preside over the disintegration of Iran, since she is unified in the
Shia Religion.
There are fools everywhere.
Babyl-on , Apr 19 2021 18:09 utc |
16
It is indeed necessary for the US to recognize the reality of a multi-polar world.
However, let us be accurate, the West is one and only one empire of the Five Eyes alliance
and not just the US.
Ultimately the question is this: Will the Western empire accept it has failed and will never
control the entire world or will it use the nuclear weapons it used twice to become a global
empire to ruin the world for anyone else?
Donbass Lives Matter , Apr 19 2021 18:30 utc |
18
To paraphrase John McCain, the Ukraine is a suicide bomber masquerading as a country.
oldhippie , Apr 19 2021 18:42 utc |
19
Bill Browder is mentioned in b's top post.
Browder's grandfather is Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party USA. Now
freely admitted that he held that post on the payroll of FBI and Office of Naval
Intelligence. Bill merely continues the family business of damaging Russia by any means
possible.
Yes, Russophobia is a very durable policy.
vetinLA , Apr 19 2021 19:18 utc |
26
g @ 11 said;
" The CIA/Establishment/Neocon/liberal doctrine of a unitary imperial superpower that must
assimilate all of creation into its usurious, profit making empire, or else, is challenged
seriously by few."
There is NOTHING "liberal" in how our latest empire persues it's prerogatives of global
corporate hegemony.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal
Looks like neo-McCarthyism is really irreversible in the USA now...
Oui , Apr 19 2021 19:11 utc |
23
... two decades a coordinated anti-Russia propaganda originating from the U.K. [MI-6
– its former spies – Khodorkovsky - The Interpreter - Henry Jackson Society] and
Washington DC a nest of anti-Russia lobbyists [Atlantic Council – BellingCat, etc]. In
fact it's the vast majority with groundless and poor reasoning, these folks despise
everything left, Socialist and Communist. Too many years and too much wealth have pushed the
anti-Russia agenda. The new generation with social media lack comprehension what information
is published and with what political agenda.
Due to the 9/11 attacks on America. the US and UK gave new life and purpose to NATO. From
Afghanistan the expeditionary force was sent to Libya and Syria. The colour revolutions gave
blood to anti-Putin rhetoric. US politics of both parties tried to divide the EU into Old and
New Europe. The criminal acts of CIA torture, rendition and black sites made a number of
states accomplishes in war crimes. No issue a decade later with drone assassinations. Calling
out "Putin" as killer is ridiculous looking in the mirror how many tens and hundreds of
thousands have died on the battlefield at the hands of the UK/US and allies. And the sales of
arms, munitions and lethal weapons reach new heights in the Middle East and warring
parties.
OCCRP Report: The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2 Billion on Soviet-Style Arms for Syrian
Rebels
The Czech Republic is responsible for arms and munitions delivery to Bulgarian arms
dealers working with Pentagon contracts. These ended up in the Ukraine, Syria, Libya and
Yemen. The bomb blast in Vrbetice most likely saved many (innocent) lives.
Some repentants
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Op-Ed of Dec. 2017 - 'NATO should not have committed to
membership of Ukraine and Georgia'
In the recent past I have written about Legatum at a time Anne Applebaum found her employ
at the think tank. The red alert signs and alarm bells were up at the time and I gave some
background information. The first lady of Poland (almost) and her hubby former UK citizen and
CIA agent Radek Sikorski of Afghan and Angola fame.
Anne Applebaum's Confession
Anne Applebaum: how my old friends paved the way for Trump and Brexit | The Guardian
– July 2020 |
Les7 , Apr 19 2021 19:53 utc |
28
After 50 years of hate creation(cold war 1)
After 15 years of chaos creation
After 15 years of slander andback-stabbing
We are to believe this cabal of humanity hating zealots will fade into the
background??
Because facts will matter???
Facts have never mattered. In this post-modern illusion our leaders call a reset, facts
actually have negative value...sorta like negative interest rates.
Expect insanity to multiply at the same rate as the money supply expands
Patroklos , Apr 19 2021 20:02 utc |
29
Adam Curtis' new documentary series ("I Just Can't Get You out of my Head") deals (in
part) with the way the West's entire worldview sees everything in simplistic Manichean terms,
like Star Wars. The West is always good (even when they act immorally) and the baddies are
always lone rogues, like a spaghetti Western. WW2 shaped the West's entire thinking about its
role in the world: the Allies are on the side of decency and freedom while the enemy is
simply evil through and through, beyond redemption. A parade of baddies from Hitler to
Castro, Uncle Ho, Khomeini, Gaddafi, Hussein, Assad, Putin and Xi. Bond movies and Hollywood
write the scripts, the MSM pumps out the pulp. No one wants to hear that history is a tad
more complicated than bogeymen vs. Marvel superheroes, but then history does have a lovely
way of biting people on the ass...
"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
~attributed to Voltair
Dennis18 , Apr 19 2021 19:13 utc |
25
No one fact check's the claims made by the intelligent agencies. Bernie was told the
Russians wanted him to win the election and he jump right in the laps of the liars. Trump
knew more before he was president than he did once he was elected. That is why General Flynn
was removed under false charges. He knew what was what. I remember the head of the CIA told
Trump that the Russian has killed ducks and poison children. Trump fell for the lie hook line
and casino
Now we have a president that has mental issues and already believes the Russian are dirty
What could go wrong?
A foreign military bloc of nations is inching closer to Moscow, Vladimir Putin reacts in
kind, and somehow Russia is the aggressor. And learned Ph.D.'s scribble on, defying pure logic
from Washington's Think Tank Row. Here's the latest sensational proof that the world will
never, ever be at peace.
Dr. Mamuka Tsereteli and James Carafano have a new plan for defeating Russia for good. Now
get this, in America, we have institutions like The Heritage Foundation that fund supposed
research to perpetuate wars. No, really. The latest report of the foundation "Putin Threatens
Ukraine -- Here's the Danger and What US, Allies Should Do About It" is a blueprint for
continuing friction between west and east. Let's examine the three takeaways Heritage
Foundation puts forward.
According to Tsereteli and Carafano, Putin is about to attack Ukraine. These well-paid
foreign policy geniuses say a military buildup inside Russian territory, which was in response
to threats from Kyiv, proves beyond a doubt the dastardly Putin is about to overrun Russia's
neighbor. To quote the report, "Putin plans to use Russian forces in a full-blown military
engagement with that country [Ukraine]." Well, let's find out why Russia's president alerted
his military.
Didn't I just read how Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced that his country's
National Security and Defense Council had approved a strategy aimed at retaking Crimea and
reintegrating the strategically important peninsula? Yes, I am sure of it. Another Washington
think tank has already outlined something called the
Crimean Platform Initiative , another genius plan hatched in the bowels of CIA
headquarters, to make Crimea an expensive proposition for Russia.
This came into being the instant Joe Biden took the oath of office as president, and it's
only part of an overall strategy to engage Russia in a winner take all confrontation that many
experts say, is long overdue. And the has taken unilateral aggressive steps toward the Donbass
region and any pocket of the pro-Russia sentiment inside Ukraine. A statement by Russia's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova on this issue bears repeating
here:
"All efforts by Kyiv to reclaim Crimea are illegitimate and cannot be interpreted in any
other way but a threat of aggression against two Russian [federal] subjects. We reiterate
that we will consider the participation of any states or organizations in such activities,
including the Crimean Platform initiative, as a hostile act against Russia and direct
encroachment on its territorial integrity."
Now that we've established who the aggressor is, let's take a look at Tsereteli's and
Carafano's next brilliant takeaway point. The dynamic duo of war strategies says cosmetic
measures against Russia will not do! The "west" (meaning NATO), they say, needs a more clear
strategy. Which certainly means a massive arms buildup west of the Siverskyi Donets River. The
Zelensky government is being pushed from Washington to take even more drastic measures to force
Russia into a war stance. The editorial board of the Washington Post recently advised
Zelensky:
"Mr. Zelensky now has the opportunity to forge a partnership with Mr. Biden that could
decisively advance Ukraine's attempt to break free from Russia and join the democratic West.
