One More Time: Do Not Trust the Intercept

Submitted by wendy davis on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 4:24pm

‘New NYPD press officer co-wrote The Intercept Russiagate story that landed source in prison; The Intercept published a story that landed Reality Winner in prison, burning its third source. That article was co-authored by Richard Esposito, an embedded police reporter who is now the NYPD’s top spokesperson’, Ben Norton, thegrayzone.com, May 20, 2020 (Note: no copyright, no republication guidelines, but a way to contribute, which I've added.)

“A co-author of a controversial report at The Intercept that landed its source in prison now works as the head of the New York Police Department’s press office.

The former journalist, Richard Esposito [center in the photo above], had embedded for a long period inside the NYPD, developing close ties to US police agencies that were clear before The Intercept chose to work with him. However, the news website apparently did not see Esposito’s cop-friendly behavior as disqualifying or even suspicious.

Esposito and his longtime friend and colleague, Matthew Cole, a full-time reporter at The Intercept, were co-authors of a 2017 report on National Security Agency allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. The reporters disclosed sensitive information to US government agencies, which led to the outing of their confidential source, former NSA contractor Reality Winner, and her eventual imprisonment for five years.

Although this scandalous story was the only piece Esposito published at The Intercept, he was somehow assigned an official company email address as well as an author page that has since been removed from the website without explanation.

The same duo, Esposito and Cole, played an intrgral part in the arrest and imprisonment of CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, several years before they worked at the Intercept.

@JohnKiriakou ‘Serious question for The Intercept: Do you secretly work for the FBI? David Hale, Reality Winner and Terry Albury are all in prison because of you. Is it incompetence or are you compromised? You owe a lot of people an explanation. And an apology.
6:51 AM – May 10, 2019

“The Intercept’s record of burning sources extends well beyond Reality Winner. In 2018, former FBI agent Terry Albury was sentenced to four years in prison, after he leaked documents to the news website exposing the police agency’s widespread racism and anti-Muslim surveillance practices. One of the co-authors of the reports exposing the FBI, Cora Currier, remains an editor at The Intercept. The other co-author, Jenna McLaughlin, went on to work with CNN, Foreign Policy, and Yahoo News.

Next, in 2019, former NSA official Daniel Hale was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly leaking documents [on drone warfare], also apparently to The Intercept. He faces up to 50 years in prison. [that link goes to Betsy Reed at the Intercept May 9, 2019 saying: The Intercept does not comment on matters relating to the identity of anonymous sources.” and dialing for dollars, as well.]

The troubling pattern raises serious questions about why sources of The Intercept, Richard Esposito, and Matthew Cole keep getting burned. Is it mere carelessness on the part of the reporters, or have US government agencies played a role?” [long jump]

It’s quite long, but I’d like to include the bolded headings including brief outtakes from a few sections:

Burning source Reality Winner, landing her in prison

“On June 5, 2017, The Intercept published a top-secret document leaked from the National Security Agency, which claimed that Russia’s military intelligence services attempted to meddle in the November 2016 US election through alleged hacking and phishing.

The article, which critics argued was over-hyped and lacked firm evidence, was co-authored by Richard Esposito and three full-time The Intercept staffers: Matthew Cole, Sam Biddle, and Ryan Grim.”

Billie J. Winner-Davis @bjwinnerdavis
‘My daughter #RealityWinner called 2x already today. SHE IS NOT OK.
The lockdown of the prison is having the worst possible impact on her & all inmates. Imagine being locked inside with no end in sight.
She has been denied psych treatment. She is not eating. I am scared.’
May 9, 2020

‘Journalist’ Richard Esposito is promoted to NYPD press officer

Richard Esposito’s long history with current The Intercept reporters

“Their reports made it clear that Esposito and Cole had very high-level sources in the CIA and other police and intelligence agencies. Virtually all of their scoops came from these anonymous officials, and the reporters tended to avoid biting the hand that fed them.”

Richard Esposito and Matthew Cole burn their source for a second time

The Intercept removes Richard Esposito’s author page from its website

“It remains unclear which reporter Reality Winner leaked the NSA document to. But given that Richard Esposito was brought on to publish that story alone, he seems like a good candidate.”

Many warning signs before The Intercept worked with Richard Esposito (quite a lengthy exposé, but one squib):

“Esposito spent a year working undercover as an embedded reporter inside the NYPD’s most elite bomb squad, and later wrote a book about it: “Bomb Squad: A Year Inside the Nation’s Most Exclusive Police Unit.” The Intercept clearly knew this; his book is listed on the bio that Esposito used to have on its website, before it was removed.”

“The Grayzone contacted The Intercept with a series of questions and request for comment, and has yet to receive a reply.”

You can support The Grayzone and help to sustain our original investigative journalism by becoming a patron at Patreon, or directly donate via PayPal.

Nice to see newly appointed NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Richard Esposito (@REspositoNYC) at this morning’s Citizen Crime Commission Breakfast and congratulate my friend of over 30 years on his appointment. pic.twitter.com/U5oaIW4IM8

— Bill Bratton (@CommissBratton) February 25, 2020

wd here: Now one of Norton's tag is 'Marcy Wheeler', but danged if I'd detected a link with her name in it; clearly I must have missed something. You may remember she'd worked for Pierre's rag, then quit, claiming there was 'no bad blood between them'.

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

Tags:

compromised media

don't trust the Intercept

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Comments

Submitted by Lookout on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 4:48pm

James Risen is another reason

He seems more CIA asset than reporter. Heard him (I think on a democracy now interview) express regret/guilt over Gary Webb's suicide after his expose' of CIA drug running. I wonder what made him feel guilty? He was a russiagater to the max as well.
Perry tells the Webb story here
https://consortiumnews.com/2014/10/04/nyts-belated-admission-on-contra-c...

I suspect Risen is just a mockingbird despite his anti-CIA, whistleblower rhetoric.

Glenn, Jeremy Scahill, and Lee Fang do some good work IMO. However the Intercept is not the outlet they pretend to be.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by wendy davis on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 5:49pm

i agree risen was likley cia, as well.

@Lookout

zounds, consortium news under robert parry was an entirely different animal than it is now. an look: he's interviewed gary webb!

greenwald can kiss my grits, frankly, a liar, whattaboutist deflecter, and his slams against julian assange (and four or five others of those 'fearless reporters') were downright evil. mazz hussain had famously lauded the White Helmet al qaeda cut-outs.

when they'd closed the snowden archives after publishing some miniscule amount of them? at whose direction? not a peep i'd ever herd from snowden. what does multi-billionaire Pierre NOT want published? i'm pretty i remember that he gives a lotta money to USAID, another cia cut-out, and is heavily invested in land in the ukraine.

but i really do hope folks will read it all; it's pretty damning. and where did Pierre's $250,000 start-up money go? First Look Media was going to pay for the Intercept, remember?

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 1:04am

Great info, Wendy.

@wendy davis

The Intercept makes my skin crawl.

Some fine writers there who debased themselves. That stink is never going away. Not as long as I can use a keyboard.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by RantingRooster on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 4:54pm

I'm always concerned

about "news media", even "indie media", if it's backed by a billionaire or more. Maybe they have an axe to grind with a particular administration, but they are not the so called "fourth estate". They have an agenda, and the truth ain't it. I mean, billionaires don't become billionaires by being friendly or nice to the 99%.

The "left" needs to be vigilant about infiltrators into their organizations. I'm just saying...

[video:https://youtu.be/XBHBuuxUdHE]

—

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Submitted by wendy davis on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 5:59pm

fun hearin' from george carlin.

@RantingRooster

noam chomsky? ach.

in this case it's clear that the Intercept knew exactly who esposito and cole were. srsly, read it all if you can make the time.

Pierre's billions: ack, i'd begun bingling if he were Paypal or one of those places, but ran into this along the way:

Glenn smears me (again) as a liar for suggesting that his boss-- CIA-linked billionaire Pierre Omidyar--influences the Intercept's reporting and influenced the closure of the Snowden archive. Greenwald's OWN words contradict this claim completely, see below. https://t.co/2YvIB3ATOH

— Whitney Webb (@_whitneywebb) October 10, 2019

Pierre Omidyar · Net worth $15.37 billion USD forbes says both eBay and payPal.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 6:26pm

The owner of the Atlantic is also a billionaire

@RantingRooster

worth $26 of them and he just laid off 68 journalists today because???? Who knows why rich people do anything? But to do it during a huge downturn is just dickish.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 5:13pm

I thought The Intercept was Glenn Greenwald

Was I wrong? What am I missing?

Who on Earth can I trust???

I NEED to build a life for myself; I have long-deferred dreams to pursue, I need something to live for. I can't just be a miserable political researcher all the time.

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by Pricknick on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 5:18pm

Trust none

@The Liberal Moonbat @The Liberal Moonbat
Verify everything you read or are told about. It takes a ~~lot~~ hell of a lot of research.
Ask joe shikspack.

i have been a news junkie for most of my life and the quality of the news that i read has gone down every year. there are almost no journalists and even fewer journalism outlets that i have much trust in.

—

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Submitted by CB on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 5:23pm

Not Greenwald

@The Liberal Moonbat
He deep sixed the Snowden papers. There's other articles that have made me distrust him. I no longer waste my time with his reporting.

Submitted by wendy davis on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 6:48pm

grin. i remember when bellingcat

@CB

was bragging that their 'crowd-sourced online news organization' would be spending a few days in NY to teach the Intercept journalists their tricks, greenblob had taken a lot of guff. he'd said: 'it wasn't a decision I would have made!' whitney webb again, bless her heart.

#lord.luv.a.duck. ; )

on edit: O, for a memory! i'd remember that ben norton had a link in his exposé about closing the snowden archives under 'dodgy circumstances' or close, and it went to barret brown at medium. while trying to find it again, but failing, i ran into this, right there in plain sight:

"Moreover, Esposito was a senior fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security (CCHS) from 2010 to 2019. This think tank, which is now located at Auburn University, served as a home for the spooks and national security hardliners who helped whip up public panic about Russian meddling. In 2018, it provided a fellowship to the Russiagate-peddling blogger Marcy Wheeler."

my eye are crapping out again; i need to get offline until the prisms go away.

