Exclusive: Although no actual evidence was presented, two ex-Obama administration officials destroyed the reputation of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, portraying him as a liar and a potential traitor, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
Not to defend retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for his suspect judgment, but it should be noted that his case represents a disturbing example of how electronic surveillance and politicized law enforcement can destroy an American citizen’s life in today’s New McCarthyism.
Retired U.S. Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn at a campaign rally for Donald Trump at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Oct. 29, 2016. (Flickr Gage Skidmore)
The testimony on Monday by former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper offered no evidence of Flynn’s wrongdoing – those facts were deemed “classified” – yet the pair thoroughly destroyed Flynn’s reputation, portraying him as both a liar and a potential traitor.
That Senate Democrats, in particular, saw nothing troubling about this smearing of the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and, briefly, President Trump’s national security adviser was itself troubling. Republicans were a bit more skeptical but no one, it seemed, wanted to be labeled as soft on Russia.
So, there was no skepticism toward Yates’s curious assertion that Flynn’s supposed lying to Vice President Mike Pence about the details of a phone call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak somehow opened Flynn to Russian blackmail – her core explanation for why she rushed to Trump’s White House with warnings of this allegedly grave danger.
Yates also talked ominously about “underlying” information that raised further questions about Flynn’s patriotism, but that evidence, too, couldn’t be shared with the American people; it was classified, leaving it to your imagination the depth of Flynn’s perfidy.
Despite the thinness of Yates’s charges – and the echoes of Sen. Joe McCarthy with his secret lists of communists that he wouldn’t release – the mainstream U.S. news media has bestowed on Yates a hero status without any concern that she might be exaggerating the highly unlikely possibility that the Russians would have blackmailed Flynn.
Her supposition was that since Vice President Mike Pence’s account of the Kislyak-Flynn conversation deviated somewhat from the details of what was actually said, the Russians would seize on the discrepancy to coerce Flynn to do their bidding.
But that really makes no sense, in part, because even if the Russians did pick up the discrepancy, they would assume correctly that U.S. intelligence had its own transcript of the conversation, so there would be no basis for blackmail.
Yates’s supposed alarm might make for a good spy novel but it has little or no basis in the real world. But it is hard for Americans to assess her claims because all the key facts are classified.
Ignorance Is Strength
The public does not even know what was said between Kislyak and Flynn on Dec. 29, 2016, when Kislyak called Flynn, who was on vacation in the Dominican Republic. The two apparently discussed the worsening U.S.-Russian relations, since President Obama had just imposed new sanctions on Russia, but it’s unclear how specific the references to the sanctions were.
Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. (Photo from Russian Embassy)
The details are important here, as is the fact that Flynn might well have failed to recall all the details because he was not at his office and did not have staff support for note-taking or recording. For all we know, Flynn was in his bathing suit, Pina Colada in hand.
So, the assumption that Flynn was intentionally lying when he later briefed Pence and other colleagues is a stretch. Yet he is being convicted in the court of public opinion without the evidence being presented or without him getting a serious chance to defend himself.
Yates’s own motives might also deserve examination. Her behavior has the look of a partisan prosecutor who likely would have been in line for a top job under President Hillary Clinton. Would that influence her eagerness to twist facts to destroy Flynn and hurt Flynn’s boss?
After all, the mood inside the Obama administration in its final days was one of doing whatever it could to strengthen the “resistance” to the incoming Trump administration. After the Inauguration, there were massive anti-Trump protests with calls for Obama holdovers to join the #Resistance. Yates, as an Obama holdover and acting Attorney General, was in a perfect position to “resist.”
While the anti-Trump sentiment was understandable in a political sense, it created a motive for Yates to exaggerate an alleged threat and thus initiate an immediate crisis inside the Trump administration, a goal that she accomplished.
There was also a payback factor against Flynn who had infamously joined in the Republican National Convention’s chant of “lock her up.” Thus, Clinton partisans had a strong motive to create the circumstances to lock Flynn up, which now seems quite possible.
Rush to Judgment
Yet, amid this rush to judgment on Russia-gate, the American public hasn’t had a chance to hear from Flynn or the other Trump advisers who have been portrayed as Russian agents based on innuendo, including the contents of an opposition research dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer and apparently funded by unknown Clinton supporters.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
Taking another step backward, we don’t even know the evidence behind the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. To back up those charges, President Obama’s intelligence chiefs issued a sketchy report on Jan. 6, 2017, that offered no evidence – only assertions – about Russian operatives hacking into Democratic email accounts and then somehow slipping the information to WikiLeaks.
The Russian government and WikiLeaks both deny that scenario, and the Jan. 6 report does little more than repeat over and over how confident its writers are that Russia is guilty.
On Monday, former DNI Clapper did clarify one point that Democrats have consistently misstated: that the report was not the consensus judgment of the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, but rather was the work of just three of the agencies: Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
But the bigger problem with the Jan. 6 report is that it was entirely one-sided, citing reasons to believe the Russians were guilty but ignoring equally strong reasons to doubt the Russians’ guilt.
For instance, the report focused on Russia’s presumed motive for “hacking” and distributing emails harmful to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, citing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s concern that Clinton would be a threat to worsen the already frayed relationship between the two nuclear superpowers.
But the report ignores the downside for Russia trying to interfere with the U.S. election campaign and then failing to stop Clinton, which looked like the most likely outcome until Election Night.
If Russia had accessed Democratic emails and slipped them to WikiLeaks for publication, Putin would have to think that the National Security Agency, with its exceptional ability to track electronic communications around the world, might well have detected the maneuver and would have informed Clinton.
So, on top of Clinton’s well-known hawkishness, Putin would have risked handing the expected incoming U.S. president a personal reason to take revenge on him and his country. Historically, Russia has been very circumspect in such situations, usually holding its intelligence collections for internal purposes only, not sharing them with the public.
While it is conceivable that Putin decided to take this extraordinary risk in this case – despite the widely held view that Clinton was a shoo-in to defeat Trump – an objective DNI report would have examined this counter argument for him not doing so.
But the DNI report was not driven by a desire to be evenhanded; it was, in effect, a prosecutor’s brief, albeit one that lacked any real evidence that the accused is guilty.
The DNI report also included a seven-page appendix, dating from 2012, that is an argumentative attack on RT, the Russian government-backed television network, which is accused of portraying “the US electoral process as undemocratic.”
The proof for that accusation includes RT’s articles on “voting machine vulnerabilities” although virtually every major U.S. news organization has run similar stories, including some during the last campaign on the feasibility of Russia hacking into the actual voting process, something that even U.S. intelligence says didn’t happen.
The report adds that further undermining Americans’ faith in the U.S. democratic process, “RT broadcast, hosted and advertised third-party candidate debates.” Apparently, the DNI’s point is that showing Americans that there are choices beyond the two major parties is somehow seditious.
“The RT hosts asserted that the US two-party system does not represent the views of at least one-third of the population and is a ‘sham,’” the report said. Yet, polls have shown exactly that sentiment, that large numbers of Americans would prefer more choices than the usual two candidates and, indeed, most Western democracies have multiple parties.
So, RT’s implicit criticism of the U.S. political process is certainly not out of the ordinary. It is extraordinary, however, that the U.S. intelligence community would consider that by allowing American third-party nominees to express their opinions, RT was somehow subverting the American democratic process.
The report also takes RT to task for covering the Occupy Wall Street movement and for reporting on the environmental dangers from “fracking,” topics cited as further proof that the Russian government was using RT to weaken U.S. public support for Washington’s policies (although, again, these are topics of genuine public interest).
Given the weakness – indeed the absurdity – of these attacks on RT, Americans might have reason to wonder how strong the evidence is regarding the 2016 election, too. But we are not allowed to see that evidence at all. It’s classified.
As for Michael Flynn, there may well be legitimate criticism of him for agreeing to give a paid speech at RT’s tenth anniversary in 2015, apparently without clearing it with the Pentagon.
Green Party leader Jill Stein and retired Lt. General Michael Flynn attending a dinner marking the RT network’s 10-year anniversary in Moscow, December 2015, sitting at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
I’m also told that Flynn made friends with some Russian military officers whom he met amid Russia’s cooperation with the U.S. military campaigns in Afghanistan and in the fight against terrorism.
Of course, President Obama himself developed a cooperative relationship with President Putin and his predecessor Dmitri Medvedev. Putin played a key role in persuading Iran to accept tight constraints on its nuclear program, an agreement that Obama considered his greatest foreign policy achievement.
It was only after the U.S.-orchestrated putsch in Ukraine in early 2014 and Russia’s reaction to a new hostile regime on its borders that the U.S.-Russia relationship became clearly antagonistic. Though most U.S. politicians and the media solely blame Putin and Russia, an objective assessment would put blame on the U.S. side as well.
But objectivity is in very short supply in today’s Washington, especially since the embittered Democrats saw in Trump’s hopes for restoring a more cooperative relationship with Russia a political vulnerability that could be exploited with the prospect that the scandal could be expanded into possible impeachment.
