Russia Archives - Kit O'Connell: Approximately 8,000 Words

War is peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is strength. And we’ve always been at war with Russia. So, while you were celebrating the holidays Barack Obama quietly approved a multimillion-dollar anti-propaganda project that feels a lot like the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s “1984” — with a more covert and far more boring name. Included as part of this year’s National Defense Appropriations Act, aka NDAA, and inspired by the new “Red Scare,” it’s called the Global Engagement Center and it’s this week’s Fucked Fact.

As you may recall from Orwell’s novel, the Ministry of Truth controlled all the media — from journalism to entertainment, ensuring it all conformed to the government’s agenda. America’s new Global Engagement Center is ALSO designed to control the media narrative — at a time when alternative media outlets and journalists known to question the US Empire are being slammed for acting as Russian spies.

Signed into law on December 23rd, the creation of the Global Engagement Center is part of the “Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act,” originally introduced as a separate bill in March by Republican Senator Rob Portman, and Democrat Chris Murphy. Luckily for Portman and Murphy, their pet bill made it into the NDAA and into law just before Santa came to town.

The Real Threat Is ‘Telling The Truth’: Abby Martin Responds To Accusations Of Influencing Election 2016

A Russia Today (RT) news van covering protests in Moscow. December 10, 2011. (Wikimedia Commons / FeelSunny, CC SA)

January 12, 2017

Kit

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The Real Threat Is ‘Telling The Truth’: Abby Martin Responds To Accusations Of Influencing Election 2016

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

On Monday, journalist Abby Martin dismissed accusations that she colluded with the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Martin is the latest independent journalist to fall victim to a new “Red Scare” that seeks to shift the blame for the Democratic Party’s political problems onto Russia.

On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence published a declassified version of “Background to ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections’: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution,” a report which purports to document Russia’s alleged interference in the election.

Despite the report’s technical-sounding title, a sizable portion of the document is concerned not with cyber attacks, but with unfavorable coverage of the U.S. government and American politics broadcast on RT, the Russian state-owned news network that has been a target of repeated U.S. government threats. The report specifically highlights Martin’s show, “Breaking the Set,” which ran on RT from September of 2012 until February of 2015, and another RT program called “Truthseeker” for being “overwhelmingly focused on criticism of US and Western governments as well as the promotion of radical discontent.”

In Monday’s interview, Martin appeared alongside Anya Parampil, a host at RT America who worked as a producer on “Breaking the Set.” Martin defended the accuracy and importance of her work as a journalist, suggesting RT was actually targeted for critical investigative journalism that cast Washington in an unfavorable light. Martin continued:

After Criticism, Washington Post Disavows ‘Russian Propaganda’ Blacklist Of Indie Media

December 10, 2016

Kit

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After Criticism, Washington Post Disavows ‘Russian Propaganda’ Blacklist Of Indie Media

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Amid a wave of widespread criticism and legal threats, the Washington Post has added a lengthy editor’s note to an article which alleged that a host of independent media websites were spreading Russian propaganda.

The article, written by Craig Timberg and published on Nov. 24, relied largely on information compiled byPropOrNot, an anonymous group that claims to be comprised of media analysts and researchers. At the time the Post story was published, the group’s homepage featured a list of 200 websites, including MintPress News and many other well-established independent media outlets, which the organization alleges are either deliberately or inadvertently spreading Russian propaganda.

Among other criticisms levied against the group, PropOrNot’s research depends on overly broad criteria. According to its own stated methodology, criticism of the ”US, Obama, Hillary Clinton, the EU, Angela Merkel, NATO, Ukraine, Jewish people, US allies, the ‘mainstream media,’ and democrats, the center-right or center-left, and moderates of all stripes,” would be grounds for inclusion on “The List.”

Washington Post’s ‘Fake News’: MSM Supports ‘Shameful,’ Anonymous Attack On Independent Media

The Washington Post building in Washington, DC. September 23, 2012. (Flickr / Max Borges)

December 1, 2016

Kit

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Washington Post’s ‘Fake News’: MSM Supports ‘Shameful,’ Anonymous Attack On Independent Media

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

On Thanksgiving, The Washington Post published a widely shared — and widely criticized — report accusing a host of media organizations of spreading Russian propaganda, despite little evidence to support the claims.

In the Nov. 24 article, Craig Timberg, the Post’s national technology reporter, cited the work of “experts” who accuse hundreds of news outlets, including MintPress News, of broadcasting “fake news” as part of “a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy.”

While the story quickly spread to other mainstream media outlets, from USA Today to The Daily Beast, many media analysts were quick to criticize the report and its sources. On Monday, Matt Taibbi called the piece “shameful” and “disgusting” in Rolling Stone. On Saturday, Ben Norton and Glenn Greenwald, writing for The Intercept, accused the Post of “disgracefully” promoting a “McCarthyite blacklist.”

“The article is rife with obviously reckless and unproven allegations, and fundamentally shaped by shoddy, slothful journalistic tactics,” the pair wrote.

US: Let Saudi Arabia Investigate Its Own War Crimes, Russia Requires Int’l Investigation

5 August 2015, Sa'ada, Yemen: Members of a U.N. humanitarian delegation examine the ruins of a marketplace. (Flickr / OCHA / Philippe Kropf)

October 13, 2016

Kit

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US: Let Saudi Arabia Investigate Its Own War Crimes, Russia Requires Int’l Investigation

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

A State Department spokesperson called for Saudi Arabia to be allowed to investigate itself over airstrikes on a funeral, which is a potential war crime, while simultaneously advocating for an international investigation into Russia’s actions in Syria.

On Saturday, the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition waging war in Yemen bombed a funeral in the capital city of Sanaa. At least 140 people were killed and over 500 others were injured in the airstrike, which human rights experts warned likely constitutes a war crime. Some reports even suggest the Saudi coalition targeted the funeral repeatedly, so as to injure or kill rescuers coming to the aid of the victims of the first airstrike.

Speaking at the United Nations on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry called on Russia and Syria to face a formal investigation over possible war crimes committed in the Syrian civil war. No similar investigation into Saudi Arabia’s actions in Yemen will be forthcoming, however, according to State Department spokesperson John Kirby, who addressed the issue during a press briefing on Tuesday.

Interview with Black Tower Radio: Syrian No-Fly Zone, Booz Allen Hamilton

Vladimir Putin meets with Russian army soldiers. September 19, 2015. (Wikimedia Commons / Russian Presidential Press and Information Office)

October 13, 2016

Kit

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Interview with Black Tower Radio: Syrian No-Fly Zone, Booz Allen Hamilton

Posted in Journalism, MintPress News, and Occupy Wall Street

Both the Democrats and Republican party tickets are calling for a no-fly zone in Syria, even though this could provoke a nuclear war with Russia in a worst-case scenario. Meanwhile, the mainstream media, and even many “progressive” news outlets are beating the drums of war. And who is Booz Allen Hamilton, the NSA contractor linked in two significant leaks of classified information?

On Wednesday, I made my monthly appearance on Black Tower Radio to touch on overlooked or poorly reported news. Also mentioned in our discussion: Occupy Austin, independent journalist Vanessa Beeley’s reports from Aleppo, and Tim Shorrock’s reporting on the NSA’s “Private Spies.”