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International News Title: US Intel Agencies Try to Strong-Arm Trump into War With Russia US Intel Agencies Try to Strong-Arm Trump into War With Russia By Mike Whitney January 11, 2017 "Information Clearing House" - "Counterpunch" - Powerful elites are using the credibility of the US Intelligence agencies to demonize Russia and prepare the country for war. This is the real meaning of the “Russia hacking” story which, as yet, has not produced any hard evidence of Russian complicity. Last week’s 25-page report, that was released by the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, illustrates to what extent intelligence is being “fixed around the policy”. Just as the CIA generated false information related to Weapons of Mass Destruction to soften public resistance to war with Iraq, so too, the spurious allegations in the DNI’s politically-motivated report are designed to depict Russia as a growing threat to US national security. The timing of the report has less to do with the election of Donald Trump as President than it does with critical developments in Syria where the Russian military has defeated US-proxies in Syria’s industrial hub, Aleppo, rolling back Washington’s 15-year War of Terror and derailing the imperialist plan to control vital resources and pipeline corridors across the Middle East and Central Asia. Russia has become the main obstacle to Washington achieving its strategic vision of pivoting to Asia and maintaining its dominant role into the next century. The Intelligence Community has been coerced into compromising its credibility to incite fear of Russia and to advance the geopolitical ambitions of deep state powerbrokers. The “Russia hacking” flap shows how far the Intel agencies have veered from their original mandate, which is to impartially gather and analyze information that may be vital to US national security. As we have seen in the last two weeks, the leaders of these organizations feel free to offer opinions on issues that clearly conflict with those of the new President-elect. Trump has stated repeatedly that he wants to reduce tensions and reset relations with Russia, but that policy is being sabotaged by members of the intelligence community, particularly CIA Director John Brennan who appeared just last week on PBS Newshour with Judy Woodruff. Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “We see that there are still a lot of actions that Russia is undertaking that undermine the principles of democracy in so many countries. What has happened in our recent election is not new. The Russians have engaged in trying to manipulate elections in Europe for a number of years… the Russians tried to interfere in our electoral process recently, and were actively involved in that. And that is something that we can’t countenance.” (“Interview with CIA Director John Brennan”, PBS Newshour) Brennan, of course, provided no evidence for his claims nor did he mention the hundreds of CIA interventions around the world. But Brennan’s accusations are less important than the fact that his appearance on a nationwide broadcast identifies him as a political advocate for policies that conflict with those of the new president. Do we really want unelected intelligence officials — whose job it is to provide the president with sensitive information related to national security– to assume a partisan role in shaping policy? And why would Brennan –whose is supposed to “serve at the pleasure of the president”– accept an invitation to offer his views on Russia when he knew they would be damaging to the new administration? Powerful people behind the scenes are obviously pushing the heads of these intelligence agencies to stick to their ‘anti-Moscow’ narrative to force Trump to abandon his plan for peaceful relations with Moscow. Brennan isn’t calling the shots and neither are Clapper or Comey. They’re all merely agents serving the interests of establishment plutocrats whose geopolitical agenda doesn’t jibe with that of the incoming administration. If that wasn’t the case, then why would the Intelligence Community stake its reputation on such thin gruel as this Russian hacking gibberish? It doesn’t make any sense. The people who launched this campaign are either supremely arrogant or extremely desperate. Which is it? Here’s an excerpt from an article by veteran journalist Robert Parry sums it up like this in an article at Consortium News: “The DNI report amounted to a compendium of reasons to suspect that Russia was the source of the information – built largely on the argument that Russia had a motive for doing so because of its disdain for Democratic nominee Clinton and the potential for friendlier relations with Republican nominee Trump. But the case, as presented, is one-sided and lacks any actual proof. Further, the continued use of the word “assesses” – as in the U.S. intelligence community “assesses” that Russia is guilty – suggests that the underlying classified information also may be less than conclusive because, in intelligence-world-speak, “assesses” often means “guesses.” (“US Report Still Lacks Proof on Russia ‘Hack’”, Robert Parry, Consortium News) Bottom line: Brennan and his fellow spooks have nothing. The report is little more than a catalogue of unfounded assumptions, baseless speculation and uncorroborated conjecture. In colloquial parlance, it’s bullshit, 100 percent, unalloyed Russophobic horse-manure. In fact, the authors admit as much in the transcript itself when they say: “Judgments are not intended to imply that we have proof that shows something to be a fact. Assessments are based on collected information, which is often incomplete or fragmentary, as well as logic, argumentation, and precedents.” What kind of kooky admission is