How the CIA gets away with it: Our democracy is their real enemy - Salon.com

On March 11, 2014, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein stepped to the well of the Senate to deliver a speech exposing in stark terms a struggle between congressional investigators and their oversight subject: the Central Intelligence Agency. Feinstein was an unlikely critic of the practices of the intelligence community. The wife of investment banker Richard C. Blum, who managed enormous capital investments in corporations serving the American defense and intelligence communities, Feinstein had distinguished herself among Senate Democrats as a staunch CIA defender. In her long service on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she had chaired since 2009, Feinstein established close personal ties with key senior agency figures—championing the candidacy of former deputy director Stephen Kappes to head the agency after Barack Obama was elected.

Patiently and meticulously, Feinstein unfolded the string of events that led her committee to launch the most exhaustive congressional probe of a single CIA program in the nation’s history. “On December 6, 2007, a New York Times article revealed the troubling fact that the CIA had destroyed video tapes of some of the CIA’s first interrogations using so-called enhanced techniques,” she stated.

CIA director Michael Hayden had assured congressional overseers that they had no reason to be concerned: routine written field reports, what Hayden called CIA operational cables, had been retained. These documents, Hayden said, described “the detention conditions” of prisoners held by the CIA before it decided to shut down the program as well as the “day-to-day CIA interrogations.” Hayden offered the senators access to these cables to prove to them that the destruction of the tapes was not a serious issue. Moreover, he reminded them that the CIA program was a historical relic: in the fall of 2006 the Bush administration ended the CIA’s role as a jailer and sharply curtailed its program of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (EITs)—specifically eliminating techniques that most of the international community, including the United States in the period before and after the Bush presidency, had viewed as torture, such as waterboarding.

Nevertheless, the Senate committee had never looked deeply into this program, and Hayden’s decision to offer access to the cables opened the door to a careful study, which was accepted by then-chair Jay Rockefeller. Early in 2007, two Senate staffers spent many months reading the cables. By the time they had finished in early 2009, Feinstein had replaced Rockefeller as committee chair, and Barack Obama had replaced George W. Bush as president. Feinstein received the first staff report. It was “chilling,” she said. “The interrogations and the conditions of confinement at the CIA detention sites were far different and far more harsh than the way the CIA had described them to us.”

This first exploration of the dark side of CIA prisons and torture led committee members to recognize a serious failure in its oversight responsibilities. The committee resolved with near-unanimity (on a 14–1 vote) to launch a comprehensive investigation of the CIA program involving black sites and torture.

Complete story at - How the CIA gets away with it: Our democracy is their real enemy - Salon.com

How the CIA made Google (1) — Medium

As our governments push to increase their powers, INSURGE INTELLIGENCE can now reveal the vast extent to which the US intelligence community is implicated in nurturing the web platforms we know today, for the precise purpose of utilizing the technology as a mechanism to fight global ‘information war’ — a war to legitimize the power of the few over the rest of us. The lynchpin of this story is the corporation that in many ways defines the 21st century with its unobtrusive omnipresence: Google.

Google styles itself as a friendly, funky, user-friendly tech firm that rose to prominence through a combination of skill, luck, and genuine innovation. This is true. But it is a mere fragment of the story. In reality, Google is a smokescreen behind which lurks the US military-industrial complex.

The inside story of Google’s rise, revealed here for the first time, opens a can of worms that goes far beyond Google, unexpectedly shining a light on the existence of a parasitical network driving the evolution of the US national security apparatus, and profiting obscenely from its operation.

The shadow network

For the last two decades, US foreign and intelligence strategies have resulted in a global ‘war on terror’ consisting of prolonged military invasions in the Muslim world and comprehensive surveillance of civilian populations. These strategies have been incubated, if not dictated, by a secret network inside and beyond the Pentagon.

Established under the Clinton administration, consolidated under Bush, and firmly entrenched under Obama, this bipartisan network of mostly neoconservative ideologues sealed its dominion inside the US Department of Defense (DoD) by the dawn of 2015, through the operation of an obscure corporate entity outside the Pentagon, but run by the Pentagon.

