I had promised myself and my family that on this holiday I would do nothing but relax. However events have overtaken my good intentions. I find myself in the unusual position of having twice been in a position to know directly that governments were lying in globe-shaking events, firstly Iraqi WMD and now the “Russian hacks”.
Anybody who believes the latest report issued by Obama as “proof” provides anything of the sort is very easily impressed by some entirely meaningless diagrams. William Binney, who was Technical Director at the NSA and actually designed their surveillance capabilities, has advised me by email. It is plain from the report itself that the Russian groups discussed have been under targeted NSA surveillance for a period longer than the timeframe for the DNC and Podesta leaks. It is therefore inconceivable that the NSA would not have detected and traced those particular data flows and they would be saved. In other words, the NSA would have the actual hack on record, would be able to recognise the emails themselves and tell you exactly the second the transmission or transmissions took place and how they were routed. They would be able to give you date, time and IP addresses. In fact, not only do they produce no evidence of this kind, they do not even claim to have this kind of definite evidence.
Secondly, Bill points out that WikiLeaks is in itself a top priority target and any transmission to WikiLeaks or any of its major operatives would be tracked, captured and saved by NSA as a matter of routine. The exact route and date of the transmission or transmissions of the particular emails to WikiLeaks would be available. In fact, not only does the report not make this information available, it makes no claim at all to know anything about how the information was got to WikiLeaks.
Of course Russian hackers exist. They attack this blog pretty well continually – as do hackers from the USA and many other countries. Of course there have been attempted Russian hacks of the DNC. But the report gives no evidence at all of the alleged successful hack that transmitted these particular emails, nor any evidence of the connection between the hackers and the Russian government, let alone Putin.
There could be no evidence because in reality these were leaks, not hacks. The report is, frankly, a pile of complete and utter dross. To base grave accusations of election hacking on this report is ludicrous. Obama has been a severe disappointment to all progressive thinkers in virtually every possible way. He now goes out of power with absolutely no grace and in a storm of delusion and deceit. His purpose is apparently to weaken Trump politically, but to achieve that at the expense of heightening tensions with Russia to Cold War levels, is shameful. The very pettiness of Obama’s tongue out to Putin – minor sanctions and expelling some diplomatic families – itself shows that Obama is lying about the pretext. If he really believed that Russia had “hacked the election”, surely that would require a much less feeble response. By refusing to retaliate, Russia has shown the kind of polish that eludes Obama as he takes his empty charisma and presentational skills into a no doubt lucrative future in the private sector.
Well, I was nearly right. They just got the first name wrong.
“‘I still feel like Andy Murray,’ says world tennis No1 after knighthood”
Tony
The Guardian has long lost its Manchester roots and is as bent and as corrupt as Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney and Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. If you failed to notice this by the end of 2016, then there is something wrong with your head.
This might help – though its the equivalent of taking half an aspirin in a teaspoon of jam
https://off-guardian.org/2016/12/30/greenwald-guardian-engaged-in-journalistic-fraud-in-assange-interview-rewrite/
Tony
Polish BOMB THREAT forces plane to make emergency landing in Prague
Czech police have detained a Polish man following the emergency landing, according to Interior Minister Milan Chovanec.
The 168 passengers on board the plane have been evacuated.
It is the first time in ten years that there has been an event like this at Prague Airport.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/748657/Plane-bomb-threat-Spain-Poland-Prague-airport
Again this seems iffy
same as the Christian Market Polish lorry run, seems iffy
Next they’ll be getting us to understand a Pakistani was seen running away from the plane.
Who actually makes this shit up?
Disney Corp perhaps.
A spokesman for the Czech Air Navigation Services said pilots on a Boeing 737 plane operated by the Polish company Enter Air had asked to land in Prague because of the threat.
It comes as Europe is on high alert after a string of terrorist atrocities this year.
Earlier this month, 12 people were killed when a truck driver mowed down a Christmas market in Berlin.
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/574168/passenger-plane-bomb-alert-Prague-Spain-grounded-flight-terror-fears-ISIS
EnterAir flight B737 from Las Palmas to Warsaw was forced to land in Prague after the incident.
Police later confirmed they “neutralised” the suspect and all 160 passengers were safely evacuated.
I wonder what they mean by “neutralised” ?
Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec arrived at the airport after the bomb threat. Chovanec said the man, a Pole, threatened with a detonating system and has been detained by police. But he did not specify whether the detained man really had the bomb. The plane would stay in Prague until Saturday morning for a thorough safety check.
Authorities have asked for a full alert, assistance of a bomb disposal unit and an anti-terrorism team, the Interior Minister said. He said the emergency landing at the old Ruzyne airport had not affected the air traffic at the new part of the airport used for routine flights.
So, they are taking it seriously.
What is The Old Ruzyne Airport, is that where you get rendered to America from?
In one of the most dramatic moments in its history, the airport was seized by Soviet paratroopers on the night of 20–21 August 1968, who then facilitated the landing of Soviet troops and transports for the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Western media, politicians is getting more absurd everyday now, this will keep going on until Trump enters the White House,
Something that wasnt covered by our lousy media was the hacking of Russia by the US last month:
US government hackers ‘penetrate’ Russian electric grid and communication lines to be ‘ready’ in case of election day interference
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-government-military-hackers-dnc-homeland-security-nsa-clinton-election-day-a7398881.html
It is a marvel that keen honesty yet persists in the shadow of this plague of bullshit broadcast around us.
So our humanity still might transcend our woes – bring on 2017 for all !
