How The U.S. Runs Public Relations Campaigns - Trump Style - Against Russia And China
Yesterday several NATO countries ran a concerted propaganda campaign against Russia. The context for it was a NATO summit in which the U.S. presses for an intensified cyberwar against NATO's preferred enemy.
On the same day another coordinated campaign targeted China. It is aimed against China's development of computer chip manufacturing further up the value chain. Related to this is U.S. pressure on Taiwan, a leading chip manufacturer, to cut its ties with its big motherland.
The anti-Russian campaign is about alleged Russian spying, hacking and influence operations. Britain and the Netherland took the lead. Britain accused Russia's military intelligence service (GRU) of spying attempts against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague and Switzerland, of spying attempts against the British Foreign Office, of influence campaigns related to European and the U.S. elections, and of hacking the international doping agency WADA. British media willingly helped to exaggerate the claims:
The Foreign Office attributed six specific attacks to GRU-backed hackers and identified 12 hacking group code names as fronts for the GRU – Fancy Bear, Voodoo Bear, APT28, Sofacy, Pawnstorm, Sednit, CyberCaliphate, Cyber Berku, BlackEnergy Actors, STRONTIUM, Tsar Team and Sandworm."
The "hacking group code names" the Guardian tries to sell to its readers do not refer to hacking groups but to certain cyberattack methods. Once such a method is known it can be used by any competent group and individual. Attributing such an attack is nearly impossible. Moreover Fancybear, ATP28, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit and Strontium are just different names for one and the same well known method. The other names listed refer to old groups and tools related to criminal hackers. Blackenergy has been used by cybercriminals since 2007. It is alleged that a pro-Russian group named Sandworm used it in Ukraine, but the evidence for that is dubious at best. To throw out such a list of code names without any differentiation reeks of a Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt (FUD) campaign designed to dis-inform and scare the public.
The Netherland for its part released a flurry of information about the alleged spying attempts against the OPCW in The Hague. It claims that four GRU agents traveled to The Hague on official Russian diplomatic passports to sniff out the WiFi network of the OPCW. (WiFi networks are notoriously easy to hack. If the OPCW is indeed using such it should not be trusted with any security relevant issues.) The Russian officials were allegedly very secretive, even cleaning out their own hotel trash, while they, at the same, time carried laptops with private data and even taxi receipts showing their travel from a GRU headquarter in Moscow to the airport. Like in the Skripal/Novichok saga the Russian spies are, at the same time, portrayed as supervillains and hapless amateurs. Real spies are neither.
The U.S. Justice Department added to the onslaught by issuing new indictments (pdf) against alleged GRU agents dubiously connected to several alleged hacking incidents. As none of those Russians will ever stand in front of a U.S. court the broad allegations will never be tested.
The anti-Russian campaign came just in time for yesterday's NATO Defense Minister meeting at which the U.S. 'offered' to use its malicious cyber tools under NATO disguise:
Katie Wheelbarger, the principal deputy assistant defense secretary for international security affairs, said the U.S. is committing to use offensive and defensive cyber operations for NATO allies, but America will maintain control over its own personnel and capabilities.
If the European NATO allies, under pressure of the propaganda onslaught, agree to that, the obvious results will be more U.S. control over its allies' networks and citizens as well as more threats against Russia:
NATO's chief vowed on Thursday to strengthen the alliance's defenses against attacks on computer networks that Britain said are directed by Russian military intelligence, also calling on Russia to stop its "reckless" behavior.
The allegations against Russia over nefarious spying operations and sockpuppet campaigns are highly hypocritical. The immense scale of U.S. and British spying revealed by Edward Snowden and through the Wikileaks Vault 7 leak of CIA hacking tools is well known. The Pentagon runs large social media manipulation campaigns. The British GHCQ hacked Belgium's largest telco network to spy on the data of the many international organizations in Brussels.
International organizations like the OPCW have long been the target of U.S. spies and operations. The U.S. National Security Service (NSA) regularly hacked the OPCW since at least September 2000:
According to last week's Shadow Brokers leak, the NSA compromised a DNS server of the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in September 2000, two years after the Iraq Liberation Act and Operation Desert Fox, but before the Bush election.
It was the U.S. which in 2002 forced out the head of the OPCW because he did not agree to propagandizing imaginary Iraqi chemical weapons:
José M. Bustani, a Brazilian diplomat who was unanimously re-elected last year as the director general of the 145-nation Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, was voted out of office today after refusing repeated demands by the United States that he step down because of his "management style." No successor has been selected.
The U.S. arranged the vote against Bustani by threatening to leave the OPCW. Day's earlier 'Yosemite Sam' John Bolton, now Trump's National Security Advisor, threatened to hurt José Bustani's children to press him to resign:
"I got a phone call from John Bolton – it was first time I had contact with him – and he said he had instructions to tell me that I have to resign from the organization, and I asked him why," Bustani told RT. "He said that [my] management style was not agreeable to Washington."
...
Bustani said he "owed nothing" to the US, pointing out that he was appointed by all OPCW member states. Striking a more sinister tone, Bolton said: "OK, so there will be retaliation. Prepare to accept the consequences. We know where your kids are."According to Bustani, two of his children were in New York at the time, and his daughter was in London.
Russia's government will need decades of hard work to reach the scale of U.S./UK hypocrisy, hacking and lying.
The propaganda rush against Russia came on the same day as a similar campaign was launched against China. A well timed Bloomberg story, which had been in the works for over a year, claimed that Chinese companies manipulated hardware they manufactured for the U.S. company SuperMicro. The hardware was then sold to Apple, Amazon and others for their cloud server businesses.
The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies:
Nested on the servers’ motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design.
Both Apple and Amazon denied the story with very strong statements. The Bloomberg tale has immense problems. It is for one completely based on anonymous sources, most of them U.S. government officials:
The companies’ denials are countered by six current and former senior national security officials, who—in conversations that began during the Obama administration and continued under the Trump administration—detailed the discovery of the chips and the government’s investigation.
The way the alleged manipulation is described to function is theoretical possible, but not plausible. In my learned opinion one would need multiple manipulations, not just one tiny chip, to achieve the described results. Even reliably U.S. friendly cyberhawks are unconvinced of the story's veracity. It is especially curious that such server boards are still in use in security relevant U.S. government operations:
Assuming the Bloomberg story is accurate, that means that the US intelligence community, during a period spanning two administrations, saw a foreign threat and allowed that threat to infiltrate the US military. If the story is untrue, or incorrect on its technical merits, then it would make sense that Supermicro gear is being used by the US military.
There might be financial motives behind the story:
Bloomberg reporters receive bonuses based indirectly on how much they shift markets with their reporting. This story undoubtedly did that.
When the story came out SuperMicro's stock price crashed from $21.40 to below $9.00 per share. It now trades at $12.60:
The story might be a cover-up for a NSA hack that was accidentally detected. Most likely it is exaggerated half truth, based on an old event, to deter the 'western' industry from sourcing anything from producers in China.
This would be consistent with other such U.S. moves against China which coincidentally (not) happened on the same day the Bloomberg story was launched.
One is a very hawkish speech U.S. Vice President Pence held yesterday:
Vice President Mike Pence accused China on Thursday of trying to undermine President Donald Trump as the administration deploys tough new rhetoric over Chinese trade, economic and foreign policies.
...
Sounding the alarm, Pence warned other nations to be wary of doing business with China, condemning the Asian country's "debt diplomacy" that allows it to draw developing nations into its orbit.Pence also warned American businesses to be vigilant against Chinese efforts to leverage access to their markets to modify corporate behavior to their liking.
Another move is a new Pentagon report warning against the purchase of Chinese equipment and launched via Reuters in support of the campaign:
China represents a “significant and growing risk” to the supply of materials vital to the U.S. military, according to a new Pentagon-led report that seeks to mend weaknesses in core U.S. industries vital to national security.The nearly 150-page report, seen by Reuters on Thursday ahead of its formal release Friday, concluded there are nearly 300 vulnerabilities that could affect critical materials and components essential to the U.S. military.
...
“A key finding of this report is that China represents a significant and growing risk to the supply of materials and technologies deemed strategic and critical to U.S. national security,” the report said.
The Bloomberg story, the Pence speech and the Pentagon report 'leak' on the same day seem designed to scare everyone away from using Chinese equipment or China manufactured parts within there supply chain.