In 1999, the CIA created its own venture capital investment firm, In-Q-Tel, to fund promising start-ups that might create technologies useful for intelligence agencies. But the inspiration for In-Q-Tel came earlier, when the Pentagon set up its own private sector outfit.

Known as the ‘Highlands Forum,’ this private network has operated as a bridge between the Pentagon and powerful American elites outside the military since the mid-1990s. Despite changes in civilian administrations, the network around the Highlands Forum has become increasingly successful in dominating US defense policy.

Complete story at - How the CIA made Google — Medium

Editor of major newspaper says he planted stories for CIA

Saying he believes a medical condition gives him only a few years to live, and that he is filled with remorse, Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, the editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany's largest newspapers, said in an interview that he allegedly accepted news stories written and given to him by the CIA and published them under his own name. Ulfkotte said he gathered the aim of much of the deception was to drive nations toward war.

Dr. Ulfkotte says the corruption of journalists and major news outlets by the CIA is routine, accepted, and widespread in the western media, and that journalists who do not comply either cannot get jobs at any news organization, or find their careers cut short.

Dr. Ulfkotte is the author of a book currently available only in German, "Bought Journalists" (Kopp 2014.) Aged 55, he was also once an advisor to the government of German Chancellor Helmet Kohl.

Among the stories Ulfkotte says he was ordered to plant in his newspaper over the years was a story that Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi was building poison gas factories in 2011. Ulfkotte also claims he was an eyewitness to Saddam Hussein's use of poison gas against Iranians in the war between Iran and Iraq, but that the editors he worked for at the time were not interested, because Iraq was a US ally at the time.

Complete story at - Editor of major newspaper says he planted stories for CIA

Confessions of An Economic Hitman

Talka notes: To really understand the events in Ukraine today, it very much helps to understand the foreign policy decisions that come out of the US State Department, the CIA, and the DoD. This series gives you some solid background to understanding how situations like Ukraine come to happen.

Part 1.



Part 2.



Part 3.

Obama outraged at Oliver Stone’s statements on Ukrainian coup | Ukraina.ru

The White House makes no secret of its indignation over Oliver Stone’s narrative of the coup in Ukraine after his interview with Viktor Yanukovych, Ron Paul Institute Director Daniel McAdams said.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone’s statements about the United States’ involvement in the February coup in Ukraine have caused a surge of indignation in the US government, followed by a media storm targeted at the film director, McAdams said.

According to McAdams, Stone, whose statements about the February coup in Ukraine have been met with hostility in the United States, is clearly aware of how the Washington mechanism of changing political regimes works, with US politicians, institutions and US-financed NGOs working in unison to achieve the goal set by the US government.

McAdams admitted that Stone is aware of the role that social media plays in overthrowing regimes, and suggested remembering the fact the representatives of the US Department of State cited social networks when presenting their disputable accusations against Russia. McAdams stressed that the main thing in Stone’s conclusions is the United States’ interference into Ukraine’s internal affairs.

Previously, Stone announced that he is working on a documentary on former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Stone is widely acclaimed for his films on acute political issues whose array of characters includes US presidents Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush.

Complete story at - Obama outraged at Oliver Stone’s statements on Ukrainian coup | Ukraina.ru

Wall Street’s Man in Moscow Charged with Fraud | New Eastern Outlook

US-funded opposition leader and right-wing extremist Alexei Navalny, who regularly masquerades as an “anti-corruption activist,” was himself sentenced to a suspended jail term for fraud. His brother, implicated in the same case, was imprisoned. The Guardian would report in its article, “Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny gets suspended sentence but brother jailed,” that:

A Russian court gave Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a suspended sentence on Tuesday for embezzling money but jailed his brother for three and a half years in a case seen as part of a campaign to stifle dissent.

While the Guardian elects to report what is “seen” by supporters of the embattled opposition figure, it fails to mention what is documented fact – Navalny’s ties to Wall Street and Washington’s global network of political subversion, specifically his ties to the US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Alexey Navalny was a Yale World Fellow, and in his profile it states:

Navalny spearheads legal challenges on behalf of minority shareholders in large Russian companies, including Gazprom, Bank VTB, Sberbank, Rosneft, Transneft, and Surgutneftegaz, through the Union of Minority Shareholders. He has successfully forced companies to disclose more information to their shareholders and has sued individual managers at several major corporations for allegedly corrupt practices. Navalny is also co-founder of the Democratic Alternative movement and was vice-chairman of the Moscow branch of the political party YABLOKO. In 2010, he launched RosPil, a public project funded by unprecedented fundraising in Russia. In 2011, Navalny started RosYama, which combats fraud in the road construction sector.