He should seize on it."
So, now that we've shown who is doing the pushing here, let's turn to the final takeaway
from Heritage Foundation master strategists. Tsereteli and Carafano come right out and say
"countries left outside of NATO will remain targets of Russian aggression and manipulations."
So, the purpose of all this supposed spread of militaristic-based democracy is to expand NATO
to? I mean, seriously. Washington is not reaching out with the Peace Corps to shore up a
budding Eastern European democracy. The United States is kidnapping another former Soviet
republic on the way to the big score. My country has military bases in almost every country in
the world, has had more wars than the Mongols, and spends more on weapons than everybody else
combined – but Russia is being aggressive! Who believes this bullshit?
Let's be real here. First, please understand who is doing the "thinking" there in
Washington. Take James Carafano, the former Lt. Colonel who wrote speeches for the head of the
U.S. Army Chief of Staff. Carafano teaches at West Point, what the hell else can he advise, of
war with Russia does not come about? The man's life is about justifying war. Then there's
Mamuka Tsereteli, who's also the Founding Executive Director at the America-Georgia Business
Council. America-Georgia business, hmm? I wonder if there is an America-Ukraine business
council in the works soon? But, you can see where this new strategy from Heritage Foundation is
headed, can't you? Taking advice on foreign policy from these so-called experts is putting the
foxes in charge of the hen house. Only they're not as smart as foxes. They don't need to be.
The public is just that numbed and misinformed these days.
Is heavily involved in helping promote the EU's Three Seas Initiative (3SI), which is an
asymmetrical warfare economic platform to cut Russia off from the EU, and install the U.S. and
central European powers in her place in East Europe. This report from Mamuka Tsereteli at
Emerging Europe lays out the plan. To learn more about Tsereteli's role, readers should
research the so-called Frontier Europe Initiative, currently propagandizing for greater
Georgia-Ukraine strategies against Russia. Make no mistake, the narrative and strategies these
people are discussing are the precursors to including not only Ukraine in NATO but Georgia as
well. Retired Air Force General Phillip Breedlove and former CENTCOM Commander General Joseph
Votel are two of the "experts" helping to draft these strategies. And The Heritage Foundation
stands center stage of the move for NATO to force Putin and Russia into an inescapable
corner.
This report appeared first at New
Eastern Outlook
And there, is your true geopolitical Eurasia picture. The "west" will run on to Moscow,
start World War III, and then blame Putin for the holocaust.
retrocop 1 day ago
We protect other countries borders, but not our own. The Pentagon lists military personnel
in 514 "outposts" in 45 countries, and the DOD "acknowledges" personnel in more than 160
countries. Not bad for a nation that is essentially bankrupt.
TheABaum 23 hours ago
Did you mean entirely bankrupt?
The Count 20 hours ago (Edited)
Well, the border to Mexico is not really a border. It's just a never ending supply of
cheap labor.
Village-idiot 22 hours ago (Edited)
The Globalists really don't like Putin; they don't like anyone who fights them and
wins.
Putin already took their Russian central bank away from them.
He is also protecting the Russian culture, and is quickly turning Russia into the most
Christian country in the world (around 85% Christian so far).
Putin reputably hates paedophiles as much as Trump does.
They must destroy Putin before his ideas start to spread.
.
gro_dfd 21 hours ago (Edited)
From reading comments on ZH, Putin's ideas have already spread. His pro-capitalist,
anti-globalist, fiscally-conservative, nationalist, and culturally conservative views are
noticed. He has many admirers in the US.
jldpc 22 hours ago
It has been 209 years (1812) since Napoleon's complete defeat in Russia.
It has been 99 years (1917-1922) since the end of the Russian Revolution discarding
hundreds of years of Czarist rule, and the control/corruption of the elitist classes.
It has been 79 years (1942-1945) since the Germans were routed and destroyed by the
Russians.
Think the Russians are going to cave-in to Joe B. and his band of wishful thinkers?
Threatening the well armed, and very experienced Russians is a fool's game.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. – Alexander Pope
REDinFL 17 hours ago remove link
All of the angels are in heaven,
And few of the fools are dead.
-James Thurber, from "Further Fables for Our Time"
PatriotSurge 17 hours ago remove link
I guarantee neither PedoJoe, nor any of his advisors have ever heard of the folly of
attacking Russia. They don't read history.
Hell, most of them don't even read, clearly.
philbutler 11 hours ago
You are right. The only difference is, the Euromaidan put the Fourth Reich 250 miles from
Moscow. It's a helluva head start over where Hitler finished. Nukes will be the endgame on
this one I think.
norecovery , Apr 17 2021 20:23 utc |
25
@ pnyx -- It's not only that USians are unaware of much of what's happening in other
countries, it's the fact they are misinformed and misled about current events by propaganda.
This is also the case in Europe because their MSM also have been co-opted by the coordinated
Intelligence Apparatus (CIA - MI6 - FiveEyes) that controls the flow of information in the
U.S. MSM. We are witnessing censorship/control of Social Media, Search Engines, and formerly
independent websites as well.
This is an all-out effort of Class War. One aspect of this is to broadcast a hidden
personal message that if I feel oppressed, "it must be my own fault" because "success"
supposedly is within everyone's grasp (note the emphasis on celebrity 'culture').
It is difficult to find a black cat in the empty dark room, but neoliberal MSM jump over
their head screaming Cat! Evil Russian cat!
Notable quotes:
"... Looking for something in wikipedia, I discover that in 1961, the first manned spaceflight was..."a propaganda victory". There's no hope! ..."
"... I think Russians have weaponized word 'weaponized' because presence in headlines represents most useful mechanism to map current extent of Mockingbird 2 operations. ..."
"... It was an interesting demonstration of the circularity of belief mechanisms at work when people adopted ideas like: "Putin did not really intervene in our elections, he was much more devious. He made us think he did intervene and that way caused us to undermine ourselves! That is how devilish he is and we were even more right than we thought about that!" ..."
"... It is beyond question that such a "system" is overly hysterical, to say the least ..."
Last night Bryan MacDonald, an Irish journalist currently working for RT, picked up on a
theme we previously noted
here .
Bryan MacDonald @27khv - 19:21 UTC · Apr 4, 2021
With the US/UK press in full Russia hysteria mode, right now, it's time for a thread on
things the Anglo-American media has accused Moscow of "weaponising."
We shall start with Charlie Sheen.
Yes. Really. Not a joke.
Take a bow, @ak_mack & @ForeignPolicy

bigger
Bryan MacDonald's thread is a good opportunity to update our list of all the issues, ideas
and things Russia has weaponized.
Even while the list below now includes 111 entries - like robotic cockroaches, postmodernism
and 14.legged squids - it is likely far from being complete.
- Was Noah
Green the weaponized target of the GRU (Russian Military Intelligence) masked as the FBI
Cointelpro?
Russia News, April 2021
-
Congress Can Do Better to Fight Weaponized Corruption
Foreign Policy, April 2021
- WAR
ON THE WEST West on brink of vaccine 'world war' as Putin 'weaponizes' Sputnik V jab to
'attack' the EU, warns Macron
Sun, March 2021
-
Secret Is Out: Russia Weaponized and Trained Dolphins and Whales
National Interest, January 2021
-
Russia 'is researching how to weaponise deadly Ebola virus as part of a catastrophic doomsday
project', experts fear
Daily Mail, December 2020
-
Vladimir Putin wasted no time in weaponizing Trump's election conspiracies to spread Russian
propaganda
Busines Insider, November 2020
-
How Russia Tried to Weaponize Charlie Sheen
Foreign Policy, September 2020
-
'Beijing & Moscow have weaponized space through killer satellites, directed energy
weapons': Defense Sec
Sociable, September 2020
- Russia
Weaponizes Increasingly Sophisticated Disinformation
AFCEA, September 2020
- China
and Russia 'have weaponised space with killer energy weapon satellites '
Daily Star, September 2020
-
Russia's Weaponization of Tradition : The Case of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro
CSIS, September 2020
-
Will Russia Weaponize Its Wheat As the World Combats the Coronavirus?
