lewrockwell--2020-12-14--Why Michael Morell Cannot Be CIA Director

Gross manipulation of CIA analysis under George W. Bush pushed a new generation of “ yes men ” into the agency ’ s top ranks and now one of them is being considered by Joe Biden for the top job , writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern .
As President-elect Joe Biden names his cabinet and other chief advisers , what has escaped wide attention is the fact that none of his hawkish national security advisers — except for his nominee for defense secretary , Gen. Lloyd Austin — has served in the military .
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s short list for CIA director , shares that non-veteran status , one of the reasons along with other skeletons from Morell ’ s past that make him singularly unfit to lead the CIA .
Patriotism , Democracy , ... Best Price : $ 4.00 Buy New $ 21.01 During my 27 years at the CIA , I worked under nine CIA directors — three of them ( Stan Turner , Bill Colby , and George H.W .
Bush ) at close remove — and served in all four of the agency ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the past-two-decade corruption of my profession — in particular , what the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee called the “ uncorroborated , contradicted , or even non-existent ” intelligence manufactured to “ justify ” the attack on Iraq , I have on occasion offered an suggestions for remediation , particularly during transition periods like this one .
( Links to five such efforts in the past appear below . )
Decades of unfortunate experience show that over-dependence on bright , but inexperienced “ best and brightest ” can spell disaster .
War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hopkins have yielded knights with benightedly naive , politics-drenched decisions that get U.S. troops killed for no good reason .
Even if Gen. Lloyd Austin is confirmed as secretary of defense , the whippersnappers already appointed by Joe Biden will probably be able to outmaneuver the general and promote half-baked policies and operations bereft of needed military input — not to mention common sense from the likes of Gen. Austin who knows something of war .
The current generation of “ whiz kids ” — the well-heeled , politically astute chickenhawks Biden has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and — if past is precedent — are likely to pooh pooh what Gen. Austin may advise , assuming he is able to get a word in edgeways .
Moreover , ambitious former generals like David Petraeus — many of them now on the outside of the proverbial revolving door making big bucks in the MICIMATT ( Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank ) complex — will not hesitate to weigh in with their own self-interested support to the chickenhawks , fostering the notion that military threats from notional enemies warrant still more funding for the defense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ generals sit .
Who does not remember the braggadocio accompanying the criminal attack on Iraq , the full-throated support of journalists like David Sanger of The New York Times , and the chest-thumping of Bush/Cheney neocons saying “ Real men go to Tehran ?
” ( Sanger is still at it , sitting on the “ Judith Miller Chair for Journalism ” . )
At the Center of the S ... Bill Harlow Best Price : $ 0.64 Buy New $ 5.00 Clearly , one does not have to go as far back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harm that can be done by these “ best and brightest , ” albeit inexperienced advisers — whether out of the myth of American exceptionalism , ignorance of post-WWII military history , or pure arrogance .
It may be helpful to recall that Vice President Dick Cheney , the archdeacon of the chickenhawks , acquired five draft deferments during Vietnam .
( So did his successor as vice president , the president-elect . )
Cheney , of course , was the driving force behind the attack on Iraq .
He had appointed himself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ usurping the role of CIA Director George Tenet who made not a murmur of protest ) and went first and biggest with the Big Lie on ( ephemeral ) weapons of mass destruction in Iraq .
Here ’ s Cheney in his kick-off speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Aug. 26 , 2002 : “ Simply stated , there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
” Simply stated , Tenet dutifully followed White House orders to “ fix ” the intelligence to support Cheney ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so formally in the deceitful National Intelligence Estimate of Oct. 1 , 2002 — which earned the sobriquet “ The Whore of Babylon.
” It was successfully used to get Congress to enable Bush/Cheney to make war on Iraq , and eventually create havoc in the whole region .
In his memoir Tenet gave the laurels to Morell for “ coordinating the CIA review ” of Secretary of State Colin Powell ’ s UN speech that let slip the dogs of war .
( Details on that below ) Cheney , the quintessential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same bent .
One pitiable example was armchair warrior Kenneth Adelman , who had been director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under President Reagan .
In a Washington Post op-ed of Feb. 13 , 2002 , Adelman wrote : “ I believe demolishing Hussein ’ s military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.
” Two years later , Adelman wrote an equally pathetic op-ed , insisting that he and his neoconservative friends had been right on everything except Iraq possessing WMD , Iraqi factions cooperating after Saddam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” on close ties between Saddam and al-Qaeda .
As for Cheney himself , he did memorize some weapons nomenclature vocabulary , but could not avoid an occasional faux pas betraying his lack of familiarity with things on the ground .
Nine months after the attack on Iraq , when WMD were still nowhere to be found , NPR asked Cheney whether he had given up on finding them .
Neo-Conned !
Again : Hyp ... Best Price : $ 3.99 Buy New $ 23.49 “ No , we haven ’ t , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s going to take some additional , considerable period of time in order to look in all the cubbyholes and ammo dumps and all the places in Iraq where you ’ d expect to find something like that.
” ( The continued , quixotic search cost not only a billion dollars but the lives of U.S .
troops. )
.
The amateur but opinionated Cheney was the largest fly in the intelligence ointment .
Four months into the war it got so blatantly bad that we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity ( VIPS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entitled “ Intelligence Unglued ” , recommending that he “ ask for Cheney ’ s immediate resignation.
” In a recent , disturbingly graphic article entitled “ Biden ’ s young Hawk : The Case Against Jake Sullivan , ” retired Army Maj. Danny Sjursen broadly hinted that President Biden ’ s national security adviser should at least look at the photos .
( An editor ’ s note in the piece explained that such photos are almost totally absent from Establishment media : “ Graphic images of war and suffering are included @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is important for the world to witness what their taxes , votes and apathy may be supporting.
” ) In his article Sjursen finds himself wondering “ whether Sullivan ’ s ever seen a dead child , gazed upon the detritus of American empire , waded through the sights and smells of our indecency .
And , worse still , I wondered whether it ’ d matter much if he had .