The Democratic Alternative, also written DA!, is a US NED-fund recipient, implicating Navalny as an agent of US-funded sedition. The US State Department itself reveals this as they list DA! among many of the “youth movements” they support operating in Russia:

DA!: Mariya Gaydar, daughter of former Prime Minister Yegor Gaydar, leads DA! (Democratic Alternative). She is ardent in her promotion of democracy, but realistic about the obstacles she faces. Gaydar said that DA! is focused on non-partisan activities designed to raise political awareness. She has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, a fact she does not publicize for fear of appearing compromised by an American connection.

Complete story at - Wall Street’s Man in Moscow Charged with Fraud | New Eastern Outlook

The siege of Julian Assange is a farce - a special investigation

The siege of Knightsbridge is a farce. For two years, an exaggerated, costly police presence around the Ecuadorean embassy in London has served no purpose other than to flaunt the power of the state. Their quarry is an Australian charged with no crime, a refugee from gross injustice whose only security is the room given him by a brave South American country. His true crime is to have initiated a wave of truth-telling in an era of lies, cynicism and war.

The persecution of Julian Assange must end. Even the British government clearly believes it must end. On 28 October, the deputy foreign minister, Hugo Swire, told Parliament he would "actively welcome" the Swedish prosecutor in London and "we would do absolutely everything to facilitate that". The tone was impatient.

The Swedish prosecutor, Marianne Ny, has refused to come to London to question Assange about allegations of sexual misconduct in Stockholm in 2010 - even though Swedish law allows for it and the procedure is routine for Sweden and the UK. The documentary evidence of a threat to Assange's life and freedom from the United States - should he leave the embassy - is overwhelming. On May 14 this year, US court files revealed that a "multi subject investigation" against Assange was "active and ongoing".

Ny has never properly explained why she will not come to London, just as the Swedish authorities have never explained why they refuse to give Assange a guarantee that they will not extradite him on to the US under a secret arrangement agreed between Stockholm and Washington. In December 2010, the Independent revealed that the two governments had discussed his onward extradition to the US before the European Arrest Warrant was issued.

Perhaps an explanation is that, contrary to its reputation as a liberal bastion, Sweden has drawn so close to Washington that it has allowed secret CIA "renditions" - including the illegal deportation of refugees. The rendition and subsequent torture of two Egyptian political refugees in 2001 was condemned by the UN Committee against Torture, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch; the complicity and duplicity of the Swedish state are documented in successful civil litigation and WikiLeaks cables. In the summer of 2010, Assange had been in Sweden to talk about WikiLeaks revelations of the war in Afghanistan - in which Sweden had forces under US command.

Complete story at - The siege of Julian Assange is a farce - a special investigation

Two minutes Hate – Emanuel Goldestein in Eastern Ukraine. | New Eastern Outlook

I’ve been a journalist for about 25 years, I have been educated in how to lie, cheat, and not to tell people the truth. “I was supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. Why, because I’m pro-American.”

“German and American media are trying to bring the war to the people in Europe, leading to war with Russia. We passed the point of no return, and I’m going to stand up and say it ..is not right what I’ve done in the past to manipulate people to sow propaganda against Russia. ” said Udo Ulfkotte, former editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

The so-called common people mostly don’t know where to find reliable information about what is happening in East Ukraine. The reason for this may be the quote cited above. Any information which validates in any way Russia, or east Ukraine’ is vilified, ridiculed, ignored or considered to be from the Russian intelligence agencies. I can see it from my country, Poland, where information even questioning the American political view is considered to be Kremlin propaganda. This creates a situation in which no one trusts anyone. The very process of independent thinking becomes very ‘suspect’ and perplexing. We have a common, singular correct version of events in Ukraine and anyone who even asks any questions is immediately called an ‘agent of the Kremlin’. Maybe this would not be strange were it not for the fierceness of those who defend this one ‘correct’ truth. This suspicious to me unanimity and social ferocity in defending this one ‘correct’ version of events reminds me of Orwell’s 1984 and ‘Two Minutes Hate’, a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting the Party’s enemies (notably Emmanuel Goldstein ) and express their hatred for them.

