Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
September 21, 2017

Samantha Power - Fakes History, Makes False Claims, Warns Of Fake News

While warning of Russian influenced fake news and hacking, Samantha Power, Obama's banshee and ambassador at the UN, spreads fake news about "Russian hacking".

Power starts off by retelling fiction as historic fact:

Soviet agents were instructed to infiltrate party and campaign staffs in the United States in search of embarrassing information to leak to the press, while Soviet propagandists pushed a set of anti-Reagan story lines to the Western media. Ultimately, they failed to influence the election. President Reagan defeated Walter F. Mondale, winning 49 states. Margaret Thatcher, who was similarly targeted, also won re-election in a landslide.

There is no historic evidence of any such Soviet operation. But, as Mark Ames points out (@0:30m), the Samantha Power tale of a Soviet influence campaign against Reagan is the storyline of a 1980 spy thriller by Arnaud de Borchgrave and Robert Moss. Both authors were corrupt rightwingers and known CIA assets. Their bestselling book about nefarious Soviet influence, The Spike, was political fiction.

Power continues with more fake news:

Russia has keenly exploited our growing reliance on new media ... by employing a network of trolls, bots and thousands of fake Twitter and Facebook accounts that amplified damaging stories on Hillary Clinton.
...
Russia appears to have deployed similar [active] measures in Europe. Hackers’ attempts to influence political outcomes in France and Germany have received significant attention, ...

No evidence has been show of any Russian influence on the 2016 U,S. election. There were no Russian fake news or hacking attempts during the 2017 French and German elections.

France Says No Trace of Russian Hacking Macron - AP, June 1 2017

The head of the French government's cyber security agency, which investigated leaks from President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign, says they found no trace of a notorious Russian hacking group behind the attack.

In an interview in his office Thursday with The Associated Press, Guillaume Poupard said the Macron campaign hack "was so generic and simple that it could have been practically anyone."

German officials see no sign of election hacking - AP, Sept 19 2017

German officials say there's no sign of concerted cyberattacks aimed at influencing the outcome of the country's upcoming election, but warned Wednesday against giving the all-clear yet.
...
"We don't see that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has meddled in the election campaign," Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, told mass-circulation daily Bild in an interview Wednesday. "Maybe they didn't try. Maybe it's still coming."

Maybe, maybe, maybe? Maybe "The Russians are coming" (vid) is indeed a comedy and not a real life story?

The whole recent (anti-)Russian scare, the fourth one in U.S. history, is an orchestrated attempt to create a new cold war and to thereby up the profits of the military-industrial complex. It is also used as excuse for Hillary Clinton's primary cheating and loss of the general election. Samantha Power is a failed political apparatchik who needs fiction to justify her public existence. The Irish ghost of a wailing woman forever screaming that someone will soon die.

Posted by b on September 21, 2017 at 6:27 UTC | Permalink

Comments


In Moscow (which is the only place in Russia that counts) the three main opposition parties, the Communists and the Nationalists, as well as Kremlin-friendly Socialists, were been decimated. Their votes had been snatched by pro-Western liberals, self-described as “those of good genes”, “the fair-faced ones”, “handshake-worthy”; all these epithets vaguely connected in Russian mind with prosperous Jewishness, of sorts, or with Jewified Soviet nomenclature. The best-known names include Ms Lucy Stein, a young Jewish journalist of some notoriety – she installed plaster copies of her breasts and filmed a staged act of a little boy being roughly treated by Putin’s police. Another one is Mr Maxim Katz, a young Jewish activist – he organized the delivery of flowers to the place of the opposition leader Mr Nemtsov’s assassination, allegedly with some profit for himself.

