The CIA has published a 'tradecraft review' of the 2016 'Intelligence Community Assessment' which had claimed that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
The review found what had been obvious to anyone. The 2016 assessment had not followed the normal process for such papers but had based its conclusions on no or insignificant evidence.
Or, as the NY Post headlines: Obama’s Trump-Russia collusion report was corrupt from start
A bombshell new CIA review of the Obama administration’s spy agencies’ assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump was deliberately corrupted by then-CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who were “excessively involved” in its drafting, and rushed its completion in a “chaotic,” “atypical” and “markedly unconventional” process that raised questions of a “potential political motive.”
Further, Brennan’s decision to include the discredited Steele dossier, over the objections of the CIA’s most senior Russia experts, “undermined the credibility” of the assessment.
At that time the ICE was leaked to various media outlets. It was finally published shortly before Trump's first inauguration.
As I wrote at that time:
Up to today there is no public evidence that Russia hacked the Democratic National Council and/or released DNC material to Wikileaks. After today's new intelligence report (pdf) there is still no such evidence. … There are rather wild assertions and a lot of conjecture but zero facts that could be accepted as proof.
When I wrote the above on January 6 2017 I tried to set it the story into the bigger picture:
Cont. reading: CIA: Our Trump-Russiagate Claims Were Corrupt, Our Claims On Iran Are …
News & views related to the war in Palestine …
News & views related to the war in Ukraine …
News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …
This now seems to happen with some regularity:
An explosion struck the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Vilamoura, carrying approximately one million barrels of crude, off Libya’s coast, according to its Greek operator, TMS Tankers. – Greek City Times, Jul 1 2025
The explosion flooded the engine room, disabling the vessel. TMS Tankers reported that the ship, which departed from Zueitina, Libya, en route to Gibraltar, will be towed to Greece on Tuesday or Wednesday. The cause of the explosion remains undisclosed.
The possibility that the Vilamoura was hit by a mine was raised on Friday by security firm Vanguard, but it said that nothing had been confirmed by officials.
The operator distanced itself from speculation that the ship had been targeted by saboteurs.
According to the Financial Times this is at least the fifth tanker (archived) this year that had became casualty of some explosives:
A series of mysterious limpet mine attacks on oil tankers has shaken the shipping world, prompting speculation that the explosions were part of a state-backed sabotage campaign.
Five vessels have been hit by deliberate blasts this year, with the latest incident flooding the engine room of the Greek-owned tanker the Vilamoura last week as it sailed off the coast of Libya.
All the vessels called at Russian ports within weeks of the attacks, prompting some security experts to suggest that Ukraine had a hand in the explosions.
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The FT account leaves out a Russian cargo ship that was attacked with explosives and sank in late 2024:
Cont. reading: Attacks On Russia Related Ships Smell Of British / Ukrainian Cooperation
The government of Ukraine has named a major fascist ideologist as the new head of its history institution.
Poland has an Institute of National Remembrance established to educate, archive, and prosecute crimes against the Polish nation. It goes back to the General Commission for Research on Fascist Crimes, a body established in 1945 focused on investigating the crimes of the Nazi administration in Poland during World War II. It was later expanded to investigate presumed crimes against Poland under communist rule.
In 2006, shortly after the U.S. instigated 'Orange Revolution', Ukraine under then President Viktor Yushchenko established the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory under the cabinet. It was supposed to have a similar role as the Polish institution. It was however immediately taken over by fascists to white wash the crimes perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalist who had allied with the German Nazis.
In 2010, under the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, it was downgraded to a research institution led by Valery Soldatenko who opposed fascist Ukrainian nationalism.
After the U.S. instigated coup in 2014 Soldatenko was fired. A number of right-wing nationalist followed to lead the Institute of National Memory. In late 2024 the latest one, Anton Drobobovich, was fired for not being sufficiently radical (machine translation):
The Cabinet of Ministers dismissed Anton Drobovich from the post of head of the Institute of National Memory. His contract ended, but they did not renew it.
…
Recall that Drobovich proposed to make the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian people in Kiev a symbol of LGBT people. He believes that the dismantling of the monument can be avoided only if its former value is completely replaced.
He also called the Red Army "commie detachments", although he condemned the nationalist march in honor of the SS division "Galicia".
Last week the Ukrainian government named his replacement (machine translation):
Alexander Alferov, a former officer of the Third Assault Brigade and [former] Azov battalion, became the new head of the Institute of National Memory. The decision on the appointment was made by the Cabinet of Ministers.
…
"Alexander Alferov is a Ukrainian historian, TV and radio host, public and military figure. Since 2010, he has been a research associate at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He is the author, co-author and compiler of 15 books and more than 100 scientific articles. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he became an officer of the special operations forces "Azov-Kiev", from September 2022 — an officer of the 3rd separate assault brigade, head of the humanitarian training and information support group of the psychological support department of personnel. At the same time, he was the head of the expert group on de-russification in Kiev. He has the rank of major of the reserve in Kiev," the website of the Ministry of Culture says.
Alferov is a fascist. He was the ideological enforces of the Azov brigade.
Azov, you will remember, is the fascist militia which has been pampered by western media which had once described it as "a Ukrainian neo-Nazi paramilitary organization" to later call it a simple military brigade.
In 2014 the BBC was still warning of it:
Run by the extremist Patriot of Ukraine organisation, which considers Jews and other minorities "sub-human", external and calls for a white, Christian crusade against them, it sports three Nazi symbols, external on its insignia: a modified Wolf's Hook, a black sun (or "Hakensonne") and the title Black Corps, which was used by the Waffen SS.
Azov is just one of more than 50 volunteer groups fighting in the east, the vast majority of which are not extremist, yet it seems to enjoy special backing from some top officials: …
Azov had since followed the path of the Waffen-SS. It has grown from a volunteer group into a battalion, then a regiment, then a brigade, which was split into two (currently fighting each other), each of which is now being upgraded to corps levels. Azov by now, is a full fledged army which has its own financial sources and does its own recruiting.
Alexander Alferov, the new head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, has been deeply involved with Azov.
In 2014, when the founder and leader of Azov Andriy Biletsky became a member of parliament, Alferov became his press secretary. From winter 2014 to June 2015, he was also the head of the press service of the Azov Regiment.
From April 2022, he was an officer of the Azov-Kyiv Special Forces, and from September an officer of the 3rd Assault Brigade, head of the humanitarian training and information support group of the staff psychological support department.
Marta Havryshko, a Ukrainian historian at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, commented on Alferov's new position:
Marta Havryshko @HavryshkoMarta – 20:03 UTC · Jun 27, 2025
The first "Azovite" in Zelensky's government has arrived.
Oleksandr Alfyorov is now the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory—the country’s main state memory authority. To get the post, he left the ranks of the Azov 3rd Assault Brigade.
He curated his brigade's museum exhibit in Kyiv, "In Steel Storms," which glorified the Waffen-SS Division Galicia. During his time in the unit, one of its subdivisions began using a modified SS Dirlewanger patch as its official emblem.
So why stop there? Maybe the Institute’s new logo will be the Dirlewanger insignia too 🤔
After his appointment as head the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Alferov gave an interview (video).
As Strana reported (machine translation):
Cont. reading: Ukraine Puts Neo-Nazi In Charge Of Government Institution
