Assange Never Met Manafort. Luke Harding and the Guardian Publish Still More Blatant MI6 Lies 293


The right wing Ecuadorean government of President Moreno continues to churn out its production line of fake documents regarding Julian Assange, and channel them straight to MI6 mouthpiece Luke Harding of the Guardian.

Amazingly, more Ecuadorean Government documents have just been discovered for the Guardian, this time spy agency reports detailing visits of Paul Manafort and unspecified “Russians” to the Embassy. By a wonderful coincidence of timing, this is the day after Mueller announced that Manafort’s plea deal was over.

The problem with this latest fabrication is that Moreno had already released the visitor logs to the Mueller inquiry. Neither Manafort nor these “Russians” are in the visitor logs.

This is impossible. The visitor logs were not kept by Wikileaks, but by the very strict Ecuadorean security. Nobody was ever admitted without being entered in the logs. The procedure was very thorough. To go in, you had to submit your passport (no other type of document was accepted). A copy of your passport was taken and the passport details entered into the log. Your passport, along with your mobile phone and any other electronic equipment, was retained until you left, along with your bag and coat. I feature in the logs every time I visited.

There were no exceptions. For an exception to be made for Manafort and the “Russians” would have had to be a decision of the Government of Ecuador, not of Wikileaks, and that would be so exceptional the reason for it would surely have been noted in the now leaked supposed Ecuadorean “intelligence report” of the visits. What possible motive would the Ecuadorean government have for facilitating secret unrecorded visits by Paul Manafort? Furthermore it is impossible that the intelligence agency – who were in charge of the security – would not know the identity of these alleged “Russians”.

Previously Harding and the Guardian have published documents faked by the Moreno government regarding a diplomatic appointment to Russia for Assange of which he had no knowledge. Now they follow this up with more documents aimed to provide fictitious evidence to bolster Mueller’s pathetically failed attempt to substantiate the story that Russia deprived Hillary of the Presidency.

My friend William Binney, probably the world’s greatest expert on electronic surveillance, former Technical Director of the NSA, has stated that it is impossible the DNC servers were hacked, the technical evidence shows it was a download to a directly connected memory stick. I knew the US security services were conducting a fake investigation the moment it became clear that the FBI did not even themselves look at the DNC servers, instead accepting a report from the Clinton linked DNC “security consultants” Crowdstrike.

I would love to believe that the fact Julian has never met Manafort is bound to be established. But I fear that state control of propaganda may be such that this massive “Big Lie” will come to enter public consciousness in the same way as the non-existent Russian hack of the DNC servers.

Assange never met Manafort. The DNC emails were downloaded by an insider. Assange never even considered fleeing to Russia. Those are the facts, and I am in a position to give you a personal assurance of them.

I can also assure you that Luke Harding, the Guardian, Washington Post and New York Times have been publishing a stream of deliberate lies, in collusion with the security services.

I am not a fan of Donald Trump. But to see the partisans of the defeated candidate (and a particularly obnoxious defeated candidate) manipulate the security services and the media to create an entirely false public perception, in order to attempt to overturn the result of the US Presidential election, is the most astonishing thing I have witnessed in my lifetime.

Plainly the government of Ecuador is releasing lies about Assange to curry favour with the security establishment of the USA and UK, and to damage Assange’s support prior to expelling him from the Embassy. He will then be extradited from London to the USA on charges of espionage.

Assange is not a whistleblower or a spy – he is the greatest publisher of his age, and has done more to bring the crimes of governments to light than the mainstream media will ever be motivated to achieve. That supposedly great newspaper titles like the Guardian, New York Times and Washington Post are involved in the spreading of lies to damage Assange, and are seeking his imprisonment for publishing state secrets, is clear evidence that the idea of the “liberal media” no longer exists in the new plutocratic age. The press are not on the side of the people, they are an instrument of elite control.


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293 thoughts on “Assange Never Met Manafort. Luke Harding and the Guardian Publish Still More Blatant MI6 Lies

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      • Paul Greenwood

        Perhaps but that assumes that Robert Kennedy working under Roy Cohn for Joe McCarthy did not change America. After all Cohn got the Chief Counsel job BECAUSE he was Jewish and Robert Kennedy was Asst Counsel because he was NOT Jewish.