The allegations of Chinese supply chain attacks are of course just as hypocritical as the allegations against Russia. The very first know case of computer related supply chain manipulation goes back to 1982:
A CIA operation to sabotage Soviet industry by duping Moscow into stealing booby-trapped software was spectacularly successful when it triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian gas pipeline, it emerged yesterday.
...
Mr Reed writes that the software "was programmed to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds".
Wikileaks list 27 cases of U.S. supply chain manipulation of computer hardware and software. A search for "supply chain" in the Snowden archives shows 18 documents describing such 'projects'.
The U.S. government under Trump - and with John Bolton in a leading position - copied Trump's brutal campaign style and uses it as an instrument in its foreign policy. Trump's victory in the 2016 election proves that such campaigns are highly successful, even when the elements they are build of are dubious or untrue. In their scale and coordination the current campaigns are comparable to the 2002 run-up for the war on Iraq.
Then, as during the Trump election campaign and as now, the media are crucial to the public effect these campaigns have. Will they attempt to take the stories the campaigns are made of apart? Will they set them into the larger context of global U.S. spying and manipulation? Will they explain the real purpose of these campaigns?
Don't bet on it.
Posted by b on October 5, 2018 at 12:27 UTC | Permalink
next page »There is only one solid piece of evidence that can be relied on in what has been presented by the Dutch government, namely the MAC address which has been blanked out of the photograph of the WiFi Pineapple. For those who don’t know what a MAC address is. The manufacturer can tell from that specific MAC address who it was sold to, the only reason for the Dutch government to blank it out of the photo is to stop anyone else from knowing who actually purchased that unit and showing that their story is in fact a lie.
Posted by: TJ | Oct 5 2018 13:04 utc | 2
IMO the US Government's propaganda is structured to along the lines of a fantasy novel.
Posted by: Timothy Hagios | Oct 5, 2018 8:52:41 AM | 1
Just about sums it up
Posted by: BM | Oct 5 2018 13:22 utc | 3
Whatever is alleged by the US, UK, Netherlands, France et al, if you point in the opposite direction it will probably do. They falsely accuse others of whatever they in fact do themselves.
Posted by: BM | Oct 5 2018 13:45 utc | 4
Hey b,
what's up with your logo top left? It doesn't show up for me in the last couple of days, with several browsers (under Linux). Directly opened, it doesn't give a 404 but takes a moment and then replies plain text "An error occurred. Please wait a few minutes and try your request again."
There was a malicious poisoning of civilians but the poisoning was done in Georgia by the US-staffed and financed Lugar laboratory. The Lugar lab was established under Obama:
https://journal-neo.org/2016/01/31/lugar-bio-laboratory-in-tbilisi-latest-it-s-getting-worse-by-the-day/
“Russia seems to be pretty concerned with an impending European apocalypse that will supposedly occur as a result of the United States Army contracting with 17 companies, including major corporations, to spend $900 million on logistical and service support for biological and chemical warfare projects.
All these projects are on Russia’s doorstep, Ukraine and Georgia, like so many military bases and missile systems, despite there being vast areas of the globe where the West can do what it likes."
https://journal-neo.org/2016/01/31/lugar-bio-laboratory-in-tbilisi-latest-it-s-getting-worse-by-the-day/
“Caught, US Hiding Germ Warfare Lab Near Russian Border,” by Jim W. Dean, 2018: https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/01/25/neo-is-lugar-lab-in-georgia-is-still-hiding-biological-weapons-research/
“… these strains are being tested on the population… More measurable evidence includes the sudden unexplained spikes in various diseases, human and plants, mortality rates. ... it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find a single research paper published in Georgian, and even the clinical studies are done in secret—and without informed consent. Josef Mengele, Nazi doctor, would be impressed with the Georgian project [run by the US].
The present Georgian government made a great show of taking over this lab as soon as it took office, due to public concern about it, but the US Department of Defense still claims to run it regardless."
"The former minister [Giorgadze] cited lab figures about the deaths of 24 people died in December 2015 while being treated for hepatitis C. Giorgadze claimed that in April and August 2016, another 30 and 13 people, respectively, had died, the cause of their deaths listed as "unknown," with no formal investigation carried out."
https://sputniknews.com/military/201809111067942351-lugar-center-alleged-us-biolab/
Time for Georgians to initiate a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the deadly mass poisoning conducted by the foreign power (the US) on the territory of the sovereign state of Georgia.
Posted by: Anya | Oct 5 2018 14:00 utc | 6
Timothy Hagios | Oct 5, 2018 8:52:41 AM | 1
Think I've red it - "Orange Storm Rising" by Clancy Bear
Posted by: Enrico Malatesta | Oct 5 2018 14:28 utc | 7
TJ @ 3
FWIW You can change your MAC address and, if you were hacking you'd change it everytime you turned your 'puter on. You can do it freehand or Goog "mac address changer" for a program.
In other intrusion news https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/21/british-spies-hacked-into-belgacom-on-ministers-orders-claims-report
And here and for the hell of it, how many people does it take to paint a doorknob ??
BBC Radio's donkeys have been braying about this drivel since yesterday.
I have to confess that, for me, it got funnier with each repetition.
The sheer childishness of the confused adolescent hysteria got me wondering whether they're too lazy/stupid to run this tripe past a focus group before putting their brand on it?
They seem oblivious to the fact that it makes the West's 'leaders' look like a gaggle of frustrated and incompetent dolts blustering from behind the 8-ball.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 5 2018 15:39 utc | 9
@10 ".... it makes the West's 'leaders' look like a gaggle of frustrated and incompetent dolts ...."
Maybe to us but not to everybody. The basic message is 'Russia bad, dangerous, can't be trusted.' That's probably the sense most people get.
Got to wonder what the end game is here. WW3? Or up they expecting the Russian people to come begging for an end to sanctions?
Posted by: dh | Oct 5 2018 15:49 utc | 10
These idiots are all still running Microsoft Windows (which is itself a giant Trojan). So what on earth do they expect???
Why not build a new computer/internet ecosystem with so many interchangeable parts that they can never realistically be hacked? (Maybe because the giant cyber vendors have to make more and more $billions?) Try simplification, with no JavaScript, CSS, and all the other houses of cards that are so overwrought that they are poised to collapse:
-< RISC-V microprocessor/ Genode Microkernel operating system / Nim language / Multimarkdown webpage rendering >-
Still, it is normally a big mistake to trust computers too much.
Posted by: blues | Oct 5 2018 15:53 utc | 11
@9 Stubbs
They have redacted the MAC address from the photo of the physical sticker on the unit, that MAC address could be used to track who bought it, and is the only piece of evidence presented that could not be faked.
Posted by: TJ | Oct 5 2018 15:57 utc | 12
"TH @ 1 : Your comment is right on point, as BM @4 said; "That about sums it up."
The empire and their minions have no friends, only competitors...
Anya @ 7: Thanks for shining a light on the Lugar labs in Georgia. The empire will do anything to eliminate the competitors around the globe.
As some used to say; "It's just business, get over it."
Posted by: ben |
Posted by: ben | Oct 5 2018 15:57 utc | 13
=>> Posted by: blues | Oct 5, 2018 11:53:52 AM | 12
Erratum: Try Markdeep, not Multimarkdown!
Posted by: blues | Oct 5 2018 16:01 utc | 14
Well, so far the propaganda is having very minor effect on the ordinary people. If you read the comment section of most of the corporate media you will see that people are just not buying the BS.
Posted by: Steve | Oct 5 2018 16:09 utc | 15
Steve | Oct 5, 2018 12:09:45 PM | 16
Indifference of the ordinary people does not mean much. Just that there is such indifference. The arguments against that claimed Chinese hardware hack are meta-arguments.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Oct 5 2018 16:22 utc | 16
...
Got to wonder what the end game is here. WW3? Or up they expecting the Russian people to come begging for an end to sanctions?
Posted by: dh | Oct 5, 2018 11:49:07 AM | 11
Good question.
