Links On And Of Propaganda
(Some bug caught up with me. I am too incapacitated to compose a decent blog post. A few links around the issue of propaganda shall substitute for it.)
Remember the sensational front page news about "Russian doping" during the Sochi Olympics and beyond? Well, here is the outcome of that "scandal":
World Anti-Doping Agency Clears 95 Russian Athletes
The World Anti-Doping Agency, the regulator of drugs in sports that produced mountainous evidence of Russia’s doping scheme, has agreed to clear 95 of the first 96 athletes whose cases have been reviewed, according to an internal report circulated among the organization’s executives in recent days.
The "mountainous evidence" the NYT regurgitated was evidently of a molehill.
Here is another slip in the "dangerous Russia" matrix. NATO expansion, we are now told, was not about Russia at all:
Western arms makers lobbied hard for the expansion of NATO into former Soviet satellite countries after the collapse of Communism. They have since lobbied both new and old NATO member states not to stray outside the alliance for weapons purchases that would cut into their business.
But to sell new weapons to eastern Europe one first has to get rid of its old ones. If possible by Making a Killing:
Since the outbreak of war in Syria, weapons from Central and Eastern Europe have flooded the conflict zone through two distinct pipelines – one sponsored by Saudi Arabia and coordinated by the CIA, and the other funded and directed by the Pentagon.
Related: How Western Capital Colonized Eastern Europe
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The current campaign of Saudi financed jihadis in Myanmar is only the appetizer for a larger attack on Chinese (and Indian) interests. More foot soldiers need to be produced for that by infecting more people with radical Wahhabi propaganda:
Bangladesh approved the construction on its territory of 560 mosques on Wednesday, April 26. The project is financed by the Saudi government to the tune of over a billion dollars.
...
[T]he Gulf monarchy has reportedly spent more than 70 billion dollars (about 65 billion euros) since 1979 to finance such projects abroad.
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During the election some unidentified dude on Facebook called for an anti-immigrant rally in Twin Falls, Idaho. Four (4) people claimed they came to the event but no rally took place.
Three (3!) Daily Beast "journalists" were tasked to investigate the issue. They produced a sorry whiff of hot air: Exclusive: Russia Used Facebook Events to Organize Anti-Immigrant Rallies on U.S. Soil
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The New Yorker also wants to put crap into your brain:
Pyongyang is a city of simulated perfection, without litter or graffiti—or, for that matter, anyone in a wheelchair. Its population, of 2.9 million, has been chosen for political reliability and physical health.
Surely, the yearly Disability Days in the DPRK, with performances and sport events, never take place. The new school year ceremony at Pyongyang's Rehabilitation Centre for Children with Disability (vid) is just a fantasy.
On wonders how much the North Korean defector who enlightened the New Yorker was paid for that insight. Propaganda is costly. South Korea recently upped the top rate for North Korean opportunists to $860,000 a piece. The more outrageous their claims are, the higher their income.
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The Global Engagement Center ...
.. is an interagency entity, housed at the State Department. ... It was established pursuant to Executive Order 13721, signed on on March 14, 2016, which states that the Center “shall lead the coordination, integration, and synchronization of Government-wide communications activities directed at foreign audiences abroad in order to counter the messaging and diminish the influence of international terrorist organizations,” such as ISIL.
... of "international terrorist organizations" - hmmm -
... allowed the Global Engagement Center to ask the Pentagon for $40 million, bringing its total 2017 spending to about $80 million. About $60 million of that was to be used to counter Russian influence operations; about $19 million was aimed at ISIS.
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Contrasting the above is some real journalism from the Cincinnati Enquirer: Seven Days of Heroin - This is what an epidemic looks like - recommended!
Posted by b on September 13, 2017 at 16:07 UTC | Permalink
next page »Thanks for posting the links and their info, b, and please recover soon! I try to spend my time looking for the unpublished news while relying on people like b to expose the Lies.
It's not just the published propaganda, small and Big Lies; it's also neglecting to report on important events, like the recent series of Summits--SCO & BRICS--and the well attended and geopolitically important economic conferences held in Russia and China, the most recent of which was in Vladivostok and attended by both North and South Korean delegations. Pepe Escobar's report was published today by atimes, detailing the way to move beyond the engineered DPRK crisis that will most likely be dogged by the Outlaw US Empire, http://www.atimes.com/article/russia-china-plan-north-korea-stability-connectivity/ Then there's the seemingly insane "threat" to exclude China from the SWIFT system that one commentator at SouthFront described as "the shot in the foot heard 'round the world."
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 13 2017 16:39 utc | 2
The NY Times article on the alleged doping issues is hilarious. This paragraph stands out:
"The closed cases are very likely to set off a debate in the sports world over whether Russia’s schemes were so successful in destroying evidence that defensible cases cannot be built against some athletes, or whether officials have taken a soft approach to punishments."
This from a paper which often expresses fear that core "enlightenment values", or western values - like the presumption of innocence? - are under threat.
Posted by: jayc | Sep 13 2017 16:39 utc | 3
the link on the bottom from the cincinnati.com site is shocking..
Posted by: james | Sep 13 2017 16:47 utc | 4
The underlying source that SecuredBorders originated in Russia is a Russian article:
http://www.rbc.ru/magazine/2017/04/58d106b09a794710fa8934ac?from=subject
The article also implausibly asserted that the Twitter account Tea Party News also originated in Russia.
Facebook has removed the SecuredBorders site.
Posted by: Steve | Sep 13 2017 16:47 utc | 5
Bombshell Report Catches Pentagon Falsifying Paperwork For Weapons Transfers To Syrian Rebels
Posted by: OJS | Sep 13 2017 16:50 utc | 6
b
You seem to have missed the biggie - Jim Rutenberg's expose of RT, Sputnik and Putin's perfidy with their Info Op..
RT, Sputnik and Russia’s New Theory of War
How the Kremlin built one of the most powerful information weapons of the 21st century
— and why it may be impossible to stop.
I'm all for Info Wars as no many people dir so I hope the USA caves before the might of Russia and we have a few decades of peace to see me into the ground.
This is going to be all over the Clintonist blogs as definitive evidence that it was RT and Sputnik that cost Saint Hillary the presidency. I started to read it but it made me sick so I gave up. Perhaps someone of greater intestinal fortitude can do better.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 13 2017 17:07 utc | 7
Along similar lines here is the BBC sneering at Russian efforts to restore normality in Syria. The tour seems well organized...that translates into BBC speak as 'carefully orchestrated'.
Posted by: dh | Sep 13 2017 17:10 utc | 8
>>>> dh | Sep 13, 2017 1:10:07 PM | 8
Perhaps the BBC should take a tour round Syria without the Russian Army, they'd find a visit to Jisr-al-shughur very informative. I'm told the local Uighur rebels are secular, democratic and house-trained so it should be quite an experience for the BBC reporters.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 13 2017 17:39 utc | 9
All that is left to the supremacist West to excel at is debt and propaganda.
Posted by: AriusArmenian | Sep 13 2017 17:54 utc | 10
Hope you're feeling better soon b..
Thanks for the links folks. Keep'em coming, I'm reading them all today..
Posted by: ben | Sep 13 2017 18:02 utc | 11
Maria Sharapova was caught up in this Russian doping dragnet and anti-Russia hysteria. Hard to feel sorry for someone worth over $250 million, but in this case I do because of the fact that even after she did her suspension time, she wasn't allowed to play in Grand Slam events in England and France. Her high profile as Russia most successful female athlete made her a desirable target for NATO's wrath.
Posted by: RenoDino | Sep 13 2017 18:18 utc | 12
Apparently, North Korea has evaded sanctions by building ski resorts with banned equipment. Here is a video of a trip by snowboarders to one of the three ski areas in North Korea. Note that the cult of the great leader is everywhere in the DPRK but is is just more transparent than in countries such as the US, Germany, France, Canada, etc: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/video/shorts/this-is-what-its-like-inside-north-koreas-luxury-ski-resort/
In support of "B" links about NATO "helping Eastern European countries get rid of the Cold War weapons are two links that show how the weapons are being disposed of:
Trump is continuing to follow Rahm Emanuel philosophy: "You never let a serious crisis go to waste". Then again he may not be aware of these operations as he doesn't read anything other than text messages, at least until Twitter bans him.
