Ten years ago Edward Snowden was helped to escape by Wikileaks and to publish his revelations by The Intercept, Guardian, New York Times and others.
In 2023 Jack Texeira is tracked down by UK secret service front Bellingcat in conjunction with the New York Times and in parallel with the Washington Post, not to help him escape or help him publish or tell people his motives, but to help the state arrest him.
Those outlets have accessed a cache of at least 300 additional secret documents in doing so – and have kept them secret, with the exception of a couple of snippets that forward the official state narrative.
That contrast with ten years ago tells a very real and glaring truth. The idea that the legacy media in any way serves the truth or the public interest is now completely buried. The legacy media serves the state, and the state serves the billionaires.
Wikileaks is now so hamstrung by attacks on its finances, personnel and logistics as to be almost inoperable. Propaganda outfit Bellingcat was conceived as a way to counter it, by producing material with the frisson of secret access but actually as an outlet for the security services. An astonishing amount of “liberal opinion” falls for it.
Similarly the Intercept, like the Guardian, was subject to an internal takeover that delivered it entirely into the hands of the neo-conservatives.
Neither the alleged journalists of New York Times, Washington Post, nor Bellingcat did the most basic things a real journalist would do.
They did not contact Texeira, speak to him, ask him to explain his motivation, and look through the other secret material to which he had access, to get Texeira’s view on its meaning and implications, and to publish what in it was in the public interest.
Instead they simply shopped him to the FBI and closed down the remaining documents.
I am not at all surprised by Bellingcat, which is plainly a spook organisation. I hope this enables more people to see through them. But the behaviour of the New York Times and Washington Post is truly shocking. They now see their mission as to serve the security state, not public knowledge.
In the ten years between Snowden and Texeira, the world has changed hugely for the worse. Not only has a huge amount of freedom disappeared, freedom’s former Guardians have been subverted. It has been ten years of disaster.
A cache of twitter images of some of the leaked documents is here. I am not aware of any broader cache – feel free to insert links to any in the comments.
The initial reaction to the leaked documents was to rubbish them with the memes routinely applied to all information embarrassing to the state nowadays – they were either “Russian hacks” or “faked or amended disinformation”.
These attacks were particularly important as the message that came over clearly from these Texeira leaks was precisely the same as that which came over from Daniel Ellsberg’s original Pentagon Papers leak 50 years ago – that the public is being lied to about how the war is going.
(It is worth reflecting that in today’s world the NYT and Washington Post would have condemned Ellsberg and emphasised those bits of the Pentagon Papers which reflect badly on the VietCong).
Ukraine was particularly concerned about US official figures showing Ukrainian casualties much higher, and Russian casualties much lower, than the Ukrainian official figures the US ostensibly endorsed.
I have to say I always find both Ukrainian and Russian casualty figures laughably false. The idea that either side is telling the truth appears to me one that no half-sensible person could entertain. I had presumed that was the general view.
Revelations about the fragility of Ukrainian air defences and supply lines similarly seemed to me a statement of the blindingly obvious.
It is also unhelpful for the US to have revealed that it is actively spying on President Zelensky, as well as allies like South Korea and Israel. But again, this is embarrassing in the sense it is embarrassing if somebody publishes pictures of you on the toilet; it is not that nobody thought you used the toilet.
There is not a diplomat alive who did not know the US does this stuff.
Eventually the media and security services, with Bellingcat in the vanguard, decided the best way forward was to admit the papers are genuine, but only tell us about very selected ones, and then with a positive spin.
So we have stories about how brilliant the US secret services are at penetrating Russian power structures and communications, and how the real danger from the leaks is revealing to the Russians the extent of American success.
That line has been splashed all over legacy and social media these last few days. As the public is being denied the original documents this conclusion is extrapolated from, it is difficult to assess. The journalists of course have not assessed it; they have just copied and pasted the line.
Other helpful snippets for the security services are published, such as an assessment that the UN Secretary General is pro-Russian, or standard stuff on North Korean nuclear ambitions. In the last week it is noticeable that, since original documents stopped surfacing into public view, nothing has been published that does not serve US propaganda narratives.
There remains the mystery that the sources of these documents seem particularly diverse – in particular some being apparently internal CIA – for an intelligence officer in the Air National Guard to access, but it is not impossible.
Jack Texeira is at the centre of this puzzle but remains the missing piece. We have heard nothing from him. A rather unconvincing interview with a suspiciously fluent, pixeled out acquaintance grassing him up to the Washington Post stated that he was a right wing patriot.
Texeira has been portrayed both as some kind of rampant Trump supporter incensed at the state, and as an inadequate jock revealing documents just to boast to fellow gaming nerds. We should remain suspicious of attempts to characterise him: I am acutely aware of media portrayals of Julian Assange which are entirely untrue.
It is a shame the Washington Post, New York Times, Guardian and Bellingcat each had no interest whatsoever in the journalistic pursuit of the truth behind this extraordinary episode. We live entirely in security states: there is no doubt about it.
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I can’t believe a 21-year-old would print out 100 documents, fold them, unfold them, photograph them and upload 100 photos to a gaming site. Too tedious, too risky, for little reward.
If anyone doubts the truth of Craig’s claim that The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian and Bellingcat “have no interest in the journalistic pursuit of the truth …..”, they should try posting a comment critical of the US foreign policy on the Guardian website.
Earlier today, an article appeared in the Guardian under the headline “Freedom needs to be better supplied than tyranny. If democracies stand firm, Putin’s war on Ukraine will fail.” The first response to the article referred to “the useful idiots in Britain and other western countries who say that abandoning Ukraine is the way forward to achieve peace” and counselled that “Ukraine must be supported to the fullest” because “you do not achieve peace by appeasing tyrannical dictators intent on the conquering of foreign countries. Not since Hitler has Europe faced a dictator with such resources available to them.”
My reply was as follows: “The real useful idiots are those on the liberal left who recite the mantra that NATO’s US-led response is motivated by a desire to protect freedom and democracy – whilst ignoring the fact that their messianic zeal for removing dictators and installing democracy, in the name of liberal interventionism but at the end of a gun barrel, is rejected by most of the rest of the world, which regards the US and not Russia as the biggest threat to global peace according to a 2013 Gallup poll and a 2017 PEW Research survey. This may be because, since World War 2, the US military has been responsible for the deaths of at least 20 million people directly or indirectly through proxy wars, overthrown at least 36 governments, interfered in more than 85 foreign elections, attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders, and dropped bombs on people in over 30 countries (The Monroe Doctrine by David Swanson, 2022). To facilitate such interventions, the U.S. has 800 military bases scattered round the world, which have provided weapons, military training and/or military funding to many of the most oppressive governments on earth. And anyone who thinks that Ukraine isn’t just another proxy war to promote the economic and geopolitical interests of the US should listen to the speech delivered in January 2020 by Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff who declared that “the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don’t have to fight Russia here.”
My post was removed within a few minutes. The entire thread disappeared about an hour later. The irony of suppressing dissent in order to protect freedom and democracy seems to have escaped The Guardian and the rest of the liberal media.
I don’t bother to reply BTL at The Guardian now since my comments are ‘pre-moderated’ and normally removed. Tisdall and Harding pen at least one NATO propaganda piece a week and the remainder of the paper now resembles a magazine my mother used to buy – called the Women’s Realm I think – which focuses on women’s issues no matter the topic. The fact the thread was removed indicates that the response was not what was hoped for, but asking a gang of retired neo-cons to write an article was always likely to produce fatuous drivel such as you quoted above.
“I don’t bother to reply BTL at The Guardian now since my comments are ‘pre-moderated’ and normally removed”.
Just one more step on the road to health, then – don’t read the bloody thing. Forget it ever existed.
coooool
would make for a great research subject: Collecting rejected commentaries from commentary sections.
Off Guardian used to do this. A few years ago, I sent them a screenshot of one of the many posts which I have had removed from the Guardian’s website. In this case it was a perfectly reasonable comment defending Jeremy Corbyn. They published the screenshot with a transcript, and the article attracted nearly two hundred comments. Someone needs to start a register of censorship to expose the shameless hypocrisy and double standards of the liberal media.
What is “Off Guardian”?
***
The Corbyn nonsense spilled over to Germany back then.
I would have never believed that it would have such an impact on studied minds.
But then again, it´s Germany.
Even people who stayed loyal to their convictions despite Febr. 24th 2022, in case of Corbyn had moments of uncertainty.
The idea e.g. of “self-hating” Jew is extremely popular with progressives.
Since it questions the official narrative.
And the notion of self-hating Jew explained conveniently why British Jews would be supporting an antisemite Corbyn.
The world is all nuts.
humans are so credulous towards the wrong people and institutions.
And it happens over and over again.
OffGuardian is an English-language website which, in its own words, is for those who “are sick of of being stifled, moderated abused or slandered as Putinbots or worse, and censored to oblivion on any of the Readers Comments sections of our mainstream press …..”. It is frequently criticised for promoting Russian propaganda.
As you say, “humans are so credulous towards the wrong people and institutions.” But this isn’t surprising when western liberal and neo-con corporate media outlets have such a stranglehold on public opinion and defer to their state security services by branding dissidents as traitors and Putin apologists. According to a press release issued last November by the US Department of State sponsored National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, “information terrorists should know that they will have to answer to to the law as war criminals.” Thus NATO countries have banned Russian media from the internet, anti-war protesters such as Roger Waters have been placed on the infamous Myrotvorets “kill list”, and dissenters such as Alina Lipp and Heinrich Bucker are being prosecuted by the German government.
Equally sinister is the fact that online censorship of anti-war dissent has become the new norm. As journalist Matt Taibi has noted, the west has established “an intellectual no-fly zone”, where deviation from orthodoxy is no longer tolerated. This new Cold War started in November 2016, when the Washington Post published a report claiming that hundreds of fake news websites had enabled Donald Trump’s victory in the US election. The article was based on research carried out by an organisation called PropOrNot, which claimed that any source which criticised Obama, NATO, Hillary Clinton or the mainstream media, or expressed concern about nuclear war with Russia, was likely to be Russian propaganda. It is almost certain that PropOrNot was founded by Michael Weiss, a member of the Atlantic Council, a NATO think tank. Google’s reaction to the Washington Post article was swift. In early 2017, it launched Project Owl, a massive overhaul of its algorithm which resulted in a collapse in search traffic to alternative media outlets. According to data from SEMrush, traffic generated by Google searches declined for 13 sites with large readerships – for example by 67% for wsws.org, fell by 67% by 47% for socialist worker.org and by 47% for consortiumnews.com.
