Washington Post Is Richly Rewarded for False News About Russia Threat While Public Is Deceived
Posted: January 4, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, History, Mediasphere, Politics, Russia | Tags: Barack Obama, Burlington Electric Department, Electric utility, Electrical grid, Malware, President of Russia, RUSSIA, The Washington Post, United States, Vermont Leave a comment
In the current D.C. climate on Russia, all relevant journalistic incentives encourage and reward false news.
The second story on the electric grid turned out to be far worse than I realized when I wrote about it on Saturday, when it became clear that there was no “penetration of the U.S. electricity grid” as the Post had claimed. In addition to the editor’s note, the Russia-hacked-our-electric-grid story now has a full-scale retraction in the form of a separate article admitting that “the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility” and there may not even have been malware at all on this laptop.
But while these debacles are embarrassing for the paper, they are also richly rewarding. That’s because journalists — including those at the Post — aggressively hype and promote the original, sensationalistic false stories, ensuring that they go viral, generating massive traffic for the Post (the paper’s executive editor, Marty Baron, recently boasted about how profitable the paper has become).
After spreading the falsehoods far and wide, raising fear levels and manipulating U.S. political discourse in the process (both Russia stories were widely hyped on cable news), journalists who spread the false claims subsequently note the retraction or corrections only in the most muted way possible, and often not at all. As a result, only a tiny fraction of people who were exposed to the original false story end up learning of the retractions.
Baron himself, editorial leader of the Post, is a perfect case study in this irresponsible tactic. It was Baron who went to Twitter on the evening of November 24 to announce the Post’s exposé of the enormous reach of Russia’s fake news operation, based on what he heralded as the findings of “independent researchers.” Baron’s tweet went all over the place; to date, it has been re-tweeted more than 3,000 times, including by many journalists with their own large followings:
Russian propaganda effort helped spread fake news during election, say independent researchers https://t.co/3ETVXWw16Q
— Marty Baron (@PostBaron) November 25, 2016
But after that story faced a barrage of intense criticism — from Adrian Chen in the New Yorker (“propaganda about Russia propaganda”), Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone (“shameful, disgusting”), my own article, and many others — including legal threats from the sites smeared as Russian propaganda outlets by the Post’s “independent researchers” — the Post finally added its lengthy editor’s note distancing itself from the anonymous group that provided the key claims of its story (“The Post … does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings” and “since publication of the Post’s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list”).
What did Baron tell his followers about this editor’s note that gutted the key claims of the story he hyped? Nothing. Not a word. To date, he has been publicly silent about these revisions. Having spread the original claims to tens of thousands of people, if not more, he took no steps to ensure that any of them heard about the major walk back on the article’s most significant, inflammatory claims. He did, however, ironically find the time to promote a different Post story about how terrible and damaging Fake News is:
‘Pizzagate’ shows how fake news hurts real people https://t.co/cOh7RZ4RqK
— Marty Baron (@PostBaron) November 26, 2016
Whether the Post’s false stories here can be distinguished from what is commonly called “Fake News” is, at this point, a semantic dispute, particularly since “Fake News” has no cogent definition. Defenders of Fake News as a distinct category typically emphasize intent in order to differentiate it from bad journalism. That’s really just a way of defining Fake News so as to make it definitionally impossible for mainstream media outlets like the Post ever to be guilty of it (much the way terrorism is defined to ensure that the U.S. government and its allies cannot, by definition, ever commit it).
But what was the Post’s motive in publishing two false stories about Russia that, very predictably, generated massive attention, traffic, and political impact? Was it ideological and political — namely, devotion to the D.C. agenda of elevating Russia into a grave threat to U.S. security? Was it to please its audience — knowing that its readers, in the wake of Trump’s victory, want to be fed stories about Russian treachery? Was it access and source servitude — proving it will serve as a loyal and uncritical repository for any propaganda intelligence officials want disseminated? Was it profit — to generate revenue through sensationalistic click-bait headlines with a reckless disregard to whether its stories are true? In an institution as large as the Post, with numerous reporters and editors participating in these stories, it’s impossible to identify any one motive as definitive. Read the rest of this entry »
How The Washington Post Rewrote Its Story on Russian Hacking of The Power Grid
Posted: January 2, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Global, Mediasphere, Russia | Tags: Barack Obama, Burlington, Burlington Electric Department, Donald Trump, Electric utility, Electrical grid, fake news, Malware, Moscow, Patrick Leahy, President of Russia, The Washington Post, Vermont Leave a comment
Fake News: This narrative was false and as the chronology below will show, illustrates how effectively false and misleading news can ricochet through the global news echo chamber through the pages of top tier newspapers that fail to properly verify their facts.