In Official Washington’s view, Michael Flynn becomes just road kill in the larger competition for power.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
One has to be cognitively dissonant and retarded as in a natural born, raised and programmed USSAN to simultaneously “believe” that USSA is THE lone master of the universe and yet Putin and the Ruskies are running the thugocracy in Washing town from a closet in the Kremlin between hockey games, skiing, bear riding and chucking opponents over his shoulder during judo practice.
Perhaps it’s simply time that the USSAN masses outsourced the embarrassing and jaded whore house in Washing town to Mr. Putin.
If he was such a problem, why was his security clearances renewed? Keep in mind, he and his son were pushing for a serious investigation into PedoGate. That couldn’t possibly be the reason the reason for all this.
Trump’s firing of Flynn is already being compared to Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre (Archibald Cox fired, Eliott Richardson and Ruckleshouse resigned)
http://www.businessinsider.com/saturday-night-massacre-why-trump-fire-comey-2017-5
There have been almost daily reports of gross ethics/conflicts of interests (most clearly about $$$) violations. This effectively subverts or stalls the FBI’s Russian investigation by some accounts.
Fasten your seatbelts, this may well be the take-off of a very very bumpy ride with a trail of strings attached … This morning there was speculation that McMasters was on Trump’s shit-list (and in Bannon’s cross-hairs).
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/09/the-knives-are-out-for-hr-mcmaster-trump-bannon-nsc/
Trump’s in over his head and has shown he’s a poor swimmer (firing Comey “precipitously” without a named replacement lined up, in a White House in which Bannon is still playing power-games).
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/09/who-will-replace-james-comey/101489558/#
I made the mistake of commenting on this Washiington Post story, which many (sadly) FS friends think makes her look like the next presidential candidate..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/05/08/sally-yates-demolishes-white-house-defenses/?tid=sm_Fb&utm_term=.c8248c8e1d6e
Yeah. Strike up the band, the circus has come to town.
What a travesty the US government has become since 911. Trump really didn’t know what he was getting into, perhaps he now knows. I read today that he is not getting along with McMaster. And Sanders at The Hill said that Trump fired Come to kill the investigation into Russia. Pathetic bunch. They should take a dip into the radioactivity poisoned Pacific, there’s never a word about the worst disaster in history!
There’s another nuclear disaster in its early stages that just happened today at Hanford, Washington. The ceiling of an underground storage tunnel for super-hot radioactive waste collapsed. I don’t expect them to tell us the truth about the danger, unless really lethal doses of radionuclides are being released. In any event, this is an accident seventy years in the making, as all the original steel and concrete containment vessels have been corroding from day one and neither replaced nor repaired. Think of this as the first of a flock of chickens that will be coming home to roost in the American nuclear industry, an industry that exists mainly to provide a source to make nuclear warheads, not electricity. The risk is simply not justifiable to merely boil water to drive the turbines to make the juice to run your lights and TV. It’s the Plutonium, stupid.
Trump hasn’t lived up to his rep for firing people so far. He shot himself in the foot firing Flynn. I agree with Realist that he should have fired all the heads of the intel agencies on day one of his presidency. They have had way to much say about our foreign policy and war and peace. If Trump doesn’t dig in his heels and turn on his adversaries soon, his presidency will end being an even bigger mess than it is already. I don’t really count on him doing anything sensible however. So his crazy trip goes on…..
So, Trump fired Comey today. Now we’ll see how THAT plays out. The Dems must both love and hate Comey: love him for stoking the RussiaGate ruse and hate him for “sabotaging” Hillary’s campaign (after earlier goosing it). Ah, well, the Dems will probably forgive Comey for the Russian fantasies and push to impeach Trump for firing the guy. The only unknown is how many Republicans in the McCain Neo-con faction of the party will vote to ditch their own party’s chief exec. While he was at it, Trump should have canned ever head of every “intelligence” agency. The bastards have accomplished nothing but bringing us to the brink of nuclear war with two other major powers.
I’ve been busy all day. Anyone hear what act of “justice” that Cenk Uygur has been promising for this date on the calender? Couldn’t have been Comey’s firing. Well, back to the salt mines for now.
There is a sickness in The Land… what Clinton has so far gotten away with, Nixon would have been fried for! This is a particularly odious age, the Age of Obama, whose specter continues to haunt, and this new McCarthyism should be christened “Clintonism”. Clinton started this whole sordid affair with her demagogic remarks about Putin. The sore loser Democrats can’t give it up, they’re like a mad dog viciously clamping onto a pants leg. Their bad karma will ultimately catch up with them. Both parties are a failure for the American people.
Is Israel ever not involved somewhere?
From the Moon of Alabama:
Gas From Israel And The Flynn Wiretapping – Behind The Deep-State Infighting Over The Trump Election
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/03/gas-from-israel-and-the-flynn-wiretapping-behind-the-deep-state-infighting-over-the-trump-election.html
I suspect that apart from evidence ISIS is a US/Israeli proxy for the Oded Yinon (and Coudenhove-Kalergi) Plan – Zionist Israel and its agents are behind Flynn getting fired and the absurd, dangerous rise of likely Israeli agent Jared Kushner
https://thinkprogress.org/7-jobs-jared-kushner-is-now-doing-for-the-united-states-of-america-6f0a799462ed
We will never know whether the general would have done a competent job in his office or not because of the way he was shamelessly smeared and forced out for blatantly political reasons. What really bugs me is that congress offers no one the opportunity to defend themselves as they would receive in a court of law. He can’t even address them unless they call him to the podium. Neither can he call witnesses in his defense.
I am inclined to agree with Jack Matlock, Reagan’s ambassador to the USSR, in that Flynn was actually doing his job in getting to know the Russian ambassador to the US thereby setting the groundwork for a successful administration. This argument that Trump’s appointee’s had absolutely no right to speak with Russians before his term began and that to do so is evidence of treason is strictly an ad hoc contrivance of the Democrats and the losing Clinton campaign. But this common sense arrangement, which has been honored and employed numerous times before by previous administrations is simply ignored by the political opposition and the American media.
Why? As one of several ploys used to foment a coup against the incoming administration. The means and the motives for this ongoing coup attempt are totally transparent, known to everyone except the American people who are kept in the dark and fed horseshit like they were mushrooms. You don’t have to be a fan of Trump’s to disdain such political intrigue and naked power plays that undermine whatever is left of freedom and democracy in this country.
The attitude of our elected officials seems to be that we have to destroy freedom and democracy, also fair play and the rule of law, in America in order to propagate them around the world. In reality, we have become a tyranny. And be mindful of this, Democrats: Trump will use the same weapons against you that you facilely created to attack him. You fools are creating the instruments of your own demise, and later you will look for scapegoats–other than in the mirror.
Just as they did when the GOP was blocking Obama’s judges, they set themselves up for Gorsuch by deploying the “nuclear option”. Then the GOP just did tit for tat.
Forget the Russiagate BS!
Do justice: ARREST illegal alien Muslim Jihdist-infiltrator and usurper Barack H. Obama aka Barry Soetoro to NDAA Prison for TREASON, I.D. Fraud Voter Fraud, Immigration Violation, SS# Fraud, Murder, ETC! Install CC camera connected to internet one way view looking in on Obama from Americans and the World to keep Obama from escaping. Pay 4 View at 10¢ of Obama in prison writing his $60-M memoirs with a pencil on toilet paper will raise so much money Americans will never again have to pay taxes. Add in Clintons and Soros, and the Pay4View will be so popular that the $20-Trillion Debt will be paid off in 5-years. Arrest them NOW! Let’s see them in prison on Pay4View online!
And then push on and on to more MAGA victories!
All of this disgraceful behavior supposes that for no conceivable reason, Russia is an enemy of the USA and nobody with any power or even potential power should speak to any Russian official. This is a ludicrous basis for policy towards the rest of the globe, especially since the USA has so many “enemies” and so many very suspect friends eg Saudi Arabia and Israel as allies.
All this continued nonsense about Russian aggression and interference in our election is sickening. How any sane person could buy this garbage is beyond my understanding. I have no trust or respect for my congress people that have bought into this Hillary trap. How any democrat could support her is troubling.
This is so ridiculous It would be funny if it wasn’t so Mean and selfish. The whole bunch are like a bunch of Junior high school kids
that lost a ballgame and are trying to blame the winners for their mistakes. Will they ever grow up and start thinking what can I do to improve conditions for American Citizens.
“It is extraordinary, however, that the U.S. intelligence community would consider that by allowing American third-party nominees to express their opinions, RT was somehow subverting the American democratic process.”
Not extraordinary,par for the course.
Bob,
How dare you be so un-American that you question the veracity of our elected and unelected leaders, and conclude that they may not be motivated by God’s angels? Keep up the good work.
Everybody I with their eyes open knows Flynn was framed and why – Obama and the Dems hate his guts because he had to audacity to argue with the White House and tell them they would never defeat Isis the piss poor way they were making a show of.
Just another example of why I should be proud to be an American. What has become of the USA I was taught in the 50’s was a shining example for the world to envy? Wake up America, the time is coming when we must decide what kind of governance we want. I for one want one based upon transparency, truth, and honor.
Well,well what about Trump’s statement that Obama wire tap him;did he presented any evidence? any? hello?
