This article first appeared at Fort Russ News
“The saying “the buck stops here” derives from the slang expression “pass the buck” which means passing the responsibility on to someone else” [1]
This piece begins with an asymmetrical question to the subject of taking (or imposing) responsibility for disaster; why is it Europe worships its biggest losers? Because the collective memory of any given (European, includes its colonial progeny) society constitutes a state of denial or refusal to take responsibility for colossal mistakes? Recalling…
History is the lie commonly agreed upon” -Voltaire
…and considering Voltaire was French, we can, by way of introduction to the following essay, simply point out Napoleon was a multiple loser, several times on a grand scale, who’d drained France of both: blood & treasure. Despite the destruction of the ‘Grande Armée’ (380,000 dead French empire soldiers solely due to Napoleon’s Russia campaign) and ultimate defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon is regarded as ‘great.’ WTF. Fewer, if any, created greater mischief for France than Napoleon. Following on Russia, it was Britain finally imposed responsibility on a greatly weakened France.
As well, then we have aftermath. Napoleon was responsible for the initial unity of several German principalities that ultimately led to the modern German state, and, with his ‘Napoleonic Code’ imposed upon these, introduced the idea of a ‘uniform education’ that, shortly after, inspired Prussia to (with Rules!, Obey!) educate all future Germans into Prussian mentalities and we know what that blessed France with, only a short century later, WWI & ‘pause’ WWII.
But, let us not forget, concerning the two ‘great’ colonizing powers (empires), Britain & France, the greater mischief had been wrought by Britain. The recipe had been straightforward and simple; as England had devolved away from real democratic principles (bloated from the corruption of empire), it had baked up what looks like…
Sing a Song of Sixpence,
A bag full of Rye,
Four and twenty Naughty Boys,
Baked in a Pie.
When the pie was opened
They began to sing;
Wasn’t that a dainty dish,
To set before the king.
…or in the modern idiom:
Empty the jails and lunatic asylums of Britain into the American colonies, add in Europe’s (as a whole) banished religious fanatics (Calvinists, especially) and stir it all into a hybrid vigor that became today’s American empire. Who will be held responsible for the world’s superpower run by hyper-criminal lunatics (and religious fanatics) that have dispensed with the rule of law except for a fraudulent pretense; where those accountable to constitutional principles are suborned into ‘color of law’ applied like make-up on a corpse (of a thoroughly dead republic.)
color of law
n. the appearance of an act being performed based upon legal right or enforcement of statute, when in reality no such right exists [2]
What the preceding definition misses is, these days, it is a common occurrence for suborned American politicians to pass, and rank political animals (judges) to uphold, laws so far outside the scope of their constitutional authority, it is difficult to recognize the reality with even the most twisted (honest) caricature.
“Rule of Law”, the very essence of any notion of accountability, should not be ‘Color of Law’ on steroids, where no-one assumes responsibility for the crimes of empire but in fact that is where the USA is arrived at. [3]
It is in this environment or pretense of law, an incredible charade is playing out concerning so-called ‘Russiagate’ where no one party will take responsibility for a web of deceit so tangled, it resembles nothing so much as the habitat of a Black Widow:
^ Gina Haspel
The Questions No One Asks
1) How is it when Pompeo left the CIA, to become Trump’s Secretary of State, a Russiagate principal, Gina Haspel, CIA Chief-of-Station in London when the phony Steele Dossier was concocted, and up to her neck in other aspects of the attempted take-down of Trump, was the name put forward for Trump to nominate as Pompeo’s CIA replacement? Who was responsible for putting a #1 enemy of Trump forward for Trump to nominate to become boss at the CIA? Why didn’t Pompeo tip Trump to Haspel’s ‘hands on’ dedication to sabotaging his campaign? Why on Earth would Trump nominate a CIA Director that not only has a vested interest in Russiagate ‘damage control’ but has sucked Trump deeper into the patently false Russia animus? [4], [5], [6], [7]