Posted by: Krollchem | Sep 13 2017 18:24 utc | 13
@Ghostship | Sep 13, 2017 1:07:25 PM | 7
If you're trying to discredit b, dun waste your time, most MoA are seasons bloggers and do fact checks from alternate sources - reliable real news.
I'm a RT and Sputnik supporter. Please go fly kits
Posted by: OJS | Sep 13 2017 18:25 utc | 14
Heads up that I hear Reuters will be releasing a 'big story' about Russia and Facebook Thursday or Friday of this week. Stand by for more unsubstantiated allegations incoming.
Posted by: WorldBLee | Sep 13 2017 18:27 utc | 15
OJS @14
I don't think Ghostship was trying to discredit b.
Posted by: spudski | Sep 13 2017 18:32 utc | 16
>>>> OJS | Sep 13, 2017 2:25:36 PM | 14
I started to read it but it made me sick so I gave up.
I think that might suggest that I had no positive thoughts about the article what so ever.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 13 2017 18:52 utc | 18
The PR phrase "Making the world safe for Democracy" is still used in today's propaganda but was first used to promote the US entry into WWI. The originator was Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud's nephew, and who could be considered the "godfather" of modern propaganda techniques to control the "masses".
An excellent "old" BBC 4 part series "The Century of the Self" traces the history of this methodology from WWI through to Bill Clinton's second election and also Tony Blair's election. It is well worth the time to have a look at how the governments and corporations manipulate us to their benefit.
Part 1 link (JustAdamCurtis channel):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04
Posted by: Dean | Sep 13 2017 18:54 utc | 19
Hi
Hope you get better soon.
Thank you for the link to the heroin story. I just finished reading it and it was very interesting although sad. Would never have come across it without reading your website.
Posted by: Justi | Sep 13 2017 19:00 utc | 20
ojs #14
I do think you completely missed the point Ghostship was trying to make.
Posted by: ToivoS | Sep 13 2017 19:04 utc | 21
Continuing "b"DPRK thread, here is an English translation (CC) of a popular woman band the is promoting studying to improve the DPRK. The band does a lot of fun propaganda pieces for their version of the great leader.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycdDHP7QfWo
Still education is better than taking drugs as in the last link "b" cited. Speaking of drug use in America, over 50 million Americans are addicted to Oxycontin in addition to sugar, alcohol, tobacco, heroin, designer drugs, etc (not to mention sex, gambling, sports, food).
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-use-addiction
As Churchill once said "sometimes it is best to do nothing" which I feel is the best response to the DPRK regime. Unfortunately, US leaders are not trained in system dynamics and thus cannot recognize s feedback as their brains are wired to linear engineering flow diagrams.
Posted by: Krollchem | Sep 13 2017 19:08 utc | 22
>>>> james | Sep 13, 2017 12:47:10 PM | 4
the link on the bottom from the cincinnati.com site is shockingThe really scary part, heroin is a problem all across the United States, cities, towns and rural areas and current policies can do nothing about it. The only thing that might make a difference is if opiates are legalised. States started legalising cannabis causing the price to collapse for the product which was the Mexican cartels major revenue source . At the same time, there was a massive crackdown on prescription opiates which left large numbers of people with an addiction to opiates without a reliable supply, so the Mexican cartels switched up their supplies of heroin to meet this demand and stepped. Nationwide legalisation of opiates would at least stop all the deaths from bad heroin or infection from dirty needles and would put the Mexican cartels out of the market. Get them all back onto prescription opiates which are far safer and often allow users to lead relatively normal lives
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 13 2017 19:28 utc | 23
Posted by: Krollchem | Sep 13, 2017 3:08:30 PM | 22
As Churchill once said "sometimes it is best to do nothing" which I feel is the best response to the DPRK regime. Unfortunately, US leaders are not trained in system dynamics and thus cannot recognize s feedback as their brains are wired to linear engineering flow diagrams.
I blame a protestant "an idle mind is playground for the devil" ethics for that, seeing being idle as a great sin. Or perhaps it is a good servant's ethics. You see it at workplaces all over, people running around desperately trying to be busy, working hard, contributing.
Posted by: hopehely | Sep 13 2017 19:57 utc | 24
@ Ghostship 23
I think you might find that heroin supply in the continental US has been under control of the CIA for a very long time, not the Mexican Cartels, and your comment smacks of disinformation.
Only a fool cannot see that the USA's continued presence in Afghanistan is only about the poppy fields.
Posted by: insanity | Sep 13 2017 20:15 utc | 25
Yes, an expanded NATO was primarily to expand arms sales. We need commonality of weapons! Don't buy Leopard tanks when you can buy M1's, etc.
>current news report-- "WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has set a new one-year record for clearing weapon sales, with $75.9 billion cleared by the department and announced by the Defense"
So let's send a big "thank you" to the countries that are arming up against all those terrorists in the world, in Iran Korea Russia China Yemen Somalia, and to all those who are dying for the cause in Afghanistan Syria Iraq Yemen and hopefully more to come in Korea and China, if the generals can work it out.
>In Afghanistan the new strategy is to bomb a city or town as soon as the Taliban invests it. Don't wait, bomb it tonight. The whole city. So the Air Force dropped more than 500 weapons in Afghanistan last month — the largest monthly tally since 2012 — continuing an uptick seen throughout this year, according to newly released military data. Trump last month announced plans for a new strategy, which he said would include attacking “America’s enemies.” “I will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will,” Trump said in a televised speech.
>This is the strategy employed in Iraq and Syria, and formerly in Vietnam. Remember-- We destroyed the city to save it? One town in northern Syria, Kobane, was destroyed. For almost five months, B-1 crews from the 9th Bomb Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, focused on one town — Kobani in Syria — in the battle against the Islamic State group, each bomber dropping all ts bombs. In the military operations world, it's called going "Winchester."The term refers to a military asset expending all of its weapons. When a B-1 returns to base without a single bomb on board, the crew on the ground slaps a "W" sticker inside the bomb bay doors to note the mission. For the 9th Bomb Squadron's deployment in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, weapons airmen slapped 31 "W" stickers on the insides of their B-1. "There's nothing cooler than seeing the jet come home Winchester, and especially getting to stick that sticker under the door,"a B-1 crew chief identified as Sgt. Barnes said. . . .Go here to see Kobane after the bombing.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 13 2017 20:30 utc | 26
hopehely@24
Your good servant's ethics comment on Western society was right on. Seems that all societies have levers to control/channel behavior. Here is a link to an article on "1984" in Europe today:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-to-stay-sane-at-a-time-of-increasing-insanity/5608846
insanity@25
Initially, the CIA drug routes(whitewashed by the deep state) were from Columbia and El Salvador as documented in:
https://www.rt.com/usa/194992-cia-crack-scandal-webb/
Subsequently, to control the drug supply the US DEA/CIA arranged to consolidate the Mexican drug trade to one vetted supplier by helping it kill off the other dozen or so cartels.
Posted by: Krollchem | Sep 13 2017 20:32 utc | 27
@23 ghostship... it is a huge problem, but more then legalizing it, would be to make a better life for people in the usa so they all didn't feel like 'dog eat dog' rules applied to them and anyone who wanted to participate in some different context... as carter recently stated - usa is run by the rich 1% essentially... it isn't a democracy anymore...and it is a very exploitive environment that drive the more sensitive types into places of refuge - drugs being a poor choice, but one of the choices available to them..
Posted by: james | Sep 13 2017 20:34 utc | 28
Then there's the seemingly insane "threat" to exclude China from the SWIFT system that one commentator at SouthFront described as "the shot in the foot heard 'round the world."
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 13, 2017 12:39:37 PM | 2
Yes! I saw that on Zero Hedge, I had a flash of Putin's face easing into a Cheshire Cat smile. What absolute idiocy.
Although if the real goal of this announcement is to reduce the value of the dollar to nothingness it would be a great way to harm China who would be holding trillions(?) of near worthless paper.
Posted by: frances | Sep 13 2017 20:46 utc | 29
hopehely@24
Your good servant's ethics comment on Western society was right on. Seems that all societies have levers to control/channel behavior. Here is a link to an article on "1984" in Europe today:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-to-stay-sane-at-a-time-of-increasing-insanity/5608846
Posted by: Krollchem | Sep 13, 2017 4:32:49 PM | 27
Your "1984" link?
Written by some calling himself Sir Julian Rose.
"Julian is an early pioneer of UK organic farming, a writer, international activist and president of The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside."