To paraphrase Groucho Marx, who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes? If it was not so dangerous, this would be totally ludicrous. The conspiracy theory that he is attempting this to cause a war to stay in perpetual power seems absurd, but I’m not totally sure it is not his intent. Obama and the democrats have revealed their true fascist natures. While Trump has his problems, at least survival will be back on the table. As of now, we’ve got 20 days to get through.
A Loser’s Malice: What’s Behind Obama’s Attacks on Putin
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/12/23/loser-malice-what-behind-obama-attacks-putin.html
Obama lost Syria, Ukraine, ISIS-fight, and his corrupt democratic party lost, I mean this man is a wreck and found his foe in Moscow, thereof – the attacks on Russia we see now. But also to stop Trump/Putin making peace between US/Russia.
I expect, within six months / nine months of The Donald, getting his feet under the table at The White House
he will go to The Crimea to meet Vlad.
For kisses and make good the awful shit Clinton /OBOMBA have been causing.
Defeated Western/Saudi/Israeli terrorist forces evacuated from Syria by Turkey, are relocated to fight in Yemen.
It would appear according to this link, that the Salifist/Wahhabist/Takfiri fighters pushed out of Aleppo, are being deployed to fight against Houthi forces in Yemen.
Some of the terrorist fighters, who terrorised the citizens of Aleppo, have slipped across the border into Turkey, are injured and are receiving medical treatment, in Turkish hospitals.
The article adds that Turkey backs the Saudi slaughter in Yemen.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/12/30/504151/Turkey-Daesh-Aleppo-Yemen
Whilst I’m on Turkey, a Turkish parliamentary commission has cleared a set of draft constitutional amendments, that will greatly expand the powers of the Turkish president.
Grizzly Steppes….clearly messing with elections isn’t the focus. Probing for weakness.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/31/russian-malware-detected-in-us-electricity-grid-report
See emptywheel for details on this false news story. Again no evidence at all of Russian involvement, or even of the presence of malware on the computer system in Burlington.
To me this story, bears all the marks of the Dems’ anti-Sanders campaign.
EW;
“At which point multiple “US officials” (which can include Congressional staffers) and one Senior Administration Official (who, given Eilperin’s involvement, is likely at the White House) ran to the press and insinuated that Russia had hacked our grid, even while admitting they don’t really know what the fuck this is.”
Yes. They are a little nervous and leap to conclusions. But STUXNET was placed on laptops to infect Natanz as any off-line systems have to be done on site. Truly, you people are whistling through the graveyard.
Bernie Sanders;
“And once we get the facts, I think we go forward. But the word has got to go out to Russia, any other country on Earth, that we are going to protect our democracy, that cyber-security is very, very dangerous stuff, and we will not tolerate other countries interfering in the democratic process in this country.”
Trump’s dismissal of bipartisan concerns about Russia meddling in the presidential election made absolutely no sense. Trump tried to claim during an interview on Fox News Sunday that it wasn’t the intelligence community, but Democrats who were spreading the story that Russia meddled in the election as an excuse for losing.
Cyber warfare is already out of control, but them Neville Chamberlain apologists are doing their periodic ostrich act.
Talking of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” your insistence on the likely veracity of this story which is not only unsupported by evidence but so extremely improbable as to throw into doubt the sanity of anyone who swallows the unmitigated guff of which it is fabricated.
Why would an opponent of the US not want another four years like the past eight in which Obama has made every foreign policy error in the book and left a country seething with discontent and closer to civil unrest than it has been in half a century?
Perhaps I am missing the point and you are a revolutionary of the sort who believe that it is necessary to bring the country to a social crisis in order to gain a hearing for your message.
And here’s a resolution for the New Year that you might want to consider: don’t talk about people of whom you know nothing, such as Neville Chamberlain.
Wishing Craig and all commenters a Happy New Year. This has without question been the worst year of my life to date, impossible for 2017 to be anything but better. (Knock on wood.)
Cheers, John
Let’s hope you’re right John about 2017. Happy New Year!
Thank you very much for this write up. I’m sharing with all my FB friends. I can’t believe that our own POTUS is putting all Americans in a position that could get us NUKED just to thumb his nose at Putin and Trump. What a piece of work he is. Now, I learn this morning, that after searching one of those lovely houses that the Russians left—-BINGO!!! They found HACKING evidence. SURE, BARRY!!! I know the Russian just left all that to be found by the GOOD GUYS! They had 72 hours to destroy anything and everything that might implicate them in nefarious dealings. They might have left their clothing, BUT never evidence of HACKING. There will be Americans who will believe Obama because they have believed and defended him for 9 years! SAD!
Responding to Habbabkuk’s comment, December 31, 2016 at 17:26:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gannon
And if you want to get a little bit more salacious…
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gannon-guckert-gate/
Obama is heavily involved in the Pizzagate stuff, which strangely no one on this board wants to talk about – including our host – despite the fact that Craig’s post here is directly related to Pizzagate (ie, the hacked Podesta e-mails, and earlier DNC and Stratfor e-mails).
Oh what the feck: we’re shortly in for another year of total insanity.
I now often feel like an extra in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.
RobG
Great film.
I’d watch it tonight if it was on
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
is the Cuckoo The Donald?
I’m reserving judgement on ‘The Donald’ until he becomes President on 20th January.
I would guess that like many people on the left, it was a case of ‘anything but Hillary’.
I wish you a good 2017, Michael.
Same to you Rob,
i am looking forward to 2017, a new chapter is coming for me.
