Summary: The major accomplishment of President Trump might be to bring America’s Deep State out into the open. We do not know the reasons for this conflict among our ruling elites, but we can learn much from it. Here ex-UK diplomat Craig Murray debunks the latest propaganda: attacking Julian Assange, one of the West few remaining journalists, while boosting RussiaGate. Their success in this will indicate what kind of future we will build for the Republic.
“Assange Never Met Manafort.
Luke Harding and the Guardian Publish Still More Blatant MI6 Lies“
By Craig Murray at his website, 27 November 2018.
Posted with his generous permission.
The right wing Ecuadorean government of President Moreno continues to churn out its production line of fake documents regarding Julian Assange, and channel them straight to MI6 mouthpiece Luke Harding of the Guardian. Amazingly, more Ecuadorean Government documents have just been discovered for the Guardian, this time spy agency reports detailing visits of Paul Manafort and unspecified “Russians” to the Embassy. By a wonderful coincidence of timing, this is the day after Mueller announced that Manafort’s plea deal was over.
Here is the story: “Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say” by Luke Harding and Dan Collyns in The Guardian, 27 November 2018 – “Trump ally met WikiLeaks founder months before emails hacked by Russia were published.”
The problem with this latest fabrication is that Moreno had already released the visitor logs to the Mueller inquiry. Neither Manafort nor these “Russians” are in the visitor logs. This is impossible. The visitor logs were not kept by Wikileaks, but by the very strict Ecuadorean security. Nobody was ever admitted without being entered in the logs. The procedure was very thorough. To go in, you had to submit your passport (no other type of document was accepted). A copy of your passport was taken and the passport details entered into the log. Your passport, along with your mobile phone and any other electronic equipment, was retained until you left, along with your bag and coat. I feature in the logs every time I visited.
There were no exceptions. For an exception to be made for Manafort and the “Russians” would have had to be a decision of the Government of Ecuador, not of Wikileaks, and that would be so exceptional the reason for it would surely have been noted in the now leaked supposed Ecuadorean “intelligence report” of the visits. What possible motive would the Ecuadorean government have for facilitating secret unrecorded visits by Paul Manafort? Furthermore it is impossible that the intelligence agency – who were in charge of the security – would not know the identity of these alleged “Russians”.
Editor’s note: Glenn Greenwald expands on this: “It Is Possible Paul Manafort Visited Julian Assange. If True, There Should Be Ample Video and Other Evidence Showing This” at The Intercept.
Putting this in the big picture of RussiaGate.
Previously Harding and the Guardian have published documents faked by the Moreno government regarding a diplomatic appointment to Russia for Assange of which he had no knowledge.
Ed.: This was first reported on 21 September 2018 by Alexandra Valencia at Reuters: “Exclusive: Ecuador attempted to give Assange diplomat post in Russia – document.” Dan Co at The Guardian talked to an Ecuador MP and wrote “Ecuador gave Julian Assange diplomatic role at its Moscow embassy, says MP” on September 26.
Now they follow this up with more documents aimed to provide fictitious evidence to bolster Mueller’s pathetically failed attempt to substantiate the story that Russia deprived Hillary of the Presidency.
My friend William Binney, probably the world’s greatest expert on electronic surveillance, former Technical Director of the NSA, has stated that it is impossible the DNC servers were hacked, the technical evidence shows it was a download to a directly connected memory stick. I knew the US security services were conducting a fake investigation the moment it became clear that the FBI did not even themselves look at the DNC servers, instead accepting a report from the Clinton linked DNC “security consultants” Crowdstrike.
I would love to believe that the fact Julian has never met Manafort is bound to be established. But I fear that state control of propaganda may be such that this massive “Big Lie” will come to enter public consciousness in the same way as the non-existent Russian hack of the DNC servers.
Summary.
Assange never met Manafort. The DNC emails were downloaded by an insider. Assange never even considered fleeing to Russia. Those are the facts, and I am in a position to give you a personal assurance of them. I can also assure you that Luke Harding, the Guardian, Washington Post and New York Times have been publishing a stream of deliberate lies, in collusion with the security services.
I am not a fan of Donald Trump. But to see the partisans of the defeated candidate (and a particularly obnoxious defeated candidate) manipulate the security services and the media to create an entirely false public perception, in order to attempt to overturn the result of the US Presidential election, is the most astonishing thing I have witnessed in my lifetime.