        The boring thing about Vanity Fair etc is that people get so used to eating the leaves on the tree that they ignore the roots that grew the tree

      • fwl

        Thanks for Vanity Fair link Permindex. Interesting Republican’s remorse talking heads video on there from the VF New Establishment Summit: Has the GOP been crashed for good?

  • Dom

    As usual, this latest Harding fabrication makes no sense even on its own terms. If Assange played a key role in getting Trump elected why is the Trump administration so determined to put him on trial? How stupid does the Guardian consider its readers to be these days?

    • Stonky

      No stupider that they actually are, and demonstrate themselves to be on a daily basis. If they were ever allowed to comment on such stories you would see that they are happy to be lied to, and many even pay for the privilege.

      • kurtz

        I doubt it. The commentators btl are often way more sceptical and smarter than the journos who write some of the pieces and loathe bullshit..
        Had comments been open Harding would have been torn a new one many a time over.

        • giyane

          trying to get a comment published on the guardian is harder than trying to recover your Microsoft email account. Big Brother is us.

        • jaykhaye

          If the moderation would be anything like other news site I’m guessing that any dissension to the narrative would never see the light of day. The Guardian just doesn’t have the resources to go that route.

    • Ian

      Trump used the Wikileaks for his own benefit, so was telling the world how he loved Wikileaks at the time. It is entirely typical of the braggart and bully that he would then turn on them once they were of no use to him, and may in fact be a danger – as they were openly fishing around for his tax returns. Wikileaks tried playing the US elections – you play with fire you get burnt.

      • Dom

        You only get burnt if you are considered a threat by the US establishment and its media mouthpieces. There is far clearer evidence that israel and MI6 played the 2016 US election yet neither of them has been burnt.

        • Ian

          They are part of the nexus. Wikileaks are amateurs and not part of it. They were useful fools for Trump.

          • Paul Greenwood

            Sorry but Wikileaks has been essential to democratic awareness of Citizens especially when Chelsea Maning went to gaol to inform the world about war crimes in Iraq. The crass way you reduce everything to political games is demeaning to people who wanted an Informed Public – but clearly the inert masses cannot be bothered to resist Political Absolutism

      • Tom Welsh

        “It is entirely typical of the braggart and bully that he would then turn on them once they were of no use to him…”

        Such behaviour is in fact typical of the US establishment as a whole, and at all times. Look at what happened to Saddam Hussein, for instance, when he ignored a prohibition just once. (And a wholly unspoken prohibition – he asked the US ambassador for permission to invade Kuwait, and she told him it was of no concern to Washington. She lied, of course, and he should have telepathically sensed that).

    • Tom Welsh

      As Noam Chomsky and others such as Edward Herman have often observed, the business of the media is selling audiences to advertisers. The audiences of “up market” media such as The Guardian tend to be wealthier and more influential, so the content is adjusted to conform closely to the establishment narrative. In no sense are the readers “customers” – they are the product, just as with social media.

      Today’s media do not choose or edit their content to inform the audience, or for the public good. They aim to please them, largely by confirming their prejudices. People who wish to see the establishment line repeated tend to read The Guardian.

      I once read it for a giggle. Mind you, it was very funny.

