Craig Murray — Probable Western Responsibility for Skripal Poisoning [More]

Back then I did not realise what I now know, that the person being protected was Pablo Miller, colleague in both MI6 then Orbis Intelligence of Christopher Steele, author of the fabrications of the Trump/Russia golden shower dossier. That the government’s very first act on the poisoning was to ban all media mention of Pablo Miller makes it extremely probable that this whole incident is related to the Trump dossier and that Skripal had worked on it, as I immediately suspected. The most probable cause is that Skripal – who  ou should remember had traded the names of Russian agents to Britain for cash – had worked on the dossier with Miller but was threatening to expose its lies for cash....

Craig Murray Blog

Probable Western Responsibility for Skripal Poisoning

Craig Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee

See also

The response from the US, UK and France to a briefing on Thursday at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague was perverse, to say the least. Russia had brought 17 witnesses from Douma who stated that there had been no chemical weapons attack there earlier this month – the pretext for an illegal air strike on Syria by the three western states.

The witnesses, a mix of victims and the doctors who treated them, told accounts that confirmed a report provided last week from Douma by British reporter Robert Fisk – a report, it should be noted, that has been almost entirely blanked by the western media. According to the testimony provided at the OPCW, the victims shown in a video from the site of the alleged attack were actually suffering from the effects of inhaling dust after a bombing raid, not gas.

The first strange thing to note is that the US, UK and France boycotted the meeting, denouncing Russia for producing the witnesses and calling the event an “obscene masquerade” and “theatre”. It suggests that this trio, behaving like the proverbial three monkeys, think the testimony will disappear if they simply ignore it. They have no interest in hearing from witnesses unless they confirm the western narrative used to justify the air strikes on Syria....

See also

More pieces added to the puzzle.

Moon of Alabama
The Silence Of The Skripals - Government Blocks Press Reports - Media Change The Record

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Jonathan Cook Blog
The West Closes Its Ears to Douma Testimony

Jonathan Cook | British journalist, the only foreign correspondent based in Nazareth, Israel (2001-present), and recipient of the  Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism (2011)

Related

The internet is full of photos and videos with the leaders of these nazi organisations posing with swastikas and other nazi symbols and openly declaring their nazi/rasist views and agenda and making the nazi salute! But the west does not want to see the evidence! Hundreds of torch-marches, book-burnings, attacks on churches and synagoges have been carried out by these nazis with the silent support of the illegal regime in Kiev, as well as attacks on, and murders of, journalists, politicians, priests, teachers and anyone suspected of being anti-nazi/anti-racist. But the west does not want to see this either.

Newspapers, TV and radio stations, even internet-sites and bloggers have been burnt, occupied or closed because they showed the truth about the nazis and the illegal regime - the Kiev nazi junta - but the west - that in other cases "fights for the right of free speech" (at least when it comes to Pussy Riot in Russia), does not want to see what happens in former Ukraine.

Geopolitics

There are real nazis in power in Kiev

Nicholas Nicholaides, physician living in Sweden

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The term ‘media bias’ does not do justice to the western corporate media’s relationship with Israel and Palestine. The relationship is, indeed, far more profound than mere partiality. It is not ignorance, either. It is a calculated and long-term campaign, aimed at guarding Israel and demonizing Palestinians.

The current disgraceful coverage of Gaza’s popular protests indicates that the media’s position aims at suppressing the truth on Palestine, at any cost, and by any means....

Politics for the People
Media Cover-up: Shielding Israel is a Matter of Policy

Ramzy Baroud

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The White Helmets, otherwise known as the Syria Civil Defense, are often presented as an independent humanitarian NGO, but in reality it was founded by a former British intelligence officer, receives millions of dollars in funding from the US, UK, Qatar, Denmark and the Syrian opposition party and material support and training by many EU member nations.

The White Helmets were set up by ex ‘security’ specialist and former British military intelligence officer, James le Mesurier who played a key role in some of NATO’s most dubious interventions including Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine....

Tidbit.

Professor Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of economics and international studies at Denison University says there is a lot of evidence the White Helmets have staged and choreographed events that have been revealed and debunked by many experts including the UN.

Fadhel Kaboub is an MMT economist.

Medium
Who are the White Helmets?

Claire Connelly

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But narrative control is working.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is America’s most popular politician according to a study by Quinnipiac University, CNN reported yesterday.

Neocon Bill Kristol, who "discovered" Sarah Palin, is pushing Haley for POTUS in 2020.

Zero Hedge
America's Most Popular Politician Is Nikki Haley...Let That Sink In

Tyler Durden

Moon of Alabama — The New Yorker Attempts But Fails To Boost The Steele Dossier

Setting the recored straight.

Marcy Wheeler aka Emptywheel, with whom I have exchanged views on this, details several of the factual errors in the piece:

Moon of Alabama
The New Yorker Attempts But Fails To Boost The Steele Dossier

See also

A look into the propaganda machine.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
White Helmet Films, Inc. ?
Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.)