Kalev Leetaru writes: On Friday the Washington Post sparked a wave of fear when it ran the breathless headline “Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont, U.S. officials say.” The lead sentence offered “A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials” and continued “While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a security matter, the penetration of the nation’s electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability.”
“From Russian hackers burrowed deep within the US electrical grid, ready to plunge the nation into darkness at the flip of a switch, an hour and a half later the story suddenly became that a single non-grid laptop had a piece of malware on it and that the laptop was not connected to the utility grid in any way.”
Yet, it turns out this narrative was false and as the chronology below will show, illustrates how effectively false and misleading news can ricochet through the global news echo chamber through the pages of top tier newspapers that fail to properly verify their facts.
“Only after numerous outlets called out the Post’s changes did the newspaper finally append an editorial note at the very bottom of the article more than half a day later saying ‘An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far. The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid.’”
The original article was posted online on the Washington Post’s website at 7:55PM EST. Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, we can see that sometime between 9:24PM and 10:06PM the Post updated the article to indicate that multiple computer systems at the utility had been breached (“computers” plural), but that further data was still being collected: “Officials said that it is unclear when the code entered the Vermont utility’s computers, and that an investigation will attempt to determine the timing and nature of the intrusion.” Several paragraphs of additional material were added between 8PM and 10PM, claiming and contextualizing the breach as part of a broader campaign of Russian hacking against the US, including the DNC and Podesta email breaches.
“Just as with the Santa Claus and the dying child story, the Post story went viral and was widely reshared, leading to embarrassing situations like CNBC tweeting out the story and then having to go back and retract the story.”
Despite the article ballooning from 8 to 18 paragraphs, the publication date of the article remained unchanged and no editorial note was appended, meaning that a reader being forwarded a link to the article would have no way of knowing the article they were seeing was in any way changed from the original version published 2 hours prior.
Yet, as the Post’s story ricocheted through the politically charged environment, other media outlets and technology experts began questioning the Post’s claims and the utility company itself finally issued a formal statement at 9:37PM EST, just an hour and a half after the Post’s publication, pushing back on the Post’s claims: “We detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop not connected to our organization’s grid systems. We took immediate action to isolate the laptop and alerted federal officials of this finding.”
“Particularly fascinating that the original Post story mentioned that there were only two major power utilities in Vermont and that Burlington Electric was one of them, meaning it would have been easy to call both companies for comment.”
From Russian hackers burrowed deep within the US electrical grid, ready to plunge the nation into darkness at the flip of a switch, an hour and a half later the story suddenly became that a single non-grid laptop had a piece of malware on it and that the laptop was not connected to the utility grid in any way.
[Read the full report here, at Forbes.com]
However, it was not until almost a full hour after the utility’s official press release (at around 10:30PM EST) that the Post finally updated its article, changing the headline to the more muted “Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility, showing risk to U.S. electrical grid security, officials say” and changed the body of the article to note “Burlington Electric said in a statement that the company detected a malware code used in the Grizzly Steppe operation in a laptop that was not connected to the organization’s grid systems. The firm said it took immediate action to isolate the laptop and alert federal authorities.” Yet, other parts of the article, including a later sentence claiming that multiple computers at the utility had been breached, remained intact.
“One driving force of fake news is that as much of 60% of the links shared on social media are shared based on the title alone, with the sharer not actually reading the article itself. Thus, the title assigned to an article becomes the story itself and the Post’s incorrect title meant that the story that spread virally through the national echo chamber was that the Russians had hacked into the US power grid.”
The following morning, nearly 11 hours after changing the headline and rewriting the article to indicate that the grid itself was never breached and the “hack” was only an isolated laptop with malware, the Post still had not appended any kind of editorial note to indicate that it had significantly changed the focus of the article.
This is significant, as one driving force of fake news is that as much of 60% of the links shared on social media are shared based on the title alone, with the sharer not actually reading the article itself. Thus, the title assigned to an article becomes the story itself and the Post’s incorrect title meant that the story that spread virally through the national echo chamber was that the Russians had hacked into the US power grid.
[Read the full story here, at Forbes.com]
Only after numerous outlets called out the Post’s changes did the newspaper finally append an editorial note at the very bottom of the article more than half a day later saying “An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far. The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid.”