It's not WWIII. Putin has already said that if WWIII goes Nuclear, survival will be a lottery. Imo the Christian Colonial West, hypnotised by 30 years of its own bs and busily patting itself on the back and performing Victory Laps on the world stage, has been caught napping (asleep at the wheel) and now needs time to ponder the downside.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 5 2018 16:25 utc | 17
Imo this latest drivel-fest stems from the fact that Russia is now/again militarily unassailable. That doesn't mean that Russia can't be attacked but it does mean that anyone who tries it will wish they hadn't.
And it's driving the defunct Masters Of The Universe insan-er.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 5 2018 16:48 utc | 18
Excellent journalism b....thanks
I agree with Hoarsewhisperer that the elite are showing desperation but look at the sheer volume of BS they can spew out that is all over the map.
The Supreme Court justice debacle is another example of so riling up the forces around the sex issue so that the rest of his moral standing that effects all of us is ignored.....the sex issue is marginalized and pop goes the weasel onto the Supreme Court to bring the US closer to feudalism.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 5 2018 17:08 utc | 19
The Fascist West is doubling down on Psychological Projection. Works like a charm with most peoples in the affected areas.
Although it is practically a symptom of a deeper sitting mental illness, it is still treated as some sort of cavalier's delinquency. Like it is to be expected that the rulers of said West resort to this kind of projection.
The only interesting part though - one that is next to never really understood by the gullible masses - is the Projection part of it. Because it means nothing else than the fact that the projector is the one who is perpetrating the crimes and malevolent activities it accuses the 'enemy'/opposing side of.
The West is mentally ill. Nothing new, the Eastern sages pointed to that a long time ago. Very much like the Native American Indians were flabbergasted by the moronity and cruelty the invaders displayed. The one that has adhered to my memory like fusion is: Only paleface would set a river on fire.
Last but not least, Nazi is as Nazi does. As can be verified perusing the story of this Nazi that never had to fear repercussions for his crimes against humanity. For the simple reason that the U.S. protected him to gain his knowledge about advanced biological and chemical warfare. The Nazi was Kurt Blome.
Posted by: notheonly1 | Oct 5 2018 17:09 utc | 20
@CE - There is no problem with the logo on the server side and with the clients I use. Suggestion: clear your cache.
And that's not all . . .
In early morning broadcasts yesterday, BBC and NPR accused China and Russia of projecting positive images of their countries, and of acting in accordance with their national interests.
I am so proud that my own country – USA – would never do either one of those things!
Posted by: AntiSpin | Oct 5 2018 17:20 utc | 22
*On the same day another coordinated campaign targeted China. It is aimed against China's development of computer chip manufacturing further up the value chain. Related to this is U.S. pressure on Taiwan, a leading chip manufacturer, to cut its ties with its big motherland.*
Gen William Looney, first gulf war....
If they turn on their radars we're going to blow up their goddamn SAMs [surface-to- air missiles]. They know we own their country. We own their airspace…We dictate the way they live and talk. And that’s what’s great about America right now. It’s a good thing, especially when there’s a lot of oil out there we need. [1]
------------------------------------------------------
Trump the anti establishment maverick...
We'r a rule based system,
Here'r the rules.
We decide.....
who'r terrorists, who'r 'freedom fighters'
Whats a fair election, whats a farce.
Whats a genocide, whats legit police action
Whats R2p, whats unprovoked aggression.
Who can do biz with whom.
Who's the right man for your prez
We own you.
MAGA.
[1]
I dont like to use wiki but thats the only place I could retreive this quote, they'r wiping the net clean, even images, videos.
Better be mentally prep for the day you wake up in the morning and cant find MOA,
hhhhh
Posted by: denk | Oct 5 2018 17:33 utc | 23
Back to sanctioning Russian under the flimsy pretext of Skripals' poisoning.
The US has been poisoning Georgians (some died) and this is well documented. Are the UK prudes ready to sanction the US for the crime?
"The US Embassy to Tbilisi transports frozen human blood and pathogens as diplomatic cargo for a secret US military program. Pentagon scientists have been deployed to the Republic of Georgia and have been given diplomatic immunity to research deadly diseases and biting insects at the Lugar Center – the Pentagon biolaboratory in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.
The Pentagon projects involving ticks coincided with an inexplicable outbreak of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) which is caused by infection through a tick-borne virus. In 2014 34 people became infected (amongst which a 4-year old child). A total of 60 cases with 9 fatalities have been registered in Georgia since 2009."
The above is an honest journalism and not some presstituting production by the eunuchs Luke Harding and George Monbiot. And don't forget Luke & George's comrade-in-arms, the "phenomenal expert" Eliot Higgins (a former salesman of ladies underwear and college dropout) who has zero training in engineering, chemistry, physics, mathematics, ballistics, foreign languages, biology, history and basically in any field of research. Zero. This is why Higgins is the best expert at the the ziocon Atlantic Council made of the scoundrels of the same caliber.
"This is a man who, with his agency Bellingcat, will absolutely always back the position of western governments, and powerful western organisations."
Posted by: Anya | Oct 5 2018 17:37 utc | 24
A few months ago, a dozen Russian individuals were charged with cyber-crime offenses that Mueller knew would never be tested at trial b/c the charged individuals would never be extradited. However, the indictment included charges against two Russian corporations that cleverly hired American lawyers to appear on their behalf, and enter pleas of Not Guilty.
This tactic should have set the pre-trial discovery process to begin, causing Mueller to be obliged to turn over evidence supporting the charges as well as any exculpatory information favoring the accused corporations.
As any reference to this case can't seem to be found, can anyone help with info as to the present status of the case?
Posted by: chet380 | Oct 5 2018 17:37 utc | 25
Funny how lowkey this topic is handled. It appeard in The Times. As the Times artikel is behind a paywall I am linking to the Irish Times: MI5 can authorise agents to commit crimes, tribunal told Maybe the UK should be sanctioned.
Makes my phantasy go a little wild and wonder if there might be any connection to Skripal.
Posted by: Fran | Oct 5 2018 18:01 utc | 26
For those who missed May’s latest Brexit speech (which had zero content), here she is jiving to Dancing Queen by Abba for her glorified entrance. No need to make caricatures, she does it herself. Free of charge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbCDFNRA-Wo&frags=pl%2Cwn
The USA + GB have become totally unhinged. Seeking a ‘safe’ enemy *without* - as the Deplorables or Brexiteers *within* don't hit the spot, for many reasons - .. to explain and cover up Hillary’s loss and the ugly Brexit mess with its clueless posturing pols, is one thing.
To continue to provoke Russia and China, particularly Russia, in this way is now skirting with danger beyond the .. ? Containable, ignorable, what ..?
Plus, the MSM, lousy as it is and was, has spinned off into even further mad realms, seemingly forced into a hyper, over-blown anti-Russian hysteria. Often far more strongly so than the pols. / others they seemingly quote.
This is all becoming seriously alarming. I’m getting very bad feelings.
Posted by: Noirette | Oct 5 2018 18:11 utc | 27
Seems like another episode of False Friday to bury all the crap made public during the week while pushing other news aside. Much of it's recycled crap from Obama's term and just as false.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 5 2018 18:22 utc | 28
Is everybody around him senile:
"https://www.rt.com/usa/440410-trump-toilet-paper-shoe/2"
Its off topic I know, but it is funny!
Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Oct 5 2018 18:40 utc | 29
@b: No, not a cache problem. If I do a wget in terminal, it replies with "ERROR 500: Internal Server Error", a curl gets the mentioned plain text reply "An error occurred. Please wait a few minutes and try your request again."
No problem if I try it with quotesmall.jpg instead of mainleft.jpg. Just wanted to let you know, seems strange (Russian hack? ;o)
@29 den lille abe
link is 404, but the gif itself is here, the rt-link is here or just crop the "2" at the end. Definitely funny :-)
Posted by: radiator | Oct 5 2018 19:02 utc | 31
During the Cold War, the West contolled some 2/3 of the global economy.
If they again bring a "Free World" protective curtain down around themselves in defensive retrenchment, what percent would they control now? Which countries would be guaranteed to be inside the tent pissing out, and which would be outide the tent pissing in? And who would be non-aligned (with the exception of their military purchases.)
Pakistan, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Africa, etc. -- Where would the dominos fall? Is this what they are trying to accomplish? If you are not with us, you are against us, as the ever eloquent G. W. Shrub might have said. Any predictions?
