On Fake News

“You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” -Jesus

The Washington Post has promoted a list of “Russian propaganda” websites [full list] claiming a “Russian propaganda effort” spreading fake news. The problem? Many (most?) of the sites are legitimate sites dispensing news ‘mainstream’ doesn’t cover. How about this instead:

“You could get a [Washington Post] journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month.” -CIA operative cited in “Katherine The Great” by Deborah Davis

Meanwhile:

“During the 1976 investigation of the CIA by the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Senator Frank Church, the dimensions of the Agency’s involvement with the press became apparent to several members of the panel, as well as to two or three investigators on the staff. But top officials of the CIA, including former directors William Colby and George Bush, persuaded the committee to restrict its inquiry into the matter and to deliberately misrepresent the actual scope of the activities in its final report”

“Contrary to the notion that the CIA insidiously infiltrated the journalistic community, there is ample evidence that America’s leading publishers and news executives allowed themselves and their organizations to become handmaidens to the intelligence services”

“There is quite an incredible spread of relationships. You don’t need to manipulate Time magazine, for example, because there are [Central Intelligence] Agency people at the management level.” -William B. Bader, former CIA intelligence officer, briefing members of the Senate Intelligence Committee

“The Agency’s relationship with [The New York] Times was by far its most valuable among newspapers, according to CIA officials. [It was] general Times policy … to provide assistance to the CIA whenever possible.”

Preceding quotes from ‘CIA and the Media’ by Carl Bernstein

“Propaganda experts in the CIA station in Kinshasa busily planted articles in the Kinshasa newspapers, Elimo and Salongo. These were recopied into agency cables and sent on to European, Asian, and South American stations, where they were secretly passed to recruited journalists representing major news services who saw to it that many were replayed in the world press. Similarly, the Lusaka station placed a steady flow of stories in Zambian newspapers and then relayed them to major European newspapers

“During a staff meeting I voiced my concern to —-, were we on safe ground, paying agents to propagandize the New York press? The agency had recently been warned against running operations inside the United States and propagandizing the American public. —- seemed unconcerned. We were safe enough, he said, as long as we could plausibly claim that our intent was to propagandize foreigners at the United Nations

“The task force worked out the details by cabling New York, Lusaka, Kinshasa, and key European stations. Each delegation opened a bank account in Europe to which European-based CIA finance officers could make regular deposits. Thereafter the CIA could plausibly deny that it had funded anyone’s propagandists in the United States. It would be extremely difficult for any investigators to prove differently

“Director Colby testified before the House Select Committee on Intelligence, saying: “We have taken particular caution to ensure that our operations are focused abroad and not at the United States to influence the opinion of the American people about things from the CIA point of view.” A remarkable statement in view of what we had been doing in the task force (Director Colby received copies of all [relevant] cables and memoranda.)”

And going to the conclusion of CIA lawlessness:

“CIA written records become mysteriously vague about the Lumumba assassination plot, the Trujillo assassination plot, and the Schneider assassination plot. In each case there are documents which place CIA officers in supportive contact with the eventual assassins but the link seems to break before the final deed”

And:

“Since the Freedom of Information Act, the agency increasingly uses a system of “soft,” “unofficial,” or “convenience” files for sensitive subjects, especially any involving surveillance of Americans. Such files are not registered in the agency’s official records system, and hence can never be disclosed under the FOIA”

Preceding quotes from ‘In Search of Enemies‘ by CIA officer John Stockton

Recalling CIA officer Stockton’s last two paragraphs (cited in bold above), lets not forget Michael Hastings forward looking tip on what became law in 2013:

“The newest version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes an amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on the American public, reports Michael Hastings of Buzzfeed.

“The amendment — proposed by Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and passed in the House last Friday afternoon — would effectively nullify the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at influencing U.S. public opinion”

Yeah THIS Michael Hastings:

Richard Clarke, the counterterrorism chief under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, told the Huffington Post that Hastings’s [fatal] crash looked “consistent with a [Mercedes computer hacked] car cyber attack”

Furthermore:

“Hastings’ wife Elise Jordan later confirmed that he had been working on a profile of [Obama’s CIA Director John] Brennan when he [Hastings] died. Although Rolling Stone was expected to publish his article posthumously, the editors have not released his final piece and refuse to answer why”

Clearly because:

“The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media” — former CIA Director William Colby

It would seem then, if the CIA can’t own a significant journalist, the CIA almost certainly can neutralize a significant journalist.

All of the preceding is consistent with former Pentagon liaison to the CIA, the nearly unknown (to the larger American public) whistle-blower, Colonel Prouty’s conclusions:

“the [Central Intelligence] Agency has a whole stable of writers, its favorite magazines and newspapers, its publishing houses, and its “backgrounders” ready to go at all times” – L Fletcher Prouty

article updated 17 December 2016

An expanded article built around the CIA-media manipulations with examples HERE

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