Yet, even this correction is not a true reflection of public facts as known. The utility indicated only that a laptop was found to contain malware that has previously been associated with Russian hackers. Read the rest of this entry »
Garry Kasparov: The U.S.S.R. Fell—and the World Fell Asleep
Posted: December 19, 2016 Filed under: Diplomacy, History, Politics, Russia, Think Tank | Tags: Aleppo, Bianna Golodryga, Che Guevara, Communism, Cuban Revolution, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Garry Kasparov, Marxism, Mikhail Gorbachev, Miloš Forman, Moscow, Moscow Kremlin, President of Russia, RUSSIA, Soviet Union, United States, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment
25 years after the Soviet Union ceased to exist, plenty of repressive regimes live on. Today, the free world no longer cares.
Garry Kasparov writes: A quarter-century ago, on Dec. 25, 1991, as the last Soviet premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, resigned after a final attempt to keep the Communist state alive, I was so optimistic for the future. That year and the years leading up to that moment were a period when anything felt possible. The ideals of freedom and democracy seemed within the reach of the people of the Soviet Union.
“It is difficult to describe what life in the U.S.S.R. was like to people in the free world today. This is not because repressive dictatorships are an anachronism people can’t imagine, like trying to tell your incredulous children that there was once a world without cellphones and the internet.”
I remember the December evening in 1988 when I was having dinner with friends and my mother in Paris. My family and I still lived in Baku, capital of the then-Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, where I was raised, but I had become accustomed to unusual freedoms since becoming the world chess champion in 1985. I was no longer accompanied by KGB minders everywhere I went, although my whereabouts were always tracked. Foreign travel still required special approval, which served to remind every Soviet citizen that this privilege could be withdrawn at any time.
“The U.S.S.R. ceased to exist in 1991, but there are plenty of repressive, authoritarian regimes thriving in 2016. The difference, and I am sad to say it, is that the citizens of the free world don’t much care about dictatorships anymore, or about the 2.7 billion people who still live in them.”
My status protected me from many of the privations of life in the Soviet Union, but it did not tint my vision rose. Instead, my visits to Western Europe confirmed my suspicions that it was in the U.S.S.R. where life was distorted, as in a funhouse mirror.
Miloš Forman
That night in Paris was a special one, and we were joined by the Czech-American director Miloš Forman via a mutual friend, the Czech-American grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek.
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
We were discussing politics, of course, and I was being optimistic as usual. I was sure that the Soviet Union would be forced to liberalize socially and economically to survive.
“The words of John F. Kennedy in 1963 Berlin sound naive to most Americans today: “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free,” he said. That for decades the U.S. government based effective foreign policy on such lofty ideals seems as distant as a world without iPhones.”
Mr. Forman played the elder voice of reason to my youthful exuberance. I was only 25, while he had lived through what he saw as a comparable moment in history. He cautioned that he had seen similar signs of a thaw after reformer Alexander Dubčekhad become president in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Eight months after Dubček’s election, his reforms 
ended abruptly as the U.S.S.R. sent half a million Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia and occupied the country. Many prominent Czechs, like Messrs. Forman and Kavalek, fled abroad.
[Order Garry Kasparov’s book “Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped” from Amazon.com]
“Gorbachev’s perestroika is another fake,” Mr. Forman warned us about the Soviet leader’s loosening of state controls, “and it will end up getting more hopeful people killed.” I insisted that Mr. Gorbachev would not be able to control the forces he was unleashing. Mr. Forman pressed me for specifics: “But how will it end, Garry?”
I replied—specifics not being my strong suit—that “one day, Miloš, you will wake up, open your window, and they’ll be gone.”
“Ronald Reagan’s warning that ‘freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction’ was never meant to be put to the test, but it is being tested now. If anything, Reagan’s time frame of a generation was far too generous. The dramatic expansion of freedom that occurred 25 years ago may be coming undone in 25 months.”
It is difficult to describe what life in the U.S.S.R. was like to people in the free world today. This is not because repressive dictatorships are an anachronism people can’t imagine, like trying to tell your incredulous children that there was once a world without cellphones and the internet. The U.S.S.R. ceased to exist in 1991, but there are plenty of repressive, authoritarian regimes thriving in 2016. The difference, and I am sad to say it, is that the citizens of the free world don’t much care about dictatorships anymore, or about the 2.7 billion people who still live in them.
Garry Kasparov
The words of John F. Kennedy in 1963 Berlin sound naive to most Americans today: “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free,” he said. That for decades the U.S. government based effective foreign policy on such lofty ideals seems as distant as a world without iPhones. Read the rest of this entry »
Russian Hacking: Was it a Proportional Response? Retaliation for State Deptment Sponsorship of Anti-Putin Protests in Europe?