In my country (Poland) these topics do not exist:

- Neo-Nazis in the Ukraine

- Newly discovered mass graves of civilians near pro Kyiv battalions

- The bombing of civilians by Azov and Ajdar battalions

- Massacre in Odessa

Complete story at - Two minutes Hate – Emanuel Goldestein in Eastern Ukraine. | New Eastern Outlook

Article: Leading German Journalist Admits CIA 'Bribed' Him and Other Leaders of the Western 'Press' | OpEdNews

Eric Zuesse

Udo Ulfkotte, a former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (which is one of Germany's largest newspapers), has decided to go public about the corruption of himself and the rest of the Western 'news' media, because he finds that this corruption is bringing Europe too close to a nuclear war against Russia, which he concludes the U.S. aristocracy that controls the CIA wants to bring about, or else to bring closer to the brink.

He told Russian Television:

I've been a journalist for about 25 years, and I've been educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public. ... The German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia. This is a point of no return, and I am going to stand up and say ... it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do, and have done in the past, because they are bribed to betray the people not only in Germany, all over Europe. ... I am very fearful of a new war in Europe, and I don't like to have this situation again, because war is never coming from itself, there is always people who push for war, and this is not only politicians, it is journalists too. ... We have betrayed our readers, just to push for war. ... I don't want this anymore, I'm fed up with this propaganda. We live in a banana republic, and not in a democratic country where we have press freedom. ...

The German media, especially, my colleagues ..., day by day, write against the Russians, [these journalists] who are in transatlantic organizations, and who are supported by the United States to do so. ...

I became 'honorary citizen of the state of Oklahoma,' ... Why? Because I write pro-American. I was supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. Why? Because I am pro-American. I am fed up with it; I don't want to do it anymore; and so I have just written a book, not to earn money, no, it will cause a lot of trouble for me. [I wrote it instead] to give the people in this country, Germany, in Europe, and all over the world, just a glimpse of ... what goes on behind the closed doors. ...

[4:40 on the video] Most of the journalists you see in foreign countries ... European or American journalists ..., like me in the past, are so-called non-official cover. ... Non-official cover means what? You do work for an intelligence agency, ... but ... when they [the public] find out that you are not only a journalist but a spy too, they [the CIA] will never say this was one of our guys. ... So, I have helped them in several situations, and I feel ashamed for that. ... I feel ashamed that I ... was bribed by billionaires, I was bribed by the Americans, not to report exactly the truth. ...

Complete story at - Article: Leading German Journalist Admits CIA 'Bribed' Him and Other Leaders of the Western 'Press' | OpEdNews

Russian news: Our Exclusive Interview with German Editor Turned CIA Whistleblower - Russia Insider

Exclusively for RI, Dutch journalist Eric van de Beek interviews the senior German editor who is causing a sensation with his allegations that the CIA pays German media professionals to spin stories to follow US government goals.

We wrote about this two weeks ago, and the article shot up in views, becoming one of the most read articles on our site.

Udo Ulfkotte reveals in his bestseller Bought Journalists, how he was "taught to lie, to betray and not to tell the truth to the public."

The former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which is one of Germany’s largest newspapers, was secretly on the payroll of the CIA and German secret service, spinning the news in a way that was positive for the United States and bad for its opponents.

In his latest interview, Ulfkotte alleges that some media are nothing more than propaganda outlets of political parties, secret services, international think tanks and high finance entities.

Repenting for collaborating with various agencies and organisations to manipulate the news, Ulkotte laments, "I'm ashamed I was part of it. Unfortunately I cannot reverse this."