… ” The national security adviser is gatekeeper to the president , with the gate strong or weak depending — at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president wants .
In the normal course of business , the CIA director and the director of national intelligence would go through the security adviser to get to the president .
Cabinet secretaries in the national security arena and , when appropriate , FBI directors often use the same channel .
What seems important here , though widely overlooked , is that no Biden national security appointee/nominee except Gen. Austin has apparently served a day in the military .
Not Sullivan , not DNI nominee Avril Haines , not secretary of state nominee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christopher Wray .
This is just one factor that should disqualify Morell for director of Central Intelligence ( DCI ) .
There are already far too many fledgling warhawks-without war experience .
In Morell ’ s case , though , there are many other factors — some even more important — that disqualify him .
His playing fast and loose regarding the legality and effectiveness of torture has been in the headlines recently , thanks to Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden ( D-OR ) , who called Morell a “ torture apologist.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Best Price : $ 2.95 Buy New $ 2.93 It has been a challenge to record Morell ’ s many artful dodges , but Consortium News did publish “ On Iraq/Torture , Still in Denial ” , as Morell began to peddle his memoir in May 2015 .
Two of Morell ’ s tours de force with Charlie Rose in 2016 , in which Morell advocates killing Russians and Iranians in Syria , were covered by CN .
More revealing still — and damning of his chances for another try at CIA — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Another CIA Yes Man.
” That piece was written when Morell was picked to be Gen. David Petraeus ’ s deputy at CIA ; it ends with personal comments by intelligence professionals who knew Morell well .
The article also includes citations from Tenet ’ s own memoir , including encomia he threw in Morell ’ s direction , one of which should actually be enough to bar Morell from any future role in intelligence .
In Tenet ’ s book , At the Center of the Storm , he writes that Morell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the intelligence used by Secretary of State Colin Powell in his infamous Feb. 5 , 2003 speech to the UN Security Council on the threat from ( non-existent ) WMD in Iraq .
Tenet , who sat directly behind Powell on that day , pointed out that Morell had served as regular briefer to President George W. Bush .
It has been reported that , of the CIA ’ s finished intelligence product on Iraq , it was The President ’ s Daily Brief delivered by Morell that most exaggerated the danger from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ranks as the yes-sir protege of two CIA directors who were , arguably , the worst of them all — “ Slam-Dunk ” Tenet and the-Russians-hacked-so-Trump-won John Brennan .
During the presidential campaign of 2016 , as Brennan and his accomplices in the National Security State worked behind the scenes to sabotage candidate Donald Trump , Morell dropped any pretense of nonpartisanship — which used to be the hallmark of an intelligence professional .
From retirement ( but with eyes on the big prize he coveted in a new Democratic administration ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a highly unusual op-ed in The New York Times on August 5 , 2016 : “ I Ran the C.I.A .
Now I ’ m Endorsing Hillary Clinton.
” In my view , the key gauge in weighing qualifications for a national security position like CIA director is whether a candidate showed good judgment before the misbegotten , calamitous attack on Iraq .
Morell flunks that test outright .
Accordingly , he can hardly be expected to be one of the calmer voices in a room of still less experienced fledgling hawks who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never “ waded through the sights and smells of our indecency ” in killing and maiming abroad .
With Morell in the room , there would be greater risk of the U.S. getting sucked into still more misadventures overseas .
What did Morell tell Bush about Iraq ?
In Tenet ’ s memoir , he describes Morell as “ the perfect guy ” to brief President Bush , noting that Morell and Bush hit it off “ almost immediately ” .
Morell added later : “ I was President Bush ’ s first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of the entire year of 2001.
” So , was Iraqi President Saddam Hussein trying to acquire “ weapons of mass destruction ” during 2001 ?
The first ( and honest ) answer was ” No ” — if Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are to be believed .
Here ’ s what they said at the time — Powell publicly during a speech in Cairo and Rice to CNN five months later .
Is this what Morell told Bush just six weeks before 9/11 ?
Did Morell ever explain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or stolen copious WMD in one year ’ s time ?
And when Morell briefed Bush right after 9/11 , was the president fixated on Saddam Hussein , as counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke describes him in his book Against All Enemies ?
According to Clarke , on 9/12 Bush told him “ to go back over everything , everything .
See if Saddam did this .
See if he ’ s linked in any way.
” Clarke says he was incredulous , replying , “ But , Mr. President , al-Qaeda did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he felt he was being intimidated to find a link between the attacks and Iraq .
Did Morell play it straight and tell Bush ( as Clarke did ) that Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the attacks of 9/11 ?
Did Clarke share that vignette at the time with Tenet and Morell ?
And what about those notional Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq ?
After 9/11 , did Morell take his cue from Cheney , Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld , and Tenet and give President Bush the impression @ @ @ @ @ @ @ WMD and was on the threshold of acquiring a nuclear weapon ?
Later , in December 2002 when Morell ’ s boss Tenet assured Bush and Cheney that CIA could prove , slam-dunkedly , the existence of WMD in Iraq , did Morell ever ask himself how both Powell and Rice could have been so far off base the year before ?
Far more likely , Morell knew what the game was , as he watched Rice do a fancy pirouette , telling CNN ’ s Wolf Blitzer on Sept. 8 , 2002 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a nuclear weapon .
We do know that there have been shipments into Iraq of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to nuclear weapons programs.
” The most accomplished engineers and technical intelligence analysts in the intelligence community knew that the aluminum tubes story was BS .
In the finest tradition of intelligence analysis , they remained impervious to the political winds .
They insisted that associating those aluminum tubes with nuclear weapons development was wrong and they could not be persuaded to go along .
And yet that bogus information got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the UN .
In Morell ’ s memoir he wrote that he wanted to apologize to Powell .
Morell says , “ We said he [ Saddam Hussein ] has chemical weapons , he has a biological weapons production capability , and he ’ s restarting his nuclear weapons program .
We were wrong on all three of those.
” But not my fault , wrote Morell , who tried to shift the blame by claiming he was not a senior official at the time .
