PEPE ESCOBAR: Brazilgate is Turning into Russiagate 2.0

The Intercept‘s bombshell about Brazilian corruption is being ludicrously spun by the country’s media and military as a “Russian conspiracy,” writes Pepe Escobar

By Pepe Escobar
in Paris
Special to Consortium News

It was a leak, not a hack. Yes: Brazilgate, unleashed by a series of game-changing bombshells published by The Intercept, may be turning into a tropical Russiagate.

The Intercept’s Deep Throat – an anonymous source — has finally revealed in detail what anyone with half a brain in Brazil already knew: that the judicial/lawfare machinery of the one-sided Car Wash anti-corruption investigation was in fact a massive farce and criminal racket bent on accomplishing four objectives.

  • Create the conditions for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and the subsequent ascension of her VP, elite-manipulated puppet, Michel Temer.
  •  Justify the imprisonment of former president Lula in 2018 – just as he was set to win the latest presidential election in a landslide. 
  • Facilitate the ascension of the Brazilian extreme-right via Steve Bannon asset (he calls him “Captain”) Jair Bolsonaro.
  • Install former judge Sergio Moro as a justice minister on steroids capable of enacting a sort of Brazilian Patriot Act – heavy on espionage and light on civil liberties.

Moro, side by side with prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, who was leading the Public Ministry’s 13-strong task force, are the vigilante stars of the lawfare racket. Over the past four years, hyper-concentrated Brazilian mainstream media, floundering in a swamp of fake news, duly glorified these two as Captain Marvel-worthy national heroes. Hubris finally caught up with the swamp.

The Brazilian Goodfellas

The Intercept has promised to release all the files in its possession; chats, audio, videos and pics, a treasure trove allegedly larger than Snowden’s. What has been published so far reveals Moro/Dallagnol as a strategic duo in synch, with Moro as a capo di tutti i capi, judge, jury and executioner rolled into one – replete with serial fabrications of evidence. This, in itself, is enough to nullify all the Car Wash cases in which he was involved – including Lula’s prosecution and successive convictions based on “evidence” that would never hold up in a serious court.

Moro: Installed as justice minister.
(Wikipedia/Marcos Oliveira/Agência Senado.)

In conjunction with a wealth of gory details, the Twin Peaks principle — the owls are not what they seem — fully applies to Brazilgate. Because the genesis of Car Wash involves none other than the United States government (USG). And not only the Department of Justice (DoJ) – as Lula has been stressing for years in every one of his interviews. The op was Deep State at its lowest.

WikiLeaks had already revealed it from the start, when the NSA started spying on energy giant Petrobras and even Rousseff’s smart phone. In parallel, countless nations and individuals have learned how the DoJ’s self-attributed extraterritoriality allows it to go after anyone, anyhow, anywhere.

It has never been about anti-corruption. Instead this is American “justice” interfering in the full geopolitical and geo-economic spheres. The most glaring, recent case, is Huawei’s.

Yet Mafiosi Moro/Dallagnol’s “malign behavior” (to invoke Pentagonese) reached a perverse new level in destroying the national economy of a powerful emerging nation, a BRICS member and acknowledged leader across the Global South.

Car Wash ravaged the chain of energy production in Brazil, which in turn generated the sale – below market prizes – of plenty of valuable pre-salt oil reserves, the biggest oil discovery of the 21stcentury.

Car Wash destroyed Brazilian national champions in engineering and civil construction as well as aeronautics (as in Boeing buying Embraer). And Car Wash fatally compromised important national security projects such as the construction of nuclear submarines,

essential for the protection of the “Blue Amazon”.

For the Council of Americas – which Bolsonaro visited back in 2017 – as well as the Council on Foreign Relations—not to mention the “foreign investors”–to have neoliberal Chicago boy Paulo Guedes installed as finance minister was a wet dream. Guedes promised on the record to virtually put all of Brazil for sale. So far, his stint has been an unmitigated failure.

How to Wag the Dog

Mafiosi Moro/Dallagnol were “only a pawn in their game,” to quote Bob Dylan– a game both were oblivious to.

Lula has repeatedly stressed that the key question – for Brazil and the Global South – is sovereignty. Under Bolsonaro, Brazil has been reduced to the status of a banana neo-colony – with plenty of bananas. Leonardo Attuch, editor of the leading portal Brasil247says “the plan was to destroy Lula, but what was destroyed was the nation.”