These youngsters (in their early twenties) have been led by Mr Dmitry Gudkov, a Russian Parliament Member and a son of a Russian Parliament Member. This sounds like the House of Lords, but Gudkov the Senior is an ex-KGB colonel, an oligarch and the owner of a bailiff business, rather than a hereditary peer. Gudkov’s people made a loose coalition with Yabloko (Apple, in Russian), a liberal party of some prominence in the Yeltsin years. They are against Putin’s policies, for the restoration of the Crimea to the Ukraine and for an alliance with the liberal West.

Posted by: Just Sayin' | Sep 21 2017 7:11 utc | 1

http://www.unz.com/ishamir/lucy-stein-gang-rides-moscow/

Posted by: Just Sayin' | Sep 21 2017 7:11 utc | 2

"During the Cold War, most Americans received their news and information via mediated platforms. Reporters and editors serving in the role of professional gatekeepers had almost full control over what appeared in the media."

Powers argues this was a good thing.

Posted by: jayc | Sep 21 2017 7:19 utc | 3

Powers argues this was a good thing.

Posted by: jayc | Sep 21, 2017 3:19:10 AM | 3

---------------

POWER


Her name is Power!
NOT PowerS

Posted by: Just Sayin' | Sep 21 2017 7:26 utc | 4

In Sweden this is big news today. Here is USA Today's take on it:

There is meddling in Germany's election — not by Russia, but by U.S. right wing


An alliance of mostly anonymous online trolls and extremist agitators are meddling in Germany's election, but researchers say Russians aren’t to blame.

Instead, they say, right-wing groups in the United States are behind materials popping up on YouTube, messaging board sites like 4chan and reddit and texting service Gab.ai.

The evidence comes less than a week before Sunday's vote that is likely to hand German Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term.

"So far we have not been able to track down any specific Russian activity," said Simon Hegelich," a professor of political science data at the Technical University of Munich who has advised the German government about the threat of hacking and false information.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/09/20/meddling-germany-election-not-russia-but-u-s-right-wing/676142001/

Posted by: arbetet | Sep 21 2017 7:35 utc | 5

Interview with Dugin at http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/interview-aleksandr-dugin-russian-bete-noire-western-press/ri20963
"The decline of Europe about which Spengler wrote took place in the 1980s in the consciousness of Western people. Westerners were open, free, liberal; they allowed many points of view; they were critical; they listened to one another. And suddenly, this all changed. One has the impression that the spirit of totalitarianism and stupidity transferred from us to you. We had a totalitarian ideology, the Germans were fascist. And now, liberal ideology turned into a totalitarian one. Political correctness – the idea that one can’t call things by their proper names – has created a situation in which the things Westerners say have been deprived of any meaning. Westerners’ evaluations have ceased to correspond to any rational procedures. We experienced this in the 30s, when people were accused of just about anything, without giving them any right to speak, and on this basis, sentence was pronounced. This is how the American education system now works. If you don’t say that Putin is a tyrant, a murderer of children, a cannibal, then you won’t defend your dissertation, your book won’t be released, your report won’t be published. What happened here in 1937 is happening nowadays with you."

Posted by: Shakesvshav | Sep 21 2017 8:07 utc | 6

Relating to Russian influenced fake news and hacking.... The writing on the wall, I expect sooner than later the Justice Department may force RT Live and Sputnik radio off the air. Where and how can I continue my daily dose of Soviets’ propaganda (sarcasm)?

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/350521-seven-things-to-know-about-rts-foreign-agent

RT America announced this week that the Justice Department has asked the company that distributes its content to register as a foreign agent.

Originally known as Russia Today, RT is a Russian state-owned news organization that operates in English from studios in Washington, D.C., and Europe.

The FBI is also investigating another Russian state-owned media outlet, Sputnik, for potential FARA violations....

Posted by: OJS | Sep 21 2017 8:08 utc | 7

Petty yank theatre. They still haven't come up with any ideas to regain their firm grip on the singular media narrative that they enjoyed, unopposed, for decades. Angry clowns like Power are either trapped in the echo chamber or a master of it.