How does that square with Tenet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ review ” of Powell ’ s speech ?
Whom to believe ?
However begrudging must be any trust given “ slam-dunk ” and “ we-do-not-torture ” Tenet , he presumably would have less reason to dissimulate than Morell in this particular case .
Assuming Morell did “ coordinate the CIA review ” of Powell ’ s speech , did Morell know about the strong dissent on the infamous aluminum tubes ?
More important , did he know that CIA operators had recruited and “ turned ” Naji Sabri , the Iraqi foreign minister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was still working for him ) and , with the help of British intelligence , had “ turned ” the chief of Iraqi intelligence , Habbush , as well .
After the reporting from these two sources on other issues and after their access to secret information was evaluated and judged to be genuine , President Bush was told that Sabri and Habbush both said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq .
Sabri ’ s information was given to the president by Tenet on Sept. 18 , 2002 ; Habbush @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Did Tenet not share that with Morell before he coordinated CIA input into Powell ’ s speech ?
Clearly , this first-hand intelligence from proven sources with excellent access did not suit the Cheney/Bush narrative for war on Iraq .
The president ’ s staff told CIA operatives not to forward additional reporting on this issue from these sources , explaining that Bush did not want more information about weapons of mass destruction ; rather , it was now about “ regime change.
” Did Morell know about this when he was “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disastrous speech ?
It is a safe bet that Morell was fully aware of the con job he was “ coordinating ” — as did other senior intelligence officials .
In his own memoir , former Director of National Intelligence ( and , during Iraq , director of imagery analysis ) , James Clapper takes a share of the blame for the Iraq WMD fiasco .
Clapper puts the blame for “ the failure ” to find the ( non-existent ) WMD “ squarely on the shoulders of the administration members who were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ program in Iraq and on the intelligence officers , including me , who were so eager to help that we found what wasn ’ t really there.
” ( emphasis added ) .
Regarding Morell ’ s “ I-confess-they-did-it ” apology to Powell , the still-youngish Morell has not stopped lusting for an eventual seat at the table , so he apparently thought it a smart move politically .
Typically , Powell did not react — as far as is known .
Nor has the conflict-averse Powell summoned the cohones to say clearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Morell , et al .
sold him a bill of goods on Iraq .
In the “ where-are-they-now ?
” department , Tenet quit in July 2004 and fled to Wall Street to be joined the following year by Jami Miscik , who was deputy director for intelligence during the Iraq fiasco .
She “ lucked into ” a nice job at Lehman Brothers before it went bust .
Note to readers : If you know someone advising the Biden team on selecting a director for CIA , please pass this along .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the experience of previous transition teams , please click on one or two of the links below .
The key issues tend to remain the same .
Above all , integrity counts .
1 — A Compromised Central Intelligence Agency : What Can Be Done ?
Chapter 4 in “ Patriotism , Democracy , and Common Sense : Restoring America ’ s Promise at Home and Abroad ” , Rowman & Littlefield , 2004 Ray ’ s chapter follows chapters by Alan Curtis ( editor ) , Gary Hart , and Jessica Mathews @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Again : Hypocrisy , Lawlessness , and the Rape of Iraq ” , Light in the Darkness Publications , 2005 ?
3 — Try These on Your CIA Briefer , Mr. President-Elect 4 — What Needs to Be Done in Intelligence ( a memo for the Bush-to-Obama transition team )

Gross manipulation of CIA analysis under George W. Bush pushed a new generation of “yes men” into the agency’s top ranks and now one of them is being considered by Joe Biden for the top job, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
As President-elect Joe Biden names his cabinet and other chief advisers, what has escaped wide attention is the fact that none of his hawkish national security advisers — except for his nominee for defense secretary, Gen. Lloyd Austin — has served in the military.
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who is reportedly on Biden’s short list for CIA director, shares that non-veteran status, one of the reasons along with other skeletons from Morell’s past that make him singularly unfit to lead the CIA.
Patriotism, Democracy,... Best Price: $4.00 Buy New $21.01 (as of 04:55 UTC - Details) During my 27 years at the CIA, I worked under nine CIA directors — three of them (Stan Turner, Bill Colby, and George H.W. Bush) at close remove — and served in all four of the agency’s main directorates.
Having closely followed the past-two-decade corruption of my profession — in particular, what the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee called the “uncorroborated, contradicted, or even non-existent” intelligence manufactured to “justify” the attack on Iraq, I have on occasion offered an suggestions for remediation, particularly during transition periods like this one. (Links to five such efforts in the past appear below.)
Whiz Kids
Decades of unfortunate experience show that over-dependence on bright, but inexperienced “best and brightest” can spell disaster. War gaming and theorizing at Princeton and Johns Hopkins have yielded knights with benightedly naive, politics-drenched decisions that get U.S. troops killed for no good reason.
Even if Gen. Lloyd Austin is confirmed as secretary of defense, the whippersnappers already appointed by Joe Biden will probably be able to outmaneuver the general and promote half-baked policies and operations bereft of needed military input — not to mention common sense from the likes of Gen. Austin who knows something of war.
The current generation of “whiz kids” — the well-heeled, politically astute chickenhawks Biden has appointed — will always “know better” and — if past is precedent — are likely to pooh pooh what Gen. Austin may advise, assuming he is able to get a word in edgeways.
Moreover, ambitious former generals like David Petraeus — many of them now on the outside of the proverbial revolving door making big bucks in the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank) complex — will not hesitate to weigh in with their own self-interested support to the chickenhawks, fostering the notion that military threats from notional enemies warrant still more funding for the defense contractors on whose boards so many alumni generals sit.
Who does not remember the braggadocio accompanying the criminal attack on Iraq, the full-throated support of journalists like David Sanger of The New York Times, and the chest-thumping of Bush/Cheney neocons saying “Real men go to Tehran?” (Sanger is still at it, sitting on the “Judith Miller Chair for Journalism”.) At the Center of the S... Bill Harlow Best Price: $0.64 Buy New $5.00 (as of 04:55 UTC - Details)
Clearly, one does not have to go as far back as Vietnam for noxious examples of the harm that can be done by these “best and brightest,” albeit inexperienced advisers — whether out of the myth of American exceptionalism, ignorance of post-WWII military history, or pure arrogance.