What's a UK guy doing setting himself up as President of something called "The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside". Sir Julian is an hereditary member of the Brit Aristocracy
"Sir" Julian likes to write things like "we demand that the President and the Polish Government . . . . "
what is an Aristocratic Brit prick doing setting himself up as someone who thinks he has the right to make demands of any gov't but his own UK Govt?
If "SIR" Julian is so concerned with "The Countryside" how come he has decided to concentrate on the polish countryside and not the Brit countryside? Its not like the Brit Countryside has been "saved" and is now "safe" for small farmers (one of "Sir" Julian's pet peeves)
Wiki:
"regular listeners to BBC Radio 4's 'Farming To Day' will have heard Julian's 2007 monthly "Letters from Poland" passionately highlighting the crisis provoked by forcing 'corporate globalisation' onto traditional family farming communities."
These are exactly the things his own Brit countryside is suffering from. How come this aristocratic prick has decided to set himself up as champion of the Polish Countryside and not the UK countryside?
The fact that "Sir" Julian, hereditary Aristocratic prick and owner of a "thousand-acre estate and baronetcy passed down from his great-grandfather", has decided to set himself champion of "small farming" in some country other than the one he is a citizen of is somewhat ironic, to say the least
Posted by: Just Sayin' | Sep 13 2017 21:02 utc | 30
That New Yorker article pretends, lies, about claims of germ warfare during the Korean war being widely "debunked"--Osnos' term.
It's near the very end of the article.
Posted by: Jay | Sep 13 2017 21:08 utc | 31
b. that Bersidsky article you link to and its statistics are a joke.
Wikipedia - net international investment position
Applying these criteria, the US are foreign owned.
Eastern European openness to investment does not mean this is restricted to Western Europe - China is interested, too, with more money to spend and Russia has invested in some energy projects.
From the above Financial Times link
The growing east-west divide in Europe on China will be on display next week in Beijing. Mr Xi will gather “a circle of friends”, as described by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, for a summit on China’s “new Silk Road”. Most European leaders have decided to miss the summit, with the notable exception of the Hungarian, Serb and Polish prime ministers and Czech president, who are scheduled to attend.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 13 2017 21:20 utc | 32
This is the strategy employed in Iraq and Syria, and formerly in Vietnam. Remember-- We destroyed the city to save it?Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 13, 2017 4:30:14 PM | 26
Yes, this is the US strategy used in North Korea too. I think the US MIC when it is either losing a war or losing control it bombs a country flat. I don't know if it is pique or dollars driving such decisions, probably both:(
Posted by: frances | Sep 13 2017 21:38 utc | 33
>>>> insanity | Sep 13, 2017 4:15:34 PM | 25
I think you might find that heroin supply in the continental US has been under control of the CIA for a very long time, not the Mexican Cartels, and your comment smacks of disinformation. Only a fool cannot see that the USA's continued presence in Afghanistan is only about the poppy fields.
Back in the last century I would have agreed with you but on September 11th, 2001 everything changed. The CIA now had access to all the money it needs while previously it hadn't and most of the money raised through dealing drugs was used to fund CIA projects such as the Contras, although there probably were some corrupt individuals who personally profited from the CIA's drug trade.
It appears that the vast majority of the heroin consumed within the US is grown in Mexico with most of the balance coming from Columbia, so the production in Afghanistan has little impact on the US. Afghan heroin provides about 60% of the Taliban's income, so if the CIA were involved in the Afghan heroin business, the US and other militaries fighting in Afghanistan would have made the world aware of it. Where I can see the possibility of CIA involvement is encouraging the heroin to flow through Iran and Russia for various reasons which I'll leave to your imagination.
So unless you can produce real evidence to the contrary, I'll go on thinking that for almost all of this century, the CIA has been out of the drugs trade and that heroin distribution in the US is now controlled by the Mexican cartels regardless of what Hollywood suggests.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 13 2017 21:42 utc | 34
@23 ghostship... it is a huge problem, but more then legalizing it, would be to make a better life for people in the usa so they all didn't feel like 'dog eat dog' ...and it is a very exploitive environment that drive the more sensitive types into places of refuge - drugs being a poor choice, but one of the choices available to them..
Posted by: james | Sep 13, 2017 4:34:33 PM | 28
Totally agree.I live in Massachusetts just outside of Boston in a small well off town and my grandchildren attended the schools. The oldest now in college tells me, "Any and every drug is available everywhere." He said that while in HS, about half of the students were trying or on something. Pills, coke, heroin in particular. He has already lost two friends to overdoses and has stopped seeing 5 or 6 HS friends because of their addictions. It appears (to me) to be equivalent to the 60's here when every drug was available. Then it was coke, speed, heroin and in poorer areas crack, lots of it. I believe the massive amount of heroin addicts in the US and the incredibly low price it sells for is because of the US control of Afghanistan's poppy crop.
I think back to the Chinese Opium Wars, it is time we had a few of our own.
Posted by: frances | Sep 13 2017 21:58 utc | 35
>>>> james | Sep 13, 2017 4:34:33 PM | 28
I quite agree and it's good that Sanders is now going for single-payer health care.
One thing I can't quite work out is that the proponents of single-payer in the US suggest that moving from the current system (if can call it one) to single-payer will reduce US health care expenditure from $3 trillion to $2 - 2.5 trillion. But as a Brit, I know that the health care expenditure in the UK totals $200 billion for ~60 million people so why shouldn't the US with it's "can do" rather than the UK's "could do" attitude deliver similar health care to the UK for it's population of 330 million (5.5 x UK's 60 million) for $1.1 trillion. Funding it with national health insurance paid by both employees and employer with no cap would be acceptable to the vast majority of the population and the 1% don't have enough votes to worry about, and with $1.9 trillion freed up that could be spent on infrastructure projects, (irony alert even Trump might support it.
The other thing that would need to happen before legalisation of all opiates, is that all manufacture and distribution of opiates should become a state monopoly as Big Pharma can be guaranteed to fuck it up for profit.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 13 2017 22:02 utc | 36
>>>> frances | Sep 13, 2017 5:58:40 PM | 35
A friend of mine who because of her two brothers' addiction and problems was opposed to legalisation of recreational drugs until she saw a dealer outside her son's primary school (the point she realised there were advantages to having two brothers who were addicts and dealers) who was giving away "free samples" to future customers to get them addicted. Primary schools in the UK cater for five to eleven year olds. Taking the profit out of drugs entirely is the only way and that requires legalisation.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 13 2017 22:20 utc | 37
@35 frances @37 ghostship
one way that it is different from the 60's is that the street drugs now are mixed with fentanyl for example.. this has led to many deaths in the vancouver bc area and beyond.. also the over the counter availability of pain killers that are addictive like heroin - oxycontin was being used quite regularly in this area a few years back.. addicts would break into drug stores to steal this stuff, when they weren't able to get their fix off the street and etc. etc.. part of the problem is the proliferation of drugs - both legal and illegal - which, thanks the pharma corps and the illicit trade in narcotics..
i see it is a major social problem.. i am not sure in a system based off profit where prisons are mulitiplying for example - that the usa would be interested in stopping it.. these prison corps would not want to stop the profits.. nor would the pharma corps.. as for the poppy trade being run by the usa, or cia - it is possible.. i have never seen anyone prove anything concrete on this topic, but i remain open to the truth of the idea..
i still believe that basic necessities like food, shelter and clothing are a bare minimum a society needs to provide for the people.. the huge number of people living on the street and etc. etc. is an epidemic that i have seen in my short life time and i believe it is completely unfair and wrong.. no rationale for any political system would allow for it if it was truly based on the religious ideologies that are supposed to be lived by the various political groups and etc.. feeding, clothing and sheltering the poor is a base line that hasn't been met by our politicians or the political systems that many continue to support.. to me - this is a base line needed.. without it - we witness the drug, family and etc. etc. problems our western societies are facing today..
Posted by: james | Sep 13 2017 22:44 utc | 38
Then there's the seemingly insane "threat" to exclude China from the SWIFT system that one commentator at SouthFront described as "the shot in the foot heard 'round the world."
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 13, 2017 12:39:37 PM | 2
I wonder if this could be in reaction to China saying their cars will all be electric (powered by coal) by 2030? They are the largest auto market in the world. The EU is going the same route. End of gasoline use would decimate the petro dollar.