Rogelio, You are a bit behind the facts here. One needs to be aware that while the USA agencies are not allowed to directly (tap) gain information on individuals without meeting certain requirements like a court order for permission to breach constitutional protections that does not stop them from accessing information obtained by their surrogates in England, Germany and private contractors and then hiding behind the ‘classified’ moniker. Trump’s advisors’ conversations were so collected but their contents have not been released. You also need to understand from the ‘business man’s’ viewpoint the best way to settle a difference is to talk with those directly involved to find common meeting grounds; something the politicians abhor. Hopefully now we can start to employ some common sense approaches into governance.
In the United States of America we are to presume someone to be innocence until proven guilty. That takes a trial or admission. However, in the main stream media that same right does not apply it seems. Democrats seem to feel their best path to acquire power is to destroy those in their way. So they attempt to get to President Donald J Trump through lies and deceit. They shall not succeed in such a quest. Until proof is discovered to prove President Trump involved in some kind of coercion with Russia and more specify putin he should be presumed innocent of all innuendos. No proof has to date even surfaced or been exposed. Consequently, it is likely none will. This Russian smear program perhaps does not even exist.
However, could it be a ploy to remove attention to their coercion to remove Bernie Sanders form the primary. We do know they were doing that. It is actually the democrats who could have been in cahoots with Russia.
The progressive communistic so called democrats are hell bent on finding or manufacturing (we should emphasize manufacturing) something to accuse President Trump of so impeachment proceeding can begin they will stop at nothing. However, what they have overlooked is he must be guilty of high crimes or misdemeanors so that something must be proven before such action can even begin. Accusations do not warrant impeachment proceedings beginning. However, is it possible they think they can bully President Trump to resign like Nixon did. Don’t count on that democrats!
My experience has been if you listen closely they will tell you their intentions. Seems to me they are!
All politicians put on a spin as does this article. Without evidence, there can be no guilt. Flynn is gone and he was fired. We must not forget that as this article does.
If Michael Flint was this gigantic snake in the Obama’s administration, why on earth did the communities at national security, State Department and Justice Department allow him to roam around the nation and the world at large, holding a fully fledged security clearance ?
This whole General Flint saga does not make sense to any critical minded person, particularly, those who believe in national security. The line of questioning by Lindsay Graham, directed at Sally Yates and Mr. Clapper during the initial stages of the hearing ( beginning at time 51:38), and the responses given should worry any American voter who is being financially railroaded by these elites wordsmiths!
The DNC elites are determined to confuse and deceive the voting public at all costs. They have shamelessly spent more than $1.2 billion tearing down those supporters who do not agree with the snake oil they are selling both here and abroad. They have now embarked on spending more money tearing down the Trump’s administration, using an issue that should have nipped on the bud well before Trump came on to the national scene! This is how tax $$ is spent by the elites in power….. elites are spending tax $$ tearing one another and not solving people’s problems!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPTs3dBKZOA
The Democratic elites are arrogantly busy pouring mud into the waters of the well so that nobody, other than them, can drink from well. They are incapable of admitting their mistakes of repeatedly ignoring the issues affecting those who voted for them!!
I strongly recommend that the moderators of this blog read some of the comments above and see if this is really the level they want associated with the blog. There are some very informed and reasonable people who contribute here and it is a shame to have their comments mixed with nonsense as seen repeatedly above……………..
The Washington Post is making a valiant effort to spin Yates’ “no nonsense” testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/05/09/daily-202-10-important-questions-raised-by-sally-yates-s-testimony-on-the-compromised-michael-flynn/59110598e9b69b209cf2b7df/
Well, if I was Putin and I hacked into the DNC email server with HRC expected to win in a landslide, I think I would keep those emails in my pocket until after HRC was elected. Once HRC was in office he could threaten a crisis in releasing the email to show the DNC is corrupt. It seems to me that is a bigger bang for the ruble than doing a dance with Flynn.
I must confess that I was taken in by Sally Yates congressional testimony; hence my appreciation of Bob Parry’s alternative take on the details. Challenges me to assume there is another side to mainstream claims to truth and to look for it.
Didn’t both Hillary and President Obama mock and laugh at Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, during the 2012 campaign for saying that Russia was a still a huge threat? I guess they changed their minds.
I hope the General sues the $hit out of Yates and Clapper…. After that our Attorney General needs to arrest them on conspiracy, fraud and for being a democrat …
Democrats have never accomplished anything, but disaster.
Trump should have stuck with Flynn, though he may not have based on an issue not being examined at all: his work for the Turkish Erdogan regime. Meanwhile, Yates acted like the justice minister of an attempted fascist coup state. In light of the fact that under the yankee legal system, one can indict a ham sandwich, her actions should be investigated and she should be charged. Actually, I think the whole swamp needs to be drained as promised, but it appears the bipartisan power structure is too powerful for this to be possible. It is more likely that the swamp will swallow those desiring to drain it.
I essentially agree with everything you say, Darrin, but for one very important statement: “the same Russia that attacked our presidential campaign”………. I don’t believe this has been proven.
Lolita Island, the Clinton Foundation, the overthrow of Libya and the death of the American Ambassador, calling Trump voters “deplorables”, her rather generous largesse from Wall Street, ignoring campaigning in “Rust Belt” states, the rather careless e-mail fiasco, etc. are all partial reasons the Democrat candidate lost. Witnessing Mr. Clapper who already previously lied to Congress testifying before such an august body which is totally lacking in integrity itself is disgusting. The Russians don’t have to interfere in our electoral process. And thank God we have never overthrown governments or interfered in their electoral process. These hypocritical accusations reek to high heaven. Flynn is a big boy now and should have understood how the system works.
I don’t blame Flynn. I blame Trump for caving in, but the nature of this structure which has developed and totally controls the propaganda structure of the entire western world has reached a level of power which may be beyond our ability to control.
It’s worth revisiting what kicked off this whole saga: that 2012 DIA memo that got somehow released, declassified or leaked. It gave credence to alternative news source claims that the US Government was tacitly supporting jihadis in Syria for the purpose of toppling Assad. Joe Biden admitted in a speech way back when – I think at Harvard University – that, “Our allies supplied them with tens of tons of weapons and hundreds of millions of dollars.” Authors who I believe included Tony Cartalucci, Mike Whitney, Eric Zuesse, Seymore Hersh and others alluded to the clandestine nature of US support for ISIS. Representative Tulsi Gabbard cast official doubt on the nature of the so-called “moderate” rebels. There were stories from reliable sources indicating ISIS financed itself by selling stolen oil to Turkey, which was then transported to Israel by a shipping company owned by Erdogan’s son Bilal. There were stories from reputable sources about CIA training camps for jihadis in Jordan, weapons supply routes through Libya and Turkey, medical care for their wounded delivered by Israel and air drops of supplies conducted by Pentagon assets. One “flap” occurred when CIA supported jihadis apparently attacked Pentagon supported jihadis – one hand had no idea what the other was doing, but all of this was apparently coordinated from somewhere in the Obama White House. And, it was all plausibly deniable…
UNTIL LT GENERAL FLYNN SAID: “I THINK IT WAS A CONSCIOUS DECISION.”
Caravans of oil tanker trucks and white Toyota pickups freely transited the desert. Brigades of takfiri fighters operated at will despite the omnipotent US drone and satellite surveillance. Money changed hands freely in vast amounts and communications networks remained intact despite intelligence agency ability to monitor every form of electronic transfer and radio transmission. Oddly, nobody questioned any of this until the Russians destroyed a thousand ISIS tanker trucks in a single day. When Lt. General Flynn was asked, he specified exactly what the memo meant: that the US Government was effectively supporting ISIS in order to topple Assad. We were allied with the legacy organization that attacked New York skyscrapers…if you believe the “official” story. The Russia-gate saga has succeeded in burying that narrative. Now, we’re back to bombing Assad instead of the “rebels”. Flynn HAD to be discredited in order to get the “deep state” train back on the tracks. It was derailed when Clinton lost the election.
I think this is one of those times where everybody’s right, and everybody’s wrong. At first I found Flynn intriguing, I thought his appearing on PressTV and RT Network was rather bold, but since I’m one of those who think we should have more truth tellers, and how we should have detente with Russia, I thought at the time Flynn was a breath of fresh air. Apparently Flynn went off the reservation, but what we are seeing unfold in these Senate Hearings is a classic example of a ‘dog & pony show’.
There are no good guys to this story. Flynn should never have been on Trump’s team. Flynn was either head strong with his opinion, or he saw an opportunity to profit from dealing with Erdogan, and snuggling up to the Russians. I thought he was the real deal until he came out with his warning to Iran. I think Flynn is a Neocon but of a different flavor, when all is said and done.
This whole thing only benefits one country in the Middle East and you know who that is. Until the U.S. makes sense of what our American interest is we are traveling down an endless dark road. There is no mission goal, it is all about establishing a Zionist regime into an Arab world who is struggling to resist the overwhelming influence of NATO, and whatever in the hell it is with Erdogan. The only thing the U.S. gets from all this chaos is healthy arms sales.
Boom. You said it – “…Zionist…”
I agree with you Joe that Flynn has some unsavory positions, particularly with regard to Islam and to Iran…but let’s not lose sight of the “message” (facilitating terrorists) because of the messenger.