‘As journalist Matt Taibi has noted, the west has established “an intellectual no-fly zone”, where deviation from orthodoxy is no longer tolerated’.
Mark, that has been standard operating procedure for decades. I remember noticing it in “The Guardian” in the 1960s.
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate”.
– Dr Noam Chomsky
It’s hard to imagine anyone thinking that fomenting a war where your proxy has far fewer troops and resources than the other side was ever a good way of promoting your nation’s interests. It seems to me that it’s far more driven by special interests. The arms manufacturers, with an obvious payoff. The generals who get new toys to play with. The spook empires who get bigger budgets and more influence. The fossil fuel companies who get record profits and opportunities to open up new fields in the name of National Security. On the other side, I suspect China. They get it demonstrated starkly to the whole world, including Taiwan, that the US is never going to send its troops against someone who can shoot back.
(not funny:
Today was the funeral of former MP and leading Green Party member Antje Vollmer, long-time womens´ rights and peace activist.
Unlike Daniel Ellsberg she decided to not disclose her illness.
She had been fighting this war and the hysteria from day #1.
MSM ignored that.
They DID report on her death.
I am not certain they even realize what they have done.
Many of those writing today are too young to remember Vollmer´s role in German politics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antje_Vollmer
The last quotation in this Engl. Wiki-bio is by a leading neo-liberal Green, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, who represents the worst of the Green Party and was the absolute opposite of what Vollmer has accomplished.
(I do not know whether they liked each other beyond the political arena. Such things are not uncommon.
However I would as well not be surprised if Vollmer´s worst enemy had the sweetest words for her.)
A Good article on the Criminality, and Treachery of the MSM ..mentioning many of the Things Craig has said in this Post..But mainly a true observation of the Low life Western Media.
By Elizabeth Vos – Consortium News -April 17 2023
‘ It was impossible to imagine four years ago when WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange was hauled out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London and thrown in Belmarsh Prison that corporate media, which had smeared Assange, could stoop to new lows of government servitude.
But it has now happened with the arrest of Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, for allegedly leaking top secret government documents. The leaks exposed a number of significant lies told by both the U.S. government and corporate media about the ongoing war in Ukraine..
Full Article is @ –
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/04/17/corporate-media-are-the-anti-wikileaks/?
While we are on about journalists, spare a thought for Vladimir Kara-Murza, the journalist given 25 years sentence in Russia today, in addition to what appear to have been attempted poisonings, for having criticised the war in Ukraine and calling the Kremlin regime “murderers.” As a close friend of Boris Nemtsov, he has seen how the Kremlin operates at close quarters and may know a thing or two about how that liberal politician came to be gunned down on a bridge in central Moscow. But Kara-Murza was asking for it, I hear you say, brazenly opposing a war of conquest by an authoritarian regime which has passed laws banning anyone from calling the war a “war” never mind criticizing it. It’s called discrediting the Russian armed forces. Ok, then spare a thought for the insignificant people whose names don’t merit a mention given up to 15 years in jail for things like posting anti-invasion messages on social media. Did any of these people post a vast cache of information undermining the national security of their country? No. They just publicly said they oppose the war launched by their country on Ukraine. Oh, and we hear from Marjorie Taylor-Green that this Texeira chap was “white, Christian, and anti-war.” Anti-war my arse.
And how shall we call this? “Reverse whataboutism”?
However, “discrediting the Russian armed forces” in his case meant not opposing war as you claim, but, according to his sentencing, when making a speech in Arizona, he falsely stated that Russian armed forces violated the laws of war.
Aye, and he did not deny saying it, because it’s true. Russia’s armed forces regularly violate the laws of war. We’ve seen bucket loads of gold teeth beaten out of their victims in the cellars which for Russia’s armed forces seem to be part of the normal infrastructure of occupied territory.
Mind sharing the link to the bucket loads of gold teeth so I can also see these? But why should Russia treat Kara-Murza any differently than GB treated Lord Haw-Haw or US “Tokyo Rose”?
Except that the Russians are not proposing to hang Kara-Murza.
Because the Russian constitution guarantees his freedom of speech, conscience and association. You know, the constitution which Russians adopted on 12 December 1993 and which is supposed to be the fundamental law.
Lord Haw Haw is a funny one to bring up. If he had been a Ukrainian, broadcasting pro-Russian propaganda from Moscow in his native language to influence fellow Ukrainians, and then, at the end of the war after the Ukrainians occupied Moscow, they found him and hanged him, that would be an appropriate analogy. But Russia is oppressing its own citizen in the case of Kara-Murza.
One does not need to be as boldly political as Kara-Murza to be condemned in Russia. Has not Maksim Galkin, well loved comedian and multitalented host of “Better than All the Rest” the talent show for very young children also been named as a “foreign agent?”
Are you happy, Yuri, to live in a country where children shop their teachers for not following government guidelines in discussing the war in Ukraine, and the teachers lose their jobs and can end up in prison?
Yes, yes, yes and the Huns marched with Belgian babies stuck on the end of their bayonets.
The people you’re speaking up for in Russia (as many places elsewhere) are known as “grant-eaters”, i.e. local NATO-funded proxies who always unerringly parrot NATO’s line on any issue in any place, regardless of the situation.
They’re anti-anti-imperialists who mostly don’t give flying toss about the good causes they claim to speak for.
Regarding Kara-Murza, if I can recall his own father had rubbished those “poisoning” claims. After all how many of these headline “victims” seem to “miraculously” survive.
As for Nemtsov, a widely despised Yeltsin-era crook & scallywag who had prior involvement in organized criminal activity, who couldn’t resist public notoriety.
*Gasp* How could could such a man die under murky circumstances?
Actually, the more common name for them is “grant-suckers” 🙂
Quite amazingly, although they named a square in Washington DC after Nemtsov, no one in the West remembers that when Javier Solana, then NATO Secretary General, visited Moscow in August of 1998, it was Boris Nemtsov who lectured him on the dangers and undesirability of NATO expansion. In 1999 Nemtsov fully endorsed Putin as presidential candidate, probably expecting Putin to pay him back by granting him some high ranking position. After Putin (who won a landslide victory and did not care much for Yeltsin’s cronies like Nemtsov) ignored him, Nemtsov did about-face and became one of the so called “opposition leaders” who frequently visited the US embassy.
” We’ve seen bucket loads of gold teeth beaten out of their victims in the cellars…”
You have? My God, what a lucky escape you must have had! How did you get away from the FSB without being tortured to death?
Or did you mean “we’ve seen” in the sense of “seen at the movies”?
I thought a dentist said they were looted from his surgery
“bucket loads of gold teeth”.
This ‘story’ was debunked last year. The gold teeth in question actually belonged to a dentist and had been collected legitimately from his patients.
Your lies can actually lead to people’s deaths, please stop it.
Was he a journalist?
Best known for being one of the people who carried John McCains coffin.
Perhaps it qualifies as journalism – here is what our news say about him:
Vladimir spoke in the House of Representatives of the US state of Arizona. “Motivated by political hatred” he announced “deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces to bomb residential areas, maternity hospitals, hospitals and schools” in Ukraine.
The second charge was “foreign agent”.
The third was the charge under Article 275 of the Criminal Code “Treason”. He is charged with three episodes:
speeches in the NATO Assembly,
the Helsinki Committee in Oslo
and in the United States.
Vladimir Kara-Murza has dual citizenship. The second is of UK. He also has a residence permit in the United States. Before his arrest, he was registered in Moscow, while living in the US state of Virginia.
He is, by the way, the great-grandson Georgs Bisenieks, the first ambassador of Latvia to Great Britain.
Wiki also says:
“From February to May 2011, Kara-Murza, on behalf of the Russian opposition, negotiated in the US Congress on expanding the categories of persons subject to visa sanctions within the framework of the Sergei Magnitsky bill.”
in my opinion, if a person goes to a foreign country with a request to do something bad for his own homeland, then this is quite a treason. Can you imagine someone going to Kremlin to ask Putin for sanctions?.
I think that this is a trendy type today, such as Guaido. I mean that the US promotes a person as a legitimate representative of the entire country, and they begin to drag him to their congress, and further to international organizations, as if he is authorized to speak for the entire state.
Ask any Russian what they remember of rule by the liberal west in the 1990s. They do not view people like the Clintons or McCain as heroes.
The theft of Russian resources/assets rubber stamped by the laughable Magnitsky act and his reference to it, removes any potential sympathy for Mr Kara-Murza. The fact that the pathological liar Bill Browder defends him indicates the jail term wasn’t nearly long enough. I suppose it’s just another example of disreputable, criminal fraudsters being able to find refuge behind a UK passport.
So what’s the problem with carrying John McCain’s coffin. It seems like an honourable thing to do, if asked.
Decades before his role in the Kiev coup and achieving notoriety as a deeply unpleasant warmonger, McCain chemical weaponed peasant women, children and elderly folk in a country an ocean away from his own.
Having served in the army, any army, and fought in a war, deserves some respect simply on the basis of the risks to which a person was subjected, and if the person acted bravely, then additional respect accrues to that. As I understand it, McCain was shot down over Hanoi in 1967, was seriously injured and then was captured by the North Vietnamese. He remained a prisoner of war until 1973. During this time he was tortured, and had life long injuries from all of this. He’s not someone I would ever have voted for, but his record as a soldier deserves respect. If you want to blame someone for that bombing campaign, you have to look at the older generation who devised the strategy. Henry Kissinger merits a mention as he is still alive, and still opines on foreign policy.
Neil, Mr. McCain didn’t defend his country, but he went to a foreign country, uninvited, to kill foreigners for the political benefit of your country. You praise Mr. McCain for being an obedient servant. You approve of Kara-Murza’s actions for being harmful to his country.
Do you have any principle?
Personally, I would have preferred Mr. McCain to come out and protest US involvement in the Vietnam War. And personally, I would prefer that Kara-Murza directed his activities towards establishing mutual understanding and respect between the United States and Russia, instead of fanning hatred and enmity.
Neil Munro, you are not very well informed regarding John McCain. If you wish to see this individual in all of his resplendent glory, try reading Sydney Schanberg’s “Beyond the Killing Fields” or indeed any of Schanberg’s journalistic pieces regarding McCain. If you can be bothered, you will see this man shorn of the supportive propaganda that has conditioned your view of him.
