From the Archive: Just before Trump took office last year, ex-British intelligence officer Annie Machon wrote about the battle he was facing with U.S. intelligence agencies. As Russia-gate morphs into Intel-gate, we re-publish her prescient article today.
By Annie Machon (first published Jan. 16, 2017)
The clash between plutocratic President-elect Trump and the CIA is shaping up to be the heavyweight prize fight of the century, and Trump at least is approaching it with all the entertaining bombast of Mohammed Ali at the top of his game. Rather than following the tradition of doing dirty political deals in dark corners, more commonly known as fixing the match, Trump has come out swinging in the full glare of the media.
President Trump addresses the CIA in Langley, Virginia on January 21, 2017.
In that corner, we have a deal-making, billionaire “man of the people” who, to European sensibilities at least, reputedly espouses some of the madder domestic obsessions and yet has seemed to offer hope to many aggrieved Americans. But it is his professed position on building a rapprochement with Russia and cooperating with Moscow to sort out the Syrian mess that caught my attention and that of many other independent commentators internationally.
In the opposite corner, Trump’s opponents have pushed the CIA into the ring to deliver the knock-out blow, but this has yet to land. Despite jab after jab, Trump keeps evading the blows and comes rattling back against all odds. One has to admire the guy’s footwork.
So who are the opponents ranged behind the CIA, yelling encouragement through the ropes? The obvious culprits include the U.S. military-industrial complex, whose corporate bottom line relies on an era of unending war. As justification for extracting billions – even trillions – of dollars from American taxpayers, there was a need for frightening villains, such as Al Qaeda and even more so, the head choppers of ISIS. However, since the Russian intervention in Syria in 2015, those villains no longer packed as scary a punch, so a more enduring villain, like Emmanuel Goldstein, the principal enemy of the state in George Orwell’s 1984, was required. Russia was the obvious new choice, the old favorite from the Cold War playbook.
The Western intelligence agencies have a vested interest in eternal enemies to ensure both eternal funding and eternal power, hence the CIA’s entry into the fight. As former British MP and long-time peace activist George Galloway so eloquently said in a recent interview, an unholy alliance is now being formed between the “war party” in the U.S., the military-industrial-intelligence complex and those who would have previously publicly spurned such accomplices: American progressives and their traditional host, the Democratic Party.
Yet, if the Democratic National Committee had not done its best to rig the primaries in favor of Hillary Clinton, then perhaps we would not be in this position. Bernie Sanders would be the President-elect.
Two-Party Sham
These establishment forces have also revealed to the wider world a fact long known but largely dismissed as conspiracy theory by the corporate mainstream media, that the two-party system in both the U.S. and the U.K. is a sham. In fact, we are governed by a globalized elite, working in its own interest while ignoring ours. The Democrats, openly disgruntled by Hillary Clinton’s election loss and being seen to jump into bed so quickly with the spooks and the warmongers, have laid this reality bare.
Barack Obama and George W. Bush at the White House.
In fact, respected U.S. investigative journalist Robert Parry recently wrote that an intelligence contact told him before the election that the intelligence agencies did not like either of the presidential candidates. This may go some way to explaining the FBI’s intervention in the run-up to the election against Hillary Clinton, as well as the CIA’s attempts to de-legitimize Trump’s victory afterwards.
Whether that was indeed the case, the CIA has certainly held back no punches since Trump’s election. First the evidence-lite assertion that it was the Russians who hacked the DNC emails and leaked them to WikiLeaks: then the fake news about Russia hacking the voting computers; that then morphed into the Russians “hacked the election” itself; then they “hacked” into the U.S. electric grid via a Vermont utility. All this without a shred of fact-based evidence provided, but Obama’s expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats last month solidified this dubious reality in Americans’ minds.
All this culminated in the “dirty dossier” allegations last week about Trump, which he has rightly knocked down – it was desperately poor stuff.
This last item, from a British perspective, is particularly concerning. It appears that a Washington dirt-digging company was hired by a Republican rival to Trump to unearth any potential Russian scandals during the primaries; once Trump had won the nomination this dirt-digging operation was taken over by a Democrat supporter of Hillary Clinton. The anti-Trump investigation was then sub-contracted to an alleged ex-British spy, an ex-MI6 man named Christopher Steele.
The Role of MI6
Much has already been written about Steele and the company, much of it contradictory as no doubt befits the life of a former spy. But it is a standard career trajectory for insiders to move on to corporate, mercenary spy companies, and this is what Steele appears to have done successfully in 2009. Of course, much is predicated on maintaining good working relations with your former employers.
CIA seal in lobby of the spy agency’s headquarters. (U.S. government photo)
That is the aspect that interests me most – how close a linkage did he indeed retain with his former employers after he left MI6 in 2009 to set up his own private spy company? The answer is important because companies such has his can also be used as cut-outs for “plausible deniability” by official state spies.