National Interest, July 2020
- Russia Weaponized
(Again) with Anthony Leonardi
OAN (video), July 2020
-
Putin's Russia has weaponized World War II
Atlantic Council, May 2020
-
Russia has weaponized ideas of Samuel Huntington
The Hill, February 2020
-
How Russia weaponized social media , got caught and escaped consequences
Washington Post, November 2019
-
How Russian Hybrid Warfare Has Weaponized Disinformation
Daily Signal, November 2019
- Russian
Hybrid Warfare Has Weaponized Disinformation
Ohio Star, November 2019
- Russian
Hybrid Warfare Has Weaponized Disinformation
Tennessee Star, November 2019
-
For Russia, Even the Language Can Be a Weapon
Bloomberg, November 2019
- Russia Unveils
'Unique' Weaponized Icebreaker as It Eyes Arctic Oil and Gas
Newsweek, October 2019
-
The Weaponization of Postmodernism : Russia's New War with Europe
LSE, July 2019
- The Russians
weaponized laughter !
David Peck/Medium, February 2019
- How Putin's
Russia turned humour into a weapon
BBC, December 2018
-
Weaponizing an Economy : The Cryptoruble and Russia's Dystopian Future
U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), November 2018
-
Weaponizing Religion : Putin's Philosopher Ivan Ilyin
Daily Kos, November 2018
- The Russians Are
Weaponizing Health Information
History News Network, September 2018
-
Russian trolls are weaponizing the vaccine "debate" to divide Americans
Big Think, August 2018
-
US Accused Russia Of Weaponizing Space Due To "Abnormal Behavior" Of "Mysterious"
Satellite
Raw Conservative Opinions, August 2018
-
It's been 5 months since a Putin critic was found murdered in London, but almost nothing's
happened since -- and Russia is weaponizing the silence
Buisiness Insider, August 2018
- Russia Accused
Of 'Weaponized' Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Attacks
PrepForThat, August 2018
- Weaponizing hypocrisy , in
Russia and beyond
Columbia Journalism Review, July 2018
-
America's racism has long been Russia's secret weapon
CNN, July 2018
-
How Russia Is Weaponizing International Students in the New Cold War
Alternet, June 2018
-
Russia, Facebook & Cybersecurity: Combating Weaponized FUD in the Social Media
Age
Information Week, June 2018
-
Polish PM Calls Nord Stream 2 'Weapon' Of Hybrid Warfare
RFERL, May 2018
- Weaponizing
culture : "civilizationism" and nationalism in Putin's Russia
NED, March 2018
-
Vladimir Putin Outwitted Megyn Kelly by Weaponizing Incompetence
The New Yorker, March 2018
-
Britain accuses Russia of 'weaponizing information ' with 2017 cyberattack
New York Post, February 2018
- #PutinAtWar:
How Russia Weaponized "Russophobia"
DRFLab/Medium, February 2018
- Is Russia
Weaponizing The Giant Squid ?
Alltime Conspiracies, January 2018
- Putin
weaponizes sheep , launches hybrid attacks on US bases in Romania
The Duran, January 2018
- Russian army demonstrates
latest weapon: Cuddly puppies
Associated Press, January 2018
-
The Weaponization of Tedium Is Putin's New Strategy (Op-ed)
Moscow Times, December 2017
-
Fake news and botnets: how Russia weaponised the web
Guardian, December 2017
-
How Russia Weaponized Social Media With 'Social Bots'
NPR, November 2017
-
Russia has weaponized the energy sector in war against the West
The Hill, October 2017
-
Russia's Facebook ads show how Internet microtargeting can be weaponized
Cornell University, October 2017
-
'Russia weaponizing Facebook ' is a tipping point for how much we rely on tech, says
author
CNBC, October 2017
- How
Russia Weaponized Primetime
Coda, October 2017
- We're
learning more about how Russia weaponized Facebook, Twitter, and Google -- and it was
remarkably easy
Business Insider, October 2017
- Putin
threatens the world with weaponizing terrorism
Ukraine Military Pages, September 2017
-
Russia weaponized Twitter to sway election
CNN, September 2017
-
Russia Has Weaponized Energy
August 2017
-
Postmodernism Weaponized: Russia's Assault on American Science
American Council on Science and Health, August 2017
- How Vladimir
Putin weaponized the internet
The Week, June 2017
- Weaponizing
Kleptocracy : Putin's Hybrid Warfare
Hudson Institute, June 2017
- Russia Has
Weaponized Fake News to Sow Chaos
The New Republic, May 2017
-
Shaheen Says Russia 'Weaponizing' NatGas , Calls for More Sanctions
Natural Gas Intelligence, May 2017
-
How Russia Weaponized Social Media in Crimea
Strategy Bridge, May 2017
-
Eurovision, Russia, and weaponized disability
Euromaidan Press, March 2017
-
Russia Is 'Weaponizing Misinformation ,' Says UK Defense Secretary
NBC News, February 2017
-
'Meet The Press' Roundtable: Russia Weaponizing Intelligence ; Replacing Obamacare
Real Clear Politics, January 2017
-
Schiff: Russia 'weaponized' computer hacking
Washington Examiner, January 2017
- Rep.
Schiff: Unlike China's Hacks, Russia 'Weaponized' Data
Newsmax, January 2017
- Believe it or not:
Western media uncovers Putin plan to 'weaponize' 14-legged squid
RT, December 2016
-
Russia Weaponized Social Media in U.S. Election, FireEye Says
Bloomberg, December 2016
-
Russia is Weaponizing culture in CEE by creating a traditionalist "counter-culture"
Stop Fake, December 2016
-
Is 14-legged killer squid found TWO MILES beneath Antarctica being weaponised by
Putin?
Express, November 2016
- Russia
has weaponized the American press
Vice, October 2016
-
Putin 'Weaponizing' WikiLeaks to Help Trump: Clinton Campaign
Bloomberg, October 2016
- A
Powerful Russian Weapon: The Spread of False Stories
New York Times, August 2016
-
Commentary: Hybrid Business -- The Risks In The Kremlin's Weaponization Of The
Economy
RFERL, July 2016
-
Putin weaponizing Judo by distributing 7 million free copies of his book
SOTT, July 2016
- Latvia Decides
Putin Is Weaponizing Names - Bans Russian Names for New Babies
Russia Insider, June 2016
-
Putin is Weaponizing Popularity : Newsweek is not Amused
Off Guardian, June 2016
-
Putin Weaponises Crosshairs , Foiling Plans to Keep Romania & Poland Safe From Iranian
WMDs
The Blog Mire, June 2016
- Migrant crisis:
Russia and Syria 'weaponising' migration
BBC, March 2016
-
UK Says Russia Weaponizing 'Brexit' - Russian Embassy Slams Charge
Russia Insider, March 2016
-
How Russia Is 'Weaponizing' Migration to Destabilize Europe
Bloomberg, March 2016
- Is
Putin Weaponising Stupidity ?
The Blogmire, March 2016
- NATO
commander: Russia 'weaponizing' Syrian immigrants
World Tribune, March 2016
- Russia Is
Weaponizing Dolphins - Europe Quakes In Terror
Russia Insider, March 2016
-
Russia accused of 'weaponizing' Syria refugees
CNBC, February 2016
-
Is Russia 'Weaponizing Refugees ' To Advance Its Geopolitical Goals?