When see a breakdown like this it makes me smile as it demonstrates the US is still very much in the denial phase of decay. The longer this denial goes on, the better.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Sep 21 2017 8:37 utc | 8

OJS (7) you note: "RT America announced this week that the Justice Department has asked the company that distributes its content to register as a foreign agent."

Perhaps all the countries where US and UK major media outlets operate should have their Justice Departments follow suit. Just thinking ...

Posted by: Felicity | Sep 21 2017 10:23 utc | 10

>>>> arbetet | Sep 21, 2017 3:35:38 AM | 5

Don't worry. You won't have to wait long. It'll fairly soon be called Russian meddling.
It's already started within that article:

The headline:

There is meddling in Germany's election — not by Russia, but by U.S. right wing

What you see in Google:
Germany election: U.S. right-wing voices meddling more than Russia

Which is literally true but suggests that Russia is actually meddling.


Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 21 2017 10:54 utc | 11

Margaret Thatcher, who was similarly targeted, also won re-election in a landslide.
From reading Power's article, you'd never know that before that landslide Margaret Thatcher had just won that grubby, unnecessary effort in the South Atlantic known as the Falkland's War, a war that she was largely responsible for because of her arrogance.

Posted by: Ghostship | Sep 21 2017 11:05 utc | 12

The psyops employed against Russia never seems to end. The conspiracy theories by liberals like Samantha Power, is nothing but works of a racist, warmongering lunatic.
The failure of clinton to win have brought forward a unprecedented propaganda campaign in EU/US press. We see it everywhere in the liberal press.
The obvious result is :

1. Spying on general people (like people like us here) by western intelligence services with the help of western pro-nato/deep-state journalists
2. War with Russia

Also,
German intelligence says they find no evidence of Russian meddling in Germany
http://www.politico.eu/article/german-intelligence-finds-no-evidence-of-russian-meddling/

Posted by: anoynmous | Sep 21 2017 11:25 utc | 13

Samantha Power sought to unmask Americans on almost daily basis
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/20/samantha-power-sought-to-unmask-americans-on-almost-daily-basis-sources-say.html

Posted by: anoynmous | Sep 21 2017 11:57 utc | 14

Oh the poor ex-US ambassador to the UN feels she been sidelined by shrieking harridan Nikki Haley who not only makes Power look like a pygmy with her antics but happens to be better looking too. I guess Power is trying to break into the public speaking circuit. Nice money if she can get work there.

Posted by: Jen | Sep 21 2017 12:15 utc | 15

Local news is coming around.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/investigates/russian-hack-attempt-on-dallas-county-computers-never-happened/477410674

Russian hack attempt on Dallas County computers never happened

It quickly became national news then and again just days ago on MSNBC.

But WFAA has obtained internal Dallas County emails indicating the Russian hack attempt likely never happened.

The initial news reports of the alleged Russian hack attempt apparently caught Dallas County chief onformation officer Stanley Victrum by surprise. At 1:30 p.m. on June 13 Victrum contacted Pippins-Poole.

"To our knowledge, there have been no such subject attempts," Victrum said.

"Can you share your insights on what Ms. Toni is referring?" he asked two hours later in an email to his staff. "To our knowledge we haven't been hacked."

Posted by: LDestub | Sep 21 2017 12:16 utc | 16

The whole recent (anti-)Russian scare, the fourth one in U.S. history, is an orchestrated attempt to create a new cold war and to thereby up the profits of the military-industrial complex

Yes, a principal factor in the anti-Russia fervor is the lobbying power of the US Army with its huge budget for half a million people, tanks, self-propelled artillery, etc. Without Russia as an enemy, and considering the US pivot to East Asia, the Army would have no reason to exist, Canada and Mexico not being military threats. So the Russia threat must be emphasized and nurtured, while the US conducts extensive ground exercises in eastern Europe to drive the point home. Poland is now the chief US ally in NATO, that's how weird it has gotten.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 21 2017 14:51 utc | 17

Suggestion to b: collect a good number of these posts and publish them in book form, titled "Where is the evidence?"