I’m not suggesting that happened in this case, but Steele reportedly remained on good terms with MI6 and was well thought of. For a man who had not been stationed in Russia for over 20 years, it would perhaps have been natural for him to turn to old chums for useful connections.
But this question is of extreme importance at a critical juncture for the U.K.; if indeed MI6 was complicit or even aware of this dirt digging, as it seems to have been, then that is a huge diplomatic problem for the government’s attempts to develop a strong working relationship with the US, post-Brexit. If MI6’s sticky fingers were on this case, then the organization has done the precise opposite of its official task – “to protect national security and the economic well-being of the UK.”
MI6 and its U.S. intelligence chums need to remember their designated and legislated roles within a democracy – to serve the government and protect national security by gathering intelligence, assessing it impartially and making recommendations on which the government of the day will choose to act or not as the case may be.
The spies are not there to fake intelligence to suit the agenda of a particular regime, as happened in the run-up to the illegal Iraq War, nor are they there to endemically spy on their own populations (and the rest of the world, as we know post-Snowden) in a pointless hunt for subversive activity, which often translates into legitimate political activism and acts of individual expression).
And most especially the intelligence agencies should not be trying to subvert democratically elected governments. And yet this is what the CIA and a former senior MI6 officer, along with their powerful political allies, appear to be now attempting against Trump.
Chances for Peace
If I were an American, I would be wary of many of Trump’s domestic policies. As a European concerned with greater peace rather than increasing war, I can only applaud his constructive approach towards Russia and his offer to cooperate with Moscow to stanch the bloodshed in the Middle East.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Nov. 23, 2015 Tehran. (Photo from: http://en.kremlin.ru)
That, of course, may be the nub of his fight with the CIA and other vested interests who want Russia as the new bogeyman. But I would bet that Trump takes the CIA’s slurs personally. After all, given the ugliness of the accusations and the lack of proof, who would not?
So, this is a world championship heavy-weight fight over who gets to hold office and wield power, an area where the U.S. and U.K. intelligence agencies have considerable experience in rigging matches and knocking out opponents. Think, for instance, Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq in 1953; Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973; Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003; and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is wobbly but still standing, thanks to some good corner support from Russia.
However, it would appear that Trump is a stranger to the spies’ self-defined Queensbury Rules in which targets are deemed paranoid if they try to alert the public to the planned “regime change” or they become easy targets by staying silent. By contrast, Trump appears shameless and pugnacious. Street-smart and self-promoting, he seems comfortable with bare-knuckle fighting.
This match has already gone into the middle rounds with Trump still bouncing around on his toes and still relishing the fight. It would be ironic if out of this nasty prize fight came greater world peace and safely for us all.
Annie Machon is a former intelligence officer in the UK’s MI5 Security Service (the U.S. counterpart is the FBI).
Always good to get Annie M’s perspective on these issues.
Also shows there are a lot of very decent people in the Intelligence empire, Ray McGovern, John Kyriakou, William Binney spring to mind as well.
But in the year since this article was written, what do we see?
Trump is still standing, the Democrats are still hyperventilating about Russia instead of working out why they lost, finding a better candidate, and formulating relevant policies that will appeal to ordinary Americans. Chasing phantom Russian conspiracies will ultimately reduce them (and much of the Republican establishment and MSM) to laughing stocks, and may well guarantee Trump’s re-election in 2020.
The politicisation and corruption of the intelligence agencies and MSM is clear for all but the most deluded to see, with all that implies for any nation claiming to be a democracy rather than a banana republic.
Trump seems to have sub contracted America’s many wars to an assortment of geriatric political generals, who have a free hand to decide policy and wage war pretty much as they please.
Congress has tried to claw back control of foreign policy from Trump.
Trump has done little (nothing) to improve relations with Russia. Maybe he has tried and given up. There have been more Russian sanctions, Russian diplomatic premises and private homes have been invaded. The vilification of Putin and all things Russian has continued apace, with attacks on Russian sport as the latest target. Hostility towards Russia from some of Trump’s appointees, like Haley at the UN, verges on the rabid. As usual, different figures and different factions within the administration are pursuing contradictory agendas with little evidence of any coordination.
Trump has authorised a pointless escalation in Afghanistan and endorsed Obama’s trillion dollar WMD programme (now estimated at $1.7 trillion and rising.) The military budget has increased from a nominal $618 to 693 billion (this excludes nuclear weapons and many other things. The true figure is at least $1,200 billion, probably higher.)
Policy in Syria, if you choose to dignify US activity there as policy, is even more incoherent than before. At times, Syria appears to have been invaded by the Forty Thieves, who are all pursuing their own agenda and seeking their share of the loot. Trump appears to be trying to implement one election promise, to grab the oil of the region. There is a very real danger of a wider conflagration, with Russian, Turkish, and Israeli aircraft being shot down in separate clashes in the space of a few days.