RFERL, February 2016
-
Russian Hackers Used Weaponized Word Files to Infect Ukraine's Power Grid
Softpedia, Jan 2016
-
Russian Hackers May Have Weaponized The Grid , And It's Got US Intel Spooked
Daily Caller, January 2016
-
Russian "Weaponized Default " Will Cause Financial Collapse Of Entire Western World
Satu Insan, January 2016
-
Russia's Population Is Being Weaponized
RealClearWorld, December 2015
- From commodification to
weaponization: the Russian language as 'pride' and 'profit' in Russia's transnational
discourses
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, December 2015
-
"Weaponizing" Federalism ? Russia and the Debate on Federalism/Decentralization in Ukraine
and Other Post-Soviet States"
Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, December 2015
- Weaponized AK47
NAILGUN - Russian Life Hack (vid)
Youtube, November 2015
- Russia is
Weaponizing Culture
Integrity Initiative, November 2015
-
Weaponized Default : Russia's Ultimate Answer to Western Aggression?
Russia Insider, September 2015
- Russia May
Soon Have Weaponized Robotic Cockroaches
Modern Notion, September 2015
- Russia Has
Weaponized Its National Trauma
ReadRussia, September 2015
- Putin Has
Weaponized Soviet History
Newsweek, July 2015
- WEAPONIZATION OF
FINANCE : Russia is turning to the Chinese yuan
Business Insider, June 2015
-
How Vladimir Putin Weaponized Russia's Media
Defense One , April 2015
-
Hearing: Confronting Russia's Weaponization of Information
Foreign Affairs, April 2015
-
How the Media Became One of Putin's Most Powerful Weapons
Atlantic, April 2015
- Russia's
"Weaponization" of Information
Heritage Foundation, April 2015
-
Weaponizing Weather : Russia And North Korea Might Be Able To Control The Weather, CIA
Allegedly Fears
Inquisitr, Feb 2015
-
The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information , Culture and Money
The Interpreter, November 2014
- Russia Has Weaponized
Ebola
Fortuna's Cornor/Morgenpost, August 2014
- Russia Is Weaponizing
Jedi Mind Tricks
Vice News, April 2014
- The Russians
Have Weaponized Photoshop
Global Voices, March 2014
- Whistleblower says
Russians got antigravity weaponized spaceships
Lunatic Outpost, August 2012
- Weaponizing
the Russian language in Latvia again
Thoughts From Latvia, December 2011
-
WEAPONIZING NATIONALITY : AN ANALYSIS OF RUSSIA'S PASSPORT POLICY IN GEORGIA
International Law Journal, Summer 2010
- More on Neo-Soviet
Russia Weaponizing Psychiatry
Publius Pundit, August 2007
Posted by b on April 5, 2021 at 10:53 UTC | Permalink
MarkU , Apr 5 2021 11:18 utc |
1
Some people, crazed extremists no doubt, might regard all that as a way of softening up
public opinion for conflict. Reading through the list, it seems more like the ravings of
paranoid schizophrenics then it does journalists.
peter mcloughlin , Apr 5 2021 11:19 utc |
2
This demonizing of Russia is an attempt to portray it as a threat: there is certainly a clash
of interests between Russia and the West. But the confrontation being pursued will not lead
to the conclusion NATO predicts. Failure to heed the warnings of history is leading us to the
nuclear apocalypse.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Josh , Apr 5 2021 11:44 utc |
3
Have to vote for #106. No contest, that's the winner.
Tuyzentfloot , Apr 5 2021 11:52 utc |
4
How US media weaponizes 'weaponizing'.
Mao Cheng Ji , Apr 5 2021 12:00 utc |
5
Yeah, little goebbelses of the western liberal establishment aren't too creative.
j. casey , Apr 5 2021 12:03 utc |
6
Brilliant, Mr. B. And funny, too. Gracias.
Carl , Apr 5 2021 12:11 utc |
7
Pathetic as this kind of propaganda is...it works. Which is very disturbing.
librul , Apr 5 2021 12:22 utc |
8
Hmm...think this is not off topic.
Even for Reuters their center headline, photo and subtext are over the top.
They no longer make any effort to disguise political opinion as facts
(their sheeple readers won't catch on).
As of this writing the headline is:
Half of Republicans believe false accounts of Capitol riot: Reuters/Ipsos poll
and the subtext is:
Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump
and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event
that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have
listened.
Stonebird , Apr 5 2021 12:26 utc |
9
from number 69
He tread water wearing a blissful smile as the organism approached him (14 armed
killer squid). Obviously the "vampire Squid" Goldman Sachs has been submersively trying to
disrupt Russia.
James Cook , Apr 5 2021 13:02 utc |
11
Is there anything that humans have created that has NOT BEEN WEAPONIZED??????????
Stonebird , Apr 5 2021 13:02 utc |
12
Irresistable force https://twitter.com/27khv/status/1378798225927380992/photo/1
(From b's first link above)
William Gruff , Apr 5 2021 13:12 utc |
13
Why would the CIA be so interested in the ability of North Korea to modify weather? Most
probably because the CIA's efforts to pull off a repeat of the flooding in North Korea in
1994-1995 failed and they want to know why.
Aside: Research the CIA's "Operation Popeye" in 1967 Vietnam if you are doubtful of
how evil and crazy the CIA is.
Most likely the party involved in foiling the CIA's plot to flood North Korea again and
trigger another famine was China and not Russia. Not only does China have extensive
experience with cloud seeding, but they are in the proper location to accomplish the task.
Cloud seeding is how the Chinese provided clear weather over Beijing for the Olympics in
2008... they seeded air masses farther upwind to make it rain there and dry out the air
heading to Beijing. If the air heading towards North Korea (relatively consistent west to
east flow there) has already been seeded and much of the moisture in it already precipitated
out, then when the CIA's spook planes seed it nearer to the Korean peninsula it will be too
dry to squeeze much more rain out of. The CIA would be cockblocked and frustrated and they
will naturally want to know why their attempts at genocide failed.
Virgile , Apr 5 2021 13:14 utc |
14
The Western media parrots in action!
librul , Apr 5 2021 14:19 utc |
15
https://collateralglobal.org/
Our Mission
At Collateral Global, we believe that there is an urgent need to study the consequences of
public health measures implemented in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, including the
second and third-order effects.
Through commitment to the enduring principles of scientific inquiry, we aim to provide
scholarship and research, building an evidence-based understanding of mitigation measures
that is both accessible and actionable.
How long until the above site is compromised or McCarthyism-smeared?
Erelis , Apr 5 2021 14:37 utc |
16
Maybe these count. I looked for variations of weaponize in title. These were stories I
remember reading and did quick search to retrieve something about them. Great list.
Russians Reportedly Weaponized Black Activism in U.S. During Presidential Election
https://www.diversityinc.com/russians-reportedly-weaponized-black-activism-u-s-presidential-election/
Don't Let Russia Undermine Trust in Science
Disinformation around genetic editing could set back advances to improve both health and the
economy.
https://slate.com/technology/2018/12/russia-science-disinformation-genetic-editing-crispr-social-media.html
Iowa Researchers Accuse Russia of Injecting Anti-GMO Propaganda Into U.S. Media
https://gizmodo.com/iowa-researchers-accuse-russia-of-injecting-anti-gmo-pr-1823364808
Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine
Debate
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/
ak74 , Apr 5 2021 14:41 utc |
17
I am deeply troubled that you conveniently neglected to include another fearsome Russian
Super-Dooper Weapon: the children's cartoon Masha and the Bear .