Posted by: Tent-A-Cles | Oct 5 2018 19:03 utc | 32
thanks b.. excellent information and insights as usual..
of course the usa and coalition of imbeciles are busy projecting onto russia and china what they themselves are guilty of.. the use of propaganda has gone into overdrive and is now an accepted policy of the west.. screw facts.. who needs facts when you have a war to pursue... and that is just what it looks like to me, as there is no end in sight to any of this western madness...
the financial sanctions have not worked.. that much is clear.. another approach via propaganda is to be the new regular feature.. claim all sorts of lies and supposition on russia, china, iran, north korea, venezuela or any country that dares to get out of line with the official ''coalition'' and you will be targeted with propaganda and or worse..
is there a way to create an alternative internet??
Posted by: james | Oct 5 2018 19:44 utc | 33
It is very possible now that the mediocrities running the political-military- intelligentsia spheres will stumble into a military disaster before the financial disaster.
Short to medium term, a reversion to international policy of the 1950s: “our” side, their side, with no allowance for neutrality or independence. The West will establish a great firewall of self-isolation and mendacity. WSWS today highlights a recent Atlantic Council paper calling for direct censorship of informed opinion across the internet.
Posted by: jayc | Oct 5 2018 19:45 utc | 34
atlantic council sure are a whacked out group of warmongers...
Posted by: james | Oct 5 2018 19:59 utc | 35
Looking around the MSM, MH17 also comes into it. Dutch are accusing Russia of trying to hack the MH17 sham investigation. This propaganda attack comes only a week or two after Russia tracked the missile parts numbers, supplied by JIT, through records which led to Ukraine.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 5 2018 20:05 utc | 36
james says:
is there a way to create an alternative internet
i haven't checked it out, james, but there's this.
anyone?
Posted by: john | Oct 5 2018 20:10 utc | 37
Russia has tried to negotiate with the US to avoid cyberspace being turned into another area of conflict. The US has rebuffed these requests. Likely too much money to be made by the MIC in another theater of warfare with that extorsion racket called NATO and too much promise of the NSA scooping up even more data and adding it to the data already collected by the 5 eyes.
Canada is being pressured into not buying Chinese for its military civilian hardware. Scare the politicians into buying US goods that have a backdoor for the CIA to use. Canada shouldn't complain. The Canadian government hacked into the Brazilian government computers for the benefit of Canadian mining interests.
Didn't WikiLeaks disclosed the fact that NSA can disguise any hack to look like some other actor was the culprit? All this shouting that Russia and China did these terrible deeds is to hide the fact that the west does this all the time as disclosed by WikiLeaks? And the Germans complaining? I hope they have improved security for the Chancellor's phone. Russia is a member of OPWC. Why do they have to sit out in cars in the parking lot of OPCW headquarters to hack into OPCW? Why not from the comfort of their office in the building. What is of more importance to me is an upcoming vote in the OPCW about investigation reports laying blame in the future. That will be a game changer in the false flag chemical attack be it Syria or the UK. currently reports don't lay blame.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/arctic-patrol-ships-chinese-content-1.4849562
Posted by: Tom | Oct 5 2018 20:19 utc | 38
@37 john.. thanks.. i have asked a friend who knows more then i for feedback on what inrupt/solid is..
i see over at emptywheel, they have completely swallowed the koolaid.. this propaganda works on a number of people..
Posted by: james | Oct 5 2018 20:22 utc | 39
We have always been at war with Oceania and they have always tried to hack us... (Unless they knuckle under on trade deals, in which case they have been our friends forever and always will be so.)
Posted by: worldblee | Oct 5 2018 20:34 utc | 40
First the "waffle house waitress." Now "Yosemite Sam." You are deadlier and more accurate than an S-500.
Posted by: Bruce | Oct 5 2018 20:37 utc | 41
The extra component BS story on the Chinee manufactured circuit boards is total baloney. Such a change after manufacture is virtually impossible for anything other than the most basic component and therefore ineffective. These are multi layer boards.
Regardless the hardware design and assembly is a rigorous and meticulous process that pares componentry to the bare minimum. Components fail, the more you have the higher the risk of failure. Designers spend inordinate effort getting design absolutely right for high level boards as described in this BS story. For this story to true implies that many people at the initial concept and design stage were corrupted. Unlikely in the extreme!
Then there is the sophistication of software hacking as Snowden revealed. Look up video of 'the god bit' at blackhat conferences and you will see that no matter what motherboards are made they can all be hacked by software.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 5 2018 20:43 utc | 42
OT yet relevant. The Heritage Foundation has published its annual appraisal of the Outlaw US Empire's military capabilities, 2019 Index of US Military Strength and rated it as "Marginal" overall. One area it neglects is the newly formed Cyber Command, its related tools, and readiness, which is odd given the emphasis placed on that domain since the beginning of Obama's 2nd term.
My response was to chuckle and muse about how formidable Russia's military would be if it were endowed with the same budget over the last 10 years as the Outlaw US Empire--I don't think they could spend it all. Too bad the Heritage Index doesn't rate the level of corruption as it seems to be the best performing sector of the military. As usual, the proposed remedy is to throw more money away in hopes of better performance. Someone opined awhile ago here that fiscal constraints don't matter. Heritage emphasizes that one of the problems going forward is that very issue:
"While Congress and the new Administration took positive steps to stabilize funding for 2018 and 2019 through the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2018, they have not overturned the Budget Control Act that otherwise caps defense spending and that, absent additional legislative action, will reassert its damaging effects in 2020."
My personal assessment is Weak, particularly in the area of power projection given the many problems within the Navy and Marines. IMO, much of the bluster we're assaulted with is meant to obscure these deficiencies. By contrast, the counter-bluster we hear in response is made possible by those problems.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 5 2018 20:46 utc | 43
uncle tungsten @42--
Your comment reminded me of a recent Dilbert cartoon: The pointy head manager issued a directive that from now on all employees must use company manufactured equipment, which caused all the employees to scream I Quit!
Excuse my naivete, but is it possible to create a unique software language capable of repelling hacking attempts, or is any code eventually breakable rendering the goal of a 100% secure system impossible?
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 5 2018 20:59 utc | 44
@ james, i guess when you get somebody, even marcy wheeler, emotionally invested in a narrative, confirmation bias leads the way.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Oct 5 2018 21:02 utc | 45
39
James, you know, Cheney and Rumsfeld and their Continuity of Government Deep Purple 'scheme' was a crime against humanity, they both became $100-millionaires and a couple million innocents died, for nothing more than Wall Street, Big Oil and the Pentagonal Satanists, ...but the real betrayal was Obama, the 'brother', and his 'Hope and Chains' screed who, together with that craven Neoliberal, Madame Rodham, was going to 'set the world alight' with freedom and brotherhood and equalite.
"YOU LIE!" At the time I thought that was rather rude, but over that next eight years, I came to understand Joe Wilson was a seer, a visionary. The real crime against humanity was laying the sins of Cheney and Rumsfeld and Lehman and Pentagon on the backs of the next seven generations of poodled paupered USAryans, and moreover the effect that betrayal would have on USArya's relation with the rest of the world.
Obama's and Rodham's lies, their moral decrepitude, that beowulfian 'We Came We Saw He Died caww, caww' Big Lie has pitched the False-Xtian (True Molochian) West against the Islamic world, a billion people against a billion people. And now Trump and Pompeo are attempting to add China to that rift, another billion people against a billion people. These are great crimes against humanity, far greater than any Nuremburg Tribunals crimes.
Still, many have offered this is the 'truth' of a final gasp of Empire. Bernhard quotes way back in 2005 that 'the Empire will fall in a few more years'. That was five crushed nation-states and -$24,000B in fiat debt ago.
What I'd like to see, during this next 30-days of controlled-dissent perpetual howling- dog media hysteria ahead of the 'elections' (sic), would be a discussion on MoA, as the only venue where such discussion could take place: is there any end-state to USArya?
Watch Collapse of Argentina. Ponder the Exceptionalist Rabbinical-Evangelical USAryan-Global Banker, IL-KSA Axis of Evil aligned against the world, and then tell me. Will this end in a bucolic utopia, or finish with a billion refugees on a symbolic Sahel, throats parched for a drop of water?