Posted: December 18, 2016 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Russia | Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Elections in the United States, Enlargement of NATO, Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, President of Russia, RUSSIA, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment
Did Vladimir Putin specifically target Hillary Clinton through a Russian email hack? Or was she a convenient target for a greater goal? AEI Resident Scholar Leon Aron explains.
Changing Who Controls ICANN Jeopardizes Our Presidential Election
Posted: September 20, 2016 Filed under: Censorship, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Science & Technology, Think Tank | Tags: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Federal government of the United States, ICANN, Moscow, President of Russia, Republican Party (United States), RUSSIA, United States, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment
It matters to all of us whether we live in the United States or not, if a hostile country can undermine our democratic process.
There is even more alarming evidence this is happening during this election cycle.
Theresa Payton reports: Changing who controls the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) so close to our presidential election will jeopardize the results of how you vote on Nov. 8 unless Congress stops this changeover. When the calendar hits Sept. 30, a mere 6 weeks before our election, the United States cannot be assured that if any web site is hacked, the responsible party will be held accountable. We cannot be sure if a web site is a valid. We cannot be sure if one country is being favored over another. These are all the things ICANN is responsible for and has worked perfectly since the Internet was created. Why change it now and so close to the election? Why does that matter to you as a voter?
Take a look at recent cyber activity as it relates to the election. The Democratic National Convention was breached comprising the entire party’s strategy, donor base, and indeed, national convention. Everything the DNC had done to prepare for a moment four years in the making (if not longer) was undermined by a hacker who had been in their system for some time but waited for the optimal moment to spring it on the DNC – opening day of the convention. The FBI and other U.S. agencies, as the headlines blare, suspect Russia is responsible for the hack. Recently, Vladimir Putin went so far as to say, “Does it matter who broke in? Surely what’s important is the content of what was released to the public.”
Vladimir Putin Honors Critical Russian Journalist’s Birthday with a Celebratory Gunshot Wound to Journalists’s Head
Posted: August 29, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Global, Mediasphere, Russia | Tags: Ballistic trauma, Citizenship of Russia, Death, Facebook, Journalist, KIEV, Moscow, News agency, President of Russia, Russian language, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment
Alexander Shchetinin found dead with a gun near his body after friends tried to visit him at home.
Rachael Pells reports: A well-known Russian journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin has been found dead in his Kiev apartment with a gunshot wound to the head.
The body of Alexander Shchetinin, founder the Novy Region (New Region) press agency, was found at his flat after friends tried to visit him on his birthday.
A police spokesperson said Kiev forces were alerted of Ms Shchetinin’s death at around midnight on Saturday. He is believed to have died a few hours earlier, between 8 and 9.30pm.
Officials have speculated that his death was caused by suicide, after a gun was found near his body along with spent cartridges, and the door to his apartment was said to be locked. Read the rest of this entry »
Palace Intrigue: Putin’s Aide Mikhail Lesin Found Dead in Hotel ‘Murdered for Being an FBI informant’ – or ‘Could Even Still Be Alive’
Posted: November 12, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Russia | Tags: Barack Obama, Dmitry Peskov, Elton John, Mahmoud Abbas, Moscow, Moscow Cathedral Mosque, President of Russia, President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladimir Putin 1 Comment
Will Stewart reports: The death from a ‘heart attack’ of a longtime close ally of Vladimir Putin in a Washington hotel has led to a swirl of speculation that he was murdered on Moscow’s orders after offering to help the FBI.
“Nicknamed the ‘Bulldozer’, Lesin was one of the key props of the Putin presidency, personally masterminding a wide-ranging media crackdown which has left the vast majority of Russian TV stations and newspapers obedient to the Kremlin.”
Mikhail Lesin, 57, was announced last weekend to have been found dead in the US capital. He was a Svengali figure for Putin, who was alleged to have menaced the Russian media into idolizing the strongman president.
“He also set up Russia Today, now RT, seen by critics as a ‘propaganda’ channel aimed at the West.”
The shock death has created an eave of speculation in Moscow that it is related to previous reports that he was helping the FBI – and could be murder.
There are even separate allegations that Lesin may still be alive, with his demise faked by the US authorities.
[Read more here at Daily Mail Online]
According to this version, he is being kept safe as part of a witness protection scheme, while spilling to the FBI all he knows on Putin’s Russia.