Future shock: Ban threat for the new Russian superweapon Masha and shows that subverted
all our minds
https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16340356.future-shock-ban-threat-new-russian-superweapon-masha-shows-subverted-minds/
Children's show is propaganda for Putin, say critics
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/childrens-show-is-propaganda-for-putin-say-critics-j9wxcvslm?region=global&--xx-meta=denied_for_visit%3D0%26visit_number%3D0%26visit_remaining%3D0%26visit_used%3D0&--xx-mvt-opted-out=false&--xx-uuid=bbcdd521f8671d6ea5e55d42f09bbec8&ni-statuscode=acsaz-307
It's obvious that Masha and the Bear is a nefarious Russian plot to steal the precious
bodily fluids of our children!
We must be constantly vigilant. The CIA, FBI, MI6, NSA, and Homeland Security must be
notified about the Masha Threat. YouTube must censor Masha. And blue check-marked Twitter
police must condemn anyone who watches Masha.
MikeH , Apr 5 2021 14:41 utc |
18
I can't believe Russia weaponizing Chuck Norris hasn't been claimed, yet.
librul , Apr 5 2021 14:49 utc |
19
This one didn't have the word 'weaponize', close though: "opening a new front in its spy
battles".
accusing the Kremlin of opening a new front in its spy battles with the West amid the
worldwide competition to contain the pandemic.
...
American intelligence officials said the Russians were aiming to steal research to
develop their own vaccine more quickly, not to sabotage other countries' efforts. There was
likely little immediate damage to global public health, cybersecurity experts said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/us/politics/vaccine-hacking-russia.html
librul , Apr 5 2021 15:00 utc |
20
From The Atlantic:
"How Putin Got Into America's Mind"
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/how-putin-got-into-americas-mind/616330/
Russia's weaponized Zersetzung
...
And although economic sanctions might hurt Russia's economy, they won't easily heal the
divisions that weaponized decomposition has deepened in America. Putin's assault on the
national soul is working.
Found another (though not very mainstream):
https://airmail.news/issues/2021-2-27/the-view-from-here
"Putin's allies weaponize wokeness to cancel the leader of the opposition, Alexei Navalny"
polecat , Apr 5 2021 15:07 utc |
21
So, the word for the weary is ***Weaponize*** .. with an R.
'sigh'
Fíréan , Apr 5 2021 15:08 utc |
22
Next they're weaponizing women's exotic underwear . God help the freemason who turns up at
the changing rooms in the wrong attire.
/humor.humour.
gottlieb , Apr 5 2021 15:15 utc |
23
Brilliant compilation to illustrate the propaganda war against Russia. The China list won't
be far behind as Enemy #1 for Empire is competition.
The simple fact is that WWIII is underway. We can see the slow motion train wreck as it
careens off the tracks into the nuclear weapons depot.
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.
jared , Apr 5 2021 15:26 utc |
24
The U.S. media is weaponizing ignorance.
The more one absorbs their reporting, the more the brain is reduced to mush.
I can only manage a few hundred works and I become irritated and disoriented.
My hat is off to people who can somehow look at that stuff and remain sane.
Or are they...hmmm...
Tuyzentfloot , Apr 5 2021 15:36 utc |
25
A major mistake in interpreting the massive parallelism of all these claims is to assume a
form of central coordination.
In fact the parallellism is spontaneous once the target has a bad reputation. Centrally
organized propaganda can tune the reputation of the target but even that is not essential and
it can happen organically. Once the reputation is set however the process has its own
momentum. There is a bit more to it than merely the reputation of the target because the
positive reputation of those who attack the target also plays. In fact you have to work with
a large network of trust relations to get a good picture.
Glenn Greenwald recently linked to an article of Erik Weinstein on Russell Conjugation , how
the same events get an entirely different emotional content depending on the reporter. In the
long list of links above everyone is using the same spectacles for looking at events, but
also for filtering what is relevant , meaningful and worthy of attention.
This is why the NYTimes is still an interesting paper once you know how to read it. But few
people can use it that way.
james , Apr 5 2021 16:17 utc |
26
i'm with ak74... let me know when they weaponize Masha and the Bear.... then we are really in
trouble! they have already weaponized karlof1 !!!
Jackrabbit , Apr 5
2021 16:55 utc |
28
Russia weaponizing vaccine resistance:
Russian trolls blamed for spreading anti-vaccination propaganda
Because vaccine resistance in USA somehow makes Russia safer ... or something. Doubts
about mRNA vaccines? You must be a Putin bot.
!!
jayc , Apr 5 2021 16:58 utc |
29
The Russians, along with the Chinese, have apparently weaponized the protests of British
citizens against overreaching Police legislation.
"The disruption being caused through "Kill the Bill" protests in UK is an effort by the
Sino-Russian alliance to destroy trust and confidence in political and institutional systems,
in a bid to leave society demoralised and feeling powerless against events."
https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/china-russia-use-social-media-fuel-protests-uk
div> Surely Harry and Megan must have been weaponized by that dreadful
Putin! Stands to reason. Doesn't it?
Posted by: foolisholdman , Apr 5 2021 17:25 utc |
31
Surely Harry and Megan must have been weaponized by that dreadful Putin! Stands to reason.
Doesn't it?
Posted by: foolisholdman | Apr 5 2021 17:25 utc |
31
lysias , Apr 5 2021 18:58 utc |
35
As the Heydrich character says in the Wannsee Conference movie, "Das ist die Sprachregelung".
Ana Q , Apr 5 2021 19:19 utc |
37
Looking for something in wikipedia, I discover that in 1961, the first manned spaceflight
was..."a propaganda victory". There's no hope!
Trauma2000 , Apr 5 2021 19:56 utc |
38
We need to keep in mind one thing: That which The West accuses Russia of, they are actually
committing themselves.
Nearly all of the 'weaponisations' that we are reading about above, The West is actually
DOING. The hypocracy is incredible. But we need to look at this hypocrisy, because in all
instances the propaganda is being directed at YOU! You / Us / Me in The West. We are the
target of this propaganda. In many instances it is MILITARY ORGANISTIONS that are targeting
civilians with lies and misinformation. WE are being attacked by military organisations.
I think enough is enough on The West. It's disgraceful that military organisations are
allowed to target civilians with BLATANT propaganda. It's time to fight back.
Thank you for sharing.
Bernard F. , Apr 5 2021 19:56 utc |
39
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gayle-tzemach-lemmon-americas-partner-isis-fight-seeking-clarity
Russia Amerika weaponized YPG & ISIS
Bernard F. , Apr 5 2021 20:23 utc |
40
Russia France weaponized Covid-19 vaccine
"We are facing a new type of world war , dealing with the actions of Russia and
China trying to gain influence through the supply of vaccines,"
Emmanuel Macron 26.03.2021
"Allez vous cacher, vilaines"
Les Précieuses ridicules, Molière
Michael , Apr 5 2021 21:54 utc |
44
Gotta love it! Conclusive proof of the Imperial "Free and Independent" press. ;-)
theyreeverywhere , Apr 5 2021 21:55 utc |
45
Howdy people. I think Russians have weaponized word 'weaponized' because presence in
headlines represents most useful mechanism to map current extent of Mockingbird 2
operations.
michaelj72 , Apr 5 2021 23:02 utc |
46
classical psychological projection by the weaponized narrative enablers of the worst Empire
in all human history, as we stand at 90 Seconds to Midnight on the very precipice of nuclear
war and ecological catastrophe, and the engine of the Armageddon Express starts to go off the
cliff....
but LOOK, over there!!
....it's all russia's and putin's fault
blues , Apr 5
2021 23:18 utc |
47
I have two parakeets that I have been trying to weaponize for the better part of a month. But
it appears to be totally hopeless. If Mr. Putin happens to read this blog for some
weaponistic purpose, would you please offer me some of your invaluable advice? Please?
uncle tungsten , Apr 5 2021 23:21 utc |
48
Norwegian #33
That contact tracing applies in Australia now. Commerce as usual and the coffee is
fine.
It only applies when there is a continuous daily detection - even one triggers the rule.