Trump is scrapping the Iran nuclear deal and is moving the embassy to Jerusalem (can’t say he didn’t warn us.) He has alienated even the obsequious EU puppets, and offending their delicate politically correct sensibilities about women and race has not helped either. The US also seems to have alienated its bought and paid for Palestinian Authority puppets with the Jerusalem decision and defunding UNWRA. Trump’s rhetoric at the UN, with blood curdling threats against Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, has made few friends, as has the cutting of financial contributions to that organisation. The US may be sidelined from any initiatives that do take place over Palestine, Iran and Korea, and reduced to a mere observer. Prestige of the would be hegemon is likely to fall further.
Domestically, no Wall has been built. US society appears dangerously polarised on racial and political lines. The National Debt passed the $20 trillion mark on 9/11 last year, since when another $600 billion has been added. The huge military build up and tax giveaways are unlikely to bring about any improvement, whether these are viewed as necessary or not, or characterised as rampant militarism and a handout to the rich. Healthcare reform has stalled and appears to have been forgotten. The Swamp has not been drained. Trump has populated his administration with Swamp Creatures and Goldman Sachs stalwarts, or at least those posts he has not filled with his family members.
The world is becoming increasingly turbulent and unstable, with a dysfunctional US playing a leading part in making it so. Popular support for governing elites and the systems they represent is dwindling rapidly. The whole of the Middle East, with Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen, is a powder keg. Korea could prove even more dangerous. Contrived confrontations with Iran and Venezuela do little to improve matters, and those with Russia and China may soon reach a critical mass. The question is not if an explosion will occur, but rather where and when. The situation is comparable to the 1930s. Everyone knew war was coming, but not exactly how the crisis would play out.
usa intel have become have become spineless obama scrotum impersonators in plain english….CHARLES MANSON/PEE WEE HERMAN/JEFFREY DAHMER/SON OFSAM/AND A USED RUBBER……………HAVE MORE CREDIBILITY THAN PANTY WEARINGOBOZO BI LYIN’/COMEY/MUELLER/ STRZOK/PAGE/MC CABE/ROSENSTEIN (HEAD PUSSY TEMP)TILL SESSIONS GETS HIS HEAD STRAIGHT???/LYNCH/ CLINTON/MC SHAME/BOTOX “CRUMBS” PELOSI/CRYIN’ HAIRPLUG SCHUMER/PINK HAT PUSS GRAHAM
Complementing these folks will not bring them over to our side, or make them go away….sigh…..
Voting in a crooked system is like pissing in the ocean – it’s OK if you have nothing better to do…….
Mike, I do know what you mean.
They of course are not qualified on a State ballot. So, none of those write in votes for Donald Duck and Porky Pig are never officially counted. .. But, I have often wondered just how many they actually do receive. There is no doubt that it is in the 10’s of thousands. And it is likely, that it is increasing with each cycle. (..smile..)
Thanks Mike!
cmp and Lois Gagnon thank you. Clearly a broad discussion on election strategy is called for.
This moment may actually be the first opportunity since the triple assassinations of the Sixties to openly discuss a process of Democraticly moving forward. When a generation of a population has been lied to so effectively it’s difficult but not impossible to imagine the route to greater equity. One can see clearly however, thanks to people like Robert Parry, that there are plenty of honest thinkers available to accomplish the task.
Many Thanks
Bob, I know that you have always very well understood, Mr. Parry’s writing.
And you know Bob – these words, they will stick with me forever:
~” … my personal slogan that “every day’s a work day”…
…
I actually believed that the point of journalism in a democracy was to give the voters unbiased information and the necessary context so the voters could make up their own minds and use their ballot – as imperfect as that is – to direct the politicians to take actions on behalf of the nation.
…
… But – as the New Year dawns – if I could change one thing about America and Western journalism, it would be that we all repudiate “information warfare” in favor of an old-fashioned respect for facts and fairness — and do whatever we can to achieve a truly informed electorate. “~
Can you believe, he offered those words with an apology? The man was truly extraordinary.
Bob, I look forward to that discussion, and more.
Thank You, Bob!!
Back in 2014, Peter Dale Scott, wrote his book “The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil and the Attack on U.S. Democracy.”
On it’s release, he did an interview with Pacifica radio where he talks about the book, and the roots of the Deep State – all the way back to the founding of the country. It is a great interpretation and summary of the book.
For those who are interested:
Go to: projectcensored.org
Search for: american-deep-state-interview-peter-dale-scott-project-censored-show-pacifica-radio
~
And, there is no doubt that FDR was referencing the Deep State with his Acceptance Speech for his Renomination for the Presidency in Philadelphia PA, on June 27, 1936. That is a great read too!
Project Censored is a great resource that has been around for 40 years. I wish more people knew of its existence and importance. I believe I already listened to that show. Highly recommend it. Thanks for publishing the link.