Complete story at - Russian news: Our Exclusive Interview with German Editor Turned CIA Whistleblower - Russia Insider

Der Spiegel: The Coming Financial Crash is Inevitable | DeepResource

The internet is full with Cassandras, announcing the end of the world as we know it and the fall of the dollar in particular. Our favorite site for instance is:

[usawatchdog.com] – USA Watchdog, Greg Hunter (former CNN)

But there are others, like zerohedge, whatreallyhappened or LewRockwell, to mention just a few of the more well known.

Now however, we have our favorite CIA outlet, the German magazine #1 der Spiegel, chiming in with the doomsayers and admit: the financial system is unsustainable and a crash is inevitable. Nothing is done to reduce the global debt of $150 trillion. According to der Spiegel is ‘growing out of debt’ no longer an option. The three biggest creditors: Japan ($3.2T), China ($2.1T) and Germany ($1.9T). Largest debtor: USA ($5.7T). Der Spiegel predicts that the crash of 2008 was merely a small sign of things to come; the next crisis will be bigger. Der Spiegel finishes its article by adding gloomily: “you can’t say you have not been warned”.

[spiegel.de]

Editor: ‘the system’ is preparing us for what is inevitable, The Big Reset. Don’t assume that your pension is certain, it is not.

Complete story at - Der Spiegel: The Coming Financial Crash is Inevitable | DeepResource



Like this. Only much worse.

Russian news: Top German Editor: CIA Bribing Journalists - Russia Insider

Members of the German media are paid by the CIA in return for spinning the news in a way that supports US interests, and some German outlets are nothing more than PR appendages of NATO, according to a new book by Udo Ulfkotte, a former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany's largest newspapers.

Ulfkotte is a serious mainstream journalist. Here he is on Germany's leading political talk show a couple of years ago. The book is a sensation in Germany, #7 on the bestseller list. Its political dynamite, coming on the heels of German outrage of NSA tapping of their phones. Check out the RT.com story on it in the video below.

Here at Russia Insider, it has long been apparent to us that there is something distinctly odd about the German media regarding Russia. We follow it, and it is much more strident than even the anglo-saxon media regarding Russia, while German public opinion is much more positive towards Russia than in other countries.

Another interesting thing about it is that it is very disparate. Some major voices are very reasonable about Russia, but most are negative, and some are comically apocalyptic. This is what one would expect if there was some financial influence ginning the system.

We've been talking about this for a while now. German public opinion is becoming more and more fed up with the what they increasingly believe to be a rigged media, and its starting to come out everywhere.

Complete story at - Russian news: Top German Editor: CIA Bribing Journalists - Russia Insider

Ukraine MH17 may be CIA false flag and it ain’t flying — RT Op-Edge

The world has seen all this theatre before. We saw it with the false flag Gulf of Tonkin incident during the Vietnam War. We saw it with the CIA-Saudi faked Sarin gas episode in 2013 that brought the world to the brink of a world war.

We saw it in the fake Niger uranium yellowcake episode that was used to bully a US Congress into war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003—the so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction that were never found.

Now the world is seeing it again in the frantic efforts by the US State Department and elements of the CIA to try to blame Putin’s Russia for allegedly giving the east Ukraine separatist rebels highly sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft weapons allegedly used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Putin, so charges Secretary of State John Kerry on five (!) US talk shows on July 20, is de facto guilty for not controlling the eastern Ukraine rebels. The proof of it all? “Social media,” according to the State Department official press spokesperson.

The good news for those sober souls who are not eager to see a World War III pitting China-Russia and the BRICS against a US-led NATO and turning Western Europe into a devastated Trümmerfeld for the third time in a century, is that this attempt to blame Putin’s Russia is backfiring even as this is being written.

Unanswered questions

One of the most shocking features of Western mainstream media coverage of the MH17 event is the utter lack of serious, cautious investigative journalism of the variety which used to exist only a few years ago. Rather than err on the side of caution before rushing to judgment in a situation that could easily trigger a new Cold War or worse, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, and most EU media including German simply quote Kiev government officials, among them the neo-Nazi ones, as if they were credible. Real inquiry must look at the unanswered questions.

First we should begin with several very vital unanswered questions before making judgment what happened to MH17 Boeing 777 aircraft on July 17.

