The Guardian newspaper has taken the art of obfuscation, false implication and the subtler forms of journalistic lying to new heights in its very extensive coverage of the Roger Stone sentencing saga. It has now devoted fourteen articles in the last fortnight to this rather obscure episode of American political history. Yet in not one of those articles – nor in more than a dozen articles about the Stone case that preceded it over the last few months – has the Guardian informed its readers what Stone was actually convicted of doing.
Stone was convicted of giving false testimony and misleading the FBI, because he claimed to be a conduit between Wikileaks and Trump when he was not. There was no conduit between Wikileaks and Trump. Stone was also convicted of witness intimidation, because once his fantasies got him into trouble he tried to browbeat my friend Randy Credico into backing up his tale.
The Guardian has, in a feat of some skill, contrived to give its readers the impression that Stone has been convicted for Trump/Wikileaks links, when that is in fact the precise opposite of the truth.
Stone has been convicted for fabricating the existence of Trump/Wikileaks links, of which there were none.
The Guardian has hung its entire corporate personality on Clinton identity politics and its entire financial survival on building a new online customer base among the Clinton electorate in the USA. When even the New York Times had to admit the Mueller report utterly failed to substantiate Clinton’s inane claims that the Russians had caused Clinton’s election defeat, even when a judge dismissed the DNC’s lawsuit against said Russians as being supported by no viable evidence whatsoever, even when the entire world derided the Guardian’s massive front page lie about Paul Manafort visiting Assange in the Embassy, the Guardian has persisted in reporting as fact the preposterous conspiracy theory that its heroine was thwarted from attaining supreme power by the evil machinations of Vladimir Putin.
To maintain this stance in the face of all factual evidence requires great skill and dexterity from Guardian journalists. Fortunately for the Guardian it does not lack for fantasist Russophobe fabricators like Luke Harding or for more subtly corrupt spinners like David Smith, who last week wrote of Stone that “He was the sixth former Trump aide to be convicted in cases arising from the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.”
The oleaginous David Smith omitted to note what any half honest human being would consider a very pertinent fact – that not one of those convictions had anything at all to do with Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election, being either entirely unrelated tax and corruption matters turned up while trawling, or as with Stone being questions of process. Stone’s case is unique in that not only did his conviction not relate to any Russian interference, it was for promoting precisely the same ludicrous fantasy that the Guardian is promoting. It was illegal for Stone to persist in telling his lies on oath; there is no legal bar to the Guardian promoting the same Trump/Wikileaks/Russia fantasy ad nauseam.
Yet we have the spectacle of Julian Assange standing before a judge facing extradition to the United States and up to 175 years in jail for “espionage”, when everything Wikileaks has ever published has a 100% record for truth and accuracy.
To finish with Stone, the ludicrous vindictiveness of the prosecutors in pushing for a seven to nine year jail sentence for an offence that was really no more than wasting investigators’ time with his fanatasies, was rightly called out by Donald Trump. The notion that Roger Stone threatened witnesses is problematical. Randy Credico, the only person Stone was convicted of threatening, has written to the judge asking for Stone not to be jailed and making plain he did not feel threatened. He had known Stone for years and was used to his blustering talk, which Randy never took as intended to be a serious threat.
To consider those DNC leaks published by Wikileaks in which Roger Stone claimed falsely to have a part. What the leaks did reveal was the foul play and machinations of the DNC machinery in cheating Bernie Sanders out of the nomination – including jiggling the ordering of primaries specifically to give Hillary “momentum”, and giving Hillary debate questions in advance. Nobody should be surprised to see the same tactics being deployed against Bernie Sanders – whom I should be clear I support strongly – yet again.
The “muddle” that led to CIA-linked Pete Buttigieg being able to claim victory in Iowa, for a crucial five days before the official tallies showed Bernie had in fact won was, I strongly suspect, merely a portent of what is to come. The fact the app that “misfired” was designed by four ex-Clinton staffers working for a company chaired by a Buttigieg team member is indicative of what we can expect over the next few months. The right have yet to decide on their champion to thwart Bernie. Buttigieg and Klobuchar are enjoying moments in the sun of media approval, and the DNC have now changed the rules to allow Bloomberg into future debates. That the Clintonites who have been deriding Sanders as not a Democrat, will actually switch to support Republican billionaire Bloomberg against Sanders, is something I expect to see play out over the next month as it becomes clear that neither Buttigieg nor Klobuchar can stop Bernie.
Here in the UK, I predict Bloomberg supporting Guardian editorials by April.
Still more sinister, the zionist propaganda machine has started to ramp up its attacks on Bernie. In Iowa the AIPAC linked Democrats pressure group Democratic Majority for Israel sprayed money on TV ads attacking Bernie. It is a sign of the times that Bernie Sanders, bidding to become the first Jewish President of the United States, is attacked and undermined by extreme zionists because of his entirely reasonable views on Israel/Palestine.