Have a lucky new year guys – mine ended spectacularly badly with a 20 ft fall a broken hip and fractured spine. So from here on its hopefully ^^^
Have a good one guys
the play was better on Broadway, Kirk Douglas played the lead
Kesey claimed he never watched the movie, hated Nicholson
Ref Gulnara Karimova
‘In the largest case against a person, the Justice Department is seeking $850 million from Gulnara Karimova, the socialite daughter of the late president of Uzbekistan who goes by the nickname Googoosha. The Harvard-educated former model and pop singer is accused by the United States of accepting bribes to allow a Dutch telecom company to enter the Uzbek market. A leaked American diplomatic cable said she was the “the single most hated person” in Uzbekistan and a “greedy power hungry individual.” After a falling out with her father in 2014, Ms. Karimova was placed under house arrest, where she remains today.
Three lawyers representing Uzbekistan in the Justice Department matter did not respond to requests for comment, nor did officials at the Uzbekistan Embassy in Washington. In court filings, lawyers representing Uzbekistan argue that the United States has “at best a minimal interest in the bribery and money-laundering scheme” involving Ms. Karimova because “the corruption alleged in the complaint is fundamentally an Uzbek matter.”’
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/business/justice-department-tries-to-shield-repatriations-from-kleptocrats.html?_r=0
In the same piece, concerns are being raised about Trump’s approach to this drive.
‘This repatriation effort is getting started just as Donald J. Trump’s election as president threatens to complicate the message of the kleptocracy initiative. Mr. Trump, a Republican, has promised to avoid potential conflicts of interest between his business empire and his duties as commander in chief, and has indicated he will come up with a plan before the inauguration.
Mr. Trump’s actions will have special resonance for a program that goes after foreign leaders whose business and government positions are porous. There are worries that if Mr. Trump does not sufficiently distance his business and his family from politics, it will be tougher for the Justice Department to criticize foreign leaders who have become wealthy based on their government ties.
“The election of Donald Trump might impede the commitment of the United States to fight kleptocracy,” said Matthew C. Stephenson, a professor who teaches anticorruption law at Harvard Law School. “The political consequences are that it reduces U.S. leverage because of the perceived hypocrisy. The moral case is drastically undermined.”’
Shielding Seized Assets From Corruption’s Clutches
An effort by the United States to seize assets from officials who stole their countries’ wealth is now focused on returning the loot without enriching the looters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/business/justice-department-tries-to-shield-repatriations-from-kleptocrats.html?
“Matthew C. Stephenson, a professor who teaches anticorruption law at Harvard Law School.”
Never mind the old ‘one armed paper hanger’ Matt must be the busiest man in Massachussetts.
“Russia has shown the kind of polish that eludes Obama as he takes his empty charisma and presentational skills into a no doubt lucrative future in the private sector”
Rather like that other “left-wing hero” by the name of Tony Blair!
Who’d be more frightened Blair /Clinton /Obomba?
Imagine, let’s say your name is BLAIR, you hear the stones crunch on the drive of one of your very many houses, the one you have decided to stay in for New Year, you peek around the curtains /drapes it is HRC, you spas out, not her, you scream, not her.
Insert any of the above into the crunching stones on the drive, nightmare.
Even Wendi Deng has found herself a much younger man than Phony Tony, or are we not allowed to observe that?
I broadly agree with this.
And let us not forget his shameful failure to try to save Troy Davis from execution.
The other day, it was interesting to hear an interview on the Today Programme about these allegations of Russian interference. Not once was the interviewee asked about all the US interference in elections. The BBC can be a sick joke sometimes!
This appears rather odd. The inference is that he was fine till he went to Russia “for a meeting”. The Detective Constable who inverstigated the death thought it odd, too. The coroner was the same one who pronounced on David Kelly’s death. Something fishy here?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/top-scientist-who-discovered-litvinenko-9325403
There is a lot to the Litvinenko inquiry not generally known. The big cover up is the Sir Robert Owen whitewash. Unless we get coronial law changed back to how it was before the murder of Dr David Kelly there are going to increasingly more inquiries and decreasingly less inquests.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2016/01/22/litvinenko-inquiry-death-of-justice-in-the-united-kingdom/
There was no inquest for Dr Kelly. One was opened but it was subsumed by the Hutton Inquiry which was set up by Falconer for Blair a few hours after Dr Kelly’s death.
Revealed: How a Blair fixer picked the judge for the David Kelly Inquiry just three hours after the weapons inspector’s suicide
Letter from Lord Hutton shows he was asked three hours after the death
He had not been identified and no cause of death had been established
Hutton was contacted by Blair’s friend and former flatmate Lord falconer
Is evidence of the extraordinary haste with which the Blair Government set up an inquiry to replace the usual coroner’s inquest
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362659/Revealed-How-Blair-fixer-picked-judge-David-Kelly-Inquiry-just-hours-weapons-inspectors-suicide.html
An establishment whitewash. Dr Kelly was a decent honourable man who did not deserve that ending of his life.
The pathologist appointed was Dr Nicholas Hunt, the same for the Russian scientist.
All very suspect.
I remember that the paramedic made several comments, now erased but i have a brilliant memory.
Dr.David Kelly was hanging by his arms from a fence, a most minor blood vessel was cut, there was virtually no blood, consequently, David was said to have bled to death. It seemed that his body had been moved from the position of death and his corpse had been “posed”
I expect that paramedic has now been silenced.
Your memory is faulty Michael Norton. No hanging from fences!
