The key allegations of election meddling at the heart of Russiagate continue to lack supporting evidence, while on the other hand, evidence of overreach by investigators undermines the narrative of Trump-Russia collusion, reports Philip Giraldi.
By Philip Giraldi
The so-called Nunes Memo prepared for the Republican majority on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee – even if possibly overblown – provides strong reason to believe that there was unwarranted and quite possibly illegal FBI surveillance of a former Trump staffer over completely legal Russian business dealings. Meanwhile, regarding the key allegations of election meddling at the heart of Russiagate, the nine month-long investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Moscow’s possible interference has so far only shown that it was Israel rather than Russia that meddled with the campaign by meeting with Trump associates and seeking favors.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump – Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Notably missing is any evidence that the Russian government did anything beyond the usual probing that intelligence agencies worldwide do when confronted by important developments in another country that is either a competitor or adversary.
An aspect of the Republican memo that has been scarcely commented upon in the avalanche of news reporting centered on the story is how the mainstream media is continuing to exercise a dangerous obsession with Russia and is insisting that the Russiagate inquiry should continue even more aggressively in spite of the concerns that the entire process has been politicized. There is nothing in the memo itself that indicates that Moscow actually tried to recruit any Trump associate as an agent or interfere in the U.S. election. The raison d’etre for both the Congressional and Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigations therefore appears to be lacking. It might eventually emerge that Russia did little or even nothing beyond the usual probing and nosing around that intelligence agencies routinely do.
President Donald Trump, who had campaigned on a sensible pledge to seek better relations with Moscow, has provided only feeble resistance to the onslaught of the media and political class. He has recently allowed the Justice Department and Treasury to punish Russia’s two major news outlets operating in the United States, RT America and Sputnik. They both have been forced to register as foreign agents, even though no other non-American news service operating in the United States has been compelled to do the same, while new allegations about perfidious Moscow surface weekly.
Two recent news reports illustrate perfectly just how out-of-control the Russia inquiry has become. At the end of January, the U.S. Treasury Department released the names of 210 alleged Kremlin insiders, including government ministers, who were being included on a list for possible sanctions, though it was also announced that no sanctions would be put in place pending further ongoing review of the behavior of those individuals under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.
The so-called “Kremlin List” was clearly designed to put pressure on the inner circle of the Russian government as many of those named have major business ties with the United States and Western Europe that could be severely damaged through sanctions. The intention may have been to encourage those individuals to lessen their support for President Vladimir Putin in the upcoming Russian national elections on March 18.
The Kremlin List has significantly impacted internal Russian politics ahead of a major election and therefore could be seen as the U.S.’s own attempt at election-meddling. It comes on top of a British government claim that Moscow intends to rip British “infrastructure apart, actually cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths,” and create “total chaos within the country,” as well as a U.S. Senate report that alleges a two decade-long assault by Putin “on democratic institutions, universal values, and the rule of law across Europe and in his own country.”
The second story, which is more bizarre than the first, describes how Congressman Adam Schiff told a University of Pennsylvania audience that Russian-promoted ads during the 2016 election encouraged people to exercise their Second Amendment rights to own guns. Per Schiff, “the Russians would be thrilled if we were doing nothing but killing each other very day, and sadly we are.” So now the Russians, apparently, are responsible not only for Donald Trump getting elected, but also for the U.S. epidemic of gun violence.
Neither Congressman Schiff’s meanderings nor the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act serve any conceivable United States national interest – and the Nunes Memo demonstrates, if anything, that the evidence for Russian interference in the U.S. election is elusive at best.
If the alleged Russiagate conspiracy is never actually demonstrated, which looks increasingly likely, it would certainly disappoint the many American talking heads and media “experts” who have been building careers off of bashing Moscow 24/7, but it might also provide a window for the White House to fulfill its electoral promise to fix the Russia relationship.
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest. [This article originally appeared at Strategic Culture. Reprinted with permission.]
Nonsense. The Nunes memo is a joke. Just take the 90 seconds or so it takes to read it. We now know that the target of the FISA request, Carter Page, was touting himself as an ‘informal’ insider to the upper reaches of the Kremlin. Nunes picked a ridiculous example to make a point that he and almost all Republicans have ignored since 911, the eviceration of constitutional rights for the sake of “security.”
