18 December 2016
A senior CIA source tells me ‘with a high level of certainty that Russia’s Vladimir Putin was responsible for Pearl Harbor, the Korean War, Vietnam and Iraq. This miscreant was also behind 9/11 and ring around the collar.
Not since Dr Fu Manchu have we seen such a wicked genius bent on wrecking the West. Vlad the Bad is so nefarious that he’s managed to rig America’s voting machines and probably the Super Bowl.
Watching the mounting Red Hysteria in the US is bizarre and amusing. But most amusing is the media furor claiming that the Kremlin has ‘meddled’ in US elections. Or even threw the vote to Manchurian Candidate, Donald Trump. If there was any foreign meddling, it came from a Mideast ally, not Russia.
All very childish.
My answer: even if true (and I don’t believe it), so what? Is great power meddling something new? That’s what great powers do.
The US is hardly in a position to play the outraged virgin. Starting in 1946, the US and the Vatican financed Italy’s right-wing Christian Democratic Party, helping it win three national elections against the Left even though it was heavy with former fascists and Sicilian bandits.
Washington organized the overthrow of Syria’s government in 1949. In 1953, the US and Britain colluded to overthrow Iran’s popular democratic government. In 1954, the US overthrew the government of Guatemala. There followed intervention in Lebanon in 1958. Three years later came the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion and over fifty attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro.
In 1965, the US invaded the Dominican Republic and overthrew its regime. 1973 brought the US-backed coup against Chile’s Marxist government. Nicaragua’s leftists were next on Washington’s hit list. There was masked intervention in Haiti, then a bombing and sabotage campaign in Baghdad, Iraq. A failed attempt to overthrow Iran’s elected government and more machinations in Syria and Libya, followed by outright invasions.
There are many more to mention: Bolivia, Brazil, Congo, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Russia under Yeltsin, Ukraine’s ‘Orange’ Revolution, Georgia, and the overthrow of Ukraine’s elected pro-Russian government. And now, of course, Syria.
Regime change has become as American as apple pie.
The US may even have tried to overthrow France’s president, Charles de Gaulle. Lately, the US helped put Egypt’s bloody dictator in power, overthrowing the democratic government in the process and tapped the phone of close ally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In the past, Soviet intelligence was very good at intrigue, professional spycraft and occasional ‘wet affairs.’ But the Soviets never measured up in sheer volume of meddling and regime change to the mighty US – and still don’t.
I was the first western journalist admitted to KGB headquarters in Moscow – the dreaded Lubyanka – to interview its senior leaders. I also was closeted in the remarkable KGB museum with its curator for a review of intelligence operations since the 1917 civil war. I learned much about covert operations, but less than I wanted about the Soviet agents of influence who surrounded President Franklin Roosevelt.
As a seasoned intelligence watcher for the past three decades, I think claims by US Democrats that they lost the election due to Russian machinations are absolute bunk. One suspects all the noise and fake fury over Clinton’s loss may foretoken an attempt to oust the Trump government by underhanded legal means (‘lawfare’) and popular demos. Why not? We run them all the time in the Mideast and Russia.
The Dems lost because they ran a horrible, corrupt woman who was hated, and mistrusted by many. They tried to hide the shameful fact that the Democratic Party rigged the nomination to exclude an honest candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders. This was the scandal, not baloney about voting machine voodoo and red scares.
Claims by senior US intelligence officials that Moscow rigged the US elections show two things: first, if true, they were asleep on guard duty; second, that they have become shockingly politicized. Their job was to inform the White House, not manufacture conspiracy theories.
Some of them were shown to be frighteningly extreme, crazily anti-Russian, and likely agents of our deep government.
We need calm, seasoned professionals to run our intelligence, not wild-eyed ideologues bent on war against Russia. America was headed that way under Obama and Hillary Clinton. If Russia came to this conclusion, it was logical for them to try to sway the outcome of the election – if they really did.
