We are shocked, shocked that the alleged leaker of secret war documents is a misogynistic racist gun nut who works at, of all the inappropriate and unexpected places, a military base.*
From the Washington Post's alliterative lede:
United by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God, the group of roughly two dozen — mostly men and boys — formed an invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord, an online platform popular with gamers. But they paid little attention last year when the man some call “OG” posted a message laden with strange acronyms and jargon. The words were unfamiliar, and few people read the long note, one of the members explained. But he revered OG, the elder leader of their tiny tribe, who claimed to know secrets that the government withheld from ordinary people.
Was he also a Trump acolyte? The Post doesn't say. But the Leaker, according to the guy who leaked about him to the newspaper, certainly sounds sexier than Trump. In fact, he sounds like something out of a John Le Carre spy novel, an immature James Bond wannabe, or even a CIA plant:
The young member was impressed by OG’s seemingly prophetic ability to forecast major events before they became headline news, things “only someone with this kind of high clearance” would know. He was by his own account enthralled with OG, who he said was in his early to mid-20s.
“He’s fit. He’s strong. He’s armed. He’s trained. Just about everything you can expect out of some sort of crazy movie,” the member said.
The mysterious cache is a veritable smorgasbord of international dishing. The menu features everything from the usual relentless but bland US spying upon global enemies and "partners" (cowed lapdogs) alike, to detailed battle plans for the US proxy war in Ukraine, to the drama of elite hand-wringing that not enough lapdogs are supplying enough ammo to Ukraine so as to obfuscate the full spectrum-dominant role that the biggest arms dealer in the world ( USA) has awarded itself into perpetuity.
How can this faltering Superpower foment World War III without getting a good chunk of the world enthusiastically behind it? It wouldn't do for the US to be seen as a playground bully, or at least as a playground bully lacking a full complement of toadies.
French President Emmanuel Macron, only recently lauded by the corporate-sponsored US press for his "courage" in ramming through an increase in the retirement age of his country's "coddled" workforce, is relegated to the doghouse just a week later for his vocal refusal to be Joe Biden's French poodle in the buildup to a war against China. At least for the moment, he's flagrantly peeing all over American hegemony.
CNN, one of the most trusted names in warmongering propaganda, frames the story of one lone European leader trying to give peace a chance this way:
French President Emmanuel Macron might have hoped to focus this week on what may prove the biggest domestic test of his leadership, as France’s Constitutional Council prepares to rule Friday on whether or not he can push ahead with controversial pension reforms.
Instead, he finds himself grappling with international blowback from last week’s friendly visit to China – and in particular from comments that have made him rather unpopular both in Washington DC and with some of his allies in Europe.
On his flight home from Beijing, Macron gave an interview to POLITICO Europe. In it, he said that Europe must not become “just America’s followers” when asked about the prospect of China invading Taiwan.
“The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the US agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron said, adding that Europe must not get “caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy.”
Notice how CNN conflates American chagrin into a galloping case of "international blowback" against peace from all the alleged war-loving nations of the planet. There is nothing like international blowback to make a leader "somewhat unpopular" among his peers! Almost as ironic as the leak from the gun-loving dude who exposes war and possible war crimes is the elite former banker Macron actually saving the working class cannon fodder of all nations even as he forces his own constituents to toil for two extra years on the domestic front.
As for Joe Biden, he plays his own senescently sanguine part in the Narrative, gushing that even though the leaker is the target of a "full-blown" investigation, most of the information released online is also so outdated as to be meaningless, not to mention mind-blowingly blowback-proof. After all, if Biden's friends and allies and partners don't know it by now, post-Snowden, that their full-spectrum dominant is listening in on all their phone calls and private meetings, than they've been asleep for the last decade. As partners, they should know their submissive place.
Or as Biden tried to explain it from both sides of his orifice:
"I'm not concerned about the leak, I'm concerned that it happened but there is nothing contemporaneous that I'm aware of."
Conveniently enough, the cache of leaked documents also contains possible evidence that China and Russia are in cahoots. The ever-reliable New York Times reports:
The cache of classified documents that has leaked online reveals one source that may have at least reinforced the suspicions in Washington about China’s plans: intercepted communications in mid-February indicating that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service reported the approval of such aid by China’s top military body, the Central Military Commission.
Talk about convenience! There is nothing like a controlled leak by a pathetic loser of a low-level military worker to make the case for World War III. No wonder that Biden is so carefree. When you're a doddering dominant girded with the full faith and credit of the USA in the form of a discreet Depends, all leaks can be absorbed into the matrix, losing their initial stench after a short while. Meanwhile, one can always blame the occasional unsightly puddle on one's disgruntled ,un-housebroken military puppy. One can pretend to be very, very shocked and worried but yet not worried about it.