Posted by: frances | Sep 13 2017 23:24 utc | 39
One of the greatest debunkers of propaganda: http://mileswmathis.com/updates.html His regular site, without the "updates" extension is meatier, but updates is a good place to start cuz it's so current.
Posted by: Penelope | Sep 13 2017 23:26 utc | 40
Sending you lots of positive vibe....get better soon....
Posted by: notlurking | Sep 13 2017 23:30 utc | 41
"It appears that the vast majority of the heroin consumed within the US is grown in Mexico... Afghan heroin provides about 60% of the Taliban's income." Ghostship 34
Not from what I have read, all studies I have seen all trace US heroin back to Afghanistan. Further the Taliban eradicated Afghan poppy production down to just about zero during their tenure. They are strict religious fundamentalists; they are not in the poppy business.
Posted by: frances | Sep 13 2017 23:31 utc | 42
@ Ghostship #34
>There's an overdose of conjecture in your comment.
>There was little or no heroin production in southern Afghanistan when the US invaded. The Taliban had got rid of it. That situation changed markedly.
>Currently, from wiki:
Afghanistan's opium poppy production goes into more than 90% of heroin worldwide.[1] Afghanistan has been the world's greatest illicit opium producer, ahead of Burma (Myanmar), the "Golden Triangle", and Latin America since 1992, excluding the year 2001.[2] Afghanistan is the main producer of opium in the "Golden Crescent."
>This great increase happened during years of US military occupation, primarily Marines, in Helmand province which was the central objective of Obama's surge to >100K troops.
>So I think we might conclude that the CIA, which was heavy into drug trafficking during the Vietnam War, hasn't lost its touch. (And the Pentagon can't touch the CIA.)
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 13 2017 23:34 utc | 43
re source of heroin:
David Greene (host, Morning Edition), Hayatullah Hayat (Governor of Helmand Province, Afghanistan), Tom Bowman (reporter), Dianne Feinstein (U.S. Senator, Chair of the Caucus on International Narcotics Control) (6 July 2016). Afghan Governor Wants Government To Control Poppy Crop (Radio broadcast). NPR. Event occurs at 0:10. Retrieved 6 July 2016. "Afghanistan's poppy production… accounts for more than 91 percent of the world's heroin."
So, if 91 percent comes from Afganistan, that leaves 9 percent to come from Mexico, Iran, Columbia, Hawaii, etc.
Posted by: frances | Sep 13 2017 23:40 utc | 44
@ all commenting about drugs
Drugs are what we take to assuage our mental distress. Drugs became acceptable in the early 1950's when science determined (since updated) that our neuronal activity was controlled by chemicals. This spawned Big Pharma and its profit based contribution to our collective mental health.
I have discovered that science has more recently determined that astrocytes modulate all neuronal activity and they are bio-electrical as well, producing waveforms over networks that control our mental health. It is these neural networks and nuclei that the neurofeedback therapy that I am 104 sessions into help heal. Most people haven't taken the side mirror off a SUV with the back of their bicycle helmeted head like I have so neurofeedback therapy is much easier/quicker for others....20 to 40 sessions.
I feel neurofeedback could provide the tools for humanity to deal with the cognitive dissonance they have created with our current aspects of social organization. I hope to write more when I have completed my healing process.....SIGH!
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 13 2017 23:46 utc | 45
ghostship37 James38
I agree, all drugs should be legal and regulated. But I would stipulate that all drug company profits on opiates be set at cost plus 3 percent for Minimal Profit=Minimal Production.
Posted by: frances | Sep 13 2017 23:50 utc | 46
@45 psychohistorian.. good luck with your healing.. i have read a few books that you might really enjoy reading - 'the brain that changes itself', and'the brains way of healing'.. i really enjoyed reading them so i am passing it on.
http://www.normandoidge.com/?page_id=1259
Posted by: james | Sep 13 2017 23:51 utc | 47
@Ghostship
UN Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009
"North America consumes around 20 tons of heroin every year. Since Latin America reportedly produces less than this amount, either several tons of heroin are being trafficked from Afghanistan, or Latin America produces more heroin than reported."
"the fact that, since 2006, much more opium has been produced in Afghanistan than is consumed in the world at-large. The report confirms that there is now an unaccounted stockpile of 12,000 tons of Afghan opium - enough to satisfy more than two years of world heroin demand."
Yeah, those Mexican Cartels are simply industrious and the CIA has nothing to do with the drug trade anymore.
Posted by: insanity | Sep 13 2017 23:54 utc | 48
@46 frances.. that would be good.. putting a lid on the profit on opiates would be wise as well.. making them hard to access would be helpful too, but alas the pharmas hand them out to do the doctors to try for free and on and on the cycle of ''big pharma to doctor to patient'' it goes... if there was less profit in it - as you suggest with a lid on it - that would probably really help.. they would be finding other revenue streams off different and hopefully less dangerous drugs.. how about changing the whole fda, or drug administration system where wholistic methods are encouraged as opposed to frowned upon? i see this again - as an ongoing battle with big pharma.. big pharma is like any other large corp.. they have the full attention of the politicians for obvious reasons.. the system is very problematic..
Posted by: james | Sep 13 2017 23:56 utc | 49
A good connection of dots on what happens to old weapons. Years ago I read where US forces in Afghanistan found all kinds of old weapons there including WWII stuff and rifles from China. That was what US money to the Pakistanis bought.
Meanwhile US media wrings its hands on Myanmar and claims Kyi is powerless to her military (possible). But they know there are violent jihadis prompting the crackdown.
Posted by: Curtis | Sep 14 2017 0:16 utc | 50
insanity@ 48
It was convenient for the US to protect the opium trade in Afghanistan and the smuggling route to Europe. Iran has lost a lot of soldiers and police in firefights against the drug smugglers which serves the goals of the US.
The NATO war against the Federal republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and the destabilization of Macedonia also served to protect the Albanian mafia (KLA) brown sugar opium trade. The opium is shipped across Turkey and Bulgaria and alone the Kosovo Macedonia border and refined in Albania and shipped along with cigarettes to Europe via fast boats that land in Italy (all duty free).
Posted by: Krollchem | Sep 14 2017 0:37 utc | 51
Just a note on the Rohinga stuff. It is now apparent that a couple of weeks before the pogrom, Rohinga village headmen were visited by people allegedly from the Rohinga defence movement and each village was given two small bombs and a date to detonate them on.
What I find somewhat distracting in all the posts on this subject, posts which inevitably use the cui bono? argument to justify anything that is alleged to have been committed by those who posters support, is that no one has raised the possibility of a false flag attack in this instance.
Since anyone with half a brain could predict exactly what would occur if rohinga blew up a mob of bridges and roads on the same day - that is exactly what has happened - why is it no such possibility has been raised this time?
Yep I want to see the al sauds gone too, but they aren't the only players in global politics much less burmese domestic ones, the Myanmar army didn't waste time reacting to the blasts they had a well coordinated campaign to destroy rohinga villages one that probably took more than a couple of weeks to put in place so did they know the bombings were going to occur and, oh - cui bono?
A campaign from the old englander support base for Aung kicked off a couple of days ago I don't think supporters of the power greedy Aung much less the great leader herself anticipated quite the backlash which may impact upon brit capitalists ability to do bizness with Myanmar, so now both the graun and the bbc are talking about the possibility that islamic fundies triggered the alleged backlash.
The real problem is that with a shortage of actual facts of what occurred to rely on, humans are reduced to analysing on the basis of past actions. Yep the pricks in Saudi are capable of this - altho I would be surprised that with their current cia inspired quagmires and the problems they have caused they have so eagerly leapt onto a fresh one, but I can take your KSA crimes and raise you a much larger number of crimes commited by burmans against non-burmans over the last 70 years or so. Going back over the centuries the burmans have been no less cruel and oppressive in Myanmar than the al Sauds were on the arabian peninsular. I would argue more so and more successfully in fact.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 14 2017 0:37 utc | 52
Here's a good expose of the Sandy Hook hoax-- and of its connection to the LIBOR banking scandal. http://mileswmathis.com/sh3.pdf
Posted by: Penelope | Sep 14 2017 1:14 utc | 53
@ james with the good thoughts and book references.....thanks
Neurofeedback increases plasticity in the brain/neural networks that your references refer to. The book that talks about what sort of adjustments we make to survive is spot on in my case that I won't share details of at this time.....
