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Hello all
I consider it necessary to draw the attention of all commentators to the warning that Mr. Murray inserts after each of his articles:“… our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations…”
This website may be monitored, so please be careful of what you say.
Let me please remind you of Gonzalo Lira, who was in Kharkov when the hostilities started. Gonzalo streamed on YouTube, talking about what he sees. He was attacked by journalists from the Daily Beast, he was reported to the secret services of Ukraine. Gonzalo was detained.
I’m afraid that I could be the reason why the “journalists” of this publication might be interested in Mr. Murray’s site, because I brought the Gonzalo story here to discuss.
Why do I call these people “journalists” in quotation marks:Firstly, what happened to Gonzalo Lira is not the standard of journalistic activity.
Secondly, their principles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Beast“…in 2018, editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman characterized The Daily Beast as a “high-end tabloid” that embraces gonzo journalism”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo_journalism
“Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity”
Thirdly, references to the Russian Media Monitor, repeatedly given here in the comment section, point to Julia Davis. Also, Putin’s phrase about nuclear weapons without context was launched into the Western media by her.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Davis_(journalist)Julia Davis is not only the founder of the Russian Media Monitor,
but also an employee of the Atlantic Council
and a columnist for the Daily Beast.In the manual for the Integrity Initiative agents, Julia is listed as a sample to follow.
https://ug.tsargrad.tv/special_projects/kak-integrity-initiative-uchit-agentov-lgat-o-rossijskoj-ugroze_173303“The author of the textbook refers to the American journalist Julia Davis, who has been actively cooperating with the central American media since 2014. The Integrity Initiative must fully trust this journalist and use her arguments whenever possible.”
The list of arguments, style of presentation and vocabulary can be seen in her articles, for example here
https://muckrack.com/julia-hirschfeld-davis/articles
Or, another “journalist” listed as a sample in the Integrity Initiative textbook
https://muckrack.com/simon-ostrovsky/articles—
Having said all of this above, again, folk, be careful of what you say.
Agents, they don’t come here like: “Hello, I’m your monitoring agent for today, feel free to talk and enjoy freedom of speech in our shining democracy.”
They know that they are doing something shameful, so they act covertly.
Agents of all sorts may report you to your state’s secret service.
Daily Beast did it to Gonzalo Lira.Viva Frei – Where is Gonzalo Lira? No News is Not Good News (19 Apr 2022) – YouTube, 6m 24s
well, seems I’m alone here. Well, let’s get it all in one place
Gonzalo Lira talks about this story, before he was detained by Ukrainian secret serviceGonzalo Lira: The Daily Beast Is Trying To Get Me Killed – YouTube, 16m 35s
Tatyana, Gonzalo seemed reasonably credible when he was reporting on the initial events in Ukraine because he was there and I gave him attention for a time on twitter (nitter) and then telegram when he was twitter banned. However, he didn’t stick to that which he was experiencing at first hand. His bullshit relating to covid and his ill-considered predilection to assume the harms of covid vaccines without due diligence, and highlight those who do the same along with his simplistic and often moronic views on the gender issue, turned me off him. He is prone to reposting banal and unthought-out views on both. I stopped paying him any attention.
Well, I think I should add the update, thanks Peter and Gordon for posting (Please excuse me if I write the second name wrongly, I’ve seen the comment and the name just for a short time before it was gone.)
So, Gonzalo was put in Ukrainian prison for 9 and a half weeks. He was accused of being a Russian propagandist and for saying that this conflict in Ukraine was not provoked.
Gonzalo will be trialed in a couple of days, the sentence may be 5 to 8 years in labour camp.
Strange remark in his video is about Victoria Nuland, that she knows about him.If someone has access to Gonzalo’s Twitter, please do post the link. Twitter is unavailable for me.
Tatyana,
As I understand it, the current status and whereabouts of Gonzalo Lira are not known for sure.
He posted on YouTube and Twitter/X yesterday as he was just about to attempt to cross into Hungary and seek political asylum. At the time of (my) writing he hasn’t posted again and that is now over twenty hours ago so it doesn’t look good. But he could equally have been detained in Hungary pending the processing of his request or he could have been sent back, or be in the process of being sent back, to Ukraine. To my knowledge it is not clear.