that? So the entire report could be BS but we’re supposed to believe that Putin flipped the election? Is that it??? What’s really going on here? Why have the Intelligence agencies savaged their credibility just to convince people that Russia is up to no good? The Russia hacking story has more to do with recent developments in Syria than it does with delegitimizing Donald Trump. Aleppo was a real wake up call for the US foreign policy establishment which is beginning to realize that their plans for the next century have been gravely undermined by Russia’s military involvement in Syria. Aleppo represents the first time that an armed coalition of allied states (Russia, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah) have actively engaged US jihadist-proxies and soundly beat them to a pulp. The stunning triumph in Aleppo has spurred hope among the vassal states that Washington’s bloody military juggernaut can be repelled, rolled back and defeated. And if Washington’s CIA-armed, trained and funded jihadists can be repelled, then the elitist plan to project US power into Central Asia to dominate the world’s most populous and prosperous region, will probably fail. In other words, the outcome in Aleppo has cast doubts on Uncle Sam’s ability to successfully execute its pivot to Asia. That’s why the Intel agencies have been employed to shape public perceptions on Russia. Their job is to prepare the American people for an escalation of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed superpowers. US powerbrokers are determined to intensify the conflict and reverse facts on the ground. (Recent articles by elites at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institute reveal that they are as committed to partitioning Syria as ever.) Washington wants to reassert its exceptional role as the uncontested steward of global security and the lone ‘unipolar’ world power. That’s what this whole “hacking” fiasco is about. The big shots who run the country are trying to strong-arm ‘the Donald’ into carrying their water so the depredations can continue and Central Asia can be transformed into a gigantic Washington-dominated corporate free trade zone where the Big Money calls the shots and Capital reigns supreme. That’s their dreamstate, Capitalist Valhalla. They just need Trump to get-with-the-program so the bloodletting can continue apace. Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: U don't know me (#0)
What they need to keep in mind is this, Donald closed his press conference by warning his sons, D2 and Eric that if they failed to Make Trump Enterprises great, he would fire them. If he will, if needs be, fire his sons, what do you think he is going to do to the CIA, the FBI and the other federal police that abuse their authority, lie, cheat and try to rig elections in the USA? noon January 20 starts a new day folks. To all a very merry Christmas and a great 2017.
That's exactly what the CIA and the military-industrial complex is trying to do: to preserve the neo-Cold War, which gives them importance and power. They will fail. Trump doesn't want it. The people don't want it. We're going to save the $300 bn for year we spend on a Cold War with a non-enemy. We ARE going to tool up against illegal immigration, and we ARE going to confront China and Islamic terrorists (and we're going to have Russian help doing it too, because they know that China needs to be channeled too, and they have lost more people to the jihad than we have). The Intel officials who have gone for Trump's jugular are going to be professionally broken and sent home. The Cold War is over and it is no longer possible to stampede the American people with fear of the USSR. There is no USSR and we all know it. The CIA has bitten off more than it can chew here, and it is going to be punished severely and diminished as an agency by the President that it just tried to take out politically before he entered office. In chess, to strike a King you must kill him. The effort is to destroy Trump before he takes office. It is failing in front of all of our eyes, and as it fails, the CIA is destroying its credibility. Trump is going to pull the fangs out and rely on other organizations, such as military intelligence and the NSA, to get his data. A lot of career people are going to be ejected from their jobs for the crap they are pulling. They have decided to take on the King, using the threats of 25 years ago. The People know those threats no longer exist. By doing this, the CIA itself has BECOME the threat, to our democracy. It will have to be chopped off at the knees, disgraced, and everybody involved in this attack on Trump run out of their jobs. The CIA will have to be firmly leashed and made to understand, quite painfully, that they SERVE, they DO NOT command. Lie about the President, and fail, and he will guy you. I expect Trump will pardon Manning and the guy in Russia, and cancel the efforts to prosecute Assange, and the spy agencies will SILENTLY accept the orders of their commander in chief. If they publicly break with the President, they will be fired, for the servant class have no right to a public voice. They are there to SERVE policy, not set it. It did not have to be this way. They did not have to declare war on Trump. They chose to, and Trump always wins these encounters. If anybody in the CIA tries anything foolish, the agency could be disbanded for good.
US Intel Agencies have entirely too much future tied up in hostility with Russia. They're living in the past sitting in comfortable chairs. Merkel is a far greater threat to national security than Putin. So are Obama, Hillary, Graham, and Kerry. This country is filled with more internal subversives than we could ever get from Russia.
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