Espionage/"Intelligence"

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
— Martin  Luther King, Strength to Love, 1963

Reuters reports that 2,700 US troops accompanied by tanks are moving across Poland toward the Russian border. Col. Christopher Norrie, commander of the 3rd Armoured Brigade Combat Team, declared: “The main goal of our mission is deterrence and prevention of threats.” Apparently, the colonel is not sufficiently bright to realize that far from preventing threats, the force he is leading presents as a threat. And to no less a military power than Russia.

London — Morning breakfast news on the BBC’s Radio Four on Friday was a delightful affair filled with discussions on Russia (when do we not talk about that busy, stirring Bear these days?), Donald Trump, dossiers and the intelligence fraternity. Did it even matter that various sources have been unverified, subject matter lumped together in cumbersome conversations on fake news, sexual frolics and the like?

We are being assaulted by mass media “news” of alleged hacks by alleged actors, allegations of politicians compromised by financial dealings, and sexual hijinks.
First, governments and media do not belong in the bedrooms of the people.
Second, outside of religion and corporate/state media (let’s rubbish the misnomer of “mainstream” for what is predominately a “propagandic stream”), credible evidence is indispensable.

The recent hysteria surrounding Russia’s alleged interference with the November presidential elections saw another episode after an intelligence report, jointly elaborated by the CIA, FBI and NSA, was released on Friday, January 6th.

It seems so strange, twenty-seven years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to be living through a new Cold War with (as it happens, capitalist) Russia.
The Russian president is attacked by the U.S. political class and media as they never attacked Soviet leaders; he is personally vilified as a corrupt, venal dictator, who arrests or assassinates political opponents and dissident journalists, and is hell-bent on the restoration of the USSR.

The US Intelligence Community has accused Russia and Vladimir Putin personally of meddling in last year’s US presidential election, through hacking and propaganda. Craig Murray, a former UK diplomat and whistleblower joins RT to discuss this issue.

Do you desire intellectually stimulating, need-to-be-aware-of information as a stocking stuffer in the time crunch just before Christmas? Look no further. Douglas Valentine’s The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World fits the bill splendidly.

Deemed by the Home Office an exemplar of legislation balancing security and freedoms, the UK Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA), otherwise known as the Snoopers’ Charter, did not impress the EU Court of Justice.  The case had been brought in 2014 by two MPs, David Davis and Tom Watson.  Davis had since evacuated from the brief, leaving Watson to savour the proceedings.

Here is a great overview by Ed Jones of why corporate media are the arch-exponents of “fake news”. The media are overwhelming owned and controlled by billionaires and gargantuan corporations, who depend on the support of other corporations for ad revenue, and employ journalists from a narrow, privileged class whose careers depend on maintaining access to elite sources.