Complete story at - Ukraine MH17 may be CIA false flag and it ain’t flying — RT Op-Edge

i have always been especially interested in the way CIA uses cults, so here’s one | Niqnaq

In this video you can see members of the organization Spiritual center “Revival.” This is a typical pseudo-Christian sect. In Ukraine, it was established in 2002 in the city of Dnipropetrovsk. (Kolomoisky is governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and the city of Dnipropetrovsk is his personal ultra-Jewish fiefdom, so location there is no accident – RB) Until 2014, they held their meetings in the concert halls, and even corrupt Ukrainian media wrote that the leaders of this sect fleecing ordinary members. After the “victory of the revolution of dignity” in Ukraine, according to the world’s media; ie after the coming to power of the fascist regime, all became possible. This meeting of this sect was held right at the entrance to the City Hall of Kiev. This was done on Friday, Jul 18, a working day, during working hours. Leaders of the sect called to pray for the members of the Kiev junta, in particular for Vitali Klitschko and Petro Poroshenko. They asked Jesus Christ to give more strength to these fascists and make Ukraine strong. Their action was called “Prayer for Peace in Ukraine,” but shouts “Hallelujah” for those who give the orders for the killings of innocent people, don’t look like prayer for peace. Generally, it is a crowd reminiscent of Maidan, when people under the influence of emotional cries of speakers did everything they were told to do. Perhaps Members of this sect took part in last Maidan. Link to album of photos from this event in site of organization: http://vo.org.ua/gallery/71




Complete story at - i have always been especially interested in the way CIA uses cults, so here’s one | Niqnaq

Article: What Did US Spy Satellites See in Ukraine? | OpEdNews

by Robert Parry

In the heat of the U.S. media's latest war hysteria -- rushing to pin blame for the crash of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet on Russia's President Vladimir Putin -- there is the same absence of professional skepticism that has marked similar stampedes on Iraq, Syria and elsewhere -- with key questions not being asked or answered.

The dog-not-barking question on the catastrophe over Ukraine is: what did the U.S. surveillance satellite imagery show? It's hard to believe that -- with the attention that U.S. intelligence has concentrated on eastern Ukraine for the past half year that the alleged trucking of several large Buk anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia to Ukraine and then back to Russia didn't show up somewhere.

Yes, there are limitations to what U.S. spy satellites can see. But the Buk missiles are about 16 feet long and they are usually mounted on trucks or tanks. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 also went down during the afternoon, not at night, meaning the missile battery was not concealed by darkness.

So why hasn't this question of U.S. spy-in-the-sky photos -- and what they reveal -- been pressed by the major U.S. news media? How can the Washington Post run front-page stories, such as the one on Sunday with the definitive title "U.S. official: Russia gave systems," without demanding from these U.S. officials details about what the U.S. satellite images disclose?

Instead, the Post's Michael Birnbaum and Karen DeYoung wrote from Kiev:

"The United States has confirmed that Russia supplied sophisticated missile launchers to separatists in eastern Ukraine and that attempts were made to move them back across the Russian border after the Thursday shoot-down of a Malaysian jetliner, a U.S. official said Saturday.

"'We do believe they were trying to move back into Russia at least three Buk [missile launch] systems,' the official said. U.S. intelligence was 'starting to get indications ... a little more than a week ago' that the Russian launchers had been moved into Ukraine, said the official... whose identity was withheld by the Post so the official would discuss intelligence matters."

But catch the curious vagueness of the official's wording: "we do believe"; "starting to get indications." Are we supposed to believe -- and perhaps more relevant, do the Washington Post writers actually believe -- that the U.S. government with the world's premier intelligence services can't track three lumbering trucks each carrying large mid-range missiles?

What I've been told by one source, who has provided accurate information on similar matters in the past, is that U.S. intelligence agencies do have detailed satellite images of the likely missile battery that launched the fateful missile, but the battery appears to have been under the control of Ukrainian government troops dressed in what look like Ukrainian uniforms.

