Exclusive: To prove their chops, mainstream media stars can’t wait to go head-to-head with a demonized foreign leader, like Vladimir Putin, and let him have it, even if their “facts” are wrong, as Megyn Kelly showed and Ray McGovern explains.
By Ray McGovern
NBC’s Megyn Kelly wielded one of Official Washington’s most beloved groupthinks to smack Russian President Vladimir Putin over his denials that he and his government were responsible for hacking Democratic emails and interfering with the U.S. presidential election.
NBC’s Megyn Kelly interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 2, 2017. (NBC Photo)
In her June 2 interview with Putin, Kelly noted that all “17 intelligence agencies” of the U.S. government concurred in their conclusion of Russian guilt and how could Putin suggest that they all are “lying.” It’s an argument that has been used to silence skeptics for months and apparently is so useful that no one seems to care that it isn’t true.
For instance, on May 8, in testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper conceded publicly that the number of intelligence agencies involved in the assessment was three, not 17, and that the analysts assigned to the project from CIA, FBI and NSA had been “handpicked.”
On May 23, in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, former CIA Director John Brennan confirmed Clapper’s account about the three agencies involved. “It wasn’t a full inter-agency community assessment that was coordinated among the 17 agencies,” Brennan acknowledged.
But those public admissions haven’t stopped Democrats and the mainstream media from continuing to repeat the false claim. In comments on May 31, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton repeated the canard, with a flourish, saying: “Seventeen agencies, all in agreement, which I know from my experience as a Senator and Secretary of State, is hard to get.”
A couple of days later, Kelly revived the myth of the consensus among the 17 intelligence agencies in her interview with the Russian president. But Putin passed up the opportunity to correct her, replying instead:
“They have been misled and they are not analyzing the information in its entirety. … We have talked about it with former President Obama and with several other officials. No one ever showed me any direct evidence. When we spoke with President Obama about that, you know, you should probably better ask him about it – I think he will tell you that he, too, is confident of it. But when he and I talked I saw that he, too, started having doubts. At any rate, that’s how I saw it.”
As I noted in a Jan. 20 article about Obama’s news conference two days earlier, “Did President Barack Obama acknowledge that the extraordinary propaganda campaign to blame Russia for helping Donald Trump become president has a very big hole in it, i.e., that the U.S. intelligence community has no idea how the Democratic emails reached WikiLeaks? For weeks, eloquent obfuscation – expressed with ‘high confidence’ – has been the name of the game, but inadvertent admissions now are dispelling some of the clouds. …
“At President Obama’s Jan. 18 press conference, he admitted as much: ‘the conclusions of the intelligence community with respect to the Russian hacking were not conclusive as to whether WikiLeaks was witting or not in being the conduit through which we heard about the DNC e-mails that were leaked.’” [Emphasis added]
Explaining the Technology
More importantly, Putin in his interview with Kelly points out that “today’s technology” enables hacking to be “masked and camouflaged to an extent that no one can understand the origin” of the hack. “And, vice versa, it is possible to set up any entity or any individual that everyone will think that they are the exact source of that attack. Modern technology is very sophisticated and subtle and allows this to be done. And when we realize that we will get rid of all the illusions. …”
Hillary Clinton at the Code 2017 conference on May 31, 2017.
Later, when Kelly came back to the issue of hacking, Putin expanded on the difficulty in tracing the source of cyber attacks.
“Hackers may be anywhere,” Putin said. “There may be hackers, by the way, in the United States who very craftily and professionally passed the buck to Russia. Can’t you imagine such a scenario? In the middle of an internal political fight, it was convenient for them, whatever the reason, to put out that information. And put it out they did. And, doing it, they made a reference to Russia. Can’t you imagine it happening? I can.
“Let us recall the assassination of President Kennedy. There is a theory that Kennedy’s assassination was arranged by the United States special services. If this theory is correct, and one cannot rule it out, so what can be easier in today’s context, being able to rely on the entire technical capabilities available to special services than to organize some kind of attacks in the appropriate manner while making a reference to Russia in the process. …”
Kelly: “Let’s move on.”
However carefully Megyn Kelly and her NBC colleagues peruse The New York Times, they might well not know WikiLeaks’ disclosure on March 31 of original CIA documents showing that the agency had created a program allowing it to break into computers and servers and make it look like others did it by leaving telltale signs (like Cyrillic markings, for example).
The capabilities shown in what WikiLeaks calls the “Vault 7” trove of CIA documents required the creation of hundreds of millions of lines of source code. At $25 per line of code, that amounts to about $2.5 billion for each 100 million code lines. But the Deep State has that kind of money and would probably consider the expenditure a good return on investment for “proving” the Russians hacked into Democratic Party emails.
In other words, it is altogether possible that the hacking attributed to Russia was actually one of several “active measures” undertaken by a cabal consisting of the CIA, FBI, NSA and Clapper — the same agencies responsible for the lame, evidence-free report of Jan. 6, that Clapper and Brennan acknowledged last month was not the consensus view of the 17 intelligence agencies.
There is also the issue of the forensics. Former FBI Director James Comey displayed considerable discomfort on March 20, explaining to the House Intelligence Committee why the FBI did not insist on getting physical access to the Democratic National Committee’s computers in order to do its own proper forensics, but chose to rely on the examination done by the DNC’s private contractor, Crowdstrike.
The firm itself has conflicts of interests in its links to the pro-NATO and anti-Russia think tank, the Atlantic Council, through Dmitri Alperovitch, who is an Atlantic Council senior fellow and the co-founder of Crowdstrike.
Strange Oversight
Given the stakes involved in the Russia-gate investigation – now including a possible impeachment battle over removing the President of the United States – wouldn’t it seem logical for the FBI to insist on its own forensics for this fundamental predicate of the case? Or could Comey’s hesitancy to demand access to the DNC’s computers be explained by a fear that FBI technicians not fully briefed on CIA/NSA/FBI Deep State programs might uncover a lot more than he wanted?
Former FBI Director James Comey
Comey was asked again about this curious oversight on June 8 by Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr:
BURR: “And the FBI, in this case, unlike other cases that you might investigate — did you ever have access to the actual hardware that was hacked? Or did you have to rely on a third party to provide you the data that they had collected?”
COMEY: “In the case of the DNC, and, I believe, the DCCC, but I’m sure the DNC, we did not have access to the devices themselves. We got relevant forensic information from a private party, a high-class entity, that had done the work. But we didn’t get direct access.”
BURR: “But no content?”
COMEY: “Correct.”
BURR: “Isn’t content an important part of the forensics from a counterintelligence standpoint?”
COMEY: “It is, although what was briefed to me by my folks — the people who were my folks at the time is that they had gotten the information from the private party that they needed to understand the intrusion by the spring of 2016.”
Burr demurred on asking Comey to explain what amounts to gross misfeasance, if not worse. Perhaps, NBC could arrange for Megyn Kelly to interview Burr to ask if he has a clue as to what Putin might have been referring to when he noted, “There may be hackers, by the way, in the United States who very craftily and professionally passed the buck to Russia.”
Given the congressional intelligence “oversight” committees’ obsequiousness and repeated “high esteem” for the “intelligence community,” there seems an even chance that – no doubt because of an oversight – the CIA/FBI/NSA deep-stage troika failed to brief the Senate “oversight committee” chairman on WikiLeaks “Vault 7” disclosures – even when WikiLeaks publishes original CIA documents.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He is a 27-year veteran of the CIA analysis division and was chief of its Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and prepared the President’s Daily Brief for Nixon, Ford, and Reagan.
She should stay in Russia.
Dear Mr. McGovern:
Were your observations based on the heavily censored version of the interview, or are you referring to the unedited version one can watch on YouTube wherein Putin had a few choice words of his own on. :)
Ray McGovern is spot on But see Bill Binney (ex NSA) and Robert David Steele (ex-CIA) They blew this hacking meme out of the water long ago.
With fantastic articles such as this. It’s no wonder we love you so much Mr. Ray McGovern. You speak the truth.
And the Truth Will Set Us Free….
“You did a good job at the funeral getting rid of everyone,” Doc Rivers said to me, giving me the once over. “Elizabeth was proud of you. She left you a lot. Try not to screw anything up.” Doc hugged me. “Liz and I were the best of friends. Call me if you nee anything. I better not have to come back here.” He glared at Zach, then left through the same gate he entered.
Now What? I asked myself. “Zach?” I sat down again next to him on the chaise. HE opened his eyes, hooked his arm around my neck, wound his fingers in my hair and pulled me into a kiss. “ Lightning shot through my body. “Zach, stop,” I murmured, though stopping was the last thing I wanted. “ I was thinking about what it would be like to have sex with him right here on the chaise.
“No. I’ll recover faster.”
Crazy in Paradise
We’re good at getting rid of them faster and she’ll recover faster without being handled by grabby creeps. One thing is certain Hope, it’s going to get lots crazier in Paradise. Buy a new blender and get booze in it! Young know the rules and we rule it out because we know the exceptions. He’s crazy in Panama with a leaking bank and a story.
What’s worse than a snowless, sub-tropical winter Olympics like the one that just wrapped up in palm tree-lined Sochi this weekend? Feb 13, 2014 – Resort-style temperatures have prompted complaints from Olympians about slushy conditions; ‘I don’t know if it’s snow or mud’
IT’S SNOWING IN MIAMI AND THE MIAMI MICE ARE ON THE CASE!
That was the worst games in history. Now he has a slush fund for the future. Find a lush and take the fifth. Don’t throw mud, they are already bogged down in it. To know Hope is to love her.
It’s serious but also funny how scared the media and Powers that Be are of McGovern. Nobody will give him the time of day. But they’ll put Megyn Kelly on to push propaganda. Now she’s putting Alex Jones on. Will he say something sick like all recent terrorist attacks and US shootings were “false flag” operations?
Let’s look ahead to when all of these investigations are done. What will these people and agencies do when there’s finally NO ABSOLUTE PROOF that Putin manipulated the election? The military industrial complex and intelligence agencies have mega billion dollar budgets. They have to have an enemy to justify their existence. Now, Putin’s no longer their whipping boy. Who’s next?
She helped with the Ray Ban project. The travel ban flopped. Travel is fatal to bias, hatred and all sorts of other disorders. Putin has helped with Syria and the support a tyrant project. That’s like the demand for new bank deals in Panama. Bums can pass the hat to keep ruined governments afloat. It’s a Panama hat and they should be handed their heads. The Ray Ban can’t be beat. Trump is in a slump beating Trump. Can’t blame us. Blame the mirror. Lawyering for Watergate was shoveling smoke and Trump digs coal. That’s them apples.
More baseball players defeat themselves than are defeated by competition, thanks to slumps. Connie Mack nailed it. Trump slump growing worse, so he’s reaching out to Russia. Comey is bearing up well. Hope is having an endless flight. That’s the old ball game and you don’t play it, it plays you. Be well.
To begin with no one in the US Government is the least bit interested in looking for the facts or truth. The Intelligence Agencies just like the President get their marching orders from the Deep State and thats that. So why agonize over this kerfuffle, it is just smoke and mirrors, bluster and nothing else. Oh and don´t worry the Deep State is not going to order war on Russia, That is off the table because they know full well they they would be wiped out in a radioactive cloud as well as the great unwashed that they usually use for cannon fodder.
How else to explain President Putin´s cool attitude to this latest US storm in a teapot. He knows that the US does not have the resources and or the stomach for a war against his advanced conventional military and superior nuclear arsenal.
Oh and that vaunted missile defence system that the US likes to haul out? I see they did a test on a missile that was a planned shootdown just in the last couple of days.. In these controlled tests where everthing is known, the location of the launch, the time of the launch, the trajectory of the missile, the speed etc. they military has only been successful in shooting down , or effecting the trajectory of missiles 50% of the time. Think about that . Even if the Russians and or Chinese were to provide the US Military with the location of every launch, the speed and trajectory of the missile plus the exact time of the launch, the US could at best only stop those missiles 50% of the time. And thats why all of this bluster on Russia will just fade away. The Deep State knows full well that there would be no such thing as a safe place to hide in a nuclear exchange. Oh and that ” Better Dead Than Red” rhetoric you used to hear during the Cold War? That was only from US politicians and military people that knew that that war was not going to happen. It was for local consumption, nothing else. Those Fat Cats are not contemplating mass suicide.
You really can’t expect Megyn Kelly to ask a smart question. Greasy canards, yes.
Wonderful article! I’ll try to get my liberal/progressive friends to read Ray McGovern’s writings! Keep the faith! Keep on writing!
“If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.” — Leo strauss
It is not only the press that has become an enemy of the people, it is the entire US government! If these vipers believe they will succeed, they will have some harsh lessons handed to them. This Republic is dead, it has been murdered and not by the people.
The press has become an enemy of the people. They deliver news that confuses and dis-informs or doesn’t tell us the whole story.
https://youtu.be/QwiUVUJmGjs?t=415
Ron Wyden’s youtube video with Clapper and Mueller – the second segment of this 7 minute video, at about 6 minutes into the segment features the magnificent Clapper “tell” – the nervous head scratching….
Both gentlemen are noticeably uncomfortable about having to face Wyden’s questions. It’s fascinating to watch Mueller’s fidgeting and discomfort as Clapper faces a tough question. And Clapper tries to get Wyden to ask Mueller the question. THEY KNOW.
And they appear to be in an extremely uncomfortable position knowing that somehow they’ve let themselves be dragged into breaching the public trust.
It would be an amusing TV’s Batman episode, replacing these officials with the Joker or the Penguin, if it weren’t so damn serious…..
Of course the Joker and the Penguin never felt any discomfort or remorse – but they worked for themselves instead of the peoples’ government.
The news today is that Congress is closing the last gate barring any possibility of Détente. You have to be impressed how the strategy played out from criminalizing contacts with Russians to now creating new sanctions which Trump cannot overcome in dealing with Russia. All those generals and wannabe generals can rest easy, the military is still a growth industry and the same for the ‘security” folks. Mattis had it right if the report in the Yahoo “news” is correct. Putin sees himself as a strategic competitor. Dangerous for Russia, hopeful for the world.
Ray: Thanks for the analysis. Always appreciate your insight.
Leslie F (regarding op-eds in the corporate media):
I believe the corporate media agenda will not permit a significant exposure of alternative viewpoints. By design they present their followers with a unified declaration of what to believe. If 17 intelligence agencies sounds impressive, they won’t want to cut back to only 3. Cracks in their wall are not welcome.
Wisdom arises from a mix of intention, experience, knowledge, and patience, and is synthesized internally – it cannot be imposed. Perhaps situational awareness, in the broadest sense, is similar. If so, it must originate from a spark of awareness within, and any attempt to force it from without will fail. It may be even worse. If disinformation can be considered “evil,” perhaps Jesus’ puzzling words “…resist not evil…” apply. By countering, or resisting, the “evil” held by someone steeped in disinformation, the response is nearly always for them to dig in even deeper, so the result is opposite to that desired.
If that’s right, the path to enabling another to be receptive to independent analysis lies with that spark of awareness that may be within. Recognition of a single, perhaps trivial, contradiction between the corporate media and a previously held conviction might be enough to start a cascade of revelations.
As an aside for those not privey to the behind the scenes of network TV, let me just say this: I don’t want to speak ill of the deceased but it was widely know Mr Alies had no journalistidtic background. When he would pick a talking head, he would watch a person with the audio turned down, and just look at their presence and facial expressions. I know this from personal experience.
As a result we have the likes of Megan Kelly who looks great on camera (although they wanted her to lose weight) and the lips forming out of her brain meant nothing. Having been trained in this environment for years it is no wonder the brain lags behind the pre-prescribed questions, and with a producer in her ear I’m sure she is near illereate regarding the reply of her guests.
Having also worked for NBC I perceived they wanted a setup, not a discussion (instant $ ratings) I’m glad that Putin made the comment, which was deleted from most broadcasts, that he said ‘ look at a USA reporter here, she “thinks” about a question and yet has no knowledge of the subject matter at hand.
NBC went for bucks and ratings, and unfortunately got a similar trained reporter who tries to look good while hefting the baggage of years of Foxs’ lack of information and tacky questions. ” Are you a Liberal?, well, what do you know?”
Quite a shame and now Megan needs to school herself, grow, and learn about the real world and not the Fox lies.
I am still not quite sure she even heard a Putin reply since she was more focused on her next question. Best question: Mr Putin, do you think the NSA, CIA, or FBI hacked the emails? And why do you think the content of those email were never a part of network news in the US?
Go back to school Megan, and do yourself a favor. Get a hypnotist to,clears your Fox brain and the travel the world and talk to people, and also listen to their replies. Suggestion.
Thank you Ray. I had mentioned the technicals issues in previous comments regarding the vault 7 release. Since many people don’t understand the technonogy and how intricate it is, many are thrown off the tracks or simply criticise what they don’t understand about the 1s and 0s which have taken over many systems in our lives.
Thank you for finally referencing vault 7 as it is not often mentioned. Combine that technology with the fact the NSA, or CIA etc can act as an imposter for any hack happening in the world should be constantly understood and constantly repeated. Did the NSA hack the Podesta emails? It’s anyone’s guess. And then bring in the ex-bosses of these organizations, who have lied under oath before to congress, as witnesses for other malfeasance is beyond understanding. Bring in a known perjurer to back up an issue of certain political gamesmanship is an issue which defies understanding, and yet these people,who have contributributed falshoods are now held in some esteem, and are even witnesses to congress. It is madness.
Yes, let the press keep on quoting McCain and Graham as if they didn’t lie about Iraq before the war in Iraq and somehow they are now a legitimate source. Too bad the third of their triad, Lieberman, didn’t get back into a possible key position. That would have been even more icing of lies.
Please keep on keeping on Ray to cut through the mountain of BS which is common out of Washington every day, to the discredit of any one who wants to be a patriot of this fallen land.
Thanks, “Curious!” ray
Thank you, Realist, that NBC hatchet job on Putin’s intelligent answers hadn’t been cited, and thanks to Gilbert Doctorow for his letter, which probably wasn’t of concern to NBC. What a travesty. Americans are allowing themselves to be treated like juveniles by this government and its presstitutes. Surely more people are becoming aware of the deception than media let on, I would like to think.
I did not watch Ms. Kelly’s opus on the TV, but Gilbert Doctorow has characterised it as a cut-and-paste hatchet job on the actual interview she did with Putin that basically reduces it all to more anti-Russian propaganda.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/nbc-butchered-putins-thoughtful-responses-megyn-kelly-good-ratings-and-warmongers/ri20062
Apologies if anyone else has cited this. I didn’t have time to read the comments here.
The MSM and Democrats get away with this line because the rebuttals never appear in the MSM and most people didn’t have time to watch the hearings themselves. Kelly herself probably doesn’t know any better. The only way to change the discourse it to force the issue. McGovern and Parry and anyone else with the journalistic or intelligence credentials to be taken seriously should be flooding the NYP, WaPo and any other nationally known outlets with well documented op-eds setting the record straight. Consortium News is great, but the word isn’t getting out to the wider audience.
Leslie-
The FCC did away with the fairness doctrine under Reagan. The media is under no obligation to present an opposing point of view, so they don’t. Anything Parry or McGovern would submit would be tossed right into the trash (probably even shredded first- just to make sure.)
Leslie F – I’ve gone on other sites and have been immediately attacked when I’ve posted links to this site. Out came the paid-for trolls. Whenever I’d make a comment, there’d be at least ten of them come in right behind me (with the stupidest one-line comments) in order to bury my post underneath a sea of nonsense.
Then when I’d post again at the top, it would say that’s a “duplicate post”, so I had to change my introduction to the link just slightly. Well, I got good at it after while and I had them chasing me. As I’m a fast typist, I started to play their game, just posting one-line statements, and the funny thing is that they couldn’t keep up with me.
I’m wondering if anybody else is on these sites except for the paid trolls who quickly denounce anyone who doesn’t agree. Thanks for the reminder. I think I’ll visit one of these sites now. Leslie, it would be good if you could get Consortium News’ links out too; we all should. Thanks, Leslie.
Leslie F,
How we have tried! But, alas, we are ostracized. Sometimes I think that the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves — that we somehow lack enough imagination to force ourselves into the media. Just don’t know. ANYONE GOT ANY IMAGINATIVE IDEAS? ray
Forcing balance into the media requires force, because mass media are controlled completely by oligarchy. To restore democracy, we must secure constitutional amendments to restrict mass media and election funding to limited individual contributions, but that requires exactly those tools of democracy, mass media and elections, controlled by oligarchy.
I am advocating a College of Policy Analysis/Debate to provide textual debate among university experts of all policy issues in all regions, protecting all viewpoints, and to provide public summaries commented by all sides. This would make the truth available widely to those who seek it. But the means of education cannot succeed where actively opposed by interest groups such as oligarchy, which now hide the truth more systematically and effectively that at any time in history.
Unfortunately, once corrupted by oligarchy, democratic institutions cannot be restored peacefully, as scores of commentators have observed throughout history. The oligarchs and their tyrants know only the language of force, and only force will remove them. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, and the US has not been vigilant. TJ “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” We await only the circumstances that will compel that, and can only set up the parties and institutions, and make the observations, that will be discovered then, and will guide the great Restoration.
Institutional bureaucracy of truth?
People believe what they want to believe. State propaganda, when well crafted always works. (Think Germany 1943.) Empires eventually collapse under the weight of their own inconsistencies.
I have to hand it to you Ray you’ve been around for quite sometime, and you never give up. You are an inspiration, and I find you amazing. Didn’t wish to embarrass you, but sometimes the truth needs said…isn’t that what we are talking about here? The Truth. Joe
Thank you, Ray. Interesting that I had just mentioned that contradiction to a friend today — that I believed Judy Woodruff and I knew Hillary had continued to say “17 agencies.” So it was particularly nice to see you writing the same thing, which I forwarded to her along with your credentials. Maybe you’ll have another follower, like me — but I doubt it.
One thing that’s hard to swallow — How is it that no one has arrested these Federal Agent testifiers to Congress who fully admit how they have misled the public, stirred up a frenzy with the flimsiest next-to-nothing evidence on Russia leaking? Why isn’t something done about unmaskers? How does Comey get by with leaking information to the press? (I would be, have been, furious with friends who disclosed private conversations I’ve had with them, but they’ve never leaked to the press!) And here’s a thought. If Trump asked Comey for loyalty, surely included in that was a request that Comey “…do all in his power to find the WH, CIA, FBI, Obama-left-over leakers.” (That’s what I would have meant by that request.) And one more, the most terrible of all — How cruel is it to be telling Trump personally that he is not under investigation three times, but fail to clear that up with everyone else, but ntentionally leaving the opposite impression in the imagination of Congress, MSM, and the very gullible, of which there are so many! Is there anyone other than Trump who knew he was not under investigation according to Comey? I surely was deluded. How can we bring closure/sanity to this?
Today I had lots of thoughts and questions! Too many, but… Why? What’s going on? Oh, I forgot: “People prefer to believe a lie than to know the truth.” And there’s the media-money angle. But not here on CN, thank God!
thanks, virginia. you make good points….all of them. ray
Really good to hear you say that. I’m still a bit shy here making any comment among some of the brightest scholars and analysts congregated anywhere.
Ray I’m always pleased to see your by-line. I know I’ll get honest reporting. But this time I have to ask – WHY didn’t you at least mention the fact that Assange has said at least twice (or is it three times?) That what Wikileaks received was not from Russia or any one connected to Russia? Why not say that??!!
Perhaps you think everyone knows that, which is hardly the case, or do you think Assange couldn’t possibly know? Why wouldn’t you mention what is possibly one of the most important pieces of information in this affair? Despite all the hooha pro and con on whether Assange is a hero or not, no one reputable so far has accused him of being a liar. And it is most unusual for him to give out any information on sources, so I’m guessing that the reason he did in this case is because the uproar was getting serious and possibly leading to war, and he hoped to calm it down by informing the world it wasn’t the Russians, even though he kept the actual source a secret.
Of course he wasn’t to know that the MSM would totally ignore him, just as they have ignored others like Theodore Postal for example who have presented strong arguments or evidence that the MSM doesn’t like.
Well, I don’t need to go on about this, but I do hope next time you will at least mention the fact in passing that Assange says it isn’t the Russians. We are a country of amnesiacs – we often don’t remember what happened last month or last week. Sometimes I think Americans are all in the primary stages of Alzheimers. We have no idea of our past history, either from decades ago to last year to last week. You need to keep repeating the salient facts (just like the MSM keeps telling the same lies over and over – e.g. Megan Kelly and the 17 secret services who all “agree”) or you will be drowned out or, lets face it, simply not believed.
Considering the amounts of Glyphosate we are ingesting…i wouldnt be surprised if half of us suffer from Alzheimers…the other half of us suffer from autism…also Glyphosate induced…
Ray was focusing on the “17 agencies” lies rather than reviewing the entire issue.
Ranney, I am guilty, as charged. It DOES need to be repeated every time. Thanks. Ray
The corporate media are a farce. Their forte is propaganda and canards.
They are not reporting the evidence of the criminality of those in power, past and present, that should be on trial for war crimes.
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/06/the-most-evil-crimes-of-21st-century.html
If I remember correctly, Kelly used the ’17 agencies’ meme while she was ‘moderating’ the panel
(i.e. scolding Putin like some crotchety schoolmarm upset with a supposedly dimwitted student)
at the Economic Forum, in front of some 4,000 witnesses. She was an absolute embarrassment.
Yes, Irina. I remember Putin kept his calm. It tells something about him. The level Kelley, and the rest of them have sunk to is abominable.
Yes Putin actually has a grip on the technological issues behind this. They really aren’t all that complex to understand. But don’t expect the same from the low-intelligence US news media. And likewise, don’t expect Hillary Clinton or Obama to know much about it either. It’s OK to be stupid in the United States, as a matter of fact many are quite proud to be stupid.
Kelly used a well-worn technique frequently employed by mainstream media personalities. As a lawyer, she knows it’s unscrupulous and deceitful, but the average viewer is completely scammed by the trick. It works like this: Confront the interviewee with a false narrative and ask him to comment. It’s not really even a question. In court, it would be shredded by a competent defense lawyer. OBJECTION: leading the witness, facts not established by the evidence, asking the witness for an opinion, asking the witness to comment on hearsay, etc. Nearly all the “legacy” media prostitutes use this trick. Christiane Amanpour recently began an interview with a lead-in about Assad “gassing his own people”, or some such nonsense. Putin didn’t do too badly. The ideal response would have been, “You’re asking me to comment on a false statement.” He did the next best thing. By pointing out that, since US intelligence agencies commit political assassinations, nothing they say has any credibility.
The American public is gullible enough to swallow patently false narratives. Media outlets coordinate in a way that the public hears the same lies from every major source. But foreign intelligence agencies are not in the least beguiled by these farcical versions of the truth. The common objection is, “Well, somebody would have talked.” That’s right, and somebody did “talk”. Robert F. Kennedy sent a personal envoy to Kruschev to explain the family’s belief that JFK had been killed by government conspirators. Not, mind you, that Kruschev couldn’t have figured that out based on surveillance of Lee Oswald during his bumbling attempt to pose as a defector.
About a dozen board certified forensic pathologists have examined the autopsy evidence in the Robert Kennedy assassination. They all conclude that RFK was killed by a shot fired between one and two inches from behind his right mastoid. No less a credible witness than John Pilger was standing a few feet away, and confirms that the shot was fired from behind, not from the front by Sirhan Sirhan. Foreign governments simply do not believe American fairytales. That enhances the potential for nuclear war. They realize that they cannot trust a single word we say. They know that. Because the truth is obvious to anyone willing to examine the evidence. We only fool ourselves.
As a lawyer, she knows it’s unscrupulous and deceitful, but the average viewer is completely scammed by the trick.
But Kelly was no match for Putin who is much better informed.
The American public is gullible enough to swallow patently false narratives.
The American public, of course, was the target of Kelly’s and MSDNC’s charade which helps to explain why they and their counterparts on other channels never have guests like Ray McGovern who wouldn’t let them get away with their scams.
Sanford – yes, what’s needed is some good expert testimony, people like Ray McGovern and William Binney, but they’d probably be rejected. Let’s put Crowdstrike on the stand so that their evidence can be examined and shredded for the bull it is. Who deemed them to be an expert witness?
Well said, thanks.
Interesting info on the JFK-RFK matter. Very true that the mass media scams “would be shredded by a competent defense lawyer” and that “foreign governments … cannot trust a single word we say.” The oligarchy dark state and their mass media fool some of the people and threaten the others to silence opposition.
Will history bring a return of powerful unions, veterans angry to have served rackets, and a major depression sending militias of the poor into gated communities, and suicide bombers to take out mass media facilities, so that oligarchy yields power to another FDR or JFK? Or will they just assassinate him, hire the poor to spy and infiltrate any militias, and provide minimal bread and circus and lies via mass media. The technology of oligarchy totalitarianism is now very well developed and practical.
sanford…..
well said…..
i think the well worn technique is called “the straw man”
or the term i think is better…..the “so when did you stop beating your wife?” question…..
Ray McGovern – great article, Ray! “In comments on May 31, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton repeated the canard, with a flourish, saying: “Seventeen agencies, all in agreement, which I know from my experience as a Senator and Secretary of State, is hard to get.”
Hillary Clinton always reminds me of the song “Crazy Talk”:
She talk crazy talk
She don’t mean a word she says
She talk crazy talk
She could make a man a ruin
And if you fall for her lies
In awhile you will find
You can dance, you can sing
Like a puppet on a string
But you ain’t in control of a single thing
She talk mumbo jumbo
Monkey on your back
She talk crazy talk
She could make a man a ruin
Hillary, what’s hard for some people to get is the fact that you’re bat-sh*t crazy!
Thus the reason all evidence relating to the Seth Rich murder has been blocked from public view. If the truth of that story were told, the whole hacking by the Russian’s BS would go out the window. The info was leaked, not hacked. When WaPo has a $600 million contract with the CIA, all bets are off. We know where the fake news is coming from and it certainly isn’t coming from ConsortiumNews. Good article to this point: https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-mainstream-media-has-no-business-bitching-about-conspiracy-theories-a6139899c024
Something to remember, if ever the FBI warrants to confiscate your computer, tell them you will have your own private contractor examine it. I mean isn’t that what the FBI did for Hillary setting a precedent, or is this another fine example of special treatment, and not meant for the general public at large?
If there were a real desire to find out how Wikileaks acquired the Hillary/Podesta/DNC emails, then why isn’t there a formal FBI investigation going on to find out what happened to Seth Rich? Especially since Julian Assange posted a 20k reward for information leading to who may have murdered this poor 27 year old DNC communications worker. Ignoring Seth’s fate is proof there is no real investigation to how Wikileak’s got the Hillary emails, or any other emails. What this is all about, is demonizing Putin and Russia…period!
Ray’s informing us of the cost of 100 million line code, is jaw dropping. Imagine what could be done with that 2.5 billion dollars, but no instead we chase after pretend demons, as if that was all there were to worry about. We have certainly lost our way as a nation, and the sooner we realize our lost the sooner we as a nation can work towards becoming a part of the world, as opposed to our being uniquely exceptional.
Now there are several reasons to boycott Comcast (which owns NBC):
They’re paying Megyn Kelly $18 million a year to push really boring and false Putin propaganda.
Megyn Kelly interviews racist Alex Jones. NBC News now thinks that Jones is “a legitimate news source”.
MSNBC wants to be right wing like Fox? Why? So they can steal Fox’s on-air people and their subscriber
fee revenue.
Comcast pays their on-air people a LOT of money. In return, these talk hosts (they are NOT “journalists”) do
as they’re told.
Andy Lack (chairman of NBC News) is desperate to make NBC news “center” (right wing) to please Trump and
get access to him. What’s next? Hire Alex Jones?
is alex jones a racist? where the heck did you get that? infowars, his news outlet is legitimate and has broken scores of stories over the years that have proven accurate.
alex jones is many things. racist and illegitimate are silly names to attack someone with when you provide no proof of such.
my guess is that you have never actually looked at the website or listened to the radio show.
and no, nbc will not hire him. kelly did a hit piece ,most likely ,which people like you will lap up as proof of his mis deeds and yet still you will not have done any research yourself.
must be nice to have your news spoon fed to you. i once did. now i’m smarter.
I listened the “Interview” of Putin with Kelly (NBC). My Russian is more than perfect (I’m the ex-editor-publisher whatever.English is my 3-rd language).I didn’t live in Russia for many decades,and I don’t want to be “involved” what’s going on there. But…I would like to be objective to say that I was so impressed to hear Putin’s answers-explanations (that it positively 100% the plain truth)to NBC Host.
She seems to me so naively helpless despite her anxiously wishes to “catch” Russian President as lying. No way! Vladimir Putin shown himself as the more democratic Leader of the new democratic Russia. Actually, the normally mentality people are absolutely positively sure that the “Russian’s involvements” in Election 2016 is a big fat ugly lie,and myth which the failed defeated Democratic Party would continue to practicing non-stop ugly way against the President Donald Trump to interrupt his great projects and deeds to help USA recovered after the Obama’s “Vandalism”.The Dems must be so ashamed to create such dirty fake and lies! Bravo,Mr. Putin! I meant about his bright answers!
Megan Kelly must now also be considered a potential traitor, having met with a Russian. And with the evil Master himself! She should of course be summoned to Congress, interrogated about her exact wording of every contact in her past life with anything remotely Russian.
Way off topic but I need to ask because I am curious and have never had the opportunity to ask this before, but how accurately did the Russian translator translate Putin’s responses into English?
John,
Good question. The translation from Putin’s Russian into English is not idiomatic and not very good. At the same time, it is not inaccurate and it is issued by the President’s office as the “official” Russian record of the interview. A whole lot can be learned from Putin’s body language in one of the versions I watched, in which the Russian can be heard loudly and distinctly.
The Russian expression ???? ?????-?? that Putin uses three times is translated as “nonsense.” I checked into that, watched the available videos again, and also picked the brains of some native Russian friends. They confirmed my impression that ???? ?????-?? is stronger than “nonsense;” rather, meaning raving, behaving insanely or drunk-as-a-skunk or like a lunatic. Still, Putin does not raise his voice as he utters those words, but remains measured.
Ray
Unlike the CIA/NSA hacking programs, consortiumnews.com’s fonts for COMMENTS apparently cannot insert Cyrillic.
For what worth, the Russian words are rendered phonetically as “bred takoy-to.” Try it out on your Russian friends. :))
Ray and John-
Thank you for this insight. I never thought to question the accuracy of the translation, and I was a Communications major in college. Yikes! Sometimes I am still amazed by my own stupidity.
hello mr. mcgovern,
i have followed your anti war activities and articles for years and have a high regard for you and your work in the public sphere. i am impressed that you are actually commenting on your own article here. it’s rarely seen from someone of your stature. i have been following this crazy new mccarthyism taking hold while shaking my head in disbelief. i was also aware of almost all the facts in the article but you have added to my knowledge with a few tid bits that only an insider with a proven track record of setting the record straight can deliver.
i was wondering what you thought of other ex cia employees going on tv or writing articles in the main stream media that bolster this false narrative?
thanks, connie mack
Agreed, including as applied to what President Putin stated in the interview that NBC edited out of its broadcast version. Putin is fact based, with solid judgment, strong values and an unswerving commitment to his country and its people- qualities sorely lacking in our leaders.
I look forward to Oliver Stone’s unvarnished documentary, “The Putin Interviews’, beginning this evening at 9PM on HBO Showtime.
Ref: “Yulie Nomiss” when you click on the name you get the following: “Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.” The entry sounds credible, and yet I wonder at the credibility. No problem if you want to protect yourself through this type of entry, but it also raises my suspicions.
I clicked as well. Your browser is interpreting the string, “no website yet” as if it were a URL. Yulie obviously put that string in the website field when creating her account.
Nothing suspicious there.
Ray is my hero. I am defending him at OpEdNews.com (e.g., see https://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Ghost-of-Nixon-the-Ri-by-dale-ruff-Cover-ups_Crime_Denial_Fallacy-170609-621.html?show=votes#comment662805). There are a few there very determined to propagate the “Russia did it” meme.
What I’m learning is the meaning of Blind Hatred. Because of hatred of Trump, “they” can’t accept any comment in his favor or that would exonerate him in any area. Just think how enlightening it is to be learning that and how broadly that blindness of hatred can be applied; that is, to other things in your life that you’ve seen and witnessed of such a bizarre nature. It explains a lot, and also tells us what we’re up against.
The New York Times as to JFKs assassination….CONSPIRACY THEORY they basically yell it at anyone who points out the truth that the JFK murder was a hit/crossfire engineered by the Deep State and that Oswald was clearly a patsy — they yell it with the same intensity as we see with Trump….We can take it that they know the truth there is as threatening to them as what Trump said to them at his inauguration….
I have pointed out the facts presented in this article to friends who can’t seem to fully grasp the implications of the vault 7 releases. They keep saying “all the evidence”, and I keep saying “what evidence?” I remind them of “weapons of mass destruction”, and “all the evidence” back in 2002, and their eyes just glaze over. They think I’m a crazy “conspiracy theorist”.
I use Kaiser Aluminum tinfoil, what about you?
I hope it’s industrial strength:)
I’m strictly an Alcoa man myself.
Reynolds Wrap…but you have to fold it over double and make sure it’s grounded to a cold water pipe.
I use to think linking it to a beermeister was best.
The reaction I often get, too.
Except I suspect people don’t think we are crazy, I think they are guided by a gut fear, implicit or explicit, to find themselves in loyalty conflict with the official truth, friends, and employers.
Exactly. They are afraid to note to others that there is no evidence. But ever more see that it is a shallow basis of belief. When the issue is forgotten and later resurfaces, the immediate social demand for conformity will be forgotten, and some will have decided to reject it for lack of evidence.
Martin – You are right. Very good observation. If they – the People – start questioning The Corporate Employers, the Ruling Establishment and their version of Truths, or go against the Church Group, and other friends, their whole World, which they have carefully constructed, will unravel – in fact their very “Self” will start collapsing. Fritz Perls – kind of a Guru of Existentialist Psychology during 1960’s obliquely talks about it in his book “The Gestalt Approach and Eye Witness to Therapy”. I read the book when it came out around 1970.
There is lot of literature out there about this subject – Industrialization, Corporate State, and loss of Freedom. I watched on Youtube Vladimir Pozner , U.S./French/Russian Citizen and Talk Show Host, with Phil Donahue talking to this Club in Boston couple of years ago. Some body in the audience asked – What you have to say about the Capitalist System, do you think it is a good System. He shot back: ‘No, it is a bad system – a system where you lay off or kick a person with three kids out just like that with a days’ notice. I like Socialism. Communism as it is defined can not be achieved.’
After living more than half a century here, what I have observed tells me that with the loss of ownership of means of production, the people loose their freedom as well. They have to follow the line then. In a just Economic System, establishing some kind of Cooperatives may be the answer. People then will be free, truly. And there will be less Wars.
Dave,
Thanks for interesting perspectives and references!
‘their very “Self” will start collapsing. Fritz Perls – talks about it in his book “The Gestalt Approach and Eye Witness to Therapy”…never mind the Akashic record or remembering by returning to the event across the illusion of time…how can denial…and it’s flip side…rationalization…acceptance of the impossible myths…persist if we are not barred from simple knowing…when I told him “I don’t have the right concept” in a Gestalt therapy workshop on a dualistic world…Fritz was sitting across from me in and I was the odd attendee who paired w/ him…and he said “So that is the first position”…the second being the counterpart where we do have the right concept
Anyone in the US government or the media who claims to have unquestioning belief in the words of the professional liars and criminals at the FBI or NSA is also lying for their own purposes. Liars backing up liars does not merit much credence. The pretense of the intel agencies to be reliable sources of the truth is a laughable falsehood. Nevertheless those who merely want to hear anything that damns their political enemies, will believe any falsehoods and require no evidence whatever to support them.
You are so right. I was gagging when the trained liar Comet called Trump a liar. Such bitter irony.
It’s incredible that the MSM and the Democrat party is still trying to beat this horse to death! I guess it’s the only thing that will keep them in front of the public. (caveat: I’m not either connected or vote(ed) for either in 30 years).
The two major US political parties are like two streetwalkers fighting over the John’s money. Period. They are both dinosaurs but they don’t realize it…..yet.
Think Jay Leno doing “Monica Lewinsky” jokes a decade later … everybody knows their lines and (eyebrow wiggle) the punch line ….
If we ever find out what was done by whom we may eventually get around to determining what (if any effect) those actions/events had … on actual voters …. not on ruining the hope and dreams of Little-Rock-Hillary and her ascension-foretold to being “the first woman American president”
Interesting that Kelly said “Let’s move on” when Putin brought up JFK’s assassination as possibly arranged by US special services with “there is a theory… that cannot be ruled out”.
Nothing she wanted to get into with him….Who knows what Putin knows as to the CIA murdering Kennedy and what he might have said, no way she is going there….She got right out of there — she is not going to head into “Seth Rich” or “Oswald” Deep State territory not in those fancy clothes, sort of looked like a cocktail waitress at the Bada Bing in the one outfit…., and where she got herself to she is all about her not about the truth….
President Putin also sais, “yes, lets move on.”
He was visibly irritated that he was being asked the same question again and again, albeit almost differently worded.
He even sighs in mock desperation as she starts asking about Russian interference … AGAIN!
The FBI not getting, or even not asking, for direct access to the DNC hardware is the smoking gun against Comey.
Make that another smoking gun against Comey.
Apologies for the bad comma placement.
Bingo!
I don’t know whether or not the Russians stole and then released accurate emails from Podesta / DNC but our govt does not exactly build credibility when they march into Qatar and rubber stamp a fraudulent claim that ‘Russia hacked Qatar’s Al Jazeera’.
Kelly looked stupid because she kept going back to a dead end issue as if it was a ‘gothcha’ question. She read those banal generalities about how the ‘combination of digital fingerprints, blah-blah-blah’ and Putin politely told her that she didn’t understand what she was reading. The problem is that the 3 IC’s basically said, ‘we could tell you but we’d have to kill you, trust us’. Even the NYT said that the Jan report was unsatisfying but they believed it anyway so why did Kelly look like the cat that swallowed the Canary? It was just dumb and it consumed the entire interview.
Yep, no reason to ask about Ukraine or Syria or NATO buildup.