Intel Today — British Intelligence Agencies

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Intel Today
British Intelligence Agencies

Elizabeth Murray — Examining the Stasi, Seeing the NSA [and MI5]

For many years, the East German Stasi was viewed as the most totalitarian of intelligence services, relentlessly spying on its citizens during the Cold War. But the Stasi’s capabilities pale in comparison to what the NSA can now do, notes former U.S. intelligence analyst Elizabeth Murray.

Edward Snowden is not the only analyst that saw what was happening and viewed it as the erosion of constitutional democracy in the US and UK.

Consortium News
Examining the Stasi, Seeing the NSA [and MI5]

Elizabeth Murray | formerly Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East in the National Intelligence Council before retiring after a 27-year career in the U.S. government. She is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

Lambert Strether — False Flag?

Pushing Ukraine to the Brink Counterpunch (bwilli123). Fun read from July 9. Because it would be irresponsible not to speculate:

[A]ll Putin has to do is sit-tight and he wins, mainly because the EU needs Moscow’s gas. If energy supplies are terminated or drastically reduced, prices will rise, the EU will slide back into recession, and Washington will take the blame. So Washington has a very small window to draw Putin into the fray, which is why we should expect another false flag incident on a much larger scale than the fire in Odessa. Washington is going to have to do something really big and make it look like it was Moscow’s doing. Otherwise, their pivot plan is going to hit a brick wall.

Then again, we could be looking at opportunists taking advantage of a happy accident! That said, it does make one wonder whether the Dutch being self-sufficient in gas could have formed part of the realpolitik….

Anyone who didn't think of this before reading the Counterpunch article either wasn't paying attention or is not much of an analyst, especially based on the history of Washington and London's black ops stretching back at least to the overthrow of democratically elected Mohammad Mosaddegh and install at of the domestically repressive but US compliant regime of the Shah in the Iranian coup of 1953 — to which the CIA has recently admitted (Operation Ajax) and the overthrow and murder of democratically elected Salvador Allende and his replacement by US compliant dictator Augusto Pinochet. Only fools would not suspect another false flag operation to accomplish the same "dirty tricks" in the Ukraine, given that Washington and the US intelligence service were involved in the overthrow of democratically elected Viktor Yanukovych. Anyone see a pattern of thuggery here?

This is particularly suspect in the rush to judgment in blaming Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian "rebels," who are actually fighters in a civil war that is raging, and branding them as terrorists. Russia had no motivation to do this, and in fact, the strategy it has been pursuing is contrary to it. Nor did the Ukrainian opposition have anything to gain by it. On the other hand, there is a strong motivation on the part of both the Ukrainian government and the United States, both of which have a lot to gain in provoking Moscow to react.

Not rushing to judgment here. Let's wait for an investigation if one ever transpires. Jus' saying'.

Naked Capitalism
Links 7/20/14
Lambert Strether

Lambert documents it in The Mystery of Flight MH17: Motives, Missiles, Flight Plans, and the Media

Wonkish, but your future depends on the outcome of this. Russia is neither an Iran of 1953 nor Chile of 1973. Nor is it just another minor nuclear state like NK. The Russian military can inflict terminal damage on CONUS (military jargon for continental US).