Schanberg is the journalist depicted in the film “The Killing Fields”; a celebrated practitioner who was lauded by the establishment until he wasn’t. This fall from grace coincided with Schanberg’s interest in writing about the real John McCain. It was not flattering – traitor, braggart, liar, ferocious wife-beater, establishment shill – really one of the most disgusting individuals one might come across. His fellow inmates at “the Hanoi Hilton” called him, in full mockery, “the Crown Prince” – he came from privelege, his father was the senior admiral who led the cover up of Israel’s unprovoked, murderous attack on the USS Liberty. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with this one.
If you wish to discuss historical personages, can you at least ensure you have done five minutes of DuckDuckGo research on said personages. You look incredibly foolish to this writer and I would guess, to any who are aware of Schanberg’s incredible rubbling of this prince of all phonies.
Oh yes, he also recorded propaganda broadcasts at “the Hilton”, in return for better treatment. These remained hidden until 2016 when they finally emerged. I challenge you to listen to a couple of minutes of these recordings without puking your ring.
OK, Greg, let’s back this up a bit. I say that Kara-Murza has been given 25 years in Russia for voicing his opinions about the war. James says that Kara-Murza helped carry the coffin at John McCain’s funeral. The discussion then turns into a debate about John McCain, thanks to the many experts on here who know about John McCain’s misdeeds. But no one has explained to me why Kara-Murza should get 25 years for speaking his mind. The implication seems to be that Kara-Murza is guilty by his association with John McCain and therefore deserved to be imprisoned. It’s really quite disturbing to read this in the comments’ section of Craig Murray’s blog because it seems his followers are not really interested in freedom of speech, the one liberal principle you’d think they might support.
“…but his record as a soldier deserves respect.”
No, it doesn’t – he was a traitor – not for any misguided, ideological reasons, simply for personal gain. In my view, the lowest form of traitor. A super-charged spoilt brat who guessed there would be no consequences for his squalid betrayal. You are living proof that his guess was correct.
The moral? Don’t talk about stuff you know nothing about.
“The discussion then turns into a debate about John McCain…”
You helped this transformation, posting a long paragraph on his fictitious war record – “stolen valour” is what military types call this phenomenon, I believe.
Oh, so now I’m being told to shut up by useless eater because I don’t know enough about John McCain. But even if John McCain did ALL the bad things ascribed to him on this site and then some, why should the bearers of his coffin go to prison? I don’t get the logic.
But that’s also distraction, because the start of the conversation is not Kara-Murza, imprisoned for voicing his opinion, but the contrast between Kara-Murza and someone else who dumped a whole lot of top secret information on a public server.
Now this really gets to the heart of free speech. Saying you are against the invasion of Ukraine can get you a jail term in Russia, and that’s fine if you were a pall bearer for a very bad man. But putting a whole bunch of top secret information including details of military hardware and planning and secret spying activity out into the public domain, just dumping it like a turd on a bowling green, that’s freedom of speech, and it’s a principle worth defending.
I don’t follow the news at all, anywhere. I am unaware of the individual you are all talking about and the situation this person is in; my intervention was generated by your reference to McCain.
I only comment on what I think I know – you don’t – as your comment above demonstrates.
There is nothing unusual about ignorance, it is at the heart of the human condition and our lives are lived despite it, not because of it.
I welcome correction; that is how I grow.
“Saying you are against the invasion of Ukraine can get you a jail term in Russia,”
So every Russian who is anti-war is in prison, are they? Care to substantiate that claim? Opposing the Establishment in this country can get you a jail term, too, if you are unlucky, as out host was, or are you of the opinion that he deserved to go to jail?
@USELESS EATER
different topic but I then missed to ask – early this year, I believe, we had a short exchange about the demolition of the working class in Europe in the inter-war years.
(our posts later ended up with Chomsky and some movie about him)
Back then you also mentioned scholarship/literature, I believe re: capital flight via Netherlands??? as a cause of impoverished and thus powerless German working class late 1920s???
Something like that.
I meant to ask the exact book/study titles you might have had in mind. But forgot.
Maybe you still remember what I am babbling about now, taken from memory…
@ Neil Munro:
As Tatyana says above, Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason, for spreading false information about the Russian armed forces and for being part of an organisation designated a foreign agent because the organisation receives more than 50% of its funding from overseas agents under various articles of the Russian criminal code.
as Neil mentioned, Kara-Murza is also an active political figure. He supported Nemtsov, he was in the Yabloko party. Wiki also says that in June 2012 he was elected to the Federal Political Council of the PARNAS party (center-right, conservative-liberal political party of Russia), and in October 2012 he was elected to the Coordinating Council of the extra-parliamentary Russian opposition.
I do not really understand why in his case the emphasis is on his journalistic activities?
I see it much more simplified and closer to reality: there are countries that have declared Russia an enemy, there is a NATO military bloc that has also officially declared Russia an enemy, in its charter documents.
Kara-Murza, being an opposition politician, attends these hostile political and military gatherings and speaks there something bad (and presumably false) against my country.
Journalism, my ass.
I suggest to compare this – I don’t know which of the opposition politicians you have there? Maybe Mr Corbin? Mr Salmond? Imagine that one of them would go to Moscow, Beijing, Tehran to ask for sanctions against your country. Or imagine that they could attend a meeting of the Russian-Chinese-Iranian military bloc to ask for … I can’t even imagine what one could talk about there.
I want to say that it would be good to have politicians who are patriots of their country, and not patriots of NATO.
As for the persecution of journalists, I see only one figure so far – Mr. Assange. Pure journalism, perhaps even pure publishing.
Unfortunately, many who’d like to present themselves as a journalist unfairly persecuted by the authorities, in reality turn out to be opposition politicians, dreaming of getting rid of competitors.
Gaining little popular support they may decide on the dirtiest treacherous method of political competition – ask a hostile country for the political or military elimination of a competitor.
@Jen, @Tatyana, you’ve said it all. Kara-Murza was imprisoned not for journalism but for being an opposition politician! Thank you for clarifying!
Evil John McCain
Strode the Globe to Kill and Maim
For the Empire’s Gain
BrianF – superb haiku! ?
I recall that bad ass son of a … killed quite a load of US servicemen too by his dumbass gung-ho bs as a ‘pilot’ – and his stay as pow was not as bad as most other pow’s because of who his daddy was.
I bet he would have been fragged if he hadn’t been in that protective custody.
The git went onto achieve massive political power by virtue of that familial aristocracy hereditary principle that operates in the US in plain sight.
He worked with Obama who he stood against, to spread the terror and war of the US regime, and lit the fuse in Ukraine amongst his other lifetimes crimes of mass murder.
Poster Neil’s attempt to keep that McCain name as holy, for the next scion’s crack at the top job is risible.
The US needs regime change and dumping of its monarchy, permanently.
Propaganda
Baubles and glitter
For those on the shitter
he was imprisoned for being a traitor. that’s the clarification you missed.
as honorable as covering for a pedophile like Epstein? That honorable. But don’t believe me, believe his widow.
“We All Knew What Epstein Was Doing” Admits John McCain’s Widow – The Jimmy Dore Show (16 Apr 2023) – YouTube, 2m 44s
I believe the truth is that McCain was a coward who collaborated with his captors at the expense of other POWs. That’s not honourable, is it ?
“While we are on about journalists, spare a thought for Vladimir Kara-Murza, the journalist given 25 years sentence in Russia today, in addition to what appear to have been attempted poisonings, for having criticised the war in Ukraine and calling the Kremlin regime “murderers.” ”
You appear to be suffering under the common delusion that anyone who is anti the Russian government cannot possibly be a criminal and, if they are sent to prison, this is only because they oppose the Russian government.
you appear to be suffering under the common delusion that any traitor to Russia is telling the truth.
Your logical argument goes like this:
If it is not the case that anyone who opposes the Russian government can’t be a criminal, then anyone who opposes the Russian government must be telling the truth.
For this to be logically true it must be the case that only criminals tell lies. A very short amount of observation of the world tells us that many non-criminals also tell lies, lying only being a crime under certain circumstances.
Were you absent during the lessons where you were supposed to learn logic, or didn’t they teach it at your school?
i was trying to reply to Munro, not sure why it appeared directly below your post. I was mad at his obvious bs,
following comment is from recent Moon of Alabama entry
As a layman I have no way to assess in how far it is “legit” in its details, or unfounded fiction.
The person commenting tries to reconstruct how the docs got out:
(Is it still possible that various sources were involved to extract the info? I think this was one speculation early on…)
“(…)
As I said a few days ago, any plausible method for Mr. Tex to get the documents can’t hold up.
While he was being arrested, I thought the most likely method was grabbing docs from the classified burn bag. But that requires someone at his local command level to be viewing them in the first place. Obviously that doesn’t happen at NG locations with CIA docs.
But the charges make it sound like he was simply “searching the classified network” and found these documents, then printed them out, and took them home to be photographed, then placed on public internet.
But that doesn’t work on several levels.
As some have said, how does the CIA docs get on the DoD network? And how are they not blocked by simple searches? Public search engines can easily block content from being displayed. A classified network, with different layers of data and authorizations would be easy to do the same, based on the user information and user location. What isn’t said is that using the DoD network, you need layers of authorization specific to that location. Very simple to deny access from terminals that don’t meet your criteria for access. So a NG site probably can’t get files from the Joint Chiefs w/o special permission.
So, for any IT professionals in the room, that story simply can’t hold water.
Once the files were found, they would probably have some obscurity in the naming. Ex: “uforccapsumupdt28″ Ukraine Forces Summary Update #28.
Some knowledge of the organization and people actually naming files is required or large amounts of time are spent opening random files. Since the files appear to be generated by 2 or more organizations, the naming conventions would be different. Even more time.
Once the files are found, it is maybe 50-50 that the originator used the std MS password protect feature for opening. The FBI can probably crack that in a few minutes, but not a 21 yr old E3.
Once open, they have to be printed. Getting printer access in a SCIF isn’t easy, again a junior grade would not have his own authorization. In fact very probable a higher up would review docs before handing them to an E3. A folder would be prepared for storage (and a safe location) after use, or placed into burn bag. A senior officer or GS would make certain that everything is taken care of at the end of each work day.
Smuggling the docs out would not be easy. If that location is a TS facility, then there are several hurdles to clear to be able to get 30 or 40 pages out at a time.
So this means that at the very least:
DoD classified network is run worse than many internal commercial networks.
E3 superiors, E5 or E6 and CPT were not paying attention.
SCF civilians (GS12 or GS 13) were not doing their jobs.
Building security guards were not doing their jobs.