At the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lang was the Defense Intelligence Officer (DIO) for the Middle East, South Asia and counter-terrorism, and later, the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. At the DIA, he was a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service. He participated in the drafting of National Intelligence Estimates. From 1992 to 1994, all the U.S. military attachés worldwide reported to him. During that period, he also briefed President George H. W. Bush at the White House, as he had during Operation Desert Storm. 

He was also the head of intelligence analysis for the Middle East for seven or eight years at that institution. He was the head of all the Middle East and South Asia analysis in DIA for counter-terrorism for seven years. For his service in the DIA, Lang received the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive. — Wikipedia

Peter Van Buren — Christopher Steele: The Real Foreign Influence in the 2016 Election?

His dossier was more than opposition research, it was part of a full-spectrum information operation.

The American Conservative
Christopher Steele: The Real Foreign Influence in the 2016 Election?

Peter Van Buren, 24-year US State Department veteran

Stephen F. Cohen — Russiagate or Intelgate?

The publication of the Republican House Committee memo and reports of other documents increasingly suggest not only a “Russiagate” without Russia but also something darker: The “collusion” may not have been in the White House or the Kremlin.

The Nation
Russiagate or Intelgate?
Stephen F. Cohen | Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies, History, and Politics at New York University and Princeton University

Publius Tacitus — Did British Intelligence Try to Destroy the Trump Presidency?

Last night's release of the memo by Senator's Grassley and Graham asking the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation of Christopher Steele for possible violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 provides critical confirmation of charges presented in the HPSCI memo prepared under the leadership of Devin Nunes, but it also confirms that Christopher Steele was not just some random guy offering good gossip to the FBI. He was an official intelligence asset. He was, in John LeCarre's parlance, our "Joe." At least we thought so. But, there is growing circumstantial evidence that Steele was acting on behalf of Britain's version of the CIA--aka MI-6. If true, we are now faced with actual evidence of a foreign country trying to meddle in a direct and significant way in our national election. Only it was not the Russians. It was our British cousins.

Here are the key take aways from the Grassley/Graham memo:

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Did British Intelligence Try to Destroy the Trump Presidency?

Publius Tacitus

John Helmer — The CIA Bull In Glenn Simpson’s Russia Shop

Another case in which investigators fail to ask the right questions.

Dances with Bears
The CIA Bull In Glenn Simpson’s Russia Shop
John Helmer

Publius Tacitus — The Trump Dossier Timeline, A Democrat Disaster Looming

When the entire episode about the creation of the Trump dossier (by former Brit spy, Christopher Steele) and its dissemination (by Steele and the Democrat hired contractor, FUSION GPS,) to the FBI and the press, is fully exposed, the American people will be confronted with the stark dilemma of how to deal with the fact that there was a failed domestic coup attempted by members of the U.S. intel and law enforcement community. The facts will show that the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the CIA and the FBI conspired and meddled in the 2016 Presidential election. They lied to a Federal judge about the origins of the dossier and used those lies to get permission to spy on Trump and members of his campaign staff.

Here are the facts as we know them now. (Please note, these facts are sourced and are not my opinion).

PT concludes that yes, folks, there was collusion to influence American politics.

The failure of the FBI and the CIA to disclose to members of Congress and the President that the information they briefed from the dossier had been paid for by the Clinton campaign is much more than gross negligence and incompetence. It is prima facie evidence of collusion and meddling in a U.S. domestic election. Only the culprits weren't the Russians. As Pogo once said, "we have met the enemy and he is us."

Sic Semper Tyrannis
The Trump Dossier Timeline, A Democrat Disaster Looming

Publius Tacitus

Publius Tacitus — Looks Like FBI or McCain May Have Paid for the 16th Report of the Steele Dossier

The plot thickens.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Looks Like FBI or McCain May Have Paid for the 16th Report of the Steele Dossier

Publius Tacitus

Andrew McCarthy — Was the Steele Dossier the FBI’s ‘Insurance Policy’?

In conclusion, while there is a dearth of evidence to date that the Trump campaign colluded in Russia’s cyberespionage attack on the 2016 election, there is abundant evidence that the Obama administration colluded with the Clinton campaign to use the Steele dossier as a vehicle for court-authorized monitoring of the Trump campaign — and to fuel a pre-election media narrative that U.S. intelligence agencies believed Trump was scheming with Russia to lift sanctions if he were elected president. Congress should continue pressing for answers, and President Trump should order the Justice Department and FBI to cooperate rather than — what’s the word? — resist. —

This is longish and detained, but important in light of the implications. Was the crime actually an attempted by the deep state to influence the election and afterward to negate it? This suggests it was on the part of the FBI.

Did CIA director John Brennan and DIA chief James Clapper know about it. Seems unlikely they would not.

This would be the real undermining of American "democracy" if so. If this is even plausible, the Trump administration and Congress should find out and inform the American public.