Dr Kelly’s body had been moved. It was leaning against a tree when first found but was then lying on the ground when the paramedic saw it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1311255/Dr-David-Kellys-body-obviously-moved-Paramedic-death-scene-reveals-concerns-Hutton-Inquiry.html
You cannot die from an incision of the ulnar artery as the group of doctors said.
There were many other inconsistencies. eg no fingerprints on the pruning knife!
Dr Kelly with all his knowledge would have known of a more efficient way to kill himself.
Grieve refused to grant a inquest for this most unnatural death at judicial review at the High Court several years later. He is CFoI btw.
Sharp Ears
“Grieve refused to grant a inquest for this most unnatural death at judicial review at the High Court several years later. He is CFoI btw.”
___________________________
What is the relevance of Mr Grieve being a Conservative Friend of Israel to his refusal to “grant a [ sic ] imquest for this most unnatural death..etc..” ?
Habbabkuk, it is Israel that wants its western allies to create mayhem in the Middle East through its proxy wars so it can continue to expand its territorial theft. If Kelly had not been silenced there might have been no war. Remember this was at a time when Silverstein was helping to create an event in New York to make these wars possible according to Aaron Russo. Thank God the UN has woken up. Just waiting for the rest of the world.
Well, to suggest that the Russian regime is a mafia regime enmeshed to its core with organised crime and that as during Soviet times, it continue to organise assassinations does not infer that the USA/UK, etc. do not also covertly assassinate (obviously they overtly assassinate via drones, etc.). Israel, for example, most certainly assassinates covertly and boasts of it. And so on.
There’s a new book by Douglas Valentine, The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World, which I have just received from Amazon but have yet to start reading. The new edition of Peter Janney’s Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace which I have just finished reading certainly portrays the CIA as a criminal organization that has no compunction about murdering many innocent people.
I imagine the account of the coroner’s inquest in this case of the scientist’s apparanet suicide will be publically available. Does anyone have a link to that? We don’t have suficient information right now.
It sounds almost t as though he’d developed a psychotic depression. The very limited info. in the media makes it sound like a ‘Manchurian Candidate’ sort of situation. Basically, the suggestion or unstated implication seems to be that something happened while he was in Russia, that perhaps he was given a drug of some sort which triggered psychosis. Or perhaps there was an attempt at ‘kompromat’? Was he off work due to mental illness? If he was that depressed/delusional, it would seem unlikely that he’d still be deemed fit to work, especially in his field. The suggestion also seems to be that as with David Kelly, his family are not quetioning the suidice verdict. Have they been threatened? ‘If we can get to him, we can get to you and your children’. Was there a complex dynamic involving the SIS and the FSB/SVR? Is that why the potential for anti-Russian propaganda is not really being exploited in this case? People do simply become psychotically depressed and (especially men) commit suicide in florid ways – this almost seems like something out of a spy thriller – John Le Carre – or even a horror film – atomic scientist who was key figure in investigation into polonium-210 poisoning of spy suddenly goes insane and commits kara-kiri. Was he murdered and it made to look like suicide? Did he work with the intelligence services? What exactly was his provenance? This is all rampant speculation, of course.
For example, what exactly was he doing in Russia? Who did he meet?
This suggests that the coroner ruled it was a suicide but could not rule out another party’s involvement. It states that there were defensive wounds. Was there a past history of mental illness, before the Russia visit five months prior to the death?
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/world/radiation-expert-46-who-investigated-assassination-kgb-spy-alexander-litvinenko-killed
This stuff is happening. There is little point assuming an absurd posture of denial, just because the West is replete with anti-Russian/anti-Putin propaganda and has its own agenda and does not accept its own culpability.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/KGBs-Poison-Factory-Lenin-Litvinenko/1848325428
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/world/europe/moscow-kremlin-silence-critics-poison.html?_r=0
Congratulations Craig. I notice Russian Insider has picked up this post and republished. Apologies if this has been posted on the previous page.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/obamas-russian-exit-storm-delusion-pettiness-and-deceit/ri18359
It’s clear through his own actions that he is beyond a doubt a psychopath in every sense of the word. I’m afraid that most of the current DNC and in fact most of the GOP are also. I would back at heavy odds the vast majority of both parties are character disturbed. This is a broad basket of hard core head cases including sociopaths, malignant narcissists, machs, borderlines, paranoid PD and psychopaths. The later being the more extreme. Because we have an infestation of these people in power we need to do all we can to awaken the public to this situation. Thank God Putin is not CD he has clearly demonstrated this by his words and deeds. Putin is of a very high moral character and character matters. More so than IQ. I can’t speak for Trump at this stage, while he might display narcissistic overtones I’m not seeing any psychopathic traits to date. Time will tell. As for Clinton – FULL BLOWN PSYCHOPATH. I would highly recommend to anybody to read Character Disturbance by Dr George Simon PhD.
We live in very disturbing times, where it only takes one poor and impulsive judgement by a President to send this planet into a nuclear winter. Putin will not be that President but Clinton surely would have. Trump is untested in this area, He demonstrates a higher moral character than Obama. He is also stocking his cabinet with some very interesting types indeed. We need a major shift on this planet and right now the US does not need a Saint, a Saint is not called for but one tough SOB is and Trump is that and more. I believe Trump was the only option the world has at the moment.