Lois, I used to read you on another forum; as well. .. And, I have always read your posts with great anticipation. They are always right on target, and so direct.
(.. I will leave that forum unnamed, but it was before they started top-down shilling with the Party line with Hillary. And they then subsequently, began peddling the Russkie Grope. .. You know which forum.. (..smile..))
I think that your organizing a chapter for World Beyond War, is great idea. Did you catch Sharon Tennison’s article ‘Understanding Russia, Un-Demonizing Putin’? It was posted here on 2/6/18. I was poking around and reading her website. And, as you probably know, the Center has many life long dedicated peace activists from around the world. You have to follow the links, but some will lead to your neck of the woods too.
Thanks Again Lois!
Moreover, go to peterdalescott.net
I got a lot from the Peter Dale Scott interview, thanks for that.
If a majority of the American public were to ever discover the mission of Rumsfeld & Cheney’s ‘Continuity of Government Planning‘ project, they’d be in the streets hanging politicians from the lamp post. Little does the American citizen know of how we are all but at the mercy of the private contractors, who for the most part will never end terrorism or anything else, since ‘fear’ is their biggest resource to profit from.
Hey cmp, who says you don’t learn a lot from reading the comment section. Thanks again. Joe
Joe, I ‘m so glad that you read that – because it was you and Bob, that reminded me of that particular piece. The two of you had immediately honed in on Truman, and that is what brought the PDS book review comments back for me. (..smile..)
That is so true, we are their mercy. I once heard a theory, that when Jimmy Carter had “cleaned house”, that their was so much money still sloshing around, that this was when, all of those essentially out of work bums, evolved themselves into Iran Contra.
And until this day, I sometimes wonder, is their a half measure? And, if so, what will we ever do to re-train some of these people?
(..smile..)
.. I lost 2 response messages. I think maybe, that my browser lost the handshake with the site server..
Yes! The comments are incredible.
The author and their facts on an event are always solid. But, the commenters on this site have so many experiences and so much knowledge, that I often find that it is their dissection and their interpretation that sticks with me.
Thanks Again, Joe!
PS:
Today, the 12th, is the start of Maslenitsa in the Orthodox community. It will go until Sunday. So, sometimes it is also called “Blini Week” which represents the sun and the coming of spring. It is an 1800 year old tradition in some of the Slavic cultures.
Also, Friday the 16th, is the start of the Chinese New Year. What a cool holiday. Also, very rich with some great beliefs and some great traditions!
You just described the power of messaging, and what Bob and I inspired you to do is a great example of the power. I always say, that this comment board could be a heck of a great learning place.
I’m off to read a new article I saw posted here this morning, and with little time before I need to go on a road trip, I’ll keep this short and thank you for the knowledge you provided. Hope you have a wonderful Maslenitsa observation. Joe
Since, before the Civil War, when this current (..One..) Party system was established, the true left has always faced the most severe of the hate, prejudice, discrimination and violence from the totalitarian establishment(s).
And, it isn’t by accident, that they have always taught us all – to fight against our own neighbors, and never to fight with, or for them. Unfortunately, we do need to fight alright! .. And, I do believe that the readers of this site know, who & what they are fighting.
In 2012, the “rock star,” the man who wanted to make politics “cool” again, he was coming to my home town to make a campaign stop against Romney. So, I went to see a few of my long time liberal friends over in the Dem-Clubs, and ask them to help in organizing a very welcoming anti war protest for Mr. Cool. .. But, I was told, “We can’t do that, you remember 68. ….. Don’t you?”
(.. actually, I ‘m too young to remember 68..) .. Now, I knew that the Greens, they already had Ballot Access in my State. .. But, I also wanted to see that the Justice Party would have a legal vote too (..Voice..). So, I immediately called the Justice Party, and asked them what I could do to get their candidate on the ballot. They asked me to help in putting together our State Electors (..I was one..), so that a Write In Vote for their candidate would be legally counted in my State. So, I carried this out. … And, within my State, where we have about 3.6 million registered voters, the Justice Party presidential candidate received a whopping 119 votes.. .. (..for those of you that live outside of the U.S., I state this fact, because I want you to see, just what American (..totalitarian..) democracy really looks like..)
But, I have a lifetime of friends that are all either in the Dem Party, or in a Leftist Third Party. And, I ‘m not going to “Knock a one of them – for working..”
Dennis, he is running “D” in Ohio, where the communal roots of the Upper Mid-West, have been under a vicious attack for decades. We need a true fighter – like Dennis up there.
Chelsea is running “D” in Maryland. .. And, the mere mention of Chelsea’s name – shines light on the Dark State..
But, the Establishments are global. And this fact – currently makes the Green Party my party of first choice, and priority.