2020 could well be Mike Pence for President against Joe Biden for President. True Evil arm-and-arm with True Evil. Kavanaugh will likely be elevated, then SCOTUS decisions will retrograde USA laws to an antediluvian Old Testament Rabbinical past and plunge USArya into a New Ayatollahian Post-Consumer 1000 Years of grinding ignorance, misogyny, war and poverty, most probably aligned with a Scientocratic Big Mother Catholic in the Cloud.
What do you think? Will the Fiat PetroDollar perpetual hyperbolic credit-debt hot-money apocalypse keep steam-rolling through New Byzantium, or will some unknowable dark swan David slay this Molochian Goliath? Watch that post-collapse Argentina YT, and then posit an alternative world-view.
Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 5 2018 21:06 utc | 46
Timothy Hagios @ 1:
An element of the Skripal poisoning saga in Britain (the Novichok) was lifted from the TV series "Strikeback" screening in the country in November 2017 and February 2018. I have seen something on the Internet (but can't find the link) that said the subplot with the abandoned perfume bottle that contained poison was also taken from a TV show.
Prepare to be unsurprised then when the people who write propaganda for The Powers That Should Not Be turn out to be the same people who write scripts for Hollywood films and TV shows. A lot of these people also write novels or teach creative writing courses.
We really do seem to be living in a society where mythology and fantasy are becoming more prominent than facts and analysis in decision-making.
Posted by: Jen | Oct 5 2018 21:14 utc | 47
Wherever it is the Russian government responsible or not, the UK and the Nederlands are admitting that they are impotent in front of attacks in the cyberworld. That wifi can be sniffed so easily at international organizations show total irresponsibility.These cyberattacks are simply humiliating for these countries as it shows that despite their military power, they are highly vulnerable. To dispel the humiliation, they respond aggressively by accusing countries, not to individuals, and they accuse the current boogeyman, Russia.
Maybe NATO's budget should be cut down on murdering weapons and allocate to Cyber Defense as this seems to become the new way of war.
In view of the lack of proper cyber defense worldwidee, anybody, any country can hack and play around with others. I would be surprised if Israel, the USA and the UK China are not stiffing in other countries organizations. They have not been found because they are the 'good' sniffers while Russia, Iran, China are the "bad' sniffers
Cold war is on with new technology, It is time for countries to realize that.
Considering what the military war has cost in money, death toll and destruction, maybe cold war would be less costly in human toll.
Posted by: Virgile | Oct 5 2018 21:16 utc | 48
46
Then two decades of M(Argentina)GA later:
Of course, USArya can't ask IMF for a bailout, lol.
China and Russia are selling off their US Treasuries.
USA Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds are the
'Buyers of Last Resort'. They will soon be tapped out.
Then when this s'chtuff blows, that's all she wrote.
Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 5 2018 21:19 utc | 49
@2 @3
I will add that many vendors ran out of unique mac addresses log ago and recycle their macs. That isn't an issue as long as two devices with the same mac aren't in the same subnet. But the plan of all macs being unique died long ago.
Posted by: BraveNewWorld | Oct 5 2018 21:34 utc | 50
Companies in China, including foreign firms, are required by law to establish a party organization within their organization and party members head the mandatory unions in every company. Indeed some of the designers are no doubt party members. Significant pressure can be exerted on companies in China by the party, even foreign companies , especially with but not limited to Joint ventures.
In any other country your skepticism is warranted. Not China.
That said, given how little attention the Bloomberg story received yesterday by MSM web sites (havent checked today) beyond a denial story by msnbc I think its far more likely that a friendly foreign intelligence agency or the US had something to do with it. Blame China not Israel or CIA/NSA
But I doubt we will ever know
Posted by: Pft | Oct 5 2018 21:36 utc | 51
Anton Worter @46--
Please don't forget the role played by Pelosi in keeping the required by the Constitution Impeachment of Bush/Cheney off the table.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 5 2018 21:47 utc | 52
@50 BraveNewWorld
From the Wikipedia page I linked to-
"The IEEE has a target lifetime of 100 years (until 2080) for applications using EUI-48 space, but encourages adoption of EUI-64s instead. "
Perhaps you are thinking of IPv4 address space? Or are you being deliberately disingenuous?
Posted by: TJ | Oct 5 2018 22:03 utc | 53
@44 No language is not the issue. And given hardware access it is impossible to prevent hacking, even if sound cryptographic principles were applied when the system was designed. The data has to be in plaintext at some point, or it would be of no use.
Posted by: Per | Oct 5 2018 22:16 utc | 54
james @33 & john @37:
It's incredibly expensive to create an alternative internet. You'd have to find a company willing to spend the money to purchase all those IT hardware and lay out new cable lines. And, each nation will have have to give that company permission to do so.
Briefly skimming john's Solid suggestion, it appears that this solution still relies on existing hardware, owned by companies that are influenced by governments.
Posted by: Ian | Oct 5 2018 22:24 utc | 55
Per @54--
Thanks for your answer, which is what I'd presumed. The bottom line seems to be that nothing's unhackable--no matter what, it will get hacked.
What follows is OT, but attempts to supply a reason for the propaganda pimple burst. A few days ago the annual Russian Energy Week conference occurred where Putin gave a speech and answered numerous questions related to energy and geopolitics. A few of the choice quotes related to his answers were published, but the transcript portion recording the Q&A had yet to be published in full at the Kremlin's website. The transcript's now complete regarding those Q&As directed at and answered by Putin, and what he has to say on a wide spectrum of issues is highly educational: No one can say they know how Putin feels about a particular issue without having read his answers. A few days ago, I tried linking to the Kremlin's website only to have the post eaten by TypePad's Cloud. Here's the link. Reading his answers and comments might lead Russophobic members of Trump's Swamp to burst a propaganda pimple in revenge for his honesty.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 5 2018 22:44 utc | 57
@37 john.../@55 ian.. thanks ian.. my friends says this - "it's apparently just a container for personal data, which you can allow/deny access to pieces of information like your phone number. so you don't need to repeatedly fill in forms." i am not sure about it being something like an alternative internet.. i think ians comment makes the most sense..
@45 pretzelattack.. i find it bizarre how easy that works... maybe i am gullible too and i am just not seeing it as easily... i just don't take at face value what someone says - in this case the msm... i think that is really a neglect of using your brain and asking questions.. the question here is how much of this is truth and how much fiction? it looks like mostly fiction to me and by omitting any mention of this being a 2 way st. even suggests that the west doesn't do this type of thing too.. we are supposed to believe that..
@46 anton.. argentina was bailed out by imf, or, i can't remember.. this is going back 20 years ago and it is still going on? the imf is a front for the usa private banks.. it is another part of this giant ponzi scheme.. here is an article from a week ago in the bbc..
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45661149
i am sure they are going to do the same with the usa if it gets to that.. and i think it will.. the private financial system is designed to have bigger and bigger bail outs as you go further into it.. that is what i understand.. i headn't heard joe wilsons name in a long time... i am not an american, but i was following that.. he didn't get anywhere trying to charge cheney for his lies and bs.. how could he, as he is going against the kleptocratic state!
Posted by: james | Oct 5 2018 22:48 utc | 58
@TJ #53
Imagine you are a Chinese manufacturer making cheap ethernet products. You bought a range of MAC addresses from the IEEE and you run out. You are short on cash. What do you do? Buy more or start again at the top of the list?
I remember buying 3 really cheap ethernet cards off Dealextreme. All three had the same MAC! In fact, the EEPROM chip containing the address was even missing from the PCB, making the driver revert to some default. I know, my bad, should not buy cheap crap.
Posted by: Joost | Oct 5 2018 23:10 utc | 59
@59 Joost
We are talking about the MAC address on the sticker attached to the device, one that could be tracked from the manufacturer to whoever purchased that device through their online store
Posted by: TJ | Oct 5 2018 23:18 utc | 60
Posted by: psychohistorian |
"The Supreme Court justice debacle is another example of so riling up the forces around the sex issue so that the rest of his moral standing that effects all of us is ignored..."
Has anybody asked the Judge about his support for John Yoo, the prominent defender of the violations of the US Constitution and Cheney's protege? How about the international law, human rights, torture, illegal wars of aggression? -- Nope. The Dems and other MeToo are not interested in such trifles.
It is interesting that the name "Dick Cheney the Traitor" is gradually getting a name recognition on a par with Goebbels & Mengele.. What a miserable subhuman being Dick Cheney is.