The US is making more enemies now than ever in its entire history. Not unusual at all. You can’t continue to rape, pillage and burn at an unprecedented rate and have friends left. We are seeing more and more countries give the finger to the US. But what I really believe we are seeing is the fall of the US empire. An empire has a median life span of roughly 250 years. Its time is up and much like the fall of the Roman Empire followed by the fall of the British Empire, now we are witnessing the fall of the US empire. What emerges from that is what must be compatible with Russia and the East. While there are some selections of Trump that are surprising most give a clue to his intentions. Also it is worrying about Trumps dedication to Israel and his apparent rejection of the Iran deal. However, Putin has to tow the line for a good while until he consolidated power and was able to take down the 5th column. Trump will need to do the same. So it might well be a case of him keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. Time will tell and we shall see.
I firmly believe though that Putin and Trump can bring peace to the ME and if my hunch is correct then what we will witness during the Trump administration could well be a phoenix rising event. I just hope I’m right on this on.
Well said, almost spot on, with everything,
thank you for your input.
I agree that this is sound comment. President elect Trump has not had a chance and may not get one knowing how the US does business. There is a silly petition going around to impeach him before taking office over his support for the big bad Russians who allegedly hacked into the emails of Hillary Clinton and John Podesta (a most detestable man). However the thing I believe is worrying the elite puppeteers relates to Trump’s insistence into holding an inquiry into a subject that cannot be mentioned on this or any other thread but the one in this link.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/01/the_911_post/comment-page-99/#comment-636740
See the video near the bottom of the comment and you will see that Trump has a good knowledge of the physics of high-rise buildings.
Soften them up first, then go in for the kill.
First JFK, then 9/11.
Or the other way round. 🙂
Trump, who may annihilate the CIA, and Truman, who later, after the JFK assassination, regretted having signed the bill that created the CIA and wanted it deprived of all its covert action functions, it just occurs to me, share the first four letters of their names.
This is probably not the thread to discuss JFK, but I read my first JFK ‘conspiracy’ book recently. Barr McClellan ‘Blood, Money, Power’. Very plausible thesis that it was LBJ whot done it, or more specifically his bent lawyer Edward A. Clarke.
Curiously, the CIA gets, I think, exactly one mention, in passing almost. I can well believe the entirely corrupt LBJ played a part, and regard his famous ‘wink’ as all but an admission. This does not preclude CIA involvement though, even if it was a case of ‘standing down’, rather than active connivance. They are a devious lot, the CIA. I will be reading more JFK stuff from now on.
It’s very likely that LBJ gave his assent to the plot, perhaps just with a nod, but I doubt if he had a big role in the planning of the assassination, and I am not convinced by McClellan’s book. The evidence for the CIA being the operative agency for the planning is overwhelming. The book that I just finished the third edition of, Peter Janney’s Mary’s Matrix, is as good a place as any to start reading, as it has a lot of the latest evidence. Other books that are very much reading are: John Newman’s Oswald and the CIA, James Douglass’s JFK and the Unspeakable, and Doug Horne’s five-volume Inside the Assassination Records Review Board.
Great article. I hope the uninformed have lessened over this past election year. Obama is the biggest fraud, liar ever elected to national public office in my lifetime. I used to split my ticket when voting. No longer…..I’ve thrown all democrats in the same basket. Awful, awful organization.
Tom Leach I clicked on your highlighted name and got a message that this site does not require authentication and may be trying to trick you. I went ahead anyway. 🙂 Just thought you might like to know.
I noticed in one of the Cox articles that Trump sneaked off for a round of golf surrounded by 25 security men. Plenty of guys there to look for your balls! He shot 75. If that is gross it is very good golf. I note too that last week he played a round with Tiger Woods.
Is that off-topic? Well it’s almost New Year here in England.
It would be interesting to know how many of the 25 are Secret Service, and how many are Trump’s private security.
Janney says in at least the new edition of Mary’s Mosaic that some of the Secret Service were in on the JFK assassination conspiracy. (Also the belief of Douglas Horne in his five-volume Inside the Asssassination Records Review Board.
I can believe that Lysias that somebody in the security services must have known about the proposed assassination beforehand.
They didn’t just know about it beforehand, they organized it, especially chief of counterintelligence James Jesus Angleton, who ran the false defectors like Oswald. Read John Newman’s Oswald and the CIA (the later, paperback edition). Retired Army intelligence officer John Newman knows how to read government documents. He had been executive assistant to the Director of the National Security Agency.
I just finished reading the new third edition of Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace, by Peter Janney, the son of a former, now deceased high-ranking CIA official. The book furnishes compelling evidence that CIA conspiracies were responsible for the murders of both Mary Pinchot Meyer, who was JFK’s principal love interest while he was president, and JFK himself.
The younger Janney obviously knows well both D.C. and the CIA of the 1950s and 1960s.
Declassified CIA Memo Reveals CIA Directly Involved In JFK Assassination Cover-Up!:
Bit by bit, the truth about the JFK assassination is coming out.
The CIA memo in question quotes Ray Rocca, James Angleton’s deputy at the head of CIA counterintelligence, as saying the evidence against Clay Shaw was such that he could well be convicted. For those who have seen the CIA movie The Good Shepherd directed by Robert De Niro (which I highly recommend for what it says about the history of the CIA), the Ray Rocca character is Matt Damon’s assistant Ray Brocco, played by John Turturro.