Submitted by wendy davis on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 6:09pm

the Intercept has dozens

@The Liberal Moonbat

of 'fearless investigative journalists', but i won't click in to give you their names.

from the excellent journalist vanessa beeley:

Speaking of total delusion and lies Greenwald, have you ever publicly retracted or even explained why you claimed that Syrian government were responsible for #Douma chemical attacks? Now OPCW #WhiteHelmets are discredited, what is yr take?

— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) October 10, 2019

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 11:20pm

"fearless investigative journalists"

@wendy davis I cannot tell if that term is meant sincerely, sarcastically, or some third way. I figure it's important to know, though.

I get not trusting any outlet; maybe you can name some individuals? I hope Matt Taibbi's still good.

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by CB on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 1:32am

Matt Taibbi is pretty good

@The Liberal Moonbat
But he's still carries a grudge against Putin (not Putin's Russia) for throwing him and his rag out of Russia. When he was in Russia he did an experiment to find out how many Russian whores (many were young underage girls desperate for cash to support their families in the late 90's) he could bed with a dose of Viagra and printed it.

Here's more:

Matt Taibbi’s Not-So-Secret Russian Past
...
Taibbi’s apology is a beginning, but it does not go far enough:

"While the events described are not a biographical reality, this is not to say I don’t have regrets about the eXile, which was conceived as a giant satire, whose purpose was to be an ongoing embarrassment to the expatriates who came to Russia to spread the American way. In my younger mind this sounded like a good idea, a cross of Andrew Dice Clay, The Ugly American and Charlie Hebdo. But in practice it was often stupid, cruel, gratuitous, and mean-spirited. I regret many editorial decisions that I made back then, and putting my name as a co-author on a book that used cruel and misogynistic language to describe many people and women in particular. I hope readers can forgive my poor judgment at that time."

Taibbi wants to preserve a hygienic distance from the worst of the eXile, but this simply doesn’t jibe with some of the pieces published under his own byline. Look no further than this 1999 screed about ugly Western feminists’ jealousy of hot Russian women. Entitled “Of hacks and whores,” Taibbi’s takedown of a Western female journalist says her article “oozed such obvious bitterness and desperation that it might as well have been a perpetually unanswered personal ad in the back of Sagging Breast Weekly.” He continues:

"The fact is, Russian women–with their tight skirts, blowjob-ready lips, and swinging, meaty chests–scare the hell out of Western women. They know that if large numbers of them were ever to invade the placid, polite, lesbian-literature-and-designer-coffee dating scene of their home countries, they’d be priced right out of the market."
...

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 7:49am

i'm fairly certain that it's

@The Liberal Moonbat

the sobriquet they still use there, as in: 'donate to keep our fearless investigative reporting alive. who else will tell you the truth?' or close to that, but click in to see.

i'm reading my first 'do not trust the intercept' from may lat year, and at that point there were 99 of them. even shaun king from the black lives movement. one wonders why Pierre fills his stable so full, yes? for me, it means: 'Intercepting the New', but i'm an utter cynic.

it doesn't say why taiibi had split, nor...was it rick sperling? O, for a working memory!

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 1:16am

Here's a hot book idea for you.

@The Liberal Moonbat

Devote your time to planning a successful, fool proof, expatriation.

Write about the strategy you develop and present it as a how-to book.

There's a big audience waiting for someone clever to write that book.

Make a chunk of money and build your own publishing career.

Find your happy place on Earth.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 1:19am

Dupe

Cat posted it.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 1:25am

A cat?

@Pluto's Republic
I usually blame it on my neighbor's pet monkey that gets loose and just loves to bang on my computer keyboard when I'm not around.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 1:46am

Yep.

@JtC

He was the only other person in the room.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 7:52am

just think!

@JtC

if you let that monkey pound the keys long enough, he/she might write a Shakespearean Sonnet!

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 8:46am

Who...

@wendy davis
do you think writes my essays?

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 10:15am

the charming girl gorilla

@JtC

who rents the house next door to you, of course.

Submitted by Pricknick on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 5:22pm

I have a steadfast rule.

If any organization allows even one employee to make false statements, it's never again returned to unless they make a full correction. Even then they're suspect from then on.
I used to be an avid follower of the intercept. Never again.

—

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Submitted by wendy davis on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 9:57pm

now The Truth seems

@Pricknick

to be in the eye of the beholder/reader, doesn't it? the two amerikan papers of record (the WaPo and NYCIA times), for instance dodge bullets by quoting 'several inside anonymous sources say'. did the guardian ever correct any of the myriad lies luke harding et.al. told about assange and/or wikileaks? didn't wikileaks launch a suit against the paper?

and of course the most famous lying but mega-influential billionaire of all...has his own tab on the guardian, in the form of Global Development, the M&B Gates Foundation.

well, anyway, just a couple examples.

Submitted by Pricknick on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 8:42pm

Papers of record?

@wendy davis
Wendy you jest.
And no, I didn't call you surely.

—

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Submitted by wendy davis on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 9:56pm

you' never heard them

@Pricknick

called that? i'd just bingled and found the LA times and the WSJ are called 'papers of record' as well. i hadn't known that, shirley. noted for fact-checking, truth, and the amerikan way...oopsie, it seems i've gotten carried away. ; )

'17 nat sec agencies agree', '22 expert economists agree'...yanno, dodging bullets, s hellary clinton had while getting off her plane in...benghazi or somewhere?

Submitted by CB on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 10:08pm

That was in Bosnia

@wendy davis
It was a harrowing experience but she managed to save everyone.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I23fjRN-PGc]

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 7:55am

ha ha ha!

@CB

what a way to start the day; that was hilarious! thank you. well, benghazi starts with B, too. as my family likes to say of me: 'she's zeroin' in on it!'

Submitted by Pricknick on Thu, 05/21/2020 - 10:10pm

They have plenty of records

@wendy davis
I just dont scan the obituaries.

—

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 8:14am

well, hell, then.

@Pricknick

you need to read the Crime Reports!

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 1:43am

I recently did an analysis to determine

@wendy davis

...who produces the most effective and insidious propaganda in the US.

Turns out that a cartel of elite newspaper fact-checkers spread the lion's share of the mind-damaging misinformation that plagues us.

Our system of government has officially transitioned into a Bullshitocracy.

Thanks, Obama.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 8:33am

that sounds just about

@Pluto's Republic

right. and you've reminded me again of: The Propaganda Multiplier: How Global News Agencies and Western Media Report on Geopolitics, A Study by Swiss Propaganda Research, 2016-2019

“Therefore, you always have to ask yourself: Why do I get this
specific information, in this specific form, at this specific moment?
Ultimately, these are always questions about power.”

one graphic:

Submitted by mimi on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 5:19am

mama sez:"Don't trust a man who says 'trust me'".

Daughter asks: "Why not?"
Mama has no answer.
Papa sez: "Don't live with this man."
Daughter asks: "Why not?"?
Papa sez nothing, points to a photo of a man, who is surrounded by a harem with more than 5 wives and more than 20 kids.
Daughter thinks: "Papa knows nothing about the man. I don't know nothing about the man, To think like Papa is racist".
Daughter leaves mama and papa and lives with the man.
Mama and Papa let her hang, but it hurts them, because they loved their daughter kiddo.
Daughter struggles to make a living and feels guilty to have somewhat imposed herself on the man.
Daughter somehow did not trust 100 percenr, but didn't know why, and couldn't prove anything that justifies her lacking 5 percent trust.

Daughter distrusts the man a bit, and then herself a lot.

There is another chapter of this story. But don't trust me, I would tell you the truth.

May be the answer to who you can trust, is ' none of the above, including yourself' ?

When you are at that stage, you start to look at the margin of error of whom to trust. You asked youreself which marign of error is larger, when trying to trust someone and how much to trust your own guts or sixth sense.

Then you experience the tragedy of errors, get mad and decide it's all a comedy of errors.

Just so you can go on in life.

I looked for the song "I am alive", but found all not that fitting and distrusted my taste.

And that's the end of mimi's trust story... for now.
Trust, don't leave house without it.

I trust you all have a good day. Bye.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 8:26am

thank you, amiga,

@mimi

for mimi's story. we've all been brainwashed from the moment we started school, at least in amerika, especially in social studies and history. and of course it's getting worse under bill gates and betsy devos (sec. ed. and erik prince's sister).

but as soon as someone says to me, "Look; i'm gonna be honest with you..." my bullshit detector goes off, as that sounds like used car salesmanship.

have yourself a good day, too, mimi.

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 11:08am

i might break this into parts,

so Part I of my may 9, 2019 'do not trust the intercept'.

ben norton hadn't said much about the intercept and daniel hale having been inicted on borrowing the drone killing documents, but from b at MoA, another major Intercept detractor:

'Today the Justice Department arrested and charged a former U.S. Airforce soldier, Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, who had worked at the National Security Agency (NSA), as an intelligence analyst in Afghanistan, and at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA). The Justice Department alleges that Hale leaked several secret and top secret powerpoint presentations and papers to an online outlet:

According to allegations in the indictment, beginning in April 2013, while enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and assigned to the NSA, Hale began communicating with a reporter. Hale met with the reporter in person on multiple occasions, and, at times, communicated with the reporter via an encrypted messaging platform. Then, in February 2014, while working as a cleared defense contractor at NGA, Hale printed six classified documents unrelated to his work at NGA and soon after exchanged a series of messages with the reporter. Each of the six documents printed were later published by the reporter’s news outlet.

According to allegations in the indictment: while employed as a cleared defense contractor for NGA, Hale printed from his Top Secret computer 36 documents, including 23 documents unrelated to his work at NGA. Of the 23 documents unrelated to his work at NGA, Hale provided at least 17 to the reporter and/or the reporter’s online news outlet, which published the documents in whole or in part. Eleven of the published documents were classified as Top Secret or Secret and marked as such.”

bernhard continues to match the indictment’s dates, publications, and meetings with Intercept reporter Jeremy Scahill, as well as a Reuters piece that similarly had done.