You can check his three explanatory sequential Youtube videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/@gonzalolira0229
And his Twitter/X posting, which includes the details of the ‘charges’ against him, here:
Thank you so much, Peter. If you could please copy/paste the text of his tweet?
this part in his #2 of 3 video, at 2:30
“I want to emphasize this: you know in the indictment, if you read it you will see that the prosecutor himself says that I commited no crime against any person or property. And that my crimes are literally are speech crimes. Saying things that the government doesn’t like.
Ukraine is supposed to be this big democracy that it wants to join the European Union, because it has European values, European democratic values.
What a higher value does a democracy have than Free Speech?”Hi again Tatyana,
Can you use Nitter – https://nitter.net – ?
If you can, you can go to the site and type in Lira’s Twitter address from above and then click on ‘Tweets’.
From there you can click on Lira’s posts.
The particular tweet is 25 tweets long and includes photos of the charges against him in both English and Ukrainian.
If you can’t do that I could try copying the tweets, not sure how you could access the photos of the charges though.
Also, have you tried using a proxy server?
You can find a proxy server – one in another country – by googling ‘proxy server’.
So for instance RT is banned in the UK but it is easily accessible by using a proxy server.
Peter, I have problems with Nitter, like some posts may be missing. Also, I spend most of my time in the basement I like this phrase! 🙂, no Internet line here yet, so I turn my smartphone into a WiFi spot and place it on the windowsill. The window is small, also I have to place it in a certain position to have some more or less good signal level.
There are also people who don’t use Twitter at all, I recall they asked to tell what was posted there.
I thought maybe you could just retell what is important there, in Gonzalo’s twitts? So that we have a general idea.Hi again Tatyana,
If you can access Nitter, it seems you can, then just click on this tweet:
“Gonzalo Lira
@GonzaloLira1968
23h
Right now, I’m about to try to get out of Ukraine, and seek political asylum in Hungary.Either I’ll cross the border and make it to safety, or I’ll be disappeared by the Kiev regime.
This is what’s happened to me over the past three months.
1/25”
This will take you to the 25 tweet thread Gonzalo made yesterday and includes the photos.
As far as I know that is the only tweet he has made since he was released.
Worryingly, he says in the last tweet, number 25:
“If you don’t hear from me in the next 12 hours—whelp! I’m on my way to a labor camp!
Wish me luck.”
Larry Johnson, with whom Lira had communicated with personally since his release, speaking to Judge Napolitano this evening, suggested that the claim he was heading for Hungary may have been a diversionary tactic. But Johnson also confirmed that no one has heard from him since yesterday.
PS, the 25 tweet thread pretty much just reiterates what Gonzalo says in the videos. The only key addition is the photos of the indictment.
This link shows all 25 tweets in chronological order:
Well hello again, that’s me, (hat tip to Andrei Martyanov),
There’s a very good discussion of Gonzalo’s situation between The Duran guys on their Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnz6yV45WN0
As of 6am 2nd Aug still no update on Gonzalo’s Twitter and Youtube pages.
Released on bail, given his passport back and despite, so he claims, being closely watched by the SBU still gets to make 25 Tweets and 3 Youtube videos telling the world he’s making a run for Hungary.
This came through from Larry Johnson blog, it is a blog I pay attention to.
https://sonar21.com/judge-napolitano-and-i-talk-intelligence-and-gonzalo-lira-speaks/
n.b., the three GL videos are badly edited, you can fast forward the start of 2nd and 3rd because they overlap and repeat the end of the preceding video.I am unsure who Gonzalo Lira is, or why he is of significance. All I know is that he is being presented as someone who should be of interest to me.
His mode of behaviour and mannerisms are unusual, which makes it difficult for me to get a log in on him.
But there again, Julian Assange has similar qualities. With Julian I don’t have the same “who is this guy” difficulty that I do with Gonzalez Lira because I know the back story to Julian…_Thank you all for the updates! Except for Pears Morgaine, no thanks from me to you, and your supporter Dawg, you both were smearing Gonzalo from the very beginning and I also do not like your position on nazism in Ukraine.
Here is another video, it is by the New Atlas and I’m sorry to say I forgot the name of this guy, afraid to be wrong, Brian? I believe he is Brian
https://youtu.be/eGHasLebooY
Here starts at 2:07 is the question asked dirrectly to the State Department person (Ned Price?, ugh, foreign names…) on what is their action on Gonzalo’s situation.There hasn’t been any news about Gonzalo Lira for 2 days now and it doesn’t look hopeful. Alexander Mercouris suggested he could be stuck in the Hungarian asylum system, but he should still have his phone connection if so.