In the progressive era’s of pre ww 1, pre ww 2, and in the 60’s, they all had a common thread where several Minor Parties were challenging the domination of the Establishment(s). .. So, back in those goode olde days, was it their overall success – that really mattered? Or, was it their mere threat – that got the Establishment(s) a bit closer for some real conversation? .. And some of the eventual positive changes to the laws? (..child labor, government run social security, Glass Steagall, voting rights, FISA, etc…)
I like how clearly the author presents this issue. I, like reviewers above am frustrated that others cannot see through the soiled curtain of disinformation. I will reprinting my comment from the “White Helmets” article because it’s appropriate here:
My first post here..I love you all. I am responding to an earlier comment by Dave P. on this thread, concerning how his wife’s views were contrary to his own–she eagerly consuming the pablum dished out by the media. This bothered me.
My mother was unconventional. I recall opening my lunch box in 1st grade (1961) to find a baked bean with lettuce sandwich on whole wheat bread. It was embarrassing. My six-year-old colleagues all had their Wonder bread units with partially-hydrogenated peanut butter smeared between symmetrical slices–some even with the crusts sheared off. We all ate our lunches in the classroom on our duck-and-cover desks. At the time, I didn’t want to be ostracized from the tribe, but 20 years later I blessed my mother for what she had done for me. Yes there have been challenges, but I have always been “outside looking in” –and loving it!
Endeavoring to change someones views on a hot topic is dubious. I recently came up with a saying:
Ignorance can be cured by knowledge, but the stubbornness to remain ignorant is an incurable malady.
This is why the issue with Dave’s wife is scary. Like him, I have many friends in Seattle; cool people, smart people—but they have gone fruity, or as Martin Short put it, “totally mental”.. Perhaps it’s true, and the orcs have been targeting Seattle, Portland and SF with chemtrails laced with a hysteria-inducing substance.
Full disclosure: I stopped in Walmart the other day, trying to avoid getting my toes crushed by a heavy lady barreling through in an electric cart. As I looked around, I wondered if anyone in that store—if forced to read one, would do anything but spit out a CN article like rancid peanuts. I fear that we, as CN readers are in the vast minority on our planet. I shall not give up though, and unlike them, I can change my attitudes and will continue to learn.
Wow, talk about hitting the nail on the head.
While reading this I couldn’t help but think that maybe JFK should have been more bombastic, and wildly transparent, I mean loud, and by doing so JFK would have given himself the protection of sunlight. Although, would this have even mattered to an Oligarchy elite who never get their own hands dirty? Probably not, but at least the sunshine may have exposed certain aspects, and individuals, where possibly Kennedy’s murders would have been that much easier to discover….maybe.
But, enough with the JFK resemblance, and what about all those bogeymen? It goes with saying that Osama bin Laden served his purpose, but without him as the evil one to take down, then who else may fill his void? Well look no further than to the country with the world’s largest land mass, Russia. Think of it to increase Nuclear stock pile budgets Osama gave us no reason to do this, but on the other side of the coin Russia with it’s own nukes is a dandy of a recreated villain to put fear into the hearts of the misguided and ill informed citizenry. So the conspirators went up into America’s attic and dusted off the old USSR propaganda playbook, and gave it new life to go after Putin’s Russia.
I also agree with the Robert Parry’s Source that possibly both Hillary and the Donald were not that much liked by the National Security State. Not, sure what the spooks wanted, as I’m sure they didn’t want Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, but regardless the NSS/Deep State wanted to secure their own status inside the dark bureaucracy by compromising whoever went into the Oval Office.
The worst thing for these piped piper Democrates is that by going after Russia, not to mention risking a nuclear halocaust, is they are losing precious time to go after Trump, or anybody, on the issues of which matter most. If only these kool-aid liberals would wake up, and debate, petition, or even protest, against the GOP for the things to be reckoned with which seriously does affect their life’s, but unless someone hands to someone like me the channel changer, well then we are all stuck on this propaganda nonsense which makes no sense of what so ever to get behind.
Great article Annie Machon, hope to read more.
Exactly Joe, and that’s why I always contribute to alternate thoughts as to how to rid ourselves of both fake parties. I find that Sam F. has thought much more extensively about this. My thought: vote for anybody you truly believe in regardless of party affiliation. Do not donate to any party apparatus, donate to the candidate, don’t vote for them again if they delay…
Bob, I had a rivaling conversation just last night with a friend who went on to say of how this past presidential election, was not the time to back a third party candidate. I then picked up on his statement by pointing out of how no it wasn’t so much the third party candidate in as much it was the cheater Clinton who had changed all the dynamics of 2016 presidential outcome of the election. My friend, just didn’t want to hear it, it’s a Hillary supporter kind of think I guess. Joe
This kind of thinking is an epidemic in this country. I have been trying to organize a World Beyond War chapter in my supposedly progressive area of Western Mass. Not one person has expressed an interest. I’ve attended some meetings of activist groups. All they are interested in is pink p*ssy hat marches, springing into action if their hero Meuller if fired and identity politics. When I ask if anyone wants to work on stopping war, they look at me like I’m from another planet. Maybe the Martians have landed and they wear pink p*ssy hats?