“The indictment does not say how the government found out that Hale provided the documents to Scahill. But the two seem to have at times communicated openly via phone, email and through text messages. That should have been a no-no. The government recovered at least parts of those communications. Hale attended several of Scahill’s book tour events. Beyond that Hale openly communicated with ‘a confident’ [confidante] about his contacts with Scahill. Later Scahill and Hale used the encrypted chat tool Jabber. Hale also used Tails, a software package The Intercept recommends for leaking documents to it.”

‘Ex-US intelligence analyst charged with leaking top-secret drone war docs’, 9 May, RT.com, May 9, 2019

“Daniel Everette Hale was arrested and charged under the Espionage Act on Thursday for illegally disclosing top-secret and secret documents to the media, according to the indictment.”

There are Tweets from both Webb and Mark Ames, and I’d laughed when I’d seen his atop Webb’s:

@MarkAmesExiled “The Intercept is getting whistleblowers pinched & jailed—just as it quietly shut down *our* Snowden docs. Warned ya years ago nothing good would come from a tech billionaire with deep ties to the US military-intel world, but this is worse than I imagined”

That made me laugh, as it mirrored so well the detractors who’d called the That made me laugh, as it mirrored so well the detractors who’d called the publication of the Snowden docs ‘a limited hang-out’. Webb’s notes: “Another whistleblower to The Intercept about to go prison. ALL WHISTLEBLOWERS CHARGED UNDER TRUMP HAVE BEEN INTERCEPT SOURCES. See thread below for proof of Intercepts involvement @TimothyS @MarkAmesExiled

‘Another Whistleblower Bites the Dust as The Intercept Adds a Third Notch to Its Burn Belt; The Intercept, which has long been associated with the documents shared by whistleblower Edward Snowden, has yet to fire any of the reporters responsible for these breaches that have seen two whistleblowers already imprisoned and third, Daniel Hale, likely to be imprisoned’, Whitney Webb, mintpressnews.com, May 10, 2019

It’s necessarily long, but while discussing Hale, she mentions other possibilities to the timing lag:

“The indictment does not specify what led federal investigators to Hale several years after the events in question took place. Indeed, the indictment deals exclusively with events that took place between 2013 and 2015, and Hale’s house had been raided in August 2014, from which some of the evidence cited in the indictment was likely acquired. However, the Obama administration never pressed charges and it is unclear why the Trump administration has waited until now to do so, or if investigators acquired new information on Hale’s whistleblowing activities relatively recently. Hale, who appeared in the 2016 documentary National Bird about drone whistleblowers, had stated in that film that he anticipated being indicted at some point in time.”

This is the trailer; apparently you can find the entire documentary on youtube as well, and watch if you…pay to watch.

National Bird Official Trailer 1 (2016) – Documentary

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8hPK7G-5bw&feature=emb_logo]

Another possibility is that someone else at the Intercept other than Scahill was made aware of Hale’s identity, a point raised years ago by CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou and recently pointed out by independent journalist Caitlin Johnstone. After it was revealed that the Intercept had obtained information from a whistleblower on drone warfare, which turned out to be Daniel Hale, in 2015, Kiriakou tweeted: “New drone whistleblower at The Intercept. For God’s sake don’t let Matthew Cole learn his identity.”

'Trump Continues Obama’s War On Whistleblowers, Arrests Another Alleged Intercept Source', c. johnstone, may 19, 2019 3 paragraphs:

“New drone whistleblower at The Intercept,” tweeted the outspoken CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou in October 2015. “For God’s sake don’t let @MatthewACole learn his identity.”

Intercept investigative reporter Matthew Cole has been tied both to Kiriakou’s discovery and prosecution and to that of Reality Winner, who leaked classified documents to The Intercept in 2017. Kiriakou’s comment came after the first in a series of articles was published in The Intercept titled “The Drone Papers” by Jeremy Scahill on October 15, 2015. Today, the alleged source of this report has been arrested, the third alleged Intercept source to have been prosecuted by the Trump administration.

Former US Air Force language analyst Daniel Hale has been arrested and charged with violating the Espionage Act and other offenses related to leaking classified documents to the press. Court documents didn’t reveal the identity of the journalist who received the documents, but AP reports that “details in the indictment make clear that Jeremy Scahill, a founding editor of The Intercept, is the reporter who received the leaks.”

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 11:32am

pt. II

from may, 2019

more from whitney webb, another major detractor of the Intercept:

Terry Albury

“MintPress reported on the acts by the online publication and noted that the Intercept made two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in March 2016 for documents that the publication had already received from Albury — so the requests were an effort to “launder” or obfuscate the fact that the classified documents had been obtained from a whistleblower. Yet, both FOIA requests contained specific information identifying the names of the documents that were not publicly available, an error that led the FBI to link references contained in the requests to Albury’s activity on FBI information systems. The FBI subsequently found that documents that Albury had accessed had been later published by the Intercept.

Albury, a father of two young children, is currently serving a four-year sentence for bringing important information about the FBI’s abuse of power in relation to its counter-terrorism activities and surveillance of journalists to the public. To date, no one at the Intercept was fired in connection with Albury’s prosecution, despite the role of the FOIA requests made by the Intercept in his arrest.

“Furthermore, journalist Barrett Brown — who served a lengthy 63-month prison sentence for linking to hacked material — has recently stated that Intercept journalist Sam Biddle played a role in his imprisonment, further worsening the optics of the publication’s track record. Brown originally faced a combined sentence of over 100 years in prison before negotiating a plea deal.”

Having recalled some discussions as to the veracity v. extreme bias of TI’s James Risen, I dug out his page noting that he’s the Intercept’s Senior National Security Correspondent; this is his oeuvre. (Sprawling Russian Spy Game, Trump’s Cozy Relationship with Vlad, etc.)

But as for Pierre himself and GG having recently closed down the Snowden Archives, given Omidyar’s deep connection and financing of the Maidan putsch in Ukraine and other regime change operations via USAID, etc., one does tend to wonder if the 95% or so remaining unpublished docs might have, yanno, put Pierre in a compromising position.

along the way these had popped up while i was bingling:

Julian Assange Responds to the Freedom of the Press Foundation Cutting WL Loose , dec. 21, 2017

Why The Intercept Really Closed the Snowden Archive, Barrett Brown, March 28, 2019

From Barrett Brown, medium.com, March 27, 2019, a Tale in 5 leaked documents (he calls it a 24-minute read?) it's a telling (naked?) conversation by email, but still...

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sat, 05/23/2020 - 6:46am

These people are truly the scum of the earth.

@wendy davis

They are protecting this nation's war criminals and assisting them in their heinous International crimes. They actively betray the American People and debase their remaining rights every day.

On the other hand, these types of sociopathic subversives have always lurked among the homo sapiens. We tolerate them. They have cycled through our species — down the millennia — like a recurring genetic mutation for which we have no vaccine. For most of history, they are tedious, self-obsessed, and banal. Like loser journalists who sleaze the partisan rags, or Popadopolis wannabes anticipating their big break, before they are used and thrown away — these genetic defectives cannot harm the rest of us — unless we make the mistake of empowering them.

In the life of a civilization, a time can comes when the People become divided and polarized against each other. Each side opposes the social lifestyle of the other, and they are outraged that the government allows that lifestyle, and those values to exist at all! Each side is horrified if the government uses the People's money to support their preferred lifestyle. Frustated, the People begin to select stronger, meaner leaders to bully each other. They pick their politicians from the pool of defective sociopaths, whom they hope will fight for their ideals while mercilessly suppressing their opponents.

Meanwhile, the genetic mutations of these sociopaths are triggered when they are exposed to real political power, the constant grift of lobbyists, and the lavish bribes of the Billionaires. They rapidly succumb to a blind greed that feels entitled to self enrichments at the expense of the People. Ethics and morality are sketchy concepts, at best, in national politics. But the concepts are forgotten altogether as the depravity of the sociopaths sweeps like a Coronavirus through the Capital and infects all of their kind. They seize power from, and sabotage, those whom they were sent to DC to dominate. These mutants never even think to hide the disdain they have for the People who elected them. They happily accept money to crush the People's desire for personal economic security, and they sabotage the People's remaining civil and human rights. They ignore the People's pleas for support and instead satisfy the twisted perversion they have to harm and kill foreign populations and seize their resources. They boldly lie and commit war crimes so egregious that the world cannot find the breath to speak of them.

However, there's nothing exceptional or unique about these genetic throwbacks, who now own and operate the US Federal Government. They are trite people with empty souls and thought processes that are so banal and self-absorbed, that one might think they worked at The Intercept.

from may, 2019

more from whitney webb, another major detractor of the Intercept:

Terry Albury

“MintPress reported on the acts by the online publication and noted that the Intercept made two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in March 2016 for documents that the publication had already received from Albury — so the requests were an effort to “launder” or obfuscate the fact that the classified documents had been obtained from a whistleblower. Yet, both FOIA requests contained specific information identifying the names of the documents that were not publicly available, an error that led the FBI to link references contained in the requests to Albury’s activity on FBI information systems. The FBI subsequently found that documents that Albury had accessed had been later published by the Intercept.

Albury, a father of two young children, is currently serving a four-year sentence for bringing important information about the FBI’s abuse of power in relation to its counter-terrorism activities and surveillance of journalists to the public. To date, no one at the Intercept was fired in connection with Albury’s prosecution, despite the role of the FOIA requests made by the Intercept in his arrest.

“Furthermore, journalist Barrett Brown — who served a lengthy 63-month prison sentence for linking to hacked material — has recently stated that Intercept journalist Sam Biddle played a role in his imprisonment, further worsening the optics of the publication’s track record. Brown originally faced a combined sentence of over 100 years in prison before negotiating a plea deal.”