As it stands, the BRICS – a very dirty word in the Beltway – have lost their “B”. As much as they may treasure Brazil in Beijing and Moscow, what is delivering for the moment is the “RC” strategic partnership, although Putin and Xi are also doing their best to revive “RIC”, trying to show India’s Modi that Eurasian integration is the way to go, not playing a supporting role in Washington’s fuzzy Indo-Pacific strategy.

Dallagnol: Serial fabricator. (Wikimedia Commons/José Cruz/Agência Brasil)

And that brings us to the heart of the Brazilgate matter: how Brazil is the coveted prize in the master strategic narrative that conditions everything happening in the geopolitical chessboard for the foreseeable future—the no-holds-barred confrontation between the U.S. and Russia-China.

Already in the Obama era, the U.S. Deep State had identified that to cripple BRICS from the inside, the “weak” strategic node was Brazil. And yes; once again it’s the oil, stupid.

Brazil’s pre-salt oil reserves may be worth as much as a staggering $30 trillion. The point is not only that the USG wants a piece of the action; the point is how controlling most of Brazil’s oil ties up with interfering with powerful agribusiness interests. For the Deep State, control of Brazil’s oil flow to agribusiness equals containment/leverage against China.

The U.S., Brazil and Argentina, together, produce 82 percent of the world’s soybeans – and counting. China craves soybeans. These won’t come from Russia or Iran – which on the other hand may supply China with enough oil and natural gas (see, for instance, Power of Siberia I and II). Iran, after all, is one of the pillars of Eurasian integration. Russia may eventually become a soybean export power, but that may take as long as ten years.

The Brazilian military knows that close relations with China – their top trade partner, ahead of the U.S. — are essential, whatever Steve Bannon may rant about. But Russia is a completely different story. Vice-President Hamilton Mourao, in his recent visit to Beijing, where he met with Xi Jinping, sounded like he was reading from a Pentagon press release, telling Brazilian media that Russia is a “malign actor” deploying “hybrid war around the world.”

So the U.S. Deep State may be accomplishing at least part of the ultimate goal: to use Brazil in its Divide et Impera strategy of splitting the Russia-China strategic partnership.

It gets much spicier. Car Wash reconditioned as Leak Wash could also be decoded as a massive shadow play; a wag the dog, with the tail composed of two American assets.

Moro was a certified FBI, CIA, DoJ, Deep State asset. His uber-boss would ultimately be Robert Mueller (thus Russiagate). Yet for Team Trump, he would be easily expendable – even if he’s Captain Justice working under the real asset, Bannon boy Bolsonaro. If he falls, Moro would be assured the requisite golden parachute – complete with U.S. residency and talks in American universities.

The Intercept’s Greenwald is now celebrated by all strands of the Left as a sort of American/Brazilian Simon Bolivar on steroids – with and in may cases without any irony. Yet there’s a huge problem. The Intercept is owned by hardcore information-war practitioner Pierre Omidyar.

Whose Hybrid War?

The crucial question ahead is what the Brazilian military are really up to in this epic swamp – and how deep they are subordinated to Washington’s Divide et Impera.

It revolves around the all-powerful Cabinet of Institutional Security, known in Brazil by its acronym GSI. GSI stalwarts are all Washington consensus. After the “communist” Lula/Dilma years, these guys are now consolidating a Brazilian Deep State overseeing full spectrum political control, just like in the U.S..

GSI already controls the whole intel apparatus, as well as Foreign Policy and Defense, via a decree surreptitiously released in early June, only a few days before The Intercept’s bombshell. Even Captain Marvel Moro is subjected to the GSI; they must approve, for instance, everything Moro discusses with the DoJ and the U.S. Deep State.

As I’ve discussed with some of my top informed Brazilian interlocutors, crack anthropologist Piero Leirner, who knows in detail how the military think, and Swiss-based international lawyer and UN adviser Romulus Maya, the U.S. Deep Stateseems to be positioning itself as the spawning mechanism for the direct ascension of the Brazilian military to power, as well as their guarantors. As in, if you don’t follow our script to the letter – basic trade relations only with China; and isolation of Russia – we can swing the pendulum anytime.

After all, the only practical role the USG would see for the Brazilian military – in fact for all Latin America military – is as “war on drugs” shock troops.

Intercept Exclusive: Brazilian Judge in Car Wash Corruption Case Mocked Lula’s Defense and Secretly Directed Prosecutors’ Media Strategy During Trial.

There is no smoking gun – yet. But the scenario of Leak Wash as part of an extremely sophisticated, full spectrum dominance psyops, an advanced stage of Hybrid War, must be seriously considered.