Sadly, this phenomenon you speak of Lois has blanketed the entire country. It makes me wonder to if we old peaceniks have been replaced by the young generation with identity politics. If so, I would like to ask these young concerned voters, to why we can’t do both. Like march for peace, while also encouraging our nation onward and upward towards respecting all people’s equal rights. Only, it seems that while the identity issues get raised to a stratospheric level, the peace advocate gets ignored down to dirt. In time some analyst in the future will write a book about ‘how America was asleep’ during this era we live in, but the true title would be better described as, ‘while America was in a coma’ would be a better description. Peace Lois. Joe
heres a tip…try approaching people who are not “progressives”…you will get more results
Sadly Joe, many of the people in these groups are boomers like us. It’s like they’ve forgotten our collective history. They frankly scare me to death.
Hey Lois you are right. The person I was referring too is around 63, so my apologies to the young. Our baby boomer generation outside of pop music, has been America’s greatest disappointment. There was a time when I thought that our peacenik generation was going to change the world into a better place, but as you know Lois that all changed with the discovery of the unhinged capitalistic system that we all worshiped as the Golden Calf of success. Money, money, and lots more money, Lois will be the final nail in America’s coffin, that is unless we all wake up to rediscover the values of our humanity, which is so loss inside of a greedy system of want. Joe
Good point Lois. The population is so deeply conditioned to accept that war is natural and inevitable, they think you are nuts if you want peace! Either we will find our way to peace, or we will experience our extinction. War is actually an extreme and dangerous form of insanity.
OI had a very similar evening.
What is troubling is that today’s left, for lack of a better word, is chasing a utopian universe in which there is no differentiation between gender, race, and ideology. My arguement was that such a culture has never existed in the history of our planet and she is using that as an excuse to hate those who don’t share her beliefs, thus becoming the very thing she hates.
It is still a world of intolerance, it just has a different of icons to be worshipped.
Exploitation has no boundaries, Deniz. A politician often may be found without having any self conscious to speak of, so put the two together and then the exploitive politician has no end to the rhetoric they may use to sucker in those who only hear what they want to hear. Like everything else in our American society this is called living in the bubble. Although bubbles do break a bursting bubble can make an ugly mess, and there’s where we all need to be on our guard, because then the unscrupulous exploitive politician appears once again ready to sucker in the naive voter. It’s a terrible cycle, but one that can be brought to a halt, if only more would dig down into our current days news events to get to the truth. So it’s all about the truth isn’t it? Joe
Joe the true irony of my lifetime is that, now late in life, the things I thought I knew I’m finding out that I knew nothing about. My latest analysis going back to FDR is that the best of FDR was really Eleanor influencing him when she could. Had Eleanor and Henry Wallace been able to guide a party apparatus, the People would have been better served.
I think you mentioned Oliver Stone’s History series. Until I watched that series, I wasn’t even a rare of Henry Wallace…
Bob I never was aware of Henry Wallace either, until the Stone/Kuznick series ‘America’s Untold History’. What drives me nuts, is I have told many a person to watch that series and learn something other than our MSM’s take on our history, but I seriously don’t believe that any of these acquaintances took me up on it. What’s that about leading a horse to water? Joe
“… both Hillary and the Donald were not that much liked by the National Security State.”…Yes, this I tend to agree with,Joe…despite Hillary’s bending over backwards to fulfill their desires…perhaps Mike Pence is their ideal stooge(he’s ready and waiting).
Bob it would make all the sense in the world, that especially the FBI would try and follow in the footsteps of their legendary hero and founder J Edgar Hoover, and pin the new president down to obey their bureaucratic demands. In the old days of monarchy these bureaucratic buggers would have been send to the gallows by the paranoid King, or Queen, and the kingdom would have been saved from a bureaucratic coup. Today the dark forces from within our government control the narrative having the MSM apparently on their side, and with this conundrum in mind alternative news is the only oasis a news junkie may find to further exam the truth, if the truth is even out there for to be examined.
Pence would be another Harry Truman, so I’m sure the Deep State would be saying, why not? Joe
Intelligence agencies, governments, and many corporations all around the globe are completely evil. They care nothing about the lives of individuals and are set on reducing population and driving billions to poverty, servitude, or death to meet their ends.
But here is what they don’t know – Trump is on the correct side. His policies, although some are flawed in many respects, have the backing of God (the aliens that control this planet). And that is why Trump is able to side-step the evil that is perpetrated by the globalists in the CIA, the military-industrial complex, governments, organized religion (and I am talking about Rome and Saudi Arabia among others), and corporations and their cronies.
The dance will continue until good prevails and the evil that has been thrust on the people of the world by these globalists with their economic slavery, death sacrifices, and mental torture are destroyed.
There are rocks in space that will destroy this planet if necessary.