Don’t get me wrong, there are parts of what I know about Flynn that I liked. With all the stuff flying around out here about Flynn it does raise my curiosity. Like, what was Flynn doing with Erdogan? For that matter what is the U.S. doing with Gulen? I also believe there is an energy running through the Trump White House that none of us can see. That force took out Flynn, why I don’t know. This Russia thing is a theme, and this letting Comey go could prove to be a catalyst towards Trump’s impeachment…who knows. The media is loving it comparing Trump’s firing Comey to Nixon’s ‘Saturday Night Massacre’. Flynn in some ways was a breath of fresh air, he was a whistleblower, but in the end did he step out of line? I don’t know, but Flynn is Rohm.
You have put the whole dirty game right out for all to see. Of course folks have to find their way somehow to CN, and then have sufficient interest to take part in the comments. In other words it’s going to take a miracle unless we find ways to get these realities to more of the people who desperately need to know a lot of things that they think they don’t need to know.
An August 2012 DIA report (written when the U.S. was monitoring weapons flows from Libya to Syria), said that the opposition in Syria was driven by al Qaeda and other extremist Muslim groups: “the Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria.” The growing sectarian direction of the war was predicted to have dire consequences for Iraq, which included the “grave danger” of the rise of ISIS:
“The deterioration of the situation has dire consequences on the Iraqi situation and are as follows:
“This creates the ideal atmosphere for AQI [al Qaeda Iraq] to return to its old pockets in Mosul and Ramadi, and will provide a renewed momentum under the presumption of unifying the jihad among Sunni Iraq and Syria, and the rest of the Sunnis in the Arab world against what it considers one enemy, the dissenters. ISI could also declare an Islamic state through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory.
Some of the “dire consequences” are blacked out but the DIA presciently warned one such consequence would be the “renewing facilitation of terrorist elements from all over the Arab world entering into Iraqi Arena.”
http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-defense-state-department-documents-reveal-obama-administration-knew-that-al-qaeda-terrorists-had-planned-benghazi-attack-10-days-in-advance/
The heavily redacted August 2012 DIA memo mentions “the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).”
http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf
To clarify just who these “supporting powers” were, mentioned in the document who sought the creation of a “Salafist principality,” the DIA memo explained:
“The West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition; while Russia, China, and Iran support the regime.”
The DIA memo clearly indicates when it was decided to transform US, Saudi, and Turkish-backed Al Qaeda affiliates into ISIS: the “Salafist” (Islamic) “principality” (State).
NATO member state Turkey has been directly supporting terrorism in Syria, and specifically, supporting ISIS.
In 2014, Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s reported “‘IS’ supply channels through Turkey.” DW exposed fleets of hundreds of trucks a day, passing unchallenged through Turkey’s border crossings with Syria, clearly bound for the defacto ISIS capital of Raqqa.
Starting in September 2015, Russian airpower in Syria successfully interdicted ISIS supply lines.
The usual suspects in Western media launched a relentless propaganda campaign against Russian support for Syria. The Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat disinformation operation started working overtime.
The propaganda effort culminated in the 4 April 2017 Khan Shaykhun false flag chemical incident in Idlib. Bellingcat’s Eliot Higgins and Dan Kaszeta have been paraded by “First Draft” coalition media “partners” in a vigorous effort to somehow implicate the Russians.
Al Qaeda’s Bellingcat press office keeps busy trying to convince us that the armed “Syrian opposition” consists of somebody besides Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Lots and lots of little flags, plenty of “ex” and “former”, loads of “shift” and “drift”
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/29/factions-syrian-civil-war/
For Bellingcat, Al Qaeda and Turkey are barely worth a mention, and ISIS is “so-called”.
Seems like all those not-Al-Qaeda-and-ISIS freedom fighters have their hands full forming “more inclusive coalitions”, adopting “more nationalist style imagery”, designing cool new flags and websites, maintaining their Twitter acounts, and inviting the U.S. “allied” coalition to invade Syria.
When they just can’t find enough information on Twitter, Bellingcat’s fake “independent researchers” are peculiarly enamored with information supplied by “Israeli Defence Forces intel officials”.
Bellingcat’s Atlantic Council / Al Qaeda memo of the day: Move along, nothing to see here. Assad and the Russians can leave now.
Not mentioned in Robert Parry’s “Road Kill” article on Flynn:
In March 2017, former CIA Director James Woolsey told the Wall Street Journal that Flynn met with top Turkish government ministers during the campaign to discuss removing Fethullah Gulen from the U.S.
Turkey blames Gulen, a well-known CIA project, for a 15 July 2016 attempted coup.
Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into 17 US politicians, bureaucrats and academics in connection with the failed coup.
Former CIA Director John Brennan, former CIA Deputy Director David Cohen and Henri Barkey, director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, are among the people investigated.
Former CIA analyst Graham E. Fuller is also listed among the suspects.
Perhaps Consortium News readers will be treated to “ex-CIA official” Fuller’s view of Flynn. We already know Fuller’s standard response about Gulen: Move along, nothing to see here.
Not that we have any business with the Turkish people’s deciding who to lead them, but I find it hard to pick a dog in the fight between Erdogan and Gulen.
“…operated at will despite the omnipotent US drone and satellite surveillance.”
I’ve been reading much of the same over these past three years. When ISIS was beginning to be really hyped as the new superthreat, those caravans of Toyota trucks were a real tipoff to me that another big lie was underway.
It was a FOIA request by Judicial Watch that got the DIA memo exposed.
Sorry, I replied to F.G. Sanford before seeing all the other replies. Abe is especially informative as always.
An H to P email obtained by Phishing (not Hacking) had H stating she knew Saudi and Qatar Governments financially supported ISIS Before she sold Saudi’s the largest arms package in history, used to destroy Yemen, and got the Clinton foundation a $50 million kickback from the Saudi’s.
“”For all we know, Flynn was in his bathing suit, Pina Colada in hand.””
Thanks for the humor Mr Parry! We all need comic relief from this absurd theatre in DC!
Clinton gets a pass for her “suspect judgment” over using a private server in her “basement;” Flynn’s “suspect judgment” gets him dragged through the mud, possibly on his way to prison. Since we are not allowed to hear the evidence, including any transcripts of phone calls, we cannot know how much is truth, how much is fiction. This whole mess, all of “Russiagate,” stinks of Clinton’s hissy fit over losing the election and her unwillingness, even now, to admit that she has no one to blame but herself. RT is unfortunately and intentionally “collateral damage.”
I think an argument can be made that all the attacks on Trump regarding issues other than possible détente with Russia were intended to weaken his ability to achieve détente. Whatever their merits, the attacks were insurance that he would be unable do one of the few things presidents can do. On the surface, why this should be so defies common sense,but the why is commonly understood by all the bureaucrats, politicians, pundits living the comfortable life in DC. They won’t have it and they will not even discuss the implications for them and the rest of us if détente were to surface.
You present a version of the Flynn case I would call demonization lite. You buy the basic Russia is our evil enemy line. And btw that total surveillance cow does need to be put back in the barn.
Flynn’s downfall was that he went up against the Deep State’s intention to keep Russia as the boogeyman, and continue these horrific regime change wars that have the result of strengthening ISIS and Al Qaeda. The proof of that is Trump’s reversal of all his policy positions. No draining of the swamp, no detente with the Russians, Assad must go, etc, etc, etc.
This is a perfect example of the misuse of the classified information structure for political purposes. Clapper should be in prison, and Snowden should have gotten the Medal of Freedom.
Amen.
Skip – great post! And Yates yesterday talked about disobeying Trump’s order because it went against the “truth”. Well, where was her truth during Fast and Furious? I didn’t hear Yates screaming over the Wall Street bankers not going to jail!
Selective truth.
Its overtime to bring PR (Proportional Representation) into the electoral systems of both the USA and Britain.
The current FPTP system is nothing but a fix to maintain the control of the two party system at the publics and voters expence.
21 European countries – noticably bar Britain – use PR.
Members of the European parliament are elected by PR.
The regional ‘parliaments’ of Scotland, N.Ireland and Wales use a form of PR.
And yet the British government within the last couple of years turned down the petition for PR signed by 5 Party leaders and over 1,000,000 people using the most blatant of lies to do so.
But then David Cameron and Theresa May have a record of lying almost unparallelled in British history as are the influx of immigrants under their rule.
Nearly 700,000 a year (not counting untold but large numbers of illegals) into our tiny island – last figure for T May. Many unvetted islamics. It is now estimated 10,000 islamic terrorists are waiting to strike in Britain alone.
PR is fair voting.
Every vote counts, every person gets a representative in government, with FPTP 60% or more of votes get trashed.
And multiple parties keep governments honest and on their toes.
Britain is headed on June 8th to five years of what Lord Hailsham described as an ‘elective dictatorship’.
An overall majority with no restraints on power now the House of Lords has been turned into a publicly funded, hugely expensive retirement scam for has-been politicos and political activists, arch capitalists not to mention underwear retailers – believe or not.
(Mega hundreds of them – who can turn up – sign in and pocket £300 a day and go home – many do.)
The latest country to adopt a form – NZ – where it has been very successful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electoral_systems_by_country
But then David Cameron and Theresa May have a record of lying almost unparallelled in British history as are the influx of immigrants under their rule.