But back to Biden's diplomatic journey to find his Irish roots and mark the 25th anniversary of peace after the Troubles. He's been there, done that. Now it's on to war. From the Times:
President Biden will thank the Irish people for their support of Ukraine in its battle against Russia when he speaks to a session of Ireland’s Parliament on Thursday, part of a three-day trip that is both a personal journey and diplomacy.
The president’s national security aides said Mr. Biden intended to continue his efforts to shore up the global alliance on behalf of Ukraine. They said he would highlight Ireland’s humanitarian assistance and its acceptance of some 80,000 refugees who have fled the war-torn country.
Many of those refugees are being lodged in hotels throughout Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland, a country where housing is scarce and expensive.
Before addressing Parliament, Mr. Biden met on Thursday with Leo Varadkar, the prime minister of Ireland, and thanked him for welcoming Ukrainians to his country.
“I know it’s not easy,” Mr. Biden said.
In turn, Mr. Varadkar told Mr. Biden he “never thought, in my lifetime, that we would see a war of this nature happen in Europe again.”
“If it wasn’t for American leadership, and if it wasn’t for American and Europe working together, I don’t know what kind of world we would live in,” he added.
No word as to whether the Irish leader had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek as he uttered those last words. But to hear the Times tell it, Leo Varadkar was acting every inch the sleek Irish Setter with a severe drooling problem who also labors under the delusion that he is small enough to sit in his owner's lap. But not to worry. The master not only welcomes the devotion, he gets off on the slobber.
*Update: The leaker has now been identified by the New York Times as a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman based in Massachusetts. He was yet to interviewed by the Pentagon or FBI, according to the report.
Our government lied to us, when its own briefings told a very different story.
ReplyDeleteOur media repeated those lies.
Now that the media is presented with that, in writing, they just want to keep on repeating the old lies, and enabling the original liars.
Instead, they talk about how leaking is wrong. It seems to be wrong only when it gores the ox of the one complaining about leaks. This time, that means Biden and his media friends.
Karen, I always enjoy and learn from your posts, but every once in awhile you totally knock one out of the ballpark. This is one of those posts - perfect in every way. JayOttawa would have really loved this one!
ReplyDeleteThe truth about David Cornwell aka John le Carré seems to be that despite being a brilliant author and the undisputed emperor of the espionage fiction genre, he was an imperfect spy. He had more Achilles heels than he had toes and was caught out by Kim Philby.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting "news article" dated 31 October 2022 exists about some of his perceived shortcomings in this regard (pardon the unintentional quip). It's entitled Pemberton's People, Ungentlemanly Officers & Rogue Heroes and can be found on TheBurlingtonFiles website.
While visiting the site do check out Beyond Enkription. It is an intriguing raw and noir fact-based spy thriller and it’s a must read for espionage cognoscenti but what would it have been like if David Cornwell had collaborated with Bill Fairclough? Even though they didn’t collaborate, Beyond Enkription is still described as ”up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. Not surprising really - Fairclough was never caught.
Thank you, Valerie, so glad you liked the piece!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe Crackdown Cometh — Leaks for me, not for thee.
https://www.racket.news/p/the-crackdown-cometh?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
April 13, 2023 ~ by Matt Taibbi
"The New York Times is the official leak of the State Department."
~ Mort Sahl
“It is hard to imagine having a government more secretive than the United States. Virtually everything that government does, of any significance, is conducted behind an extreme wall of secrecy. The very few leaks that we’ve had over the last decade are basically the only ways that we’ve had to learn what our government is doing.”
~ Glenn Greenwald
"When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it's the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone's talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false 'intelligence' and selected 'leaks’."
~ Brian Eno
"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer."
~ Hunter S. Thompson, "Extreme Behavior in Aspen," February 3, 2003.
“These programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power.”
~ Edward Snowden
The shady Gray Lady and the post-press Wapo:
ReplyDelete"The Press is Now Also the Police --
As fallout from the Discord leak continues, the undisguised partnerships of media, intelligence, and law enforcement come into more painful relief."
https://www.racket.news/p/the-press-is-now-also-the-police?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
April 17, 2023 ~ by Matt Taibbi
"Multinational corporations do control. They control the politicians. They control the media. They control the pattern of consumption, entertainment, thinking. They're destroying the planet and laying the foundation for violent outbursts and racial division.”
~ Jerry Brown
"If those in charge of our society — politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television — can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.”
~ Howard Zinn
"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the US public believes is false.”
~ William J. Casey, former CIA Director, per Barbara Honnegger of Reagan Administration
"The NSA’s business is ‘information dominance,’ the use of other people’s secrets to shape events."
~Barton Gellman