    • Roberto

      What is always overlooked (at least in the popular media) is that the batches of ‘despicable’ emails were genuine, and this was never denied. All this fantastic Russian nonsense was simply a smokescreen to bury this and other egregious events associated with the Party.
      Anyway, to see how elections are conducted in the States all one has to do is observe how the counts are handled by Democrats in the recent mid-term elections, just imagine that these jurisdictions under controversy are only the ones in which closer inspection has been invited, and again just imagine what went on in all the jurisdictions in which no attention is focused. How Clinton lost in 2016 is indeed miraculous, when even multi-million-dollar incentives were offered by at least one celebrity to cause Electors to change and withdraw Electoral College votes (with no legal consequences for the offeror), and even this last-ditch effort failed.
      Another separate matter which is frustrating for the observer, is that reports from 2016 indicated that Mr Murray was the recipient and carrier of the notorious USB flash drive of the email dump from an ‘unidentified source’ to Wikileaks (if I remember correctly Mr Murray even confirmed this conveyance himself at the time). In the above article, he states unequivocally “Assange never met Manafort. The DNC emails were downloaded by an insider. Assange never even considered fleeing to Russia. Those are the facts, and I am in a position to give you a personal assurance of them”, which I interpret as confirmation of reports and statements of the time regarding the conveyance of the emails.
      When asked about the source of these emails, after the suspicious death of a certain individual thousands of miles away, Wikileak’s Assange coyly offered a 20,000 dollar reward for anyone offering information that led to the conviction of the murderer(s) of said individual and stated within the context of that interview that they kept identification of sources confidential.
      The conclusive revealing by the acting parties of the identity of the source and the method of transmission of said emails, with proof, if the source was not from ‘Russian meddlers and hackers’, would be sufficient to blow this whole silly hacker story up, finally and conclusively, and not even the MSM could avoid it. Or could they? It may be worth finding out.

    • Jack

      It is obvious how the MSM use fake-news, rumours, disinformation to push their agenda. Smells like a dictatorship.
      Why is the Guardian article still there when there is no proof whatsoever? Why is OFCOM so silent?

      • Tom Welsh

        “Why is the Guardian article still there when there is no proof whatsoever? Why is OFCOM so silent?”

        Please tell me you don’t believe that OFCOM has the slightest concern for the truth. That’s not its purpose at all.

        • Paul Greenwood

          Have you seen who is Head of OFCOM ???????? The Leadership of OFCOM is essentially H M Treasury plus BBC

  • Sharp Ears

    The co-author, Dan Collyns
    https://america.cgtn.com/anchors-corresp/dan-collyns
    Ex BBC. Of course.

    His tweet announcing the muck
    https://twitter.com/yachay_dc/status/1067424996371415040

    CGTN = Television network
    CGTN, formerly known as CCTV-9 and CCTV News, is a Chinese international English-language news channel of the State-owned China Global Television Network group, part of the China Central Television, based in Beijing. The channel was launched on 25 September 2000.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CGTN_(TV_channel)

    It’s a weird, weird world.

  • Jim Sinclare

    I don’t see how it helps Britain, saying the Russian backed Trump, unless MI6 believe Trump will be overthrown.

  • Jack

    Now Manafort also deny:

    “This story is totally false and deliberately libelous,” Manafort said in a statement. “I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to Wikileaks, either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or Wikileaks on any matter. We are considering all legal options against the Guardian who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false.”
    https://www.rt.com/news/445041-manafort-assange-sue-guardian/

    Still the guardian refuse to take down the falsehood!

  • Just Me

    I agree that Manafort or the Russians never met Assange while he was holed in the Equadorean embassy. However, the rest of the article makes me scratch my head.

    For a start, I am afraid I have bad news for your friend William Binney. Both DNC and RNC were hacked by the Russians, in the same way – spearphishing. They obtained info on both parties. Right or wrong, they have decided that harming the Democrats plays best to their goals.

    The real problem of DNC (and maybe RNC too) was that FBI warned them in plenty of advance that they are being hacked – and they didn’t paid any attention to it. I guess that is the reason FBI didn’t investigated the case post factum – they already knew everything they needed, from a long time.

    Also, Mueller does not try anything “to substantiate the story that Russia deprived Hillary of the Presidency.” Even if he did that (and he, being a registered Republican, probably wouldn’t want it), it would change nothing. No person who has been reasonable enough to head FBI for 13 years would spend 2 years on producing something that brings no result.

    In short: you either try to pass for truth your personal gripes, or you knowingly produce fake news.

    • J

      Bill Binney, simply as a former NSA director is somewhat more credible than fourth hand assertions by “Just Me.” Even without the technical details which prove conclusively that the emails were downloaded onto a USB drive, a leak not a hack. Whether DNC servers were also hacked by Russians is immaterial.