(…)”
it is well known in the US that the new york times & washington post are security state organs. however in Britain there is near total ignorance that the ‘adversarial’ Guardian is controlled by the MoD, as detailed by Declassified UK in 2019.
the sad thing is that if it were widely known most of the Guardian’s remaining readers, Starmerite liberals, would strongly approve, as is the case with the readerships of the NYT and washington post.
Hi Craig
not sure if you are open to opining on readers questions?
When the dust settles on this war, what will be the fallout if it is not literally radioactive? Will Nuland et al be brought before some sort of inquiry as to how it came to be that the colossus of the US empire could be kneecapped by such a small cabal of incompetents? Or is it more likely that the new McCarthyism will go into hyperdrive in the US and continue to spread to its European vassals. In order that not just the neocons, but the entire political elite and the pillars on which they stand can remain unscathed, the latter seems the more likely. Could this explain the credulity of the once considered principled liberal media?
PS: Do you think this war would have unfolded the way it has if Jeremy Corbyn and not Boris Johnson had become PM of the UK, seeing that the UK seems to be playing an oversized and very ugly lapdog role here?
On the opening page yesterday I commented… “Claims by ex CIA staffers in the blog world, that CIA documents would not be circulating in the centre this guy (Jack Texeira) was working ring true. Apparently the CIA only allows access to its documents via its own systems, to its own people; they don’t share”
A former British Ambassador responded that they “saw literally thousands of CIA intelligence reports in my career” contradicting what was said.
My understanding was based on claims by one Larry C Johnson “a veteran of the CIA”
…well, that was yesterday.
Right on cue comes an interview between our CIA veteran and one Scott Ritter (if there is anybody who visits here doesn’t yet know who Scott Ritter is…. stick around) it updates our knowledge of the audience the CIA allows to its documents.
Mr. Johnson updates us ….”Apparently, there are a number of CIA officers posted at these bases (SCIF’s) and a decision was made a few years back to open the access to them. But the access is not wide open. You have to have the right “tickets” in order to get into that compartment”
No essential reason to read Mr. Johnson’s piece, or listen to his interview with “The Judge” but don’t miss his interview with Scott. I promise I am not about to persuade you to waste 50 minutes of your life…_
https://sonar21.com/more-discussion-about-the-leaked-intelligence-documents/
Oh, Mr. Murray. As usual, your heart is in the right place, and you speak power to truth, but you get swindled by one incredibly stupid piece of propaganda.
Yes, Snowden did hand over his trove of documents to Greenwald, but after a bit of cooperation with the Guardian et al, Greenwald gave the BULK of them to Pierre Omidyar, who has been sitting on them ever since.
In other words, 90% of what Snowden acquired is languishing in a locked desk drawer, and a corrupt oligarch has the only key.
Excellent analysis, thank you.
Lest we forget they were unable (or unwilling) to tell the difference between a deadly virus and a strain of common cold its worth noting that the well paid, provisioned and pensioned employees of the security apparatus will undoubtedly have had the budget and opportunity to provide a stand alone communications system for matters of national security so, setting aside the why of giving access to a 20 y.o. rookie (see under cannon fodder/ average age of people slaughtered on front lines, etc), the how of it suggests that whoever is controlling the operation undoubtedly wanted the information in the public domain – hopefully with the specific aim of ending state sponsored murder in the regions identified rather than escalating it beyond them.
To anybody who has been watching closely, while spurning the poisonous nonsense of the now thoroughly rotten mainstream media, there is little, if anything, new in these leaked documents. They simply confirm what a number of credible commentators have been saying all along, albeit with more detail.
What they do do, of course, is prove to the wider public that our governments, politicians and media have been, and are, lying through their teeth to us in the promotion of this proxy war.
Former CIA officer Ray McGovern is one such credible commentator. He spoke yesterday on Judge Napolitano’s Youtube channel arguing forcefully that the leak is most likely from one or some of the saner elements within the US regime that recognise the unfolding disaster before them and want to bring it to public attention before it becomes even more disastrous:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGbVCM09hcQ
Judge Andrew Napolitano is a former regular Fox News contributor, Trump confidante and partisan Republican supporter. He nonetheless now runs valuable weekly interviews with a range of former and serving security service and military officers who are critical of the US role in Ukraine and increasingly in relation to China.
He recently added former MI6 officer Alastair Crooke to his list of regular interviewees. He is very good. This is his interview from last week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGRjJzBO1i8
Peter,
a thumbs up for your YouTube links, especially the Alastair Crooke interview. I’ve noticed his name on a regular basis, but never paid him any attention. I won’t make that mistake again.
So now I go into very fearful mode. Will the USA be brought back down to earthly reality, or will mission creep take us closer to a possible nuclear conflict.
Wise and calm heads must secure a ceasefire, followed immediately by peace talks. For all our security, amen…_
Ok, so someone’s curating this page and has deleted my non-abusive post addressed to Tatyana. I wonder why. Is it that they don’t like someone pointing out that not all Russians are happy with the war, and not all Russians are cynical about their fellow citizens’ ability to run their own country?
Maybe they don’t like it being pointed out that the Russians who did not support this war will one day ask people like Tatyana why they supported the war, and why they washed their hands of people who were jailed simply for voicing their opinion about it?
There are a great many people on here with PhDs in American imperialism, but when it comes to Russian imperialism, and Russian oppression of fellow Russians, they turn a blind eye. They call themselves “anti-war” but if it’s a war against the US or a US ally, they’re all for it.
—
Mod: For the record, Neil Munro, your comment was suspended with an annotation explaining why.
“[ Mod: From the moderation rules for commenters:
Fair Play
Play the ball, not the man. Address arguments, not people. Do not impugn the motives of others. No taunting. ]”
Unfortunately, the annotation wasn’t visible to you due to a change in your internet connection.
as my limited experience with this site goes, diverse opinion is always welcome, unless it´s “ad-hominem” in terms of posters treating each other.
p.s. where can I get a PhD in American Imperialism?
Georgetown?
Neil, the rules of this site prohibit personal attacks, but sometimes certain statements need clarification.
You assumed that I supported the war. This is wrong. It’s a lie.
My position has long been known, you can read it here.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/02/ukraine-how-can-the-war-end/comment-page-8/#comment-1012206
I wrote this with an open heart, absolutely sincerely, and I feel every iota of feeling expressed in these words.
You, showing respect to Mr. McCain’s role in the Vietnam War, can you feel even an iota of such feelings? Maybe you have at least a drop of Vietnamese blood in you? Maybe in Vietnam your own deep feelings for that land, for that culture, for those people were touched?
I doubt it.
Moreover, I fear that if people start to feel respect for warmongers, then we are all in danger.
And finally, you say that people are persecuted for expressing their opinions. Yes, I agree with this. I’ve bookmarked a discussion on the ru-net, it’s very much in line with Mr. Murray’s view of how the situation has worsened over the past decade. This also applies to anti-war sentiment. I’ll have free time in a few hours, I’ll translate it and post it here in the Discussion Forum section. There will be live opinions of Russian people, I hope you will be interested. I also hope that my translation efforts will be accepted as a contribution, because there is currently no way for me to support the author through a subscription or donations, when I constantly feel the need to repay in some way for this generous permission to use this blog for free discussions .
Hi Tatyana, I see that you are very close to the war, physically, and emotionally affected by it. My commiserations. If this site is your outlet to a world of different opinions, you must understand how what you said is interpreted. Here is what you wrote in March 2022
“I don’t want a Ukraine hating Russia with our border more than 2000 kilometers, and NATO bases on the opposite shores of Azov and Black seas. I take this threat very serious. I’ve seen what NATO can do to a country, which they appoint their enemy. Now I’m appointed the enemy, and I support my country’s effort to change the situation. I cannot live under such a threat all my life.”
More than one year after the large scale invasion of Ukraine started, can you not see how the “special military operation” has brought about the situation which you feared. Russia will be surrounded by NATO because Russia has shown that it is so scared of NATO that it will go to war with NATO. The propaganda in your country has been relentless since 2014. You don’t watch TV? You should do. It would open your eyes to how the propaganda works. Night after night. Solovyev and his little circle of cronies, egging each other on, calling for violence, calling for nuclear annihlation. And all so that one little boy from Leningrad can realise his idea of being a great leader.
Do you watch tv? I don’t. But here is Murdoch’s Fox channel, neocon I suppose as all his media.
It’s only 1 minute 30 seconds:
Militant.André.D @Circonscripti18
? #USA ?? Reporter @TuckerCarlson dropped an atomic bomb on the #Biden administration @POTUS : “ Washington is lying. This war is ours, it is a crime and we are losing it.’
“Lloyd Austin revealed the crimes, so he’s the criminal, that’s how Washington works.”
@FoxNews
https://twitter.com/Circonscripti18/status/1648324113998462977?s=20
And another short clip from another source about the Nazis in Ukraine:
JEDI 2 @kung_fu_jedi
according to the liberal media there’s no Nazis in Ukraine, but there’s absolute proof of Nazis in Ukraine and the United States government knows all about the situation and has been involved since the end of World War II.
Embedded video
https://twitter.com/kung_fu_jedi/status/1648294803593994240?s=20
And some Nazi’s of Ukraine with their Yankee masters:
Tom Carter @CarterWSWS
While “Ukrainian Nazis” is trending on Twitter, this is one of America’s puppets in #Ukraine: Oleh Tyahnybok, leader of the Svoboda party, formerly the Social-National Party of Ukraine.
Left: Tyahnybok shaking hands with Biden
Right: Tyahnybok giving the Hitler salute
https://twitter.com/CarterWSWS/status/1648180667191279617?s=20
So Neil can you now ‘see’ Who is at war?
Who provoked that war?
What was their plan and still is?
DunGroanin’s got me groanin’. What conclusions am I supposed to draw from Fox News clips? That Rupert Murdoch is smart enough to back both horses in American presidential elections?
There are Nazis in Ukraine? Who’da thunk it? More interesting question is: why are there Nazis in Ukraine? Could it have anything to do with how Ukrainians were treated by the Soviets?
There are Nazis everywhere, including Scotland:-
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/sinister-underworld-scots-neo-nazis-28499850
and Russia:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich_Group
The Nazis in Ukraine however have super-powers and must be eliminated even at the cost of destroying the whole country to get to them.
The Russian roots of Nazism – White Emigres and the Making of National Socialism
Michael Kellog Cambridge University Press 2005
“This groundbreaking book examines the overlooked topic of the influence of anti-Bolshevik, anti-Semitic Russian exiles on Nazism.