There were fake claims on Twitter about him being captured since he posted his update, but the reports are becoming more credible:
https://nitter.net/SenecaTheWiser/status/1686793461629128704#mGonzalo said he’s likely to face years in a labour camp if the SBU get hold of him and it would effectively be a death sentence due to his heart condition. But it’s not an immediate one and where there’s life there’s hope. I’m sure there’ll be a “Free Gonzalo Lira” campaign soon. Post here if you hear about one.
Dammit! It’s official. A political analyst confirmed it to RT.
https://www.rt.com/russia/580721-gonzalo-lira-missing-ukraine/God help him. (Biden certainly won’t.)
Scott Ritter believes that Gonzalo is actually an Ukrainian agent, telling anti-Ukrainian stories so that SBU could discover those who follow him
https://youtu.be/lax43iyonPgPersonally, I cannot agree with Scott’s assessment of Gonzalo’s alleged collaboration with the SBU. But he says one thought correctly – if Gonzalo was kept in prison for 9.5 weeks, then why was he released before the court? And when he said that he would run to Hungary and pointed to his motorcycle, at that moment I thought “Hey, Gonzalo, why are you sure that your motorcycle does not have a GPS tracker installed?” and in general, this release with his passport and transport returned to him, and a hint that he is actually expected to “disappear” does not stand up to criticism. Because the entire social management system in Ukraine is built primarily on PR. Building a pleasant image is a key task for Ukraine to ensure the continued support of the West. How could they let Gonzalo go? They hunted Assange and Snowden, and for Gonzalo they just give back his passport and bike?
Well, we will see what comes out of the story.
A side note, the figure Nine 1/2 Weeks is the name of a love story film, a famous one. Gonzalo is a producer. How did he fail to comment on this coincidence?Does Gonzalo’s story add up? Eva Bartlett has serious doubts.
https://t.me/Reality_Theories/13373Well, well, well, that’s certainly a twist in the tale.
Funnily enough Scott never mentioned any of that when talking about Gonzalo to Judge Napolitano yesterday evening, though he did drop a couple of hints – “red flag”. Watch from 18:45 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaaTvNUUm-4
When watching Tatyana’s linked Scott video you may have noticed a Gonzalo video opposite titled “No Longer Trust Scott Ritter”. The video is over a year old and lays heavily into Ritter, so, unbeknownst to me, this spat has been going on between them for sometime:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkMOc4jydOg
I do find the two aspersions Lira hurls at Ritter at the beginning of his video – that he’s either “a hysteric” or seeking to ingratiate himself with the MSM – absurd.
Similarly, Scott made a couple of inaccurate points in his comments about Lira.
Whist being broadly supportive, I am not without doubts or criticisms of either commentator. To some degree I share the criticisms of Lira by ET (third comment from top). Outside of his Ukraine commentaries Gonzalo is a right-wing reactionary and I particularly find his anti-woke mania repellant. This was on show in his three recent videos when complaining about the lack of support from the US embassy he stated words to the effect that if “he was a black, transgender, lesbian” he would have gotten released straight away. His comments about women aren’t much better.
Similarly with Scott, he does sometimes get things wrong and I find his sometimes macho GI mode of commenting – the loud “yurr gunna die” type comments – questionable.
Of course none of that sheds light on the reality of the situation.
I can only say at this point that I hope Gonzalo is safe but that the questions raised do seem fair questions.
Time will tell.
I may be too narcissistic, but with all bloggers and reporters, I am primarily interested in facts. If they report reliable information, let them build these facts into any personal assessments in accordance with their political beliefs or sexual orientation 🙂 I will still “digest” these facts in accordance with mine.
What I do not forgive bloggers and reporters for is the deliberate omission of facts or significant circumstances, or deliberate distortions, as well-known logical fallacies. I also can’t stand all kinds of Cassandras who draw conclusions based on that they supposedly know the hidden motives of the actors. I also don’t like people who present themselves as analysts, but at the same time they themselves cannot separate their personal emotions and consider the facts logically, abstractly. I’m suspicious of the information received from “we cannot name our sources.” Everything like that goes with me as informational noise, gossip, moods in the public, etc.