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 14 2017 1:15 utc | 54
The CIA are experts at laundering.....Heroin, from Afghanistan - to Mexico - to America's Springfields; and radical Islam, from the KSA (who provide a great cover until you consider that their leaders are satanic humanists) to whichever country the Empire whishes to intimidate.
Posted by: RC | Sep 14 2017 1:19 utc | 55
Very timely post, b.
Until you filled in the gaps in your Myanmar exposé, my suspicions about the facts had only recently been aroused by the uniformity of the MSM's anti-Myanmar smear campaign and the rather predictable absence of curiosity about/ hasty dismissal of Myanmar's official position. Combined with the fact that the indignation campaign was led by Christian Colonial Crooks & Liars, I had almost, but not quite, concluded that Myanmar was just another pre-intervention pantomime. All I needed was for some Western source to deploy the "killing their own people" meme to be convinced it was a fraud.
Ironically, your exposé was perfectly timed because early this week a random Christian Colonial bullshitter actually DID say "the Myanmar Govt is killing its own People" which, together with your post, was Q.E.D. for me.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 14 2017 1:20 utc | 56
Just a quick comment on the hammer thing (hammer and tack - that is). As a former connoisseur of quality chemicals I believe there is no finer example of the drug manufacturers art (organic synthesis is more art than science IMO) than Burmese number 4. Now I am sad to relate that this particular delicacy has been pretty much unavailable for a decade or more. Number 4 wasn't a huge slice of the amerikan market - if it was it was so stomped upon as to make it dishwater, since the amerikan defeat in Vietnam.
I have some friends, fellow devotees of powders who are permitted to fish off the coast of Burma for a few months of the year. During that time they pull into burmese ports to refuel and they tell me that number 4 is now the original rocking horse shit - unobtainable.
It is true that death by heroin overdose was the biggest cause of fatality among north australian fishers for quite some time so it is likely that the Burmese police tightened up on availability in the port towns unser pressure from the AFP (australian federal police), but we also need to acknowledge that the amerikan alphabet agencies, party poopers that they are, insisted opiate cultivation be curtailed as part of the relaxation of their blocking interactions between Burma and the empire, at the same time as Burmese were instructed to allow Aung to compete as a politician. The DEA & CIA were at loggerheads over this for a very long time but eventually in the '90's DEA became top dog largely because CIA trangressions had been so heavily publicised by the likes of Gary Webb and the days of dope as a dollar pipeline to puppets largely ended. A lot of extra hassle when there are so many laundries around accessible at the touch of a button.
Sure afghanistan probably altered that equation, but only for that region. South East asia with its problem of corrupted by the dea local coppers is no place for a drug entrepreneur with his/her eye on the future. Guilt & proof are irrelevant when australian & amerikan authorities offer a local politzei many thousands of $$$'s for a succesful arrest.
Apart from telling us a great deal about who Aung answers to, the dearth of number 4 indicates that Burma has greatly reduced opiate cultivation. In addition the poppy was primarily grown by non-burmans, by tribes in the hill country. Chiang Kai Shek introduced the poppy agriculture as a way to fund his Kuomintang to allies in the highlands, and when he scuttled off to Taiwan amerikan intelligence took over. After that is was a bit of a free for all with groups of Chinese redidents of the then brit colony of Hongkong taking over domination the market.
But ME and central asian hammer has dominated outside amerika for the last three decades - more is the pity since that shit is more morphine than hammer - altho that has made the pleasure much easier to forgo and of course amerikan middle classes enjoy their 'legal' opiates whilst the proletariat are forced into the dire quality of mexican crap - which pharma now alleges is 'laced' with fentanyl - gotta stay on top of the competition eh.
I no longer have much interest in this topic but the recent 'crisis' about fentanyl had me pondering that altho media was full of reports about fentanyl od's I couldn't find much on whether that had caused a big increase in fatalities or whether death by black market fentanyl was just a replacement for other opiate od's.
A parallel would be claims that pot induces adolescent onset psychosis despite there having been no overall increase in adolescent onset psychosis. as we all know statistics are weird like that a quick snapshot doesn't inform as much as it obfuscates.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 14 2017 1:22 utc | 57
Debsisdead | Sep 13, 2017 9:22:11 PM | 57
Holy shit; you're the first (and only) one to mention #4 in decades.
Very fond memories; tinged with tragedy and stupidity.
Oregon was awash in it for a time; way back when...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Sep 14 2017 2:45 utc | 58
#58
I should amend, Oregon was awash to; Portland was awash...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Sep 14 2017 4:43 utc | 59
@V Arnold #58
Hiya I haven't considered it for many a year myself, but all this talk of Burma and opiates gave me a (purely metaphorical you understand) flash of the ether taste in the mouth and the little cough in the throat that tells a user they have lucked in to #4 in close to its original form heh heh.
I don't wanna say any more tho cause lets face it drug reminiscences are not interesting to anyone other than the protagonists and not even them really.
Even so a number four appreciation society is something many 'former protagonists' may grab hold of.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 14 2017 5:27 utc | 60
Debsisdead | Sep 14, 2017 1:27:07 AM | 60
Understand completely.
LOL, appreciation society. :-)
We know what we know...
Cheers
Posted by: V. Arnold | Sep 14 2017 6:48 utc | 61
Thanks b, get well soon!
With regard to the "bombshell" by BIRN and OCCRP, have in mind that it is a very limited hangout supposed to reduce the damage inflicted by the previous report by Dilyana Gaytandzhieva. As BIRN's reporters claim, "weapons continue to pour into Syria to fight ISIS", but looking at the map of US-backed Rebel Forces in Syria in Balkan Insight's article from the first link, only an idiot could believe that the CIA-backed "rebel forces" in E. Damascus province aren't in cahoots with the "Pentagon-backed rebel forces" near Al-Tanf.
Scroll to the bottom of OCCRP's websiteto find out who sponsors the "bombshell report"...
Posted by: LXV | Sep 14 2017 7:21 utc | 62
BBC Today programme this morning: previous Russian military drills of this size were followed by the incursions into Georgia and the Crimea. NATO and Foreign Office instructions being followed, I presume.
Posted by: Shakesvshav | Sep 14 2017 8:49 utc | 63
Debsisdead says:
...flash of the ether taste in the mouth and the little cough in the throat...
indeed, and exclusively chasing the dragon can also vastly increase one's chances of emerging relatively unscathed from this most insidious of vices.
n'est-ce pas?
nostalgia's such a warm, fuzzy little thing.
Posted by: john | Sep 14 2017 9:40 utc | 64
48 add this UNDOC link - drug trafficking and the financing of terrorism
Indeeed drug trafficking has provided funding for insurgency and those who use terrorist violence in various regions throughout the world, including in transit regions. In some cases, drugs have even been the currency used in the commission of terrorist attacks, as was the case in the Madrid bombings.
plus back to Myanmar
Posted by: somebody | Sep 14 2017 10:06 utc | 65
>>>> Don Bacon | Sep 13, 2017 7:34:15 PM | 43
There's an overdose of conjecture in your comment.
Same with yours.
This great increase happened during years of US military occupation, primarily Marines, in Helmand province which was the central objective of Obama's surge to >100K troops.
From Wiki:
The deployment of international, mostly British, forces was part of the stage three expansion of the ISAF mandate, to cover the southern regions of Afghanistan. Until then Helmand province had seen only a limited coalition presence.In the spring of 2008, a battalion of U.S. Marines arrived to reinforce the British presence. In the spring of 2009, 11,000 additional Marines poured into the province, the first wave of President Obama's 21,000 troop surge into Afghanistan.
Until 2009 there were hardly any American troops in Helmand, it was overwhelmingly the British and they could "touch" the CIA if there was a need, even if it was done in private. You don't think some Brit squadie if he came across an American doing strange things in that territory wouldn't have detained him? The American might have been released but the information would be out there.
So I think we might conclude that the CIA, which was heavy into drug trafficking during the Vietnam War, hasn't lost its touch. (And the Pentagon can't touch the CIA.)
No we can't.
The days of the freelancer in the CIA are pretty much gone, it's now one giant bureaucracy and bureaucracies are no good at breaking the law because of all the documents they produce. Also, the CIA has no reason to traffic in drugs because all it has to do to secure funding for any project it wants to undertake is claim that "the Muslims" are behind, particularly Hezbollah which has nothing to do with "the Muslims". If the CIA had been trafficking in drugs in Afghanistan back during the last decade, we would have heard about it either from rumours or an "anonymous source", or from someone's memoirs. But there has been anything? Links, please.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 12:35 utc | 67
>>>> insanity | Sep 13, 2017 7:54:57 PM | 48
or Latin America produces more heroin than reported.