Plainly the government of Ecuador is releasing lies about Assange to curry favour with the security establishment of the USA and UK, and to damage Assange’s support prior to expelling him from the Embassy. He will then be extradited from London to the USA on charges of espionage.
Assange is not a whistleblower or a spy. He is the greatest publisher of his age, and has done more to bring the crimes of governments to light than the mainstream media will ever be motivated to achieve. That supposedly great newspaper titles like the Guardian, New York Times and Washington Post are involved in the spreading of lies to damage Assange, and are seeking his imprisonment for publishing state secrets, is clear evidence that the idea of the “liberal media” no longer exists in the new plutocratic age. The press are not on the side of the people, they are an instrument of elite control.
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About the author
Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1984. His career culminated as British Ambassador to Uzbekistan 2002 to 2004. It ended when he criticized regime as repressive and using torture (both the American and British governments freaked out). Afterwards he was Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. In 2016 the US government refused to allow him entry to the US.
See his articles at his website. See his bio. See his Wikipedia entry – he has led an extraordinary life.
One of Murray’s book is Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game
“This is an astonishing true tale of espionage, journeys in disguise, secret messages, double agents, assassinations and sexual intrigue. Alexander Burnes was one of the most accomplished spies Britain ever produced and the main antagonist of the Great Game as Britain strove with Russia for control of Central Asia and the routes to the Raj.”
For More Information
More about the “expose” in The Guardian – Alex Finley (pseudonym of a former CIA officer) wrote a few thousand words of wild guessing with no supporting evidence: “Did Someone Plant a Story Tying Paul Manafort to Julian Assange?” at Politico. Of course, he lists Russia among the possible culprits. Greenwald called it “a fraud.”
Ideas! For some shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about Julian Assange, about RussiaGate, about propaganda, and especially these…
- A review of Russiagate, its propaganda and hysteria.
- Secrets untold about the DNC hack, the core of RussiaGate.
- Debunking RussiaGate, attempts to stop the new Cold War.
- The secrets of RussiaGate, and what it all means.
- RussiaGate: fragments of a story large beyond imagining.
- We learn the secret origins of RussiaGate.
- Read RussiaGate propaganda, the first step to fighting it.
Propaganda rule America! Read all about it!
Propaganda
Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
By late 2018, says the American Press Institute, “Just six percent of Americans say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions”.
As Carl Sagan noted sadly, “The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
Godfree,
That’s important context for this post!
Gallup has the longest series of surveys about American’s confidence in the press. As of September 2018, they show 14% have a “great deal of confidence”, 31% have a “fair amount”, 30% “not much”, and 24% none at all. Confidence in the press has risen during the Trump years because the press’ partisanship (joining the “resistance”) has increased Democrat’s confidence in them. See the report here.
Also see the 2017 Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey on Trust, Media and Democracy.
The Sagan quote is from Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995). I don’t believe much – if any – of this is accurate. Regarding the press – the new kinds of media have fragmented the audience for information to a degree impossible before. So there is simple news, politically slanted news, news for all kinds of political extremes, and highly sophisticated news. This is the opposite of what Sagan predicts.
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States
“The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), the lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
Pingback: Hot fake news about #Assange & RussiaGate! Read about it! https://f… | Dr. Roy Schestowitz (罗伊)
“The major accomplishment of President Trump might be to bring America’s Deep State out into the open. We do not know the reasons for this conflict among our ruling elites, but we can learn much from it.”
I think we do know the reason for this conflict. Trump, for all his flaws, is a patriot and an enemy of the deep state. The deep state knows that. They are pulling out the stops to destroy Trump before he can destroy them. It is a death match that will, I think, determine the future of our Republic.
Mike,
“Trump, for all his flaws, is a patriot”
Other presidents have been patriots. For example, those who have demonstrated service to the nation on the battlefield.
“Trump is …an enemy of the deep state. …before he can destroy them. It is a death match”
Trump has been in office two years and done nothing that shows any opposition to the Deep State, or the national security establishment, or whatever.
Bigger picture.
What is the difference between a pretty gal on TV sell Ford trucks vs. A pretty gal reading the “news” at 6pm?
Nothing. Brainwashing.
“Summary: The major accomplishment of President Trump might be to bring America’s Deep State out into the open”
From your lips to God’s ears, but honestly, the longer this goes on, the more I think it will all just eventually burn itself out, and nothing much will have really changed. When it finally ends, Trump will not be impeached or driven from office, no one inside the government will have ever been in serious legal jeopardy, the people Mueller convicts will mostly be pardoned or have their sentences commuted, and little to nothing of the paper trail for how all this originated will ever see the light of day. The purpose of investigating Trump is to protect the investigators, so the investigation will go on. And on and on. (Cue up the “It will go on” speech from The Battle Of The Bulge)
I’m sure Murray is factually correct about the procedures for getting in to see Assange, but it strikes me that lot of what I’m seeing about Russiagate was written for the rubes. The Manafort Assange story stank like dead fish the day it came out. This is starting to remind me of the truck driver who was boasting to my father about all the places he’d been, and claimed to have been to Hawaii. When Dad asked him how he got there, the fellow said “Drove ever step of the way!” If you’re dumb enough to believe some of this stuff, you probably can’t be disabused of it, but I thank you for the post anyway, and keep at it.
The Man,
“the more I think it will all just eventually burn itself out, and nothing much will have really changed. …When it finally ends, Trump will not be impeached or driven from office, no one inside the government will have ever been in serious legal jeopardy.”
I don’t understand your comment. So far there is no evidence for RussiaGate. None whatsoever. Just rumors. So of course nothing has changed. Unless hard info comes out, why should anything change?
More broadly, anything we learn about the Deep State is just info. Just like the info we learned about the govt’s illegal surveillance programs. Info won’t make us different, or give us more spirit.
“The purpose of investigating Trump is to protect the investigators”
Why do you say that?
One note, and I may not have been clear about this. When I say that no one inside the government will have been in legal jeopardy, I include Trump and members of his Administration in that, as well as the Deep State types. Apart from Mike Flynn, who was driven from office early on, Mueller’s victims have mostly been people outside the government who were guilty of being involved with the Trump campaign and were stupid enough to agree to be interviewed by the FBI.
The Man,
I still don’t understand your point. Should Trump or his team be in legal jeopardy?
“I don’t understand your comment. So far there is no evidence for RussiaGate”
I 100% agree. There is no evidence. None. We are in complete agreement here.
“The purpose of investigating Trump is to protect the investigators”
I believe the investigation has been, in part, a cover up for the paper trail that was left when the FBI and CIA were used for political espionage against the Trump campaign that no one ever thought would become the Trump Presidency. That’s a personal opinion. It may or may not be correct, I don’t expect to know whether it’s correct anytime soon, if ever.
“I still don’t understand your point. Should Trump or his team be in legal jeopardy?”
As a matter of law and justice, no, I don’t’ think they should be in legal jeopardy for anything that had to do with the 2016 election.
In MHO, there’s missing the most important note — a definition of Fake News — is it:
(a) news I like to hear (the insouciant majority)
(b) the ones which go against my (pretend) convictions (The Donald et al)
(c) a blatant lie (the few)
I truly wish someone could come with a more accurate description.
As about The Donald “to bring America’s Deep State out into the open” — he can’t bring his own affairs into the open and his knowledge and understanding of the world is on par with the population of (a); BTW, didn’t he lessen the progressive tax impact on the upper some%? — Well, unless one considers the DS to be members of lower middle class…
If I were an American I too would have voted for the Donald — not for him, but against the alternative. And I would now, very solemnly, accept all the consequences.
As for Julian:
I wish there was a Supreme World Court all could trust and which could dismiss all fake charges against some and witch would have the authority to sent world criminals to the gallows — perhaps in my “next life.”
There was a post, recently, very much to the essence of this blog: “Sayonara, ‘America First’! We Hardly Knew Ye!” RECOMMENDED!
Jako,
Despite the delusions of Obama’s fans and Trump’s fans, a strong bipartisan consensus runs US foreign policy – so it changes relatively little from President to President. That’s the core of the Deep State.
Correct observation FM,
I made comparisons of the election victory, the inauguration and the first State of the Union speeches a few times in recent past (Clinton, W and Obama) to the real actions taken and had concluded this some time ago. And, I would go a step further — the ‘bipartisan consensus’ may be another illusion; most of the politicians are likely just the figure-heads delivering / justifying the decisions made by the…
Summary: “Yes, we can, but…”