The new McCarthyism is dreadful. However, that flawed, damaging approach in no way absolves the Republicans of their full scale support of raging kleptocracy, partner abuse, and a cast of criminals the likes of which have not been seen since theTeapot Dome scandals.
The Nunes Memo is a worthless effort that only establishes his fealty to the orange Fuhrer and the lack of either intellectual heft and/or integrity of those that think otherwise. DO you even know what the “key allegations” of the investigation are? http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/russiagate The Nunes memo didn’t undermine a damn thing other than the integrity of those that say it did.
I have to agree with you Jim. Whatever Mueller or the FBI has done or not done, the memo is compromised by Nune’s involvement and also fails to do what it’s supposed to do.
For the sake of argument I will go with the proposition that, prior to the sanctions, affordable AK rifles and ammo were being flooded into America by (admittedly) private companies according to free market principles. If the motive of Russian companies for these exports go beyond profit and include the desire to “destabilize” America, to whom does responsibility for allowing such “destabilization” fall?
Schiff’s remark that “the Russians would be thrilled if we were doing nothing but killing each other every day” is meant to be incendiary and is bizarre on its face. That Russians would be thrilled if the American government and media moguls would stop demonizing their country and act like reasonable adults attached to reality and constructive purposes would be more to the point. The killing being done on this planet is most largely at the behest of American policymakers and the gun violence in our own country is our own social problem and responsibility. The Russians did have to kill vile terrorist mercenaries that uncle sam flooded Syria with as a matter of ethics, international responsibility, and concern for destabilization of their own country by spreading terrorism and Middle East destabilization (sponsored again by uncle sam and “friends” like Bandar and Bibi).
Your characterization of Trump supporters and the attempted tie-in to the Russians and gun violence is transparent. You either fail to understand a great deal or are lying by commission.
Calling Shiff’s statement bizarre without further discussion is in fact silly: it’s a fair subject to consider, even is the language is over the top inflammatory. I consider the weapons we send to other countries as being destabilizing and clearly that is often the intent behind it (weapons to Syria, Iraq, Israel and now, Africa might be examples) . The Russians do send a great deal of ordinance here. An associate of Putin’s does appear to have sent a whole lot of cash to the NRA, which functions as the most effective domestic support system for white power /alt right/ prepper/ free stater militia dipshits who want to legally stockpile offensive weapons and ammo (never mind the ATF’s new role in legalizing various types of concealable/rapid fire offensive weapons -see “bump stocks” and “pistol carbine wrist braces”). Even if all that money went to Trump’s campaign without Trump or the Russian’s knowledge , it’s not really helpful, is it? The weapons and ammo are and will be a factor in our civil unrest, and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t understand or is pretending not to notice what’s happening here. consider that the media fails to mention that white right wing folks commit most of the terrorism here and the Bundy gang have been given a get out of jail free card after defying the government while armed all we need now is a careless match to be lit…perhaps by our own cheeto colored Mussolini.
On the other matter of your contention,, Yes, Instead of calling them alt right Trumpers, maybe I should have called them ‘ the alt right guys who just happen to be really into Trump.’ Of course Trumpkin has done more than his share to communicate to them that he’s really into them too, although to be fair some of them have grown disaffected by his Jewish in-laws and inability to detain and deport nor finish the wall. Hard to say where you’re truly coming from Gregory, but if I were to take you at face value, I’d have to suspect you don’t know much about American gun culture nor have any idea how many extreme trump loving right wing people there are in this country who are extremely well armed and frequently express some very dangerous desires in a number of online forums, as well as on the bumper of their pickup trucks-even the poor ones are well outfitted, and they got that way with Russia’s help; whatever Russia’s intent may be. The fact is, the sanctions have done nothing to stop the cheap ammo coming into the country from Russia.
if I were Vladimir Putin; and lets say for the sake of argument, I was also pragmatic and patriotic leader who’s country was under an unwarranted low intensity attack by the United states and NATO(which they are, I’m sure you’ll admit)), I’d be pretty happy if the former soviet arms industry was to send as many cheap guns and long tons of small arms ammo into the US as they could. He’d be stupid not to, and lets face it, the KGB had nearly as much experience destabilizing other countries with weapons as the CIA did and does. I notice you have not mentioned that Russian NRA funding thing, but perhaps it was just an innocent attempt at keeping the Russian arms business restriction free rather than a way to fund trump’s campaign as some are saying.