    • EricT

      Remember back in March maybe April during the Democratic primaries, Hillary’s campaign claimed that the Sanders people hacked the DNC server. It was spun from the Sanders technical people who kept on telling the DNC that the server database used to track donations wasn’t secure. The Sanders people notified them twice, and due to a lack of response from the DNC, proceeded to run a query on data that was supposed to only be available to the Clinton campaign and sent the data along with a third notification that the servers were unprotected. Hillary’s campaign spun around and accused the Sanders campaign of hacking the DNC, and even got one of Sanders tech people fired over it.

    • Tom Welsh

      “Both DNC and RNC were hacked by the Russians, in the same way – spearphishing”.

      And you know this how?

      “You either try to pass for truth your personal gripes, or you knowingly produce fake news”.

      It sounds as if you are doing both those things.

    • Francis Urquhart Barr

      “No person … would spend 2 years on producing something that brings no result.”

      I can think of 30 Million reasons why!

    • Mighty Drunken

      In regard to this story, the question is not if the DNC or RNC were hacked by the Russians or other state. The question is who released the DNC emails. Craig seems convinced it was an insider because the insider told Craig.

  • Sharp Ears

    Dear old Henry Smith has died. He came from the same mould as Walter Wolfgang and Harry Patch. They all spoke out and had principles. I admired Henry Smith greatly and thank him for championing OUR NHS amongst his other campaigns.

    ‘World’s oldest rebel’ Harry Leslie Smith dies

    Harry Leslie Smith, a World War Two veteran and vocal advocate for social justice and the NHS, has died at the age of 95.
    The Barnsley-born campaigner and left-wing activist suffered suspected pneumonia while with his son John in Ontario, Canada.
    In a tweet, John said: “At 3.39 this morning, my dad Harry Leslie Smith died. I am an orphan.”

    Mr Smith rose to prominence after giving an impassioned speech about his life and the NHS at the Labour Party conference in 2014.’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-46370162/world-s-oldest-rebel-harry-leslie-smith-dies

    You can weep when the short video is played on here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-46370665

    Bless him and RIP.

    • Sharp Ears

      I am sure Harry Smith’s family can do without Theresa May’s condolences. Pure hypocrisy considering her record on the increase in poverty and homelessness, and warmongering, during her tenure.

      Jeremy Corbyn [..]
      I also want to pay tribute to my friend Harry Leslie Smith. Harry passed away early this morning in Canada. Harry also served in the war, and he was an irrepressible campaigner for the rights of refugees, for the welfare state and for our national health service. He was passionate about the principle of healthcare for all as a human right. We thank Harry for his life and his work.

      The Prime Minister
      I am sure the whole House will also wish to pass on our condolences to the family and friends of Harry Leslie Smith.
      [..]
      https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-11-28/debates/08AE69EF-156E-4433-B11C-634363B782EA/Engagements

  • michael norton

    Brexit: Any form makes U.K. poorer, suggests Treasury analysis

    This is the starting shot for the next Project Fear

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Won’t waste my time on this since Craig trusts Moreno when it suite him,, have never trusted Katrina vanden Hevel since she never mentioned A, V. Dicey’s vast contributions to the Nation in its 150th anniversary volume because he was too conspiratorial too handle,and conveniently failed to mention all those murdessr, starting with Gareth Williams and ending with DNC staffer Seth Rich.

    A serious effort wouldn’t survive the mods.

    • Molloy

      .

      Oh, come on Trow. . .

      Won’t waste my time on this since Craig trusts Moreno when it suite him. . . “

      Really? Any evidence? Had problems with irony on here before at all?

      .

    • Molloy

      .

      Ha ha, Andy. Viner is relying on you and me to provide her with the oxygen of infamy. The more she shafts the public the more Brownie points the better her CV. . . . . the more money Viner milks from the public.

      What’s the latest news re Bliar and S$traw and Campball visiting the Hague?

      Sláinte

      .

      • Andyoldlabour

        @Molloy,

        I wonder how many people on here have heard of “The Hague Invasion Act”, which is a piece of legislation signed off by George W Bush in 2002, which allows the US to use military force to release ANY US (or its allies) citizens or military personnel, should they be held for any reason at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. So, I therefore assume that Bliar, Straw and Campbell may well be protected by that vile piece of legislation, as well of course as Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Wolfowitz and others.

        https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law

        • Molloy

          .