That is unlikely to happen since the ruling class never outs itself. A few people might be implicated, but the whole thing is likely to go the way of the G. W Bush administration policy of torture.

National Review
Was the Steele Dossier the FBI’s ‘Insurance Policy’?
Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review

See also

Consortium News (Dec 15, 2017)
The Scary Void Inside Russia-gate
Stephen F. Cohen is a professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University and a contributing editor of The Nation

Richard Kochetov — When Going to Bed With Dogs Is News, Getting Up With Fleas Is a Scoop – Here’s the One About Trump’s Bed, Putin’s Bed

A close examination of the "Trump dossier."

Dances with Bears
When Going to Bed With Dogs Is News, Getting Up With Fleas Is a Scoop – Here’s the One About Trump’s Bed, Putin’s Bed
Richard Kochetov

see also

Fabius Maximus
Deciphering the scandalous rumors about Trump in Russia
Editor

Larry C. Johnson — Inside the Dossier Smear of Donald Trump

I want to take you step by step thru the so-called “Dossier” on Donald Trump, US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE DONALD TRUMP’S ACTIVITIES IN RUSSIA AND COMPROMISING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KREMLIN.

This is an absurd but dangerous document. It is presented with the allure of presenting some insider information about the secret, nefarious activities of Donald Trump. But a careful reading of the material exposes some glaring inconsistencies and oddities.

Another important consideration, one that has been lost in much of the media reporting, is that this is not a “single” document. It is a collection of 16 separate reports, starting on the 20 June 2016 and ending on 13 December 2016. Here is just one of the “oddities”–John McCain supposedly sent a staffer to London to pick up the “Dossier” in November and then turned it over to the FBI on 9 December. How can you give the FBI a report that is dated the “13th of December” on the 9th of December?

That is just one of the problems....

No Quarter
Inside the Dossier Smear of Donald Trump
Larry C. Johnson | CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm with expertise combating terrorism and investigating money laundering, formerly Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (1989-1993, and CIA operations (1984-1989)

Also

The Democrats and #NeverTrumpers are getting traction with the big lie that Trump is an agent of Vladimir Putin and that Russian intelligence manipulated the election to help Trump. How? By repeating the lie over and over. That’s the problem. If these sore losers were asked to produce facts, sources or evidence then the propaganda meme falls apart.

I am belaboring this point for a very simple reason–senior members of the intelligence community, including Jim Clapper and John Brennan and other senior leaders are engaged in a concerted international effort to discredit and delegitimize Donald Trump as President. If they could have their way, Trump would be forced to step down before taking the oath of office next Friday.

I realize how crazy it sounds to assert such a thing (i.e., that the leaders of our nation’s intelligence services are conspiring and scheming to try to prevent Donald Trump from taking office), but it is true.…

Exactly How Did Russia Swing the Election to Trump?

Zero Hedge — Confirmed: "Unknown" Republican, Democrat Paid For Anti-Trump Report

Having learned previously both the identity of the former British intelligence officer who compiled the "Trump dossier", revealed by the WSJ earlier this week as former MI-6 staffer Christopher Steele, currently director of London-based Orbis Business Intelligence, and that John McCain was the person who delivered the report to the FBI, one question remained: who commissioned the original report meant to uncover a material,i.e., campaign-ending, weakness in Donald Trump's past.

We now have an answer, or least a partial one....

Zero Hedge
Confirmed: "Unknown" Republican, Democrat Paid For Anti-Trump Report
Tyler Durden

Moon of Alabama — "35 Pages" Attack Against Trump Fails - Foreign And Domestic Losses—UPDATED (at end of original)

A peak into the Washington and London snakepit. The vipers are after DJT.

They may have failed to knock him down and after he is inaugurated the strategy will be (political) death by a thousand cuts. This is a zero sum game for control of the most powerful country on earth and there global dominance. The stakes could not be higher. This is way beyond the ordinary political jockeying in transfers of power in the US.

Moon of Alabama
"35 Pages" Attack Against Trump Fails - Foreign And Domestic Losses—UPDATED (at end of original)

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Philip Giraldi — How a Former CIA Officer Reads the Trump Dossier

My suspicion would be that the report is a composite of some fact, a lot of speculation, and even some fiction. It is very similar to the types of media-focused disinformation produced by both CIA and KGB in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, where a little bit of factual information would be used to provide credibility for a lot of speculation and false stories that were intended to sow doubt and confusion. In this case, the original intent might well have been to discredit Trump personally; its release at this time is likely intended to delegitimize his presidency, or to narrow his options on recalibrating with Russia.

I expect, however, that much of the possibly tall tale being told will unravel as the FBI continues and expands its investigation. Trump has predictably denounced the entire matter as “fake news.” He may be right.

The American Conservative
How a Former CIA Officer Reads the Trump Dossier
Philip Giraldi | executive director of the Council for the National Interest and former CIA officer