Russophobia is not a phenomenon confined strictly to the United States and Great Britain. According to a report from TASS, the practice of rhetorical attacks and slander against the Russian Federation is common across several Western European nations as well:
In September 1977 the renowned Hollywood gossip columnist Rona Barrett appeared on Good Morning America to talk about spy films. Sat alongside her was CIA director Stansfield Turner, who commented that Hollywood movies would make poor training films for CIA spies. Within days a memo was circulating within the CIA seeking to correct Turner's assumption.(Read more...)
Britain’s Daily Mail is a strident rag that is bought daily by over a million people who agree with its stance that most foreigners are inferior to Brits.
I’ve wanted to cover the Apocalypse trilogy for a long time now, three classics from legendary director John Carpenter. The Thing has a Cold War setting, while Prince of Darkness appears to predict the arrival of the era of Antichrist. In the Mouth of Madness is a meta=level fourth wall-breaking narrative about the Antichrist’s rule, with Hades coming through the portal. Other esoteric elements also come to the fore, as well shall see…Wednesday evening at 5PM EST!
Joanne invited me on the Around the Empire podcast to do a ‘high level compare and contrast’ of two war comedy films set in different wars in Afghanistan: Charlie Wilson’s War and War Machine. The films are similar in many respects – both comedies, both have A-list lead actors, both set in wars in Afghanistan, both based on books – but politically they are diametric opposites.
The new Amazon series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is the first TV show to film at CIA headquarters for several years, in keeping with the Agency’s long-time support for adaptations of Clancy’s work. In this episode I review and analyse the series, including the inevitable references to 9/11, the hallmarks of CIA input on the script and the question of whether the series acts as revenge fantasy for Islamist terrorists.(Read more...)
Joanne invited me on the Around the Empire podcast to do a 'high level compare and contrast' of two war comedy films set in different wars in Afghanistan: Charlie Wilson's War and War Machine. The films are similar in many respects - both comedies, both have A-list lead actors, both set in wars in Afghanistan, both based on books - but politically they are diametric opposites.
Via Strategic Culture
The debate developed along three main questions. The first was on the role of NATO (“NATO is no longer fit for purpose”), the second was about Russia (“The Russian threat is overblown”), and the third was on Iran (“It’s time to take a hard line on Iran”).
The CIA's Office of Public Affairs is - ironically - very tight-lipped about what they actually do, so I was pleased that they recently responded to a 3 year old FOIA request and provided me with a document summarising their activities from 2014 to 2016. This includes numerous meetings with journalists, facilitating tours of CIA headquarters for Hollywood stars and helping to rewrite the Benghazi movie 13 Hours and one of the Ghost Recon video games.