It may be helpful to recall that Vice President Dick Cheney, the archdeacon of the chickenhawks, acquired five draft deferments during Vietnam. (So did his successor as vice president, the president-elect.)
Cheney, of course, was the driving force behind the attack on Iraq. He had appointed himself Bush’s principal intelligence officer (usurping the role of CIA Director George Tenet who made not a murmur of protest) and went first and biggest with the Big Lie on (ephemeral) weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Here’s Cheney in his kick-off speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Aug. 26, 2002: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”
Simply stated, Tenet dutifully followed White House orders to “fix” the intelligence to support Cheney’s accusations against Iraq. Tenet did so formally in the deceitful National Intelligence Estimate of Oct. 1, 2002 — which earned the sobriquet “The Whore of Babylon.”
It was successfully used to get Congress to enable Bush/Cheney to make war on Iraq, and eventually create havoc in the whole region. In his memoir Tenet gave the laurels to Morell for “coordinating the CIA review” of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s UN speech that let slip the dogs of war. (Details on that below)
Cakewalks and Cubbyholes
Cheney, the quintessential chickenhawk, surrounded himself with advisers of the same bent. One pitiable example was armchair warrior Kenneth Adelman, who had been director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under President Reagan. In a Washington Post op-ed of Feb. 13, 2002, Adelman wrote: “I believe demolishing Hussein’s military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.”
Two years later, Adelman wrote an equally pathetic op-ed, insisting that he and his neoconservative friends had been right on everything except Iraq possessing WMD, Iraqi factions cooperating after Saddam Hussein was deposed, and “probably” on close ties between Saddam and al-Qaeda.
As for Cheney himself, he did memorize some weapons nomenclature vocabulary, but could not avoid an occasional faux pas betraying his lack of familiarity with things on the ground. Nine months after the attack on Iraq, when WMD were still nowhere to be found, NPR asked Cheney whether he had given up on finding them. Neo-Conned! Again: Hyp... Best Price: $3.99 Buy New $23.49 (as of 04:55 UTC - Details)
“No, we haven’t,” he said. “It’s going to take some additional, considerable period of time in order to look in all the cubbyholes and ammo dumps and all the places in Iraq where you’d expect to find something like that.” (The continued, quixotic search cost not only a billion dollars but the lives of U.S. troops.).
The amateur but opinionated Cheney was the largest fly in the intelligence ointment. Four months into the war it got so blatantly bad that we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) sent a Memorandum to President Bush entitled “Intelligence Unglued”, recommending that he “ask for Cheney’s immediate resignation.”
Naiveté on War
In a recent, disturbingly graphic article entitled “Biden’s young Hawk: The Case Against Jake Sullivan,” retired Army Maj. Danny Sjursen broadly hinted that President Biden’s national security adviser should at least look at the photos. (An editor’s note in the piece explained that such photos are almost totally absent from Establishment media: “Graphic images of war and suffering are included with this text. We believe it is important for the world to witness what their taxes, votes and apathy may be supporting.” )
In his article Sjursen finds himself wondering “whether Sullivan’s ever seen a dead child, gazed upon the detritus of American empire, waded through the sights and smells of our indecency. And, worse still, I wondered whether it’d matter much if he had. …”
The national security adviser is gatekeeper to the president, with the gate strong or weak depending — at least in concept — on what the president wants. In the normal course of business, the CIA director and the director of national intelligence would go through the security adviser to get to the president. Cabinet secretaries in the national security arena and, when appropriate, FBI directors often use the same channel.
What seems important here, though widely overlooked, is that no Biden national security appointee/nominee except Gen. Austin has apparently served a day in the military. Not Sullivan, not DNI nominee Avril Haines, not secretary of state nominee Antony Blinken, and not FBI Director Christopher Wray.
This is just one factor that should disqualify Morell for director of Central Intelligence (DCI). There are already far too many fledgling warhawks-without war experience. In Morell’s case, though, there are many other factors — some even more important — that disqualify him. His playing fast and loose regarding the legality and effectiveness of torture has been in the headlines recently, thanks to Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden (D-OR), who called Morell a “torture apologist.” Neo-Conned!: Just War ... Best Price: $2.95 Buy New $2.93 (as of 04:55 UTC - Details)
It has been a challenge to record Morell’s many artful dodges, but Consortium News did publish “On Iraq/Torture, Still in Denial”, as Morell began to peddle his memoir in May 2015.
Two of Morell’s tours de force with Charlie Rose in 2016, in which Morell advocates killing Russians and Iranians in Syria, were covered by CN.
More revealing still — and damning of his chances for another try at CIA — is an article, “Rise of Another CIA Yes Man.” That piece was written when Morell was picked to be Gen. David Petraeus’s deputy at CIA; it ends with personal comments by intelligence professionals who knew Morell well.
The article also includes citations from Tenet’s own memoir, including encomia he threw in Morell’s direction, one of which should actually be enough to bar Morell from any future role in intelligence.
In Tenet’s book, At the Center of the Storm, he writes that Morell “coordinated the CIA review” of the intelligence used by Secretary of State Colin Powell in his infamous Feb. 5, 2003 speech to the UN Security Council on the threat from (non-existent) WMD in Iraq.
Tenet, who sat directly behind Powell on that day, pointed out that Morell had served as regular briefer to President George W. Bush. It has been reported that, of the CIA’s finished intelligence product on Iraq, it was The President’s Daily Brief delivered by Morell that most exaggerated the danger from Iraq.
Morell fluttered quickly up CIA ranks as the yes-sir protege of two CIA directors who were, arguably, the worst of them all — “Slam-Dunk” Tenet and the-Russians-hacked-so-Trump-won John Brennan. During the presidential campaign of 2016, as Brennan and his accomplices in the National Security State worked behind the scenes to sabotage candidate Donald Trump, Morell dropped any pretense of nonpartisanship — which used to be the hallmark of an intelligence professional.