God is watching and communicating with the people that have been beaten down by these evil governments for far to long. The world is going to change. Nationalism, no war, and protecting people and providing them the necessities for life inside each country is what God wants. And God is going to get what she wants from now on. Otherwise a big rock is going to destroy this planet – but that is a last resort because God still has hope that you will see the light.
To those of you who doubt God is real let me say this because it is all I can say for now – The universe is vast and there are higher levels of intelligence than the ones that currently occupy this planet and that intelligence is telepathic, compassionate, but angry at the death and destruction on this planet and the lies and deceit for fiat money that is backed by nothing and worthless.
That is a fact. The truth is out there. Believe me I know and one day very soon you will know what I know. Until then, look up at the black space between the stars and open your mind to receive the message – ask the heavens for the message and they will tell you.
Those who are not in the light will be left in the dark. Love is key. Ask for the connection and your eyes will be opened.
Now, let me speak to the “intelligence” because I know you read this board. Continue with your evil at your own peril. God sees all and it is encoded – you cannot hide – the timeline is already written and entangled time encoding was part of the experiment. Don’t be stupid.
OoooooooKKKKkkkkaaaaayyyy. Thanks for the cosmic update…
Except that compassion and anger don’t really go well together, even for “God.”
Moneychangers and Jesus = Anger and compassion. Simultaneously. Anger is appropriate when evil is the norm. And evil is the norm in this world with demons at the top of the food chain. And they are coming down. Right now.
Lest this article leads one to believe that it is anything but pestilent Anglophilia that infects the U.S. body politic, consider that FDR told Winston Churchill that the US wouldn’t put up with colonial methods after WWII. Next remember Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech and the call from that “peacenik” Bertrand Russell to launch a nuclear first strike against Russia before they proved to have nuclear weapons. Today, the neocons hawks and “humanitarian interventions” doves are nothing more than shills for imperial economics of the very same colonial oligarchs that control finances and resources. If the U.S. was ever to break from their oligarchic and rancid geopolitics via establishing a new financial order for cooperation with Russia and China investing in large scale infrastructure the rotten derivative house of cards of the likes of HSBC and Chase Manhattan would be no more.
Yes to that, thingumbob…
The stewards of the central banking system left the money spigot running and there’s bound to be a flood. I can’t help from thinking there is a belief that the taxpayer guarantee will right the ship via income tax (war tax) collection and monetary inflation. It’s a pity that this condition persists in the United States. Feeding government largesse by way of the confiscatory powers of the IRS tax regime and the money creation powers of the Federal Reserve System appears to be the cause. There seems to be a preoccupation with militarism and banking interests currently have no financial incentive to turn off the tap.
Russel’s ‘preventive atomic war’ and ‘world government’ statements stirred up quite a controversey[1] in the day, although he is a first rate historian of philosophy[3], to say the least.
[1] Did Russell Advocate Preventive Atomic War Against the USSR?
https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/russelljournal/article/viewFile/2014/2039
[2] Paul McCartney on Bertrand Russell | Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3m2r0Ln0rU
[3] The History Of Western Philosophy | Bertrand Russell | Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0fK0ZuAcbU&list=PL6BE82595ACD1864A
Enjoyed your links. I’m leaving this link for you godenich, although the linked articled is long the message is a good one. Joe
https://criminalbankingmonopoly.wordpress.com
Thanks, I’m going to keep this with the “Money Masters” film. I’m building a library for my future grandchildren so they will not grow up, ignorant, like I did. I really felt cheated about my public education when I read this article on Richard Whately in Wikipedia. This is an excerpt:
“Whately was an important figure in the revival of Aristotelian logic in the early nineteenth century. The Elements of Logic gave an impetus to the study of logic in Britain,[9] and in the United States of America, logician Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) wrote that his lifelong fascination with logic began when he read Whately’s Elements as a 12-year-old boy.”
…, sixth grade?! And unless your parents owned a business, you were kept blissfully ignorant of business, economics and critical thinking by the public school system and sorted into vocational or college prep tracks in High School. John Gatto[1,2] was right.
[1] The Underground History of American Education | John Gatto
https://archive.org/details/JohnTaylorGattoTheUndergroundHistoryOfAmericanEducationBook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWRqZrCMqbA&list=PL8v6e5jkrm1FvaQv7GuZe41o4fPfreV0O
My dad took me to work when I was 8.
Pitch perfect timing here CN many thanks. I think this was originally published in January but is even more timely now because of its accuracy. Thanks.
I was thinking of what Harry Truman was thinking in December of 1963, as he wrote his Washington Post op-ed about never intending for the CIA to be involved in domestic affairs. As I recall and I might be wrong here, that OP- Ed was quickly withdrawn. i’ll attempt a link.
Here is the link thanks to this enlightened site…
https://consortiumnews.com/2013/12/22/trumans-true-warning-on-the-cia/
You beat me to it Bob. I thought of Truman’s Washington Post afternoon edition article on the mission of the CIA also. Very good. Joe
Thus the intrinsic value of this spectacular site Joe and in the commentary along with you, the impeccable F. G. Sanford…
I always enjoy F.G. Sanford’s commentary. Thanks Bob for the referral. Joe
I was just going over the comments from the original posting of this article and was well reminded of the remarkable F.G. Sanford. And Joe, your quick-witted rejoinder about the Geico Gecko gave me quite a good laugh…all over again.
Gregory where and when did I talk about the little Geico Gecko, was that in Bob’s link? To be honest I have a hard time reading my old comments. There isn’t a one of them I would not like to redo. Grammar, spelling errors, and sometimes my going off the reservation, well make me quite embarrassed and humbled at the same time. Although, these checks and balances have been with me for as long as I can remember. So while I struggle with my own self esteem, it is nice of you Gregory to say you enjoyed my often misunderstood humor. Joe
Here’s a link to the original posting of Annie Machon’s article:
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/01/16/donald-trump-v-the-spooks/
Joe, your witty rejoinder was in reply to F.G. Sanford. And Joe, I couldn’t care less about spelling or typos…those kind of “mistakes” everyone makes including myself…it’s the communication of meaning that counts. I have regretted some of my comments and try to learn from my misjudgements or misunderstandings as I am one of my own harshest critics as you are for yourself. Self-criticism is generally a good thing but like you have said to me before in support…try not to be so hard on yourself. You’re a heart and soul on these threads and are much appreciated by many. And as Realist pointed out the other day–you are well-read and bring forth a lot of gems from your breadth of personal experience and learning. And you possess a fine sense of humor as well! Thanks much.
Thanks for the kind words Gregory, there are at times those moments where a human needs to hear something positive about themselves, and with your words you accomplished this task, with this old soul.
Funny thing about my Geico comment in reference to F.G’s. going on about English speakers being overwhelmingly convincing to our American ears, is that I do believe the little Geicko has an Australian accent.
Besides reading F.G’s. comment, it was nostalgic to read Bill Bodden’s as well.
None of you have nearly any idea of how much I have come to value all of you. Why I even on occasion enjoyed reading some of the ignorance displayed by our sometimes visiting trolls…okay, okay, that’s going a little to far, but for the rest of you I have grown to enjoy your words of concern and wisdom. You are all just simply remarkable, for the lack of a better description. Joe
Nice Reference:
“Limit CIA To Intel” -Harry S Truman
https://archive.org/details/LimitCIARoleToIntelligenceByHarrySTruman
Great, on the money, early article from Annie Machon. She always gets my full attention whenever I see her interviewed. I hope to see and read more from her here.
Yes, I agree with you and I enjoyed this article, as well as most all CN articles. The variety of views impresses me because it challenges me to refine or review my thoughts.
Originally published in January, 2017
Regarding Trump’s interest for détente, would it be so. If that was his intention and facing the blitzkrieg of accusations, he decided it best to stay in his corner and give up the fight. That puts our president in the best light but that he never intended to contest the elite consensus is looking truer everyday.
That his bumbling and heavy-handedness might lead to a healthy revolt around the world is the most hopeful scenario. The American support of the Kurds may prove a monumental mistake by coalescing those countries threatened by it, the bumbling by Pence in Korea may let the world know how dangerous our belligerence is. The decision on Jerusalem another. Although these Trump actions are little different in effect from former presidents, the lightning rod effect of Trump himself could be a hopeful sign for the world.
Then again, a wounded animal can be dangerous, and the danger is war. No better means has been found to restore the approval of our commander in chief. the CIC.
…”but that he never intended to contest the elite consensus is looking truer everyday.”…I agree, Herman…the pugnacity doesn’t come from his desire to fight for “truth”…it’s his own touchy ego and self-interest that he sees at stake.
Very good points, Herman. Trump has already or is on the way to push the hegemony/belligerence agenda which he seemed to belie during his campaign. So much for his being the nonconformist candidate/President. But what would one expect from a man who appoints a bunch of former or current military staff officers to high positions in his Administration? Now he wants a grand military parade so he can review the troops who will salute him as they pass the reviewing stand…we now have all the trappings of a nuclear-armed banana republic whose number one product is global chaos…
A major problem for Trump is he has no political cadre of his own in DC and it is difficult for him to fill positions. Many of the hanger-ons he’s appointed have a vested interest/ agenda with the neocons and neolibs who have been in power for 30 years; these people are incapable of seeing the world through any other lens but destruction/ MIC/ nation building and playing partisan parlor games along with DC pundits, the MSM and, as this article notes, the Intelligence Agencies who effectively run America. True, Trump is a narcissistic ass (not unlike most recent Presidents) but has no filter for speaking his thoughts. He seems to have reached a compromise with the neocons and neolibs; it was a battle he couldn’t win.