Do South American opium farmers have to file accurate production reports to obtain subsidies from the state? No. It's perfectly possible that someone is underestimating production in South America.
since 2006, much more opium has been produced in Afghanistan than is consumed in the world at-large. The report confirms that there is now an unaccounted stockpile of 12,000 tons of Afghan opium
So, about a thousand tons a year go "missing". Back in 2006/7 there was a worldwide shortage of heroin for the production of opiate painkillers. Is there one now? At the time various people suggested that one solution to this shortage would be to buy up Afghan heroin which would end the shortage and take part of the crop off the market. Maybe that's where that thousand tons a year has gone but nobody is prepared to admit it for whatever reason. Could something like this be done under the radar? Probably yes if it didn't involve Americans and whoever was doing it wouldn't want the Americans to know anyway.
those Mexican Cartels are simply industrious and the CIA has nothing to do with the drug trade anymore.I know you're being sarcastic but it probably is the truth, whatever that is.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 12:59 utc | 68
Ghostship | Sep 14, 2017 8:35:45 AM | 67
links please?
Why do you not do your own due diligence?
If you really wanted to know; you'd find it; it's out there.
What I've found is a very twisted and sick connection to the Afghan opium trade across all borders.
Just how do you think that happens?
Posted by: V. Arnold | Sep 14 2017 13:02 utc | 69
As an addendum; I would add that too many posters are inherently lazy and want others to do their work for information.
It must be a collective inquiry with mutual support; not the onus of one individual.
b is an example of an instigator; into the facts of the reportage; it then becomes incumbant on us to flesh out the rest...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Sep 14 2017 13:09 utc | 70
>>>> RC | Sep 13, 2017 9:19:04 PM | 55
The CIA are experts
I would dispute that in the strongest possible terms. They're a bureaucracy and like any other bureaucracy they are only experts at filling out paperwork, hard copy or on-line.
Did they spot the fall of the Soviet Union?
Did they spot the preparation for 9/11?
Did the spot the Taliban suicide bomber at FOB Chapman?
Did they spot that Putin was going to send aircraft to Syria?
Did they manage to keep secret their "secret" arming of Al Qaeda?
The CIA might have been competent at one time but like Mossad they're now living on their past glories (if they really had any).
As for laundering, the CIA can only do that for money because it knows the right bankers, usually British, to approach.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 13:12 utc | 71
>>>> somebody | Sep 14, 2017 6:06:21 AM | 65
Indeeed drug trafficking has provided funding for insurgency and those who use terrorist violence in various regions throughout the world, including in transit regions. In some cases, drugs have even been the currency used in the commission of terrorist attacks, as was the case in the Madrid bombings. plus back to Myanmar
I wouldn't dispute that at all but the quickest and easiest way for any insurgency to fuck up its revenue gathering opportunities is to rely on the incompetent morons of the CIA for any part of it. Actually I'd now say that any insurgency that goes anywhere near the fuckwits in the CIA is doomed to fail unless the approach resembles FOB Chapman. BTW, was FOB Chapman named after Anna Chapman? If it wasn't, it should have been.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 13:27 utc | 72
>>>> V. Arnold | Sep 14, 2017 9:02:35 AM | 69
links please?
As they say context is everything.
If the CIA had been trafficking in drugs in Afghanistan back during the last decade, we would have heard about it either from rumours or an "anonymous source", or from someone's memoirs. But there has been anything? Links, please.
I had looked but I could find nothing beyond Iranian claims that the CIA were involved with some ethnic Baluchi guerrillas involved in the drugs trade on the Iranian border, which I can believe. I was asking that Don Bacon, if he replied with any specific evidence that the CIA was a major player in the Afghan drugs trade provide links to that evidence.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 13:38 utc | 73
>>>> V. Arnold | Sep 14, 2017 9:02:35 AM | 69
What I've found is a very twisted and sick connection to the Afghan opium trade across all borders. Just how do you think that happens?It's certainly not because the CIA is involved (see @71 and @72 above). It's because the Taliban need the money as there's always the possibility that the Pakistanis(ISI) and the various Gulfies will stop funding them so the Taliban has diversified into drugs so that they can survive.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 13:47 utc | 74
>>>> Shakesvshav | Sep 14, 2017 4:49:32 AM | 63
You listen to BBC news? Shame on you. At one time the BBC may have been more honest than many but these days with the mental and moral minnows that now occupy Whitehall, that's no longer true.
BTW, I want to take this opportunity to apologise to any minnows that are offended by this minnowist or specist comment.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 13:53 utc | 75
Youtube taking down pro-rebel propaganda channels
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/history-syrias-war-risk-youtube-reins-content-49813018
Posted by: Les | Sep 14 2017 14:35 utc | 76
FAIR: In Month After Charlottesville, Papers Spent as Much Time Condemning Anti-Nazis as Nazis
Since the Charlottesville attack a month ago, a review of commentary in the six top broadsheet newspapers—the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, LA Times, San Jose Mercury News and Washington Post—found virtually equal amounts of condemnation of fascists and anti-fascist protesters.Between August 12 and September 12, these papers ran 28 op-eds or editorials condemning the anti-fascist movement known as antifa, or calling on politicians to do so, and 27 condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists, or calling on politicians—namely Donald Trump—to do so.
Posted by: b real | Sep 14 2017 14:47 utc | 77
Ghostship | Sep 14, 2017 9:53:23 AM | 75
I have to keep abreast of MI6's line on anything.
Posted by: Shakesvshav | Sep 14 2017 14:51 utc | 78
The NY Times article on the alleged doping issues is hilarious. This paragraph stands out:
"The closed cases are very likely to set off a debate in the sports world over whether Russia’s schemes were so successful in destroying evidence that defensible cases cannot be built against some athletes, or whether officials have taken a soft approach to punishments."
This from a paper which often expresses fear that core "enlightenment values", or western values - like the presumption of innocence? - are under threat.
Posted by: jayc | Sep 13, 2017 12:39:56 PM | 3
Basic ignorance, my dear jayc. As we can learn from Hammer on the Witches, if a witch does not drawn during a water ordeal then it is a genuine witch with demonic help.
More seriously, the "mountain of evidence" seems to consist of the testimony of one defector. And heeding that defector was a priority project for a while, with a lot of diplomatic demands, thundering editorials (e.g. in NYT) etc.
One problem that western intelligence organizations seem to have is that they do not operate with sufficient secrecy, so disinformation tasks are not well separated from information gathering -- you cannot really devote a building to "Central Disinformation Directorate". As the two types of activity require different skill sets, disinformation turns out a bit shoddy and information not as reliable as it could be.
One unfortunate aspect of sports doping is that there are actually protocols how to prove the doping. It is much easier with proving chemical attacks.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 14 2017 15:04 utc | 79
Ghostship says:
If the CIA had been trafficking in drugs in Afghanistan back during the last decade, we would have heard about it either from rumours or an "anonymous source", or from someone's memoirs. But there has been anything? Links, please
Posted by: john | Sep 14 2017 15:27 utc | 80
@Ghostship #67
conjecture: an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information. -- that's you
1. The CIA has a record of drug trafficking.
2. The vast increase in Afghan heroin production took place after the US/UK took control of south Afghanistan.
3. CIA is been a big part of US presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with drone wars, assassinations, etc.
4. Afghan leaders at the highest level, supported by the US, have reportedly benefited from drug trafficking.
5. US military forces have no record of promoting drug trafficking, and in fact they have advertised efforts to reduce drug production.
6. Drug production in Afghanistan could not have happened without the support of some US agency, one that could do it secretly and without any interference from the departments of defense and state.
7. Nobody with any authority is ever going to point to the CIA for doing anything of this magnitude. The CIA is untouchable. Example: Benghazi was a CIA operation, not a consulate as is reported, and H.Clinton has taken the fall for Benghazi. She would never dare say "it was CIA."
8. Therefore we can logically conclude, without direct evidence, that CIA is involved in the vast increase in Afghan drug production.
8. Conversely, arbitrarily concluding that the CIA has not been involved in Afghan drug trafficking makes no sense.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 14 2017 15:38 utc | 81
>>>> Shakesvshav | Sep 14, 2017 10:51:49 AM | 78
I have to keep abreast of MI6's line on anything.