Despite all of which, opinion polls show Bernie with a clear lead heading towards the Nevada primary. I remain cautiously hopeful that the degree of cheating required to stop Bernie gaining the nomination would simply be too much to hide, and that the Wikileaks DNC revelations may ultimately, by showing up the dirty tricks last time, help Bernie to power this time. We should, however, never underestimate the resources of the financiers and the security state which will be deployed against Bernie in the next few months. It is going to be a fascinating year in US politics. Either the Democrats will pick a right wing standard bearer and lose to Trump, or Bernie will become President. I do not share the general fatalism on the left which deems the latter impossible.
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Your friend Randy Credico has behaved in a very human way over this affair. Brow beaten into doing his civic duty and then ignored at his pleading for Stone. Fantasists should be pitied and helped, not prosecuted.
America likes hucksters, people who duck and dive, wheel and deal living on their wits. Stone prospered because there were people who WANTED to believe his lies. What about those people? people in power who should know better? Graun hacks ditto.
I parted company from them after their biased coverage of our referendum. They have gone down the security and woke rabbit holes since and it’s nauseating. We can comfort ourselves in Scotland by noting their absolutely paltry sales up here. When you take out voucher sales, full price sales are tiny in Scotland.
One can learn far more about US politics from the century-old insights of H.L. Mencken than frompractically anything written today.
“The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. A Galileo could no more be elected President of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of soft illusion”.
– H.L. Mencken (“The Art Eternal”, New York Evening Mail 1918, as quoted in Alistair Cooke, “The Vintage Mencken”)
Tom.
Classic Menckenisms:
“If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.”
And my all time favourite:
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want , and deserve to get it good and hard.”
I believe brexit will show this maxim to be oh, so true.
Mencken must have given Bierce his undivided attention.
There is a long and honourable line of highly satirical, penetratingly intelligent and honest US journalists. Bierce, Twain, Mencken, Abbey, Stone, Vidal… and their successors down to the present day.
Fill your boots here with more ‘democracy’ quotes:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3673945/Famous-quotes-about-democracy.html
A decent summary their Craig,
according to a rare poll published Friday 14th Feb by the Las Vegas Review Journal for the Nevada Saturday, February 22 vote/app-mayhem
Sanders leads the Dem presidential field with 25% of the vote,
then comes Joe Biden, with 18% of the vote,
Elizabeth Warren has 13% of the vote,
Tom Steyer claims 11% of the vote.
Amy Klobuchar and former Naval Intelligence Pete Buttigieg both polled last at 10%!
The poll was conducted among n. 413 likely caucus-goers, has a margin of error of about 4.8%
more at https://dailycaller.com/2020/02/17/michael-tracey-michael-bloomberg/ which includes a warming tale of everyday Oligarchic fascism in a video from FoxNews
Craig Murray wrote:
> Yet we have the spectacle of Julian Assange standing before a judge facing extradition to the United States and up to 175 years in jail for “espionage”, when everything Wikileaks has ever published has a 100% record for truth and accuracy.
At least there are some recent positive news on Julian Assange:
Andrew Wilkie and George Christensen in London to visit Julian Assange, as Jeremy Corbyn says UK view on extradition is shifting — ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) — 17 Feb 2020
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-18/julian-assange-and-us-extradition-deal-view-changing-in-uk/11974080
Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly calls for Assange’s “prompt release” — Bridges for Media Freedom — 28 January 2020
https://bridgesforfreedom.media/council-of-europes-parliamentary-assembly-calls-for-assanges-prompt-release/
Julian Assange Wins 2020 Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award — Consortium News — February 10, 2020
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/10/julian-assange-wins-2020-gary-webb-freedom-of-the-press-award/
Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize — Defend WikiLeaks — 6 February 2020
https://defend.wikileaks.org/2020/02/06/julian-assange-chelsea-manning-and-edward-snowden-nominated-for-the-2020-nobel-peace-prize/
Speak up for Assange — International journalist statement in defence of Julian Assange — 1209 signatures from 99 countries so far
https://speak-up-for-assange.org/
Pilger on Assange and a plug for a march in London on Saturday
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/17/john-pilger-julian-assange-must-be-freed-not-betrayed/
John Pilger’s article is truly outstanding, a must-read.
About 10 days ago, a campaign official for French president Macron wrote a prominent article in support of Julian Assange for Le Monde, the leading French daily newspaper.
In it, he said he had been a “victim” of Assange/Wikileaks, which had apparently published e-mails and/or other documents from the Macron election campaign, including personal details, contact info etc.
Nevertheless, Quentin Lafay said the experience did not change his opinion about the value of Julian’s work. (Unfortunately, the article itself is behind a paywall).
Makes you wonder why on earth British politicians are so silent. Has the question even been raised by any of the Labour leadership candidates?
https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2020/02/06/quentin-lafay-victime-de-wikileaks-je-soutiens-julian-assange_6028632_3232.html
If you don’t count Richard Burgon then no.
Corbyn has though.
https://twitter.com/Underground_RT/status/1227578339973566464
Pb wrote:
> a march in London on Saturday
Video:
“A powerful light was shone on Belmarsh prison and the Houses of Parliament last night. Must watch. #DontExtraditeAssange #collateralmurder”
Don’t Extradite Assange — Twitter — Feb 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/DEAcampaign/status/1230030340833644549
Since Katherine Viner took over as editor in chief the Guardian changed. Nothing against her, I know very little about her, I just know that since 2015 the paper went from being very well respected, offering a decent enough left version of British politics and current affairs to throwing Julian Assange under the bus, which of course happened before 2015, although the negative reporting of him continued throughout, to an all out character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn and the fabrication about his passed off as fact.