          Interesting, Andy. I’m sure competent international lawyers could and would instantly have that so-called ‘law’ set aside.
          Last time I heard, criminals and everyone else cannot be judges in their own cause.

          For me, the US ‘legislation’ is entirely corrupt and voidable. Regrettably, par for the course in fake democratic Gilead.
          The 2002 Act itself is an act of criminal aggression.

          Let’s go ahead, serve the indictments. A competent court (if such exists) can easily strike out bent legislation.

          Thanks for highlighting the matter.

          .

          • Andyoldlabour

            @Molloy,
            The problem is that we are talking about the World’s largest state sponsor of terrorism – I am NOT talking about Iran – and they do what they want to at the moment, simply because they are EXCEPTIONAL as they keep telling us – exceptionally evil.
            When I tell folks about the “Hague Invasion Act”, very few believe me, and many just accuse me of being “anti American”, without actually checking any facts.
            That last point is very relative to this latest case, where the Guardian will post an article which contains statements which are easily disproven, yet the majority of the “sheeple” will read and consume those statements as they would gobble down cornflakes at breakfast.

    • Tom Welsh

      If you said to me, “Here is a muffin laced with cyanide”, I would reply, “No thanks old chap – I’ll pass”.

      Same with Viner.

  • Blaine brown

    1. William Binney is a confirmed nut and laughingstock. Even Trump’s people rejected his claims.
    2. Assange is closer to being a great serial rapist than a great publisher.
    3. Manafort is known to have had at least seven passports, the majority of which were in other names.

  • Sharp Ears

    Vicky Ford MP Con Chelmsford has just been on the BBC News Channel saying that May will get her deal through Parliament.

    Recent entries on her Register of Interests
    https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25614/vicky_ford/chelmsford#register.
    Employment and earnings
    Payments from the European Parliament, 60 rue Wiertz, B-1047, Brussels, Belgium:
    14 November 2017, received £1,130.02 end of service payment. Hours: none since my election to the House of Commons. (Registered 08 January 2018)
    14 December 2017, received £1,156.58 end of service payment. Hours: none since my election to the House of Commons. (Registered 08 January 2018) (MEP’s salary)

    4. Visits outside the UK
    Name of donor: UK Finance
    Address of donor: 1 Angel Court, London, EC2R 7HJ
    Estimate of the probable value (or amount of any donation): Accommodation, flights and dinner with a value of £1,091.64
    Destination of visit: Berlin
    Dates of visit: 30 November to 1 December 2017
    Purpose of visit: Participation in roundtable event jointly hosted by UK Finance and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
    ____
    Member, European Statutory Instruments Committee (since 18 Jul 2018)
    Member, Women and Equalities Committee (since 5 Mar 2018)
    Member, Science and Technology Committee (Commons) (since 16 Oct 2017)

    Ex JP Morgan, she was an MEP.
    ‘As an MEP, Ford was the rapporteur for the Parliament on reforms to firearms laws, offshore oil and gas safety and the fiscal framework directive which seeks to increase transparency and accountability of public spending. She was a lead negotiator on the Horizon 2020 fund for research and on bank capital requirements, deposit guarantee schemes and residential mortgages. She campaigned to reduce bureaucracy for business, to reduce the EU budget and to end the Strasbourg two-seat circus.
    From 2009–2014 she was a member of the European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy Committee and the Economic and Monetary Affairs committee.
    From 2014–2017 she was Chair of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee, one of the most powerful economic committees of the Parliament, focusing on digital policy and unlocking trade opportunities for services and goods.
    In 2016, Ford was ranked as one of the top ten most influential members of the European Parliament by Politico Europe, particularly for her work on digital policy.’
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicky_Ford

    • Blunderbuss

      I think May might get her deal through Parliament. The hard Brexiteers and the hard Remainers are getting all the attention but what about the less dogmatic MPs? I think the May deal might pass with the support of some Labour MPs who would rather have May’s soft Brexit than a no-deal Brexit.