Having recalled some discussions as to the veracity v. extreme bias of TI’s James Risen, I dug out his page noting that he’s the Intercept’s Senior National Security Correspondent; this is his oeuvre. (Sprawling Russian Spy Game, Trump’s Cozy Relationship with Vlad, etc.)

But as for Pierre himself and GG having recently closed down the Snowden Archives, given Omidyar’s deep connection and financing of the Maidan putsch in Ukraine and other regime change operations via USAID, etc., one does tend to wonder if the 95% or so remaining unpublished docs might have, yanno, put Pierre in a compromising position.

along the way these had popped up while i was bingling:

Julian Assange Responds to the Freedom of the Press Foundation Cutting WL Loose , dec. 21, 2017

Why The Intercept Really Closed the Snowden Archive, Barrett Brown, March 28, 2019

From Barrett Brown, medium.com, March 27, 2019, a Tale in 5 leaked documents (he calls it a 24-minute read?) it's a telling (naked?) conversation by email, but still...

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by wendy davis on Sat, 05/23/2020 - 8:52am

a righteous and well-deseved

@Pluto's Republic

rant of rage, amiga. too many parts deserve attention, but allow me to shine a light on this one first:

Frustated, the People begin to select stronger, meaner leaders to bully each other. They pick their politicians from the pool of defective sociopaths, whom they hope will fight for their ideals while mercilessly suppressing their opponents.

by my lights, sociopath obomba had simply opened the door to any sort of trump, but he'd done it all with a smile and vague justifications that the D team endorsed and paid for. a bit on the stream-of-consciousness side, but his Terror Tuesdays, which hale may have been pinging in his leaks, were pretty much endorsed by bernie sanders in his first run at the presidency. he'd found them useful, but wanted a little less Bug Splat while drone assassinating alleged ter'ists in the ME, meaning males of military age who 'walked in formation' as seen fro satellite imagery (never mind that many were kids leading their families' goats into higher ground to pasture...)

just one of the reasons that intercept authors klein and greenblob loathed julian assange and wikileaks was that they were furious that Wikileaks didn't vet their war leaks with the national security state, thus 'harming the amerikan war effort'.

when the FPF board (largely intercept 'journalists' plus john cusack and daniel elsberg WT?) had voted unanimously to boot wikileaks out of the (anonymizing contributions) organization, trevor timm having claimed that 'it wasn't an issue any longer', or some such dreck, assange was blown away, as were many of us.

this crushed the breath right out of me it's such an over-arching metaphor:

These mutants never even think to hide the disdain they have for the People who elected them. They happily accept money to crush the People's desire for personal economic security, and they sabotage the People's remaining civil and human rights. They ignore the People's pleas for support and instead satisfy the twisted perversion they have to harm and kill foreign populations and seize their resources. They boldly lie and commit war crimes so egregious that the world cannot find the breath to speak of them.

...which is one of the main reasons to critique compromised media (especially 'indie media' like the intercept and belligcat, compromised NGOs like the OPCW, mega-billionaires' 'philanthropic foundations' like the clintons', bill and melinda gates', george soros's, and of course: 'Pierre's'.

and right now, a small fleet of tankers carrying gasoline to VZ is approaching that beleaguered-by-sanctions nation, as is iran of course. i'll try to get the story up today, but given the epic level of tensions, it my just turn into a shooting war. southcom ships are all over the place, the US DoD, pompeo, trump, and friends are issuing threats, iran counter-threats...where will it end? when will if end may be the larger Q.

challenge US command-and-control in every sphere? #not.on.your.nellie.

thanks pluto, for your additions and rage against the machine, and even the Intercept machine. i did send you a couple PMs if you have the wherewithal to respond.

#7

They are protecting this nation's war criminals and assisting them in their heinous International crimes. They actively betray the American People and debase their remaining rights every day.

On the other hand, these types of sociopathic subversives have always lurked among the homo sapiens. We tolerate them. They have cycled through our species — down the millennia — like a recurring genetic mutation for which we have no vaccine. For most of history, they are tedious, self-obsessed, and banal. Like loser journalists who sleaze the partisan rags, or Popadopolis wannabes anticipating their big break, before they are used and thrown away — these genetic defectives cannot harm the rest of us — unless we make the mistake of empowering them.

In the life of a civilization, a time can comes when the People become divided and polarized against each other. Each side opposes the social lifestyle of the other, and they are outraged that the government allows that lifestyle, and those values to exist at all! Each side is horrified if the government uses the People's money to support their preferred lifestyle. Frustated, the People begin to select stronger, meaner leaders to bully each other. They pick their politicians from the pool of defective sociopaths, whom they hope will fight for their ideals while mercilessly suppressing their opponents.

Meanwhile, the genetic mutations of these sociopaths are triggered when they are exposed to real political power, the constant grift of lobbyists, and the lavish bribes of the Billionaires. They rapidly succumb to a blind greed that feels entitled to self enrichments at the expense of the People. Ethics and morality are sketchy concepts, at best, in national politics. But the concepts are forgotten altogether as the depravity of the sociopaths sweeps like a Coronavirus through the Capital and infects all of their kind. They seize power from, and sabotage, those whom they were sent to DC to dominate. These mutants never even think to hide the disdain they have for the People who elected them. They happily accept money to crush the People's desire for personal economic security, and they sabotage the People's remaining civil and human rights. They ignore the People's pleas for support and instead satisfy the twisted perversion they have to harm and kill foreign populations and seize their resources. They boldly lie and commit war crimes so egregious that the world cannot find the breath to speak of them.

However, there's nothing exceptional or unique about these genetic throwbacks, who now own and operate the US Federal Government. They are trite people with empty souls and thought processes that are so banal and self-absorbed, that one might think they worked at The Intercept.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sun, 05/24/2020 - 1:02am

Thanks, Wendy. I really should database

@wendy davis

...the scum you name and their organizations. I envision a Rant-O-Matic app. ("Select your orgs and operatives and Rant-O-Matic writes it for you.") ...

...you know, that's not a bad idea at all... the app could be my philanthropic gift to the Internet. 'My Family Foundation' would be founded on this rock.

...

I appreciate your additions to the names and places. When I first spotted your work... I think that was back in the era of FDL... I remember how well you seemed to know all those cancerous growths that cover the Federal Government — the NGOs, the creepy think tanks, the blackbox foundations, along withbbb the mutants, saboteurs, sociopaths, and war criminals who operate out of them. (I was into geopolitics and macroeconomics back then.) I noticed that wherever those freaks you exposed went in the world — in whatever global tinbucktoo they rented office space — another US atrocity was soon to follow.

I could jump ahead of some of the stories after that. Benghazi, Maidan Square, Guccifer2, the False Flag attacks in Syria, and the US bio-weapons attack we are embroiled in now. (I don't believe a global epidemic and the search for a vaccine is the big story.) Getting in early was the reason I switched from geopolitics to propaganda and Hoax Busting. I wish people could see Dr Anthony Fauci through my eyes. There's a reason Trump and Pompeo keep him close.

I'll tap you on the other side.

#7.1

rant of rage, amiga. too many parts deserve attention, but allow me to shine a light on this one first:

Frustated, the People begin to select stronger, meaner leaders to bully each other. They pick their politicians from the pool of defective sociopaths, whom they hope will fight for their ideals while mercilessly suppressing their opponents.

by my lights, sociopath obomba had simply opened the door to any sort of trump, but he'd done it all with a smile and vague justifications that the D team endorsed and paid for. a bit on the stream-of-consciousness side, but his Terror Tuesdays, which hale may have been pinging in his leaks, were pretty much endorsed by bernie sanders in his first run at the presidency. he'd found them useful, but wanted a little less Bug Splat while drone assassinating alleged ter'ists in the ME, meaning males of military age who 'walked in formation' as seen fro satellite imagery (never mind that many were kids leading their families' goats into higher ground to pasture...)

just one of the reasons that intercept authors klein and greenblob loathed julian assange and wikileaks was that they were furious that Wikileaks didn't vet their war leaks with the national security state, thus 'harming the amerikan war effort'.

when the FPF board (largely intercept 'journalists' plus john cusack and daniel elsberg WT?) had voted unanimously to boot wikileaks out of the (anonymizing contributions) organization, trevor timm having claimed that 'it wasn't an issue any longer', or some such dreck, assange was blown away, as were many of us.

this crushed the breath right out of me it's such an over-arching metaphor:

These mutants never even think to hide the disdain they have for the People who elected them. They happily accept money to crush the People's desire for personal economic security, and they sabotage the People's remaining civil and human rights. They ignore the People's pleas for support and instead satisfy the twisted perversion they have to harm and kill foreign populations and seize their resources. They boldly lie and commit war crimes so egregious that the world cannot find the breath to speak of them.

...which is one of the main reasons to critique compromised media (especially 'indie media' like the intercept and belligcat, compromised NGOs like the OPCW, mega-billionaires' 'philanthropic foundations' like the clintons', bill and melinda gates', george soros's, and of course: 'Pierre's'.

and right now, a small fleet of tankers carrying gasoline to VZ is approaching that beleaguered-by-sanctions nation, as is iran of course. i'll try to get the story up today, but given the epic level of tensions, it my just turn into a shooting war. southcom ships are all over the place, the US DoD, pompeo, trump, and friends are issuing threats, iran counter-threats...where will it end? when will if end may be the larger Q.

challenge US command-and-control in every sphere? #not.on.your.nellie.

thanks pluto, for your additions and rage against the machine, and even the Intercept machine. i did send you a couple PMs if you have the wherewithal to respond.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by wendy davis on Sun, 05/24/2020 - 10:38am

i wish more folks could

@Pluto's Republic

see fauci thru your eyes, to, and as whitney webb's as well. i'd pasted in an entire tome of one of her recent exposé demonstrating the over-lap of all the key 'experts' and their funding orgs in that noel corona field.

it tanked of course, as she'd been writing about some 124-document 'commissioned by trump.

by the by, one of "peirre's" gems was financing the Integrity Initiative. did you see aaron
mate's tweet i'd stuck in below? holy shit, what a shit-hole that place is.