In general, The problem I see here at consortium news is that while it is obvious the neocons are exploiting Russia-gate for lots of nefarious reasons, there is a dearth of comprehensive analysis of the many aspects of Trumpkin’s Russia thing. instead we concentrate on the weak stuff-the low hanging fruit the thug Mueller used to start in on Trumpkin. There is a odd habit here of pretending Russia isn’t doing everything is can to protect itself. After examining all the threads, the best you can say is, Trumpkin and his friends would use the power of the presidency to ease sanctions and pull other strings in order to make a shit pot of money without regard for anything else-this is a major weakness to be exploited and the Trumpkin gang are notoriously stupid and gullible. I can’t believe people actually pretend Trumpkin has some sort of altruistic desire to defrost the relationship between our countries. I can’t believe that Trumpkin’s dependence over the last 25 years on Russian cash hasn’t effected him in the same way Saudi oil and the Iraqi bourse corrupted Bush and Cheney. I can’t believe that Russia isn’t exploiting this, because they have always proven to be better at that sort of game than we have, and they have legitimate reason to do so.
With regard to ammunition imports:
“The top foreign manufacturer is the South Korean company Poongsan Corp., followed by bullet makers Fiocchi Munizioni of Italy and Prvi Partizan of Serbia, according to Panjiva. Poonsang’s bullets are imported by a California company called Topth, but the U.S. importer handling the largest supply of ammo is Eurosport of Texas.”
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/13/news/companies/ammo-imports/index.html
The demand for guns and ammo in the U.S. in high and the industry thrives. American manufacturers do well and, of course, face competition from foreign manufacturers. Imports and distributors of imports are regulated and there is no evidence for the counterintuitive suggestion that the market has been “flooded” by cheap imports from Russia. Your idea that danger of armed civil unrest in America has been exacerbated by cheap Russian imports and the “sly” way you attemp to connect Putin to such “thinking” is pathetic.
If there is to be some kind of armed uprising in the U.S. it won’t have anything to do with Putin or Russian “plots”. It will result from fear of, or contention with, our own government. There are potential and active instigators of “unrest” both for and against Trump. I would suggest that railroading Trump and elevating Pence could pose problems just as the next presidential election cycle likely will induce a good deal of social contentiousness as could widespread economic distress and other factors. Perhaps the PTB with their well-armed Department of Homeland Security have no compunctions when it comes to eliciting civil unrest and enacting more stringent social controls like martial law. If it comes to that (I’m not predicting such and have doubts and better hopes), I’d bet it won’t be a cheeto-colored fascist at the helm…it will be Pence or some other successor to Trump–Democrat or Republican.
Where do you get off saying there “is [an] odd habit here of pretending Russia isn’t doing everything is can to protect itself”? No one here is “pretending” any such thing. It’s just that we happen to possess a reality-based view of what that entails (and doesn’t entail). We are also not “pretending” that Trump has “some sort of altruistic desire to defrost the relationship between” the U.S. and Russia. A year ago we had hope that he possessed a constructive and pragmatic realism in relation to Russia and foreign policy in general…but that hope has long since vanished. The proof has been in the pudding and warmongering holds sway.
Go take your ham-handed “analysis” of the threads at CN and use it to spitshine your car. That’s about the worth of it.
Gregory-
Thank you for your heroic efforts against will. I have seen he and Jim here before, and they always spout MSM BS, and are immune to logical rebuttal. I can’t imagine why these folks are drawn to CN, since their views are basically the same as Rachel Maddow and Elliot Higgins, and contrary to almost all the authors and the vast majority of commenters here. I think they are either paid, or maybe just have masochistic tendencies. Anyway, it’s always good to see your insightful comments here.
Thanks to you too Skip for you efforts and insights. I guess “perception management” has been coming to CN in spades of late. Really bothers me these guys get paid to shill for what’s wrong in the world.
Oh…links! https://www.rt.com/usa/175652-kalashnikov-sanction-gun-sales/
https://modernrifleman.net/2017/06/21/molot-maker-of-vepr-rifles-named-in-russian-sanctions/
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-trump-russia-nra-connection-heres-what-you-need-to-know-w515615
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/campaign-finance-russia-funneling-dark-money-trump-nra
“The second story, which is more bizarre than the first, describes how Congressman Adam Schiff told a University of Pennsylvania audience that Russian-promoted ads during the 2016 election encouraged people to exercise their Second Amendment rights to own guns. Per Schiff, “the Russians would be thrilled if we were doing nothing but killing each other very day, and sadly we are.” So now the Russians, apparently, are responsible not only for Donald Trump getting elected, but also for the U.S. epidemic of gun violence.”