For instance, the extreme-right, as well as powerful military sectors and the Globo media empire suddenly started spinning that The Intercept bombshell is a “Russian conspiracy.”

When one follows the premier military think tank website– featuring loads of stuff virtually copy and pasted straight from the U.S. Naval War College – it’s easy to be startled at how they fervently believe in a Russia-China Hybrid War against Brazil, where the beachhead is provided by “anti-national elements” such as the Left as a whole, Venezuelan Bolivarians, FARC, Hezbollah, LGBT, indigenous peoples, you name it.

After Leak Wash, a concerted fake news blitzkrieg blamed the Telegram app (“they are evil Russians!”) for hacking Moro and Dallagnol’s phones. Telegram officially debunked it in no time.

Then it surfaced that former president Dilma Rousseff and the current Workers’ Party president Gleisi Hoffmann paid a “secret” visit to Moscow only five days before the Leak Wash bombshell. I confirmed the visit with the Duma, as well as the fact that for the Kremlin, Brazil, at least for the moment, is not a priority. Eurasian integration is. That in itself debunks what the extreme-right in Brazil would spin as Dilma asking for Putin’s help, who then released his evil hackers.

Leak Wash – Car Wash’s season two – may be following the Netflix and HBO pattern. Remember that season three of True Detective was an absolute smash. We need Mahershala Ali-worthy trackers to sniff out patches of evidence suggesting the Brazilian military – with the full support of the U.S. Deep State – might be instrumentalizing a mix of Leak Wash and “the Russians” Hybrid War to criminalize the Left for good and orchestrate a silent coup to get rid of the Bolsonaro clan and their sub-zoology collective IQ. They want total control – no clownish intermediaries. Will they be biting more bananas than they can chew?

Pepe Escobar, a veteran Brazilian journalist, is the correspondent-at-large for Hong Kong-based Asia Times. His latest book is 2030.” Follow him on Facebook.

 

51 comments for “PEPE ESCOBAR: Brazilgate is Turning into Russiagate 2.0

  1. boxerwar
    June 28, 2019 at 19:56

    All (or some) u all need to KNOW but are Afraid to Know and Recognize As TRUE (about your own gov’t). …

    http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-1072-doin-wind-sprints-with-the-snake-in-ukraine/

  2. Marcos Rebello
    June 28, 2019 at 04:11

    This analysis of the Brazilian situation is the most thorough and precise I’ve ever read.
    The entire operation is a comprehensive plan put into motion ever since Lula’s progressive administration discovered oil below the seabed off the brazilian coast. This meant a sure passport for Brazil’s quick development given the fact that 30% of all oil royalties would go to finance education, health, and infrastructure! Giving the fact that Brazil was one of the main founders of BRICS, with its development bank to sidetrack the World Bank and FMI, and also factoring the Russia-China partnership in all levels to consolidate the Eurasian Continent, it became absolutely obvious that Brazil had to become what I call the “Matriz Provedora” in the war against the oriental powers to try and counter the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. Its purpose, as we can already see by the actions of Italy, France, and Turkey, is to dismantle NATO and its European design to forge an alliance to sperhead destruction and control from Ukraine to Turkey and Iran in order to stab China at its belly. So Brazil is under the absolute control of the Deep State operators to dismember it from BRICS, melt the country and shape it according to their designs. It will provide real value to a decaying dollar, oil energy and backing to petrodollars in the hands of the Big Oil Sisters, cheap and plenty raw materials for industry and a huge open market to ease the pressure of ever-increasing chinese products entering the US the tariff wars will not contain. As Europe is falling from grace, Brazil and Latin America has to replace it by default!

  3. June 25, 2019 at 20:52

    Você sabe por que em um estado legal não há ataques cibernéticos a promotores, juízes e policiais? – Porque eles são apenas as ferramentas da lei, e o verdadeiro inimigo do criminoso é a lei e o povo. O ataque aos funcionários do governo ocorre apenas quando os juízes, promotores e policiais deixam de obedecer ao povo e à Constituição.
    Russos aconselham a polícia federal: “Procure aqueles que ordenaram o ataque de hackers contra Moro entre as milhares de vítimas da ilegalidade no país”. https://newsfrol.ru/25/6012/

  4. June 25, 2019 at 05:22

    Along with this mess in Brazil we are reminded of the fire at Brazil’s National Museum on September 2, 2018 where some 20 million artifacts were burned. Though there may not be enough information on the cause yet, how can we forget the “clean slate” practices in Iraq and Syria in recent years. See “Cultural Cleansing in Iraq” by Baker, Ismael and Ismael.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-are-latest-updates-brazils-devastating-national-museum-fire-180970232/

  5. Souza
    June 25, 2019 at 04:30

    Great article as usual. As we say in (or addressing) Brazil: the last (to leave) turn off the lights!