White emigres contributed politically, financially, militarily, and ideologically to National Socialism. This work refutes the notion that Nazism developed as a peculiarly German phenomenon. National Socialism arose primarily from the cooperation between volkisch (nationalist/racist) Germans and vengeful White emigres.”
The above book is well worth a look to anyone interested in why there are Nazis in Ukraine or indeed why there Nazis anywhere.
I found this very well written. Makes a potentially tough read into a palatable story.
For the adventurous, couple this with Richard Rhodes “Masters of Death” (First Vintage Books, 2003) and you will have a much clearer image of how each side justifies their violence.
Rhodes book is not an easy read; it concerns the activities of the various Einsatzgruppen, as they penetrated the continental landmass bringing sadistic, brutal death in their train. On a colossal scale they butchered; yet this was not the worst of it. The worst of “it” was the German’s use of ethnic genocide before their arrival – some of the most barbaric scenes occurred during this short period. Latvians. and Galicians amongst several ethnicities joyfully murdered jews and other undesirables in the very streets of the cities, towns and villages that they had so recently shared – the gutters and drains ran red in a medieval orgy of genocide, lasting days – Tamerlane or Heluga would have relished the spectacle.
Neil you reply to me with :
“ There are Nazis in Ukraine? Who’da thunk it? More interesting question is: why are there Nazis in Ukraine? Could it have anything to do with how Ukrainians were treated by the Soviets?”
“Thunk” ! Really??
Anyway…
We know exactly why they are there still after 70 years. We incubated them! You ignore that history.
& btw there are no ‘Soviets’ any more. They left long ago. Unlike the allied occupiers.
None of your reply addresses my response to your o/p or even attempts to answer my questions to you. Do try and respond directly to what I posted instead of diverting.
Answering with diversionary questions is not any kind of answer. This isn’t an exercise in salesmanship. Contractual Analysis. I have taught a lot of sales personnel over 4 decades.
You are ignoring the content of my answer and making an ad hominem attack on Murdoch instead – that he is backing both horses – you think that is ok obviously. Or do you ?
I say both horses now serve the same master. They live in the same stable. It seems that is the way the world works. There is no difference between the Republican and Democrat establishment in the US. As there isn’t between the Tory and Labour here in the U.K. Any maverick is taken out and shot! The dumb tv claims to preserve some nonsensical leftist/rightist narrative. As it seems so do you.
Do you deny that as well?
Please deny these assertions. If you want to continue a real conversation, be honest. My opinion is based largely on the following few facts which I didn’t know 5 years ago:
1. There are real Nazis in Ukraine.
2. They are supported by the US and U.K. and have been since the end of WW2.
3. There is real racism against Russia, Russians and its Language and Culture – all classed under concocted hatred of a single Russian!
I will ask another question you will probably ignore.
If you were there hypothetically. Would you rather support the Second World War Nazi or the Communist who fucked them up in their master plan?
To be fully up front, my opinion is: Nazi Bad; Commie killers of Nazis Good.
I know who, if I was sent back in time with one bullet and had Hitler or Stalin in front of me in 1940, who I should shoot.
Who would You?
I guess you won’t answer that either.
I ask you to consider what possibly might make you change your mind? I personally was shocked that as an avid anti-Nazis and anti-Commie all my life after 5 decades, I suddenly had to find myself seeing what was in front of my own eyes. A bit like a child realising there really isn’t a Santa Claus – it’s been a lie told by your parents. Or do you still believe fairy tales?
Please think before continuing unless of course you are not here to think. In which case carry on as you are.
“My opinion is based largely on the following few facts which I didn’t know 5 years ago:…”
A persuasive statement in and of itself.
“To be fully up front, my opinion is: Nazi Bad; Commie killers of Nazis Good.
I know who, if I was sent back in time with one bullet and had Hitler or Stalin in front of me in 1940, who I should shoot. ”
You wear your heart on your sleeve – good for you. I am not a killer, though I come from a long line of them. If I woke tomorrow on the horns of your dilemma, I would probably shoot myself, in attempt to finesse the unfinessable. If life continued and my fudging prevarications were all for naught, yes of course, Adolf would be saying hello to the morning sun – two in the back of the head, just to be sure. Does it constitute “hate speech” to discuss, in public, the hypothetical violent murder of another?
If I woke tomorrow dressed in unform on the Eastern Front and it was Sunday, 22 June 1941, I would be just another schmuck, in 10 million or so facing the same dilemma – a co-evolutionary bottleneck of staggering granularity. The Devil is in the detail.
” ..that as an avid anti-Nazis and anti-Commie all my life after 5 decades…”
Painful as these changes sound, I suggest you are “becoming”. Just exactly what you are becoming is still to be decided – though the vector of travel seems clear, at least to this reader. Bring it on.
Neil, thanks for your valuable advice about TV, but no. I’m a grown-up person and I am absolutely aware of who I am, what I want and what my values are. I am not going to expose myself to the heated discussions and get emotionally involved in it.
However, you did not explain why you respect McCain. Why do you approve of his role in Vietnam War?
Also, I would like to note that before the start of hostilities in Ukraine, there was a long diplomatic process in the Normandy format, called the Minsk agreements. Do you have any respect for Putin, Lavrov, Peskov, Kozak – at least for one of those who tried to settle everything peacefully? Or, maybe for some Chinese diplomats, who advocate peace talks? Do you know one single name? If not, ask me, I’ve got some portraits hanging in my workshop, my new heroes speaking for peace.
And by the way, maybe you can clarify your view of the Russians in Ukraine? Do you think they should just silently renounce their history, culture, language, religion, ethnic identity because that’s what the ex-comedian at the head of pro-Nazi forces wants? Have you seen Paul Gosar, a Congressman from Arizona, describing discrimination against Russians and Nazism in Ukraine?
https://gosar.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=EUVR7BMSA224IAOLOIDEN73V7Y
You are very wise to stay away from Russian TV, but you are still enveloped in the propaganda bubble of your country and unfortunately this means we can never agree on anything and there is no solution to this conflict beyond the military one.
For the record, I have no respect for Senator McCain in particular. My respect is in general terms for people who served their country in the military, even when their country is in the wrong, as the US was in Vietnam. This respect extends to Russian soldiers, too, generally speaking.
The Normandy format was the beginning of Putin’s process of blackmailing Ukraine and of France and Germany trying to appease Putin. Of course, Ukraine signed up to it, because in 2014 their military was very weak, but they had no intention of keeping it. Girkin and his volunteers/spetsnaz had guaranteed that the separate LNR and DNR republics would not be quickly suppressed and a civil conflict fought with petrol bombs and paving stones would turn into a war fought with Kalashnikovs, armoured cars and tanks. Did Putin approve and know what Girkin was up to? Of course, Girkin is Russian after all. So Putin’s plan was to use the Donbas as a lever to get control over the whole of Ukrainian politics through special constitutional provisions that would have given the Donbas a veto on anything that happened in Ukraine. Of course it was unacceptable to the Ukrainians.
Do I have any respect for Putin, Lavrov, Peskov, and Kozak? No, no, no and no. They did not try to settle anything peacefully, but to get back control over Ukraine by any means necessary. It was a series of plans conceived in haste after their man, Yanukovich, fled for his life, disappointing his bosses in the Kremlin.
Do I have any respect for Chinese diplomats? Generally, yes, but on this issue, no. They have always talked about their great respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs, but when one of their useful partners is doing the interference, suddenly they have other principles which are more important. The main principle is to oppose and weaken the US, and the second principle is to use Russia as an instrument of their power. Realpolitik. China’s position is duplicitous, but not very cunning. Heroes speaking for peace? Give me a break. Chinese TV news shows maps of the conflict on Ukraine, but doesn’t show the borders, which shows how much they respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Russians in Ukraine are just like Russians everywhere. Rather proud of their history, culture, language, religion and ethnic identity. Suffering a bit from a superiority complex, and collective amnesia on certain bitter episodes of history, but there’s nothing unique about that. British suffer from the same post-imperial disease.
Zelensky was a good comic actor, and he seemed to feel as comfortable working in Moscow as he did in Kiev. That was before all this evil started, before the Russians went mad. He found himself a president in a country at war: of course, he cannot love Russians now, and he speaks hatred for them. But when all this started, he dressed in a suit and made an appeal on TV in Russian. He spoke to you as a friend, reminding you that this country, Ukraine, which you assumed to be yours, was in fact not yours, that it was different, that it had different memories and experiences. Did you watch it? I doubt you could forget it if you did.
As to Gosar, I have a vague image of someone with a bald head who supports Trump and raves against Biden. I have no interest in American politics and do not need to be told by Americans what to think about Ukraine or Russia.
Neil Munro
If you are going to start a comment by accusing someone of spreading propaganda, it is not look good for you carry on that comment with spreading…propaganda.
Ukrainian discord in Crimea and Donbas goes back to the 90s, Putin did not rule in the 90s.
If there were no anti-russian coup in 2014 = there would be no threat to the russians and = there would be no war today.
You simply do not realize what a fragmented society Ukraine is. A large majority of western ukrainians do not even believe Donbas people are ukrainians but russians and thus should go live there, even Zelensky said this repeatedly:
Zelensky urges Donbass residents who consider themselves Russian to leave for Russia
https://tass.com/world/1322979
Note that he said this senseless comment before the war, not during.
I am not supportive of the war and have made that clear since the getgo but it is of course Russia that have time and time again tried to solve this issue for decades actually. West have rejected and as we saw with the Minsk, it was all a ploy all along. Even today, the west say it openly, ‘we do not want any dialogue, we want to destroy Russia.’
Also, you can bet US, Nato would not wait decades to move in, they would move in directly and refuse any dialogue attempts. Libya, Iraq, Syria are all examples of such deceitful acts.
“Dressed in a suit” oh how charming, like Stoltenberg, Biden and other Nato nation reps. then that have made calls to the russian population that they have nothing against them: It is called propaganda and you fell for it.
Neil M
“You don’t watch TV? You should do. It would open your eyes to how the propaganda works.”
Maybe you Neil should watch less TV or open your eyes and ears wider?
“The propaganda in your country has been relentless since 2014.” while our story and information never talks about the events from 2014-2022. It is called lying by omission.
IMHO tragedy is when Me and Dungroin start agreeing partially with F*cking Fox news. Further more when lefties get more opportunity on Right wing media it’s total disaster. Those people get smeared and discredited as right wing “collaborators”
Let’s not mention Corbyn madness!
Russia will be surrounded by NATO because Russia has shown that it is so scared of NATO that it will go to war with NATO”.