From retirement (but with eyes on the big prize he coveted in a new Democratic administration), Morell openly backed the Democratic candidate in a highly unusual op-ed in The New York Times on August 5, 2016: “I Ran the C.I.A. Now I’m Endorsing Hillary Clinton.”
Iraq: the Crucible
In my view, the key gauge in weighing qualifications for a national security position like CIA director is whether a candidate showed good judgment before the misbegotten, calamitous attack on Iraq.
Morell flunks that test outright. Accordingly, he can hardly be expected to be one of the calmer voices in a room of still less experienced fledgling hawks who, to quote Maj. Sjursen, have never “waded through the sights and smells of our indecency” in killing and maiming abroad. With Morell in the room, there would be greater risk of the U.S. getting sucked into still more misadventures overseas.
What did Morell tell Bush about Iraq? In Tenet’s memoir, he describes Morell as “the perfect guy” to brief President Bush, noting that Morell and Bush hit it off “almost immediately”. Morell added later: “I was President Bush’s first intelligence briefer, so I briefed him kind of the entire year of 2001.”
‘The Entire Year 2001’
So, was Iraqi President Saddam Hussein trying to acquire “weapons of mass destruction” during 2001? The first (and honest) answer was ”No” — if Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are to be believed. Here’s what they said at the time — Powell publicly during a speech in Cairo and Rice to CNN five months later.
Powell on Feb. 24, 2001:
“He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”
Rice told CNN’s John King on July 29, 2001:
“We are able to keep arms from him [Saddam Hussein]. His military forces have not been rebuilt.”
Is this what Morell told Bush just six weeks before 9/11? Did Morell ever explain how Iraq could have developed, purchased, or stolen copious WMD in one year’s time?
And when Morell briefed Bush right after 9/11, was the president fixated on Saddam Hussein, as counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke describes him in his book Against All Enemies? According to Clarke, on 9/12 Bush told him “to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he’s linked in any way.”
Clarke says he was incredulous, replying, “But, Mr. President, al-Qaeda did this.” In later interviews Clarke added that he felt he was being intimidated to find a link between the attacks and Iraq.
Did Morell play it straight and tell Bush (as Clarke did) that Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the attacks of 9/11? Did Clarke share that vignette at the time with Tenet and Morell?
And what about those notional Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq? After 9/11, did Morell take his cue from Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Tenet and give President Bush the impression that Iraq already had all manner of WMD and was on the threshold of acquiring a nuclear weapon?
Sham Dunk
Later, in December 2002 when Morell’s boss Tenet assured Bush and Cheney that CIA could prove, slam-dunkedly, the existence of WMD in Iraq, did Morell ever ask himself how both Powell and Rice could have been so far off base the year before?
Far more likely, Morell knew what the game was, as he watched Rice do a fancy pirouette, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Sept. 8, 2002 that “Saddam Hussein is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. We do know that there have been shipments into Iraq of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to nuclear weapons programs.”
The most accomplished engineers and technical intelligence analysts in the intelligence community knew that the aluminum tubes story was BS. In the finest tradition of intelligence analysis, they remained impervious to the political winds. They insisted that associating those aluminum tubes with nuclear weapons development was wrong and they could not be persuaded to go along. And yet that bogus information got into Powell’s February 2003 speech at the UN.
In Morell’s memoir he wrote that he wanted to apologize to Powell. Morell says, “We said he [Saddam Hussein] has chemical weapons, he has a biological weapons production capability, and he’s restarting his nuclear weapons program. We were wrong on all three of those.”
But not my fault, wrote Morell, who tried to shift the blame by claiming he was not a senior official at the time.
How does that square with Tenet writing that Morell “coordinated the CIA review” of Powell’s speech? Whom to believe? However begrudging must be any trust given “slam-dunk” and “we-do-not-torture”Tenet, he presumably would have less reason to dissimulate than Morell in this particular case.
Assuming Morell did “coordinate the CIA review” of Powell’s speech, did Morell know about the strong dissent on the infamous aluminum tubes?
More important, did he know that CIA operators had recruited and “turned” Naji Sabri, the Iraqi foreign minister (who Saddam Hussein continued to believe was still working for him) and, with the help of British intelligence, had “turned” the chief of Iraqi intelligence, Habbush, as well.
After the reporting from these two sources on other issues and after their access to secret information was evaluated and judged to be genuine, President Bush was told that Sabri and Habbush both said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Sabri’s information was given to the president by Tenet on Sept. 18, 2002; Habbush’s in late Jan. 2003.
Did Tenet not share that with Morell before he coordinated CIA input into Powell’s speech?
Clearly, this first-hand intelligence from proven sources with excellent access did not suit the Cheney/Bush narrative for war on Iraq. The president’s staff told CIA operatives not to forward additional reporting on this issue from these sources, explaining that Bush did not want more information about weapons of mass destruction; rather, it was now about “regime change.”
Did Morell know about this when he was “coordinating” input into Powell’s disastrous speech? It is a safe bet that Morell was fully aware of the con job he was “coordinating” — as did other senior intelligence officials.
In his own memoir, former Director of National Intelligence (and, during Iraq, director of imagery analysis), James Clapper takes a share of the blame for the Iraq WMD fiasco. Clapper puts the blame for “the failure” to find the (non-existent) WMD “squarely on the shoulders of the administration members who were pushing a narrative of a rogue WMD program in Iraq and on the intelligence officers, including me, who were so eager to help that we found what wasn’t really there.” (emphasis added) .
Regarding Morell’s “I-confess-they-did-it” apology to Powell, the still-youngish Morell has not stopped lusting for an eventual seat at the table, so he apparently thought it a smart move politically. Typically, Powell did not react — as far as is known. Nor has the conflict-averse Powell summoned the cohones to say clearly what he thinks of how Tenet, Morell, et al. sold him a bill of goods on Iraq.