Rant-o-Matic! give one as a holiday gift!

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 4:29pm

a bit more on "pierre":

‘Pierre Omidyar: A Dangerous Billionaire-Backer Of The “Resistance”’, danny haiphong (of black agenda report) one year ago (omidyar's Iranian)

Omidyar is most concerned, however, with ensuring that the US empire maintains corporate and military control over the world’s nations and peoples. He has donated millions to the Clinton Global Initiative responsible for imposing ruthless austerity measures on nations such as Haiti. There is also documented evidence that Omidyar used his philanthropic network to support the “Maidan Revolution” in Ukraine in 2014 which propelled neo-Nazis into state power, much to the pleasure of the IMF. The billionaire eBay mogul has also been a critical supporter of the United States Agency for International Development or USAID. USAID is well-known for its support of “soft power” tactics to promote regime change in nations that do not bow down to U.S. military and corporate power such as Cuba.

Omidyar is not just dangerous at the individual level. Rather, the billionaire’s influence over the U.S. power structure is representative of conflict within the ruling class of the imperialist system headed by the United States. On the other side of Omidyar stands Trump, a ruthless billionaire who holds no allegiance to any sector of the imperialist system. Trump is not loyal to the banks or the military and intelligence apparatus. Trump is loyal to himself. His moves as President thus far such as the tax breaks for the rich, his willingness to broker peace in Korea, or his racist dog whistles and policies toward immigration from Central America, are all representative of the sharpening decline of imperialism.
[...]
We should steer clear of supporting Omidyar and expose his putrid political record as proof that there is no such thing as a “progressive” billionaire. Real progressives and radicals stand for universal healthcare, peace, jobs, and against war, mass incarceration, and mass surveillance. These are the political issues of our time that the entire ruling class stands against. Trump knew this and politically appealed to anti-regime change and anti-free trade sentiment within the Republican and Democratic Party. Through their “resistance” toward Trump, Omidyar and his ilk have as their real goal the suppression of this sentiment so that it never becomes a truly progressive movement for social transformation in this country.”

'Pierre Omidyar’s Influence Empire: ‘How One of America’s Premier Data Monarchs is Funding a Global Information War and Shaping the Media Landscape’; Through his purchase of influence over the daily flow of information to American media consumers, a dizzying array of connections to the national security state, and a media empire that shields him from critical scrutiny, Pierre Omidyar has become one of the world’s most politically sophisticated data monarchs, Alexander Rubinstein and Max Blumenthal , mintpressnews.com, feb. 18, 2019

Behind the image he has cultivated of himself as a “progressive philanthropreneur,” Omidyar has wielded his media empire to advance the Washington consensus in strategic hotspots around the globe. His fortune helped found an outlet to propel a destabilizing coup in Ukraine; he’s helped establish a network of oppositional youth activists and bloggers in Zimbabwe; and in the Philippines he has invested in an oppositional news site that is honing corporate surveillance techniques like a “mood meter…to capture non-rational reactions.” Meanwhile, he has partnered closely with the leading arms of U.S. soft power, from the U.S. Agency for International Aid and Development (USAID) to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) — acting as a conduit for information warfare-style projects in countries around the world."
[...]
Omidyar’s political agenda came into sharper focus last May when he began funding the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a pet project of neoconservative operative Bill Kristol that has stoked public fear of Russian infiltration of social media. This December, it appears that Omidyar’s donations helped Kristol launch a new online magazine called The Bulwark — rebranding the defunct Weekly Standard, which had served as the banner publication of the neocon movement and a central organ for promoting America’s wars. As usual, the billionaire’s activities were ignored in progressive media, leaving the critical coverage to a few right-wing outlets frustrated with Kristol’s anti-Trump crusading.

Omidyar’s support for the same neocon guru who oversaw the publication of an article branding NSA spying whistleblower Edward Snowden as a “traitor” should place the ebay founder’s acquisition of the Snowden files in a disturbing light. By establishing The Intercept and recruiting the journalists who possessed Snowden’s leaks, the billionaire effectively privatized the files. Not only did this delay their release, it denied the public access to the information in order to supply his stable of hired reporters with exclusive scoops that continue to appear years after they were leaked. To this day, only a minuscule percentage of the Snowden files have been made public and, for whatever reason, none of those that have been released relate to ebay or its assorted business interests."
[...]
Yasha Levine, the author of Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet, told MintPress:

“

In today’s backlash over Silicon Valley’s contracts with American military and intelligence agencies, people are focused on Facebook, Google and Amazon — while Pierre Omidyar’s eBay has been entirely ignored. But Omidyar has been at the forefront of building out Silicon Valley’s global private-public surveillance apparatus.

For the past decade Omidyar has quietly worked to expand eBay’s privatized surveillance-state model beyond online sales and into elections, media, transportation, education, finance, as well as government administration. His vehicle for that: the Omidyar Group, an investment vehicle that bankrolls hundreds of startups, business and non-profits around the world.”

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sun, 05/24/2020 - 4:38pm

One reason I reject the term "progressive"

@wendy davis

... is Pierre Omidyar and the way his use of "progressive" filled up that space in the Party with left-leaning moderates. The Real Left and the actual policies designed to benefit the People were corralled into "Far Left" space and marginalized. They were cast as dangerous violent extremists.

I don't trust any politicians or movements that use "progressive" to describe themselves. If they are truly on the Left and use "progressive" then they are too out of touch to be in politics. Nobody is going to line up outside a stadium to listen to a "Progressive."

Whenever a political operative or mediabot describes someone as "Far Left" I know they are participating in a psyop (even if they don't realize it).

I notice you cite Danny Haiphong once in awhile. Haiphong is one of my most-read political writers during the past 12 months. He doesn't get bogged down in backstory and academics. He comes out swinging and landing accurate punches. It takes a lot of research to hit the bullseye the way he does; often the Reader doesn't see it coming, which leaves a lasting impression. I like the way he boldly takes on topics that most journalists avoid. A growing number of topics are added to the Forbidden List every day in the US. Danny Haiphong doesn't seem to notice.

Because he is pretty prolific, yet seems invisible, it's likely he is being silenced. I read him at his publishing home, American Herald Tribune. The site is robust, publishing news articles and unique opinions that are philosophically Left. But, come to think of it, I rarely see this news site referenced elsewhere on the Internet.

...

Oh. I see.

I just googled 'American Herald Tribune' and found the following story on an Israeli website:

Online site that pays Americans to write articles originates in Iran

@nbsp;

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.”
Twitter removed the site’s account.

@nbsp;

(January 24, 2020 / JNS)

Although American Herald Tribune claims that it is a “genuinely independent online media outlet” paying Americans to write articles, multiple investigations by U.S. technology companies “point to “the site originating in Iran,” according to a CNN Business report on Friday.

A Facebook investigation into the site’s page on the social-media network found it linked to Iranian state media and removed it in 2018, a Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business.

Cybersecurity company FireEye determined with “moderate confidence” that the site originates in Iran and is part of a larger online influence campaign.

According to the report, “The articles on American Herald Tribune are largely in line with the views of Iran’s ruling establishment. It publishes stories criticizing American foreign policy and attacking [U.S.] President Donald Trump and Israel. Often, the criticism is not unlike viewpoints expressed on authentic U.S.-based independent websites, especially ones with an anti-establishment perspective.”

One of its most viral articles was published during the U.S. presidential election cycle in 2016 and made unfounded assertions about then-candidate Donald Trump’s father belonging to the Ku Klux Klan.

The author behind that article, Tim King, told CNN Business that Iran is “misunderstood” in the United States.

“I’m always glad to find a website that’s willing to, you know, publish stories about Palestine and Israel and different subjects like that, that are so fully taboo here in the United States,” said King regarding his role with American Herald Tribune.

Google told CNN Business that it took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to American Herald Tribune, and Twitter removed American Herald Tribune’s account this month after being contacted by CNN Business.

That was four months ago.

No evidence connecting Iran to the American Herald Tribune has ever been presented by CNN or anyone else I could find. But I wouldn't care one way or the other. I frequently read news from Iran, particularly when the US is involved.

The targeted smear ia coming from FireEye, a military-connected internet censorship service that is used by the Tech Giants and Reddit. Smells just like Mossad to me. They offer no proof; it is just an opinion. Newspapers pick it up as a "fact." The real news is that censorship is now openly used to deny the American people access to raw information. Corporations are doing the censoring, but the government is forcing them to do it by threatening to yank their indemnity. The US government has gone from deception to depravity.

So, here we are in the American Dystopia.

Is the American Herald Tribune a propaganda site run by Iran? Or is it an anti-propaganda site run by Iran? The only thing that matters is whether or not the articles are well-sourced and accurate. The US has started running from verifiable facts and information like a frightened coward. It tries to suppress the truth with lies. The People are passive. What a pitiful nation.

To me, the American Herald Tribune looks like a gathering place for international academics and it features the voice of the Left in the US. If they pay Americans for articles, they are keeping it a secret. There's nothing on the site to indicate that. I must admit though, for a publisher, they do keep a really low profile. I guess, after Assange, publishers know they could face the death penalty by a vengeful US. No trial is necessary. The government's corruption and war crimes killed the free press in the USA.

Since the US never had a political party that spoke with the voice of the Left, a draconian political freakout was a possibility when that voice was heard. Historically, in the US, people were killed or locked in prison if they made worker-oriented demands for rights and protections — things that people take for granted in other nations. When journalism from the Left cites credible evidence to back up their demands for standard social justice with proof of long term abuses — our Capitalist Overlords in Washington insist that a foreign enemy has attacked the nation by poisoning the minds of the American people. Everyone lock your doors. Don't read enemy documents that try to make the US look bad. It's a crime.

That's where things stand.

Now that I look at the American Herald Tribune again, I can see quite a few intellectually honest articles about Israel and zionism, and their impact on everyone who is neither. News and editorials critical of Israel are censored in the US. Seeing criticism for the first time can be shocking. It could change minds and opinions. A reevaluation of the US objectives in the world could take place. Ordinary People might question old assumptions.