If Russia was scared of NATO, it wouldn’t go to war with it. Thinking someone or something is a threat is not the same as being scared of it. If Russia really was scared of NATO, then there would have been no war.
” And all so that one little boy from Leningrad can realise his idea of being a great leader.”
and that is the fons et origo of your entire argument: Putin is evil, therefore his government is evil, therefore everything bad said about him, his government and the Russian army must be true. This is about as facile an argument as you can make, only marginally better than those that claim that our sides speaks only truth and the other only lies, or that our army is comprised of angel and the enemy’s is comprised of devils.
No, Bayard. Putin is just the symptom not the cause. If it was not Putin it would be somebody else. Putin expressed it very clearly in his speech in Munich in 2007 when he said “Russia has traditionally belonged to the very select group of countries who have the right to conduct an independent foreign policy, and we would like to keep it that way.” What this means is that in their view Russia is special, and other countries are not special, so they must submit to Russia’s will.
“What this means is that in their view Russia is special, and other countries are not special, so they must submit to Russia’s will.”
I think you are confusing The Russian Federation with the United States of America. To anyone who is not a Russophobe, what Putin’s words mean is that Russia reserves the right to make its own foreign policy without interference from other countries, by which, O best beloved, he meant that great meddler in other countries’ foreign policy, the USA.
So nato expands due to Russian opposition to nato expansion
Neil Munro
“can you not see how the “special military operation” has brought about the situation which you feared”
Perhaps the russians thought that aggression from NATO was coming, as sure as Christmas, and so the only question was ‘what is the best moment to respond to a relentless stream of provocation?’. What has NATO done to create any other impression? Russia is surrounded by NATO because Russia’s resources are coveted by western capital.
Many countries have their nazis but there is only one in which they are obviously close to the centre of power.
Putin speaks in his autobiography of a lesson he learned on the streets of Leningrad as a kid. “If a fight is inevitable, strike first.” We see that lesson playing out in Ukraine. And it’s the thinking of a thug.
Neil Munro
Considering Putin waited 22 years to move in Ukraine since he became president, he surely moved in fast and struck first….or not! What a thug huh, he should have only waited 1 week like Nato/US before they moved in on Libya in 2011 and “struck first”.
Look up what happened with Putin’s family, let alone his little brother in Leningrad – I am sure that is covered in his autobiography. Then you perhaps understand him better on this topic.
Mod: what a shame it didn’t pass censorship. Still, my comment above says much the same thing.
i watch the TV you don’t watch, Pigeon. There is indeed something tragic about you and Dungroanin partially agreeing with F*cking Fox News. When you lefties get more opportunity on Right Wing media it is indeed a total disaster. But the tragedy is not that you get smeared as right wiing collaborators. The tragedy is that the the Right has stolen your ideas. More specifically, they have stolen critical ways of looking at the world, which lefties once used to dismantle right wing ideology, and they have turned these tools of criticism into instruments for dismantling every ideology. What’s left is their lust for power, their money, their ability to cajole, deceive, blackmail and bully. That’s what you get from Fox News, which is treated by the Russians as some sort of external validation of their own introverted, nostalgic, self-centred and childish view of the world.
Huh, that’s actually a quite interesting point.
No it isn’t, it’s pseudo-profundity, designed to complicate a mundane reality. In order to make the poster seem knowledgeable.
Oh, and If the Russians hype Fox News, it’s for the same reason they’d hype MSNBC in 2003. Anti-war sentiment in the US suits them, for obvious reasons.
As for Neil’s crass statements on “propaganda bubbles”. That’s bloody rich coming from someone (presumably) posting from the UK. Given the delirious sewage getting pumped out day-in-day-out on TV, radio, newspapers, websites etc.
“The tragedy is that the the Right has stolen your ideas.” ( I wish ? )
and the left stilling national- socialist idea sickens me!
“and they have turned these tools of criticism into instruments for dismantling every ideology.”
Dismantling every ideology???? what does that even mean?.
To quote Urban Fox ” it’s pseudo-profundity, designed to complicate a mundane reality”
Oh, dear. I’m done with this site. Really sad to see Mr Murray whom I once respected and supported has attracted such a crowd of authoritarians, anti-Americans and proto-fascists.
Neil Munro
But why are you supportive of not anti-americanism but anti-russian, proto-fascists (like Azov, Right Sektor), authoritarians (like Zelensky that have made himself a dictator by banning every opposition parties and media)?
Who is the rightwinger here? Perhaps yourself?
More of a “centrist”. Lying and hypocrisy are in their DNA. It’s how they can support people like Joe Biden and the Clintons or Starmer and Mandleson. It’s who they are. If “centrists” told the truth for one day, their world would fall apart.
Neil, you insist on maintaining the left-right narrative, as I pointed that you might in my reply to you – that class war has been subverted post-WW2, by infiltration.
There, folks, in a nutshell, is where the PR-led narrative construction industry (the few left) of the U.K. elite aristo types keeps running into a brick wall. It is not the same as ‘working’ in Advertising or Celebrity Media where your clients are your school bum chums and they all quaff champagne daily because no one is bothered to actually call them out for their nepotistic excess. The same brothers and sisters also work in the FCO, MoD and Senior Civil Services and the Major Media – it is not just nepotism, it is incestuous.
Actual Critical Thinking explodes their Clown Mobile at the circus, who then depart the rink comically, clutching their pearls, trousers & fallen off wheels … thanks for the laughs, Neil ??
re: to what leaks can accomplish
Dan Ellsberg in Febr. I believe stated, remarkably so, that the Pentagon Papers´ release did not manage to stop anything.
It certainly would not stop Nixon.
What did stop Nixon was the amateurish Watergate sting.
(for a welcome different view on Watergate aka a group of morons, see the mini-series “Gaslit”)
However PP did help to push public opposition against further bombing campaigns of Cambodia.
Without public pressure Nixon & K. might have carried that out.
So whatever this is, leak or no leak (Kiriakou), will the outrage in the security state stop aynthing?
Craig, your piece here is cited approvingly by Media Lens in their latest media alert (under the section “Journalists Pushing for *Less* Transparency”.)
The title of their piece, “It May Be in No One’s Interest to Reveal More”, is of course from last week’s NYT editorial on the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipeline. The Gray Lady could hardly have exposed herself more in the space of a week.
https://www.medialens.org/2023/it-may-be-in-no-ones-interest-to-reveal-more-cancelling-facts-that-challenge-establishment-power/
“The Gray Lady could hardly have exposed herself more…”
Ewwww.
‘An astonishing amount of “liberal opinion” falls for it’.
It turns out that the generally observed gullibility and complacence of even clever, well-meaning, educated people is easily explained by basic facts of human psychology. If anyone hasn’t yet read Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, it’s time to do so. The scales will fall from your eyes. Apparently the heuristics that are ideal for survival in a small hunter-gatherer group on the savannah are suboptimal for living in a modern industrial society with billions of people – a few of them ambitious, energetic, callous psychopaths. Who knew?
“At work here is the powerful WYSIATI [What You See Is All There Is] rule. You cannot help dealing with the limited information you have as if it were all there is to know. You build the best possible story from the information available to you, and if it is a good story, you believe it. Paradoxically, it is easier to construct a coherent story when you know little, when there are fewer pieces to fit into the puzzle. Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance”.
– Daniel Kahneman, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, p. 201
“…Subjective confidence in a judgment is not a reasoned evaluation of the probability that this judgment is correct. Confidence is a feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and the cognitive ease of processing it. It is wise to take admissions of uncertainty seriously, but declarations of high confidence mainly tell you that an individual has constructed a coherent story in his mind, not necessarily that the story is true”.
ibid., p. 212
Note that, although everything in the universe is limited, the information we get about important political, economic, ecological, etc. matters is artificially limited by a carefully crafted system involving, as Mr Murray points out, the state, the media, and the super-rich. It becomes more limited and slanted day by day.
“But the behaviour of the New York Times and Washington Post is truly shocking. They now see their mission as to serve the security state, not public knowledge”.
I rather doubt whether any part of the big corporate media has ever served such ideals, although in the past some individuals did and were left relatively free to do so.
It might be more accurate to say that the newspapers and the state both serve the same masters.
“Propaganda outfit Bellingcat was conceived as a way to counter it, by producing material with the frisson of secret access but actually as an outlet for the security services. An astonishing amount of “liberal opinion” falls for it.”
Liberal opinion “falls for it”, because they want to fall for it.
And the MSM are but glorified fluffers to power, smirking Renaissance courtiers, but without the funny outfits. That said, we have reached 1984 now, when the journalists are helping the spooks track down supposed criminals.
BellingCat and others are not necessarily in the ‘Information Loop’ they appear to me to be internet trawlers similar to using Chatbox AI.
Thry are would-be Warriors who assist the real powers that be, but have no agency or influence on the real influencers in the NATO world.
You could call them Groupies for ‘the Cause’ and literally worldwide web grassers – picking up info like gossip in the School Playground and playing the info out (à la BBC et al – a mix of French and Latin there) in front of an unknowing or uncaring public.
Nobody (particularly the media) will fact check – just cipher) and on and on we go.
In this instance to imagine that a 21-year-old technical Grunt who is patriotic (I belive this) had access to Top Secret documents is plainly crazy.
Someone or some people in the know placed these ‘secrets’ with him, knowing that he would pass them on.
Because our BellingCat-like media is acquiescent in the sham, then no questions will be asked.
The Western NATO-backed ‘Spring Offensive’ is off.
That seems to be ‘The Truth’.
@ Mark Cutts “In this instance to imagine that a 21-year-old technical Grunt who is patriotic (I belive this) had access to Top Secret documents is plainly crazy.
Someone or some people in the know placed these ‘secrets’ with him, knowing that he would pass them on.”
Ok, I will buy the scenario; but the problem I then have is – why?
There are 2 ways to look at this. The first is that US security is so lax, that a 21 year old has access to files classified as ‘Top Secret’. I see no logical reason why the intelligence services would wish to have their professionalism tarnished in this manner. The second is that Texeira is being used as a patsy; but who gains from the deliberate leaks – if they are in fact deliberate?
The whole event seems completely illogical to me, unless it was devised in order to deflect attention from other activities which *are* top secret.
Maybe those with a higher IQ than my own could suggest the thinking which might be behind this farcical situation?
Fat John
There is info on the net (I’ve done a Bellingcat simple search) which suggests that the Tanks being sent to the Ukraine will not be allowed to join in the battle. They are to stood by and photographed in order to facilitate to credulous liberal journalists the ability to deliver the war effort to an unknowing public (including the Ukranian public too) that the battles are going well in areas like Bakmhut.