Personally I wouldn't bother as MI6 is only focused on keeping its friendly jihadists out of the UK. With the crass austerity programme the minnows in Whitehall are applying, MI6 doesn't have the money for anything more sinister.
Hang-on, the British Army and MI6 were operating in Helmand when heroin production went through the roof, perhaps the trade is now run by MI6 and since a lot ends up in Europe perhaps it's a Brexitist plot to destroy the EU which explains why the UKIC is blaming Russia for disrupting Europe because it's the UKIC that's doing really it.
BTW, Glenn Greenwald is back to doing what he does best, skewering Hillary Clinton which I'm sure we can all agree is a very good thing indeed.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 15:40 utc | 82
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2009/october/unodc-reveals-devastating-impact-of-afghan-opium-.html
How the world's deadliest drug feeds addiction, crime and insurgency
Vienna, 21 October 2009 (UNODC) - Afghanistan has the world monopoly of opium cultivation (92%), the raw material for the world's deadliest drug - heroin. The size and impact of the opium economy in Afghanistan were documented in the Opium Survey of September 2009. Less well known is the size of the opiate trade once it leaves Afghanistan, and its impact on the world.
Posted by: okie farmer | Sep 14 2017 15:48 utc | 83
>>>> okie farmer | Sep 14, 2017 11:48:51 AM | 83
I have no reason to dispute that Afghanistan is the largest producer of heroin in the world as the article you linked (see @48 above BTW) states but I see no mention of the CIA in it and there are no reasons to believe that the CIA is involved except perhaps for its support of certain anti-Iranian terror groups which may be involved in a small way in the trade.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 15:58 utc | 84
84 Involved by proxy, I would say.
American frustrations burst into the open in October 2009 when serving and retired officials told the New York Times Karzai was a key player in Afghanistan's illegal opium trade, which helps fund the Taliban insurgency, while on the CIA payroll. Specifically, it was alleged Karzai helped recruit and run a paramilitary militia, known as the Kandahar Strike Force, used to conduct covert raids on Taliban leadership targets – a death squad.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 14 2017 16:13 utc | 85
add to 84
or try Alfred McCoy
Beginning in the late 1940s, in one of history’s accidents, the Iron Curtain came crashing down on along the Asian opium zone. That mountain rim that stretches for five thousand miles from Turkey to Thailand became the southern frontier of anti-communist containment. This was also the southern border of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. For forty years, from 1950 till 1990, the US CIA fought three major covert wars along this southern frontier, this soft underbelly of communism.The CIA, in an attempt to contain communism, fought three large covert wars—not just espionage, but actual secret wars—in this rugged terrain, generally at the margins of states—states that often didn’t support our efforts—in ethnic minority areas where the main commodity, the main crop, was opium. The CIA found very quickly that to fight covert wars in such remote mountains it had to ally with highland warlords, who in turn used the CIA’s protection and logistics to transform themselves into major drug lords.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 14 2017 16:22 utc | 86
>>>> Don Bacon | Sep 14, 2017 11:38:08 AM | 81
1. The CIA has a record of drug trafficking.Agreed but in the past.
2. The vast increase in Afghan heroin production took place after the US/UK took control of south Afghanistan.Here you are being disingenuous. As I said previously the Americans did not arrive in any number in Helmad Province until 2009. The massive growth there happened in 2002 almost immediately after the Taliban were evicted and before ISAF/UK even entered Helmand.
3. CIA is been a big part of US presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with drone wars, assassinations, etc.Agreed, but that doesn't prove any CIA involvement.
4. Afghan leaders at the highest level, supported by the US, have reportedly benefited from drug trafficking.Agreed, but that doesn't prove any CIA involvement. There might be some American-backed warlords who are involved who are kicking back to Afghan leaders but that does not mean that any American agency is necessarily involved.
5. US military forces have no record of promoting drug trafficking, and in fact they have advertised efforts to reduce drug production.Agreed, but that doesn't prove any CIA involvement.
6. Drug production in Afghanistan could not have happened without the support of some US agency, one that could do it secretly and without any interference from the departments of defense and state.So you are saying that only white men are capable of organising the drug trade in Afghanistan? Isn't that racist? Given the CIA's crap record, i'd actually suggest that if the CIA was involved in any such enterprise, it would have folded years ago. Would the Taliban trust the CIA with 60% of their income? No, just like they don't trust the Pakistanis and Gulfies won't cut off their funding when it suits.
7. Nobody with any authority is ever going to point to the CIA for doing anything of this magnitude. The CIA is untouchable. Example: Benghazi was a CIA operation, not a consulate as is reported, and H.Clinton has taken the fall for Benghazi. She would never dare say "it was CIA."Here you are being disingenuous again - nobody might take any action against the CIA, but that doesn't mean that people won't speak out about what the CIA is up to. For example, Benghazi - anybody who wants to can find details of what the CIA was up to with a simple Google search and it's not as if the CIA is "cleaning up" afterwards - this article has been around for four years and as far as I can tell both Michael B Kelley and Geoffrey Ingersoll are still alive so their brakes haven't been "fixed".
8. Therefore we can logically conclude, without direct evidence, that CIA is involved in the vast increase in Afghan drug production.No we can't. You might want to believe, but where is your evidence? There really is none.
8. Conversely, arbitrarily concluding that the CIA has not been involved in Afghan drug trafficking makes no sense.Logical fallacy. But why would it make any sense for the CIA to be involved - they don't need the money anymore. What exactly would they be getting out of it. What projects can't they get funding for? Iran? Crimea? Russia? Syria? Libya? Yemen? North Korea? The Taliban in Afghanistan? The only one I can think of is funding Al Qaeda in Syria but that's hardly secret and funding might only have been stopped in the last few months.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 16:51 utc | 87
>>>> john | Sep 14, 2017 11:27:19 AM | 80
Did you actually read any of the articles you linked to:
Link 1 -Pepe Escobar
The NBC article he gives a link to about heroin in the US doesn't mention Afghanistan. The rest of the article is about the claims of one individual with much of the evidence based on the CIA's past history. I will accept that the CIA like a lot of other agencies in Afghanistan turns a blind eye to it out of fear of what might happen if heroin production is eradicated but that doesn't prove that the CIA is organising it
Link 2 - Global Research
Their take:
That’s a large amount of land devoted to opium production which provides an opportunity for the CIA to cash in on the illegal drug trade for their secret covert operations (which avoids public scrutiny) and re-establish a drug trade route to target the populations of China, Iran and Russia.
Essential they're claiming that the CIA has the opportunity but what are the means and motive?
Link 3 -World News Daily Report
John F. Abbotsford, a 38-year old Afghan war veteran, that has also served his country as a CIA analyst, has recently been convicted of possession of child pornography, accusations he claims “have been made up” by the US government to stop the publication of his upcoming book, the CIA in Afghanistan: 30 years of drug smuggling.
Where to begin? Convicted paedophile? PTSD? BTW, if, as the newspaper says he was a "CIA analysts", then he might have operated in Afghanistan but not as a field agent. He'd most likely have spent his time on some base.
Link 4 - New Age
Mostly about CIA guilt in the past, but this rings true:
While it is true, Lasseter writes, that US and British officials had viewed the drug problem ‘simplistically,’ had failed to take it ‘seriously,’ part of the fault was due to ‘political considerations’: president Hamid Karzai needed the support of drug lords in Helmand and Kandahar before the elections; the fear that cracking down on poppy production might create ‘more militants.’ Hence the West (read, US and NATO-led forces) were left with no other option but to ‘look the other way’ as the Afghan drug trade exploded (McClatchy Newspapers, 2009).
That the CIA and other agencies turn a blind eye to the trade doesn't mean they organised it or are involved in it. The Afghans are perfectly capable of doing all that themselves.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 17:27 utc | 88
87
See above McCoy. The CIA aren't in it for the money they are in it for the proxy.
Guess what - Kurdish PKK is involved in the drug trade, too.
On some part of the Balkan route, organized crime and insurgency overlap, such as elements of the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) who are reported to tax drug shipments crossing into Turkey from the Islamic Republic of Iran and, it is speculated, from Iraq. The PKK also reportedly collect taxes (or receive donations) from Kurdish heroin traffickers based in Europe. According to NATO intelligence analysts, the PKK pockets upwards of US$50 million to US$100 million annually from heroin trafficking alone. PKK involvement in the trade is further demonstrated by the 2008 arrest of several of its members in Europe on heroin trafficking charges. Ethnic Kurdish groups, with large border populations in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq and Turkey, may be responsible for border crossings in those regions.