  6. Ivan
    June 24, 2019 at 11:59

    Eventhough Lula doesn’t have academic education he previewd all Brazilgate objective in one single word: undermine to our soberany.
    That’s what we can understand from such a true detailed report.

  7. Valderedo Junior
    June 22, 2019 at 12:27

    Mentiroso! Texto totalmente manipulado, mais um esquerdopata tentando mudar as coisas. Vocês são nojentos! Hipócritas!

    • Rodrigo Pereira
      June 23, 2019 at 23:36

      Você é quem está perdido e sem noção da realidade, why you did not leave your commentary in English? You must learn that Brazil and your people are dying in the middle of the great misery…

    • Santsuma
      June 24, 2019 at 19:59

      @ Valderedo Junior…
      Translating what Valderedo Junior, a Brazilian, wrote in Portuguese about Pepe’s article:
      “Liar! The text is totally manipulated, another “leftopath” trying to change things. You are disgusting!”
      Note: “esquerdopata” is a common word literally meaning ” leftist psychopath, or “leftopath”.

      This is how many extreme right people, who are pro-Pres. Bolsonaro call anyone who is against the present extreme right Brazilian government.
      People like Valderedo Junior are 100% against ex-President Lula and will engage in “ad hominem” attacks all the time, they have never arguments to debate anything, just personal attacks.
      Pepe’s article above is very insightful, he is one of the best-informed journalists concerning geopolitics worldwide.
      People like Valderedo above are a disgrace to our country, they are extremely naive, incapable of understanding the political mess Brazil is right now.
      Pepe’s text is on the target as he always is.

    • June 25, 2019 at 10:46

      Vald, acaso vosmecê apenas simpatiza com o fascismo ou já é fascista desde pequenino?

  8. Decisive Liberty
    June 22, 2019 at 00:04

    Not finding any reason to care about this writers perspective… Heck, not even an excuse…

  9. June 21, 2019 at 23:35

    Os links a seguir questionam apenas o interesse pessoal de Putin em invadir o celular de Moro, bem como a versão do financiamento dos hackers. Também observo que a Constituição Russa proclama a prioridade dos valores humanos universais em relação às leis do Estado, que permite alcançar a verdade e a justiça mesmo através da violação da lei (se outros métodos forem impossíveis).

    Um ativista russo de direitos humanos que sobreviveu a uma prisão no Brasil disse há um ano: “Agora não vamos abandonar o povo brasileiro em sua luta contra o terrorismo de estado. O próximo passo será o retorno do Brasil à ordem constitucional e à limpeza dos departamentos judiciário e policial”.
    http://www.sitebs.ru/blogs/37215.html
    Hackers brasileiros e russos ajudam uns aos outros.
    https://news.softodrom.ru/ap/b24645.shtml?fbclid=IwAR0eoOfHP8m_BGdckmE1VosBT8R_eXP4VEBgih0VJg_wWQ4GylrEZE33jFI
    Entre os hackers falantes de russo, a regra é: quando você é solicitado a ajudar em propósitos patrióticos, você deve concordar.
    https://news.rambler.ru/other/42230502-kogda-tebya-prosyat-pomoch-iz-patrioticheskih-tseley-ty-soglashaeshsya-fragment-novoy-knigi-daniila-turovskogo-pro-russkih-hakerov/?updated

  10. Curious
    June 21, 2019 at 22:18

    Thank you for the news Mr Escobar, I always enjoy your articles which include more depth than many.

    What I found striking and indeed odd (and I can think of more pejorative words) was the fact that the Brazilian President, when scheduled to finally meet king Drumpf in Washington, scheduled a visit to the CIA before even meeting with the US president. I can’t find a precedent for that action, although it may have happened at some time, but this was about as blatant a break in protocol that I have witnessed. What did he expect to learn from Langley before he met with the US president? Maybe the actual briefings that Drumpf doesn’t read himself? Or it is something more nefarious?

  11. LC
    June 21, 2019 at 22:07

    Same thing happened in Argentina to bring down the previous government.