I consider facts proven, if none of the opposing parties denies them. To give an assessment of the facts, I manage myself.Here are the charges filed by the SBU against Gonzalo Lira:
https://pdfhost.io/v/MIzd7TJnM_Gonzalo_Lira_SBU_Indictment_2023
The document is full of repetition, waffle and typos. But it gives a good sense of what he’s up against. It’s more or less a case of insulting the state and undermining its interests. The charges are political and he’s a political prisoner.
He’s a dual US/Chilean citizen. I fear the US will do nothing to help him, and Chile has no leverage.
Thank you, Justin, for bringing the pdf, but I see nothing, just a black screen. Screenshoted, if you can access the .jpg screenshot you’ll see what it looks like.
https://prnt.sc/QwtcQvpisJxwEssentially I’ve read what you’ve linked earlier, the photos of the pages, so I can confirm it says he is accused of making videos, posting it on YouTube, so that ‘it became available to unknown number of people’. Exactly this wording, I read Ukrainian version. No other accusation was there.
If you could help with fixing the problem with .pdf?I monitor the updates on Gonzalo’s situation on YouTube. Here is another blogger Jackson Hinkle speaking. Happy to note he used “Where is Gonzalo Lira” re-wording Gonzalo’s own phrase “Where is Tiffany Dover”
https://youtu.be/7n_9ueVy20AAlso, If I can please ask a native speaker to listen to Jackson Hinkle’s video linked above at 7:15. At this timestamp he mentions someone with a remark they are a ‘spokesperson for Ukrainian propaganda for English listeners’. As a Russian I just cannot make out what is the name?
Tatyana, it’s Sarah Ashton Cirillo (spelling might be wrong, always possible with names).
Yes, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo is a transgender combat medic embedded with the AFU and 113th Kharkiv Defense Brigade, deployed as a sergeant to the front lines and recently injured in action.
Here’s the unpleasant announcement about Gonzalo Lira’s capture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB91a9hyibM
Here (s)he can be seen condemning Lira’s activities: https://twitter.com/SarahAshtonLV/status/1654496248282464258
It looks like the indictment file was taken down by the site host. Try this flipbook version, which is easier to read online:
Gonzalo Lira SBU indictment – https://www.flipbookpdf.net/web/site/ddde456d078df0e741920dbd8cc6f539a7fdd04e202308.pdf.htmlThank you, guys (sorry to use this form of addressing, I really don’t know what is proper nowadays 🙂 Ladies and gentleman?) It’s getting very fast to the midnight in my place and I’m wanted at home to feed my boys, and cats, and make sure I’m ok, and have a sleep before the new day comes.
It will be a hectic time till Tuesday for me, especially because I planned to squeeze into my busy schedule also an exhibition that ends this Sunday. They exhibit Bosch and Bruegels. It’s not that I’m particularly interested in seeing 15th century high-res 1:1 scale prints… But since Bosch’s work has been turned into a bunch of internet memes entitled “the suffering middle ages” I just can’t miss it 🙂 They allow drinks and photos, here where one could miss the lost Instagram access, might be an excellent report!
Forgive me for appearing only occasionally, but I want to encourage you not to be shy to contact if something important, or you urgently need a Russian or Ukrainian translator – by clicking on my nickname. There’s an e-mail and phone number there, I’m available on WhasApp and Telegramm.Face it, Lira is a complete idiot; unless he was deliberately setting himself up for martyrdom. You don’t broadcast your escape plan or even your intention to escape to the whole world and not expect to get nicked. Looks to me like his narcissism, the need to draw attention to himself, overcame what common sense he has. Quite amusing to watch him, Ritter, Bartlett and RT squabble amongst themselves.
Oh, Pears are here! 🙂
It’s funny to see you spending your effort to emphasize the insignificance of Gonzalo.
We have a popular film here in Russia. In it, a female character in a tense scene shouts at the male character: “for three days I rode on horseback, trying to catch up with you, to tell you how much I don’t give a damn about you!”
https://youtu.be/nhllZWfnXKQAlexander Mercouris of The Duran commented on the Gonzalo-Scott dispute yesterday.
He chose to take the “compassionate” position in support of Gonzalo whilst acknowledging that there are significant unanswered questions.
Watch from 6:55 :
I understand that when people speak they want to let their opinion be known. But in general, the situation is very simple – Gonzalo stated that he was tortured, that he was most likely to be put in prison and had a vanishingly small chance of ever getting out of there alive.