Posted by: Anya | Oct 6 2018 0:00 utc | 61
China has set up quantum internet via optic fiber linking a number of government departments.
Going by the squealing noises coming out of the US and loyal vassals, the yanks are probably just pissed that they can't get into Russia or China's secure communications.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 6 2018 0:01 utc | 62
Anya @61--
You might be interested in what over 2400 professors of law had to say to their Senators as to why Kavanaugh's unfit as a judge at any judiciary level. Not "trifiles" but foundations.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 6 2018 0:23 utc | 63
The SuperMicro chips may be an alleged use of the Intel Management Engine (or the AMD equivalent).
From Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies
"In simplified terms, the implants on Supermicro hardware manipulated the core operating instructions that tell the server what to do as data move across a motherboard, two people familiar with the chips’ operation say. This happened at a crucial moment, as small bits of the operating system were being stored in the board’s temporary memory en route to the server’s central processor, the CPU. The implant was placed on the board in a way that allowed it to effectively edit this information queue, injecting its own code or altering the order of the instructions the CPU was meant to follow. Deviously small changes could create disastrous effects.
The illicit chips could do all this because they were connected to the baseboard management controller, a kind of superchip that administrators use to remotely log in to problematic servers, giving them access to the most sensitive code even on machines that have crashed or are turned off."
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine
"The Intel Management Engine (ME), also known as the Manageability Engine, is an autonomous subsystem that has been incorporated in virtually all of Intel's processor chipsets since 2008. The subsystem primarily consists of proprietary firmware running on a separate microprocessor that performs tasks during boot-up, while the computer is running, and while it is asleep.As long as the chipset or SoC is connected to current (via battery or power supply), it continues to run even when the system is turned off. Intel claims the ME is required to provide full performance. Its exact workings are largely undocumented and its code is obfuscated using confidential huffman tables stored directly in hardware, so the firmware does not contain the information necessary to decode its contents. Intel's main competitor AMD has incorporated the equivalent AMD Secure Technology (formally called Platform Security Processor) in virtually all of its post-2013 CPUs.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and security expert Damien Zammit accuse the ME of being a backdoor and a privacy concern. Zammit states that the ME has full access to memory (without the parent CPU having any knowledge); has full access to the TCP/IP stack and can send and receive network packets independent of the operating system, thus bypassing its firewall. Intel asserts that it "does not put back doors in its products" and that its products do not "give Intel control or access to computing systems without the explicit permission of the end user."
Posted by: daffyDuct | Oct 6 2018 0:35 utc | 64
@ katlof1 63: True, and it still won't matter. He'll be confirmed on Sat.
Posted by: ben | Oct 6 2018 0:50 utc | 65
Russia continues to lie and deny - their post MH17 strategy is to call every accusation against Russian intelligence a conspiracy by the west (‘Russian hacking’ charges fly in formation: Mere coincidence or part of bigger picture? — RT World News https://www.rt.com/news/440362-russia-hacking-hysteria-coincidence/).
1. The US accused the GRU of hacking the DNC and giving the emails to WikiLeaks. The US indicted 12 GRU agents and 13 individuals from the Internet Research Agency and three Russian companies. The only unaswered questions are whether Trump conspired with Russia to defraud the US and what was the role of WikiLeaks in the Russian hack?
2. The British accused the GRU of attempted murder in the case of double agent, Sergei Skripal. CCTV footage and Bellingcat working with Russian based investigative journalists (The Insider) has proven the charge beyond any questionable doubt (Anatoliy Chepiga Is a Hero of Russia: The Writing Is on the Wall via @bellingcat https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/10/02/anatoliy-chepiga-hero-russia-writing-wall/)
3. The Insider exposed the GRU in the hack of the Macron headquarters published by WikiLeaks before the French election (Roshka the Bear. How French president's mailbox was hacked by Russian intelligence – The Insider https://theins.ru/uncategorized/76960?lang=en). Russia invited the far right Marine Le Pen to Moscow for direct talks with Putin. Ms. Le Pen (like Trump) is anti NATO and considered Ukraine to be within the Russian sphere of influence - a cold war concept which deprives Ukrainians of sovereignty. Motive also supports the GRU intervention in the French election.
All of these accusations along with MH17 were denied by the lying
Russians. With this background data, it seems hardly a stretch that the
Netherlands and Switzerland have experienced similar hacking and cyber
attacks from the Russians including the OPCW which just happens to be
conducting the test on the Skripal poisoning and the Douma
chemical attack in Syria (Russia’s Global Hacking Op Busted, Seven Agents
Indicted https://thebea.st/2O6EyLw?source=twitter&via=desktopvia
@thedailybeast). Just by coincidence?
The Netherlands accused four GRU agents of hacking the OPCW while the US
indicted seven GRU agents connected to the cyber attacks of “various
antidoping agencies, the International Association of Athletics Federations, FIFA, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a Pennsylvania-based nuclear energy company, as well as a whole lot more in a whole series of hacker attacks."
Russia has been exposed using social media and intelligence to conduct a war against western democracies - as was explained in the US intelligence report in early 2017. The GRU has been caught red-handed on numerous occasions and it becomes more difficult every day to deny their operations against the west. The GRU has become sloppy and complacent ("Far from inspiring fear in its enemies, Russia's hapless GRU now looks like a comedy outfit" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/04/far-inspiring-fear-enemies-russias-hapless-gru-now-looks-like/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw via @telegraphnews).
Interestingly enough, Bellingcat apparently exposed 305 GRU agents by releasing information open to the public (305 Car Registrations May Point to Massive GRU Security Breach via @bellingcat https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2018/10/04/305-car-registrations-may-point-massive-gru-security-breach/), Not exactly the crack intelligence outfit described by some.
|
Posted by: craigsummers | Oct 6 2018 0:55 utc | 66
52
Deep Purple won, Touchy Feelies lost. It's just business, get over it.
Trump now has his Yu for crimes against humanity, and abortion, even miscarriage, is a felony in USA. 'Attacking' Isreal in media or blog posts is also a felony.
Bmobing recommences at 09:30 Tehran time on 05/11. Another Chosen '11' Event (R).
"Bmob the Gooks for Jesus!" Rev Billy Graham, 'America's Preacher' (R)
Posted by: Anton Worter | Oct 6 2018 0:59 utc | 67
In karlof1's comment at # 57 he linked to a speech by Putin that says to me what the pin of the needle is.
The quote from that speech
"
Look at the rise of extremism – where did it come from? Why is this problem so acute today? Why is this extremism turning into terrorism? Doesn't that concern us? This is what we need to understand – where it all came from.
I will not go into details because we have a limited amount of time. But this is happening in many spheres. In the economy – the same thing. This growing uncertainty in all fields is what causes concern.
Now, what causes optimism? Common sense, I think. No matter how hard it is, people, humankind have always found ways out of the most difficult situations, guided by the interests of their countries, their peoples, and it is the goal of any government to ensure the well-being as well as the growth of the welfare of its people.
I think that sooner or later, and the sooner the better, the realisation will come that we need to get away from controversy as soon as possible, in any case, away from trying to resolve this controversy with unacceptable tools and ways that go beyond international law. It seems to me that it is necessary to strengthen the leading role of the United Nations, and on this foundation, move on.
"
Are we a species that adheres to rule-of-law or not? That is what all this propaganda is attempting to obfuscate.
Just like I write that economics is the myth cover for the elite decisions that own global private finance and everything else, Rule-of-Law is a myth cover of Rule-of-Money.
The myth of Rule-of-Law was ok until there were those that could stand up to the bullies.
That is where we are...enjoy the ride.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 6 2018 1:39 utc | 68
@ Posted by: Pft | Oct 5, 2018 5:36:22 PM | 51
That doesn't change the most glaring issue with Bloomberg's "theory": if the technology (of the spy micro-microchip) already exists, and obviously is not Chinese (because the Chinese are well behind microchip research and production, relying on Taiwan for it), then what is stopping other governments to use it? After all, microchips don't have patriotism: they will work as programmed, to whom programmed it.
It's like abortion: the technology already exists, is relatively accessible, and women do and will use it if necessary, regardless if an anti-abortion law exists or not.