Complete story at - Article: What Did US Spy Satellites See in Ukraine? | OpEdNews

Airline Horror Spurs New Rush to Judgment | Consortiumnews

Exclusive: President Obama and the State Department’s “anti-diplomats” are fanning flames of anger against Russia after the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. But some U.S. intelligence analysts doubt the popular “blame-the-Russians” scenario, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

Despite doubts within the U.S. intelligence community, the Obama administration and the mainstream U.S. news media are charging off toward another rush to judgment blaming Ukrainian rebels and the Russian government for the shoot-down of a Malaysia Airlines plane, much as occurred last summer regarding a still-mysterious sarin gas attack in Syria.

In both cases, rather than let independent investigators sort out the facts, President Barack Obama’s ever-aggressive State Department and the major U.S. media simply accepted that the designated villains of those two crises – Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine – were the guilty parties. Yet, some U.S. intelligence analysts dissented from both snap conventional wisdoms.

Regarding the shoot-down of the Malaysian jetliner on Thursday, I’m told that some CIA analysts cite U.S. satellite reconnaissance photos suggesting that the anti-aircraft missile that brought down Flight 17 was fired by Ukrainian troops from a government battery, not by ethnic Russian rebels who have been resisting the regime in Kiev since elected President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown on Feb. 22.

According to a source briefed on the tentative findings, the soldiers manning the battery appeared to be wearing Ukrainian uniforms and may have been drinking, since what looked like beer bottles were scattered around the site. But the source added that the information was still incomplete and the analysts did not rule out the possibility of rebel responsibility.

Complete story at - Airline Horror Spurs New Rush to Judgment | Consortiumnews

M of A - U.S. "Intelligence": Nothing For Something

Where $72 billion per year is the something that gives nothing:

In the same briefing, the [senior U.S. intelligence] official [who briefed reporters this week] disclosed that U.S. intelligence did not know who controlled Iraq’s largest oil refinery. And she suggested that one of the biggest sources of intelligence for American analysts is Facebook and Twitter postings.
The U.S. spent nearly $72 billion on intelligence gathering in 2013, ...

That is quite a lot of money for looking at amateur porn and digesting unintelligible short messages.

Complete story at - M of A - U.S. "Intelligence": Nothing For Something

Another Murderous Milestone: 60 Years of Carnage | Empire Burlesque

This month, the world has marked significant historical milestones: the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing (and unmarked, except in Russia, the 70th anniversary of the Red Army’s Operation Bagration, the largest battle in world history, in which the Soviets broke the back of the Nazi army); and the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, the spark that led to the First World War.

But this week saw the anniversary of another major turning point in modern history, a campaign that became — and remains — the enduring template of foreign policy for the world’s most powerful nation. We speak, of course, of the 60th anniversary of Washington’s “regime change” operation in Guatemala, overthrowing a democratically elected government.

It was not the first such American “intervention,” of course (and was preceded in the previous year by a more indirect role in overthrowing democracy in Iran), but it set in train more than six decades of violent attacks on democracy by the “leader of the free world.” (A fine tradition carried on by Barack Obama in Honduras.) In fact, a hatred of democracy — a genuine, visceral revulsion at the idea of people choosing their own leaders and their own form of society — has been a driving force in American foreign policy for generations. Democracy and freedom are only allowed if they lead to outcomes that advance whatever the agenda of the American elite happens to be at any given time. They hate democracy abroad; they hate it at home; they hate it everywhere, all the time. The historical record is remarkably consistent on this point.

Complete story at - Another Murderous Milestone: 60 Years of Carnage

Is President Poroshenko Taking Orders from the CIA? The Place of Ukraine in US Military Planning | Global Research

While the death toll among civilians is growing in Ukraine the United States continues its policy aimed at escalation of the conflict. It offers all kinds of support to Kiev including military aid. Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said the cooperation is going to get a new impetus with instructors sent to beef up the modernization efforts of Ukraine’s armed forces.

The US Congress is to pass a bill to provide $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine. The bill authorizes an additional $100 million to bolster security cooperation among the United States, European Union and countries in Central and Eastern Europe and further authorizes the President to provide defense help and additional security assistance to Ukraine and other countries in the region. According to Igor Dolgov, Ukraine’s Ambassador to NATO, the alliance is to provide logistics and gratuitously train Ukrainian personnel. It will also intensify intelligence collecting efforts against Russia including AWACS aircraft. Anders Fogh Rasmussen says no military actions against Russia are planned, but the facts tell otherwise.