The canard that Hillary Clinton was defeated by the godless Red spymasters are as believable as ‘the dog ate my homework.’ And here I thought my fellow Americans were a bit more grown up than this.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2016
Russia`s potential meddling in US election is dwarfed by what the Americans o on a daily basis world wide. The easiest pickin`s have already been accomplished between WW2 and now. Now the biggest of he chess pieces are left on the board on the opponent`s side and meanwhile the American side has not only lost most of is strongest pieces, but their game tactics have become very transparent they paint an ugly picture of evil and corruption. This election laid bare the true nature of the government affairs and it does not leave an impression of democracy. In fact it resembles Germany of the thirties quite a bit, including the ruthless tactics employed. And when it comes to propaganda, Goebbels and his gang were altarboys in comparison. Trump is no saint, but that status he shares with the rest of the politicians. Which countries have as many if any military bases around the world as the US? And the worst part of that is, that the US does not pay for their maintenance. That is left to the taxpayers, who aere forced to let themselves be protected by outside invaders. And who of late has been the top dog in that field? Now go and do your math.
Let’s not forget: Hillary beat Sanders by winning in Republican states that she could never win in the general election and losing to Sanders in the key battleground states that she absolutely had to win to get the presidency. I sure hope the Democrats realize that simple fact. The candidate who wins the rust belt is the better candidate.
Much of the waste generated by the Pentagon and US military contractors has been in the media as of late… Obama didn’t really have much to say and I suspect Hillary would have even said less. Trump has come out critical of several money pit programs such as the F-35, and may well cancel them. Perhaps US intelligence is concerned there might be an audit of their books as well, wasn’t the CIA originally established to centralize intelligence efforts in a non partisan way to prevent politicizing information and prevent empire building ? May be the possibility that some fear a major housecleaning ?
Three comments really strike home.
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“Regime change has become as American as apple pie.
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The Dems lost because they ran a horrible, corrupt woman who was hated, and mistrusted by many.
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…and likely agents of our deep government.”
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…and my comments to this:
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I’ve been aware since high school, some five decades ago, that the Americans have ‘meddled’ in world affairs, overthrown leaders, etc. There is a reason they are referred to as ‘Ugly’. The Russians have meddled a little bit, but, not even close to American involvement.
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Public opinion is fueled by the news media, who are ‘fed lines’ by Others. They don’t consider what they are provided with in context of anything. It’s like the Russian-Syrian ‘war crime like’ collateral damage in Aleppo; their actions pale in comparison to the destruction of Bagdad, undertaken illegally by the Americans. They are unable to ‘connect the dots’.
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I was a little ‘frightened’ that the Americans would elect the Wicked B*tch of the West, and even less happy that Trump could be elected. It, however, wasn’t just Hillary that was responsible for the ousting of Sanders. This corruption had to start at the highest levels of the Democratically party. She, however, fits right in with this. The senior democrats did not like the civilised platform that Sanders presented. They are almost as Fascistic as Trump; they only ‘pretend’ to be a peoples’ party. This was likely the reason the Democrats lost, not, Russian meddling.
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The last item is the scariest. For a long time I have suspected that there is a level of ‘spook’ that operates without oversight, completely unknown to the elected leaders and that this goes without knowledge of the President. We likely have a similar situation in Canada. Trump, if so inclined, is clever enough to realise this and may shut it down. I hope I’m incorrect, but, Trump has the potential to take the US into the ‘Dark Ages’.
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Dik
Excellent comment of Eric’s article. I feel exactly the same way. Hillary Clinton proved she was more interested in personal gain then what was best for the country. With all the multi-millionaires and billionaires Trump is appointing to positions of power. It’s hard to see any – getting rid of elites. It seems they’re just changing them. Old elites out and new elites in.
While I believe that Russia might well have interfered in the US presidential election, it’s highly doubtful that this made any real difference to the outcome. The vote close enough in Michigan that Russian interference might have caused it to go to Trump, but he probably would have won Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina anyway. The voting machines, however, are not linked to the internet, so it’s very doubtful that Russian interference could have subverted the election at the ballot box level. (But, if internet voting becomes common-place, say goodbye to the secret ballot and hello to the virtually certain subversion of elections in western democracies.)
If there was interference… it was more along the lines of exposing the truth of the DNC and the arrogance of the individuals involved… which would have been the function of the media if they had not been co-opted by those wanting Hillary to win.
As always, very enlightening.