The build-up to war on Russia

[MacCruiskeen]

One big reason the US is so keen to sow discord between Russia and Western Europe, especially Germany*: Russia is practically landlocked to the West (unless you count the Baltic), and the US desperately wants it to remain that way.

Compare the two land masses, North America and Eurasia.



The USA is huge, and it has enormously long coastlines on both sides, so it dominates both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Ideal conditions for a global empire.

But it's tiny compared to Eurasia. And that's why a peaceful and stable trading union from Lisbon to Vladivostok (and Shanghai) has to be prevented.

-----------------

*There is a declassified document (can't locate it right now) in which the US states explicitly that it's a foreign-policy priority for Germany and Russia to be kept apart and at odds with each other, not allowed to get too cosy. And right now, German industry is losing billions every year due to the sanctions imposed on Russia by the US (which of course the entire EU also has to follow). A lot of German capitalists are not happy at all about that, though they have to keep their objections muted. Ever since the early 90s, Russia has been one of Germany's most important trading partners.

[JackRiddler]

Oh my god, MacC, you've discovered Mackinder and Mahan! Oh yeah, also The Brzez.

(Put a smiley on that.)

[MacCruiskeen]

No, I'd never heard of 'em, Jack. The Brzez, yeah. [Full disclosure: Those thoughts did not spring fully-formed from my own brain.] You don't disagree with the, eh, thesis I presented regurgitated there, do you?

(Put a smiley on that.)

You're not being sarcastic there, are you? (Yes, I have been over-using smileys recently, in a probably-vain attempt to come across as a nice person*. Damn, the pitfalls of conversation online.)

*I should hire Hillary's advisor.

[MacCruiskeen]

This is essential reading, if anything is (and if all reading & writing isn't just displacement activity now).

Blanket Corporate Media Corruption

Craig Murray, 22 Oct, 2016

It is disconcerting to be praised by a website whose next article warns of a “plague of sodomites”. Sometimes truth-telling is a difficult act because truth is a simple matter of fact; who might seek to exploit that truth is a different question. I almost certainly have little in common with the anti-gay people who chose to commend me.

It is however incumbent on those who know truth to reveal it to the best of their ability, particularly if it contradicts an untruth being put about widely. The lie that WikiLeaks is acting as an agent of the Russian state is one that needs to be countered. Wikileaks is much more important than a mere state propaganda organisation, and needs to be protected.

Political lying is a sad fact of modern life, but some lies are more dangerous than others. Hillary Clinton’s lies that the Podesta and Democratic National Congress email leaks are hacks by the Russian state, should be countered because they are untrue, and because their intention is to distract attention from her own corrupt abuse of power and money. But even more so because they recklessly feed in to a Russophobia which is starting to exceed Cold War levels in terms of open public abuse.

Clinton has made no secret of her view that Obama has not been forceful enough in his dealings in Syria, and within her immediate circle she has frequently referred to the Cuban missile crisis as the precedent for how she believes Russia must be faced down. It is her intention to restore US international prestige by such a confrontation with Putin in Syria early in her Presidency, and perhaps more to the point to restore the prestige of the office of POTUS and thus enhance her chances of getting her way with a probable Republican controlled senate and congress.

The problem with a game of nuclear armed chicken is we might all end up dead. The Americans do not read Putin well. As my readers know, I am in no way a fan of Putin. He believes he has a personal vocation to restore Russian greatness and has been ever more consumed by a religious devotion to the Orthodox Russian Church. It seems to me highly improbable Hillary can make him back down over Syria. I am no more a fan of Assad than I am a fan of Putin. Nevertheless to risk nuclear war over a desire to replace Assad with rival swarms of vicious disjointed Saudi and Al-Qaeda backed jihadist militias, scarcely seems sensible.

Is Trump any less dangerous? I don’t know. I simply fail to understand the cultural background from which he springs, and what I do understand, I dislike. Were I an American, I would have backed Bernie Sanders and I would now back Jill Stein.

It is worth noting that Hillary’s claim that 17 US Intelligence Agencies agree that Russia was the source of the leaks is plainly untrue. All they have said is that the leaks “are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed attacks.” Under extreme White House pressure to state that the Russians did it, that extremely weak statement was the only thing that the US Intelligence chiefs could cobble together. It is very plainly an admission there is no evidence that Russia did it, but the appalling corporate media have reported it as though it “proves” Hillary’s accusation of Russia is true.

Bill Binney is like myself a former recipient of the Sam Adams Award – the World’s foremost whistleblowing award. Bill was the senior NSA Director who actually oversaw the design of their current mass surveillance software, and Bill has been telling anybody who will listen exactly what I have been telling – that this material was not hacked from Russia. Bill believes – and nobody has better contacts or understanding of capability than Bill – that the material was leaked from within the US intelligence services.

I was in Washington last month to chair the presentation of the Sam Adams Award to heroic former ex-CIA agent and whistleblower John Kiriakou. There were on the platform with me a dozen or so former very senior and distinguished officers of the CIA, NSA, FBI and US Army. All now identify with the whistleblower community. There were speeches of tremendous power and insight about state abuse, from those who really know. But as usual, not one mainstream media outlet turned up to report an award whose previous winners and still active participants include Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.

Similarly my statement of definite knowledge that Russia is not behind the Clinton leaks has caused enormous interest in the internet. One article alone about my visit to Assange has 174,000 Facebook likes. Across all internet media we calculate over 30 million people have read my information that Russia was not responsible for these leaks. There is no doubt whatsoever that I have direct access to the correct information.

Yet not one single mainstream media journalist has attempted to contact me.