Cameron and May do have appalling records, but they are merely continuing a tradition that has been long a feature of British politics. Tony Bliar and the Wicked Witch of Ten Downing Street have much worse records; although, given time May may join them in a triumvirate of ignominy. Perhaps the worst example of British mendacity occurred during the First World War when the media and ruling classes supported that monumental disaster. However, given Britain’s almost perpetual history of war there may be more damning evidence from the past.
Daniel Foley – you don’t know what Flynn did, do you? After watching the hearings today, were you any better informed? I heard nothing, except “that’s classified”. I’m suspect (but willing to change my mind should evidence surface) about all of this. From Flynn’s Wiki page:
“According to what Flynn had told in one final interview as DIA director, he felt like a lone voice in thinking that the United States was less safe from the threat of Islamic terrorism in 2014 than it was prior to the 9/11 attacks; he went on to believe that he was pressed into retirement for questioning the Obama administration’s public narrative that Al Qaeda was close to defeat.[29] Journalist Seymour Hersh wrote that “Flynn confirmed [to Hersh] that his agency had sent a constant stream of classified warnings … about the dire consequences of toppling [Syrian President] Assad.” Flynn recounted that his agency was producing intelligence reports indicating that radical Islamists were the main force in the Syrian insurgency and “that Turkey was looking the other way when it came to the growth of the Islamic State inside Syria”. According to Flynn, these reports “got enormous pushback from the Obama administration,” who he felt “did not want to hear the truth”.”
Daniel, forget about Trump for a minute. Could it be that Flynn might have pushed for really going after ISIS in the Trump administration, and could it be that the elite didn’t want that happening? Too much money at stake? Plans to take out Assad thrown under the bus?
Just putting questions out there, because no one knows the truth. But don’t just assume that Yates is right in what she says. She is as political as they come.
I heard that Flynn was fired by Trump. Trump could release the Classified Information that was discussed. The Ball is inhis court.
In response to backwards evolution
Yeah we do have a clue. Flynn was an unregistered foreign agent for Turkey. He had multiple ongoing contacts with Russian agents. The same Russian entity that tried to undermine our presidential election last year. Flynn failed to mention both facts prior to assuming the Directorship of the NSA.
Does that sound like a man who should be in charge of the most sensitive National Security apparatus in the country? Or can we conclude from the lies by omission that Flynn is not fit for his job? I know what I conclude.
My previous impression of Flynn was that he was a dangerous Islamophobe who wanted to decimate ISIS … less ridiculous than Boykin but fairly far ‘out there’ and wanting a military intervention solution (although I don’t know if he actually advocated boots-on-the-ground (under Obama) … no matter, this now appears to be happening incrementally under Trump, and islamophobia is no longer a disqualifier as we see with Mattis).
Let’s avoid falling into some “enemy of my enemy is my friend” ridiculousness situational admiration of the man. Flynn and McChrystal as I recall are both considered Petraeus dharma-heirs and, along with Petraeus were considered “martyred” by the Obama Administration (by the right wing warmongerers)
susan – and let’s avoid falling into the assumption that any of them are any good. There’s Clapper sitting there, a person who previously lied under oath, and he’s passing judgment on Flynn? What?
And Yates, I didn’t hear her coming out all righteous and dignified when her bosses (Eric Holder and his underling Lanny Breuer) decided that the Wall Street gangsters weren’t quite bad enough to be put in jail. Where was her “truth” and defiance there on “behalf of the American people”? How about Fast and Furious?
Incidentally, Holder and Breuer, both white collar defense lawyers who worked together at Covington & Burling before serving the country, and who represented the very banks that they let off the hook, are both back at Covington & Burling as we speak. Who would have thought!
Loretta Lynch, who met with Bill Clinton on the tarmac, should be behind bars. She put all the heat on Jim Comey (maybe it was planned this way) as she then had to recuse herself from dealing with Hillary’s email scandal. How convenient! And Jim Comey, he’s defended the Clinton’s in court from a way back in their sordid careers. Hillary should be behind bars too.
I’m not saying Flynn is innocent. I’m just saying it would be nice to see the evidence. He’s being tarred and feathered behind an “it’s classified” wall, while others have been exonerated (Hillary) without providing all of the evidence. I’d sure like to see the 50,000 emails she erased (which the NSA would still have). Can you imagine just erasing documents? Who does that? Who sets up their own private server, AFTER being warned by her underlings not to, and then has the arrogance to state it was a “mistake”?
Let’s get all of the evidence and then pass judgment. That’s all I’m saying.
You are right, Robert Parry. Just throw a bunch of accusations out there, and then run back to the “That’s classified” statement when it suits you. Lots of smiles, lots of implying that “Gee, I wish I could tell you what really went on,” suggesting something insidious. That’s complete character assassination!
And both Yates and Clapper at the end stating that Russia is certainly not going to stop. Stop what? We don’t even know what they did. Again, it’s all “classified”. How convenient!
First-world country? Really?
Yes. You nailed the lying bastards.
One thing that bothered me with the hearing today was the fact that several articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post were actually submitted as exhibits, as if they were the gospel truth.
I also didn’t like that they were concerned that the American public were reading “fake news”. Wow! If you’re reading anything other than MSM, you’re reading fake news!
I liked when Senator Kennedy asked Yates: “Who appointed you to the Supreme Court?” That was perfect. She is nothing but a political hack. When is Loretta Lynch going to jail for speaking with Bill Clinton on the tarmac? A first-year law student knows better than to do that.
From an article from Ethics Alarms which is entitled “Sally Yates Is Not A Hero. Sally Yates Is An Unethical Lawyer, And “Betrayal” Is Not Too Strong A Word For Her Conduct”:
“She was fired, and should have been. She should also be the subject of an ethics inquiry. This has nothing to do with the merits of Trump’s order. Former Harvard professor (and legal ethics prof) Alan Dershowitz, hardly a GOP flack, said tonight that Yates’ decision wasn’t legal, but political. Exactly. As a lawyer, she should have made her position clear from a legal perspective to the President, and then either followed his directive or quit. Her rogue announcement contradicted a finding by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which approved the executive order “with respect to form and legality.” Nor did her outrageous grandstanding require courage. She was not going to keep her job anyway, so she decided to abuse the trust of the President to encourage partisan Trump-haters to hoot and applaud for an act of legal ethics defiance. (Ethics rules don’t apply when Donald Trump is involved, haven’t you heard?)
Yates is also a hypocrite. The Holder Justice Department, of which she was a part, defended multiple Executive Orders by President Obama that were legally dubious, and other actions as well. That Justice Department was one of the most disgracefully partisan within memory, a neat trick, since we have had a couple of decades of unethically partisan Justice Departments. Yates showed her pedigree tonight. She used her position as an attorney–the highest one there is—for her client, the United States, to undermine her client’s objectives, publicly and to her client’s detriment. The Trump administration has called this a betrayal.
That’s exactly what it is.”
From an article from Ethics Alarms which is entitled “Sally Yates Is Not A Hero. Sally Yates Is An Unethical Lawyer, And “Betrayal” Is Not Too Strong A Word For Her Conduct”:
If she was an Obama appointee and worked in league with Eric Holder there is much to be said for taking her comments under advisement.
Holder defended United Fruit when they paid assassins to murder Union organizers.
Cognitive dissonance is so pervasive and so reinforced in the land, courtesy of the conditioning to which we are all subjected, that all the concise logic and evidence the inestimable likes of Robert Parry can muster will only harden large numbers of us in their collective denial.
Thankfully, some will relent and awaken, given time and a persistent effort. The growing percentages of doubt regarding the official 911 story attest to that. Thus, the often frustrating task of reaching out can and will bear incremental fruit. So, there is that.
But it is not, and will not be, enough.
We who see the game is rigged must devise effective, cooperative and mutually reinforcing means to exit it, staring down some seemingly long odds and intense pushback in the process.
The strength, skills and commitment that will be required cannot be overestimated; yet we must devote ourselves to making it happen, discarding all manner of misguided – though once cherished – preconceptions along the way.
We who smell the smoke and see the fire are morally charged with finding the way out and bringing as many of the imperiled with us as possible. The questions are: do we appreciate that most solemn duty; and are we actually going to stop just talking about it?
“Talking about it” (as you are doing here) is doing something about it. The silence and misinformation is killing us. The more people we can get some real knowledge to, the sooner things will change for the better. We are in an information war; we must talk about what’s real and important to have a chance to win it.
Both sides of argument or supposed facts are legit. Classified and otherwise unknown truth need to be looked at by honest discerning minds. Always wondered why We the People could not create public commissions to have access to “the facts”. A kind of public watchdog. Safeguarding and watching. Yearly appointments from volunteers willing to serve. I am sceptical about any so called truth from both the press and the powers that be. I should state I do think Russia and Putin are not to be thought of as our friend.
You might ask yourself why you think Russia and Putin is not our friend? How much do you really know about Russia and Putin? Is it possible the information you have received about them is slanted and incomplete?
Good reply. One thing I always ask myself, when I hear complaints from our government or media that Russia is not cooperating with us, is: “What favors have we done Russia lately?”
Is the only possible proof of being a friend of the USA, prostration , face on the ground in reverance to the sole hyper power on the planet?