Daily Mail Online can reveal that only weeks before his death was announced, he fathered a child with glamorous model and flight attendant Victoria Rakhimbayeva.
Murdered? Mikhail Lesin and his new love Victoria Rakhimbayeva, who were photographed when she was pregnant. He was found dead last Friday in a Washington DC hotel – and now speculation is mounting about him
Claim: Lesin was reported by the TV station he set up – RT, known to be pro-Kremlin – to have died from a longstanding illness while staying at the Dupont Circle Hotel (pictured)
World traveler: Victoria Rakhimbayeva, believed to be 29, posted photographs from around the world and said that she and Lesin were planning to live in New York, although she preferred Los Angeles
“There are unsubstantiated claims in Moscow that when he died he was in debt to billionaire Yury Kovalchuk, one of Putin’s closest big business friends.”
She is believed to be aged 29, with whom he had enjoyed a close relationship since at least mid-2014.
She has not commented on his death other than to thank friends on social media for their commiserations, but before the tragedy she made clear that they intended to set up home permanently in New York.
[Read the full story here at Daily Mail Online]
Despite Russian reports of a heart attack, police in DC have said no cause of death has been determined while also indicating there was no obvious sign of foul play.
‘A ruling on the cause and manner of death is pending further investigation,’ said a Saturday statement.
Nicknamed the ‘Bulldozer’, Lesin was one of the key props of the Putin presidency, personally masterminding a wide-ranging media crackdown which has left the vast majority of Russian TV stations and newspapers obedient to the Kremlin.
He also set up Russia Today, now RT, seen by critics as a ‘propaganda’ channel aimed at the West.
But earlier this year, after the break-up of his marriage, and in a new relationship with his Siberian lover who he may have wed – she referred to him as her ‘husband’ – he suddenly quit the latest of several high profile positions, as head of Gazprom Media, a major state owned media conglomerate. Read the rest of this entry »
Power Games: Vladimir the Ball-Breaker vs Barack the Passive Metrosexual
Posted: October 4, 2015 Filed under: Diplomacy, Global, Politics, Russia, War Room, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Dmitry Peskov, Iran, Moscow, President of Russia, RUSSIA, Ukraine, United Nations, United Nations General Assembly, Vladimir Putin, White House Leave a comment
Matt K Lewis writes: As was the case when Russians invaded Ukraine, the Russians cloaked their activity in lies.
In the former example, Russian soldiers didn’t wear uniforms, a thinly-veiled move meant to create the impression the fighters were merely Ukrainian “separatists.”
“In the vast majority of the world, power (or the perception of power) is what matters. In America, President Obama’s brand of metrosexual coolness works well.”
Likewise, Wednesday’s bombings ostensibly targeted Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil); in fact, the strikes were aimed at moderate rebels and civilians – part of a plan to take out any opposition to their client, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian President Bashir al-Assad Photo: REUTERS
This all comes on the heels of President Barack Obama’s drawing of a “red line” regarding the use of chemical weapons, only to back down when the Assad regime – by most accounts – used them.
This past week, White House press secretary Josh Earnest strained credulity when he said Mr Obama doesn’t regret drawing that red line.
“For those paying attention, Mr Obama’s foreign policy world-view has failed.”
Weakness invites provocation, and – never one to miss an opportunity to outmanoeuvre Mr Obama – Mr Putin provided a self-serving opportunity that would also allow the president to save face: Moscow would push Syria to put their chemical weapons under international control.
It’s also important to note that in the wake of the red line being trampled, Russia invaded Crimea. President Obama’s legacy may be mixed, but one thing is for sure: Vladimir Putin is much more powerful and provocative than he was before Mr Obama took office, and Russia has only expanded its sphere of influence.
[Read the full text here, at Telegraph]
The Syria bombings also come almost immediately after Mr Putin met with Mr Obama at the UN where they agreed to “deconflict” military operations – a very Obama-esque line that Mr Putin immediately crossed.
Russian bombs exploding outside Idlib Photo: Hadi Al-Abdallah via AP
And prior to bombing our friends in Syria, the Russians also had the audacity to issue a “démarche” for the US to clear air space over northern Syria. As if that weren’t enough, this came just as reports that the Russians attempted to hack Hillary Clinton’s email server.
For those paying attention, Mr Obama’s foreign policy world-view has failed.
The suggestion that America could leave a vacuum that wouldn’t be filled by our adversaries – the idea that the “international community” (whatever that means) would respect us more if we were to retreat from the world – was always a farce.