All is good, no Galicia brigade at the door. Yet.
Miss Lacy , Apr 6 2021 0:05 utc |
49
I think weaponized sheep is the winner, with incompetence a close second.
Jen, can you please tell me where one can watch the skating? Or perhaps, well we would call
them re-runs in the ancient history days - perhaps utoobs?
I see tantalizing hints on RT, but no real films.
The russian skaters (from what I saw last year) are truly amazing. Thanks.
vetinLA , Apr 6 2021 0:18 utc |
50
Edward Bernays would be amazed..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
Jen , Apr 6 2021 0:35 utc |
51
Norwegian @ 33:
If the system used by restaurants and cafes in HK is similar to what we have in Australia,
then they are required at least to provide a method by which their customers can be contacted
and advised if someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 has also visited the eateries
within 14 days of the customers having visited the establishments. That way those customers
can know if they need to isolate and limit their contacts with others.
The contact tracing is also supposed to help government authorities know how quickly the
disease is or is not spreading so they only have to lockdown certain neighbourhoods or areas
where there may be a cluster developing, instead of locking down an entire city or a state or
even a whole country.
Also you need to be careful reading Al Jazeera articles: Al Jazeera is definitely not a
fan of Russia or China.
"... And among those chafing at the government's response, like restaurant owners and their
customers, a form of grassroots resistance was forged.
Instead of asking their customers to scan the health department's QR code and transmit
their location, some owners have designed an alternative code that feeds into a Googleform
which will be erased every 31 days, the period for which businesses are required by
authorities to retain the data ..."
That action by the restaurant owners is not exactly grassroots resistance if the
authorities have already approved the Googleform and the erasures.
The one thing the Al Jazeera article missed (deliberately perhaps?) is that
COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxing in Hong Kong since February 2021 at least.
Kiza , Apr 6 2021 1:18 utc |
52
Around ten years ago, I called this "Dog Putin ate my homework syndrome". It is not only
propaganda against an economic, political and even soul competitor (last resort of real
Christianity is Russia), it is not even just a projection ("killer Putin", as Putin himself
explained). Its primary purpose is to tell you why you are living worse than 20 years ago,
why your children will live even worse than you now if they remain in this lost cause of
deeply corrupt and rotten so called countries. It is an excuse for everything that is wrong -
it is all because Putin and Xi weaponised it.
When I see such things in alt media, since I do not consume the swill from the main
sewerage media, I get that sinking feeling that I live in a wrong place, a place without a
future.
I do not care who the "authorities" denigrate, Russia, China, they are even to me. I only
wish they would do something to reduce the problems of our own societies instead of always
blaming someone else. Because as long as the rulers and their sewerage media sycophants keep
pointing fingers at Russia and China nothing will change for the better here where I am.
CarlD , Apr 6 2021 1:33 utc |
53
Jen @ 50
You mention a Googleform? in HK?
Google is not accesible in China. Baidu only.
uncle tungsten , Apr 6 2021 1:34 utc |
54
My hearing aids play the Red Flag when they turn on.
My Win10 pc plays the Internationale just show Gates that the Ruskies have his code.
My iPhone needs the hammer and sickle swipe on the dot matrix encryption pad.
Those Ruskies have a wicked sense of humor.
jiri , Apr 6 2021 2:26 utc |
55
Very revealing list.
Provides a fairly comprehensive list of what the West itself has been trying to do to
Russia.
Case of projection.
chola3 , Apr 6 2021 3:15 utc |
56
Any propaganda works if the people know they will never suffer the consequences of war.
The idea, all the way from Saddam Hussein, that we can influence the USA public to stop
their govt waging war on us, is misplaced.
I used to believe it too. I dont believe anymore. I dont believe the USA govt needs to
strain themselves to get the citizens behind them to put up blockades/sanctions or launch
cruise missiles.
Some still think this or that event will be used to "sanction russia", "attack iran"
etc.
(The "more sanctions coming" part is weird. As though Russia today prospers at the
pleasure of the West)
The only thing that stops an attack on Iran is hard cold realities of thousands of dead US
Marines and destitution at home once the oil terminals are blown up. Same vs Russia.
Still bloggers write stuff to try to convince the Anerican public.
Only thing that convinces any person/society is the consequences for actions.
But mark my words: West was beaten on 2020-01-08. Payment soon to Russia for going along
with the c19. Iran got some of its payment with that 25yr agreement.
Jen , Apr 6 2021 3:28 utc |
57
Carl D @ 52:
It's still "One Country / Two Systems" in China / Hongkong as far as I can tell. If
Googleforms are not available in Hongkong, maybe you need to tell
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
vetinLA , Apr 6 2021 3:39 utc |
58
"Because as long as the rulers and their sewerage media sycophants keep pointing fingers at
Russia and China nothing will change for the better here where I am."
Posted by: Kiza | Apr 6 2021 1:18 utc | 51
Absolutely Kiza, damn shame, but expect no change, and no disappointment will arise. The
new feudalism has arrived.
psychohistorian , Apr 6 2021 4:30 utc |
59
Below is a link to the latest Alastair Crooke piece at Strategic Culture and the take away
quote
How Russia Weaponized China
The take away ending quote
"
For the EU, the Chinese entry into global politics is more problematic. It was trying to
leverage its own 'strategic autonomy' by erecting European values as the gateway to inclusion
into its market and trade partnership. China effectively is telling the world to reject any
such hegemonic imposition of alien values and rights.
The EU is stranded in the midst. Unlike the U.S., it is precluded from printing the money
with which to resurrect its virus-blighted economy. It desperately needs trade and
investment. Its biggest trading partner, and its tech well-spring, however, has just told the
EU (as the U.S.), to give up on its moralising discourse. At the same time, Europe's
'security partner' has just demanded the opposite – that the EU strengthens it. What's
to be done? Sit back, and watch (with fingers crossed that no one does something extremely
stupid).
"
Kassandra , Apr 6 2021 6:58 utc |
60
Trying to wade through the muck that passes as news today IS a fools errand.
Long time reader of MOA, followed Paveway long ago.
B, keep this site alive and let me know how to contribute.
Tuyzentfloot , Apr 6 2021 7:57 utc |
61
It was an interesting demonstration of the circularity of belief mechanisms at work when
people adopted ideas like: "Putin did not really intervene in our elections, he was much more
devious. He made us think he did intervene and that way caused us to undermine ourselves!
That is how devilish he is and we were even more right than we thought about that!"
I recently read an article which stuck with me on a Flemish 'eminence grise' (Jan
Balliauw)on Russia which commented on
the European turnabout over the Sputnik vaccine(in dutch) : yes we misjudged the Russian
vaccine but it is the fault of the Russians and the bastards are cheering now! And he goes on
to the main theme by emphasizing the Russians can't be trusted.
Norwegian , Apr 6 2021 8:36 utc |
63
@Jen | Apr 6 2021 0:35 utc | 50
It is beyond question that such a "system" is overly hysterical, to say the least
. Show me the proof that there is a need to cancel democracy and human rights for something
that does not affect 99.9% if anyone at all. And if you do, why not lock everybody in because
of traffic accidents, violent crime or actual diseases such as malaria, dengue fever or
whatever.
I question the motives for what is going on: that is to say: I do not accept that people's
health is the driving factor behind this. Show me the proof that what is claimed is actually
happening and if so also show me the proof that the intrusive technology is actually
meaningful. In my view this is conditioning the people to accept personal surveillance on a
level that goes far beyond 1984, and it is infinitely more scary than "covid".
Bernard F. , Apr 6 2021 9:13 utc |
64
How Russia Amerika+France+UK+++ weaponized "the Great Syrian Democratic
Revolution"
How much longer can people still insist that there is a Syrian revolution, when the most
powerful group is not only friendly to the West, but an "asset"?