The Web siteJFK Facts quotes the CIA memo here: The Garrison Group: What one top CIA official said about Clay Shaw:
Clay Shaw was the man whom New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison prosecuted for having participate in a conspiracy to kill JFK and who denied having anything to do with the CIA. Although the jury acquitted Shaw at the trial (featured in Oliver Stone’s movie JFK), the CIA later, after Shaw’s death, admitted having employed Shaw.
re: jfk, cia
have you read James Reston Jr., The Accidental Victim?
it makes a lot of sense to me.
oswald loved/admired jfk, and he had a real beef against Connelly
as for the well publicized theory that cia killed jfk because jfk was about to declare peace in vietnam, i have very large doubts
i agree with chomsky that there is little/no evidence of jfk backing off of military occupation of vietnam until military victory was won
i claim no expertise or special knowledge, but that is what is on my scorecard
And Chomsky lays out his argument and reasons for his assertion in his book, “Rethinking Camelot,” which is available for free, in it’s entirety, online. Visit ZNet and search around. I could just give you a link, but you’ll do fine. I remember (and have his letter still) when I wrote to Chomsky, years ago (’92 or ’93), and mentioned the Toronto’s Stars article looking at the top ten and bottom ten books dealing with JFK, in his reply to me he said, “On JFK, my own views might surprise you. I don’t find evidence for a conspiracy very convincing, and as for a high-level conspiracy that might have had any significant policy implications, the evidence is powerfully against it… I’ve explained my reasons in a recent book, Rethinking Camelot (South End/Black Rose in Montreal), which I’ll bet was not one of the 2000 reviewed in the Star, which you mentioned.” I doubt if I said that the Star actually reviewed 2000 books on JFK’s assassination. I probably stated that the Star ‘noted’ that there were some 2000 such books. I brought up Peter Dale Scott’s book, “Deep Politics And The Death Of JFK,” which I had read, and Chomsky noted that while he and Scott were personal friends, Scott, without malice, got him completely wrong on JFK in that book. In any case, Noam was certainly correct about the Star’s disinterest in his book, something you’ll see much of today among rightwingers and rightwing media, including progressive orgs that are pseudo. The myth of Camelot has a fierce hold on much of the population (and many progressives, like Peter Dale Scott and Sheldon Stern). Facts can’t compete. It’s like the Rwandan genocide. 99% of those who know about those events know exactly the opposite of the truth about their central features.
JFK’s ‘principal’ love interest?! That’s hilarious. JFK didn’t do love. He did sex, tons of it with probably a hudred or more women. He was so profligate (and venereal disease-ridden) that some of the dedicated secret service men – the idealistic ones I guess – who protected him were disgusted. Give Seymour Hersh’s book “The Dark Side Of Camelot” a read. Ironically, as Hersh explains, JFK started to become closer to his wife, due to their shared grief over the loss of their newborn, Patrick.
Read the book. JFK certainly had a lot of meaningless sex. But his relationship with Mary Pinchot Meyer was a loving one.
“The Dark Side of Camelot” is a sinister book. Hersh had a lot of sources in the Secret Service and CIA who told him all about JFK’s immorality, and the unspoken subtext is that he deserved to die. The book was unworthy of Hersh, and it was a disgrace that Hersh’s sources told him that.
Ignore Lysias people. Hersh’s books is awesome and it’s sourced to the hilt. Mary Pinchot Meyer doesn’t even make into Hersh’s index. Hersh’s book is 473 pages long. Said Gore Vidal, “The responses to Herh’s book made me feel as if I were in a deranged time warp… Why is there so much fury and fuss at Hersh’s attempt to let daylight in on old, old black magic? …Hersh is an old style muckraker. The fact that he’s found more muck in this particular Augean stable than most people want to acknowledge is hardly his fault.” I see references to Gore’s comments online, but his original New Yorker magazine article containing is review seems to have been erased from the internet. Is there something to hide there gatekeepers?
Plenty of evidence for a love relationship between JFK and Mary Pinchot Meyer. Just look.at her Wikipedia entry. Meyer’s brother-in-law and JFK’s friend Ben Bradlee admitted it in a book. A love letter to her from JFK has recently turned up.
Well, There’s no ‘reply’ button for lysias’s last comment to me. This becomes a rabbit hole, for sure. One must beware of rabbit holes and stringers and gatekeepers.
Ben Bradlee, I will note, is no paragon of honesty. Hersh takes his measure well when he reports how Bradlee spills the beans (somewhat) about JFK’s smelly election win in an article (in which he quotes JFK telling him that Chicago mayor Richard Daly said “Mr. President, with a little bit of luck and the help of a few close friends, you’re going to carry Illinois.”) about which, in his later memoir, Bradlee “would assert, lamely… “Me, I don’t know what the hell Daley meant.”
And I just finished reading a very long (and still only a small part of) an article (or book excerpt?) online, about the murder of JFK lover Mary Pinchot Meyer (http://bit.ly/2hHraMk), which includes a reference to Peter Janney’s serious misgivings about Ben Bradlee’s honest:
“Peter Janney, the author of Mary’s Mosaic (2012) has questioned this account of events provided by Bradlee. “How could Bradlee’s CIA friend have known ‘just after lunch’ that the murdered woman was Mary Meyer when the victim’s identity was still unknown to police? Did the caller wonder if the woman was Mary, or did he know it, and if so, how? This distinction is critical, and it goes to the heart of the mystery surrounding Mary Meyer’s murder.” Janney even questions if it really was his father who phoned Bradlee. He points out that Wistar Janney had died a year before Bradlee published his account of events.”
I note that had Bradlee published his account before Peter’s father Wistar’s death (Wistar Janney), Wistar would have had the opportunity to say, publicy, that Bradlee’s account was not accurate where it related to his involvement.
As for Wikileaks; My gosh! The article (like so much of mutilated Wikileaks content), mashes Left and Right together without any regard for reality and truth. The unwary reader might find it confusing, but also come away thinking that that Left was ‘actually’ Left and that Left ‘normally’ works this way with the Right.