I think the only possible conclusion must be that The Guardian has been basically taken over by MI5.
This article explains a lot:
How the UK Security Services neutralised the country’s leading liberal newspaper
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-11-how-the-uk-security-services-neutralised-the-countrys-leading-liberal-newspaper/
It is interesting that these articles are published “at a distance” in South Africa.
You might also be interested in reading up about the CIA’s “Operation Mockingbird”.
Mass publications always struggle to break even – let alone make a profit. It’s a heartbreaking grind.
Governments, however, have almost unlimited funds, which they hardly ever need to account for. And, of course, the US government has the exorbitant privilege of essentially printing all the dollars it wants.
So why would any newspaper’s owners not choose to work for governments? (Unless they had some strange unworldly compulsion to tell the truth).
Them sad sods at the guardian are a pushover for the spooks. They take in a few jobs for the services and think they’re digital James Bond agents. Goes down well with the girlies in the pub.
Poor buggers don’t realise they’re just M. I. Tuppence Ha’pennies.
Will Hutton, one of the Guardian’s house “social democrats,” has already come out in staunch support of Bloomberg. He thinks the racist Republican Oligarch has the “credibility” to defeat Trump.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/09/if-democrats-want-to-unseat-trump-they-must-form-a-credible-coalition
The Guardian’s love for the corporate Democratic Party establishment is deep because behind the cynical identity politics facade both are dedicated to plutocratic class rule and imperialism.
The Democrats – the blue wing of the bird of prey – have now replaced the Republicans as the preferred political conduit of America’s ruling class and the national security apparatus, and will do everything they can to prevent Bernie Sanders from becoming their nominee.
If they succeed again (and there are strong rumours the fix is in for the California primary) I will wish them every misfortune on their road to inevitable and richly deserved extinction.
He should be running in the Republican primary.
“The Democrats – the blue wing of the bird of prey…”
Very nice.
To be expected. He was one of the “social democrats” who aided Johnson’s landslide by attacking Jeremy Corbyn. He, and those who were silent and could have spoken up on behalf of Labour, bear much responsibility for the catastrophe. And now he comes out in defence of Bloomberg? His true allegiance could not be clearer, and it has nothing to do with social democracy.
Craig
I wish that one can be hopeful that Sanders will win the elections, but as we have seen in the recent UK elections, everything, including the kitchen sink will be thrown at a candidate that will threaten the status quo. You wrote some very good posts before our December elections that were upbeat and also showed how Vox Pop and opinion polls were manipulated. But we need an in depth post mortem of what went wrong with the UK elections. As Kim Sanders Fisher has doggedly pursued this topic in a discussion forum on this website but unfortunately not with as much a high profile as is needed for this important topic:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/elections-aftermath-was-our-2019-vote-the-eu-referendum-rigged-toryrig2019/
Would it be possible to ask you please to look at this with your acute forensic powers and knowledge and boost this subject?
It does not matter in the least who “wins the election”. Except that certain winners would help the citizens to relax as they hurtle towards their doom.
If a bus is out of control – perhaps because the steering has been destroyed, or the brakes do not work – it hardly matters who occupies the driver’s seat.
Mr Putin, who is certainly qualified to know, has explained several times that US presidents come and go, but the policies remain the same.
It does not matter in the least who “wins the election”. Except that certain winners would help the citizens to relax as they hurtle towards their doom.
This is true. If the citizens of western (post) democracies want real change, they will have to unite and fight for it. At the moment there is no danger of this happening because the citizenry is disunited and busy sniping at phantoms (immigrants, hordes of “deplorable” racists, women, men, commies, Russkies, Muslims, Chinamen, “liberals”, “conservatives” you name it).
If Corbyn had won, or if Sanders wins, the best case outcome is strictly palliative because the underlying system is still intact. As Mark Fisher said “it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”. The west needs to transcend the endless present of neoliberal induced malaise and imagine a desirable future society worth fighting for.
Going back in time to 1970s social democracy is a leftist version of the right’s mythical golden age delusion. Just like the power of European monarchies died with the advent of the Westphalian nation state and feudalism was superseded by industrial capitalism, so social democracy was replaced by neoliberalism which, in turn, must be eclipsed by something new.
The past can be mined for transferable ideas but it cannot be returned to wholesale because the societies that gave rise to whichever golden age one pines for no longer exists.
I think one reason people still put their hopes in electoral politics is an unwillingness to accept that liberal capitalist countries are post-democracies and that the old rules no longer apply. This is a frightening reality to consider, particularly for people who bought into the “it (tyranny) could never happen here” myth or the fairy tale that democracy is a necessary byproduct of capitalism. So cognitive dissonance sets in and they put on the blinders and tell themselves that everything will go back to ‘normal’, it will just take a few more election cycles or winning a referendum etc.
even mark fisher would view a bernie sanders presidency as something pregnant with possibility, a spur to popular enlightennent and action.
The American “republican experiment” ended almost before it had begun. The main reason was explained lucidly by Jefferson. (Please note that, in the often-quoted penultimate sentence, he refers to “the blood of patriots and tyrants”. Most people who use the quotation leave out the tyrants, because they don’t want to go on any “subversive opinion” lists.
Jefferson, like Socrates and Jesus Christ, would have a very short life expectancy in today’s USA. (Dostoevsky captured the reasons very vividly in his “Legend of the Grand Inquisitor” from “Karamazov”).
“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure”.
– Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Stephens Smith (13 November 1787), quoted in Padover’s Jefferson On Democracy
The 1975 referendum to remain in the EEC was rigged by the Labour party created IRD a secret department of the Foreign Office and headed by Norman Reddaway.
SA – While I greatly appreciate your endorsement of my efforts in trying to expose the vote rigging that I firmly believe corrupted the 2019 General Election, we cannot put pressure on Craig to direct the content of this Blog. If and when he feels inspired to write more about his conclusions following the extraordinary “landslide” victory that Boris Johnson inexplicably pulled off, like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, then we will all benefit from his astute deductions, but until then this is after all Craig Murray’s Blog.
I am grateful to Craig for tolerating my impassioned rants on the Discussion Forum: “Elections Aftermath; Was our 2019 Vote & the EU Referendum Rigged?” This has provided a vital forum space for myself and others to keep those interested in seeking justice fully informed about any progress via comments and the numerous links to the gathering evidence. There are also ways to actively participate through signing one or more of the online Petitions via Links posted on thus “Elections Aftermath” forum.
Just recently I discovered a new Blog site, “The Daily GasLamp,” dedicated to exposing the corruption that has perpetrated our Electoral System. I have posted several excerpts from their Blog to provide a flavour of the content so far; these can be found along with Links to the Blog by visiting our forum:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/elections-aftermath-was-our-2019-vote-the-eu-referendum-rigged-toryrig2019/
The Daily GasLamp can be found here:
https://dailygaslamp.com/2020/02/07/election-fraud-2019-just-the-evidence/
In a number of the Blog posts written by Craig prior to the Election he applied his trademark standard of level-headed logical thinking that indicated we were heading for something far closer to a hung parliament, which would at least have made a modicum of sense. In Craig’s pre-election posts: “Do Not Despair of This Election,” “The Largest Vote Swings in British General Election History,” “The Truth About this Election” and “The Invisible Tories” he wrote of his doubts regarding support for a Tory victory.
It is well worth reviewing these earlier Blog post to gauge Craig’s gut feeling about the predictable result of the December election and how his analysis was a contradiction of the “landslide” victory claimed by the Tories. Indeed there was such a wealth of evidence to support my suspicion that the 2019 General Election result was rigged that I have referred back to these earlier posts in the Elections Aftermath forum. We can thoroughly trust Craig not to try to make the current Media/BBC propaganda fit the Tory objective or enable Boris Johnson to perpetrate his lies. I will patiently await Craig’s input on the matter
Hopefully Trump will pardon Roger Stone in due course. Any jailtime at all would be a completely disproportionate sentence. It has all been bullshit about bullshit.
The Democrats campaign against Sanders has already started. See:
Citing Hostile “Bernie Bros” Shadowy Group Launches Beat Bernie 2020 PAC
https://www.mintpressnews.com/citing-hostile-bernie-bros-shadowy-group-launches-beat-bernie-2020-pac/264959/
Quote: “Bernie Sanders is creating irreparable division on the left that will create significant difficulties for the Party’s eventual nominee.”
I don’t whether to laugh or cry.
Hopefully Trump will pardon Roger Stone in due course. Any jailtime at all would be a completely disproportionate sentence. It has all been bullshit about bullshit.
Stone will be okay. I’d rather Trump stopped persecuting Assange and Manning by pardoning them both. Will never happen or course.
Pardonning Manning won’t help because she’s already been pardonned (by Obama). She’s in jail for refusing to testify against Assange not for a crime.
Pardonning Assange would help Assange and Manning. A pardon for Assange would mean an immediate end to the court proceedings Manning is refusing to testify in.
I’m afraid that Trump won’t dare pardon Assange (or Snowden) because, although he might genuinely loath the so-called “deep state”, he is afraid of his own intelligence services and does not seem to trust them. For the US intelligence establishment “getting Assange” seems to have become a personal vendetta.
Offending the Deep State is very much like offending the Great King of Persia in classical times. You might think you have escaped for a while, but eventually some traitor – perhaps someone you trusted implicitly – will give you up, and you will find yourself being thrown into a burning fiery furnace, or hung up in a cage for the birds to feast on.
Because they can.
Which single fact, if you think it over, proves that we don’t live in a democracy or anything even slightly resembling one.
Ex Israeli Ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren is effusive in his support for Bloomberg. “He has a deep tribal connection to Israel.”
Anticipate the dirty tricks campaign against Sanders to be very dirty indeed.
It seems that the easier the means of surveillance becomes and the easier the technology available for publishing , the less evidence of journalistic truth. The deeper our exposure to lies, the more time we all have to spend on filtering them out. This is an ancient doctrine of the Sufis, that being lied to will make us think. No, it makes people disengage from politics and reality because it takes so long to sort out the truth.
That’s why they do it. To clear a space for them to get away with their criminal activities in peace.
Question is, whether the malign, fantasist Guardian is in a position to condemn the fantasist Roger Stone?
In a logical world, The Guardian should be facing many years in jail for its malicious lies about this.
It’s only one step more, for them to say that Julian Assange is a fantasist, and made up all that stuff about US illegal violence in Iraq. Perhaps this is what it’s all about, this ridiculous prosecution of a fantasist in a court of law, all building up to the Assange case, so that by smear and innuendo they can persuade people to condemn Assange the publisher of truth. What other purpose does the prosecution of a fantasist serve, than grooming the public for a long sentence for an implied fantasist? These people write the movies and they know how to work a script.
It seems to me that the single cause of what you complain of is the worship of money.
Money itself is a very useful invention, but the trouble arises when people see that in sufficient amounts money means power. Then the race is on to pile up money for its own sake. Sooner or later all values are discarded, and the only rule is that the richest are the best.
How they gained their riches doesn’t matter in the slightest.
It seems to me that the single cause of what you complain of is the worship of money.
Money itself is a very useful invention, but the trouble arises when people see that in sufficient amounts money means power. Then the race is on to pile up money for its own sake. Sooner or later all values are discarded, and the only rule is that the richest are the best.
How they gained their riches doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Agree…the line between so-called legitimate businesses and organized criminal enterprises is very blurry indeed and there is a lot of overlap between the two.
There is also the power factor in that money = power and, to a point, more money = more power. Though how much more power a ‘net worth’ of, say, $150 billion will buy over $100 billion is unclear. At some point it just becomes about having more money, and bragging rights, than the other sociopathic billionaires. The problem is that the failing system we are told is the pinnacle of western civilization is run largely by, and definitely for, the kind of people whose main activity in life is a pathological dedication to wealth acquisition.
It is more than a bit ridiculous that in the United States illegal immigrants pay more tax than Jeff Bezos and Amazon, while in the UK Amazon, Apple, Google and other transnational corporations pay next to no tax and that in many western countries Amazon actually get tax breaks from cities competing to have the privilege of hosting an Amazon sweatshop.
This bothers the ruling elite not a bit but a milquetoast social democrat like Corbyn who might make a few people slightly less rich has to be stopped at all costs. The lunatics have well and truly taken over the asylum.
Whoops…breaks should be in italics, not blockquotes, my bad.
The Guardian is hopeless, Assange is a political prisoner, and the DNC is a deeply compromised anti-Sanders machine.
But this – “was rightly called out by Donald Trump” – is utter nonsense, and wrong on so many levels.
Roger Stone was convicted BY A JURY of 5 counts of lying to Congress, 1 of witness intimidation, and 1 of obstruction of an investigation. Why are you so hostile to the jury decision here? It’s very little different from the type of case that saw Martha Stewart famously go to jail.
Second, the 7-9 year sentencing request came from the Department of Justice, which rightly makes these decisions independently of politicians. I mean, for crying out loud, does it even need to be pointed out how incredibly dangerous it is to have powerful politicians interfering in these matters?
Third, the final sentencing decision lies with the judge. Anyone, even the president, is permitted to petition the court for leniency based on character, age, all manner of reasons to soften the blow to a convicted felon.
Fourth, prosecutors in the US are notorious for requesting harsh sentences (one reason why the original Epstein case, prosecuted by a Trump cabinet appointee, is so glaringly corrupt). Stone is not being treated out of line with other felons, and the requested sentencing in a very high profile case of this type, would have been extremely carefully reviewed
Lastly, Trump has threatened the judge in this case. Hundreds of former justice department officials have called on the attorney-general to resign. These are egregious omissions on your part.
And in short, stop making excuses for Trump’s behaviour. As I’m sure you know, Trump can pardon Roger Stone and ensure he spends not a minute in prison, and no-one can complain in the slightest. The fact Trump is inserting himself in prosecutorial procedure is a major problem and should be condemned.
Unless of course you’d like the decision on Julian’s extradition to hinge on the whim of an obvious madman.
Eddie
He was guilty of lying. His lie was to fantasise about contacts with Wikileaks he didn’t have, and then compound that by lying about what he had said. It’s all a storm in a teacup.
The only witness he was accused of intimidating was Randy who says he never took it seriously. Yes he was rightly convicted. But the idea of a seven to nine year jail sentence is massively OTT.
I came in from the rain, turned on the tele, to find Victoria Dearbyshire talking about Joulian Assange.
If he is on Radio 4 in the middle of the night, then again at 11.00am Julian is going up the BBC agenda – at last.
After suppressing any coverage of him following PMQs last week, today the BBC/Victoria Derbyshire talk to Julian Assange’s father about his case:
Watch from 41:45:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000fjs3/victoria-derbyshire-18022020
Victoria Derbyshire’s show is purely a let off steam program.
Count your blessings stuff for the masses.
we have had hours of roving BBC ‘reporters ‘ asking the the victims of the floods ” how do you feel?” etc etc – all emotion no analysis of what needs to be done.
Pure bullshit.
Anyway I saw Julian’s dad on Victoria Derbyshire and was very humbled in a way.
Derbyshire rattled off the usual CCHQ crap etc etc but his dad revealed something I genuinely didn’t know – to boot – that |Luke Harding and his acolyte had published the password that Chelsea Manning had used to reveal all.
julian’s dad said that originally Wiki leaks had redacted names etc but Harding and his mate had ( by issuing the password ) revealed to the whole wworld names and addresses of informers -assistants – spies etc etc to a waiting world.
So by defention shouldn’t Harding and his mate be in the dock- not Assange?
Or am I being ultra naive?
@Ken
Having watched the Victoria Derbyshire interview I searched for any article which covered the explanation about the publication of names by WikiLeaks and came across this very helpful article:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20869-assange-why-wikileaks-was-right-to-release-raw-cables/
It would be interesting to know who chose to select John Shipton for the interview or whether he put himself forward. With the benefit of being familiar with the background I, like others, was able to see how the BBC were distorting the story and Mr Shipton’s replies to sustain the anti-Assange narrative. The likelihood is that they probably didn’t explain to Mr Shipton precisely what they were going to ask for comments on. I thought it was very noticeable that when the item opened it almost seemed like it was going to be sympathetic towards JA but that suddenly changed to an onslaught of carefully selected allegations (‘risking the lives of hundreds of informants’) and quotes (Swedish statement that ‘dropping Assange investigation because of the passage of time, but the alleged victim’s evidence remains credible’) which Mr Shipton appeared, understandably, unprepared for and (in classic BBC style) wasn’t given sufficient time to respond. It seemed like a deliberate scam to put Mr Shipton at ease and then throw him off balance. He is also too nice a man to respond to such aggressive questioning in kind!
There was, of course, no mention by Victoria Derbyshire of the high level concerns for JA’s physical and emotional well-being, his treatment whilst incarcerated, and the recent judgement by the Council of Europe Parliamentarians that he should be released from prison with immediate effect and not subjected to extradition proceedings.
Victoria has nothing to loose her programme is already being axed
Stone has over the years done some things during elections that should not be defended.
However, I have read some of his books and I like them.
His claims are backed up by evidence. The only claim he has made which I have not been able to satisfactorily verify is that the CIA tried to assassinate President Nixon in early 1972. I regard this claim as probably true.
In another book, he came up with the claim that John Hinckley Jr, convicted of trying to kill President Reagan, was from a prominent family of Bush supporters. I was gob- smacked by this. I checked it out and it is true.
I think it is interesting that President Nixon was absolutely adamant, despite all the lobbying by Prescott Bush, that he did not want his son as his running mate in 1968 or 1972. Fear of assassination may well have been a factor.
Thank you, Craig, for explaining what this is all about as I read the Guardian article on Stone and was absolutely none the wiser.
https://whowhatwhy.org/2016/08/16/bush-angle-reagan-shooting-still-unresolved-hinckley-walks/
7-9 years is a prosecutorial request to the judge, they always aim at the higher end. Usually, judges hand down something less. In Stone’s case, he repeatedly defied instructions on social media usage, including posting a picture of the judge with crosshairs superimposed. He was lucky not to have been held in contempt or had his bail revoked.
Personally, I find him a highly unsympathetic defendant. 7-9 is harsh, but internally within the DoJ, deemed permissible. Now the circus, led by the president, to interfere with the judicial process including personal attacks on the judge.
This is not ok in any way shape or form.
The main objection is that Stone’s only crime was to fall into the jaws of an impartial, uncaring engine of destruction: the US “justice system”. Over 90% of accused persons accept plea bargains – which count as convictions. Hardly anyone cares about justice, or even the law. What counts is a prosecutor’s batting average and the headlines she gets.
It works on the same principle as the 17th century French system of which Cardinal Richelieu remarked, “If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged”.
So Roger Stone is your poster-child for the unfairness of the the US justice system?
Great idea.
“Poster-Child”? Are you at the Guardian?
I have said what I have said.
I have not said what I have not said.
You said this: “Stone’s only crime was to fall into the jaws of an impartial, uncaring engine of destruction: the US “justice system” (tbf, not 100% sure what you mean by “impartial”, isn’t that normally a good thing? But “only crime” stuck out as significant.)
I don’t know how else to understand this other than an argument that Roger Stone is victim of an unfair system? Roger Stone, who spent zero days in custody, has access to counsel of his choice, posted a picture of the judge with crosshairs superimposed (among other social media usage the court ordered him to refrain from) and was NOT held in contempt, was tried in front of a jury of his peers, and enjoys the support of the President.
This guy is being unfairly treated? Do you really, honestly believe that?
Dimwit attention whore inflates his influence? FBI response? “Hey kid – wanna blow up a federal building?”
One can only hope that those watching this will resolve to NEVER speak to the FBI directly – only through council, and to ALWAYS demand an immediate open trial.
Any time spent with FBI is better utilized by asking THEM questions. Like:
1. Does your mother know what you really do for a living?
2. If she knew – would she have swallowed?
“Any time spent with FBI is better utilized by asking THEM questions”.
I suggest that any time spent with the FBI is best avoided. Preferably by a dozen city blocks.
Just like time spent with crocodiles, sharks and the Ebola virus.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer has an article in Republic.ch:
https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange
MediaLens have asked some Guardian “journalists” for comment but received no reply:
https://www.medialens.org/2020/burned-at-the-stake-the-un-special-rapporteur-on-torture-demolishes-the-fake-claims-targeting-julian-assange/
Melzer’s article has received zero mainstream coverage.
If they diddle Bernie I hope he runs as an Independent. (Not that he’s my guy – Gabbard is my girl.)
And thank you for your wonderful sentence “The Guardian has hung its entire corporate personality on Clinton identity politics and its entire financial survival on building a new online customer base among the Clinton electorate in the USA.” So that’s that explained. Nowt to do with principle, just bawbees. Or thirty pieces of silver – take your pick of cliches.
The Guardian – the East India Company de nos jours.
Right on Q, the Great Awakening will end in more lies and yet another American wet dream.
“It is a sign of the times that Bernie Sanders, bidding to become the first Jewish President of the United States, is attacked and undermined by extreme zionists because of his entirely reasonable views on Israel/Palestine”.
But look at it from their point of view! Were Sanders to be elected President, he could not possibly favour Israel more than Trump has – or, come to think of it, Obama, both Bushes, Clinton… all the way back to the primeval slime. (Much of which seems to be still residing in Washington).
On the other hand, Zionists might feel some residual compunction about being beastly to a Jewish president. Having a goy who unconditionally supports Israel gives them the best of both worlds, as they are under no obligation to treat him well.
The late Michael Foot always called the daily mail ‘the forger’s gazette’. These days that label better fits The Guardian
The DNC don’t want Bernie as their candidate, he’s too much of a socialist for their liking.
On this side of the pond, Assange and Salmond, will also be sidelined within a couple of weeks of each other.
An excellent summary and the latest on the Durham/Barr investigation and dropping of the charge against McCabe for lying to the FBI – the same fake charge against Flynn and others.
‘You are forgiven for failing to follow all the twists and turns in this latest installment of what might now be called CoupGate, a summation of the seditious campaign to overthrow the president, which already has gone through so many gates — SpyGate, RussiaGate, MuellerGate, UkraineGate, WhistleblowerGate..’
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/at-stake/
Along with a list of the conspirators including our very own deepstaters.
The comments also reveal a set of photos with top bods including HRC & Pelosi with the ONLY chap in the charades supposedly not to be named!
——-
Yup – the presidential campaign is awash with hundreds of billions $, aimed at getting the fixed results. Just as was perpetrated in the uk just 3 months ago – where a coup was conducted at one of the centres of Empire. The one in another centre hasn’t succeeded…yet.
The Pathocracy is not yet ready to give up and accept they are not as gods who own the little blue dot in a very empty dark space.
Dungroanin
I realy am not a fan of Trump but the US Guardian has this obsession of trying to link the buffoon to Moscow and it just doesn’t stick.
This alleged Russian puppet has just been given hundreds of billions from Congress to buy more Military Hardware to fight ???? – the Russians – the Chinese and so on.
It’s pure unadulterated crap – it really is.
My personal view is that the DNC will use every diversion to avoid discussing politics/ policies of the Bernie type and are playing a game of Marvel good guys versus Marvel bad guys ( women are included of course ).
Everything is ” Franchised ” and Trump is just that.
A walking Beefburger – who tweets.
It’s all show and Bernie will fall again.
I like Craig’s optimism but he will be nobbled by the DNC – nop doubt about that.
What he does after is interesting – he is an independent afterall.
Sanders is just using the Dem Party as a vehicle.
If he want’s alter he can chage the Hire Company.
And good luck to him.
It worked for Trump.
Indeed Ken, it seems Trump has bypassed the cfr State Department/Cia with back channels.
History will be the Trump presidency, just as we are daily more aware of the complete hoodwink of Obama’s.
In the meantime he hasn’t escalated in Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Ukraine or Afghanistan…and he has had nuke codes for nearly 4 years whenwe were told by Hillary he’d use them in 10 mins of getting his hands on them!
My dream ticket would be Paul and Gabbard as independents if it needs Sanders so be it.
It really would be a new broom.
I find Mr Kunstler’s writing excellent in every way, with the venial exception that he never criticizes Israel.
But whatcha gonna do?
Hi, This is about Julian Assange. The Guardian have an article about the two Australian MPs in the UK trying to get Julian released. It is also possible to click onto the video secured from the US military by Julian and Wikileaks coveering the murder to a number of Iraqis including two Reuter’s employees, and the further murder of people coming to the rescue of the wounded. Two children were hurt. The response of the Apache crew was that it was the Iraqis own faults for having the kids there. The video and the accompanying lies from the crew along with their attitudes and inablity to distinguish cameras from weapons is chilling. This is only one incident which must be multiplied many times over wherever these Western military are involved. Why is Julian Assange being held in Belmarsh? He is the hero!.
Here is the link to the Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/18/julian-assange-australian-mps-uk-boris-johnson-block-us-extradition
You can click into the video in the fourth paragraph. You can watch it but it is very disturbing and continues or nearly 20 minutes.
The Doctor’s campaign is gathering more support
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30383-4/fulltext?rss=yes
Any Doctor wanting to sign-up an do so here https://doctorsassange.org/
Seeing Thru the Lies — US Edition
https://images.app.goo.gl/GJQbnN1ijjDU9CiD9
It’s a shadow show —
Republic Congressman Pete Olson (R-TX) slammed Ivanishvili on Twitter over so-called human rights, stating “I have a question. What does Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street have in common with Republic of Georgia’s oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili? What they have in common? Answer – they are both puppets who trash their own homes.”
………
Both Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer could not name the president of Mexico during a Telemundo interview in Nevada.
………
at the recent Iowa dem election count debacle, a spokesman said of lack of results “its really difficult to calculate 15% of a large number”
……….
These people aren’t running anything. They couldn’t run a fucking sweet shop.
But its still the only choice the people have, it’s the equivalent of hanging on to any piece of floating wreckage in the desperate hope of a miraculous rescue.
The Clinton campaign exercising leverage over Sanders during the election. Bernie is a DNC puppet.
Podesta Wikileaks emails.
‘This isn’t in keeping w the agreement. Since we clearly have some leverage, would be good to flag this for him. I could send a signal via Welch–or did you establish a direct line w him?
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/47397
Let’s just hope that Bernie Sanders isn’t dealt with in the same way that Huey Long was …..
The Guardian’s Luke Harding and Carol Cadwalladr must be the only journalists who are still promoting Christopher Steele and his discredited dossier. Other journalists simply don’t mention the dossier any more but Harding still writes as if Steele’s findings are credible. And Cadwalladr posed for a photo beside Steele last month and tweeted it.
But that won’t bother readers of the Guardian because they never read anything negative about the dodgy dossier. They’ll never be told that the Horowitz report knocked the final nail in its coffin.
‘Guardian’s Carole Cadwalladr, Nick Cohen, James Ball and the BBC’s James Landale at FCO funded, military intelligence linked “Integrity Initiative” skill sharing, networking event.
https://www.pdf-archive.com/2018/12/13/skillsharingdraft-nov12/
See also
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/12/british-security-service-infiltration-the-integrity-initiative-and-the-institute-for-statecraft/
Hmmnnn
They are all scared – but I’m not sure of what they are scared of?
The five ayes to whatever the US says ( sorry I’s ) are keeping us all safe in our beds – so Carol and her mates say.
is it any wonder that certain humans decide to live halfway up mountains to avoid all this nonsense?
Good luck to them I say.
International finance will elect the president. And that is headed by incredibly wealthy families. The silly notion that ordinary people elect presidents and prime ministers is wrong. Boris has his handler and she will ensure he does as expected.
Boris, is going to load you and your unborn up with so much debt you’ll wish you skipped math.His job, is simply to do as he is told by international finance and load up with as much debt as he can get away with without people rioting. Boiling frog. That debt will be repaid (with interest) to those, well mainly one, wealthy family. If Bernie did manage it, and it looks unlikely, he will find out soon enough what masthead means. Hope is a dangerous disorder.
Very good article, thank you. I’m savouring free speech whilst we are still allowed to write and read what we decide to.
It looks like The East India Company has risen from the past and changed it’s name – All hail the Private Global Banking, Retail, MSM, Pharmaceutical, Food, Military and Technology New World Order Limited
“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. ”
FD Roosevelt, Washington 29/4/1938.
I doubt if any high profile politician would dare to say that now.
The Graunida:
“Oh yah well of course I’m absolutely totally in favour of radical change only please god don’t ever let it happen but if you do god then please make sure it doesn’t impinge on my comfortable upper middle class metropolitan lifestyle and whatever else you do god DO NOT LET IT ADVERSELY AFFECT THE VALUE OF MY FAHCKING LONDON PROPERTIES!!!!
Basically I agree with your analysis although i am less optimistic than you feel re the final paragraph. The privilege & greed machine will not allow change that threatens its existence. It controls most of the info that most people receive about whats happening in their world & therefore can easily control how people vote. Any politician that is a threat will run the gauntlet of everything necessary to undermine and stop and destroy them. This will be used to destroy any idea(s) of a different world & way of doing things. If there is any chance of Sanders becoming president the machine (currently lead by a USA/Israel/Saudi alliance) will kick into full action. In the long term i am more optimistic. The victims will only take this s**t for so long. They need to recognise that their abusers operate internationally & only use nationalism to stir people, who should know better, to join their side when necessary. Further, they cant change things using the rules devised by their abusers.
I guess the only punishment appropriate for Assange the dupe is the ‘Useful Idiot’ statue. Allying hisself with Nixon ratfucker Stone is his epitaph.
Ben, you insult HST, but maybe you are ANR (a non-reader).
Hunter loathed Nixon and Australian poseurs