So wouldn’t this refer to news about that Russian Torshin guy giving a whole lot of money to the NRA? Also…any gun nut can pretty much confirm that the Russians are the premier source for cheap bulk ammo sales in the US. Bernaul, Wolf, RedStar ect are all former Russian government munitions factories. They specialize in military calibers already sealed in tin cans and rubberized “Battle packs” for long term storage. Prior to the sanctions they were flooding the country with very affordable AK 47 and AK 74 rifles under the names Saiga (before sandy hook Saiga AKs were priced at $250 per) and VEPR (more expensive but made to RPK SAW spec).
It may be that it’s simply a way these now privatized factories make money and provide jobs to Russians rather than an interest in destabilizing the US, but frankly, it’s not too hard to see that the Russian arms and ammo currently in this country could easily have that effect-until very recently, any alt right trailer trash trumper could afford a Russian AK, and can still afford to bury 10k rounds of ammo in the back yard . Thus anyone who calls Shiff’s remarks bizarre without considering whether or not he is misrepresenting the motives for flooding our country with cheap AK rifles is either failing to understand the subject or is lying through ommission
Very well-written and rational, Phillip.
Voices are beginning to sound unhinged on both sides.
That said, the post-election behavior of HRC is truly unprecedented in American history, and the results of her inability to relent are approaching crisis stage. I’ve yet to see any merit in her actions, or those of people, who continue to flog aggressive posturing against Russia. Most present-day Americans younger than 65 years old know nothing of the consequences of war, nor are they educated in History. An unfortunate mix for the future.
Remember when Bush, Sr.–in his trademark surly style–called Gore a “sore loser”? It was during the recount in Florida before the Supremes stepped in. I would suspend my revulsion for the crass vampire for ten seconds to see the same thing come out of his mouth regarding HRC. But of course the Clintons are “family” so that won’t happen.
How would some meeting between someone apparently representing Israel and someone from the Trump campaign, concerning something, add up to Israel “meddling with the campaign?” It is reasonable to assume (as it has always been the case) that many people from many countries communicate about many things (including their own nations’ leading interests) with the most viable US presidential candidates. The anti-Israel spiel goes into the same drawer as the anti-Russian spiel.
For what it’s worth, here are a couple of story titles about another memo.
WSJ Asks: Why Is The Media Ignoring The Real Bombshell FISA Memo?
by Tyler Durden Fri, 02/09/2018 – 16:11
The Grassley Letter Everyone Is Ignoring Is Way More Important Than the Nunes Memo
By JULIAN SANCHEZ February 09, 2018
h**ps://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-09/wsj-asks-why-media-ignoring-real-bombshell-fisa-memo
h**ps://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/09/the-grassley-letter-everyone-is-ignoring-is-way-more-important-than-the-nunes-memo-216956
The Nunes memo is an inkblot clearly depicting a huge rogue elephant. If the American public cannot discern this – then they belong in the loony bin!
PS – This may be your final test.
Unfortunately most progressives will not read the Nunes memo and simply will believe what it says based on the spin of MSN pundits. They are now too invested in the Trump colluded with Russia narrative to be bothered with the truth. We live in dangerous times I wonder how many progressives will be happy with a fiercely anti-Russian, Anti-Chinese, pro police State President Pence.
Do you think they’ll ever realize the degree to which they have been feeding into the second McCarthy Era? They learned nothing from Bush’s lies about “Iraq’s stockpiles of WMD.”
The Russian-interference propaganda is already moving on to the next stage with the announcement, presented without any supporting evidence because “national security,” is that Russian hackers tried to infiltrate voter registration databases in 21 states. This shocking discovery was nuanced by the DHS mouthpiece’s assuring us on a very few were actually penetrated, but per usual that qualifier is carefully buried.
This, of course, comes on the heels of the warnings from, of all people, the Republicans that we should be fearful of Russian interference in this fall’s mid-terms. Are they, one wonders, preparing to use the Democrats’ playbook should they lose too many seats to progressive Democrats? Inquiring minds want to know. Or will they instead blame any actual election fraud uncovered on Russia, despite the ample shown evidence there was enough of that perpetrated at the hands of the establishment parties without need of help from a foreign agency?