Read the rest of this entry »
Syria is Obama’s Watergate
Posted: October 4, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, War Room, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hafez al-Assad, Israel, Michael Goodwin, Moscow, President of Russia, President of Syria, Richard Nixon, RUSSIA, Syria, Vladimir Putin, Watergate 2 Comments
What did he know and when did he know it? The immortal question about Richard Nixon and Watergate should be posed to Barack Obama about Syria. What and when did he know about Vladimir Putin’s axis-of-evil coalition?
Michael Goodwin writes: The significance is not limited to Syria. The question goes to the heart of the Iran nuclear deal, especially the timing of the congressional votes.
Imagine Obama trying to sell the Iran deal now. With Russia, Iran and Iraq working together to muscle the United States aside and defend Bashar al-Assad, the president couldn’t possibly argue that the nuke deal would help stabilize the Middle East. Nor could he argue that Russia could be trusted to help enforce restrictions on Iran.
The strong likelihood that Obama would have lost the Iran vote if Congress knew then what the world knows now suggests the possibility the president concealed the Russian plan until the Iran deal was done. That view fits with his single-minded determination to get a deal at any price, including making key concessions and downplaying Iranian threats to Israel and the United States.
After all that, what’s another lie?
That view is also supported by the chronology, which reveals strong evidence the president hid the truth.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
For much of September, reports of Russia moving soldiers and military equipment into Syria invariably said the Pentagon was “puzzled” or the White House was “unclear” about Putin’s intent. Obama declared on Sept. 11 that whatever the dictator’s plan, it was “doomed to fail.”
[Read the full text here, at New York Post]
The claims of fuzziness about Syria allowed Obama to keep the focus on his push to sell the Iran pact to Congress. He touted Russia’s support, vowed to impose “snapback” sanctions if Iran cheated and said he would work to stop the mullahs’ regional aggressions.
His arguments and arm-twisting kept 42 Senate Democrats in line, enough to save the deal. Yet soon after opponents lost their final vote, on Sept. 17, Russia revealed that it would lead a coalition of Iran and Iraq to intervene militarily to save the Assad regime. Read the rest of this entry »
ты уволен! Russian State TV Reporter Fired After Criticising Vladimir Putin
Posted: June 16, 2015 Filed under: Censorship, Politics, Russia | Tags: Agence France-Presse, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Cossacks, Crimea, Germany, journalism, media, Moscow, news, President of Russia, RUSSIA, Soviet Union, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin 1 Comment
Konstantin Goldenzweig says he is ashamed of taking part in Kremlin ‘propaganda madness’
Tom Parfitt writes: A Russian state television reporter has broken ranks and apologised for taking part in “propaganda madness” after being sacked for criticising Vladimir Putin.
Konstantin Goldenzweig, the former Berlin correspondent of the NTV channel, lost his job after giving an interview to a German station in which he referred to the Russian president’s “well-known cynicism” and suggested it was advantageous to the Kremlin that the war in eastern Ukraine was prolonged.
The journalist now says he is ashamed at having take part in what he called Russia’s “general propaganda madness” since the beginning last year of the war in Ukraine, where combined Russian and rebel forces are fighting government troops.
State television in Russia dominates broadcast media and produces highly politicised and biased reports which often refer to Ukraine’s government as the “Kiev junta”. Some dispatches have been shown to be fabricated.
Vladimir Putin speaking in Milan this month
There have been some controversial departures from the state-run English-language channel RT in recent years but this is the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis that a high-profile correspondent from a major terrestrial channel has criticised his employer so publicly.
In an interview with the independent news site, Meduza, Mr Goldenzweig said he was ousted from NTV shortly after giving the interview on June 8 to the Phoenix channel, in which he said that Mr Putin felt “insulted” for being excluded from the G7 meeting of leading states in Bavaria.
He said he had already decided to leave NTV at the end of July after becoming disillusioned with his work, but he was forced out early after the general director of the channel became enraged at his interview comments.
“I am truly ashamed of what I have been doing for the last year and a half,” he told Meduza.
Before autumn last year Mr Goldenzweig had managed to avoid politicising his reporting, producing frequent dispatches about German culture, but he then started to get frequent orders for crude propaganda from Moscow, he said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Top Secret Bio-Anatomy-Ops: Pentagon Monitors Body Language of World Leaders
Posted: February 11, 2015 Filed under: Diplomacy, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Asperger syndrome, Chuck Hagel, Naval War College, Office of Net Assessment, President of Russia, Stephen Porges, United States, United States Secretary of Defense, Valerie Henderson, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment
The U.S. Defense Department confirmed it runs a program to monitor the body language of world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
News of the research project, which is called “Body Leads” and run by the Pentagon’s internal think tank known as the Office of Net Assessment, was first reported in an article by Ray Locker of USA Today.
Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby on Friday confirmed the existence of the program, which costs about $300,000 a year. He said it’s designed to help U.S. officials get a better understanding of world leaders’ “decision-making processes.” But, he added, it’s not used to inform any policy decisions.
“Mr. Marshall is an out-of-the-box thinker who likes to study all kinds of issues,” Kirby said during a press conference, referring to the 92-year-old Andrew Marshall, who directs the office and was first appointed to the position during the Nixon administration.
In a recent organizational shakeup, Marshall now reports to Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michael Lumpkin rather than Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
Of Marshall’s reports, Kirby said, “Many of them will never go beyond his office.”
The department has no plans to make the documents public, even though they’re not classified, Kirby added. When asked whether they would be released under a Freedom of Information Act request, he said, “We’ll certainly take the request under consideration.” Read the rest of this entry »
Moscow Bling: Gold iPhone with engraving of Vladimir Putin’s head goes on sale for £2,500
Posted: June 28, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Russia | Tags: iPhone, Mail Online, Moscow, President of Russia, Putin, RUSSIA, Russians, Vladimir Putin 1 CommentFor Mail Online, Paul Donnelley writes: Unlike former communist leaders, Vladimir Putin has tried to avoid a cult of personality.
That may all be about to change as Russians and fellow travellers can now show their devotion to the President of Russia with a gold-plated iPhone hand engraved with a portrait of Mr Putin.
The Italian-Russian-owned company Caviar Perna Penna which normally creates alligator skin and diamond-encrusted handsets has made the phone for sale in Russia for 147,000 roubles (£2,500) – it comes with its own display case and accessories.
Golden number:The golden iPhones with the portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the lyrics of the National Anthem on sale at Zhukoffka Plaza shopping centre on Moscow, Russia
The back of the phone is made of 18-carat gold, and below the portrait of President Putin there is a quote from the Russian National Anthem and the double-headed eagle – Russia’s coat of arms.
In a press release, the firm says that the gadget is aimed at ‘patriotic senior government officials and top executives’.
‘It’s time to feel genuine pride and express your position clearly, without further ado.
‘President Vladimir Putin has become a symbol of the new generation, a strong-willed and decisive leader.’
The manufacturers claim that the Caviar Supremo Putin phone is ‘the best way to express patriotism’ for people who move ‘in the highest circles, in which devotion to the homeland will never be an empty shell’…(read more)
[VIDEO] The Hammer: Who’s the ‘Big Winner’ in the G7 Summit? Vladimir Putin, that’s Who
Posted: June 6, 2014 Filed under: Diplomacy, Global, Mediasphere, Politics, Russia | Tags: Barack Obama, Brussels, Charles Krauthammer, David Cameron, Normandy, Petro Poroshenko, President of Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin 2 Comments
From NRO: The big story about the G7 meeting that took place in Brussels this past week has not been the G7 itself, but rather “the guy who was kicked out,” says Charles Krauthammer.
Despite the fact that President Obama “has been boasting about how diplomatically isolated” Putin is, Krauthammer said, the President of Russia was invited to the Normandy ceremony, the state dinner, and private dinners with both the President of France and the Prime Minister of Great Britain…
“That’s a hell of an isolation”
Putin Signs Russian Law Banning Swearing in Arts and Media
Posted: May 6, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Law & Justice, Russia | Tags: BBC News, President of Russia, Profanity, Putin, RUSSIA, Stanislav Govorukhin, Vesti, Vladimir Putin 7 Comments
Russian President Vladimir #!@?%*!! Putin has signed a law banning all #!@?%*!! swearing in films, television broadcasts, theatres and the media.
Offenders will face fines – as much as 50,000 roubles (£829; $1,400) for organisations, or up to 2,500 roubles (£41; $70) for individuals.
Where disputes arise a panel of experts will decide exactly what counts as a swear word.
Books containing #!@?%*!! swear words will have to carry warnings on the cover.
Russia’s Vesti news website says that, according to sociologists’ research, swearing is common in two-thirds of Russian companies. Read the rest of this entry »
Kerry Complains About Putin’s Aggression
Posted: March 2, 2014 Filed under: Diplomacy, War Room | Tags: George Stephanopoulos, John Kerry, Kerry, President of Russia, RUSSIA, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, White House 3 Comments
Russian President Vladimir Putin: Why is this man smiling? Look out, Western leaders, there’s a new Bad Boy on the block, and he gets to do what he wants. He wants to invade Ukraine. So? You gotta problem with that?
Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to former Clinton White House Press Secretary George Stephanopoulos, on ABC’s Sunday talk show This Week, complained about Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, grumbling about Putin’s “brazen act of aggression.”
“It’s a 19th-century act in the 21st century that really puts at question Russia’s capacity to be within the G-8”
Kerry had to respond to the question on everyone’s mind. Will Putin pay a price for his petulant plunge into sovereign territory?
Kerry carefully avoided saying anything offensive.
“We’re busy right now coordinating with our counterparts in many parts of the world…we don’t want this to be a larger confrontation…”
Kerry said that the president is “keeping all options on the table”, though Kerry’s phrasing is recognized by everyone, including Putin, as empty rhetoric when spoken by President Obama, or Secretary of State Kerry. Leaders east and west understand that the White House has no intentions of using any option other than diplomatic, though for the sake of appearances, it’s customary to signal that other options are being considered.
“We call on Russia to engage with the government of the Ukraine. We’re prepared to work very closely with Russia in order to address whatever legitimate concerns may exist…”
Note: Kerry’s bland answers and uninteresting quotes can be attributed to the lack of serious questions and probing redirects. While Kerry accepted invitations to appear on on each network news show this Sunday, he declined an invitation from Fox News Sunday, understandably preferring not to answer challenging questions from respected host and formidable interviewer Chris Wallace.
Think Progress 2009 Flashback: “The Reset Button Has Worked”
Posted: March 2, 2014 Filed under: Diplomacy, Global, History | Tags: Barack Obama, Cold War, Dmitry Medvedev, Iran, John McCain, Obama, President of Russia, RUSSIA, Think Progress Leave a comment
A year ago, there was a rising fear that the US and Russia were on the verge of a new Cold War. Today the relationship seems to have gone 180. The US and Russia are now on the verge of signing a new nuclear disarmament agreement and look increasingly in sync on Iran. Yesterday, Obama met directly with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore where both leaders said negotiations on a new START agreement were close to completion. Medvedev also expressed his displeasure with Iran, giving another indication that Russia may back Obama should the Iranians reject the nuclear deal on the table. Following the meeting and Medvedev pronouncements, Obama concluded that “the reset button has worked.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin demonstrates to reporters how he grabbed Obama’s balls and extracted unprecedented foreign policy concessions
Posted: October 7, 2013 Filed under: Breaking News, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, KGB, Obama, President of Russia, Putin, RUSSIA, satire, United States, Vladimir Putin 3 Comments
“I developed this method when I was in KGB”, he explained, demonstrating the ball-crushing, nut-twisting technique he employed during the meeting. “The finger grip is important, and getting the optimal angle, but it’s the rotation and pressure that overwhelms the opponent.”
At his G-20 press conference in St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin modestly expressed his hopes for an improved U.S.-Russia partnership. Appearing cautiously optimistic as he left the stage, formally addressing members of the press following the event, Putin said he engaged in a 20-minute “friendly conversation” with President Obama.
Backstage, however, in candid remarks to reporters, Putin entertained the international media with a surprisingly frank, earthy description of his meeting with President Obama.
A highlight of that informal conversation, according to a media source who spoke on the condition of anonymity: Vladimir Putin cheerfully demonstrated the technique he used to grab Obama by the balls, twist them, and deliver agonizing pain.
“Putin immobilized his opponent immediately” said the source. “And he laughed about how easy it was to gain advantage over the passive, unprepared, inexperienced American President.”
Speaking through an interpreter, Putin described the encounter.
“Obama’s rhetoric was beginning to bore me. I could tell by his slack demeanor, his unguarded posture, that he’s not familiar with negotiating tactics as they are practiced by more masculine world leaders, including his predecessors.”
“Obama’s shallow, tiresome habit of wishful thinking, and his bland, empty partnership overtures made it too easy to teach him a lesson about the reality of global conflict resolution. He left me a critical opening”.
Putin smiled, “I developed this method when I was in KGB”, he explained, gesturing with his hands. Reporters gasped as the Russian President curled his fingers into a fist, demonstrating the ball-crushing, nut-twisting technique he employed during the meeting.
“The finger grip is important, and getting the optimal angle, but it’s the rotation and pressure that overwhelms the opponent.” Read the rest of this entry »
pundit from another planet 