Why do you think that might be?


[url=https://www.craigmurray.org.uk...corporate-media-corruption/]https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/10/blanket-corporate-media-corruption/[/url]

[Nordic]

That link isn't working but this is, for now:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives ... orruption/

[Harvey]

Already posted here : http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=37104&start=30#p615710 (but worth repeating)

In the comments Murray states the reason why he knows these allegations are 100% fabrication.

[Rory]

Already posted here : http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=37104&start=30#p615710 (but worth repeating)

In the comments Murray states the reason why he knows these allegations are 100% fabrication.

I thought it was obvious that the DNC leaks were directly linked to the deaths of Seth Rich, and half a dozen other DNC staffers, and the subsequent resignations of several senior DNC officials.

The russia link seemed remarkably contrived, and imo, a blatent sleight of hand to distract away from the inside connection, and their ruthless acts of brutal revenge.

[Nordic]

Already posted here : http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=37104&start=30#p615710 (but worth repeating)

In the comments Murray states the reason why he knows these allegations are 100% fabrication.

I thought it was obvious that the DNC leaks were directly linked to the deaths of Seth Rich, and half a dozen other DNC staffers, and the subsequent resignations of several senior DNC officials.

The russia link seemed remarkably contrived, and imo, a blatent sleight of hand to distract away from the inside connection, and their ruthless acts of brutal revenge.

Yeah, just a stupid and nonsensical attempt to blame somebody else. Right up there with "the dog ate my homework".

Brazen. Yet if the media repeats it over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over .... People start to believe that maybe it's true.

[8bitagent]

I would agree normally that a "world war" or "hot war" with Russia in the near future seems like the stuff of speculative fiction.
But I also know there are the x-factors, or what I call "sudden deterioration". That can be the Fukushima plant melting down after a sudden earthquake, or
US accidentally bombing the Chinese embassy in the Balkans in the 90s. Ya never know how a random situation will unfold, or how it will be handled.
But as worried as I am about the West gaining their sights on Russia, I think it's clear the Russian Federation has goals of broader conquest throughout the world, like
any classical super power

[Nordic]

I would agree normally that a "world war" or "hot war" with Russia in the near future seems like the stuff of speculative fiction.
But I also know there are the x-factors, or what I call "sudden deterioration". That can be the Fukushima plant melting down after a sudden earthquake, or
US accidentally bombing the Chinese embassy in the Balkans in the 90s. Ya never know how a random situation will unfold, or how it will be handled.
But as worried as I am about the West gaining their sights on Russia, I think it's clear the Russian Federation has goals of broader conquest throughout the world, like
any classical super power

And WHY would you think that? There is zero evidence for this. You're sounding like any other cable-tv-brainwashed American idiot.

[Novem5er]

About why Craig Murray knows it isn't the Russians responsible for hacking Hillary's campaign; this is from the comments of that article (thanks, Harvey, for the heads up).

craig Post author
October 23, 2016 at 20:50
Macky is right. I do not claim to have demonstrated it is not the Russians. I know it was not them, because I know who it was. I am not revealing who it was because people have died for being tangentially connected. And as I thought I was signalling very plainly, I knew who it was even before I met Julian.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives ... /#comments

[Wombaticus Rex]

And WHY would you think that? There is zero evidence for this. You're sounding like any other cable-tv-brainwashed American idiot.

I wonder if that could have been stated more charitably?

[Searcher08]

I would agree normally that a "world war" or "hot war" with Russia in the near future seems like the stuff of speculative fiction.
But I also know there are the x-factors, or what I call "sudden deterioration". That can be the Fukushima plant melting down after a sudden earthquake, or
US accidentally bombing the Chinese embassy in the Balkans in the 90s. Ya never know how a random situation will unfold, or how it will be handled.
But as worried as I am about the West gaining their sights on Russia, I think it's clear the Russian Federation has goals of broader conquest throughout the world, like
any classical super power

And WHY would you think that? There is zero evidence for this. You're sounding like any other cable-tv-brainwashed American idiot.

8bits first point I think is both very important and little covered. It is about the impact of a random factor on this Syrian hot mess.... like Assad having a heart attack; Clinton a stroke; Saudi Arabia going all in and attacking Iran.

I don't see the second point, about Russia having imperial ambitions (apart from the 4% support for fruitcakes like Zhiranovsky).

[semper occultus]

..more re-asserting the old sphere-of-influence stuff...Crimea, Ukraine, going into Syria....

[Novem5er]

RE: Russian aspirations for conquest and 8bit's comment.

Sometimes, we at RI get our communication wires crossed because a speaker uses a little figurative language or hyperbole and readers take it as literal. This is a problem, I think, with text-based communication and, specifically, in a web forum where there can be large gaps of time between when something was written and when it was read. Face to face conversation allows for easier clarification because we can read each other's facial expressions and make quick comments or corrections.

I'm not blaming either party. In a word-based forum, shouldn't our words matter? Shouldn't we always say exactly what we mean, very carefully, so there is no exaggeration or no confusion? Yes . . . but we are mostly writing in a social forum, rather than a scholarly journal, so I think our language will be a little more colorful at times. With that understanding, I think readers should pause and cool their jets before a single sentence rubs them the wrong way and provokes an emotional response.

So when 8bitagent says "Russia's ... broader conquests throughout the world", I think immediately about Georgia, Ukraine, and their power-plays in Syria. Is this global conquest? No, but I never thought 8bit meant that Russian troops are planning to march through Paris. There is no doubt that Russia wants to spread its influence well past its own borders (as all major nations, do), but I think mostly that's through energy and market penetration.