  12. Seamus Padraig
    June 21, 2019 at 20:24

    So the U.S. Deep State may be accomplishing at least part of the ultimate goal: to use Brazil in its Divide et Impera strategy of splitting the Russia-China strategic partnership.

    Honestly, this idea doesn’t make much sense. How is Washington going to entice China away from Russia by starting a tariff-war with Beijing?

    The Intercept is owned by hardcore information-war practitioner Pierre Omidyar.

    One of the main reasons to be wary of The Intercept.

  13. bardamu
    June 21, 2019 at 18:04

    Oh, boy. Information wars again.

    I suppose it is a bit to expect that The Intercept should withhold its documents from the Brazilian government, given the likely nature of the alternatives.

    At the same time and for the same reasons, it seems like a suspiciously enormous gaffe that the documents should exist in some place and some form that their release to a government whose criminality they demonstrate should be a possibility. One has to wonder how The Interecept’s personnel imagine that this sort of game is played.

    This is particularly pressing because this is not the first time that governments have gotten information about leaks and leakers from The Intercept when the public had not.

    This is both suspicious, on the one hand, and an obvious risk involved in redacting and withholding stories and documents for any motive on the other.

    It seems very clear at this point that journalism has to evolve in directions akin to a sort of guerilla operation, with aggressive measures to assure the anonymity of at least some sorts of participant. This has to become an at least equal and possibly greater concern than the usual attempts to be responsible by redaction and withholding of certain specifics to the public–though of course verification of documents and stories remains crucial.

  14. June 21, 2019 at 17:45

    Breathtaking narrative.
    Hope Pepe is not with the reason, at this point.

    God help us…

    and, without media (brazilian radio/tv networks) to crown it all…

  15. Ma Laoshi
    June 21, 2019 at 15:04

    But please do tell us again about how the US is “stupid”, and failing at everything it does these days. Russia and China let their key ally in the Western hemisphere get taken out under their noses. If you thought “Uncle Sam cannot possibly go all the way, for that would blow up the Brazilian economy, even the very state” then you still don’t (want to) know what you’re dealing with. Not easy to forgive a KGB alumnus. Can you now understand that the Dark Throne hasn’t given up hopes of doing the same to Russia given how well this caper went, and given that throughout the Russian establishment lots of people are tolerated in power who’d like nothing better?

    • Seamus Padraig
      June 21, 2019 at 20:15

      Pepe’s an incurable optimist. That being said, the idea that Washington could pull off the same thing in Russia that it did in Brazil is hard to swallow. Russia is completely unlike Brazil in every way, and Putin has total control over his deep state, unlike Rousseff.

  16. delia ruhe
    June 21, 2019 at 13:11

    Sounds like WWIII drawing up sides. I wonder what scrap of Fake News is gonna trigger the starting gun.

    • Bruce Hitchcock
      June 21, 2019 at 17:39

      Is manufactured consent even neccessary?war profiteering is an accepted part of elitist economics.Hhow will it stop?COLLAPSE

  17. Ricardo
    June 21, 2019 at 13:00

    I have never seen so much BS in just one article in my life! Perhaps it’s time to stop using illicit drugs Mr Pepe Escobar!

    • delia ruhe
      June 21, 2019 at 13:12

      Perhaps it’s time you started reading Greenwald.

    • Realist
      June 21, 2019 at 13:35

      That slur was used already. Try to be original.

  18. Realist
    June 21, 2019 at 12:58

    Pepe Escobar is one of the best journalists in the whole damned world. He’s put his ass on the line discovering and sharing the truth in and about shithole countries around the globe. Too bad you don’t appreciate him in his own country. Glenn Greenwald is also one of the better North American journalists interested in saving your country from itself. Yet you want to persecute him. Ragging on him as a “socialist” tells everyone whose interests you serve. Typical right wing Washington puppet. They’re using you, you should know.

  19. John
    June 21, 2019 at 12:21

    So what is the word on the “street” in Brazil? Any gigantic protest marches precipitating around the exposed lawfare tactics? My understanding was that Lula, if not Dilma, is a very popular politician. Will they go to the baracades for him?

  20. Realist
    June 21, 2019 at 11:17

    The propagandist media entirely owned by the insider elites in most every country these days is what makes such government takeovers, as described in the four-point summary early in Pepe’s article, so quick, easy and refractory to public or international condemnation. Probably the United States was the template and now most every formerly democratic country not willing to physically man the barricades is falling prey to universal American hegemony, as the present Brazilian government is just a Washington puppet as are so many others, including most, if not all, of Europe.