To be honest, There’s so much here… I can’t remember every detail. Things stick with me and those will be things that my brain uses in an effort to organize and make sense of the information, according to the person I am (principles, beliefs, etc). Others will take away from sources (Hersh and others) what they will for the same reasons. I find this interesting but will, naturally, investigate (in my utterly limited fashion) to the extent that I consider reasonable and to the extent that I uncover info that I consider useful and, again, in accordance with my need to make sense of things according to my principles, beliefs, etc.. I won’t abuse this forum further.
Craig, you’ve been reading more and more like my old mate Tim Bancroft-Hinchey lately. To see you giving credence to a transparent fraud like Trump, and apparently reversing your opinions on Russian intentions and methodology, is somewhat disconcerting. I guess you’re looking forward to more appearances on RT?
One or two things may be beyond your power to deny, however:
The sustained support the Russian state-owned external media, and their oh-so spontaneous Western followers, have given to the leaks/intercepts/ whatever, despite the minuscule news interest or indeed actual harmful content contained therein. It may even be true that the Kremlin was unaware of or not directly involved in the releases, but they’ve been a godsend to anyone whose historical policy has always been one of destabilisation. Your contact is merely nitpicking – and is, of course as liable to be misinforming you as anyone else in what is, I am beginning to think, a very intricate charade.
Trump’s a phoney. He is absolutely not interested in the welfare of the less-advantaged American (any more than either Clinton) Like any other free-marketeer, he affects to believe that his business model will magically result in prosperity for all; he has not examined the prospects of such prosperity being either fairly divided of permanent. He is also a climate change denier, and proposes actively to support the consolidation of an apartheid zionist Israel. He is, effectively, Alan Sugar, inflated to impossible dimensions by his own complacency. He will perhaps obtain some favourable trade and contracts from Russian oligarchs, although his next book on closing deals will have to include a section on overt bribery, but in geopolitics he will be stiffed from the start by Putin, and I can’t see him making much progress with the Chinese either: there he will become an object of open scorn.
It’s midnight. Happy New Year.
Well said Ba’al. Timely too.
” whose historical policy has always been one of destabilisation” ??!!
Surely you are thinking of the US ?!
Careful Ba’al, you’re beginning to sound more & more like Luke Harding;
http://theduran.com/guardian-journalists-bizarre-claim-vladimir-putins-new-year-christmas-invite-threat-us-diplomats-children/
It looks like Alexander, at the Duran, is a Trump fan. (‘looks’. I have not read the one artice I found on that site, which incliudes no ‘about’, whose headline is something like ‘Trump needs to build a movement fast’.) Otherwise the site looks interesting. The support for Trump is a deal killer for me, I’m afraid.
Meet the new boss…same as the old boss.
The report also has a disclaimer at the top. Basically, the Obama administration ordered the report, and the Dept of Homeland Security merely did as they were told, but also covered their ass with the disclaimer. The DHS don’t even believe it, why on earth should we?
Obama is just embarrassing himself now. I can only assume he’s been promised lucrative speech-waffle contracts, for continuing to play ball. I used to wonder why the right hated Obama so much – given how right wing he actually is – but I understand now. Obama is just a sleezy, arrogant, incompetent nobody, in a job way, way above his ability. And I’m not convinced he’s all that clever, either. His CV is somewhat … patchy, to say the least …
There is an upside though. The corporate media are breathlessly repeating all this bullshit, proving the’ve learned nothing at all from Clinton’s defeat. The more they do this, the more people just start ignoring their incessant lies, and start investigating themselves. It can be time-consuming, and frustrating, but worth it. I only really read The Guardian for the sport these days, and find the layers of games and lies just a little beneath me.
My comment at 00.00 remains in moderation due no doubt to using a couple of banned words in quick – but wholly appropriate – succession. When it eventually appears, it contains a reference to one Tim Bancroft – Hinchey, who may be unfamiliar to your readers. I’ve found a recent example of his deathless prose, in one of his typical haunts, and offer it as a concrete instance of the Murray- Hinchey convergence to which I allude. Note the close correspondence between Craig’s post and the hyperbolic raving of the sometime Pravda correspondent…whose bio, below, is pretty well all bullshit, btw.
http://www.therussophile.org/obamas-tantrum-puerile-infantile-and-silly-his-political-epitaph.html/
Your comment is out of moderation. What is the fuss about?
Why should credence not be given to Trump? If by credence you mean examining his policies in the light of evidence. It would be as foolish to dismiss everything Trump says as to believe it.
“The sustained support the Russian state-owned external media, and their oh-so spontaneous Western followers, have given to the leaks/intercepts/ whatever, despite the minuscule news interest or indeed actual harmful content contained therein. It may even be true that the Kremlin was unaware of or not directly involved in the releases, but they’ve been a godsend to anyone whose historical policy has always been one of destabilisation. Your contact is merely nitpicking – and is, of course as liable to be misinforming you as anyone else in what is, I am beginning to think, a very intricate charade.”
What you are saying here is that the DNC leaks did not deserve notice in the media. this puts you in agreement with the dominant western media. Curiously enough the most marginal ‘revelations’ or gossip about Trump was considered important enough for Front Pages. Where do you get the idea that the Russian state has always favoured destabilisation? In recent decades this has been the favoured policy of the US-look about you.