Apparently the battles are not going well at all but in this war it is difficult to believe any reporting from either side.
Let’s put it this way:
It is an opinion and nothing more but there are a lot of Republicans and ex-Military who are not in favour of continuing the aiding of the Ukranian government (I suspect that Trump is one of them) in pursuit of winning an unwinnable war against Russia.
Maybe they are pragmatic – selfish or stupid? In my opinion they are not stupid.
But – someone or some grouping passed these secrets on to to the young patriot – I am pretty sure he didn’t come across or
discover these secrets himself.
If The New York Times or Washington Post want to do some real journalism they should trouble themselves to find out who gave this young man (a patriot, and I believe that to be the case) the ‘secrets’ to pass on.
That’s the story here for myself, and I suspect it is coming from inside the Military itself.
The ones who think this unwinnable war is a waste of US time and effort. They are most likely to be on the political right and are no fans of Biden or Obama previously. This is why the so-called ‘Spring Offensive’ possibly will not happen.
Only a theory though, but I think I’m close to the reason for the leak – the deliberate leak – these ‘secrets’ are a month old.
And picking on a 21-year-old grunt is despicable,
Not surprising though, as the NY Times – Washington Post et al. are staffed by cowards like The Guardian and the BBC.
I posted in the Discussion Forum, continuing Mr. Murray’s thoughts on the things getting worse. It’s view from inside of Russia on the situation in Russia.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/continuing-the-ten-years-of-disaster-theme/#post-90961
Invite you all to have a look.
Propaganda is very dangerous. It adds a further layer of untruth to the real motive for war. Only history can enlighten us, and illuminate the future.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
Pears Morgaine, you said
“There are Nazis everywhere, including Scotland and Russia. The Nazis in Ukraine however have super-powers and must be eliminated even at the cost of destroying the whole country to get to them.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/04/snowden-and-texeira-ten-years-of-disaster/comment-page-2/#comment-1037702
You comment on this special topic often, and your position is that there are few followers of Nazism in Ukraine and that they do not have wide support.
I offer you this report, about Ukrainians kneeling at the funeral of Taras Bobanich. Please have a look, he was killed this month, the photos are very recent.
https://pikabu.ru/story/vo_lvove_selchane_stoyali_na_kolenyakh_vo_vremya_pokhoron_likvidirovannogo_kombata_pravogo_sektora_10158040
I expect that you can argue the symbol of the SS division as some kind of Scandinavian rune, or, the nazi salute as some kind of sacred ancient greeting. But you can’t argue that these people aren’t really on their knees to pay respect to this nazi.
Do you think that the same exists in Scotland or in Russia?
video here
https://youtu.be/EMy6wRaT-yI
you may also read comments, calling him a hero
or, this Ukrainian source seems like covers the news too, unavailable for me, so just posting the link without checking
https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-regions/3456706-u-lvovi-poprosalisa-z-kerivnikom-oseredku-pravogo-sektoru-bobanicem-so-zaginuv-pid-izumom.html
That man was a member of the Right Sector and a commander of a brigade (trained by the UK, btw). They were incorporated into Ukrainian Army, quite officially. I mention this just to understand how much power and weapons these people get in Ukraine.
The Right Sector describe their ideology as ‘natiocentric’. Their goal is ‘protection, development, and revival of the nation based on national imperative or absolute order’.
I tried to make out what is “absolute order” or “national imperative”, but the link is unavailable for Russia. If anyone can accesss it and let me know if they are nazis, or not nazis?
Short ideologically-training course for VO “Tryzub” and “Right Sector”
http://pravyysektor.info/uncategorized/korotkyj-ideolohichno-vyhovnyj-kurs-dlya-vo-tryzub-im-s-bandery-ta-pravoho-sektora/
perhaps you
Tatyana, the Pikabu link you provided to the report showing Ukrainians kneeling at the funeral of Taras Bobanich doesn’t work. It leads to a 404 error page with a link to terms explaining why pages are removed for violating conditions, as outlined in translation here. The other video in your follow-up comment shows what looks like a conventional military funeral, with nobody kneeling.
Can you provide a reliable link to the video which shows people kneeling in deference to Taras Bobanich’s funeral procession? Thanks.
Hi, Dawg, yes I see, the topic is deleted. I’ll contact the person who posted it, hope they can share the links with me. At the time that the topic was live there were several links there, I remember they were to some telegram channels and also to Tass, and some other normal news websites.
Well, 4 days have passed since the last update here, so I’m guessing there’s been little progress on finding that link.
In the meantime, I’ve done a bit of searching and found this:
Reuters Fact Check (15 Mar 2022) – Video of people kneeling around funeral procession traces back to at least 2015 – link
Does the video clip look familiar at all?
” The extract of a video that has been circulating since at least 2015 and that appears to show a funeral procession for a Ukrainian soldier is recirculating online. The footage has been reshared recently alongside the inaccurate description that it depicts the transfer of the Blessed Sacrament to a bunker amid the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
The first clip, which lasts 45 seconds “follows a silver car and a red van travelling down a street, with people seen kneeling on the sides of the road.”
I reckon it may have been reused and recycled for yet another propaganda purpose – which would explain why it was removed from Pikabu.ru for violating their terms and conditions.
There are other examples of “years-old videos online showing similar funeral processions reported to be for deceased soldiers” further down the page.
Maybe there is a new video which shows some rendering of “Bobanich” on the hearse or banners, along with something to indicate it was filmed in 2023? Until such evidence emerges, I remain unconvinced.
re: Nationalism in Eastern Europe
Anatol Lieven in THE NATION
“The Rise and Role of Ukrainian Ethnic Nationalism
How it may endanger Ukraine’s entry into the EU.”
By Anatol Lieven
April 17, 2023
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/ukraine-russia-nationalism-war/
short excerpt
(most here will know this, but it is helpful for discussions with friends & relatives who might not, in order to start a meaningful discussion somewhere)
“(…)
Thus, a Western diplomat tasked with reporting for the OSCE on the compliance of Latvia’s education laws with minority rights admitted to me that he deliberately lied, in order that Latvia should be able to join the Council of Europe, an essential step on the path to EU membership. Western liberal governments and the media ignored promises made by the Latvian and Estonian governments to their Russian minorities before independence, and have tolerated restrictions on minority rights that they would have vehemently denounced anywhere else.
Western establishments and the mainstream media as a whole turned a blind eye to the chauvinist character of the movement led by Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian leader who took power as a result of the “Rose Revolution,” and deliberately ignored or falsified incontrovertible evidence that in August 2008 it was Georgia that first attacked Russian troops in South Ossetia, and not the other way round (as recognized by present CIA director William Burns in his memoir The Back Channel, in the section about his time as ambassador to Moscow). The issues of South Ossete and Abkhaz separatism were presented in the West purely as outgrowths of Russian aggression and imperialism, with no attention at all to the element of minority reaction against Georgian ethnic nationalism.
(…)”
They’re protesting all the “Noble NATO” establishment propaganda they’re subjected to here, where they actually live. Are you?
this is 60 min. panel among THE INTERCEPT´s staff on Texeira.
Have not yet listened myself.
May be interesting may be not. With The Intercept both possible.
“The Discord Leaker: The Case of the Most Unorthodox National Security Leaks in History
Jeremy Scahill, Murtaza Hussain, and Vanessa Gezari analyze the leaked top-secret Pentagon documents and the Air National Guardsman alleged to have taken them.”
https://theintercept.com/2023/04/19/intercepted-podcast-pentagon-discord-leaks-national-security/
I read today that a French publisher has been arrested and questioned in London by the British police under the Terrorism Act, for having participated in recent protests in France. Here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/19/uk-police-under-fire-for-arresting-french-publisher
and this might fit:
WaPo reporting:
“U.S. charges four Americans with aiding Kremlin efforts
Charges are the latest Justice Department effort against secret foreign propaganda networks on U.S. soil”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/18/russian-influence-florida-missouri/
new stuff to divert from the Pentagon leaks
short Q&A with Anatol Lieven by his colleague Kelley Beaucar Vlahos at Responsible Statecraft.
Lieven spent 3 weeks in Ukraine:
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/04/17/lieven-inside-ukraine-some-real-breaks-and-insights/
p.s. it is a major impediment that no one is truly allowed at the front or sent to the Russian side for reporting.
This is certainly not the way to create peace. But, as a good journalist you will most likely prefer war.
Since war is good for business.
pps: what is interesting about the publication Responsible Statecraft, one of their editors, George Beebe is a now retired, former CIA analyst at the Russian desk.
This might be not unusual for British press but for Germany such interdependencies are rather rare.
off topic personal question:
Were women allowed to study e.g. physics in Cambridge or some other typically renown British university before WWII broke out?
Women could study (in all female colleges) from 1869, I believe, but the University only awarded degrees from 1948.
thx, Bramble!
I look forward to the discovery of a Trump flag in Texeira’s house, confirming what all suspected!
There are topic starters, apparently there must be topic stoppers, I feel like I”m the one 🙁
I’m a weirdo (c) Radiohead
Here is the sample of a discussion, where you can comment and unable to see readers’ reaction. Leaving me in dark forest. Was I posting lies? Or, smth rude, untrue, improper? Smth that I do appreciate on the social networks – like/dislike, +/-, emojis, anything!
If not welcome, just let me know, and I’ll stop spending my time on these useless translations.
—
DunGroaning, my heartfelt thanks to you for reading and commenting in the discussion forum!
hello T
as for me, I dont have the time right now (however I have the notion to going back to important sources, such as your translations not only for this subject, several months/weeks later)
and then: I did want to respond here concerning the Nazi-topic. But I see no sense in reiterating valid points and evidence from several discussions we have already had HERE months ago. Over and over again.
People will most likely not trust evidence and proof but the source of them – So if The Guardian and some others of the “trusted circle” were to say :”Ah big surprise we found out about how evil Nazism in UKR truly is” – THEN people will believe it.
I have no time for such disregard for decent research and evidence.
Just one example: Ivan Katchanovski was the first renowned historian who did ground-breaking work on the Maidan sniper shootings. He was able to prove the Nazis (sry for using this simplifying term) were responsible. His paper became ever more detailed with every year since. Even “peer-reviewed” bullet proof.
But never mind. A leading academic journal (he did not disclose the title) refused to print his latest findings merely for political reasons nonetheless just this past winter, as was conceded to him privately.