Articles about Iran are also plentiful In the American Herald Tribune. But Iran stories are in newspapers everywhere right now. What is different is that the articles published in the AHT are not anti-Iranian screeds demanding the destruction of Iran's economy; or demanding war. The mandatory view of Iran in US news media is one of intense extremism and prejudiced hatred. Factual articles with a neutral perspective toward Iran that can be accessed by the American People strike terror in the hearts of our Capitalist warlords in Washington. They consider such articles to be a cyber-attack against the United States, and by extension, against Israel. Without censorship, the American People could start to see the Middle East Holocaust for what it really is.

Check it out before the US sends in the drones to "wipe them off the map."

[edited]

‘Pierre Omidyar: A Dangerous Billionaire-Backer Of The “Resistance”’, danny haiphong (of black agenda report) one year ago (omidyar's Iranian)

Omidyar is most concerned, however, with ensuring that the US empire maintains corporate and military control over the world’s nations and peoples. He has donated millions to the Clinton Global Initiative responsible for imposing ruthless austerity measures on nations such as Haiti. There is also documented evidence that Omidyar used his philanthropic network to support the “Maidan Revolution” in Ukraine in 2014 which propelled neo-Nazis into state power, much to the pleasure of the IMF. The billionaire eBay mogul has also been a critical supporter of the United States Agency for International Development or USAID. USAID is well-known for its support of “soft power” tactics to promote regime change in nations that do not bow down to U.S. military and corporate power such as Cuba.

Omidyar is not just dangerous at the individual level. Rather, the billionaire’s influence over the U.S. power structure is representative of conflict within the ruling class of the imperialist system headed by the United States. On the other side of Omidyar stands Trump, a ruthless billionaire who holds no allegiance to any sector of the imperialist system. Trump is not loyal to the banks or the military and intelligence apparatus. Trump is loyal to himself. His moves as President thus far such as the tax breaks for the rich, his willingness to broker peace in Korea, or his racist dog whistles and policies toward immigration from Central America, are all representative of the sharpening decline of imperialism.
[...]
We should steer clear of supporting Omidyar and expose his putrid political record as proof that there is no such thing as a “progressive” billionaire. Real progressives and radicals stand for universal healthcare, peace, jobs, and against war, mass incarceration, and mass surveillance. These are the political issues of our time that the entire ruling class stands against. Trump knew this and politically appealed to anti-regime change and anti-free trade sentiment within the Republican and Democratic Party. Through their “resistance” toward Trump, Omidyar and his ilk have as their real goal the suppression of this sentiment so that it never becomes a truly progressive movement for social transformation in this country.”

'Pierre Omidyar’s Influence Empire: ‘How One of America’s Premier Data Monarchs is Funding a Global Information War and Shaping the Media Landscape’; Through his purchase of influence over the daily flow of information to American media consumers, a dizzying array of connections to the national security state, and a media empire that shields him from critical scrutiny, Pierre Omidyar has become one of the world’s most politically sophisticated data monarchs, Alexander Rubinstein and Max Blumenthal , mintpressnews.com, feb. 18, 2019

Behind the image he has cultivated of himself as a “progressive philanthropreneur,” Omidyar has wielded his media empire to advance the Washington consensus in strategic hotspots around the globe. His fortune helped found an outlet to propel a destabilizing coup in Ukraine; he’s helped establish a network of oppositional youth activists and bloggers in Zimbabwe; and in the Philippines he has invested in an oppositional news site that is honing corporate surveillance techniques like a “mood meter…to capture non-rational reactions.” Meanwhile, he has partnered closely with the leading arms of U.S. soft power, from the U.S. Agency for International Aid and Development (USAID) to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) — acting as a conduit for information warfare-style projects in countries around the world."
[...]
Omidyar’s political agenda came into sharper focus last May when he began funding the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a pet project of neoconservative operative Bill Kristol that has stoked public fear of Russian infiltration of social media. This December, it appears that Omidyar’s donations helped Kristol launch a new online magazine called The Bulwark — rebranding the defunct Weekly Standard, which had served as the banner publication of the neocon movement and a central organ for promoting America’s wars. As usual, the billionaire’s activities were ignored in progressive media, leaving the critical coverage to a few right-wing outlets frustrated with Kristol’s anti-Trump crusading.

Omidyar’s support for the same neocon guru who oversaw the publication of an article branding NSA spying whistleblower Edward Snowden as a “traitor” should place the ebay founder’s acquisition of the Snowden files in a disturbing light. By establishing The Intercept and recruiting the journalists who possessed Snowden’s leaks, the billionaire effectively privatized the files. Not only did this delay their release, it denied the public access to the information in order to supply his stable of hired reporters with exclusive scoops that continue to appear years after they were leaked. To this day, only a minuscule percentage of the Snowden files have been made public and, for whatever reason, none of those that have been released relate to ebay or its assorted business interests."
[...]
Yasha Levine, the author of Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet, told MintPress:

“

In today’s backlash over Silicon Valley’s contracts with American military and intelligence agencies, people are focused on Facebook, Google and Amazon — while Pierre Omidyar’s eBay has been entirely ignored. But Omidyar has been at the forefront of building out Silicon Valley’s global private-public surveillance apparatus.

For the past decade Omidyar has quietly worked to expand eBay’s privatized surveillance-state model beyond online sales and into elections, media, transportation, education, finance, as well as government administration. His vehicle for that: the Omidyar Group, an investment vehicle that bankrolls hundreds of startups, business and non-profits around the world.”

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by wendy davis on Sun, 05/24/2020 - 5:06pm

lord luv a duck,

@Pluto's Republic

woman; you are a force of nature! i conked out a bit ago (i hadn't slept much again last night), got stuck in myriad dreams sequences, and awoke a bit on the groggy side. java now.

i need to go check on my other diary, but for now: i think i said haiphong and BAR, even having seen the AH tribune reference, but i know him mainly from BAR. bingling his name and BAR kicked up all this, including th array of sites that carry his columns. and even though i don't do videos, the lit even shows a couple of them thus...his face. aweome.

BAR carries anne garrison' work; i like her a lot. glen ford is tame as a pussy cat by now; dunno what happened to him. bruce dixon (rest in power) was the true radical of the two.

#8

... is Pierre Omidyar and the way his use of "progressive" filled up that space in the Party with left-leaning moderates. The Real Left and the actual policies designed to benefit the People were corralled into "Far Left" space and marginalized. They were cast as dangerous violent extremists.

I don't trust any politicians or movements that use "progressive" to describe themselves. If they are truly on the Left and use "progressive" then they are too out of touch to be in politics. Nobody is going to line up outside a stadium to listen to a "Progressive."

Whenever a political operative or mediabot describes someone as "Far Left" I know they are participating in a psyop (even if they don't realize it).

I notice you cite Danny Haiphong once in awhile. Haiphong is one of my most-read political writers during the past 12 months. He doesn't get bogged down in backstory and academics. He comes out swinging and landing accurate punches. It takes a lot of research to hit the bullseye the way he does; often the Reader doesn't see it coming, which leaves a lasting impression. I like the way he boldly takes on topics that most journalists avoid. A growing number of topics are added to the Forbidden List every day in the US. Danny Haiphong doesn't seem to notice.

Because he is pretty prolific, yet seems invisible, it's likely he is being silenced. I read him at his publishing home, American Herald Tribune. The site is robust, publishing news articles and unique opinions that are philosophically Left. But, come to think of it, I rarely see this news site referenced elsewhere on the Internet.

...

Oh. I see.

I just googled 'American Herald Tribune' and found the following story on an Israeli website:

Online site that pays Americans to write articles originates in Iran

@nbsp;

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.”
Twitter removed the site’s account.

@nbsp;

(January 24, 2020 / JNS)

Although American Herald Tribune claims that it is a “genuinely independent online media outlet” paying Americans to write articles, multiple investigations by U.S. technology companies “point to “the site originating in Iran,” according to a CNN Business report on Friday.

A Facebook investigation into the site’s page on the social-media network found it linked to Iranian state media and removed it in 2018, a Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business.

Cybersecurity company FireEye determined with “moderate confidence” that the site originates in Iran and is part of a larger online influence campaign.

According to the report, “The articles on American Herald Tribune are largely in line with the views of Iran’s ruling establishment. It publishes stories criticizing American foreign policy and attacking [U.S.] President Donald Trump and Israel. Often, the criticism is not unlike viewpoints expressed on authentic U.S.-based independent websites, especially ones with an anti-establishment perspective.”

One of its most viral articles was published during the U.S. presidential election cycle in 2016 and made unfounded assertions about then-candidate Donald Trump’s father belonging to the Ku Klux Klan.

The author behind that article, Tim King, told CNN Business that Iran is “misunderstood” in the United States.

“I’m always glad to find a website that’s willing to, you know, publish stories about Palestine and Israel and different subjects like that, that are so fully taboo here in the United States,” said King regarding his role with American Herald Tribune.

Google told CNN Business that it took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to American Herald Tribune, and Twitter removed American Herald Tribune’s account this month after being contacted by CNN Business.

.

That was four months ago.

No evidence connecting Iran to the American Herald Tribune has ever been presented by CNN or anyone else I could find. But I wouldn't care one way or the other. I frequently read news from Iran, particularly when the US is involved.

The targeted smear ia coming from FireEye, a military-connected internet censorship service that is used by the Tech Giants and Reddit. Smells just like Mossad to me. They offer no proof; it is just an opinion. Newspapers pick it up as a "fact." The real news is that censorship is now openly used to deny the American people access to raw information. Corporations are doing the censoring, but the government is forcing them to do it by threatening to yank their indemnity. The US government has gone from deception to depravity.

So, here we are in the American Dystopia.