That’s just for starters.
one way to view the situation is , the DemNeocon wrath falls on people who MAY be making money as they make peace, but the USA populace and DemoNeocons are very accepting of War Criminals profitting from destroying many nations.
Did Flynn take money from Turkey without declaring himself as an agent of that country ?
If he did, he broke the laws. That is enough to justify his firing.
But, the Trump operation was aware of his getting paid by Turkey and Russia.
So the real question is why did they do nothing until things became public (granted through a possibly illegal leak to the WP, but that does not change the facts!)
How many members of congress would be found in violation of numerous laws if thoroughly investigated? Every damned one of them! The hypocrisy of these hearings stinks to high heaven.
H got a $50 million dollar kickback after supplying the ISIS backers with the largest arms supply in history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPajKjKeJZc&t=0s
Lying clapper confirmed obama spying .
The open by Lindsey Graham was sickening how he droned on and on about how Russia interfered with hillary’s coronation without offering any evidence .
This dog and pony show is a diversion away from saint obama and his spying.
Worse than Watergate !
What is most fascinating is that Americans seem incapable of exercising even the most basic ability to use reason, and to think critically about world events. In my lifetime I’ve been expected to believe that a president has been killed by a “magic bullet;” that his brother was killed by a point blank bullet to the back of the head fired by an assassin standing in front of him; that buildings defy the laws of physics and collapse in free fall because the government says so – end of story; that box cutters and small plane flight instruction are the only weaponry necessary to overcome the most advanced military and intelligence services on the planet and to fly jumbo jets as weapons; and that the same oligarchic State powers that can publicly justify the deaths of a half million Iraqi children are moved by empathetic concern and war like action because of the deaths of a hundred Syrian children. An examination of Western hierarchical power shows us quite clearly that the same cadre of power mad psychopaths responsible for the Holy Inquisition, the genocide of Native peoples globally, chattel slavery and two World Wars continues to rule the planet. Our “leaders” today are just as amoral, corrupt, power mad and vile as Western leaders have ever been, plain and simple. It may be frightening to acknowledge this reality, but the only alternative is to remain in childlike denial.
Amen Gary.
I second that, Gary. Very well said.
A Peruvian and I ,, while discusing international politics in general and watching ” Shock and Awe on TV, told me that ” The white race are just insatiable killers”. I had no reasonable reply possible to his asertion.
That’s a rather broad brush stroke. A reasonable reply would be that the White race (Europeans and Euro-Americans and Euro-Australians) has been very skillfully manipulated and groomed by a small but very powerful, persuasive elite, in CONTINUOUS existence throughout the many passing generations since their successful run with the Roman Empire (which was itself, a magnificent display of organizational GENIUS), who are themselves driven mad with lust for power & wealth & reign, and will stop at NOTHING, until the whole World is their Empire. We are unwittingly drafted into their Legions-for-conquest. See, over on EIR website, in their search box, the article “Return of the Monarchs”. There are about 25 Dynastic Families with family histories longer than the histories of the many Euro- Nation-States themselves. Almost half of them still occupy Thrones and wear their Crowns, the rest are “deposed” (read: “gone covert” and are probably the more powerful Families). They command unimaginable wealth, have MANY very powerful but loyal subjects (Managerial Elites, oligarchs in their own right, which sometimes gets them in trouble with “The Crown”…wealth buys loyalty of a sort), and is what we tried to Declare our Independence from, in 1776. It still exists. It MAY have possible assistance from Occult Powers. Sound like absolute poppycock? That’s why it works. That is what they want you to believe (or, rather, NOT believe in).
And, as a stroke of irony, your Peruvian friend is probably Roman Catholic, an Imperial Religion of these Dynastic Families’ own invention…the Dragnet is cast very widely for World Empire.
Gary, you have said it ALL!!!!!!! BRAVO!!!!!!!!
There is talk of impeachment in Congress now. I predicted Trump would win the election and lost most of my Dem friends. So my next prediction about impeachment is if Trump allows all the still classified records on the JFK case due to be released this year and gets them all out finally, he will be a winner and if he works with Russia to win and end the Wars and the economy grows he will not be impeached… in fact he will win Big time.
Jim Glover, I agree that those records are very important and that if they are unfettered; that may change everything.
If, if, if……….
It’s interesting … over at Quora, there are 4-5-6 different theories as to why Flynn was “really” fired by Obama … check it out
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-General-Flynn-get-fired-by-Obama
Poor Flynn.
trust me, Flynn is nowhere near poor. He will be okay,
Thanks for the laughs
So Flynn could supposedly be blackmailed. What about Hillary, Podesta, and the DNC? “Coincidentally” Flynn is the only one of them who was against supporting ISIS. But Russia wasn’t smart enough to hang on to their blackmail material until Hillary was president? They wasted it on a lost cause. They helped a guy who had no chance to win. Releasing it before the election sounds like journalism to me. Espionage would be keeping it to use after the election when Hillary is president. But they want to charge Wikileaks with state sponsored espionage so they aren’t protected by the First Amendment. And they say they have evidence that Russia gave the leaks to Wikileaks, but they can’t tell us what the evidence is. And this time congress believes Clapper who lied to them about NSA spying before. And what would be wrong with Flynn talking to the Russian Ambassador about sanctions anyway? A new administration was on its way in. The new administration was supposed to fight ISIS instead of Assad, but they didn’t. Who blackmailed whom? Let’s see… The neocon deep state wants ISIS to overthrow Syria. Russia doesn’t.
What can we do to help Flynn? What can we do to bring the witch hunters down?
I just read again today Rolling Stone’s interview with Obama the day after Trump was elected, and there was no mention of Russian hacking. Obama explained what he thought happened, why Hillary lost, as he went on and on about himself — “I..,I..,I…!” (Obama might be the greatest danger to our country.) This interview ought to be proof enough that the hacking was nothing more than a scam invented to resist Trump, else why wouldn’t Obama have mentioned it? This was his golden opportunity.
Seriously, what can we do?
You’ve got to be kidding me?…..and the Unreported “income?” A sitting NSA director,retro actively “filing” as an FOREIGN AGENT? Trump’s assertion Pence fired for “misleading” Pence?……right.
Mr Parry,
You continue to do the most sterling work explaining and exposing the utter dishonesty, rottenness and corruption of the Wall Street/ War Street/ Washington DC Axis of Evil. Alas, it is like trying to argue the merits of a case with lunatics. We are not living through born again McCarthyism. It is worse. It is deja vu Salem witch trials. Or the Inquisition. It is the inquisitors who are nuts. Considering the necessary critical mass for Revolution does not exist (yet!) the political torture and waterboarding of the gen pop “heretics” will not be ending any time soon. But keep up the truth-telling..
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
How long did it take to get the Iran/Contra investigation going? 2,4, years? How long did it take to get the Iraq/WMD investigation going, at least 4 years, How long did it take to get the Hillary Clinton e-mail/ Benghazi scandal going- less than 2 years. How long was Barack Obama investigated? His entire presidency. I recommend Ivanka Trump’s book, how to succeed when you are already a millionaire, and keep grifting, not gifting. No one can touch your beloved , Leader Donald J Trump. No one will investigate Trump, because hey, unlike Killary, Shrilllary/Harpie/Cankles/The worst person on the planet/ Bitch, Cunt/ , we all want ours and the Screw everyone else. I really like the Trumps. No one shall ever investigate our Dear Leader and his family.
LOLOLOLOLOLLLOLOL
Your throwing your meaningless crap into this serious discussion space is not helpful.
LOLOLOLOLOLLLOLOL
Lou: Judging by your articulate and enlightened comments you have given this topic deep and serious thought. Your teachers must be very proud of your skillful and elegant use of the English language. I hate to say it, Lou, but you are wasting your time on the peasants on this website who find your comments beyond their comprehension. Perhaps, you would be more appreciated at another blog.
Why do you keep responding to these vermin? This human puke is a professional troll that delights when given attention. Simply ignore it and don’t waste space in this thread on it. The subject matter is very important and the article is of such quality that attention to slimebags is not warranted.
Constantine: You apparently didn’t catch the sarcasm in my comment. If little loulou did, he might get the message he is out of his element here.
Actually there has been nothing but investigations of Trump from even before he was elected with the spying by Obama and the hysteria of the phony “Russia did it” excuse for Clinton’s dismal election run where she felt she was “owed” the Presidency and found out it doesn’t work that way yet….
Balanced perspectives are the enemy of identity politics.
Mr. Parry, thank you for this breath of fresh air. The Democrats are acting like acting like neo-McCarthyites, and their lack of real evidence will surely come back to haunt them. I myself am so fed up with the present sham Dem leadership for allowing this orgy of false accusations and fishing expeditions that Demexit seems to be the best solution for me. The current Dem leaders, including Obama and the Clintons, are destroying the Dem party, and one reason for continuing so long with this fake “Russia-gate,” or I should say “Nothing-gate,” is that it is part of an attempt to keep populists from gaining power within the Dem party.