Having won the presidential election on May 25, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko secretly met with strange American delegation headed by the Director of the National Service of Covert Operations (the CIA’s National Clandestine Service) Frank Archibald, which also included former CIA chief in Ukraine Jeffrey Egan, the current – Raymond Mark Davidson, Mark Buggy (CIA, Istanbul), Andrzej Derlatka, a CIA agent in the Polish intelligence Agency and member of CIA Kevin Duffin who is working as senior Vice President of the insurance company Brower. Poroshenko and Archibald signed a paper entitled an “Agreement on Military Cooperation between the U.S. and Ukraine”…

The composition of the U.S. delegation, which is rather mysterious at first glance, is explained by the fact that the professional diplomats would not understand at all what it was about, and by the fact that the U.S. Congress would not authorize the usual military cooperation agreement which involves sending military trainers and direct participation of American troops in the armed conflict in Ukraine.

However, the National Service of Covert Operations can bypass the lawmakers through channels such as private insurance company Brower, belonging to the CIA. It can provide large-scale military aid to other countries using its operatives and employees of private military contractors. Aside from the military cooperation with the United States, the Ukrainian government signed an agreement to revive the concept of LITPOLUKRBRIG (the Lithuanian – Polish – Ukrainian Brigade) to make it reach operational status. The brigade is a planned multinational formation consisting of units from the Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian army units. An agreement on its creation was signed on November 16, 2009.

Complete story at - Is President Poroshenko Taking Orders from the CIA? The Place of Ukraine in US Military Planning | Global Research

Leaked CIA Report Warns of Military Coup in Ukraine | The Other

A Central Intelligence Agency report written by top European Analyst Steven Woehrel for the U.S. Congress Foreign Affairs committee has cast doubt about the future of the Ukraine current government and exposed the US role in the removal of the elected government. The major floor in the report is its failure to understand the significance for internal Russian politics of the events in Eastern Ukrainian. The involvement in the independence movement in Donetsk by the Communist Party’s of Ukraine and Russia as well as the formerly outlawed Rodina Party which has significant ties with former Soviet military and KGB.

The report by Woehrel, Ukraine: Current Issues and U.S. Policy published in the 20th May 2014, paints a depressing picture for the future of Ukraine under the current regime which are described in the report as a mix of corrupt oligarchs from the Southern and Eastern regions and extremist and violent Nationalists from the Central and Western areas. Woehrel stated that the Maiden demonstrations liken like continuing because of the ‘rampant corruption and other shortcomings in the rule of law’ of the current regime made up of three extremist Nationalist Party’s the Freedom Party, the Fatherland Party and the Right Sector.

The report also claimed ‘that Russian intelligence officers in the Ukraine are coordinating the unrest’ with the goal of stirring up trouble to discredit and then other through the current government in Kyiv. Part of plot uncovered by the CIA and contained in this report is the claim that there is a majority of current military officers within the Ukraine Army working with the Russians to destabilise the government ahead of a military coup. These reports from undisclosed sources explain the current junta favouring the Right Sector National Guards over the military in the eastern region.

Woehrel also noted in his report the financial outlook for the Ukraine with what it calls ‘long-standing problems in attracting foreign investment’ due to official corruption and systematic long-term issue with the rule of law. The report also noted that there are issues also associated with dwindling foreign exchange reserves with a distinct prospect of a default on sovereign debt. These issues which have became apparent during the term of the new President Petro Poroshenko.

The cure to this economic illness according to the report noted is the implementaton of a plan drawn up by the United States, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund during the time when Tymoshenko was Prime Minister to take control of the Ukrainian economy. The major part of these reforms included the export of Ukraine gas and coal resources into Europe and the building by German banks of a gas pipeline from the west into the Ukraine to replace nuclear energy production. The reported noted that with Ukrainian politics being a struggle between oligarchs fighting for control of the economy that former President Yanukovych and his now defunct political party the Party of Regions were the political tool of steel and coal mining magnates of the Donbas.

Complete story at - Leaked CIA Report Warns of Military Coup in Ukraine | The Other