You may be able to reach a bigger audience and generate a bit of income along the way.

Posted by: s | Sep 21 2017 14:58 utc | 18

i see the posting process has changed.. i hit refresh and only 10 messages show.. i hit my reply and there are already 18 posts, not including mine.. okay..

Posted by: james | Sep 21 2017 15:18 utc | 19

s

Good idea but why not do it yourself (no offense), there are already all too few people today actually doing something to stop the ongoing madness (myself included).

Posted by: anoynmous | Sep 21 2017 16:00 utc | 20

thanks b... i fully agree with you here "The whole recent (anti-)Russian scare, the fourth one in U.S. history, is an orchestrated attempt to create a new cold war and to thereby up the profits of the military-industrial complex." sam powers is a freak who needs to take her shrill personality somewhere out of the public eye...

Posted by: james | Sep 21 2017 16:03 utc | 21

Related?

Samantha Power sought to unmask Americans on almost daily basis, sources say

Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was 'unmasking' at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016 – and even sought information in the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration, multiple sources close to the matter told Fox News.

Two sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said the requests to identify Americans whose names surfaced in foreign intelligence reporting, known as unmasking, exceeded 260 last year. One source indicated this occurred in the final days of the Obama White House.

The details emerged ahead of an expected appearance by Power next month on Capitol Hill.


The SamPo op-ed in the NYT was VERY carefully worded to NOT directly alleging "Russian hacking" influence in the U.S. elections. It nearly seemed pedantic. I had wondered why. As she is under investigation and likely is going to be questioned under oath that suddenly makes sense.

Posted by: b | Sep 21 2017 16:14 utc | 22

Thank you, b, for swimming against the tides of information suppression. I'm heartened to see increased awareness at and dissemination from other editorial outlets.

Broad efforts are required to create a critical level of resistance to the desperate measures now being contemplated and taken by "democratic" nation-state governments and social-media platform/database corporations.

Ignorance of their motives is the primary defense against the "threat" of increasingly less inchoate anger and fear further coalescing in demand-backed action against the establishment.

MofA and some of the other websites labelled "fake news"--and WSWS.org--cut through the fog of omission, obfuscation, misinformation and disinformation.

Posted by: Bob Beal | Sep 21 2017 17:15 utc | 23

The New Yorker is also taking a lead role in this War on Truth.

Re:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/18/what-happens-when-war-is-outlawed

"And yet, since 1945, nations have gone to war against other nations very few times."

and

Crimean secession: "seizure," "forced annexation."

That statement and those labels epitomize MSM omission, obfuscation, misinformation and disinformation.

Here's a list of 57 attempted or successful U.S. overthrows of targeted governments since World War Two:
https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list

Below is my previous letter to the editor, David Resnick. Subsequent to my sending it, four LTEs about that Katchadourian article appeared in the print version--all disparaging Assange.

"Raffi Katchadourian (“Julian Assange, a man without a country,” Aug.
21, 2017) didn’t mention that Wikileak’s Vault 7 release includes
revelation of CIA capability to allow it to misdirect the attribution
of cyber attacks. According to Wikileaks, the U.S. false-flag
technology consists of “leaving behind the ‘fingerprints’ of the very
groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.” Karchadourian's
omission belies his assertion: "Whatever one thinks of Assange’s
election disclosures, accepting his contention that they shared no
ties with the two Russian fronts requires willful blindness.” His
article, of near-record length for the magazine, exhaustively attempts
to provide authoritative “proof” of Russian cyber collusion in the
Clinton meltdown."

Posted by: Bob Beal | Sep 21 2017 17:19 utc | 24

Bernie Sanders gave a similar foreign policy speech, today

Today I say to Mr. Putin: we will not allow you to undermine American democracy or democracies around the world. In fact, our goal is to not only strengthen American democracy, but to work in solidarity with supporters of democracy around the globe, including in Russia. In the struggle of democracy versus authoritarianism, we intend to win.