Very well summarize
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/04/06/648860/US-Media-Al-Qaeda-Facelift
Bernard F. , Apr 6 2021 9:18 utc |
65
@ Mina | Apr 6 2021 8:11 utc | 61
Since 1947 1830, "We" subsidize colonisation
Jen , Apr 6 2021 12:10 utc |
66
Norwegian @ 62:
In Australia, the minimum that restaurants, cafes, other dining establishments, other
private retail establishments and places where large numbers of people might gather can do is
provide a way in which customers and patrons can be notified that they may have come in
contact with someone who has COVID-19 or who has tested positive for COVID-19. But most of
these places cannot compel people to leave their contact details (usually mobile phone
numbers) with them.
In cases where places do compel people to leave their mobile phone details for the
purposes of contact tracing, people have the option of going somewhere else that does not
insist on their leaving their contact details behind.
The system used in Hong Kong dining places appears to be
similar to the system used in Australia: by law, these establishments must provide
methods by which people can be contacted if they become sites of infection. They either
encourage people to download a contact-tracing app or ask people to write their details down
on paper forms. Customers have the option also of not going out at all and eating at home,
which is difficult to do in a culture where dining out in public with friends and family is
expected and where most people live in small apartments so they prefer to entertain others by
taking them out to restaurants and cafes.
Some restaurants and cafes in HK have also refused to take people's contact details and
have opted to serve takeaway meals only.
Theoretically this system would reduce the need for blanket lockdowns of an entire city or
a larger administrative unit such as a state or province, or even country. In Sydney, the NSW
government used contact tracing to determine that a cluster of COVID-19 cases was limited
mainly to the northeast side of the metropolitan area and this part of Sydney was subjected
to lockdown. Traffic access to the area (population: about 250,000) was blocked by police.
The lockdown lasted about 21 days and included New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. During this
period people living in the affected area couldn't leave it but were allowed to leave their
homes for exercise, essential shopping and getting takeaway meals within the area.
The issue that Al Jazeera brings up is an issue of compulsion and creeping authoritarian
rule (based on stereotypes about China and the Chinese government) but it uses a poor example
to demonstrate what it wants its readers to believe. It turns out that the HK govt is not
forcing all dining establishments to use its contact-tracing app but is giving them a choice.
Al Jazeera should have done better research.
Jackrabbit , Apr 6
2021 14:36 utc |
68
Norwegian @Apr6 8:36 #62:
Show me the proof that there is a need to cancel democracy and human rights for
something that does not affect 99.9% ...
Jen is not advocating for canceling democracy and human rights. And the pandemic
affects us all. Everyone is capable of getting sick and passing it on to others.
Democracies have responded to the pandemic with measures that many people find onerous and
many lies have been spread by some of these people such as: 1)"masks don't work" (they do
work but they protect others, not the mask-wearer) ; 2) "only old people die" (even teens
have died); and 3) that the pandemic is a hoax (it's not just the flu!).
Your "... does not affect 99.9% if anyone at all" is just regurgitating
nonsense.
Many more-authoritarian countries have actually been more successful in fighting the
pandemic. They haven't had to have the long "lockdowns" (a misnomer that exaggerates) that
Western democracies have imposed. Among the things that they have done (as temporary
emergency measures) is: rigorous contact-tracing, and quarantining the sick and suspected
sick.
I would also note that the hypocrisy is astounding:
- People that DEMAND a return to normalcy also argue against the actions that could have
returned us to normal much sooner than waiting for experimental vaccines;
- Libertarians that don't complain much about laws like speed limits and the prohibition
against yelling "fire!" in a crowed theater are DEMANDING an end to pandemic measures that
curtail their liberty;
- Republicans that are pushing for voting ID and accept a police state are DEMANDING that
the economy be "opened up".
!!
Jackrabbit , Apr 6
2021 15:28 utc |
69
follow-up @Apr 6 2021 14:36 utc | 67
I should add, for the benefit of readers that don't know me, that my criticism of those
who are critical of pandemic measures doesn't mean that I'm not skeptical of many things
about this pandemic such as:
- USA/Empire desire to stoke hate for China;
- Big Pharma - government ties;
- mRNA tech which has been funded by US Mil for use in biowarfare;
- the immense propaganda spawned by the the above and the sheeple's acceptance of
same.
!!
ak74 , Apr 6 2021 16:49 utc |
70
The only thing that holds America or the "democratic" West together is an increasingly rabid
hatred of Russia and China.
The Western-controlled Free Press and its unhinged accusations against Russia is matched
by its equally unhinged torrent of Yellow Peril propaganda against China, as evidenced
below:
Why the racism against Asians?, ask fundamentalist sinophobics...
https://nomadicthoughts.blogs.sapo.pt/why-the-racism-against-asians-ask-93263
Simply put, the collective West--led by the America and the Anglosphere--resembles a
civilization of paranoid schizophrenics, whose delusional ravings will drive them towards
world war--total war.
Needless to say, things will not end well for them.
Yen Cross 2 hours ago (Edited)
i want to know when the Durham probe is going to recommend indictments of the fake Russia
probes, Biden laptops, IRS scandal ect...?
I demand ******* justice as a USA Citizen taxpayer!
Those scumbag assholes should be incarcerated.
Biden comes first in the Alphabet.
South China Sea 58 minutes ago
Durham retired. Did you miss that bit of news?
Highly recommended!
Images removed. See the original for full text.
The USA made a fateful step in late 70th early 80th embracing neoliberalism and dismanteling the New Deal Capitalism. Now
they face consequences of this social transformation. Neoliberal chickens started coming home to roost.
The collapse of neoliberal ideology in 2008 led to national security state which is designed to preserve the power of financial
oligarchy, they aqured in 1970th with the installation of neoliberalism in the USA. All that reminds the story of the USSR, including
the story of the degeneration of the Communist Party elite and eventual collapse under the pressure of neoliberalism, when communist
elite changed sides and adopted neoliberal ideology. What is unclear what will replace neoliberalism in the USA.
There might be a possibility the the country will fragment like the USSR without changing of the social system. That would a tragedy
and the standard of living might suffer dramatical decline.
Neoliberal pursing "identity wedge" policy now face the monster they created. All those attempt to replace bonds that previously
cemented now bitterly divided nation with the coercive power of CIA and FBI are slightly suspect. And BTW Biden is much worse
then late Brezhnev if we talk about mental deterioration of of the head of the state.
Notable quotes:
"... The U.S. security state apparatus regards the agenda of "domestic violent extremists" as "derived from anti-government or anti-authority sentiment," which includes "opposition to perceived economic, racial or social hierarchies." In sum, to the Department of Homeland Security, an "extremist" is anyone who opposes the current prevailing ruling class and system for distributing power ..."
"... In particular, the Report's acknowledgement that it was compiled by institutions including "the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with contributions from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)" has alarmed numerous members of the House Intelligence Committee. On Thursday, all ten minority members of that Committee wrote a previously unreported letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines "to raise serious concerns about the production of this document by the Intelligence Community (IC) and to seek clarification of the facts related to its production." ..."
"... But the more substantive danger is the role played by the CIA and other intelligence agencies in the domestic politics of the U.S., all in the name of fighting "domestic terrorism" (similar dangers were previously created by the Bush and Obama administrations in the name of fighting "international terrorism"). ..."
"... It is encouraging to see Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee starting to express serious concerns over the dangers of intelligence community involvement in domestic politics. That is underscored by their approving citation to the mild mid-1970s reforms of the intelligence community ushered in by the Senate's Church Committee, once primarily a liberal cause. Indeed, many of the same House Republicans who wrote this important letter to the DNI have in the past supported laws that allow greater involvement of the CIA, NSA and other agencies in activities on U.S. soil -- including the Patriot Act. ..."