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 5, 2018 6:44:15 PM | 57
(Ru Energy Forum October 3, 2018)
Thanks (bigly) for the link to the Kremlin English language transcript of Putin's Q & A session. Much appreciated.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 6 2018 2:30 utc | 70
@68 psychohistorian... thanks.. that is a really good post and comment! rule of law is being ignored by the west on a more frequent basis now... without proof, the west bombs syria.. in fact, they made a point of not waiting for proof from the opcw and instead bombing first... same deal with walking away from international agreements set in place with iran from 1955.. the rule of law is something that is less important to the west at this point, then pure power for powers sake... same deal financial sanctions using the international banking system - imf, bis, world bank and etc. as tools to clobber others over the head - russia, iran, china, north korea and etc - who don't bow down to the exceptional power of the usa..
myth of the rule of law.. yes and the obfuscation is coming thru loud and clear in all the effort spent on propaganda which cs provides for us again in his post today...
Posted by: james | Oct 6 2018 2:30 utc | 71
james @ 71 said in part;"russia, iran, china, north korea and etc - who don't bow down to the exceptional power of the usa.."
I'm surely hoping you're right about that james. This U$A, where I live, is a monstrosity, and a danger to the globe and it's citizens.
Posted by: ben | Oct 6 2018 3:30 utc | 72
There are a lot of Taiwan companies in China and I believe the one involved here was a Taiwan owned company , at least originally. Not saying Taiwan had anything to do with it. Also after so many years with employees moving around and companies being sold, not to mention spying there is quite a but of tecnology transfer. As I said businesses in China can be pressured to do things they otherwise would not. Google for example is alleged to be involved that will give access to authorities of users searches that contains the cell phone number if the phone used in the search (and thus the identity)
Again, i dont know the truth here but I would not discount everything reported by MSM. Sometimes the best deveptions occur with a large dollop of truth. In this case spy chips from chinese sourced product. The deception may be related to who is responsible, China or some other entity
Also as to your question what stops other governments using the technology. Well, maybe they are. I think I mentioned the possibility. If there is a spy chip and its not for Chinas use, then maybe its a western country
Posted by: Pft | Oct 6 2018 4:44 utc | 73
The spy chips in US products debate has gone on for many years but this is the first claim of evidence I have seen.
Another shot across the bow. The head of Interpol disappeared in China and is SAID to have been arrested or "taken away for questioning" by the Chinese...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45761466
The rule of law and the rules in general among nations are breaking down is a good point made by others here. Trump has weaponized the dollar to a greater extent than times past and trade not just with the US but when nations trade among themselves. While that may work in direct US trade relations it will never work when you tell other countries who they can buy from and what they can buy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45598045
It goes on and on. India may get sanctioned over its recent weapons deal with Russia. The US is mad at Turkey over its purchases. Nobody can buy oil from Iran or else they will be cut off from the dollar and trade access.
The world is faced with a choice. Set up special vehicles to avoid trading with the US...
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/25/eu-russia-and-china-join-forces-to-dodge-iran-sanctions.html
Or the world can bow to the US unipolar view of the world. I think the former is more likely.
Posted by: dltravers | Oct 6 2018 5:30 utc | 74
vk @69,
Assuming the objective is to tamper with a few kilobytes here and there in a long serial data stream, you're not going to find an off-the-shelf part that does exactly what's needed and meets inconspicuity constraints, but neither does that chip need to be all that advanced or large. Any mature state-level attacker has the capability to produce custom silicon to a sufficient technology level, for ± half a million dollars.
You may be interested to image search "nsa ant trinity" to see what the USA was doing 10 years ago.
Posted by: Jonathan | Oct 6 2018 9:22 utc | 76
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/chinas-just-been-caught-spying-or-has-it
one more skeptic opinion from unlikely (afaik, its founder is ex-cia) site.
but, thinking about Russia I can't but to have good laugh to what the west is doing to Russia. In other words, in inter-capitalist's competition at the world stage. We have seen this in WWI almost similar scenario and choreography.
In midst of all this propaganda, or not, frenzy we can see that the money's flow continue unimpeded, no obstacles for the ruling circles of the both sides to shuffle the cash and bonds to the tune of €1 Trillion!?
So, the west's and Russia one's state apparatuses functioning perfectly flawless. The Deep State one's as well when it suit them. Therefore as far i am concerned the "west" might conquer the the East and that wouldn't affect me, nor vast majority of world's populations.
Posted by: partizan | Oct 6 2018 9:41 utc | 77
https://www.ft.com/content/f13ae77a-c7f1-11e8-ba8f-ee390057b8c9
'Danske Bank memo shows how Russians moved money'
Russia sold S-400 to india for $5.4B. How manyy the S-400, 1 Trillion of euros can buy? the Russian oligarchy's best export product in not s-400 it is still cash.
Posted by: partizan | Oct 6 2018 9:49 utc | 78
remarkable how little Talpiot is mentioned in all of this. perhaps a single mention of IME in post @64 above. The “chicom’s” spy. this is not news. Intel and Israel's influence in all of this is glossed over. Spectre, anyone? And how delicious it should be given that name and passed off as a “flaw” or “bug”..
by deception thou shalt do war, springs to mind
Posted by: yarkob | Oct 6 2018 11:00 utc | 79
@66 Craig, you keep doubling down with your spoon-fed propaganda, and then, to discredit your already discredited nonsense, you go and quote Bellendcat again. do you realise nobody is listening? well, they might be, but your constituents are probably over at the Daily Fail, not on MoA..i suppose a job’s a job
Posted by: yarkob | Oct 6 2018 11:05 utc | 80
So what? Who cares? The GRU is only doing what the US and UK intelligence community are doing and have been doing for years. As to whether this demonstrates that the GRU are not very capable, who knows? Without knowing the objectives of such operations, it's impossible to know whether they were successful or unsuccessful. That the operators were travelling on Russian diplomatic passports suggests it was not a covert operation, assuming the Dutch intelligence follow all Russian diplomats in Netherlands. It could also be a symbolic response to the alleged hacking of the video system of a Russian university in Moscow. It could be to provide cover for a deeper more covert operation.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Oct 6 2018 11:18 utc | 82
I suppose every village must have its idiot and even B's Moon of Alabama blog can't escape this natural law of the universe.
At least Craig Summers, in quoting Bellingcrap @ 66, provides some entertainment.
Posted by: Jen | Oct 6 2018 12:34 utc | 83
This is not some phony Skripal affair but the real murder of civilians by the US-produced bioweapon on the territory of the sovereign state of Georgia:
The United States of killed dozens of Georgians" with a biological weapon after disguising it as drug research. Documents recorded the deaths of 73 people over a short period of time, indicating a test of “a highly toxic chemical or biological agents with high lethality rate."
The tests were carried out by the Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research near the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
Where is Theresa May and Gavin Williamson to express their outrage and to sanction the US for the murder of civilians with the "highly toxic chemical or biological agents with high lethality rate?"
Posted by: Anya | Oct 6 2018 12:34 utc | 84
i think “craigsummers” is the same person as “matt” over on Off-guardian.org. ElliotBellendcat, himself, perchance? or just an intern at the Atlantic Council?
Posted by: yarkob | Oct 6 2018 12:41 utc | 85
More on the US deadly activities on the territory of Georgia:
"A US-funded laboratory in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, accused by a prominent Russian official Monday of developing biological weapons, has been repeatedly touted by US officials as a key tool in guarding the region against dangerous infectious diseases.
Onishchenko said last year that an outbreak of African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) in southern Russia was the result of “economic subversion” by Georgia.
Swine fever outbreaks can seriously impair the animal breeding industry because the disease can neither be treated nor prevented by vaccination, and Onishchenko suggested in July that the virus had likely come to Russia from the US-funded laboratory in Georgia.
Reason why they opened this case after 5 years is that former Georgian interior ministry oficial took briefcase of docs and went retired to Russia.
Swine flu made big damage to EU as well so Russia is trying to press wedge between EU and USA."
The EU is like a demented and abused wife unable to stand up to the demented and abusive US.
Posted by: Anya | Oct 6 2018 12:42 utc | 86
Yarkob @80
".......and then, to discredit your already discredited nonsense, you go and quote Bellendcat again........."