Is the American Herald Tribune a propaganda site run by Iran? Or is it an anti-propaganda site run by Iran? The only thing that matters is whether or not the articles are well-sourced and accurate. The US has started running from verifiable facts and information like a frightened coward. It tries to suppress the truth with lies. The People are passive. What a pitiful nation.

To me, the American Herald Tribune looks like a gathering place for international academics and it features the voice of the Left in the US. If they pay Americans for articles, they are keeping it a secret. There's nothing on the site to indicate that. I must admit though, for a publisher, they do keep a really low profile. I guess, after Assange, publishers know they could face the death penalty by a vengeful US. No trial is necessary. The government's corruption and war crimes killed the free press in the USA.

Since the US never had a political party that spoke with the voice of the Left, a draconian political freakout was a possibility when that voice was heard. Historically, in the US, people were killed or locked in prison if they made worker-oriented demands for rights and protections — things that people take for granted in other nations. When journalism from the Left cites credible evidence to back up their demands for standard social justice with proof of long term abuses — our Capitalist Overlords in Washington insist that a foreign enemy has attacked the nation by poisoning the minds of the American people. Everyone lock your doors. Don't read enemy documents that try to make the US look bad. It's a crime.

That's where things stand.

Now that I look at the American Herald Tribune again, I can see quite a few intellectually honest articles about Israel and zionism, and their impact on everyone who is neither. News and editorials critical of Israel are censored in the US. Seeing criticism for the first time can be shocking. It could change minds and opinions. A reevaluation of the US objectives in the world could take place. Ordinary People might question old assumptions.

Articles about Iran are also plentiful In the American Herald Tribune. But Iran stories are in newspapers everywhere right now. What is different is that the articles published in the AHT are not anti-Iranian screeds demanding the destruction of Iran's economy; or demanding war. The mandatory view of Iran in US news media is one of intense extremism and prejudiced hatred. Factual articles with a neutral perspective toward Iran that can be accessed by the American People strike terror in the hearts of our Capitalist warlords in Washington. They consider such articles to be a cyber-attack against the United States, and by extension, against Israel. Without censorship, the American People could start to see the Middle East Holocaust for what it really is.

Check it out before the US sends in the drones to "wipe them off the map."

[edited]

Submitted by travelerxxx on Sun, 05/24/2020 - 5:48pm

AHT

@Pluto's Republic

Thanks for the tip re the American Herald Tribune. While Haiphong isn't new to me, the American Herald Tribune site is something I was unaware of.

#8

... is Pierre Omidyar and the way his use of "progressive" filled up that space in the Party with left-leaning moderates. The Real Left and the actual policies designed to benefit the People were corralled into "Far Left" space and marginalized. They were cast as dangerous violent extremists.

I don't trust any politicians or movements that use "progressive" to describe themselves. If they are truly on the Left and use "progressive" then they are too out of touch to be in politics. Nobody is going to line up outside a stadium to listen to a "Progressive."

Whenever a political operative or mediabot describes someone as "Far Left" I know they are participating in a psyop (even if they don't realize it).

I notice you cite Danny Haiphong once in awhile. Haiphong is one of my most-read political writers during the past 12 months. He doesn't get bogged down in backstory and academics. He comes out swinging and landing accurate punches. It takes a lot of research to hit the bullseye the way he does; often the Reader doesn't see it coming, which leaves a lasting impression. I like the way he boldly takes on topics that most journalists avoid. A growing number of topics are added to the Forbidden List every day in the US. Danny Haiphong doesn't seem to notice.

Because he is pretty prolific, yet seems invisible, it's likely he is being silenced. I read him at his publishing home, American Herald Tribune. The site is robust, publishing news articles and unique opinions that are philosophically Left. But, come to think of it, I rarely see this news site referenced elsewhere on the Internet.

...

Oh. I see.

I just googled 'American Herald Tribune' and found the following story on an Israeli website:

Online site that pays Americans to write articles originates in Iran

@nbsp;

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.”
Twitter removed the site’s account.

@nbsp;

(January 24, 2020 / JNS)

Although American Herald Tribune claims that it is a “genuinely independent online media outlet” paying Americans to write articles, multiple investigations by U.S. technology companies “point to “the site originating in Iran,” according to a CNN Business report on Friday.

A Facebook investigation into the site’s page on the social-media network found it linked to Iranian state media and removed it in 2018, a Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business.

Cybersecurity company FireEye determined with “moderate confidence” that the site originates in Iran and is part of a larger online influence campaign.

According to the report, “The articles on American Herald Tribune are largely in line with the views of Iran’s ruling establishment. It publishes stories criticizing American foreign policy and attacking [U.S.] President Donald Trump and Israel. Often, the criticism is not unlike viewpoints expressed on authentic U.S.-based independent websites, especially ones with an anti-establishment perspective.”

One of its most viral articles was published during the U.S. presidential election cycle in 2016 and made unfounded assertions about then-candidate Donald Trump’s father belonging to the Ku Klux Klan.

The author behind that article, Tim King, told CNN Business that Iran is “misunderstood” in the United States.

“I’m always glad to find a website that’s willing to, you know, publish stories about Palestine and Israel and different subjects like that, that are so fully taboo here in the United States,” said King regarding his role with American Herald Tribune.

Google told CNN Business that it took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to American Herald Tribune, and Twitter removed American Herald Tribune’s account this month after being contacted by CNN Business.

.

That was four months ago.

No evidence connecting Iran to the American Herald Tribune has ever been presented by CNN or anyone else I could find. But I wouldn't care one way or the other. I frequently read news from Iran, particularly when the US is involved.

The targeted smear ia coming from FireEye, a military-connected internet censorship service that is used by the Tech Giants and Reddit. Smells just like Mossad to me. They offer no proof; it is just an opinion. Newspapers pick it up as a "fact." The real news is that censorship is now openly used to deny the American people access to raw information. Corporations are doing the censoring, but the government is forcing them to do it by threatening to yank their indemnity. The US government has gone from deception to depravity.

So, here we are in the American Dystopia.

Is the American Herald Tribune a propaganda site run by Iran? Or is it an anti-propaganda site run by Iran? The only thing that matters is whether or not the articles are well-sourced and accurate. The US has started running from verifiable facts and information like a frightened coward. It tries to suppress the truth with lies. The People are passive. What a pitiful nation.

To me, the American Herald Tribune looks like a gathering place for international academics and it features the voice of the Left in the US. If they pay Americans for articles, they are keeping it a secret. There's nothing on the site to indicate that. I must admit though, for a publisher, they do keep a really low profile. I guess, after Assange, publishers know they could face the death penalty by a vengeful US. No trial is necessary. The government's corruption and war crimes killed the free press in the USA.

Since the US never had a political party that spoke with the voice of the Left, a draconian political freakout was a possibility when that voice was heard. Historically, in the US, people were killed or locked in prison if they made worker-oriented demands for rights and protections — things that people take for granted in other nations. When journalism from the Left cites credible evidence to back up their demands for standard social justice with proof of long term abuses — our Capitalist Overlords in Washington insist that a foreign enemy has attacked the nation by poisoning the minds of the American people. Everyone lock your doors. Don't read enemy documents that try to make the US look bad. It's a crime.

That's where things stand.

Now that I look at the American Herald Tribune again, I can see quite a few intellectually honest articles about Israel and zionism, and their impact on everyone who is neither. News and editorials critical of Israel are censored in the US. Seeing criticism for the first time can be shocking. It could change minds and opinions. A reevaluation of the US objectives in the world could take place. Ordinary People might question old assumptions.

Articles about Iran are also plentiful In the American Herald Tribune. But Iran stories are in newspapers everywhere right now. What is different is that the articles published in the AHT are not anti-Iranian screeds demanding the destruction of Iran's economy; or demanding war. The mandatory view of Iran in US news media is one of intense extremism and prejudiced hatred. Factual articles with a neutral perspective toward Iran that can be accessed by the American People strike terror in the hearts of our Capitalist warlords in Washington. They consider such articles to be a cyber-attack against the United States, and by extension, against Israel. Without censorship, the American People could start to see the Middle East Holocaust for what it really is.

Check it out before the US sends in the drones to "wipe them off the map."

[edited]

Submitted by wendy davis on Sun, 05/24/2020 - 6:48pm

it seems to be an aggregtor

@travelerxxx

aggregator website like unzreview.com and other (which site was also deleted by Farcebook). there are plenty others as well, and most authors may never have known their columns had been reprinted.

Submitted by wendy davis on Mon, 05/25/2020 - 11:08am

regarding politicans

@Pluto's Republic

who call themselves 'progressives' this un's a pip:

March 7, 2019 Press Release

Today, Rep. Khanna with fifteen progressive colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of State Pompeo rejecting threats of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, supporting diplomatic dialogue to resolve the political crisis there and opposing broad economic sanctions that hurt ordinary Venezuelans.

The letter condemns the Maduro government’s anti-democratic actions, human rights abuses and destructive economic policies but strongly expresses concerns that the Trump Administration’s misguided policy could make the situation even worse for the Venezuelan people.
...............................
“The Administration’s aggressive actions and rhetoric play into the Venezuelan government's narrative that the country’s problems are the result of U.S. intervention, helping shore up Maduro's support base and diverting attention from what is fundamentally a domestic problem,” said Rep. Khanna

The 15 co-signers of the letter are: Reps. Pramila Jayapal (WA-17), Mark Pocan (WI-2), Raul Grijalva (AZ-3), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson (GA -4), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Ilhan Omar (MN-5), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-7), José E. Serrano (NY-15), Tulsi Gabbard (HI-2), Karen Bass (CA-37), Danny K. Davis (IL-7) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-9).

Full text of the letter below and a PDF is available here.

including these snippets:

We strongly condemn the Maduro government's actions, including repression of Venezuelan civil society, failed economic policy, the killing of unarmed protestors, disregard for the rule of law, the holding of unfair elections, and blocking humanitarian aid from entering the country. However, threats of military intervention against a failed autocrat who poses no threat to our national security are simply unacceptable.