  • Emily

    Thanks for your courage, Craig! Thanks also for your thoughtfulness about our election and the voters.

    Craig, there is a very sad thing being alleged by Jack Posobiec on Twitter this morning about the old eccentric man, Jerome Corsi. I had kind of joked the other day that he was being set up as a “wrecker,” but…he really is being set up as a wrecker!
    “BREAKING: FBI and Mueller team coerced 72-year-old Jerome Corsi to undergo regressive memory therapy techniques during interrogation to “remember” a meeting with Russians in Italy that Corsi was adamant never happened”

  • Bert.

    The penultimate pargaraph: “Plainly the government of Ecuador is releasing lies about Assange to curry favour with the security establishment of the USA and UK, and to damage Assange’s support prior to expelling him from the Embassy. He will then be extradited from London to the USA on charges of espionage.”

    So far as I am aware Assange cannot be extradited from the UK to the US.

    It would be a Human Rights violation. We recall that the very reason that Abu Qatada led the government a merry chase was the serious threat that, in Jordan, Qatada might be subject to a death penalty. only upon satisfactory assurances from the Jordanian Government was it acceptable to send Qatada to that country.

    But, in the case of the US two things appear certain. First, that there are already people in the US baying for the bloody of Julian Assange; and second, that no assurances from the US will ever be worth taking seriously. The US has backed down on its agreements; deals; treaties, etc., again and again and again since 1776. If this latter point is doubted ask any native Amerikan… if there are any left! In recent times we have seen the Amerikans renegue on the ABM treaty; the INF treaty; TPP; the Iran Nuclear Accord; The Paris Climate Change agreement; the Ukraine/Minsk accord! And so it goes on.

    The Amerikans simply cannot be trusted and any assurances offered will soon be sacrificed to public and political pressure once Assange is there. On the one hand, I do hope that Assange’s lawyer has his/her legal missile silo ready to launch the moment Assange is thrown out of the Ecuadorian embassy. Unfortunately, I fear the disgusting reprobates that run this sad excuse for a country will happily take him straight to the airport and onto a plane (bound for Cuba) before anyone can excersise due process that might halt an extradition.

    Bert.

  • Dungroanin

    The aggro by the Guardian on Assange goes back to when they first got handed the treasure of knowledge.

    ‘British journalists – and British journals – are being manipulated by the secret intelligence agencies, and I think we ought to try and put a stop to it.
    The manipulation takes three forms. The first is the attempt to recruit journalists to spy on other people, or for spies to go themselves under journalistic “cover”. This occurs today and it has gone on for years. It is dangerous, not only for the journalist concerned, but for other journalists who get tarred with the espionage brush. Farzad Bazoft was a colleague of mine on the London Observer when he was executed by Saddam Hussein for espionage. It did not, in a sense, matter whether he was really a spy or not. Either way, he ended up dead.’ Etc.
    http://media.leeds.ac.uk/papers/pmt/exhibits/206/leigh.htm
    Written by David Leigh, yes that one, of all people! Back in 2000.

    Remember it was him who leaked the wikileaks password by PUBLISHING it in his book! What a plonker – i’m surprised he wasn’t rendered and gitmo’d when he did. Why not?

    More on Leigh, The Guardian gate keeping and ‘Left’ thought policing, written about in 2011 by Jonathan Cook here
    https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2011-09-28/the-dangerous-cult-of-the-guardian/

    • Trowbridge H. Ford

      David Leigh was a bad can of worms, infiltrating John Stallker’s inquiry into the ‘shoot to kill’ campaign in Morthern Ireland, and seeing that the Chief Constable removed him when Leigh told him that Stalker was going ahead with it seriously.

      And I recall that he rejected my article about Captain Simon Hayward of the 14 Intelligence Company being Statsminter Olof Palme’s assassin to trigger a non-nuclear conclusion to the Cold War at Moscow;s surprise.

      Leigh was one of the deepest sources for the British spooks.

      • Trowbridge H. Ford

        My two incidents with Leigh were connected as Stalker was closing in on Captain Simon Hayward’s brother Chris, and his travels in the catamaran True Love, and Simon”s travels with him in it. Stalker was an honest cop who was simply junked.