One reason I use Bellingcat as a source so much is that they are not only credible, but detested by the Russian government and state-owned government institutions like RT (because they are credible). Bellingcat regularly teams up with The Insider - a Russian language adversarial publication. The editor in chief of the Insider is Roman Dobrokhotov who lives in Moscow and regularly writes for al-Jazeera.
Bellingcat is as deeply an embedded thorn in the side of Russia as a Chinese microchip in a Pentagon computer.
Thanks.
Posted by: craigsummers | Oct 6 2018 12:55 utc | 87
Thank you Anya @ 84 The most disturbing part of this bio warfare is how little response it has been given ! At the end of a long list of western barbaric acts —- refugees drowning, Syria, Yemen etc etc the public have become conditioned to this. ‘Normalisation’ deliberately by the 1%. We are all victims of this. Our money is used to fund bio warfare. It’s yet one more recent arms race esculation ! We need foresite, if the west develops this stuff and use’s it Russia may plan to use it on us ! And why should’nt it.
I can only imagine it’s even to horrific and traumatising for even the hardend armchare worriers of M O A ! People follow this stuff here but I ain’t seeing eny answers, and they don’t like my salutions !!!
Posted by: Mark2 | Oct 6 2018 13:04 utc | 88
Most of this is an internal affair of the United States, involving manipulation by the elite of the MIC to continue earning huge salaries and wielding power. Externally, it is primarily an economic struggle. China and Russia cannot be conquered militarily, they have to be defeated from within as a response to economic collapse. I can't see the West engineering that either. So, it's pointless in the end.
Posted by: SteveK9 | Oct 6 2018 13:24 utc | 89
It claims that four GRU agents traveled to The Hague on official Russian diplomatic passports to sniff out the WiFi network of the OPCW. (WiFi networks are notoriously easy to hack. If the OPCW is indeed using such it should not be trusted with any security relevant issues.) The Russian officials were allegedly very secretive, even cleaning out their own hotel trash, while they, at the same, time carried laptops with private data and even taxi receipts showing their travel from a GRU headquarter in Moscow to the airport.
Must be a psy-op. Maybe it is a psy-op by the EU against UK to undermine their Brexit plans by imitating the Skripal farce, thereby undermining UK reputation and believability. Or maybe it is designed to vaccinate the Dutch against a new dangerous disease, skripalism (causes progressive mental degeneration and cognitive impairment through unstably incrementing gullibility and paranoia; in the case of skripalism in epidemic proportions, a dangerous and highly fatal complication is skripal-nuclearism in which groups of skripalism-infected individuals cause nuclear war). Or maybe it is a covert human medical experiment conducted without our consent - aimed at determining how to create a populace that will believe all propaganda withour exception. Or maybe it is simply an experiment to investigate the effects of running the ultimate in implausible propaganda.
Measured purely in terms of evidence quality, it really excells over Skripal.
Posted by: BM | Oct 6 2018 14:35 utc | 91
Posted by: vk | Oct 5, 2018 9:51:27 PM | 69
Good (technical) analysis of the Supermicro board attack.
Hackernews commentators also provide additional informed technical evaluation.
It is a very clever attack vector. A minor takeaway for the rest of us is the security theater of e.g. Tor, etc. given the hopelessly opaque hardware platforms that have been given to us to use.
Posted by: realist | Oct 6 2018 15:47 utc | 92
Yarkob @ 80
There might be a logical explanation for all his bizarre posts. It seems to me that everything that Mr. Summers posts is in support of some action or of some assertion, by the Empire and its flunkies, that has already been thoroughly exposed or thoroughly debunked by one or more of a group of superb investigators and analysts.
What that suggests to me is that whomever it is over at Das Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda who writes his comments is really after those investigators and those analysts, with a view toward discrediting them all.
And if that is in fact what is underway here, then they are clearly throwing their money away.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Oct 6 2018 16:54 utc | 93
Moon's story reads like Alex Jones. It takes a coincidence or two media stories, links it to the deep intelligence state, calls into question anonymous sources (fair), but offers no concrete refutation and leaves readers with unfalsifiable hypotheses. In other words, it is just another conspiracy theory conspiracy theory. Mercy!
Unanswered, for example; why would the US Intel community, which loathes Trump (feelings mutual), collaborate in helping Trump promote his China trade agenda? Why would Bloomberg, who also loathes Trump, be complicit?
Posted by: Tomonthebeach | Oct 6 2018 18:12 utc | 94
@94 Why? Because they secretly want Trump to fail. They are only pretending to collaborate. In fact they are passing on classified information to China via coded microchips.
(This is just a theory.)
Posted by: dh | Oct 6 2018 19:14 utc | 95
These guys aren't GRU, they're likely Russian Foreign Ministry, hence the diplomatic passports and the way they were caught and released. Also in the 'mugshots' taken in the carpark after being caught they don't seem at all worried. They knew what they were doing was perfectly legal. The reason, they weren't spying on the OPCW.
They were spying on the Marriott. The OPCW lists it as nearby accomodation on their website. Lower level OPCW attendees staying at the Marriott would be using non-secured hotel wifi for their work. The Russian guys were sent in to gather in as much available intel as possible. They arrived on the 11th and the OPCW Technical Secretariat released their interim report about the alleged Novichok incident on the 12th. Russian Foreign Ministry just wanted to get out ahead of the game before the report is published i.e. find out OPCW members positions on the matter, whom is talking to whom etc. None of this would be ascertained by snooping on the secure networks of the OPCW but could be culled from unsecured communications in the hotel. Even a simple email or text between an OPCW member their spouse could provide telling information.
So why is this a nothing burger? The hotel carpark was likely filled with a bunch of other cars from other countries foreign services doing exactly the same thing, hence the wry smiles from the Russians in the photos.
Posted by: Fgh | Oct 6 2018 21:35 utc | 96
Below is a quote from US Senator John Cornyn during the end of the latest circus act for the Supreme Court that shows puppet hypocrisy at its finest focused internal instead of external but same shit.
"Our vote today was important not only because it will allow us to move forward and conclude this process. It was important because it showed that the U.S. Senate will not be intimidated."
"We will not be bullied by the screams of paid protesters and name-calling by the mob."
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 6 2018 22:31 utc | 97
The Netherlands lost all credibility with their fake investigation of the MH17 false flag.
"MH17 — DUTCH PREPARE MISSILE ATTACK ON MOSCOW"
http://johnhelmer.net/mh-17-dutch-prepare-missile-attack-on-moscow/
I hope their nationalists get back control of their own government before too long.
Here is a typical piece of nonsense inspired by fear of democracy. There is definitely a panic in the works.
"The New Dutch Disease Is White Nationalism
An upstart far-right party in the Netherlands threatens to entrench xenophobia in one of Europe’s most progressive countries. "
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/20/the-new-dutch-disease-is-white-nationalism/
Posted by: Alfred (Cairns) | Oct 7 2018 0:01 utc | 98
BBC reporting on this story did NOT have interviews with Dutch officials but with the UK Ambassador. Gotta control the narrative.
Posted by: Curtis | Oct 7 2018 0:59 utc | 99
Below is a link to a posting by Eric Zuesse writing that Ukraine is now the attempted flash point for WWIII
US Switching to Ukraine as Location to Start World War III Against Russia
I continue to believe that China has made it quite clear to the US that any nukes headed to Russia will be presumed aimed at them and be retaliated against....so I don't see nuke war but continued economic war and the less and less international mayhem as Russia/China continue to hem in the dying empire beast
Before the end of this year the world will be tied up into gridlock between the factions that in my mind continue to represent the culturally imbued concepts of public or private money/finance.
consensus versus bullying styles of management. I am tired of bullying and think many others are also....the example we just saw with the Supreme Court circus and John Cornyn saying the the Senate wouldn't be bullied....
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 7 2018 6:05 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
IMO the US Government's propaganda is structured to along the lines of a fantasy novel. The propaganda is designed to convince the public of two inherently contradictory ideas: 1) that the country is surrounded on vast sides by vast hostile empires that threaten everything we hold dear and 2) despite these dire threats, the country cannot really be harmed because of "our freedoms." Like with a fantasy novel, the reader gets all the thrills of an epic battle while being certain that the evil empires will never triumph. An attractive form of propaganda, to be certain.
Posted by: Timothy Hagios | Oct 5 2018 12:52 utc | 1