In the “where-are-they-now?” department, Tenet quit in July 2004 and fled to Wall Street to be joined the following year by Jami Miscik, who was deputy director for intelligence during the Iraq fiasco. She “lucked into” a nice job at Lehman Brothers before it went bust.
Note to readers: If you know someone advising the Biden team on selecting a director for CIA, please pass this along.
Finally, those interested in suggestions from the experience of previous transition teams, please click on one or two of the links below. The key issues tend to remain the same. Above all, integrity counts.
Additional Readings
1 — A Compromised Central Intelligence Agency: What Can Be Done?
By Ray McGovern, 2004
Chapter 4 in “Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America’s Promise at Home and Abroad”, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004
Ray’s chapter follows chapters by Alan Curtis (editor), Gary Hart, and Jessica Mathews.
Link to Chapter 4 text:
https://books.google.com/books?id=J9kWYfUTdg0C&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=%22A+Compromised+Central+Intelligence+Agency:+What+Can+Be+Done?&source=bl&ots=plCvTEGgpS&sig=xcRJvzyCaRKYbcx_x353V62MD9k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dKmMVYreLIzAggS0qYCYAw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
2 — Sham Dunk: Cooking Intelligence for the President?
By Ray McGovern, 2005
Chapter 19 in “Neo-CONNED! Again: Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq”, Light in the Darkness Publications, 2005? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vBsKG1CRHTpqKrtOm4_bftQSOWtjF_PE/view?usp=sharing
3 — Try These on Your CIA Briefer, Mr. President-Elect
By Ray McGovern, November 8, 2008
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/11/08/try-these-your-cia-briefer-mr-president-elect
4 — What Needs to Be Done in Intelligence (a memo for the Bush-to-Obama transition team)
By Ray McGovern. December 4, 2008
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mfT70D90UrNxAWhpy_SKtF4NkSmmHxmn/view?usp=sharing
5 — US Intelligence Vets Oppose Brennan’s CIA Plan
By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), March 9, 2015
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/03/09/us-intel-vets-oppose-brennans-cia-plan/
Reprinted with the author’s permission.


lewrockwell--2020-12-14--Nigel Farage Predicts the End for Johnson if PM Makes ‘Last Minute’ Brexit Concession

Despite formally leaving the EU in January , the UK remains within the bloc ’ s economic and social structures but is set to withdraw entirely at the end of December .
Nigel Farage issued a stern warning to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday , urging him against making a last minute concession to the EU , for fear of a public backlash .
In response to a question about stalled UK-EU negotiations , LBCs Andrew Castle asked if pursuing Brexit negotiations during the coronavirus pandemic was a “ legitimate concern.
” The Brexit Party leader responded by claiming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be insignificant .
After calling the government ’ s signing of the Withdrawal Agreement a “ mistake , ” he said the Prime Minister now has a chance “ to set us on a completely different course ” where the UK is “ in charge of or own rules and regulations , where we can actually become competitive – if we do that we will become a magnet for massive global investment ” .
Cultural Backlash : Tru ... Norris , Pippa Best Price : $ 19.00 Buy New $ 10.00 Mr @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ some short-term disruption , when you move house there is short-term disruption , any big change in life will bring short-term disruption ” .
Castle went on to ask if the UK has “ seriously got royal naval vessels ready to patrol our waters ?
” and called the potential manoeuvre to preserve fishing territory “ unbelievably childish.
” He also added that France ’ s “ overfishing ” of the English Channel right up to the line six miles from the English coast , the ongoing use of super trawlers off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an “ ecological disaster ” because “ the Europeans have decided that if Brexit ’ s going to happen , they will take every last scrap we can.
” Castle asked if it was possible that the PM might concede on fisheries to achieve a deal .
Farage claimed this would be damaging for Johnson ’ s reputation .
The Bad Boys of Brexit ... Banks , Arron Best Price : $ 6.37 Buy New $ 9.91 Farage issued another word of warning to the PM , saying that his predecessor , Theresa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away with it , and look what happened to her.
” May resigned in June 2019 following her failure to broker a Brexit deal after enraging many Brexit-supporting Conservatives .
This comes as the Brexit negotiations were extended on Sunday – Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen remain in deadlock over three key issues , one of which is fishing rights .
The other points of contention are the right to provide state aid to domestic industries and how any future economic disputes are mediated .
While expressing opposition to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Farage was partly responsible for seeing the Conservatives re-elected with a large majority in the 2019 general election .
He asked his own Brexit Party candidates to stand down in swing seats to to avoid splitting the pro-Brexit vote .

Despite formally leaving the EU in January, the UK remains within the bloc’s economic and social structures but is set to withdraw entirely at the end of December.
Nigel Farage issued a stern warning to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday, urging him against making a last minute concession to the EU, for fear of a public backlash.
In response to a question about stalled UK-EU negotiations, LBCs Andrew Castle asked if pursuing Brexit negotiations during the coronavirus pandemic was a “legitimate concern.” The Brexit Party leader responded by claiming that the consequences of a no-deal withdrawal would be insignificant.
“Any disruption caused by Brexit will be tiny compared to the disruption to our lives that’s been caused by COVID and the way the government has dealt with it”, Mr Farage claimed.
“We know at the end of the day the European Union are battling to preserve their political empire”, he said.
Leader of the Brexit Party Nigel Farage insists that the impact of a no-deal Brexit will be ‘absolutely tiny’ in the long term, comparing the disruption to when a person moves house.@AndrewCastle63 | @Nigel_Farage pic.twitter.com/uux36lBNXN — LBC (@LBC) December 13, 2020
After calling the government’s signing of the Withdrawal Agreement a “mistake,” he said the Prime Minister now has a chance “to set us on a completely different course” where the UK is “in charge of or own rules and regulations, where we can actually become competitive – if we do that we will become a magnet for massive global investment”. Cultural Backlash: Tru... Norris, Pippa Best Price: $19.00 Buy New $10.00 (as of 04:56 UTC - Details)
Mr Farage continued by saying there may be “some short-term disruption, when you move house there is short-term disruption, any big change in life will bring short-term disruption”.