“Trump’s a phoney. He is absolutely not interested in the welfare of the less-advantaged American (any more than either Clinton) Like any other free-marketeer, he affects to believe that his business model will magically result in prosperity for all; he has not examined the prospects of such prosperity being either fairly divided of permanent. ”
Of course Trump is a phoney- he would have grounds to sue anyone who denied it. But it doesn’t follow that he is unaware of the need to do something to repair the damage to US society which is falling apart-secretly- as living standards plummet and officialdom issues bogus statistics ‘proving’ otherwise. Like all con-men Trump has a shrewd idea of what people are thinking. His very election is an indication of the deep, denied, socio-economic crisis in the USA.
And Trump is not a Free Marketeer, quite the contrary, he dislikes competition and aims at monopoly, he believes in tariffs. Don’t be misled by his rote repetition of the Free Market religion/ideology.
It is possible to be happy that Clinton lost, extremely uncertain as to what Trump’s weird politics, full of cotradictions, will mean and yet certain that the election result was nothing to do with Putin or Russian hackers.
No rational person believes in the line being promoted by the US Establishment, and that includes those doing the promoting. As to the influence of alternative media- Pravda and Tass used to have immensely more resources than pale shadows like RT and Sputnik. They were also supported by vibrant pro-Communist media ( Humanite in France for example, L’Unita in Italy, Daily Worker in UK etc) still they lost the propaganda battle largely because western capitalist media allowed far more free criticism of official views. This has changed- check the Guardian or the Washington Post for confirmation.
In a word it is the failure of the mainstream media that has made the alternative news sites, mostly amateurish, under financed and hobbled in dozens of ways, so influential.
Bevin; You can use as much material for window-dressing Trump as you wish. Accept your share of responsibility for the rise of Trump. Your moral relativism and need to minimize the blowback on your choices makes you a classic progressive. Enjoy that status.
Trump all but announces that he’s down with mafia capitalism. He brags, without meaning to, that giving precisely because that’s how you get, is how business and politics works. Rules? They are important. You can’t strategically break rules so as to gain advantages in life if there are none. See Lee Fang’s Intercpet article titled “Donald Trump Says He Can Buy Politicians, None Of His Rivals Disagree”: http://bit.ly/2hEc9aE
Nothing to question in that report on Obama’s ‘legacy’.
Great blog. Obama fools no one but himself.
Craig knows whereof he speaks. As for myself, I am applying the mentioning of Craig’s contact with the leaker of the offending Clinton and Podesta emails, as a litmus test of genuiness when it comes to self-identified progressive organizations (like The Intercept) when an article talks about the subject of those emails and the fallout. Unless someone can give me a good reason not to, I will do so. Progressives who do not mention Craig’s crucial involvement, even if the line pushed is the correct one about the US government failing to provide evidence for it’s claims of Russia hacking the election, in fact help sell the idea that ‘maybe’ Hillary, Obama, et al, are right.
The Russian election hacking claim is transparent nonsense, of course. Wild allegations like that are not addressed to people able to reason, but to the cadre of True Believers the deep state has created by inculcating raw fear and then appealing to that fear to keep them united and focused. Look at the way they’ve already reduced academia to complete dysfunctionality.
Since this has morphed into the matter of the Kennedy assassinations, and now for something completely different. It’s offered because the case he makes (and convincingly if you follow his trail of evidence and deductions from it) is as shockingly self-evident (once considered) as it is universally overlooked.
So, because if the wind always blows from the same direction the trees grow crooked,
http://mileswmathis.com/barindex2.pdf
Two stories in the Toronto Star on this matter:
1/ “Russian malware found on U.S. electric company computer in Vermont..”
2/”Russian cyber attacks are ‘acts of war,’ John McCain says..”
Anyone who cannot connect the dots?
Corbyn needs to ask the PM in Parliament, or as it’s urgent hold a press conference, asking the PM, in so many words, if the government have any plans to stage an “terror event” and blame it on its surrogate “IS”, to forestall such an event!
Great article. What would make it more powerful, is speaking to what the hacked emails contained and were about. That the DNC was shown to be cheating for Hillary against Sanders. Obama distanced himself and never spoke up regarding voting irregularities nationwide, tho he was entreated to, he remained silent. The Wikileaks emails began leaking while still in the primary, which is why Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned at the convention, immediately hired as honorary chairwoman of Hillary’s campaign. Then Donna Brazile gets fired by CNN for leaking debate questions to Hillary. They are doing this as a false flag and as a way of continuing their same neoliberal ways and appeasing their ‘owners’.. er, I mean, big money donors. That is the deceit that started all this and I would hope you would incorporate it in your narrative. Hillary was rammed down our throats and Obama gambled his legacy she would win against Trump, manipulating half their base and independents they had cheated to do it. Don’t boo, Vote. And before the convention Reid and Obama strong arm Sanders to endorse Hillary.
This is a feeble attempt to cover their tracks and try to score political points over it with Trump.. but also with elites and corporate donors. Many of whom would seriously not want a Bernie Sanders as President. The language of the so called report showing so called proof was ludicrous indeed. They are acting like Russia did it because they wanted Trump to win. In Michigan, 90,000 people who voted did not cast a vote for president.. she lost by 11,000 votes. She started out with trust issues and Wikileaks merely confirmed she had no integrity Of course big media and pharma and banks and off shore tax havens would flat out cheat to keep big money in politics. Bernie drew Republicans who could not vote for Trump just on getting money our of politics and the rich to pay their share. Rest in Peace, Seth Rich.
Baal Zevul
Nice work at 00h00 and 01h13 !
And a very Happy New Year to you.