Jamey Hecht wrote:THE TERM ‘CONSPIRACY THEORY’
This phrase is among the tireless workhorses of establishment discourse. Without it, disinformation would be much harder than it is. “Conspiracy theory” is a trigger phrase, saturated with intellectual contempt and deeply anti-intellectual resentment. It makes little sense on its own, and while it’s a priceless tool of propaganda, it is worse than useless as an explanatory category.
http://www.911inquiry.org/Presentations/JameyHecht.htm
QED, again again again:
Ukraine crisis: bugged call reveals conspiracy theory about Kiev snipers
[You couldn't make this shit up. "Reveals conspiracy theory" - is that even English? Barely. But who cares. What was "revealed" here? A "theory"? Nope. Nothing even remotely resembling one. (Look the term up in the dictionary.) In fact, a conversation was revealed, in which a European foreign minister voiced some well-founded suspicions about who was responsible for a possibly world-shaking crime; to which an even higher European politician replied that this claim was interesting and merited investigation.
But simple English words such as "suspicion", "claim", "conversation" and "investigation" naturally won't suffice for a hack, toady and timeserver of MacAskill's high-flying* ilk. For reasons of state, he just has to deploy that priceless tool of Establishment discourse pre-emptively, in the headline itself. Thought must be stopped before it even gets started.]
Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet tells EU's Cathy [sic] Ashton about claim that provocateurs were behind Maidan killings
Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian, Wednesday 5 March 2014 19.06 GMT
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A leaked phone call between the EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet has revealed that the two discussed a conspiracy theory that blamed the killing of civilian protesters in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on the opposition rather than the ousted government.
The 11-minute conversation was posted on YouTube – it is the second time in a month that telephone calls between western diplomats discussing Ukraine have been bugged.
In the call, Paet said he had been told snipers responsible for killing police and civilians in Kiev last month were protest movement provocateurs rather than supporters of then-president Viktor Yanukovych. Ashton responds: "I didn't know … Gosh." [And that was the most important part of her reply, was it, MacAskill?]
The leak came a day after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said the snipers may have been opposition provocateurs. The Kremlin-funded Russia Today first carried the leaked call online.
The Estonian foreign ministry confirmed the leaked conversation was accurate. It said: "Foreign minister Paet was giving an overview of what he had heard in Kiev and expressed concern over the situation on the ground. We reject the claim that Paet was giving an assessment of the opposition's involvement in the violence." Ashton's office said it did not comment on leaks.
During the conversation, Paet quoted a woman named Olga – who the Russian media identified her as Olga Bogomolets, a doctor – blaming snipers from the opposition shooting the protesters.
"What was quite disturbing, this same Olga told that, well, all the evidence shows that people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides," Paet said.
"So she also showed me some photos, she said that as medical doctor, she can say it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it's really disturbing that now the new coalition, that they don't want to investigate what exactly happened."
"So there is a stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers it was not Yanukovych, it was somebody from the new coalition," Paet says.
Ashton replies: "I think we do want to investigate. I didn't pick that up, that's interesting. Gosh," Ashton says.
Russia Today, reporting the call, said: "The snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were allegedly hired by Maidan leaders, according to a leaked phone conversation between the EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian foreign affairs minister, which has emerged online."
Last month, a recording was leaked in which US state department official Victoria Nuland was heard venting the White House's frustrations at Europe's hesitant policy towards pro-democracy protests. Speaking to the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, Nuland was heard to say "fuck the EU."
Asked about the emergence of a second embarrassing phonecall, a spokesperson [sic] for the US state department said: "As I said around the last unfortunate [why?] case, this is just another example of the kind of Russian tradecraft [sic] that we have concerns [sic] about."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/m ... urmas-paet
*
Profile
Ewen MacAskill is the Guardian's defence and intelligence correspondent. He was Washington DC bureau chief from 2007-2013, diplomatic editor from 1999-2006, chief political correspondent from 1996-99 and political editor of the Scotsman from 1990-96
http://www.theguardian.com/profile/ewenmacaskill
Anyway, the conversation with "Cathy" [sic - Eweny's old pal, presumably] Ashtony was recorded on the 24th of February, i.e. ten full days ago. So what's happening with Cathy's plans?
Ashton replies: "I think we do want to investigate. I didn't pick that up, that's interesting. Gosh," Ashton says.
Any progress there, Guardian? Any reason why that investigation should not be taking place? Anyone thought of actually asking someone at the EU? How about you, MacAskill? Any other hacks on the job? Hmm? I mean, it's only a fucking casus belli we're talking about here. There must be room for it somewhere in the Guardian, in amongst all those risotto recipes and in-depth Lady Gaga analyses.
Incidentally, Eweny says nothing about the fact that Cathy herself appears to take this conspiracy theory seriously. Is Cathy really fit for such high office? Is she not, rather, a "tinfoil-hatter"? Perhaps it's time Petery Mandelsony got his old jobby back.