Castle went on to ask if the UK has “seriously got royal naval vessels ready to patrol our waters?” and called the potential manoeuvre to preserve fishing territory “unbelievably childish.”
“It’s what Norway does every day, it’s what Iceland does every day,” Farage responded.
“Sovereign countries protect their own resources,” he added, saying that the UK should do the same after the Brexit transition period comes to an end in January.
He also added that France’s “overfishing” of the English Channel right up to the line six miles from the English coast, the ongoing use of super trawlers off the Sussex coast will, will cause an “ecological disaster” because “the Europeans have decided that if Brexit’s going to happen, they will take every last scrap we can.”
Castle asked if it was possible that the PM might concede on fisheries to achieve a deal. Farage claimed this would be damaging for Johnson’s reputation.
“If he thinks he can get away with it, he’s in for a shock,” Mr Farage insisted.
“Don’t think you can get away with a last-minute fudge,” he warned.
The Bad Boys of Brexit... Banks, Arron Best Price: $6.37 Buy New $9.91 (as of 04:56 UTC - Details) Farage issued another word of warning to the PM, saying that his predecessor, Theresa May, “thought she could get away with it, and look what happened to her.”
May resigned in June 2019 following her failure to broker a Brexit deal after enraging many Brexit-supporting Conservatives.
This comes as the Brexit negotiations were extended on Sunday – Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen remain in deadlock over three key issues, one of which is fishing rights.
The other points of contention are the right to provide state aid to domestic industries and how any future economic disputes are mediated.
While expressing opposition to Johnson’s withdrawal agreement last year, Farage was partly responsible for seeing the Conservatives re-elected with a large majority in the 2019 general election. He asked his own Brexit Party candidates to stand down in swing seats to to avoid splitting the pro-Brexit vote.
Reprinted from Sputnik News.


lewrockwell--2020-12-14--A Letter to the Warden of the Prison for the Elderly

My 84-year-old mother has been imprisoned for the past nine months .
Not even family is allowed to visit – a cruelty not visited on death-row inmates .
My mother didn ’ t kill anyone or even hold up a 7-11 .
Dementia .
She is imprisoned on account of this in a “ care ” facility which operates under the Gesundheitsbefiehls – health decrees – of Governor Ralph “ Coonman ” Northam .
He has decreed that visitors are verboten , no matter the extenuating circumstances – including even no possibility of transmitting the ‘ Rona to the imprisoned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tested positive , ” according to the warden of the facility .
Therefore , there is no longer the excuse that I might transmit the ‘ Rona ( asymptomatically , of course ) to my mother , since she already has it .
Rothco Special Ops Tac ... Buy New $ 103.99 And I am quite willing to assume the “ risk ” of acquiring the ‘ Rona from her since it presents almost no serious threat to me , as I am not elderly or diabetic or afflicted with clogged arteries , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all ( more than 90 percent ) of the deaths we keep hearing about and which tend to result in death regardless of catching cold .
There is no medical reason for denying me a chance to actually see my mother in person – and for her to see me – ideally , while she still remembers who I am ( for her sake ) and before she passes away ( for mine ) .
We could be placed in a Corona Room , just the two of us .
No harm could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won ’ t let us .
It is an extrapolation of the Diaper Decrees and restrictions imposed on the healthy who refuse to wear the Holy Rag , who aren ’ t sick and therefore can ’ t get anyone sick .
But who are treated with contempt – and worse – for declining to play-pretend they are sick .
The Best of Eric Peters

My 84-year-old mother has been imprisoned for the past nine months. Not even family is allowed to visit – a cruelty not visited on death-row inmates. My mother didn’t kill anyone or even hold up a 7-11.
Her crime?
Dementia. She is imprisoned on account of this in a “care” facility which operates under the Gesundheitsbefiehls – health decrees – of Governor Ralph “Coonman” Northam. He has decreed that visitors are verboten, no matter the extenuating circumstances – including even no possibility of transmitting the ‘Rona to the imprisoned elderly person.
My mom has “tested positive,” according to the warden of the facility.
Therefore, there is no longer the excuse that I might transmit the ‘Rona (asymptomatically, of course) to my mother, since she already has it. Rothco Special Ops Tac... Buy New $103.99 (as of 04:57 UTC - Details)
And I am quite willing to assume the “risk” of acquiring the ‘Rona from her since it presents almost no serious threat to me, as I am not elderly or diabetic or afflicted with clogged arteries, the underlying co-morbidities that account for almost all (more than 90 percent) of the deaths we keep hearing about and which tend to result in death regardless of catching cold.
There is no medical reason for denying me a chance to actually see my mother in person – and for her to see me – ideally, while she still remembers who I am (for her sake) and before she passes away (for mine).
We could be placed in a Corona Room, just the two of us. No harm could possibly come from this.
But they won’t let us.
Because facts don’t matter.
Cruelty does.
It is an extrapolation of the Diaper Decrees and restrictions imposed on the healthy who refuse to wear the Holy Rag, who aren’t sick and therefore can’t get anyone sick. But who are treated with contempt – and worse – for declining to play-pretend they are sick.
Read the Whole Article
The Best of Eric Peters


lewrockwell--2020-12-14--Ex-Pharmaceutical Rep Brandy Vaughan Found Dead After Warning People To Investigate Her Death

What Happened : Update : According to Children ’ s Health Defense , Brandy Vaughan passed away due to gallbladder complications , a medical issue that she privately struggled with throughout 2020 .
We will continue to provide more updates as/if more information becomes available .
2nd Update : I have been in contact with a close friend of Brandy .
According to her , she was find , ate a lot over thanksgiving and seemed totally healthy .
Apparently it was a sudden death that happened out of nowhere .
“ A great friend , amazing warrior , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Risk has passed .
Please send your prayers for her 9 year old son , her dogs , her cats… Her son was her world .
Her son is in safe hands currently .
We don ’ t have many answers yet — please try to avoid engaging in rumors out of respect to her and her son .