One detail missing from this fine article is that the DNI report is based on both false and unconfirmed evidence. The original claims of Russian interference were based on the claim by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike that malware on the DNC server was directly linked to Russia. However, in March of this year Voice of America showed that CrowdStrike had made a critical error and had misunderstood an article about Ukrainian artillery software, an error that seemed to show Russia was hacking Ukrainian artillery software. However, as VOA pointed out, no Russian hacking of Ukrainian artillery had been confirmed or even suspected. This error means that there is now NO direct link between the malware and Russia. The only other piece of malware that CrowdStrike claimed to find on the DNC server is known to be used by dozens of other countries in addition to Russia, so it is inconclusive. Thus the entire CrowdStrike claim of definite Russian responsibility has collapsed. In addition, the DNC arbitrarily refused to show the server to the FBI, so no one has any idea whether anything CrowdStrike claimed is true or not. Moreover, the head technician at CrowdStrike is a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council, a pro-NATO, anti-Russia think-tank, so he had a conflict of interest and a bias against Russia. Mr. Parry, in the future I hope you will stress the fact that the original claims of Russian responsibility for the DNC alleged hacking have now collapsed. The MSM and Dem leaders have ignored this recently exposed crucial fact that now undercuts their central anti-Russia claim.
Lololollolololololololololo
Lololollolololololololololo
For the uninitiated can you please explain whether this series of comments, on the surface appearing rather idiotic, has any hidden meaning?
Anyone who knows anything about hacking realizes that this whole Russia hacked Hillary is completely baseless bullshit. No one on this planet can make these claims of certainty. All these allegations are no better than biased opinions. Identifying hackers is not as simple as these propagandists imply, and is mostly impossible.
i delight that there are still these outsiders.
Anyone telling the truth in DC is a total outsider to the dirty, lying games being played there.
Isn’t Trump in D.C.? Lololoolololololo
Robert please get rid of these posts from either a troll or illiterate.
Lou, sweet, it’s time for night-night.
Maybe less lithium or helium?
I doubt if Flynn would be given a public hearing even in the unlikely event he were to demand one. They’d chant the same “classified” BS.
In my opinion the whole business about the secrecy is to keep Joe Sixpack from thinking about how he now lives in a fishbowl with no secrets – or privacy – at all.
Excellent cogent analysis. Timely and reassuring to know that I am not alone in my own views regarding this sordid saga. Thank you Mr. Parry very much.
Maybe Flynn will get “Immunity” LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO
Good article.
Ah, the warmth of Rome in the Spring. Those were the days. It is but a trifle in the wind, Machiavelli would be proud, that a once thought powerful player in the court is now victim of the game. And the game will go on, unabated by any introspection, and aided by circumspection and opacity, and as yet the orchestra has yet to play the waltz.
“The RT hosts asserted that the US two-party system does not represent the views of at least one-third of the population and is a ‘sham,’” the report said. Yet, polls have shown exactly that sentiment, that large numbers of Americans would prefer more choices than the usual two candidates and, indeed, most Western democracies have multiple parties,
The greatest threats to what is left of American democracy are not the Russians. They are the enemies within – the plutocrats, the oligarchs in the Democratic-Republican duopoly, and the various forms of corruption they practice. This disastrous system of immoral power is compounded by a majority of the American people who fail in their duties to be informed citizens and to act accordingly as citizens.
Earlier today I called out my senators on their behavior that included the following statement:
“In a remarkable display of unity all 100 U.S. senators recently overcame the polarized atmosphere in Washington to join in sending an arrogant letter to the new UN Secretary General, António Guterres, demanding a more friendly, blue washing, approach to Israel at the UN and threatening financial consequences if their outrageous views were not heeded”. – Richard Falk – http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/08/israels-new-cultural-war-of-aggression/
Just when you thought it impossible that our U.S. Senate could agree unanimously there you go, there’s Israel. This isn’t clean drinking water in America’s homeland, or a affordable & quality healthcare system, or anything that directly deals with the America taxpayer…but Israel no problem.
I think sometimes that we are all looking too much at Washington DC. I know many of you, us, reference influences from many different places, and spectrums. I’m leaving a link to Phil Butler articles, pick any article, but Butler is addressing this hidden hand in an interesting series of essays.
http://journal-neo.org/author/phil-butler/
Flynn maybe Rohm. I’m not sure what to make of his future. Who knows maybe he’ll pull off a Ollie North, but to me it appears that everyone wants a piece of him. Maybe between ‘Lock Her Up’ or whatever happened with Flynn and the Obama Administration who knows, but in my mind he’s ‘Road Kill’.
As for who ever is the Oz behind the curtain I picture ‘they’ are more concerned to what to do with us the ‘Excess Population’ when soon the machines will all be in place to replace us ‘Entitlement Losers’.
Great essay.
Parry writes:
“But that (the accusation that Russia could use the Flynn conversation as blackmail because they could reveal it and discredit Flynn) really makes no sense, in part, because even if the Russians did pick up the discrepancy, they would assume correctly that U.S. intelligence had its own transcript of the conversation, so there would be no basis for blackmail.”
This is so clear and yet there is no mention of it in the MSM. It is all a witch hunt and succeeds only because there is almost no counter voice. There is Parry and Stephen F. Cohen and friends, but no one else – except Breitbart and we all know we should not even be looking at that. ;-)
So why Trump fire him? Lolololololo
Because T has become putty in DemoNeoCons’ handes.
lololo, what is this the diatribe of an infant?
It seems the losers posting on the Huffington Post and elsewhere with the “LOL…” etc. have now invaded here for some reason…the site must be getting publicity with the Huffington Post types….the comments there are generally just group think and name calling and of the know it all “LOL….” type we see above by these….
For gross incompetence:
– Rampant leaks.
– Passing out immunity like candy to Clinton staffers and failing to indict her.
– Anthony Wiener is still not indicted despite sexual involvement with a minor across state lines.
– Failing to follow up on an investigation that could have prevented the Ft. Hood mass shooting.
– Ignoring Russian warnings about the Boston Marathon bombers.
– Ignoring the warning of an informant on the Mohammad Cartoon attack.
– Failing to investigate social media and other data during immigration background check on the immigrant wife who took part in the San Bernadino mass shooting.
– Ignoring multiple warnings from co-workers on the Orlando Pulse shooter – even letting him keep his armed guard license.
– Failing to discipline FBI agents who fired on a moving vehicle after the Oregon federal land occupation, precipitating in a death and who then tried to hide the evidence.
– Attempting to try the Oregon protesters as “Terrorists” (all acquitted).
Just to name a few.
Furthermore, the crime seems to be F said , do not worry about your diplomats’ expulsion. Big deal !
Anyone who’d gone through a TS security check ( and I have ) and misrepresented himself would expect exactly what Flynn got. Fired. If in the military, you might ( though unlikely ) get busted a rank or two or do some brig time. Flynn became a crackpot..and that’s being generous. Parry apparently doesn’t know this or ?
Look at this horrid headline that was just on the front page of the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/world/europe/french-voters-defy-putins-meddling-but-youd-hardly-know-it-in-russia.html
May 8, 2017
French Voters Defy Putin’s Meddling, but You’d Hardly Know It in Russia
The Democrats have the best issue in decades – preserving lives and quality of life by improving and expanding the Affordable Care Act. The fate of the ACA impacts a sizable portion of Trump voters in addition to Democrats and Independent at risk.
Democrats can accurately portray Trump and the Republicans as ghouls who are knowingly setting millions up for financial catastrophe while they’re suffering and, in some cases, dying due to a loss of the ACA.
What do th Democrats do with that issue? Very little It is inconceivable that the Republicans are so stupid as to support a program that will crippl them politically for years to come. It is simply beyond the pale to watch the Democrats fumble this important task all for the sake of the new McCarthyism.
It’s depressing beyond measure that they think this is their “winning hand” for future elections … last election cycle’s absences of policy debate and constant name-calling was a precedent setting lowering of standards … One of my problems with Clinton as a feminist and “first female president” is that she (like Albright) seemed to STILL feel the need all-too-often to prove that she’s as tough as the bad-boys and can play “just as dirty” … and will take every short cut (debate questions) and insider advantage (DNC subverting Sanders) while she endlessly stonewalls or “demurs” on issues like the server and her changing narratives … see also the not-important concussion that then is used to explain discrepancies of recollections/testimony … wants to have it both ways.
I agree 100%. And Albright made me extremely angry with her speech at the DNC.
What we had in this last election were 2 candidates with ego problems. I happened to believe that Trumps “little man” issues are far worse than Clinton’s persecution complex, entitlement..and needing to be viewed as “tough”… but come to think of it, they aren’t really that much different in that respect. Only difference, she has a brain that would allow her to learn ( yea, I know..). Trump..my f’in god. The first used car salesman to become president. He knows the process of bamboozling people and that’s all.
Do you think that brand-R and brand-D are two separate parties, with two separate brains formulating two separate policies? They are wholly owned by the same Wall Street financiers, hired to put on a Punch and Judy show for the peasants to watch.
No, the democrats cannot use this opportunity for they are basted in the same crap, marinated in the same sickening sauce of corruption and lies. Do not look to corporate demos to do anything but lie.
There is a war coming with North Korea, China having now ordered its people to leave there would be a good indication of this…, and possibly elsewhere–Syria, Russia….by the time the election rolls around guaranteed that Obama’s attempt to start towards socialized medicine will not be the issue any longer determining that election after 4 years of Donald Trump and what is coming….
