The headline blares that it's a big "administration" conspiracy to play up doubts and play down proofs of the bounties plot, but the text itself reveals that it's the National Intelligence Council that did the new review and that even the CIA, the agency out in front on this story, has only "medium" or "moderate" confidence on the reality of the plot. Meanwhile DoD and NSA both still say they give it low confidence and cannot verify. You gotta appreciate the desperate spin of the Times reporters and their editors here: "A memo produced in recent days by the office of the nation’s top...
intelligence community
All Roads Lead to the Intelligence Community guest Joanne Leon
On this Foreign Policy Focus and Around the Empire swap cast, Kyle and Joanne discuss the Democrats' efforts to impeach Trump over Russiagate. Statements by Nancy Pelosi and witnesses in the impeachment hearings show the blob's real aim to prevent Trump from adopting a more realistic foreign policy towards Russia. The hosts also cover Attorney General Barr's interview about the FBI IG report on the investigation into Trump's campaign. Barr explains why the media's coverage of the report is misleading and the Durham report could reveal the intelligence community's role in the origin of...
Ron and Dan: ‘Thank God for the Deep State’ – CIA Celebrates Coup Against Trump
Former Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin, on a panel with former CIA Director John Brennan, responded to a question about whether the “deep state” was trying to take out President Trump with a quote, “thank God for the deep state.” Everyone laughed. He went on to say that the “intelligence community” is right to take out presidents like Trump because they are selfless patriots only interested in the truth. Does the CIA and other intelligence agencies in the US have the right to overthrow a president if they don’t like him? Is that the kind of government we want? Or should people start...
The Fake Whistleblower
Matt Tiabbi sets the record straight. Who are the real whistleblowers? They are people sitting in prison. People that have had their lives destroyed. What they are not is people that are protected by the so-called intelligence community. The unnamed person at the center of this story sure didn’t sound like a whistleblower. Our intelligence community wouldn’t wipe its ass with a real whistleblower. Americans who’ve blown the whistle over serious offenses by the federal government either spend the rest of their lives overseas, like Edward Snowden, end up in jail, like Chelsea Manning,...
9/27/19 Daniel Lazare on What Trump-Ukraine Is Really About
Daniel Lazare rehashes some of the details of "Russiagate", focusing on the obvious media malfeasance and bias against President Trump, and the theory that the so-called "intelligence community" was doing everything they could to sabotage him. The latest episode in this conspiracy is the Ukraine impeachment inquiry, which democrats seem to have taken up full bore, while acting as if the Russia collusion issue never happened at all. Discussed on the show: "Another Day, Another Scandal. What the 'Trump-Ukraine Collusion' Is Really About" (Antiwar.com Original) "The Plan to Trip Up Trump"...
FPF #307 – Cold Wars with Russia & China
On FPF #307, I discuss the intelligence community's assessment that Russia and China are the biggest threats to the US. I breakdown the alleged areas of conflict between the American people and Great Power Rivals. I also update recent events in Venezuela. Links Gareth Porter - Threat Assessment Scott Horton Show - Greg Palast Moon of Alabama - Venezuela Eric Margolis -...
William Arkin Quits NBC Over Their War Mongering
Bill isn't always right, but like 95% or something at least. Read his great "goodbye letter" here. For me I realized how out of step I was when I looked at Trump’s various bumbling intuitions: his desire to improve relations with Russia, to denuclearize North Korea, to get out of the Middle East, to question why we are fighting in Africa, even in his attacks on the intelligence community and the FBI. Of course he is an ignorant and incompetent impostor. And yet I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and...
12/17/18 Reese Erlich on All Trump’s Wars
Reese Erlich talks to Scott about the war in Yemen and about his latest article on the Russiagate controversy. Erlich thinks we can be cautiously optimistic about Yemen now that public pressure against the war is mounting (a recent poll found that 75% of Americans oppose it), and with the senate passing its resolution invoking the War Powers Act. This resolution doesn't actually make the war illegal, but politically it may force President Trump's hand. The same poll that showed public opposition to the war also found that a significant number of Americans didn't even know the U.S. was...
9/5/18 Gareth Porter on DHS ‘Russian Hacking’ Claims
Gareth Porter rejoins the show for an update on the Russian election hacking allegations. He reviews the evidence as presented by various media outlets and intelligence agencies, explaining why each story doesn't amount to much of anything on its own, and thus we shouldn't conclude, simply because there are a lot of different stories, that there's something to the overall narrative of Russian meddling. If anything, in fact, it's the intelligence community itself that is trying to call the 2016 election results into question. Discussed on the show: "How the Department of Homeland Security...
7/17/18 Peter van Buren on Trump-Russia Hysteria
Peter van Buren discusses the media reaction to President Trump's recent meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. He compares the entire story of Russian collusion to the birther conspiracy movement, in that swaths of Americans have been swept up in a campaign against the president with very little real evidence presented to support the claims. Van Buren argues that the divisiveness about Trump being a Russian agent is harmful for the country, and at this point Robert Mueller and the intelligence community need to "put up or shut up"—either present the clear evidence that Trump worked...
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