“…the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” —Hermann Goering
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” — Josef Goebbels
Yours in solidarity…
Much of Russiagate shows eerie parallels with Chinagate from 1996, although somehow the Clintons managed to dodge responsibility of taking campaign money from the Chinese (ie, “collusion” affecting the Election). Technology and jobs followed to China (whose money was well spent).
I have many Jewish friends who do not support Netanyahu or Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, and who work hard for peace and human rights. There is a vast difference between Zionism and Judaism. Your comment is racist and offensive.
Yes, disgusting.
Perhaps deliberate troll smearing.
Reread Andrea’s comment and substitute Zionists instead of Jews, e.g., ‘Ziongate’. That takes the ‘racism’ out of it and is on target. True practitioners, who revere the Torah and the prophets, reject Zionism as a betrayal of Judaism. See http://www.truetorahjews.org/mission. It is a very informative website.
I agree with Skip. Andrea Ostrov Letania’s post serves no purpose other than to defame Jews. I am Jewish, and I totally reject the racist policies of Netanyahu and the suppression of Palestinians. I am not anti-Israel. I am against policies I find abhorrent. I am also against anti-Semitism, and Letania is clearly a blatant anti-Semite.
Most of my Jewish friends hold views similar to my own. when it comes to the Netanyahu policies.
A thorough article deserving of wide spread reading! How to break through the mesmerized thought that so hates both Putin and Trump is the question. These latest tactics to influence the upcoming elections in Russia won’t have much impact, but thank you, Philip Giraldi, for clearly delineating their undeniable intent.
Virginia –
These tactics to meddle in upcoming election in Russia includes this platform of NBC ‘s coverage of these Winter Olympics which started yesterday in South Korea.
I watched some of it last night. At every turn some of the commentators were talking about Russia’s expulsion for these alleged doping by its athletes. On PBS news hour, the person covering the Olympics for PBS in S. Korea spent most her narrative on Russia. She simply could not contain her glee at Russia not being there. Quite a few Russian athletes are participating under UN flag. During the skating event last night, one of the two NBC broadcasters kept referring to them athletes from Russia – using the word Russia. The second one interrupted him telling him that Russia is not in the games. He continued doing it saying that it is easy to use word Russia instead of saying Russian athletes under UN flag.
Even during Soviet Times this much hatred towards everything related to Russia was simply not there. Politics was mostly kept away from Sports in those times. The Ruling Power Structure in U.S. – and in Western Europe too – has poisoned the whole atmosphere of human relations on Earth.
The political efforts to undermine Russia date back to at least 1980 with efforts each year to get the sanctioning bodies of various events to either not use the USSR or Russia as a venue or to scuttle the events when they were. It did not start with Sochi 2014 that the US news was harping on how bad the facilities were going to be and warning everyone not to go. They even set the State Department travel advisories to the highest risk level for visiting Russia so flat out announce Americans were told no to go. Despite the constant media harping about the site, the host country and how dangerous and evil it was, the games did very well without US citizens attending, in fact, are generally viewed as the best winter games ever. They are at it again with the World Cup warnings by US media and government giving strong warnings not to go to Russia for the games.
The US is pouring money into Russian opposition candidates, 67 have been certified as eligible. They picked the worst possible candidate to back most however and never vetted him, and along they never noticed his 2 federal large-scale financial crime convictions restricted him from running until 10 years after completing his sentences.
The ironic point is that the US flooding the candidates with money means a lot more candidates are running than normal resulting in the US being the primary funder of the entire campaign. Normally the campaigns are short and low cost because debates and media time are few for the 6 weeks of campaigning.
The only candidate they are not involved is the one in second place in the polls, the candidate representing the Communist Party.
“it was Israel rather than Russia that meddled with the campaign by meeting with Trump associates and seeking favors.”
Perhaps the biggest shock in my 60+ years. Israel, meddled, seeking, stupid, favors?
what I do not follow is why articles like this one, which sound very credible, do not include responses from media and political people who disagree with it.
I wonder, too. Perhaps it is like this: sites like this are tolerated because so few people read and discuss them. If an influential policitian or journalist would comment or make a rebuttal, that might give the site a lot of attention, and the politician or journalist might not unlikely end up looking like a fraud.
As long as people keep trusting the propaganda that is spread by the msm, I suppose there is little reason to pay any attention to this and other sites.
It is not easy to convince to a fellow citizen: “I know this is true, I read about on CN.”
Martin – Yes, that seems to be the case. Very astute observation.
What blows my mind is how Adam Schiff can tell an audience at a prestigious American university that Russian-promoted ads encouraged gun ownership so that more Americans would kill each other…and not be widely considered a laughingstock. The sheer asininity of what “gets play” these days makes me wonder what’s in our fricken water.
I totally agree Gregory. Adam Schiff has always struck me as a smarmy goody two shoes choir boy type who goes running to the teacher crying about some slight or another. I keep trying to tell myself that I’m being unfair and he’s really earnestly a good guy – and then I hear a story like this about something he’s said and I want to puke.
Maybe I’ll ask my friends in Calif what they think.
Ask them about this as well:
http://theduran.com/adam-schiffs-collusion-with-oligarch-ukrainian-arms-dealer-exposed/
“…makes me wonder what’s in our fricken water.”
That’s easy: Flouride. It’s a commie plot to contaminate our precious bodily fluids. *Everybody* knows that. Get with the program!
https://youtu.be/Qr2bSL5VQgM
I see what you’re getting at!
Excellent comment Gregory!
Honest in-depth debate will never be allowed on the MSM. It is Chomsky’s manufacturing consent in action. They allow lively debate within a very narrow spectrum, but they control the message on anything of vital importance. Another aspect of their propaganda is to have official sounding reports like the NIST report on 911, the Warren Commission report, The NTSB report on flight 800, and the whole cozy bear, fancy bear BS they spout about RussiaGate. The air of authority puts people’s minds to sleep. Heads would roll if they really followed the foreign influence in our elections, since so much of it points to Israel, and they own the MSM, our representatives, and many of the Deep State lackeys in our so-called intelligence services. The interesting thing about the Nunes memo is that it has gained any traction at all. I don’t watch much TV, but I think Fox has been going against the grain a bit on RussiaGate. Cracks in the armor of the Deep State narrative are showing, but I suspect the major theatrical production of the Mueller so-called investigation will win out in the end and become another entrenched lie in our political history.
Very well-put and exactly on the mark, Skip.
Is it possible to have any debate shows on TV where people on the left and right honestly discuss their views and policy differences?
Steve I like your question, and I second the motion that we Americans get a diversified and objective media onto our airwaves and into our print media. Instead of us labeling each other for ridicule, we Americans should build a news media which is not owned lock stock and barrel by the corporations, as who for their part wish for us all to just go along to get along by accepting their preformed narratives. Objectivity Steve is paramount to a well run democratic society, and your question should be every Americans question whether they realize it or not. Good comment Steve. Joe
So glad to see one of Giraldi’s posts on CN. One of the alternative media’s heaviest hitters, he always brings eloquence, penetrating analysis, and unflinching honesty to any subject he tackles. Our oligarchy, mostly neocons, has succeeded in weaponizing mainstream U.S. journalism, but as long as writers like Giraldi have a platform there is still hope for a measure of honesty and sanity in public discourse.
In the U.S., the prevailing neocon group-think relentlessly scapegoats Putin and his American “agents”—any American who dissents from the official neocon consensus—for supposedly undermining democracy. But it just so happens that Putin has his hands full battling Russian oligarchs. Why in the world would he want to take on our democracy when our own oligarchs are already doing such a bang-up job of it?
It’s so much easier to subvert a country from within, if that’s your game, than to do so from without, and make no mistake about it, overturning an elected government on the basis of lies and smears qualifies as subversion. If you want to look beyond Washington for some of the most dangerous enemies of our democracy and the American people, look no further than Bibi Netanyahu and Zionist Israel.
I agree, Alley Cat, and I’m so sorry to see only 17 comments on this excellent article. Where are you CN readers? Don’t miss this one, though I agree we’ve been inundated all of a sudden by lots of articles, maybe more than we can handle in so short a space of time.
I like Phil too.
https://scotthorton.org/112217-phil-giraldi-on-the-deal-struck-between-isis-and-the-u-s-in-raqqa/
alley cat – You are SO right. Excellent points!
Exposing Hadi Abadallah and the White Helmet Terrorists – https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=HIjne4Rwteo