You can’t improve a program that subsidizes private insurance and does not provide any incentives for cost control. It is a recipe for collapse and bankruptcy. Healthcare is already almost 20% of the economy (compared to 14% for manufacturing) and more than half (medicaid, medicare, government plans, ACA subsidies and special carve outs) is already paid by the government.
The ACA shifts the costs of the chronically ill onto some of the poorest of the working class – those in the private insurance market. Those in the private market are often young entrants to the labor market and they need low cost insurance plans designed for the young and healthy. The government should provide needs tested support for others.
Curiously, this article omits Gen. Flynn’s role in exposed the evil Obama policy of “willful neglect” regarding ISIS and his repeated warnings that the administration’s regime change policy was risking an ISIS takeover of the entire region. After Flynn was fired by Clapper, he went public, even appearing on Iranian TV. as well as RT, incurring the wrath of a vengeful Obama. It is likely that removal of Flynn became a prime objective of the lame duck administration, a task delegated to Sally Yates and it is equally likely that had Gen. Flynn not been forced to resign and replaced by Mike Rogers, the ill-advised, unjustified, and illegal attack on Syria might never have occurred.
Here’s a Politico article from October 2016
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/how-mike-flynn-became-americas-angriest-general-214362
and
____ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________
Washington (Moonie) Times: Michael Flynn, former DIA chief: Obama ignored ISIS intel to fit election narrative
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/2/michael-flynn-former-dia-chief-obama-ignored-isis-/
Seems that the knives were already out to bring Flynn down …
(we again have the paradox that IF Flynn is a “traitor” or a Russian agent, our national security state did a very very bad job of protecting us from this life-long superpatriot
It’s very disturbing when a life-long career officer can be publicly smeared in such devastating, but oblique fashion (national security doncha know) …
sorry the article dates are reversed …
It is not the first time that “a life-long career officer can be publicly smeared in such devastating, but oblique fashion (national security doncha know) …”
https://youtu.be/UMLzkYi-J7E
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOCK HIM UP
Wow, evil Obama policy of “willful neglect”, vengeful Obama, Do you know that Barack Obama is personally responsible for slavery and the Civil War? Barry did it all by himself he created Isis, he created al-Qaida, he created the Taliban, heck , man he created the black panthers. In fact, Obama created the underground railway, because, you know, he is Obama. Did you know that Barak Obama was there in 1932, in Munich Germany to start Mr. Hitler’s campaign? Yes , Our dear leader is beautiful, gorgeous, and white. He knows all about history and politics. Yes he does.
O performed as the NeoCons wished and initiated the specified wars in Libya and Syria ( among the seven nations to be attack as per NeoCon/Pentagon plans) as General Wesley Clarke revealed years ago. Considering USA war crimes, economic disparity and domestic decay ,one may only conclude that the Demo’s are incompetent or complicit. O failed to deliver TPP for the NeoCon globalists.
Actually, Tina, Obama IS personally responsible for slavery in Libya. By removing Khadafi (sp?), who was no threat to the US, Obama/Clinton opened the door to ISIS. There are now thriving open-air slavery markets in Libya where, to date, tens of thousands of women and children have been sold to the highest bidder, often for as little as $50 equivalent. The proceeds of those sales are used to fund ISIS. “We came, we saw, he died. Ha ha” is Hilary’s reaction to what she and that SOB Obama did. As for the Civil War, they supported the Syrian “Rebels” and encouraged that Civil War.
What someone like Tina illustrates, is all the outrage over Bush/Cheney by the Left during the horrid Iraq years, was completely hollow and hypocritical. The cries were not out of compassion towards the injustice victims in Iraq, but instead because someone who does not believe in abortion, gay marriage or female CEOs in the board room is in charge. The protests against the bombing of Iraq was more of a projection of that outrage than an expression of moral principles, as more principles do not change according to whether your side is winning. Given that a 1/3 of the US population (evangelicals) supported Cheney and Bush’s genocidal actions in Iraq till the bitter end because he said he believes in Christ, and a 40% of Democrats seems to support Hillary / Obama no matter what genocidal actions were being taken in Libya and Syria, that leaves only only a mere 25% of the US population with any sort of a functioning moral compass.
Anyone with a motal compass is biased antiauthoritrian, and only 20% of the population.
80% of the population are authoritrians and set their compass to the status quo. These are the same people that can be convinced something is true because “authority” said so. It is quite scary if you think about it, but makes human history make a lot more sense. Anyone that is able and willing to think for themselves, thereby threatening the established order if unjust, are the first ones killed, and always have been throughout every step of civilization. Its a testament to the human spirit that 20% of the people still have an internal moral compass.
tina, you’re hysterical. See a Doctor.
Frankly, it’s a large majority here in CN comment land who are hysterical and you seem to want to lead the way by example, snark.
There is no defending a large portion of US foreign policy over the last…..Jesus, forever? I would have liked a big change and was originally open to Flynn as a way of getting there, but this guy turned out to be as unhinged as his “boss”, and that became apparent before the elections with his crazy “twit” comments and postings. Yes, something definitely went wrong with him.
Something has gone wrong with the country.
I call it Trumpism..moral decay of the population beyond anything we have seen in our lifetime and maybe since before the civil war. There was a significant Fascist movement in the US prior to WW2 but I don’t know that’s it’s ever been as strong as it is now. This has noting to do with Flynn…who just did stupid stuff and deserves what he gets..what he had already sown himself. It has everything to do with the big little man himself. I trust he will get what he deserves as well…even if that is a slow and painful death, there will be no tears here for Trump. Flynn..I’m sure he has his own setup in the Dominican that will serve him well for whatever he has to do to escape accountability.
Back to my little hole where I can hopefully escape Parry’s constant diatribe. At least this time he prefaced it with a disclaimer about defending the indefensible. Maybe there’s hope for him. The rest of you synchophants, probably not.
Pray tell, just why do you torture yourself by returning to this site? If you don’t like Parry or us, you must be a masochist. Most of us will be thankful to see you go. Please go back to your little hole.
The moral decay started well before Trump when the US celebrated victory in the Cold War by starting wars in the Balkans and expanding (instead of dissolving) NATO. Then there was the looting the of the old USSR, putting local control in the hands of oligarchs and the first Iraq war the set up the Persian Gulf kingdoms as a defacto American Protectorate. All the while US debt continued to rise and constant trade deficits started to destroy the middle class.
As for fascism, I see it as being more a product of the left than the right, not that it matters. After all it is the left that is currently making Russia out as the foreign “other” to be feared, and any deviation from that line they consider traitorous. .
You seem to be clueless as to what Obama and his group, including very much Hillary Clinton, did to countries such as Libya to further the Globalist agenda–Libya specifically because Qaddafi was gong to institute a gold standard for a new currency in Africa and the banksters were not going to allow that so he had to be removed and murdered with Hillary Clinton actually cackling about his murder on ABC News which was a real insight into her if you already did not have the picture of Planned Parent/Murderhood’s Person of the Century Award recipient….The Huffington Post would be a much better place for your type of empty sarcastic know it all posting…it adds nothing to the discussion here but is the norm there from what I have seen….
Not only K’s murder but his rape and torture before murder.
wasn’t it flynn who said straight out that obama was willfully allowing ISIS to expand its reach?
kbro – yes.
That was one of Flynn’s mortal sins.
Nothing personal about Parry. And those who want to be sycophants….well, you have your day too. Too many of them, as a matter of fact!
Parry has done some good stuff and there are good contributions here at CN. I’ve put my money where my mouth is…I’m a significant contributor. I don’t think he serves himself of this site well with harping on the same over and over. There is nothing new is his line of reasoning and it’s become a significant distraction for him and this site.
The “deep state” has always been there. What hasn’t been there is an overt fascist presence in the office of the president and other top positions. Put the two together and we have a real problem, Jack!
Look at what’s happening today…or is this all because of “McCarthyism”? What a line of crock! That’s my position.
Have a good…
Stiv-
My opinions are my own, and I agree with others who think similarly. I resent being called a sycophant. I freely express a difference of opinion whenever I have one.
The power struggle between Trump and the “Deep State” is probably the most important issue facing the world today. Parry is right to stay with it. As much as I despise Trump, I was hopeful of detente with Russia, and an end to these regime change wars. The Deep State seems to have won, and Trump is on his heels. Structural change (probably thru revolution) is our only hope at this point. There will be no draining of the swamp. The forever war will continue.
US can trade him for Snowden. We send Gen. Flynn to Moscow and get Snowden in return!
Oh, is Flynn in jail?
Seems like the DemoNeoCons want another nation bombed or substantial esculation in one of the seven soverign nations the USA is currently bombing.
“Escalation” ok? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO
There are rumors of something called spellcheck, a robot may replace your roll.
love how you mince your opinions
If you cannot make a coherent statement, you are a troll, and your comment should be deleted.
We are all simply road kill to those mad for power. The rottenness of the US government is plain for all to see these days. For those whose eyes are open this is a clear look into the hellish reality of our supposed representatives. Is this corrupt mess worthy of the name democracy? This is more like the birth pains of fascism in a failing empire.