    One piece of advice for Trump, however, if he really wants to be re-elected: new polls out of the American South indicate that the people don’t want war. If he starts a hot war with any of the countries on Bolton’s and Pompeo’s wish list he will probably not even be re-nominated. Most of the people in the South (not broken down by race), have also soured on his pet project of a giant wall at the Southern border. In Louisiana right now the breakdown is 49% against, 41% for. Perhaps such facts caused him to rapidly recalculate the planned strike against Iran in retribution for downing of the drone.

  21. Marcos Cesar
    June 21, 2019 at 11:10

    Pepe

    Parabéns, precisamos divulgar outros jornais, solicitar aos jornalistas internacionais contribuir e produzir mais material.
    abraço
    Marcos Cesar

  22. Deborah
    June 21, 2019 at 10:44

    Looks like Pepe Escobar is on drug ..kkkk

    • Realist
      June 21, 2019 at 13:04

      Even Brasil has its trolls, I see.

  23. DW Bartoo
    June 21, 2019 at 08:13

    The role of the U$, in what is termed “Brazilgate” is not just “highly likely”, a term much favored by those who seek to hoodwink, to obfuscate, to lie with impunity, it is now fully revealed to those not wedded to comfortable, conventional, complacency and knee-jerk denialism.

    My apprection, to Pepe Escobar and to Consortium News for this article and for Vijay Prashad’s as well.

    Certainly, it is a given that revelations about the persecution of Lulu will not feature in the U$ “approved” media, neither will that persecution be much discussed at U$ institutions of higher learning.

    That the use of an empty form of law and hollowed-out forms of “ancient liberty” and “democratic” institutions by forces of repression and tyranny have become widespread, globally, is more evident by the day, becoming yet another layer of daily outrage which still is little perceived by far too many who are kept dutifully ignorant of the rapid slide toward what can only be regarded as corporate barbarism, a culmination of five hundred years of mercenary profit-seeking and the pathological desire for total control over the many and the planet we all, very temporarily, inhabit.

    One cannot help but wonder what shall happen when this trajectory, now primarily directed by one nation, encounters equally powerful ambition determined not to submit to the hegemon which now considers its position unassailable through its clear threat of nuclear First Strike should it perceive, or imagine, that effective challenge has become actually manifest.

    When threat, bluster, clandestine manipulation and the empty forms no longer provide a smokescreen of “legitimacy”, are no longer effective bludgeons, what will the crazed hegemon then do?

    Within this past week, the U$ military have claimed that a nuclear war is “winnable”.

    Yet, that claim makes no mention of “collateral” costs, of the deaths of millions, even of billions, worldwide, and especially not of domestic deaths among the many no privileged with secure sanctuary in protected enclaves with what are assumed to be “adequate” provisions.

    We certainly have the excitement of living in interesting times, even as the sordid machinations of what is termed the “deep state” blossom profusely around us, mostly unnoticed, if not excused or “sexed up” to titillate “patriotic” mythologies of “manifest destiny”.

    • Rob Roy
      June 21, 2019 at 12:32

      DWBartoo,

      Well said!

    • Realist
      June 21, 2019 at 13:03

      Right you are. We can’t do much about it, but at least we know some of the dirty facts because of journalists like Pepe and Glenn and the rare blogs like CN. Some day, one can hope, that truth will set some oppressed people free.

    • Dave P.
      June 21, 2019 at 16:46

      DW Bartoo,

      “Certainly, it is a given that revelations about the persecution of Lulu will not feature in the U$ “approved” media, neither will that persecution be much discussed at U$ institutions of higher learning.”

      Yes, absolutely. Just recently , there was SPIEF in Saint Petersburg and Putin’s very important question and answer session with the representatives of the Major Media outlets in the World. Then there was SCO meeting of the Leaders in Kyrgyzstan where about 40% of the World humanity was represented. Not even a mention of these events in the Los Angeles Times.

      What was displayed in bold headings yesterday in L.A. Times were the two Russians and a Ukrainian indicted by the Dutch in downing of the Malaysian Airlines plane over Ukraine. Even a half- brained person can figure out that it is the Ukrainian military who did it.

      I wonder what will happen to the humanity raised on all these lies in the West and many other countries. As Realist wrote in one of his comments above Propaganda Media in most of the Countries of the South is owned by the Rich Elite as well.

  24. David G
    June 21, 2019 at 06:36

    So the pink tide is being swept back by the Yankee-local clique muck: Brazil and Ecuador already gone; Venezuela holding out but being strangled; Nicaragua in the crosshairs.

    This is what comes of well-meaning reformers leaving the pre-existing elites in place (just temporarily a bit poorer) to organize the counterattack at their leisure. It’s almost as if Cuba got it right: if you want revolutionary change, then have a revolution.

  25. Sharon Crawford
    June 21, 2019 at 06:04

    This was a delicious Pepe romp! Pleased to see the Omidyar elephant addressed.

    • DW Bartoo
      June 21, 2019 at 08:42

      Indeed, Sharon Crawford, there is need of room for noticing pachydermal presence. No matter how unsettling is such notice, among polite and fashionable company.

  26. David G
    June 21, 2019 at 06:01

    Sheesh, Pepe ends up going to a pretty dark place here.

    I thought I’d’ve been satisfied if Glenn and The Intercept just succeeded this time round in protecting their source’s identity and actually releasing everything they’ve got – neither is a given in light of their past practice.

    But the idea this could actually be an Omidyar play against the strutting, Trump-caliber Bolsonaro & Co. in favor of the serious power boys waiting in the wings – man, that’s got me down.

    • DW Bartoo
      June 21, 2019 at 09:05

      David G, your concerns about Greenwald and The Intercept are well-founded, and just cause for ongoing scepticism.

      That Omidyar may well not be the Great Entrepreneurial Goodness, now baked into common “progressive” presumption, might well have salutary value.

      Un-examined assumption, finally examined, cannot fail to deepen awareness and caution superficial and unwarranted hero-worship.

      In all, a very good thing, for it elevates truly heroic behavior and often allows such behavior to be fully recognized even if, or as, “authority” ruthlessly seeks to punish the temerity which exposes and reveals its crimes, depredations, deceptions, and corruption.

  27. geeyp
    June 21, 2019 at 03:20

    Stay tuned.

  28. June 21, 2019 at 02:43

    Um dos melhores textos sobre este tema. Obrigado, Pepe!
    Isso é o que aconselhamos os defensores da versão da intervenção russa: talvez valha a pena lembrar a Navalha de Occam e não desenvolver teorias de conspiração? Procure alguém que tenha sofrido terror policial e judicial no Brasil. Isso é apenas um Lula sozinho? Pense nas centenas de milhares de civis inocentes mortos e presos. E sim, há vítimas da polícia federal e repressão no Brasil em outros países, inclusive na Rússia.

  29. Jeff Harrison
    June 20, 2019 at 21:29

    Pepe, you are the best. What’s the chance that Brazil will kick Greenwald out?

    • DW Bartoo
      June 21, 2019 at 09:27

      Perhaps, Jeff Harrison, Brazil might simply “Assange” Greenwald?

      No doubt the current legal rectitude, now at swelling full high tide, washing over Brazil, even at tsunami levels, could find or invent a “special circumstance” or “security threat” sufficient to over-rule squeamish objections.

      At worst, the Brazilian government would face Maddow cud-chewing resistance from journalists, world-wide, were were the “proper” outrages of effective character assassination observed and sufficiently ballyhooed by corporate pundits, who readily understand who breads their “but …”.

      Is it “highly likely” that Greenwald will be taken to such task?

      Probably not, until or unless he embarrasses or offends the Big Hegemon, as have Assange, Manning, and various whistle-blowers, to such extent that the boys in Brazil will be Green-Lighted to do the deal.

      Greenwald seems safe, as he has pulled his punches and, one worries, one speculates, has “compromised” sources, when push came to shove, though perhaps with some prodding from “above”.

      • Realist
        June 21, 2019 at 13:32

        Maybe I’m wrong, but I had always assumed that Greenwald chose to live in Brazil under what was a populist leftist government to insulate himself from the long arm of the American intel agencies. That insulation probably fell apart along with Lula’s political movement through the soft coup perpetrated by the right wing elites. I do hope he has an escape plan. I cannot fathom how he can realistically expose the greatest sins of the current regime and still live in the country, not when two consecutive leftist presidents were framed, prosecuted and incarcerated.

        Thanks, Obama. You made this all possible by giving the intel agencies carte blanche to recapture the entire western hemisphere for the global capitalists. This is one of your legacies that Trump will NOT attempt to nullify.

        • DW Bartoo
          June 22, 2019 at 11:20

          Realist, I agree completely that Obama bears the largest portion of responsibility for the “official” persecution of those who offend the elites.

          Governments, especially those under the Hegemon’s thumb now feel free to blatantly savage those they once silenced, less openly but equally effectively, yet still it is highly likely that some form of permission or a “sign” must be sought or received from the U$, before doing the dirty, however wrapped in “astute”
          legality as it may be meant to appear.

          I also concur with your view about why Greenwald likely chose Brazil as his home.

          We will know when U$ patience has run out, either when either Greenwald can no longer travel, or when his travel is obviously driven by a search for safe haven.

          Helping Snowden, is likely Greenwald’s great “crime”, to date, in the view of the deep state.

          When the media, generally, begin to malign and attack Greenwald, not for his revelations, but first for his character, the clear signal will be sent the many to “get on board” with tar and feathers, just as was done, with appalling effectiveness, to Julian Assange.

          Interestingly enough, Chelsea Manning is still seem as at least a somewhat sympathetic figure, owing perhaps to Obama’s pronouncement that Manning was guilty, even before her trial began.

          That was not a wise move by a reputed “Constitutional Scholar”.

          Neither was the subsequent mistreatment of Manning which, despite the best efforts of the “responsible” media, did reach the ears of the people.

          I suspect that Msnning’s re-imprisonment and crushing daily fines, also does not sit particularly well with many, when, however rarely, their thoughts might stray in the direction of conscience.

          Were Greenwald arrested or detained, threatened or hounded, until the assassination of his character might be begun, he could also well be viewed, by many, as being a victim of vindictive over-reach.

          Without a functioning rule of law, the only protection those who dare question may have, is the moral and vocal support of those who value knowing what was once referred to as “the truth”.

          The “work” of propagandists is to convince the many that there is no such thing.

    • Rob Roy
      June 21, 2019 at 12:20

      Jeff Harrison,
      I have worried about that for some time and hope his safety is not in jeopardy. I suspect he keeps his ear to the ground and has an exit strategy if needed.
      Great article. Grateful every day for real journalists without whom we would be living darkness.

  30. Cármine Antonio
    June 20, 2019 at 18:07

    O Brasil, como conhecemos, acabou. A indignação de quem pensa o país para os brasileiros é crescente. Está tudo dominado, a direita mesquinha e burra conta com o apoio do capital financeiro internacional para transformar um país rico, com um POVO pobre e ignorante, em uma Colônia, onde a população não terá acesso a Justiça, Educação e Saúde. Para isso foi fundamental o papel desempenhado pelo ex-juiz Sérgio Moro e pelo seu Clã composto por procuradores, juízes e tribunais superiores que endossaram suas sentenças direcionadas para prender e tirar da disputa presidencial, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Os artigos publicados por Glenn, do Intercept, apenas confirma o que todo mundo já sabe, mas que vem sendo contornado pelo hoje ministro Moro, que debocha das críticas, como fez na quarta-feira, 19, em audiência no senado federal. Não creio que será isso que irá derrubar a ditadura disfarçada instalada, onde militares ocupam postos chaves no governo federal.

    • June 21, 2019 at 10:21

      Fortunately, all CN readers are multilingual. For example, even I was able to translate Glenn as Glenn and Lula da Silva the same way.

    • Deborah
      June 21, 2019 at 11:00

      well, 13 year of PT and Brazil had become the best place in the world ?
      The ideological bullshit has well served the corrutped political corrporation and “order in progress” the the population is just a wishful headline with a bloody stain due to the usual 66000 violent death Brazil has every year.
      Brazil just need to clean the shit and make things work. People who are criminals shall be judged and serve their prison term on first instance. Corrupted politician shall be strippen off their political immunity as requested by all Brazilian since they use that to commit their crime.
      The interecept is just a piece of junk feeling the money squeeze and seeking fame though whatever means it can. Brazil is in bad shape because the hords of blood sucking parasites who have taken over the system the last 30 years have no interest in “order & progress”.

      I really wish to see all those fucking corrupts in jail with Lula and see all their wealth confiscated (valid for their families too)

      • Andreas
        June 22, 2019 at 02:48

        Nicely said, but what do you propose to solve this mess.

      • Vilma Govedice
        June 25, 2019 at 16:07

        So much hate and no space in this little brain to reason! Corruption has been in the fabric of our society forever and It is fought with justice and not by corrupted judges and prosecutors incriminating good and honest politicians like Lula. You would better open your eyes and see reality that our country is being destroyed and all you can do is rant hateful words!

Comments are closed.