    • giyane

      Radio 4 media programme before PM this evening said Facebook wants to sponsor journalists.
      No wonder the two-faced boy wonder that shoe-horned the Tories into power in 2010 wants to worm his way into Facebook. Something I’ve never managed to achieve, how to get a ladder through a revolving door without bending the ladder, the door or both.

  • Roger Annis

    The national radio morning news of Canada’s state broadcaster the CBC reports the Harding-Guardian story on November 28. The CBC report begins with the news that Paul Manafort ‘reportedly’ met with the Trump regime to describe his testimony before Robert Mueller’s ‘investigation’ of the 2016 election. “This report really gets to the heart of the issue of what did the Trump campaign know about what the Russians were doing during the 2016 election campaign.” Then the CBC segues into the Harding-Guardian story. It gives the story prominence while also acknowledging, for those listening closely enough, that the story’s veracity is challenged. The CBC report goes on to conclude with this journalistic pirouette: “So, the big question is ‘What did Manafort and Assange talk about if the meeting [between the two in the Ecuadorian embassy in London] actually happened?’ ” Such is the state of mainstream journalism in Canada on all things related to ‘Russia’.

    • Jack

      Great summary, its bizarre how this fake-news could live on. Wikileaks, Assange, Manafort have all denied that it occured, why pushing it further unless the same media WANT to deliberately lie to its listener?
      if it helps, thats how things are framed in europe too. Even local shows somehow deal with Russia and Trump more and more often…

  • Consulting engineer

    Calling Crowd-strike “Clinton-linked” would appear to be significantly understating the relationship. Crowd-strike was a consultant being paid to provide services to the Clinton campaign.

    I worked for decades in a different type of consulting firm, but I can state that when a consulting firm is being paid by a client, then the default mode in the firm is to do whatever the client wants.

    Lets just assume, since I don’t know the details, that Crowdstrike was contracted to provide services to the “Hillary for President 2016” entity. That is obviously an arrangement of limited length. But, Crowdstrike would have been very excited as to the possibilities of getting more business from a future President of the US, and also about getting more business from Democrats in general. I don’t know the dollar amount on the contract compared to Crowdstrike revenues, but it was highly likely to be a contract of significant size on its own. And the sales people at Crowdstrike who attract more consulting contracts would have been very excited about the possibilities for more business beyond this one contract. If they didn’t have the contract for nationwide Democratic Party beyond Clinton, they’d have been targeting that They’d have been targeting the 50+ state level Democratic parties. They’d have been targeting various Democrat linked organizations, for instance MoveOn and many others. Basically, even if this was a limited time contract with just the Clinton national campaign organization, Crowdstrike would have been actively pursuing other business using this as leverage. Basically, Crowdstrike would have been seeing very large piles of money beyond just what the Clinton campaign or Hillary personally would have been paying them.

    In such an environment, if the Clinton people had told Crowdstrike that the Clinton strategy was to blame it all on the Russians, Crowdstrike would bend over forwards and backwards and do whatever the Clintons wanted to make the client happy. Blame it on the Russians, sure, no problem. And oh, you did get the invoice for last month’s services? Good? And we can expect payment on the usual net 30 days terms? Great! And its still ok to mention our relationship with the Clinton for President campaign when we talk to the NY Democratic Party next week? Yes, great. And you’ll put in a good word yourselves. Fantastic. And we’ll get right on blaming the Russians for everything. You’ll have our report to that effect by this evening.

  • jill Phillips

    Thank you for speaking out Sadly it’s all Out of Sight now – so out of Mind; Believe what we tell you because we’ve got the media and the ‘Good’ Americans on our side.
    What a mess. What a huge, cruel mess – against a truly courageous hero of our truly horrible times.

  • giyane

    Shock horror. Politicians lying. All politicians are liars. The greatest insult you can give to a diplomat is to smear their name with the word politics, but they are politicians in the global house of commons , not the Westminster one. Westminster politicians are liars and so are Grub Street journalists. Have we not just witnessed a tory whopper. The day after signing a 26 page of waffle about Brexit, they tell us what it will cost us. They didn’t tell us that 2 years ago when they were peddling their tripe.