The Venezuelan government's own economic mismanagement and misguided economic policies are in large part to blame for the horrific economic crisis that has unfolded in the country. Yet today Venezuelan government officials can claim that the U.S. is waging an economic war and laying groundwork for direct confrontation, which threatens chaos and mass migration from Venezuela that will be felt throughout the region. The sanctions are already hurting ordinary people and contributing to the ongoing outbound migration of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, which could also result in a dramatic increase in refugees to the U.S.

criminalizing his 'regime', but going to Great Lengths to cry: 'but No regime change!

#8

... is Pierre Omidyar and the way his use of "progressive" filled up that space in the Party with left-leaning moderates. The Real Left and the actual policies designed to benefit the People were corralled into "Far Left" space and marginalized. They were cast as dangerous violent extremists.

I don't trust any politicians or movements that use "progressive" to describe themselves. If they are truly on the Left and use "progressive" then they are too out of touch to be in politics. Nobody is going to line up outside a stadium to listen to a "Progressive."

Whenever a political operative or mediabot describes someone as "Far Left" I know they are participating in a psyop (even if they don't realize it).

I notice you cite Danny Haiphong once in awhile. Haiphong is one of my most-read political writers during the past 12 months. He doesn't get bogged down in backstory and academics. He comes out swinging and landing accurate punches. It takes a lot of research to hit the bullseye the way he does; often the Reader doesn't see it coming, which leaves a lasting impression. I like the way he boldly takes on topics that most journalists avoid. A growing number of topics are added to the Forbidden List every day in the US. Danny Haiphong doesn't seem to notice.

Because he is pretty prolific, yet seems invisible, it's likely he is being silenced. I read him at his publishing home, American Herald Tribune. The site is robust, publishing news articles and unique opinions that are philosophically Left. But, come to think of it, I rarely see this news site referenced elsewhere on the Internet.

...

Oh. I see.

I just googled 'American Herald Tribune' and found the following story on an Israeli website:

Online site that pays Americans to write articles originates in Iran

@nbsp;

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.”
Twitter removed the site’s account.

@nbsp;

(January 24, 2020 / JNS)

Although American Herald Tribune claims that it is a “genuinely independent online media outlet” paying Americans to write articles, multiple investigations by U.S. technology companies “point to “the site originating in Iran,” according to a CNN Business report on Friday.

A Facebook investigation into the site’s page on the social-media network found it linked to Iranian state media and removed it in 2018, a Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business.

Cybersecurity company FireEye determined with “moderate confidence” that the site originates in Iran and is part of a larger online influence campaign.

According to the report, “The articles on American Herald Tribune are largely in line with the views of Iran’s ruling establishment. It publishes stories criticizing American foreign policy and attacking [U.S.] President Donald Trump and Israel. Often, the criticism is not unlike viewpoints expressed on authentic U.S.-based independent websites, especially ones with an anti-establishment perspective.”

One of its most viral articles was published during the U.S. presidential election cycle in 2016 and made unfounded assertions about then-candidate Donald Trump’s father belonging to the Ku Klux Klan.

The author behind that article, Tim King, told CNN Business that Iran is “misunderstood” in the United States.

“I’m always glad to find a website that’s willing to, you know, publish stories about Palestine and Israel and different subjects like that, that are so fully taboo here in the United States,” said King regarding his role with American Herald Tribune.

Google told CNN Business that it took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to American Herald Tribune, and Twitter removed American Herald Tribune’s account this month after being contacted by CNN Business.

.

That was four months ago.

No evidence connecting Iran to the American Herald Tribune has ever been presented by CNN or anyone else I could find. But I wouldn't care one way or the other. I frequently read news from Iran, particularly when the US is involved.

The targeted smear ia coming from FireEye, a military-connected internet censorship service that is used by the Tech Giants and Reddit. Smells just like Mossad to me. They offer no proof; it is just an opinion. Newspapers pick it up as a "fact." The real news is that censorship is now openly used to deny the American people access to raw information. Corporations are doing the censoring, but the government is forcing them to do it by threatening to yank their indemnity. The US government has gone from deception to depravity.

So, here we are in the American Dystopia.

Is the American Herald Tribune a propaganda site run by Iran? Or is it an anti-propaganda site run by Iran? The only thing that matters is whether or not the articles are well-sourced and accurate. The US has started running from verifiable facts and information like a frightened coward. It tries to suppress the truth with lies. The People are passive. What a pitiful nation.

To me, the American Herald Tribune looks like a gathering place for international academics and it features the voice of the Left in the US. If they pay Americans for articles, they are keeping it a secret. There's nothing on the site to indicate that. I must admit though, for a publisher, they do keep a really low profile. I guess, after Assange, publishers know they could face the death penalty by a vengeful US. No trial is necessary. The government's corruption and war crimes killed the free press in the USA.

Since the US never had a political party that spoke with the voice of the Left, a draconian political freakout was a possibility when that voice was heard. Historically, in the US, people were killed or locked in prison if they made worker-oriented demands for rights and protections — things that people take for granted in other nations. When journalism from the Left cites credible evidence to back up their demands for standard social justice with proof of long term abuses — our Capitalist Overlords in Washington insist that a foreign enemy has attacked the nation by poisoning the minds of the American people. Everyone lock your doors. Don't read enemy documents that try to make the US look bad. It's a crime.

That's where things stand.

Now that I look at the American Herald Tribune again, I can see quite a few intellectually honest articles about Israel and zionism, and their impact on everyone who is neither. News and editorials critical of Israel are censored in the US. Seeing criticism for the first time can be shocking. It could change minds and opinions. A reevaluation of the US objectives in the world could take place. Ordinary People might question old assumptions.

Articles about Iran are also plentiful In the American Herald Tribune. But Iran stories are in newspapers everywhere right now. What is different is that the articles published in the AHT are not anti-Iranian screeds demanding the destruction of Iran's economy; or demanding war. The mandatory view of Iran in US news media is one of intense extremism and prejudiced hatred. Factual articles with a neutral perspective toward Iran that can be accessed by the American People strike terror in the hearts of our Capitalist warlords in Washington. They consider such articles to be a cyber-attack against the United States, and by extension, against Israel. Without censorship, the American People could start to see the Middle East Holocaust for what it really is.

Check it out before the US sends in the drones to "wipe them off the map."

[edited]

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 05/29/2020 - 11:30pm

If any of these people are running under the Democratic brand

@wendy davis

...in 2020, they should be voted against and removed from office like all Democrats.

We must destroy this leg of the Duolopy with votes. Then kick the other leg out from under the fake democracy.

Not voting is not enough.
Passive voting is even worse.

Reps. Pramila Jayapal (WA-17), Mark Pocan (WI-2), Raul Grijalva (AZ-3), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson (GA -4), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Ilhan Omar (MN-5), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-7), José E. Serrano (NY-15), Tulsi Gabbard (HI-2), Karen Bass (CA-37), Danny K. Davis (IL-7) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-9).

#8.1

who call themselves 'progressives' this un's a pip:

March 7, 2019 Press Release

Today, Rep. Khanna with fifteen progressive colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of State Pompeo rejecting threats of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, supporting diplomatic dialogue to resolve the political crisis there and opposing broad economic sanctions that hurt ordinary Venezuelans.

The letter condemns the Maduro government’s anti-democratic actions, human rights abuses and destructive economic policies but strongly expresses concerns that the Trump Administration’s misguided policy could make the situation even worse for the Venezuelan people.
...............................
“The Administration’s aggressive actions and rhetoric play into the Venezuelan government's narrative that the country’s problems are the result of U.S. intervention, helping shore up Maduro's support base and diverting attention from what is fundamentally a domestic problem,” said Rep. Khanna

The 15 co-signers of the letter are: Reps. Pramila Jayapal (WA-17), Mark Pocan (WI-2), Raul Grijalva (AZ-3), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson (GA -4), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Ilhan Omar (MN-5), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-7), José E. Serrano (NY-15), Tulsi Gabbard (HI-2), Karen Bass (CA-37), Danny K. Davis (IL-7) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-9).

Full text of the letter below and a PDF is available here.

including these snippets:

We strongly condemn the Maduro government's actions, including repression of Venezuelan civil society, failed economic policy, the killing of unarmed protestors, disregard for the rule of law, the holding of unfair elections, and blocking humanitarian aid from entering the country. However, threats of military intervention against a failed autocrat who poses no threat to our national security are simply unacceptable.

The Venezuelan government's own economic mismanagement and misguided economic policies are in large part to blame for the horrific economic crisis that has unfolded in the country. Yet today Venezuelan government officials can claim that the U.S. is waging an economic war and laying groundwork for direct confrontation, which threatens chaos and mass migration from Venezuela that will be felt throughout the region. The sanctions are already hurting ordinary people and contributing to the ongoing outbound migration of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, which could also result in a dramatic increase in refugees to the U.S.

criminalizing his 'regime', but going to Great Lengths to cry: 'but No regime change!

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by wendy davis on Sat, 05/23/2020 - 6:27pm

from aaron mate:

.@TheIntercept's fundraising is distasteful. Paints itself as a "nonprofit supported by readers", facing "significant expenses...like masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer for reporters." In reality, it's funded by a billionaire & pays insane salaries, e.g. to fundraiser's signatory. pic.twitter.com/P4mUaQDpZT

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) May 22, 2020

One More Time: Do Not Trust the Intercept

Comments

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.” Twitter removed the site’s account.

(January 24, 2020 / JNS)

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Online site that pays Americans to write articles originates in Iran

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.” Twitter removed the site’s account.

(January 24, 2020 / JNS)

Online site that pays Americans to write articles originates in Iran

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.” Twitter removed the site’s account.

(January 24, 2020 / JNS)

Online site that pays Americans to write articles originates in Iran

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.” Twitter removed the site’s account.

(January 24, 2020 / JNS)

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.”
Twitter removed the site’s account.

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.”
Twitter removed the site’s account.

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.”
Twitter removed the site’s account.

Google took down Gmail and Google ad accounts tied to “American Herald Tribune.”
Twitter removed the site’s account.

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange