Tag: Iran Contra Affair

“Time to stop singularizing Trump as uniquely evil”

Ms. Cat

As practically everyone on planet Earth must now know, Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be convicted of felonies after leaving office. The response to the outcome of the trial from Democrats and Republicans has been predictably binary. Democrats have been reveling in the outcome and seem to think that the trial’s conclusion has delivered a final blow to Trump’s credibility and, in turn, his chances of winning the upcoming election. Trump’s supporters, on the other hand, are largely condemning the trial as politically motivated “lawfare” waged by the “radical left” in order to derail Trump’s chances of winning the upcoming election, which might end up galvanizing his base.

Trump’s Conviction Papers Over Much Bigger Crimes that He (and Every Other Recent US President) Has Committed in While Office

I can’t stand Trump, but this is why I don’t post about the criminal charges against him. I’d rather see him, and the rest of them, charged for war crimes! Furthermore, I can understand why his supporters, and even foreigners, see it as lawfare.

Ansar Allah didn’t target undersea cables

Ms. Cat1 Comment
Full video.

At least one subsea fiber cable damaged in the Red Sea, some reports blame Houthi rebels

Last year Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) – a think tank founded by a former Israeli Intelligence officer and a political scientist described as a neoconservative and revisionist Zionist on Wikipedia – said Telegram channels reportedly affiliated with the Houthis had made implied threats against subseas cables in the Red Sea.

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New reports suggest a ship attacked by Houthi rebels may have inadvertently cut cables. Some industry observers are suggesting the Rubymar, a cargo ship heavily damaged by a recent Houthi attack, is drifting and its dragging anchor could have caused damage to the cables.

Ansar Allah’s response

Israeli media claims that Ansar Allah targeted undersea cables

Propaganda: Houthis could cut undersea global internet cables, minister warns

Propaganda: Houthis could cut undersea global internet cables, minister warns

Ms. Cat

Yemen’s UN-recognized government has warned of the possibility that Houthi rebels could cut undersea internet cables off the country’s Red Sea coast, calling it “a serious threat to one of the most important digital infrastructures in the world.”

Houthis could cut undersea global internet cables, minister warns

1. Why would Ansar Allah jeopardize Palestinians’ lines of communication with the outside world? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. 2. It originates from the Israeli propaganda outlet, MEMRI. 3. The Gulf International Forum is indirectly funded by the Qatari government. 4. Emily Milliken is a junior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, which has been funded by the front organizations Scaife Foundations, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the William H. Donner Foundation.

At 60, We’re Winning – and Losing – the JFK Media War

Ms. Cat

Twelve days ago, I was asked by the Opinion section of the New York Times to write an essay on the JFK assassination nearly 60 years later. This was a major breakthrough because the newspaper of record has always embraced the official version of the assassination, even as the Warren Report, based on the “magic bullet” and all that nonsense, has grown increasingly tattered over the years. In 2015, when The Devil’s Chessboard — my book about CIA spymaster Allen Dulles and the national security state’s war with President Kennedy — was published, the Times refused to review it. (Nonetheless, the book was a New York Times bestseller.)

At 60, We’re Winning – and Losing – the JFK Media War

H/T: Kim Iversen

[2022] Chaos Agent – Yuri Bezmenov

Ms. Cat

Yuri Bezmenov defected from the Soviet Union to Canada in the ‘70s, and his warnings about disinformation have made him a posthumous star on social media. Documents obtained by CBC News reveal his toxic relationship with Canada’s intelligence services.

Chaos agent (archived)

Semi-Related:

Call Of Duty Trailer Recklessly Promotes Far-Right Conspiracy Theory (archived)

The person interviewing Bezmenov in the footage is far-right conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, who has since made a name for himself in HIV/AIDS denialism and alt-right recruitment. As a member of the John Birch Society, a famously anti-Communist organization focused on establishing a more conservative government in the United States, it makes sense that Griffin would peddle Bezmenov’s claims about Soviet interference by way of social progress without any critical analysis. In the Call of Duty trailer, Activision presents Bezmenov’s words bereft of this important context.

Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War uses KGB video from 1984. Critics say it’s CIA propaganda

Menendez’s New Jersey: Global power hidden in plain sight

Ms. Cat

Menendez’s New Jersey: Global power hidden in plain sight (archived)

During the Monday press conference, Menendez implied that he was also one of the many fleeing Communism. He called himself the “son of Cuban refugees,” and said that the cash found by the FBI was “from my personal savings account, which I have kept for emergencies, and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.” But Menendez was born in New Jersey years before Castro’s revolution, to a family of working-class immigrants who had left Cuba under the previous, capitalist dictatorship. Menendez’s Senate office did not respond to a question about what confiscation his family faced.