Yeah, regime change is good for you.

Posted by: somebody | Sep 21 2017 18:24 utc | 25

"The whole recent (anti-)Russian scare, the fourth one in U.S. history, is an orchestrated attempt to create a new cold war and to thereby up the profits of the military-industrial complex."

Looking back at the boom following WWII, might the current endless search for enemies and wars be designed to sustain our klepto economy and keep us from recession? Other than making, using and selling war materiel, we have little of value to sell other than airliners and electronics.

Oh wait, Foxconn is coming to Wisconsin! All is not lost.

Posted by: Bart in VA | Sep 21 2017 19:19 utc | 26

Cass and Sam went up Mockingbird Hill to carry CFR water. The Narrative broke down when the Swamp Fox came to town , and their bridge to escape was burnt soon after.
There are a billion gates to the Bibliotheque du Babel, plus mouse holes, rabbit holes, bats in the belltower, jive-texting kids just outside and so on. Powers that be need the tubes to flow and don't realise how they just got Gutenburg-ed. The laws allowing US domestic propaganda, and complicity of main media retailers and Education aren't enough of a fat-berg to filter dangerous thoughts. The peasants are cunning and inquisitive. Look a distraction! If you like your 1st Admonishment, you can keep your... uh, an Oligarchy if you can keep it./ snarkgasm off

Good health all, and thanks b.

Posted by: failure of imagination | Sep 21 2017 19:46 utc | 27

In response to @1 just saying

The elections in Moscow region had a 15% turnout which is embarrassingly low

The western liberals - got their vote out and won perhaps 25% of the vote in Moscow their vote concerntrated in the wealthy areas of Moscow and they probably got a lot of young people to vote. Young people who don't remember Yeltsin and think America is their friend - basically ignorant children

The other parties voters didn't bother in Moscow as these municipal positions are seen as pointless - maybe the parties took it for granted that their voters would turn up
Just as people see voting for the Duma as pointless 45% turnout

I am sure all parties however will look at this vote in Moscow as a warning that you have to compete on all levels of govt
The communists need a new message for today's situation

Posted by: James | Sep 21 2017 23:57 utc | 28

You mentioned the comedy, "The Russians Are Coming", that starred Carl Reiner. His son, Meathead, appears to be producing a remake, but his is no comedy.

Posted by: James | Sep 22 2017 0:46 utc | 29

@25 somebody... thanks for that... bernie sanders is another jackass shilling for the empire... quoting him from your link here - "We saw this anti-democratic effort take place in the 2016 election right here in the United States, where we now know that the Russian government was engaged in a massive effort to undermine one of our greatest strengths: The integrity of our elections, and our faith in our own democracy."

apparently some politicians would like to convey to the populace that the vote isn't bought and paid for by the large corporations.. how very democratic it all is, and bernie is a perfect example of it!

Posted by: james | Sep 22 2017 2:24 utc | 30

trash talking russia / putin is what the usa does best!!! got to hand it to them on that level... it reflects very poorly on them, but they will be seeing none of it..

Posted by: james | Sep 22 2017 2:25 utc | 31

Go to hell Samantha Power. She and Obama both tricked us Armenians on support for recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Once in the White House their attitude was drop dead.

Posted by: AriusArmenian | Sep 22 2017 17:54 utc | 32

I laughed out loud at 'Samantha Power, Obama's banshee.' Well done—I won't be able to see her any other way now.

Posted by: Cory | Sep 22 2017 19:38 utc | 33

Powers rose to prominence due to her book peddling a completely false narrative of the Rwandan massacres. Her story made Billy Clinton look just slightly incompetent rather than complicit. And it romanticised Kagame who was in fact the main genocidaire and a US agent.

Posted by: John G | Sep 25 2017 7:25 utc | 34

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