Imagine a mass media that would report on Katchanovski´s paper every week. Eventually people would realize the true nature of that Maidan quagmire. And we could go on dissect every item in this puzzle.
Would anyone around here, who believes otherwise thereof change his or her mind? I don´t think so.
But this is just me. An individual assessment.
I have the opposite problem meaning not being able to like or dislike many great comments. As AG said reiterating don’t make sense so it’s ” disagree” or add more info. I read at least 95% of yours comments and disagreed with only a few ?. Having decent/honest person from from a foreign country – in your case, Russia – and links and info you provide is great, Imo.
I have first-hand reliable info ?.
Tatyana, I will read it all over the weekend and get back to you – never give up, even if it means you have to walk alone.
We in the West are haunted by our past; these ghosts stifle curiosity and communication in equal measure.
Your country is being born again and so the old ghosts are being laid to rest – new national myths are being born to propel you into your emergent future. Have pity and be patient with us – maybe one day the western countries can be born again and our hands can finally meet in friendship; untroubled at last, by the monsters of the past..
“Yet I long for Kaukasos!…I was told long ago that our forebears, the German tribe quietly coasted down the Danube of a summer’s day and reached the Black Sea, meeting with the children of the Sun seeking shade…For a while they stood in silence, then offered their hands in friendship.
— Friedrich Hölderlin, The Migration
I have to tell you, I am in tears right now for all the lost love
It’s not the easiest site to keep aware of postings on topics as we don’t have ‘notification’ if some one has reacted – that used to be one of the best functionality of the Guardian Comments site, I was able to use it to make instant rapid rebuttals so well they banned me!
I guess you could always have a boiler plate link in every comment you make that keeps readers here aware that there are updated posts there.
I tried bookmarking and following some topics there but found them to be attended by the Usual Suspects – which meant that it turned into a closed conversation and failed to reach a wider group.
And there are many places to keep up with daily posts – I admit I don’t have time to do so.
I do think a well translated set of opinions and voices is a great repository though, keep it up as long as you have the energy. I am finding the translate button works quite fast on Telegram but not certain if the translation is accurate , human so have to take it at face value.
I have only just caught up with HistoryLegends latest from couple days ago, which documents the fallacy of the Ukrainian mobilised forces. He shows the pressganging of up to 60 year olds, fathers with multiple children and even the deluded young natzo Azov types, their meagre training and terrible instant destruction – whilst the news here in the west claims that such end of Nazi dreams is not at hand.
https://youtu.be/lcN5K0KhOSA
I have long believed It is about depopulation of the rump Ukraine so that its ‘new settlers’ can claim there is no previous population left. Can’t be accused of having millions of dispossessed living in apartheid camps again!
with hindsight of one year´s experience:
2 texts by Swiss former military man, Jacques Baud. Baud is one of those rare voices in Europe. Most of what he said turned out correct. And most of what he said is at least referenced via Western sources. He just connects the dots. Consequently his views are totally ignored by the mainstream:
1) His text from April 4th 2022
it has footnotes, which is always very important
“The Situation in Ukraine as of March 25th 2022”
https://www.schweizer-standpunkt.ch/news-detailansicht-en-international/situation-in-ukraine-as-of-march-25-2022.html
one important passage says:
“Military documents found at Ukrainian headquarters in the south of the country confirm that Ukraine was preparing an attack against the Donbass breakaway republics and that shelling observed by the OSCE Mission from February 16 onwards, signalled an imminent offensive in days or weeks”
These documents have never been analysed by independent European experts on their authenticity. (Which knowing what I know today, I would rather not doubt.) I still don´t understand why.
some screenshots of the documents see also here:
https://t.me/rian_ru/152174
What the Russian Ministry of Defense claims taking from these military plans – the AFU was preparing to attack and possibly get back Donbas. This of course with the speculation that it could trigger something of a pre-emptive attack.
Whether the idea of provocation was a brainchild of the US or Kiev is a different matter. But if these suspicions would turn out justified and the plans and planning true, this would change a lot concerning the history until 24/2/22 in my view.
2) a longer conversation between Jacaue Baud and Scott Horton from antiwar.com
“Retired Swiss Military-Intelligence Officer: ‘Is it Possible to Actually Know What Has Been And is Going on in Ukraine?'”
The Unz Review
2/4/2022
https://www.sott.net/article/466340-Retired-Swiss-Military-Intelligence-Officer-Is-it-Possible-to-Actually-Know-What-Has-Been-And-is-Going-on-in-Ukraine
CV of Jacques Baud:
“Jacques Baud holds a Master’s degree in econometrics and a postgraduate degree in international security from the Graduate Institute of International Relations in Geneva and was a colonel in the Swiss Army. He worked for the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service and was an advisor on the security of refugee camps in Eastern Zaire during the Rwandan war (UNHCR – Zaire/Congo, 1995-96). He worked for the DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) of the United Nations in New York (1997-99), founded the International Centre for Humanitarian Demining in Geneva (CIGHD) and the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA). He contributed to the introduction of the concept of intelligence in UN peace operations and headed the first integrated UN Joint Mission Analysis Centre (JMAC) in Sudan (2005-06). He was head of the Peace Policy and Doctrine Division of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York (2009-11) and the UN Group of Experts on Security Sector Reform and the Rule of Law, has worked in NATO and is the author of several books on intelligence, asymmetric warfare, terrorism and disinformation.”
AG, thanks for the above, will look into it. Baud seems thoughtful and intelligent – though I have not given him any deep scrutiny.
On sources, read (or re-read?) Preparata’s “Conjuring Hitler”, chapter 3; “The Meltdown and the Geopolitical Correctness of Mein Kampf. Between the Kapp and the Beerhall Putsch, 1920–23”. If not directly mentioned in the text, you should find it in the footnotes. It may even be in one the subsidiary texts mentioned in said footnotes but it should be easy to discern, if you look at the titles of these secondary texts.
I am going to go the over the whole issue again myself this weekend. I’ll get back to you in a few days with a precise attribution.
excellent
thank you.
(re: from my school years:
The book cover of “Conjuring Hitler” shows Hitler with strings attached like a puppet –
Our high school teacher for drama class did an adaptation of Arturo Ui by Brecht well and he was using this particular image of Hitler being manipulated by foreign agents.
This is not revolutionary especially today. But back then for a school production it was unusual so even other schools were talking about his stage work.)
btw in her “Visualizing Atrocity – Arendt, Evil, and the Optics of Thoughtlessness”, 2012 New York University Press, Valerie Hartouni writes in the footnotes which seem to be extensive (something I always cherish) about said book (I just researched it):
“(…)
An analysis of Germany and the rise of National Socialism within a framework resonant with Levine’s is developed by the political economist Guido Giacomo Preparata in his decidedly unconventional and provocative history, Conjuring Hitler: How Britain and America Made the Third Reich (London: Pluto Press, 2005). What Preparata offers, as the title suggests, is a close reading of international markets in the early twentieth century and over approximately a thirty-year period in order to foreground the ways in which these markets were manipulated primarily by Britain and to a lesser degree the United States, especially between 1919 and 1933, to drive Germany into the arms of a reactionary force that would in turn eventually move against the Soviet Union. According to Preparata, this was part of a master geopolitical scheme first devised by Halford Mackinder and more or less executed by Montagu Norman, governor of the Bank of England. And the rationale behind this strat-egy? To prevent an alliance between Germany and Russia that would “fuse into a Eurasian embrace” two powers whose combined resources of men, knowledge, and military capability would threaten, certainly, what was left of the British Empire but more generally endanger Anglo-Saxon dominance. Preparata explains: “In standard textbooks, the economics behind the rise of Nazism suffers a dreadful treatment at best, or, most often, is not treated at all, and the reader is customarily defrauded by being hastily assured that Hitler came ‘because of the crisis,’ no further explanation being forthcoming. What of the ‘crisis’? Unless an effort is made to unveil the mechanics of this spectral collapse, Hitler remains an effect of chance, the social by-product of a silly financial season gone awry. And such a view is absurd. . . . Without prop-erly comprehending the functioning of traditional banking systems and the nature of money, the key to Hitler’s rise to power may never be held. And it is the lack of such comprehension that is chiefly to blame for discarding the decisive passage in the promotion of Nazism as the fruit of bad luck in times of crisis” (140–41)
(…)”.
His touchstone is Thorstein Veblen – the Norwegian-American social scientist and sea captain. He weaves a powerful narrative using Veblen’s thought to view the unfolding nazi nightmare. Veblen offered the following observation after visiting Germany in 1915
“Temperamentally erratic individuals…, and such as are schooled by special class traditions or predisposed by special class interest, will readily see the merits of warlike enterprise and keep alive the tradition of national animosity. Patriotism, piracy, and prerogative converge to a common issue. Where it happens that an individual gifted with an extravagant congenital basis of this character is at the same time exposed to circumstances favorable to the development of truculent megalomania and is placed in such a position of irresponsible authority and authentic prerogative as will lend countenance to his idiosyncrasies, his bent may easily gather vogue, become fashionable, and with due persistence and shrewd management come so ubiquitously into habitual acceptance as in effect to throw the population at large into an enthusiastically bellicose frame of mind.”
Can you guess who this “crazy” Norg, (Veblen), is talking about while dreaming of the freikorps.
Preparati on Schacht (via François-Poncet, the French ambassador)
“Schacht was a cynic, a frantic blusterer, a person possessed of unbridled ambitions. A tall, dry, spare devil of a man, his features might have been hacked out by a bill hook, and his long wrinkled neck was like the neck of a bird of prey”
useless eater
just a brief info, may be interesting may be not (I have not yet read myself):
French novelist Eric Vuillard´s “Order of the Day” (2017) apparently evolves around the collusion between Nazi elites and German heavy industry from 1933 on – I only now found out about it, as the Leipzig book fair will soon start, and Vuillard will be there with his latest novel about the causes for the Vietnam War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_of_the_Day
p.s. I usually only read novels by dead writers so I am not good with judging Vuillard
“But the behaviour of the New York Times and Washington Post is truly shocking.”
The Washington Post has had, in the past, close links to the CIA.
After the failure of the CIA’s efforts to assassinate President Nixon in early 1972, the Washington Post worked hard on promoting the Watergate story in order to bring down Nixon.
The Washington Post was also reportedly involved in covering up the reality behind the assassination of Robert Kennedy, a CIA operation for which Sirhan Sirhan was framed.
Just what the Washington Post’s relationship with the CIA is nowadays is not so well known. The newspaper has changed ownership and is now owned by Jeff Bezos.