Above UNDOC report is a pretty complete overview of supply routes.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 14 2017 17:29 utc | 89
>>>> somebody | Sep 14, 2017 12:22:42 PM | 86
....forty years, from 1950 till 1990,....That is just so last century! What the CIA did in the past is no indication of what it's doing now. I now believe that the CIA is close to if not incompetent and has been going in that direction since at least 1979. They might have pulled off such operations in the past but I no longer believe they are capable of doing so.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 17:37 utc | 90
http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/12/04/think-again-mexican-drug-cartels/
Think Again: Mexican Drug Cartels by Evelyn Krache Morris, Foreign Policy.
… The official U.S. neglect of the Mexican cartels is partly a function of the complex challenges they present. Violence connected with DTOs is no longer limited to northern Mexico but now reaches throughout the country. This expansion not only poses a foreign policy problem for Washington, but it also exacerbates several of the most intractable domestic issues facing the United States, including immigration reform and gun control…
Posted by: okie farmer | Sep 14 2017 17:37 utc | 91
somebody | Sep 14, 2017 1:29:54 PM | 89
See above McCoy. The CIA aren't in it for the money they are in it for the proxy. Guess what - Kurdish PKK (SDF/YPG) is involved in the drug trade, too.
The PKK is the US military's proxy. The CIA isn't funding, supporting or arming the SDF/YPG in Syria, it's the US Army, etc. and given the US Army's dislike of the CIA, I'm sure the US Army would give the SDF/YPG a stiff talking to if they were also working for the CIA. And the PKK were probably involved in the drug trade long before they became a proxy for any part of the USG.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 17:46 utc | 92
Ghostship says:
Did you actually read any of the articles you linked to
yeah, i did. did you?
you asked for evidence, i provided some, apparently it's too circumstantial for you,
but if you think the cia isn't involved in a trillion-dollar-a-year business in a country occupied by the US military, well...so be it.
Posted by: john | Sep 14 2017 18:34 utc | 93
92
Sure. Amazing how one part of the US government does not seem to know what the other is doing.
Just happens that PJAK is the PKK branch fighting against Iran.
PJAK came into being in 2004, a year after the US led invasion of Iraq. And since then it has thrived under the nose of the US forces. There are several reports indicating ongoing ties between the United States and PJAK. PJAK enjoys the most advanced military and communications technologies provided to them by the Israeli and American intelligence services.Behrouz Tahmasbi, a former ranking member in the PKK and then PJAK says: “the formation of PJAK within the PKK dates back to the arrival of the US in the Middle East. It was about a political agreement between the PKK and the United States. When the PKK militants stepped aside from the war in 1999 and Abdullah Ocalan was arrested as well, they could not face the US and take up arms. Therefore in order to reduce the pressure of the US, the PKK gave Washington the green light by forming PJAK which was intended to fight against Iran.”
Of course PJAK same as PKK is considered terrorist by the United States government - and involved in the drug trade.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 14 2017 18:56 utc | 94
@ Ghostship#92
re: "The PKK is the US military's proxy."
Evidence? The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and the US.
also
>Regarding evidence in general, circumstantial evidence (which point to CIA in Afghanistan) is often better than direct evidence, which can be fabricated.
>Where is the evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, that the CIA is incompetent, doesn't need money and isn't in Afghanistan? I don't buy any of it because you just make up stuff. That's obvious.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 14 2017 19:36 utc | 95
Ghostship@ 92
You have made an argument that the CIA is not currently involved in the drug trade as they once were. Do you have any links that any CIA officers have been tried and put in prison for their illegal activities?
As for the CIA, the question should be expanded to include the various CIA funded cut-out organizations. For example, Obama's mother was an operative in the CIA NED operation to identify Chinese "communists" in Indonesia and passed the list to her husband (Obama's stepfather) who was a Indonesia officer who carries out the executions. The CIA has dozens of such cutout organizations to carry out the dirty work as well as private Western Mercs.
The CIA is also one one of the US intelligence agencies (19-21) at last count. In addition. there are the other four eyes who also have their own cut-out NGOs.
Furthermore, as you are aware the "Angola Variant" has been used effectively to neo-colonialize most of the third world. Many of the US backed regimes are more than willing to serve as drug and arms smuggling centers to support destabilization operations. If you recall, the huge US presence in Kosovo (Camp Bondsteel,et al.) has done nothing to stop the brown sugar opium trade by the KLA mafia. The US is also more than willing to ignore shipments by various Saudi Princes of barbiturates (produced in Italy and France) for US supported ISIS,al Qaeda and over a hundred other terrorists.
It is not only the intelligence agencies (and their black ops funds) that are involved in the drug trade but also the US State Department which funded the Azeri weapons and barbiturate supply to terrorists in Syria and Iraq via money shipped to the Azeri leadership via diplomatic pouches.
You will also recall that certain US military officers in Panama were free-lancing cocaine smuggling operations back in the day. Speaking of drug smuggling the US government allows Coca-Cola to ship hundreds of tons of coca leaf into the US. The US banks in turn fund operations to ship chemicals needed in cocaine production to Columbia. The Banks, such as Wells Fargo, then launder the drug money.
The US arms and drug smuggling trade is far larger than just the CIA.
Posted by: Krollchem | Sep 14 2017 20:10 utc | 96
Don Bacon
I followed Ghostship's link to the Greenwald post "skewering" Clinton. I only got as far as the second sentence where Greenwald describes Clinton as a "...very smart, informed, and articulate politician..."
Just think, Ghostship not only still reads Greenwald, he calls that skewering.
He also claims to know (based on nothing) what the CIA has done, no longer does, and when it quit doing it. See what we're dealing with?
Posted by: Ken Nari | Sep 14 2017 20:31 utc | 97
>>>> Don Bacon | Sep 14, 2017 3:36:20 PM | 95
re: "The PKK is the US military's proxy."
Evidence? The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and the US.
I was in a rush - the YPG is the military wing of the PYD which is politically aligned with the PKK and many of the commanders and fighters in the YPG are from the PKK. So, although the United States would deny it, the YPG is linked to the PKK, just as Turkey would deny the Turkish-backed FSA is linked to Al Qaeda and ISIS. The United States and Turkey have enough info to shit on each other, so they don't.
>Regarding evidence in general, circumstantial evidence (which point to CIA in Afghanistan) is often better than direct evidence, which can be fabricated.WTF! You'd better hope that you're never accused of murder if you believe circumstantial evidence is better than real evidence. BTW, if given the choice between fabricating circumstantial evidence and fabricating real evidence, I'd go for fabricating circumstantial evidence every time
>Where is the evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, that the CIA is incompetent,See my comment @ 71. Perhaps you'd care to name some successes the CIA have had since 2000?
...doesn't need money...You're asking me to prove the negative which is impossible, so I'll ask you to mention any occasions since 11 September, 2001 when the CIA has gone to Congress with a begging bowl.
and isn't in Afghanistan?I'm not denying that the CIA is in Afghanistan because it's pretty obvious that it is, I'm just saying that the CIA is not running the drug trade in Afghanistan. There might be some CIA agents in Afghanistan that are involved in the drug trade personally and the CIA may turn a blind eye to the drug trade but at the corporate level, I very much doubt that they are.
I don't buy any of it because you just make up stuff. That's obvious.No, what is obvious is that you've made your mind up regardless of the lack of any actual evidence.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 22:00 utc | 98
>>>> john | Sep 14, 2017 2:34:20 PM | 93
you asked for evidence, i provided some,....Show me what I missed because although I read all four articles you linked to, my summaries above capture what each said fairly accurately I believe.
BTW, a tip: It's a waste of your and my time just making an assertion without pointing out the evidence.
Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 14 2017 22:08 utc | 99
The comments to this entry are closed.
thanks b... the link at 'more foot soldiers' regarding the wahabbi mosques being built in bangledesh is particularly concerning... of course the folks on the royingha thread were upset at the suggestion there could be some jihadi funding anywhere in the neighbourhood.. the usa state dept make a focus of this topic in the past 2 daily briefings basically blaming the leadership in myrammar for all the problems.. too bad the usa can't get it's head out of saudi arabia's ass, but it can't...
Posted by: james | Sep 13 2017 16:38 utc | 1