In such a situation, the first thing to do is to make the person safe. The second is to ensure control, that is, not to allow something to be done with them secretly, without reliable information to the public.
I extend this approach to Gonzalo, and Assange, and Skripal, and Navalny, and the entire Ukrainian conflict on a larger scale – first stop the violence, secure people, and then look for ways to resolve the conflict. At the very last place in this algorithm of actions will be listening to opinions and assessments, such as what their motives were and whether they deserve it.Agree entirely Tatyana. I have no doubt your wisdom is widely appreciated on this site.
Brian Berletic of The New Atlas has just completed a live stream with the Duran guys and with Angelo Giuliano. He began their coverage of Ukraine with a full discussion of Gonzalo’s situation and his dispute with Scott.
Brian, having previously discussed this with Scott rejected his view that Gonzalo is an SBU agent saying that Scott had no evidence to back up his claim and changed his story twice while he was talking to him. Brian further claimed that the root of the dispute is a previous falling out between the two guys as a result of which they both hate each other and now neither is prepared to back down.
Alexander Mercouris added to his views expressed yesterday that neither did he believe that Gonzalo is an agent of the SBU.
Funny but ‘lack of evidence’ never seems to have bothered either Berletic or Ritter before.
I have read that after his previous arrest Lira was put on a train and told to leave the country, however he got off before reaching the border and went back. If true it suggests he isn’t too worried about living in Ukraine nor about being picked up be the authorities.
“Funny but ‘lack of evidence’ never seems to have bothered either Berletic or Ritter before.”
More utter nonsense from the master/mistress (??) of the spurious quote.
If you knew what you were talking about Pears, or acted with any integrity (no breath held), you would know that Brian Berletic’s work is the most meticulously sourced and always includes comprehensive references to back up his commentaries and, unlike yours, his references are always valid and specific to the subjects he covers.
No worries, your m.o. is widely recognised and understood on this site by now.
While we are waiting for news on Gonzalo, and since certain frequent commenters are here, may I suggest to entertain you?
Max Blumenthal makes a standup comedy!
https://youtu.be/9h3KenTBUYwA young ‘Ukrainian Buddhist’ claims “we are the master race, we are the 4th Reich’
https://youtu.be/h2i-szW54S0
Just to note this young guy is in the center of the group of ‘buddhists’ making a selfie in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Kyiv region. Soon after the Maidan coup
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/maysuryan/46825033/207043/207043_600.jpg
the source seems like having much more on Buddhism in Ukraine
https://maysuryan.livejournal.com/1656994.htmlAnd, for dessert, nice, oh so nice art video! It goes good in itself, but Russophones may enjoy the subtitles, that turn it into a joke about the spokesperson Chirilo
https://pikabu.ru/story/otvet_na_post_amerikanskiy_transgender_stal_spikerom_vsu_10527345
Actually, if you don’t understan Russian, it ‘substitutes ‘have you looked at the badges on our caps recently?’ with ‘have you looked at our spokesperson recently?’ And the rest you can easily imagine and you’ll be right in your guess, highly likeely 🙂It seems certain now then that Gonzalo has been re-arrested. Whilst taking a neutral position himself on the now much aired public dispute, George Galloway spoke to Gonzalo’s father yesterday evening who confirmed that his son was back under arrest and that his court hearing has been postponed until later in the month.
Watch from 1:34:20 :
Our news report that Scott Ritter’s account is deleted on YouTube.
https://ria.ru/20230811/ritter-1889617332.html
“YouTube video hosting removed the channel of retired US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who commented on the situation in Ukraine and criticized Washington’s actions …
trying to access Ritter’s channel, I get the message: “The video is not available because the YouTube account associated with it has been deleted.”
Ritter, among other things, actively commented on the special military operation in Ukraine, in particular, criticized the US for the multibillion-dollar aid supplies to Kiev, and also predicted the failures of the Ukrainian army. The ex-military also criticized Vladimir Zelensky. In June, he said that Zelensky is disrespected and hated in NATO, as he “leads his people to the slaughter.”
Ritter, commenting on the removal of the channel, said that the reason for this was supposedly “inciting hatred.” At the same time, YouTube didn’t provide any example of such hatred, and didn’t warn the expert about the upcoming blocking, he noted. The ex-military also claims that “none of the episodes of The Scott Ritter Show contained hate speech, unless unique content from those whose voices are hushed up is considered hate.”