"... The head of the Church Committee, Sen. Frank Church (D-ID), made clear in his iconic quote on Meet the Press in 1975 that those reforms were primarily motivated by fears that the U.S. Government would one day turn its vast intelligence powers onto the American people, rendering core civil liberties an illusion ..."
"... As I have been repeatedly noting over the last two months, the Biden administration, along with leading Democrats such as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), have been stating explicitly that one of their top priorities is the adoption of new laws designed to import the Bush/Cheney/Obama War on Terror onto U.S. soil for domestic purposes. ..."
"... So, America, Your Intelligence community is turning on Americans. Calling it Domestic Terrorism. You have the military in Washington protecting your so called leaders from ..... Your MSM is biased, not doing any legitimate reporting only being fed stories by the left. Your tech companies are also biased and restricting free speech. Sounds like China, looks like China. Taken over without any resistance at all. ..."
"... Which would explain the constant media hysteria about "Russia, Russia, Russia!" If a group of people are merely "Russian agents" or "Russian assets," then they obviously don't deserve any rights. ..."
"... And if RT.com says the sky is blue, and if an American citizen also says the sky is blue (even after the MSM has already denounced it as "Russian misinformation"), then it goes without saying that that American citizen must be serving as a "Russian asset." Q.E.D. ..."
"... Then it's off to the races for the "intelligence community" and their planned crackdown on any Americans who dare to think for themselves. ..."
Authored by Glenn Greenwald via greenwald.substack.com
A report declassified last Wednesday
by the Department
of Homeland Security is raising serious concerns about the possibly illegal involvement by the intelligence community in U.S. domestic
political affairs.
Entitled "Domestic Violent Extremism Poses Heightened Threat in 2021," the March 1
Report from the Director of National Intelligence states that it was prepared "in consultation with the Attorney General and
Secretary of Homeland Security -- and was drafted by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with contributions from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA)."
Its primary point is this: "The IC [intelligence community] assesses that domestic violent extremists (DVEs) who are motivated
by a range of ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States pose an elevated threat to the
Homeland in 2021." While asserting that "the most lethal" of these threats is posed by "racially or ethnically motivated violent
extremists (RMVEs) and militia violent extremists (MVEs)," it makes clear that its target encompasses a wide range of groups from
the left (Antifa, animal rights and environmental activists, pro-choice extremists and anarchists: "those who oppose capitalism and
all forms of globalization") to the right (sovereign citizen movements, anti-abortion activists and those deemed motivated by racial
or ethnic hatreds).
The U.S. security state apparatus regards the agenda of "domestic violent extremists" as "derived from anti-government or
anti-authority sentiment," which includes "opposition to perceived economic, racial or social hierarchies." In sum, to the Department
of Homeland Security, an "extremist" is anyone who opposes the current prevailing ruling class and system for distributing power.
Anyone they believe is prepared to use violence, intimidation or coercion in pursuit of these causes then becomes a "domestic violent
extremist," subject to a vast array of surveillance, monitoring and other forms of legal restrictions:
Department of Homeland Security report, Mar.1, 2021
It goes without saying that violence of any kind -- including that which is politically motivated -- is a serious crime under
U.S. law, and it is the proper role of the U.S. Government to investigate and prevent it. But there are real and important legal
and institutional limits on the authority of the intelligence community to involve itself in domestic law enforcement, or other forms
of domestic political activity, that seem threatened here, if not outright violated.
In particular, the Report's acknowledgement that it was compiled by institutions including "the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), with contributions from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)" has alarmed numerous
members of the House Intelligence Committee. On Thursday, all ten minority members of that Committee wrote a previously unreported
letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines "to raise serious concerns about the production of this document by the
Intelligence Community (IC) and to seek clarification of the facts related to its production."
Among the issues raised was that the DHS Report was not subject to the standard rigors of an intelligence community finding, yet
continually makes sweeping claims that it prefixes with the authoritative phrase "the IC assesses." The Committee members found this
"to be misleading," adding: we "urge you to clarify which elements in the IC concurred with this judgement and the intelligence basis,
if any, for that concurrence." In other words, Haines claims that these dubious assertions about various threats faced by Americans
are the findings of the intelligence community when that is not true: just like the
originally
false claim widely
spread by the media that "all seventeen intelligence agencies" endorsed the 2016 election findings about Russian interference
when, in fact, it was only a few which had done so. Haines' claims have support only from a few agencies as well.
But the more substantive danger is the role played by the CIA and other intelligence agencies in the domestic politics of
the U.S., all in the name of fighting "domestic terrorism" (similar dangers were previously created by the Bush and Obama administrations
in the name of fighting "international terrorism"). As the committee members' letter details:
The Intelligence Committee members, citing the fact that the intelligence community is "subject to longstanding prohibitions against
domestic activities," then demanded answers to a series of questions based on this substantive concern:
Involvement of the intelligence community in the domestic activities of U.S. citizens is one of the most dangerous breaches of
civil liberties and democratic order the U.S. Government can perpetrate. It was after World War II when the CIA, the NSA and other
security state agencies that wield immense and unlimited powers in the dark were created in the name of fighting the Cold War. Legal
and institutional prohibitions on wielding that massive machinery against the American public were central to the always-dubious
claim that this security behemoth that operates completely in the dark was compatible with democracy. As the ACLU
noted , "in its 1947 charter,
the CIA was prohibited from spying against Americans, in part because President Truman was afraid that the agency would engage in
political abuse."
Since then, Truman's fear has been realized over and over. Some of the worst post-WW2 civil liberties abuses have been the result
of breaches by the CIA and other agencies of this prohibition. As the ACLU
documents , the CIA in the
1960s was caught infiltrating and manipulating numerous domestic political activist groups. Under the auspices of the War on Terror,
entire new bureaucracies (such as the Department of Homeland Security) and new legal regimes (such as the Patriot Act and the FISA
Amendments Act) were designed to erode these long-standing limitations by dramatically increasing surveillance powers aimed at U.S.
citizens. And by design, the infiltration of these security state agencies in U.S. domestic politics has dramatically escalated.
As the first War on Terror was escalating, The Washington Post -- under the headline "CIA Is Expanding Domestic Operations" --
reported in October, 2002, that "The Central Intelligence Agency is expanding its domestic presence, placing agents with nearly
all of the FBI's 56 terrorism task forces in U.S. cities." The Post added that in the name of that War on Terror:
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III recently described the new arrangement as his answer to MI5, Britain's internal security
service. Unlike the CIA, MI5 is empowered to collect intelligence within Britain and to act to disrupt domestic threats to British
national security. "It goes some distance to accomplishing what the MI5 does," Mueller told a House-Senate intelligence panel
last week in describing the new CIA role in the FBI task forces.
In the years following, two NSA whistleblowers --
William Binney and
Edward Snowden
-- both cited their horror over the turning of the surveillance machinery against American citizens as the reason for their decision
to denounce their agency. One of the aspects that most disturbed me about the Russiagate conspiracy theory from the start was that
it was created and disseminated by the CIA and related agencies with the intent, first, to alter the outcome of the 2016 election,
and then to
undermine the elected president with whom they were at war. Shortly before Trump's inauguration, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) went
on The Rachel Maddow Show to warn -- or more accurately: threaten -- Trump that the CIA would destroy his presidency if he continued
to criticize or otherwise oppose them:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/505WGUrCp10
It is encouraging to see Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee starting to express serious concerns over
the dangers of intelligence community involvement in domestic politics. That is underscored by their approving citation to the mild
mid-1970s reforms of the intelligence community ushered in by the Senate's Church Committee, once primarily a liberal cause. Indeed,
many of the same House Republicans who wrote this important letter to the DNI have in the past supported laws that allow greater
involvement of the CIA, NSA and other agencies in activities on U.S. soil -- including the Patriot Act.
The head of the Church Committee, Sen. Frank Church (D-ID), made clear in his iconic quote on Meet the Press in 1975 that
those refor