    I said the other day I really admire Theresa May for going to Bruxelles and telling the EU to Oeuf Off.
    The EU 27 thought they could bully us, as did the foaming Etonians, and the scared Remainers.
    I would compare Julian Assange’s monumental glacier of truthful journalism and the destruction of Hillary Clinton with what Mrs May just did. Ok so it was a leak but the same frustration that leaked the leak was also being felt by millions of Americans who voted against the neo-cons in 2016. There is something poignant and elegant in one small English woman telling the EU where it can put itself. @ £39 billion, cheap at the price.

    • J

      “I really admire Theresa May for going to Bruxelles and telling the EU to Oeuf Off.”

      Same gumpf they used to sell Farage to us. Remember? Plucky farage against the EU?

  • Hieroglyph

    The press are not on the side of the people, they are an instrument of elite control.

    Bam, ’tis true. It took me too long to understand, so I can’t criticize those who haven’t got there yet. But I got there in the end, as must we all.

    The MSM is slow mind-poison, that’s it. It’s simply not worth bothering with, any of it. The Guardian will, I predict, be ‘the now-defunct Guardian’ within 10 years, because it doesn’t make money, and never will. An army of dolt-reader contributing towards their indoctrination won’t pay the bills, though it makes good PR. And the radfem journos surely won’t take a pay-cut, so cheerio, and thanks for all the fish. Good riddance, frankly.

    Luke Harding is a famous Assange-hater, with clear, obvious links to the security services. I put him down in the ‘useful idiot’ category, rather than outright spook, but who knows really? Is there a difference anyway? What’s happening is that Mi6 are up to their necks in spying on POTUS, and top-brass are terrified of being shit-canned – which they should be, and consider themselves lucky they aren’t sent to GITMO. Ally this with some dubious Mueller procedural asshattery – parallel construction I believe is the technical term – and lo! a veritable bullshit fiesta is thrust upon us. The Guardian even described Mueller as, and I quote, “Americas Straightest Arrow.” I almost laughed. He’s so bent he should be called Boomerang Bob. He’s purest unalloyed deep-state scum, and The Guardian is now officially a joke.

    On the upside, Assange is suing, and I hope he Gawkers them. See how much the radfems can earn in an open-market. Hint: jack shit.

    • Monster

      The Guardian doesn’t need reader subscriptions to survive. It is well funded by many obscure companies registered in the Cayman Islands and other offshores. Its pleas of poverty and financial decline is a cynical ploy to ensnare a loyal army of readers who innocently bask in the glorious twaddle of Jonathan Freedland, Nick Cohen, Jay Rayner, Natalie Nougayrède et al. The corporate funding doesn’t appear in the Guardian Media Group plc accounts because it is paid into the Scott Trust, currently worth about $1billion. Here’s who’s on board and the briefest of summaries. .http://opencharities.org/charities/1027893. You won’t find any more details because of secrecy.

  • Tony

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46377309

    Nice, timely ramping up of Project Fear before parliament rejects May and Hammond’s deliberately botched Brexit deal. This is pretty-much all we’re going to hear in the msm from now until the “peoples vote”, to ensure that Brexit is rejected and we remain in the EU totally on their terms. The greatest political scam of modern times.

  • Graeme Innes

    I agree that Julian Assange has done some remarkable work as a journalist however he has allowed his ego to overwhelm his common sense and that has overwhelmed his broader field of support. His electronic prowess got the better of him.

    • Andyoldlabour

      @Koke,

      Greenwald is one of the “few”, one of the people who is worth listening to, who sees through all of the fog, the lies, the fantasists.

      • Xavi

        Although he says the Guardian is an “otherwise solid and dependable paper,” if you ignore its treatment of Assange. That made me blink.

  • Jeff Blankfort

    Spot on analysis. Moreover, it is difficult to believe that MI6 would not have a camera on the entrance to the Ecuadoran Embassy 24/7 and that had Manafort had actually visited Assange there they would have it on a dated video and the story would have come out well before this and not in such a slipshod manner.

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