2) It would appear the Mueller probe was more about setting up ‘patsies’ than getting to the bottom of what actually happened. Now that any attempt to hang ‘responsibility’ for Russiagate on 2nd tier bureaucrats (e.g. Peter Strzok, Lisa Page et al) is slipping away, who is next? Killary, who took the abandoned Russiagate project from ‘Never Trump’ Republicans and breathed new life into it? The point of the Durham investigation is clearly ongoing damage control, and here is where the web smells to high heaven: (when still President), Obama himself was briefed on Russiagate with (then) CIA Director Brennan and (then) FBI Director Comey present. Now, the real rub: Attorney General William Barr and Gina Haspel are sleeping together with John Durham in a probe run by a pro (Durham) with a who’s who résumé of damage control for CIA including CIA destruction of interrogation tapes and wider CIA torture. Appointed by a Bush Jr Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, in a previous stint (stunt) concerning the crimes of Haspel, Durham ‘investigated’ (sandbagged the investigation of) Haspel and torture in 2008 and found no grounds for prosecution. [8], [9], [10], [11]
3) Does anyone else recall William Barr, who began his career as a CIA analyst and liaison to Congress, was Bush (41) Attorney General during the CIA’s Iran-Contra damage control efforts, as well, it smells to high heaven he worked for the former CIA Director GHW Bush presidency during the FBI sabotage of the Boys Town pedophilia investigation which reached all the way to the White House. [12], [13]
4) Finally, insofar as CIA ‘personalities’ involved, the biographical indicators tied to Obama that media, both alternative & mainstream, won’t touch with a proverbial ‘ten foot pole’ … why the strong profile indicating Obama had been a CIA asset for the entirety of his adult life? Son of an American intelligence officer, Ann Dunham, Obama worked for the long time CIA front company, Business International Corporation, prior to his community service & political career, and plausibly performed covert work for the intelligence community throughout his career, including a strong indication he’d been assigned to penetrate the anti-imperialism politic & community activism of Jeremiah Wright:
“Business International has a long association with the world of intelligence, covert actions, and attempts to penetrate the radical left — including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)” [14], [15]
Obama, the CIA instructed snitch? Well, why not? The profiling fits, topped off with a presidential history 180 degrees opposed to the anti-empire activist community he supposedly emerged from.
Insofar as the CIA people surrounding Trump, one should recall the longest serving CIA Director, Allan Dulles, crafted the agency from its early years to serve his (and his brother John Foster Dulles) personal corporate interests, the history of United Fruit is unequivocal. [16]
What is going on with the Durham investigation is shielding the high level foot soldiers for corporate America, plain and simple. Barr has stated there will be no action taken before the election. If Biden wins, the outcome will be mild or negligible, perhaps some lowly apparatchiks will be made to fall on their swords; if Trump wins, the reach will be for someone a bit higher but either way, the end result will be all about damage control. [17]
It follows, none of the 2020 political posturing surrounding Russiagate & Russia is about Trump as much as it is about treasonous intelligence cells at the apex of power seeking to shield the core of its power from scrutiny; this core is not to be found in any of these agency principals as much as it is the corporate boards and associated criminal cabals the CIA has historically serviced.
So, where does ‘the buck stop’? Well, plainly these days it doesn’t. The rule of law does not apply. The bottom line is profit and if profit means we blow up everybody, everything and ourselves along the way, well, the lunatics putting obscene amounts of money in their pockets might not have thought that through. Unless you’re Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo et al, in which case if they manage to blow this small planet up, rather than face accountability, it just a matter of ‘God’s will.’ [18]
[1] https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/trivia/buck-stops-here-sign
[2] https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Color+of+Law
[3] https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2017/12/01/the-oath-and-the-trash-bin/
[4] https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cia-director-haspel-and-anti-trump-conspirators
[7] https://www.theblogmire.com/from-the-folks-who-lie-cheat-and-steal-for-a-living-project-fake-duck/
[9] https://www.propublica.org/article/haspel-spies-and-videotape
[10] https://nypost.com/2020/05/11/looks-like-president-obama-ordered-up-phony-russiagate-scandal/
[11] https://www.lawfareblog.com/durham-investigation-what-we-know-and-what-it-means
[13] http://salem-news.com/articles/december292012/boys-town-scandal-tk.php
[14] https://www.newsbud.com/2012/07/05/barack-obama-his-mother-and-the-cia/
[16] http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=guatemala_1627
[17] https://www.axios.com/barr-durham-report-election-3c02ec6a-7613-4083-b35c-4844de6da16b.html
[18] https://fort-russ.com/2019/07/israeli-christian-zionists-eye-up-war-on-iran-a-conundrum-of-evil/
Ronald Thomas West 