Whether President Trump knows it or not, he is in a battle with a powerful ‘Deep State’ that wants to suck him into its neocon foreign policy orthodoxy or destroy him politically, as ex-British diplomat Alastair Crooke explains.
By Alastair Crooke
Beware ego, well two egos actually. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law who seems to believe that he can solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and who is trying to persuade his father-in-law that “a foreign policy coup” can be his.
Donald Trump speaking with the media at a hangar at Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona. December 16, 2015. (Flickr Gage Skidmore)
Behind the scenes, stand the dubious former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (lobbying via media baron Rupert Murdoch’s former wife Wendy Deng, who reportedly reconciled Kushner and Ivanka Trump after their 2008 split) and the equally dubious gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, plus the Israeli Ambassador, Ron Dermer (who is a Bibi Netanyahu confidant, reportedly).
Trump would not be the first U.S. President to be glamour-struck by the prospect of being the one to solve the Palestinian conflict, if he should take the bait. He would be one of many. Yet it has proved to be a prize for none of these former Presidents, but rather has proved itself to be a poisoned chalice, time after time.
For Trump however, it would not be the standard hemlock imbibed by his predecessors, but more a case of welcoming into his Administration a Trojan Horse. It is, as journalist Robert Parry rightly asserts, a Trojan Horse carrying the neocons right back into the heart of foreign policy. It would result in “President Trump’s foreign policy sliding toward neoconservative orthodoxy on the Middle East …”.
What is “the bait” this time? Something very simple. Instead of Israel making peace with the Palestinians, leading to peace with the surrounding world, it would be the other way round: Israel would befriend the Arab world, which would then agree on some “solution” with Israel and impose it on the Palestinians.
This plan has been given a catchy sound-bite by Netanyahu: “Outside” (i.e. the Arab world), “in” (imposition on Palestinians), instead of “inside out.” The selling point is that the Palestinians are now so weak and divided, it is claimed, they have not the strength to object.
Leaving aside the fact that if the Israeli government had actually wanted a negotiated solution – the premise on which the 1993 Oslo Accords was founded (that it was in both parties’ interests to agree on a compromise) – there have been any number of occasions over the last quarter century, when Israel could have had one. History shows that Israel has always preferred continuing the (so-called) Peace Process to actually concluding peace. This understanding of the situation is common ground for both American and European officials, who have been part of “the process” over the years, (of which I was one).
The Wrong Starting Point
But for Trump, it is not the probability of failure in this venture that makes the Israeli initiative potentially so damaging, but rather that to launch his foreign policy from this platform may well prove lethal to his wider aims. Where you start matters. It matters a lot. It dictates the subsequent alignment of alliances.
Retired U.S. Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn at a campaign rally for Donald Trump at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Oct. 29, 2016. (Flickr Gage Skidmore)
Initially (and perhaps it still is so), Trump’s start point was détente with Russia. In terms of his aim to transform America’s foreign policy, that made sense. And one can understand why President Trump might be treading somewhat slowly on Russia, in the wake of the Deep State coup against Trump’s National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and the continuing attrition aimed against the President, but simply, were he to pursue his son-in-law’s plan, Trump will be handing over his foreign policy to the neocons.
Why? Because if Trump wants the Arab world (and Saudi Arabia in particular), to help Israel impose a settlement on the Palestinians, Trump will have to embrace Israel’s false narrative that Iran is the chief sponsor of terror in the Middle East. And, Trump equally will have to pay court to the equally false Israeli narrative of the threat of the Iranian “nuclear bomb.” He already has, at his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. It has never been Iran’s non-existent “bomb” that has concerned Israeli security officials: It has been Iran’s conventional military power and even more so, its soft, revolutionary power.
It is precisely this back-to-front neocon world view that has so corrupted American foreign policy: America, for decades now, has aligned itself with Saudi Arabia and Gulf States who finance, arm and support terrorist movements (such as Al Qaeda), while labeling Iran, which actually fights and defeats these “jihadists,” as the chief sponsor of terror in the Middle East. One really cannot get it more back-to-front. This is now more widely understood by the American public, yet the neocons never pull back; they never desist in trying to tie America to the Saudi Arabia-Israeli axis and to promote phobia towards Iran.
Will President Trump see the danger? His vaunted “war” on radical Islam will be laughed off the stage in the Middle East – as was Obama’s – if he is seen to have aligned himself this way: with Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It will be viewed in the Middle East as another round of America “at war” with terrorism, and tucked up “in bed” with it, too.
Russian Doubts
And in Moscow, eyebrows too, will be raised at such a strategic alignment: Will Trump be any more serious than Obama in defeating radical jihadists, policy-makers in Russia may be asking? It will be yet another question mark to put beside the bigger question mark arising from President Trump’s acceptance of General Flynn’s resignation.
Couple walking along the Kremlin, Dec. 7, 2016. (Photo by Robert Parry)
Journalist Pepe Escobar notes that “even before Flynn’s fall, Russian analysts had been avidly discussing whether President Trump is the new Victor Yanukovich – [the Ukrainian President] who failed to stop a color revolution on his doorstep.”
This has become a key question. Flynn’s conversation with the Russian Ambassador over an open telephone line (which he will have known to be routinely monitored by the security services), broke no rules: He spoke, as any diplomat about to assume office might. There was nothing improper in his conduct.
A British Shadow Foreign Secretary would be constantly in touch with foreign Ambassadors. It is expected, and required of him or her. If there were any breaking of rules, it would seem to have occurred elsewhere: in the intelligence services perhaps, or in the Department of Justice. The rules are that you do not intentionally tap your own officials (or about to be officials), and should this occur inadvertently, their identity and their contribution to the conversation should be minimized, i.e., redacted under privacy rules. Never should it leak.
And if there is a puzzle to this episode, it lies not so much in Flynn’s conduct, but in the response by the President. So, Vice President Mike Pence was miffed that General Flynn had been economical with his account of events to him. Why not call them both in: tell Flynn to apologize and Pence to accept the apology? End it there. Why give a scalp to Deep State opponents?
A puzzle it remains. Eli Lake on Bloomberg View draws out the wider implications: “…unanswered questions. It’s possible that Flynn has more ties to Russia that he had kept from the public and his colleagues. It’s also possible that a group of national security bureaucrats and former Obama officials are selectively leaking highly sensitive law enforcement information to undermine the elected government.
“Flynn was a fat target for the national security state. He has cultivated a reputation as a reformer and a fierce critic of the intelligence community leaders he once served with when he was the director the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama. Flynn was working to reform the intelligence-industrial complex, something that threatened the bureaucratic prerogatives of his rivals.
“He was also a fat target for Democrats. Remember Flynn’s breakout national moment last summer was when he joined the crowd at the Republican National Convention from the dais calling for Hillary Clinton to be jailed.
“In normal times, the idea that U.S. officials entrusted with our most sensitive secrets would selectively disclose them to undermine the White House would alarm those worried about creeping authoritarianism. Imagine if intercepts of a call between Obama’s incoming national security adviser and Iran’s foreign minister leaked to the press before the nuclear negotiations began? The howls of indignation would be deafening.
“In the end, it was Trump’s decision to cut Flynn loose. In doing this he caved in to his political and bureaucratic opposition. [Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin] Nunes told me Monday night, that this will not end well. ‘First it’s Flynn, next it will be Kellyanne Conway, then it will be Steve Bannon, then it will be Reince Priebus,’ he said. Put another way, Flynn is only the appetizer. Trump is the entrée.”
Neutering Trump
So this is the question: Has the Deep State already neutered Trump’s foreign policy? It is too early to tell, but there are straws in the wind suggesting that Trump’s policy might be sliding towards neocon orthodoxy on Russia (as well as on Palestine), as Moon of Alabama web site observed:
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015. (UN Photo)
“[On Feb. 14] the White House spokesperson said: President Trump has made it very clear that he expects the Russian government to deescalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea.
“[On Feb. 15] Trump tweeted: Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump
Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?
4:42 AM – 15 Feb 2017
“That is a position Trump had not previously taken. ‘Return Crimea’ is a no-no to any current and future Russian government. If Trump insists on this, the prospective détente is already dead.”
Flynn’s sacrifice does not allow a final judgment to be made. On the bigger chessboard, Trump has decided that “a pawn” can be sacrificed. The General had certain qualities (the ruthlessness perhaps necessary to wield an axe to the intelligence agencies), but also he had displayed a lack of political “nous” and basic understanding in Flynn’s book, The Field of Fight, (that unwisely he had co-authored with neocon Michael Leeden). Trump chose not to risk a more important piece to defend a pawn (especially as one more important “piece” (Bannon) reportedly was calling for this pawn to be sacrificed).
The question, finally, is about Trump’s character: Has he the “steel” to “drain the swamp”? Can he recruit tough-minded allies within the Deep State, ready to conduct a vicious internal war and to purge it thoroughly? Can he eliminate the sleeper cells from within his own administration? Tweets will not be enough. He will have to act soon.
Or else, will he “slide” (towards the neocons), and take the Netanyahu bait. And fall into the embrace of the neocon alignment with the Saudi-Israeli axis – and, having absorbed the basic hook of Iranophobia, go on to try to split President Putin from Iran (and China), in true neocon style?
This portends a vicious internal war within the U.S. – for even were the Deep State “color revolution” to succeed, it would not represent the end of the war, but perhaps the loss of a major battle within the wider war.
Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat who was a senior figure in British intelligence and in European Union diplomacy. He is the founder and director of the Conflicts Forum.
Before the rise of spookery we had a respectable diplomatic service operating globally and providing all the necessary intelligence that clever men can accumulate.
Then the country sold itself to profit, embassies became plush venues for commercial cocktail parties and the intelligence services were introduced to the diplomats as the essential tool for gleaning secret information and reaching the right decisions.
I have no doubt that analysts employed by the intelligence services provide a good service but there is another type of employee for whom the end always justifies the means without any proper assessment of the importance of the matter in hand. Its his default setting. That seems to be where it has gone wrong.
I think the President might return to the former system and rely on the diplomatic staff (not the commercial chaps politically appointed but real country experts) and enable a return to foreign policy based on a proper assessment of the country’s interests.
RBHoughton, I fully concur with your analysis. Following the collapse of the USSR, a culture of, or should I say, a cultured communication network between the East and West, abandoned their long held posts, due primarily to a concurrent disintegration of the cold war. This diplomatic void gave the NeoCon element an opportunity to take over the “commies are commin’ ” mantra and redirect our Western Occident(s) military and political posture, into a multinational corporate effort to redesign the “red scare” , to transform it into a “terrorist scare” Their financial-zed, commodity theft driven, carpetbagging of Russia and it’s former vassals were all caught red handed, time and again, by any number of famous whistle-blowers, who’s ample knowledge was derived from Intel, military and diplomatic experiences. These truth-telling, brave souls brought an end to the hidden agendas of that NeoCon cliques and plots. The next big false flag event, may very well bring down several Western governments simultaneously. This theorizing leads me to conclude that the last death card has yet to be played by the NeoCon Cabal, it will be as devastating as WW III… the collapse of the USD and Federal Reserve Banking systems. Their last and final efforts will focus on homogenizing cultures and sovereign currencies, reducing what was the greatest country ever in the history of the world, the USA, into a third world, agricultural armpit, of GMO’s, mono cultural/insecticide laden corporatist farmland(s) with a vast population of impoverished peasantry…Brought to you by, The remaining true believers of Maurice Strong-even as he lay dead in the grave, still- the most dangerous man in the world!
Trump’s capitulation is the big mystery. He could have kept his usual disdainful dismissal of (tup)Pence and the GOP establishment, as he has all through the campaign. It may be giving the Donald too much credit to make of him such an ideologue. At the end of the day Trump is another failed B-list celebrity NY real estate speculator with mob connections and a lot of debt to dubious actors, for whom politics is another way to “make deals”. Maybe Flynn’s head was delivered on silver platter simply because the bill was paid. Today, the neocons and their allies are touting John Bolton as a savior for the administration’s disarray. Never mind his role in the Iraq fiasco. And the Dems are chipping in by pushing the Russia crap onto their “public” knowing full well it can never bring Trump down.
Trump, as a self serving, corrupt individual is the perfect guy to stay President for any special interest group with a self serving political agenda. He’s the Deep State’s Idi Amin. The intelligence workers seeking to expose him may just be the true patriots.
The most powerful weapon is not the NUCLEAR WEAPON THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON IS THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
AND FOR AS LONG AS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND ITS MILITARY PERMITS THAT THE ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE WHICH ARE THE JEWS CONTINUE HAVEING CONTROL OF 97% OF ALL MEANS OF COMUNICATION INCLUDING TELEPHONE, INTERNET, PRINTED PRESS, AND ELECTRONIC RADIO, AND TV. WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO DESTROY OUR DOMESTIC ENEMY. PERIOD.
The way I understand why General Flynn was BURNED and thrown to the JEW BEASTS, is because He had a PEDOPHILE LIST IN WHICH, THE NAME OF ONE OF PENCE FRIENDS WAS INCLUDED.
So are we to say that its OK to burn a good man just for the sake of a criminal’s name, has some kind of relationship to a HIGH EXECUTIVE OFFICER?
If that is the case the American people will, never be able to get rid of these PARASITIC BASTARDS WHO HAVE INFILTRATED EVERY AREA OF OUR SOCIETY.
The Jew is not like the non Jew who happens to be more of an independent doer and thinker, the Jew always work as a TRIBE THAT IS WHY THEY HAVE SURVIVED THROUGH OUT THE CENTURIES, IN MY BOOK THERE ARE NO GOOD JEWS THEY ONLY APEAR TO BE GOOD PUBLICLY BUT IN THEIR SYNOGOGES THAT IS WHERE THEY ALL MEET TO FORMULATE THEIR AGENDAS TO CONTINUE DESTROYING THE NON JEW, FOR A VERY LONG TIME BEEN A TRUTH SEARCHER WAS DEMONISED BY THE DAMN JEW AS CONSPIRACY THEORIST, IN ORDER TO EMBARASE THE TRUTH SEARCHER AND STOP THEM FROM LEARNING THE TRUTH, NOW WE ARE AWAKE AND KNOW THAT CONSPIRACY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME FOR THE JEW AND IS UP TO US TO MAKE SURE THESE BASTARDS DO NOT PUT US BACK TO SLEEP AGAIN.
The Clash of Ignorance: Labels like “Islam” and “the West” serve only to confuse us about a disorderly reality.
By Edward W. Said
OCTOBER 4, 2001
Samuel Huntington’s article “The Clash of Civilizations?” appeared in the Summer 1993 issue of Foreign Affairs, where it immediately attracted a surprising amount of attention and reaction. Because the article was intended to supply Americans with an original thesis about “a new phase” in world politics after the end of the cold war, Huntington’s terms of argument seemed compellingly large, bold, even visionary. He very clearly had his eye on rivals in the policy-making ranks, theorists such as Francis Fukuyama and his “end of history” ideas, as well as the legions who had celebrated the onset of globalism, tribalism and the dissipation of the state. But they, he allowed, had understood only some aspects of this new period. He was about to announce the “crucial, indeed a central, aspect” of what “global politics is likely to be in the coming years.” Unhesitatingly he pressed on:
“It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”
Most of the argument in the pages that followed relied on a vague notion of something Huntington called “civilization identity” and “the interactions among seven or eight [sic] major civilizations,” of which the conflict between two of them, Islam and the West, gets the lion’s share of his attention. In this belligerent kind of thought, he relies heavily on a 1990 article by the veteran Orientalist Bernard Lewis, whose ideological colors are manifest in its title, “The Roots of Muslim Rage.” In both articles, the personification of enormous entities called “the West” and “Islam” is recklessly affirmed, as if hugely complicated matters like identity and culture existed in a cartoonlike world where Popeye and Bluto bash each other mercilessly, with one always more virtuous pugilist getting the upper hand over his adversary. Certainly neither Huntington nor Lewis has much time to spare for the internal dynamics and plurality of every civilization, or for the fact that the major contest in most modern cultures concerns the definition or interpretation of each culture, or for the unattractive possibility that a great deal of demagogy and downright ignorance is involved in presuming to speak for a whole religion or civilization. No, the West is the West, and Islam Islam.
The challenge for Western policy-makers, says Huntington, is to make sure
>> cont.
http://www.thenation.com/article/clash-ignorance/
…
Despite the lack of “supporting evidence,” the air waves, the newspapers and all other sources of the faking establishment are all parroting that Vladimir Putin “won” the American election for Donald Trump. The parroting chatter is all over the “news” world, though some thinking people are calling it bird poop…
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/01/the-faking-establishment-and-its-fake.html
Another article of interest at link below:
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The Dangerous Precedence of the Hunt Against Flynn … And Trump. Show of Raw Power by the “Intelligence Community” is a Great Danger
By Moon of Alabama
Global Research, February 16, 2017
Moon of Alabama 15 February 2017
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-dangerous-precedence-of-the-hunt-against-flynn-and-trump/5575181
The US Corporate War State Destroys on All levels
Yet the US corporate-war state is deeper and wider than the ‘military-industrial establishment’ of legend. For it effectively controls the media, military-services, covert intelligence and advisory positions and not just military industry. And it does so towards one ruling goal – perpetual US war on the designated enemy which Eisenhower’s famous concept does not comprehend.
The US corporate war state is also more visibly institutionalized than the language of ‘deep state’ now popular on the Left denotes. It operates on every level of instituted US power with no accountability beyond itself, from US President lies to the mass murders on the ground.
The US corporate war state is very roughly what Trump ran against as presidential candidate which earned him the support of libertarian and other critical intelligentsia in America.
Hard-rock General Michael Flynn was the key to this initiative.
He was Trump’s primary source of intelligence on alliance with Russia in the war against terrorism which Flynn knew and agreed was US permitted and made.
Now he is eliminated by the US corporate war state operating on every plane of attack within America itself and its business-military satellites like Canada next door.
None of this is reported in official society. Only what is falsely used against Flynn’s position of knowledge by acquaintance is reported. This is the modus operandi of the Beast. Flynn was not rogue but only rational on Russia and the war against terrorism. He led thinking at the front of the US ‘intelligence community’ in his insistence that Russia should be an ally not an enemy to eliminate the terrorist threat featuring ISIS/ISIL/Daesh and other mutating names and outfits.
He knew that all were orchestrated by covert US direction.
I saw Flynn speak directly only once on an RT program now scrubbed from the Google search engine. The moment of his elimination has been long prepared down to the internet erasure of his advanced position on Russia.
What stood out was Flynn’s very reasonable and dialogical commitment to protect the US and the civilian world against the territory-holding terrorism rampaging around Syria, Iraq, the Middle East in general and Afghanistan.
General Flynn emphasized the very real and sophisticated ‘Islamic’ terrorist apparatus was out of control. He opposed all the Russia-and-Putin bashing instead of intelligent cooperation with Russia in defeating ISIS. He knew that this all stood in the way of achieving the goal the Obama administration claimed.
When the British interviewer of General Flynn kept suggesting that the US was in fact itself the dark sponsor of the many-faced Jihadi terrorism, Flynn tacitly accepted the fact and moved onto stopping it – just what he was about to lead on before he was eliminated today.
The pervasive operations of the US corporate war state show mordant touches of absolute power ruling absolutely even against a presidential vote.
It is the Valentine’s Day massacre of the knowing man in the President’s circle. Take out this intelligence behind him, and what is left? Nothing that knows what it is doing or can make military peace with Russia to eliminate the global terrorists crossing borders everywhere to sow chaos and fear ready to bow to the US-led global corporate war state.
The billionaire front man is untouchable by the same code of absolute US money power raping the living world as its freedom.
The Cover Up Already Achieved
https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-84866880.html
interesting article at link below”
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Special Report
Leaky John Brennan
George Neumayr
February 17, 2017, 12:04 am
Will the former CIA director be hoist by his own petard?
https://spectator.org/leaky-john-brennan/
Forgive me but I have to point out a glaring error in this piece. Trump is not some mastermind political genius. Trump is a low impulse base thinker who can and does not possibly know nor understand 1/1000th of what occurs in government, especially in the secretive bowels of government – where the real decisions are made by rich businessmen and their corporate bosses. Trump is a useless dupe, and far too egotistical and self-centered to realize he is a dupe. Trump is doing nothing that other more dangerous people are telling him to do, and no doubt in a such a way they can manipulate the manchild into thinking these are his own ideas. Trump is not smart enough to do anything on his own. Would be nice if this was acknowledged. Otherwise it provides the Orange Sociopath far more agency than he has.
What an idiotic comment. This statement alone contradicts your claim: “does not possibly know nor understand 1/1000th of what occurs in government, especially in the secretive bowels of government – where the real decisions are made by rich businessmen and their corporate bosses.” Uhhh . . . Trump WAS/IS one of those rich businessmen.
Alistair Crooke would never have revealed some of the facts in this article without official US govt approval. Never. Especially Chairman Nunes private comment to him last Monday. Perhaps you are unaware of Crooke’s stature as a former intel officer. He was obviously called into service to get the word out.
So, what made the half-term senator and community organizer before Trump such a genius that he got to make decisions? And, how about the dry drunk and failed would-be oil tycoon before him? He defiantly proclaimed himself to be the “unitary executive” and the “decider” of all things, and no one behind the scenes tried staging a coup against him.
If Flynn had to be mercilessly dismembered before the public because he made contact with his counterparts in Russia a few days before the Trump administration was scheduled to commence because he did not yet have official standing under the dubious Logan Act (which has never been enforced in over two hundred years on the books), then why are John McCain, Lindsey Graham and other egomaniacs from the senate allowed to gallivant around the globe and inject their unqualified biases into American foreign policy when they have no authority from the executive branch for doing so? They have no more credential to conduct foreign policy than any other common citizen, yet they are allowed to circulate through hot spots around the globe stirring up rebellion, as they so pointedly did in Ukraine. (They have a right to go “fact-finding” but not to effect their own foreign policy, which is the sole prerogative of the executive branch. The war in Ukraine is more McCain’s baby than of the cowardly and feckless Obama.) Why are they not removed from office and prosecuted for what are more felonious acts than anything Flynn did?
If you look more carefully, Hannah, I think you will find that the OP and most of the people commenting upon it are not defending the genius or the specific policies of Mr. Trump (there is enough there for practically everyone to disagree with some part of it), rather they are abhorring the thinly concealed organised effort to remove Trump from office, one way or another, by elements within the government who are not elected but appointed and well entrenched, who have access to the highest levels of intelligence and levers of power with national security, and who are clear warmongers already having rekindled the Cold War with Russia and seemingly hell-bent upon triggering a hot one that could well escalate to the use of nukes. These insurrectionists have been openly active on many levels, trying many strategies since the moment that the networks called the election for Trump. If you can’t see what has been happening, you need to open your eyes, Hannah, and get past your pre-existing grievances against Trump, who is admittedly an obnoxious blowhard with many unvarnished prejudices.
However, this attack by the “Deep State” and its media tools transcend personalities and is an assault on our country’s constitution. I would support Howdy Doody against a domestic coup d’etat if he had been elected president at the ballot box. Had Hillary won, just as many critics would be calling her a “sociopath,” to use your term, as more bombs rained down upon human targets. Calling Trump names and demanding his removal from office won’t change the election, Hannah, and neither will ridiculous false accusations in the air about collusion with Russia or “hacking” of the election. Feel free to wallow in the ubiquitous “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (and its associated “Putin Derangement Syndrome”) to your heart’s content should you need that crutch, but the next election is already on the calendar and we don’t need a civil war during the interim.
Very informative, so thank you. Most Americans are still easy bait for Cold War tactics. I was surprised to see Flynn removed from the equation so early (resign/fired/terminated). Clinton held plenty of talks with the Kremlin as SoS, so not sure why this is taboo. She also negotiated the sale of American uranium to a Russia owned company if Clinton Cash is factual.
The narrative lost by Trump’s administration is he is a populist candidate or anti-establishment. He was going to “drain the swamp”, but he immediately hired all swamp creatures including Goldman Sachs. He hired the corrupters of government officials. In other words, his statements about turning the government back over to the people were lies, or he just didn’t understand the problem. Many of the anti-government crowd aren’t very intelligent so maybe Trump/Pence are just too ignorant to get it. Politicians are a dime a dozen. They are puppets dancing for cash.
If we want a people-centered government, we need to eliminate the puppet masters, not the puppets. Cut off their strings. Install a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Maybe Trump fired Flynn not because of any pressure from the Deep State, but because it turned out Flynn was dangerously unhinged? Flynn “officially” put Iran “on notice”, steering the country on the verge of war. Who had ordered him to? I cannot seem to find an answer. Did I miss something or did Flynn decide to go it alone against Iran? Which, if it turned out to be the case, would have been ample reason to ask for his resignation (under some phony pretext to cover for him and the Trump administration).
BTW, is it me or has this “Iran on notice” thing disappeared along with Flynn?
As many have called for, Trump should put his house in order and sack the spooks who wiretapped, recorded and leaked Flynn’s conversations with Russia diplomats. The heads of the big three intelligence agencies (CIA, NSA & FBI) should be given their walking papers in a press conference with an expose of the insurrection being played out against the elected president. However, I fear that Joe Tedesky is right when he says that the immediate counter action of the Deep State will be to invoke the 25th amendment and depose Trump as mentally incompetent and to be replaced by a more compliant Mike Pence. Realistically, there is probably no way for the interests of the American people (indeed those of the entire world) to win in this drive by the neocons and the Deep State towards a world war with Russia. We may well have been doomed by having an actual outsider (Trump) replace the usual puppet of the Deep State in the presidency. What we thought was a solution to an Obama-imposed international crisis (electing Trump to stop a war Hillary had promised to escalate) may turn out to have been the provocation that forces the insurrectionists to surface and overthrow our democracy. Those who have traditionally acted as the “loyal opposition” are surely behaving like insurrectionists bent on imposed regime change. Why? Because Trump is purportedly such an exceptionally bad president who poses an existential threat against the country? Hardly. He has barely served four weeks in office. The coup-plotters are totally brazen and shameless, probably feeling confidence in numbers and safety in their long-entrenched sinecures. This is a naked power struggle, just like Stalin had with Trotsky, Mao with Chiang Kia Shek, and Julius Caesar had with the Roman senate, for that matter.
Well said, Realist. I believe, it could be called “Open treason.” No matter what anybody thinks about Donald Trump. He was elected to his position. I believe, he should open up the Government files and let the people see what has been going on over the last number of years. Because the “deep state” is out to destroy him.
Interesting:
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Anatomy Of The Deep State: An Open Conspiracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39DxGw7ut90
This is beyond reasonable thinking……How can someone make a commit about the “Deep State” without knowing who are the actual people who make up the deep state and also how can anyone state the deep state agenda without knowing who they are….This is a dog and pony show….someone grow some balls or stop the articles about the fictitious “Deep State”
@ John: “How can someone make a commit about the “Deep State” without knowing who are the actual people who make up the deep state and also how can anyone state the deep state agenda without knowing who they are… ”
Do you believe that all those quotations from “anonymous government officials” that you hear and see on the news were not uttered by anonymous government officials? Do you believe that the CIA does not and never has overthrown foreign governments? Do you believe that everything DoD and CIA do is routinely disclosed publicly? Do you believe that trends in what DoD and CIA do can not be identified without knowing the names of the people who carry out those acts?
One couldn’t argue that position in a court of law……Right now the “Deep State” is a ghost without a physical body…..Lots of smoke without a location of the actual fire (names of those calling the shots for the Deep State)……So unfortunately all we have is speculation…..There is evidence of dirty deeds no doubt….
Obviously there are two “John”s here.
The Deep State is a system, not a personality.
FDR called it the Military-Industrial complex. That is only the tip of the iceberg, however.
Mass Media, Mass Incarceration, Mass Surveillance, and the Banks and Hedge Funds that profit off of these things, as well as the Criminal Syndicates used for “plausible deniability” are all part of the Deep State.
Individuals are no more than replaceable cogs in that machine. There are also multiple factions within the Deep State.
What is actually beyond reasonable thinking is to demand that individual personalities be attached to systemic analysis. The dog and pony show is filled with personal, rather than systemic critique. The fiction is that the US is in sny way a democracy.
Okay we’ve replaced the ambiguous “Deep State with the ambiguous “System”….I realize the same money funds the major companies of the military industrial complex which also funds the major media outlets….so these media outlets have a heavy monetary interest in maintaining the market share for sales of weapons……The “system” does not run its self……Real people run this system……Your reply gives zero hope for change since there are no “personalities” to charge…….
Curious what Mr. Crooke thinks the abandonment of talks of two states in Palestine. One scenario is that it will speed up the process of enfranchising Arabs within a single state. Seems inevitable. The issue for those supporting Palestinian rights would be the granting of full citizenship.
I’m sure the right wingers in Israel and their supporters in Europe, America and Australia have a response in a can ready to be opened. Still don’t it will make any difference, only the time and pain it takes to accomplish it will change.
Of course the Israeli terrorists, land thieves, and suppressors of Palestinian rights just can’t wait to recognize Palestinians as full citizens. We can already see the “one-state solution” and it is called racism, fascism, and totalitarianism. No progress there. The only one-state solution that would result in progress would be the elimination of Israel altogether. Not many would miss it nowadays.
I did forget one response to the comment about the movement opposing Trump. They’re not antiwar, just anti-Trump. Where were they when Obama and Clinton were killing all those ME folks, including the brutal murder of Gaddafi for which Clinton cackled, “We came, we saw, he died”? Also Hondurans who died because of illegally removing Zelaya?
July 7, 2013
The Evil of Empires
…
We have seen and read the latest revelations of a “democratic” empire spying on its citizens and the whole world. The man who revealed the secret spying of the empire was Edward Snowden. His reward for speaking out and telling the truth about illegal acts is to be vilified in much of the corporate owned media and to be refused asylum for his service to humanity. Some of the countries refusing him asylum are ones who claim to be outraged over the spying on them by a “democratic ally.” What we are seeing is open hypocrisy by the puppets of the empire which are all in lockstep with the dictates of the empire of evil….
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2013/07/the-evil-of-empires.html
Maybe the wheels are coming off this sorry jalopy. I can’t even stomach listening to BBC or NPR when they start propaganda on Russia or Syria, just turn it off. Have found PRI Marketplace more objective. You said it, Stephen, it is their two minutes of hate. Most of them just want their paycheck, will say anything.
The White House Comments line is back up and I sent them a message today that Russia baiting must stop, propaganda based on lies started by Clinton campaign, that the Deep State wants war but we the people do not. I got a buzz back that message was received. You can try. It’s busy signal to get a line but can send messages.
Another article of interest:
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EXCLUSIVE – NSA Whistleblower: Agency ‘Absolutely’ Tapping Trump’s Calls
by AARON KLEIN15 Feb 2017
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/15/exclusive-nsa-whistleblower-agency-absolutely-tapping-trumps-calls/
To show how out of touch the NYT is, today they have a piece called “As Leaks Multiply, Fears of a ‘Deep State’ in America”, in which they identify government bureaucrats as members of the Deep State; as though mid level desk jockeys at the Pentagon are the calling the shots.
“The ‘New, New World Order’ may be said to represent the mavericks of the international deep state, eager to dispense with the regulations of the old insiders. But they are still part of the nexus of uncontrolled big money, even if drawn more from the under-reported shady underside of that superclass.
“[…] we can expect a ‘Trump revolution,’ one that will almost certainly attempt to reflect and repeat the major features (deregulation, anti-abortion measures, a defense spending buildup, tax cuts for the rich, and deficit financing) of the Reagan revolution before it. And it should not be too surprising if the Trump revolution, just like the Reagan revolution before it, turns out to have been not just financed, but partly plotted, at the levels of the American and the international deep state.”
Donald J. Trump and the Deep State, Part 2
By Peter Dale Scott
http://whowhatwhy.org/2017/02/07/donald-j-trump-deep-state-part-2/
“In Washington the Trump administration continues to apply the same strategies as the administrations before it, to threaten retaliation against any nation that refuses to kowtow and Russia is no exception. Despite Trump’s words of supposed moderation towards Russia it is clear from the statements of his ambassador at the UN that the illegal ‘sanctions’ against Russia will continue indefinitely since the American position under Trump remains the same as under Obama; no lifting of “sanctions” unless Crimea is retuned to Ukraine. This will never happen and the Americans know it will never happen. So, essentially the Americans are stating that Crimea is just an excuse to inflict economic damage on Russia until Russia agrees to become just another one of America’s satellite states.
“One has only to take note of the flurry of phone calls made by the new American minster of defence, General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis to a series of flunkies around the world to see what the situation really is. In quick succession General Mattis called, on January 26, the Israeli Defence Minister, then the German minister of Defence and the French Minister of Defence, on January 30th met with King Abdullah of Jordan, called the Korean minister of defence and the Italian minister of defence, on the 31st called the minister of defence of Saudi Arabia, on February 3nd, called the Korean national security adviser and met with the Japanese prime minister in Tokyo, on February 6th called the Canadian minister of defence, on the 7th the President of Afghanistan, and the minister of defence of Mexico, on the 8th the ministers of defence of India and Iraq, on the 9th the minister of defence of Pakistan, and on the 10th met with the German minister of defence at the Pentagon; a very busy agenda.
“In every call and meeting, echoing the sycophantic visit by British Prime Minister May to the US earlier, the theme was the same, the NATO alliance is strong, cooperation will continue. In the case of Germany and Japan, Mattis, as the Americans like to do from time to time, reminded the Germans and Japanese of their status as occupied countries by thanking them for ‘hosting’ the American occupation forces.
“These calls follow the biggest deployment of US troops in Europe since the end of the so-called Cold War. Russia has branded these forces, which are arriving now arrived in Poland, Ukraine and Romania, a threat to its national security […]
“Meanwhile, in the west, the anti-war movement is lost in the swamp of the anti-Trump movement that has adopted the anti-Russian rhetoric of the NATO war machine and seems not to notice that Trump is proving just as aggressive as their alternative candidate for power, or worse, does all it can to push him further down the road to war, and seems to be unaware that Trump, who has adopted Reagan’s ‘peace through strength’ rhetoric, does not need pushing.”
Ukraine’s NATO Referendum A Vote For War
By Christopher Black
http://journal-neo.org/2017/02/17/ukraine-s-nato-referendum-a-vote-for-war/
Related: “Rogue Elephant Rising: The CIA as Kingslayer” by David Price – https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/17/deep-state-has-trump-on-the-menu/
Watching TV “news” and seeing “newspaper” articles in North America, U.K., Europe and some other countries mostly all criticizing Donald Trump is to see and hear a feeding frenzy of corporate propaganda. It is almost as if the guy was a mass murderer. (Instead it is they, the international elites that have committed and abetted war crimes in various countries who should be vilified.) The way the biased word warriors are screaming from their platforms of hate brings to mind Orwell’s “1984 2 Minutes of Hate.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WupvCZhKMnM
I am German and it reminds me a lot of the propaganda in East Germany and the fights of the Nazis against individuals, before they got into power and after. The similarities are shocking. Yet even of the Germans, that had those things twice in their lives, only few learned from it and most believe the MSM lies.
Also I am well versed in American history and see a lot of similarities with McCarthyism (Red Scare 2). “Hes a communist!”
This is less sophisticated than Orwell’s story; the ziocons have zero respect for other peoples’ intelligence.
What is truly surprising is the numbers of “progressives” joining the propaganda and disinformation juggernaut. The “progressives” do indeed fight for their status quo.
Well done CN for another post by a UK intelligence asset. Knows all the tunes and is able to slip in a stray note here and there to subtly change the melody. The British are masters of it. Bravo. So here we have his “concerns” of the Deep State (which he obviously doesn’t have anything to do with) trying to undermine Trump. Priceless. Meanwhile he essentially argues exactly for the Neocon strategy; i.e. don’t touch Iran. Oh yes, I know, the history is that the US rants and raves and threatens Iran, but the Deep State reality (if I may misuse that word) is that the Iranian dictatorship has been an incredibly useful and willing clandestine operative for our main cast of villains. This particular man would know all about that, having negotiated with many of the main players. And talking about more recent negotiations, isn’t it interesting that the current head of the AEOI, Ali Akbar Salehi, was at MIT in the 70s at the same time as Obama’s Energy Secretary and chief negotiator of the recent “deal” with Iran? Oh yes, Obama certainly “chose” a qualified energy secretary for that particular coup. But for god sake, no one mention Pakistan.
The Deep State can and have used Iran as an effective bulwark against Saudi Arabia, Israel, et al, not to mention India. Amongst other things, this strategy has ensured that the Saudis and the Israelis have been dominated by their own religious radicals and that fact has made them dependent on, and easily manipulated by the US. To frame the Deep State as dominated by Israel and a poor sweet innocent Iran would be laughable if it weren’t so murderously cynical (ask the people of Lockerbie, and the long list of attacks on France in the 1980s – watch “Terror’s Advocate” for a little education on the matter.) And don’t get me started on the trafficking issue. There are no innocents and there are no good guys, so give me a break. And Westminster as usual plays Pontius Pilate, because of course they have such clean hands.
I am getting sick and tired of British observations about Israel. Let us remind ourselves that it was the British who developed the plan for the founding of modern Israel. And after WW2, (don’t forget all those starving Jewish refugees the Labour Govt turned away back then, a grand tradition the Conservatives are keeping up today with their current Middle Eastern victims) what better solution for them than shipping the surviving European Jews down south? Create the biggest Jewish ghetto on the planet, inciting their neighbors (lets face it, that was never hard with the Arab tribes) giving the Jews even more reason to be paranoid and aggressive about their future, and you may as well have painted a great big bullseye on the map. And of course abstain from the vote at the UN – you wouldn’t want people to think you might be behind it. That is the final solution my friends. Well played. The great British “underdog” strikes again. Hitler was a rank amateur – look how they tricked him during the phoney war into invading Russia while they waited for Roosevelt to work out how to get the US, dominated by German immigrants (still the largest immigrant heritage in the US) involved. Business is business.
The one thing that you can say about the upstarts usurpers of the new administration is that is that they are actually serious about taking down Iran. And they know that this actually puts the Arab princes and the Israelis in a much better position to deal with the own religious nutjobs. They would have to enlist Russia in doing this of course, and my guess is that Iran was what was most likely talked about during whatever conversation actually forced Flynn’s resignation.
I’m not arguing in support of this; just for some honesty about what is going on. And enough with the British commentators; you walk into a restaurant in Washington or Manhattan and you’ll hear the accent at one table after another. If I want Trump to do anything it’s to build a wall around that #@!* country and their “helpful” advice.
The comment by “Em ()” reads like a memo by the “technical and administrative staff” of the Israeli Embassy in London.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/02/netanyahu-may-chat-large-nest-israeli-spies-london-exposed/
Your statement runs contrary to all information I have and appears to be completely unsupportable.
“The Deep State …have used Iran as …bulwark …has ensured that the Saudis and the Israelis have been dominated by their own religious radicals and …easily manipulated by the US”
I demand a bibliography to support that.
Politicians of Russian federation have an advantage of solid understanding the Israel’ politics: Israel is heavily Sovietisized thanks to the economic migration of the former Soviets to Israel. Unlike the US (occupied by the Lobby), Russians are not going to handle the Israeli scoundrels “with care” – no need for that; the history of Russian state has taught Russians that the “chosen” lot could be both treasonous and vicious to extremes. It is also interesting whether Israelis were able to explain the belligerent ziocons in the DC that it is silly to take Russians’ patience for timidity. At some point, Russians will be forced to make a decisive preemptive step of harming the main ideologists of war and war profiteers. There is no other choice to stop the psychopaths.
And another Interesting article at link below:
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The Deep State Targets Trump
By Patrick J. Buchanan • February 17, 2017, 12:00 AM
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/the-deep-state-targets-trump/
No mention is made of Trump’s dramatic confrontation with his enemies in the press, intelligence community, and congress during his press conference yesterday. He declared his determination to seek a rapprochement with Russia, using his secretary of state to spearhead that initiative. He did not act like one preparing to fold his tents and slink away. Whether he can succeed against his formidable enemies is another matter, but he seems ready to give it a go.
Whatever the outcome of all this strife, the US government in all it’s dimensions is being revealed as the vicious criminal enterprise that it truly is. Unfortunately us ordinary citizens will suffer the results of this falling out among thieves and murderers, and a peaceful world will be further from realization than ever….
I watched the entire press conference last night. I agree that Trump doesn’t seem to be caving in or backing down. Quite the opposite, instead of trying to fight this fight behind closed doors, he’s put it right out there for all to see. Of course he can’t use terms like deep state or put any of it in terms we might use here. But it was clear as day that he was defying the deep state in no uncertain terms. We’ll see in the coming weeks if any heads roll for leaking classified phone calls to the press. I suspect there will be a price paid by people in the administration trying to undermine him. Now that Sessions is confirmed he’s got a loyalist in that seat and things may start to shift slowly.
I thought his signals to Russia were quite clear and well done. Again, right out in the open. Until he gets his own house in order, what can Putin really expect of him? It was plainly put for the world to see. Big business can be vicious too, so Trump is not totally out of his element in DC as some would like us to believe.
I really have no comprehension of patriots/anti-war types who can’t get behind this guy. It’s evident he truly wants to clean the slime out of DC and make substantial changes. He may not be everyone’s ideal but you take on the deep state with the president you’ve got, not the one you wish you had, right? I wish him luck and back him 100% in his desire to turn things around. I sincerely wish there was something I could personally do to help.
The question is how much support does Trump have and how many around him would stab him in the back, rather than fight the deep state.
They are powerful, that much is clear, but Trump alone is not able to win such a fight, not even if he lays everything on the table and calls in the people. Too many wont believe him.
The following Mike Whitney piece is also powerful, tying what’s at stake to Russia-China expansion economies, and echoing the above as to what is more powerful than “a mere president”:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/17/blood-in-the-water-the-trump-revolution-ends-in-a-whimper/
Apparently Trump was as ignorant as the rest of us about what rules the nation.
The Ganging Up On Donald Trump
“If 2016 taught us anything, it is that if the establishment’s hegemony is imperiled, it will come together in ferocious solidarity — for the preservation of their perks, privileges and power. All the elements of that establishment — corporate, cultural, political, media — are today issuing an ultimatum to Middle America: Trump is unacceptable.”
Patrick J. Buchanan, August 12, 2016, The American Conservative….
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/01/the-ganging-up-on-donald-trump.html
Another interesting link below:
————————————————————–
The Trump Presidency: RIP
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
FEBRUARY 16, 2017
…
The print and TV media, which serve as propagandists for the ruling military/security complex and Wall Street elites, make certain that Americans have nothing but bogus orchestrated information. Every household and person who turns on TV or reads a newspaper is programed to live in a false orchestrated reality that serves the tiny few who comprise the ruling Establishment.
Trump challenged this Establishment without realizing that it is more powerful than a mere President of the United States….
[read more at link below]
http://www.unz.com/proberts/the-trump-presidency-rip/
There is no article at that link, just comments. Same if the article is searched and the title selected.
“It is too early to tell, but there are straws in the wind” is sheer twaddle.
Like Barack Obama, his predecessor, Donald Trump is the Trojan Horse appointed to guarantee that neocon foreign policy orthodoxy remains firmly ensconced in the White House.
Following the catastrophic presidency of George W. Bush, Obama’s “disruptor” narrative of a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world” ushered in eight more years of “regime change” war.
Trump’s rapidly disintegrating “disruptor” narrative of “détente with Russia” will usher in ever more destructive violence for the planet.
“Why not call them both in: tell Flynn to apologize and Pence to accept the apology? End it there. Why give a scalp to Deep State opponents?
A puzzle it remains. ”
Not really. Either Trump knew and after it was found out had to get rid of the guy, or he is incompetent and unable to think rationally. They both work for me.
Wm. Boyce, found out what. Flynn was talking to Russian officials. Is that a crime. I cannot imagine Flynn didn’t tell Trump of the conversation, in fact it is more likely that Flynn was acting with Trump’s instructions. There are possible reasons about excluding Pence. One, Trump doesn’t fully trust him. Two, VPs often are out of the loop. The history of VPs being left out is that it happens very frequently.
If there is something else discovered in Flynn’s background, why wait until the spooks leaked the calls to the media.
The fact that Trump allowed this matter to get out of hand is not a good omen. If Bannon advised on this, he needs a new advisor.
The worst omen is how the opposition has used this to imply the law was broken, and Trumps team has been too inept to respond effectively.
An excellent and informative article. Just one omission in the list of culprits – the politicians in the U.S. Congress that have sold their souls to the Israel lobby.
Article of interest at link below:
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‘He Will Die in Jail’ – Intelligence Apparatus Admits ‘Going Nuclear’ on Trump
Sputnik News
February 17, 2017
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/02/no_author/vast-us-spy-cabal/
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Excellent and informative article:
Therefore, I ask: “Will the War Agenda of the War Criminals Result in Nuclear War?”
…
Are Iran and Russia … in the plans for “regime change,” by the war criminals that have, and are destroying, countries in the Middle East? Russia is now surrounded by the “War Gangs and War Criminals of NATO.”…
Is it now Russia and Iran’s turn to be subjected to the planned and hellish wars that have already engulfed Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan and other countries?…
Because, “the Menu of the Deep State” appears to be more war,
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/02/will-war-agenda-of-war-criminals-result.html
Here is an article that looks at the President of the United States that really understood Russia:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2016/12/the-american-president-that-understood.html
The current obsession with Russia reflects the views of a significant portion of the American ruling class, particularly those who are connected with the military-industrial-political-intelligence complex.