Thanks to all who have been reaching out to offer condolences , and asking for ways you can help .
We are so deeply saddened by this news.
” – Tina Maria , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find out what happened .
This was one of Vaughan ’ s requests if she were to be found deceased , more on that later in the article .
“ It is with such a heavy heart that I list yet another activist found dead , and this time it is my friend and colleague , Brandy Vaughan , the founder of the well-known non profit Learn The Risk .
She was found dead by her son who is a minor.
” – Erin Elizabeth , founder of Health Nut News .
Snow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 45.98 Tragedy has struck in the alternative/independent media world as Brandy Vaughan , a well-known drug , health & vaccine safety advocate , and former Merck ( pharmaceutical company ) representative , was found dead in her home leaving behind a nine year old child who found her .
This information comes from multiple friends of Vaughan across social media outlets , as well as Facebook itself , having now posted a note atop her Facebook page .
Little is known about her death right now .
Vaughan was the founder of learntherisk.org @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the dangers of various pharmaceutical drugs and concerns that many scientists and doctors have been raising about vaccines .
Her background , working for pharmaceutical giant Merck , inspired her to do the incredible and brave work that she did .
She was a legend and worked extremely hard with enormous amounts of passion and determination .
While working in the pharmaceutical industry she sold Vioxx , a painkiller that was found to double the risk of stroke and heart attacks and was eventually taken off the market as a result .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that just because something is on the market doesn ’ t mean it ’ s safe , ” explained Vaughan .
“ Much of what we are told by the healthcare industry just simply isn ’ t the truth.
” Her organization created awareness in a very credible way .
She gathered countless doctors and scientists from around the world and archived published peer-reviewed research outlining the concerns being raised in the scientific community about various drugs and vaccines .
Her organization reached millions of people globally every single month on social media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ website alone .
They posted 38 billboards which reached over 30 million people , and they have hosted over 30 campaigns and rallies in the past two years .
They ’ ve produced videos and educational materials that reach over 1 million people , and did educational talks and events worldwide .
( source ) She Was Worried : One chilling factor about her death remains , and that ’ s the fact that she was concerned that she was going to pass away .
On December 1st 2019 , she wrote the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Truth About the Dr ... Angell , Marcia Best Price : $ 2.41 Buy New $ 9.75 The post I wish I didn ’ t have to write… But given the certain sudden tragedies over the last couple of years , I feel it ’ s absolutely necessary to post these ten facts…and please screenshot this for the record I ’ ve NEVER had any thoughts of taking my own life , not once , ever .
Even before I had my son .
I have a huge mission in this life .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and scary , I would NEVER take my own life .
Period .
Bastien means everything to me and I would NEVER leave him .
Period .
I have sole custody and he needs me as much as I need him .
I would NEVER think of leaving him for a second .
I have NEVER been on an antidepressant nor been diagnosed as depressed – don ’ t believe it if you ever hear anything like this .
I ’ ve NEVER taken a daily pharmaceutical drug .
And I haven ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( and ten years ago it was one pill , one day ) .
Nothing over the counter , nothing by prescription .
In other words , I ’ m not on anything that could kill me unexpectedly or suddenly .
I ’ ve never done illegal drugs either .
Not even once .
There ’ s no way anyone could get into my house , no robbers , no angry exes ( which I don ’ t have btw ) , no fanatical people – my house is like Fort Knox…unless it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wouldn ’ t be possible for anyone without highly special equipment and tactics ( I.e .
remotely taking down my high-level security system , which they have done before , unfortunately ) .
But my place is also highly secure in a hard-wired kinda way .
So even if the power was out , most people could still never get in .
If something were to happen to me , it ’ s foul play and you know exactly who and why – given my work and mission in this life .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And I got the highest health rating possible when I went through a battery of medical tests a couple of years ago for my life insurance policy .
Charles River Apparel ... Buy New $ 34.40 If something were to happen to me , I have arranged for a close group of my friends to start a GoFundMe to hire a team of private investigators to figure out all the details ( I have the team and have passed the info on to them ) .
Oh , and money for a PR @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There would be a press release sent to every journalist in this country ( and more ) .
It would not be swept under the rug , and it would be their worst nightmare .
There have been many on this mission or a similar one that have been killed and it ’ s time this bullshit stopped .
The darkness can not win .
I will never stop speaking out for those who no longer can .
Even if from the other side , where I image I would be FAR MORE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ angels surrounding me every step of this journey , but prayers of protection and love are ALWAYS appreciated You can access the funding page , here as she mentions in her Facebook post above .
In a video she made years ago , she outlines the covert intimidation she experienced and has been experiencing for quite a while .
It ’ s quite disturbing and chilling , and as she emphasizes in the video , it was quite scary .
Here ’ s a recent Facebook post by her best friend , mentioned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so we ’ re not sure how long this video will be up .
Closing Remarks : Little has been made public about her death , or how and when exactly she died , and she is not the first .
There are still many unknowns and we will provide updates as more information emerges .
Many mysterious deaths have plagued the alternative media/health community over the years , especially when it comes to holistic doctors .
Vaughan was one of many to create awareness about issues , especially concerns about vaccine safety @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s one thing we pride ourselves on doing here at Collective Evolution .
Despite presenting information from credible sources , renowned scientists and peer reviewed publications , concerns raised by vaccine safety advocates are often labelled as “ conspiracy theories.
” Anybody who presents any type of information that raises any type of concerns about them is always referred to as an “ anti-vax conspiracy theorist ” while the concerns they raise are never really properly addressed nor countered .
This happens to doctors and renowned scientists publishing research all over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , continue to remain unacknowledged and ridiculed by the mainstream .
Confessions of an Rx D ... Olsen , Gwen Best Price : $ 2.07 Buy New $ 10.20 Why does this happen these days with so many controversial topics ?
What ’ s going on here ?
Here ’ s one topic on the issue , out of many , that is a great example of what I am talking about .
Our sincerest thoughts go out to all of her family and friends , we will continue to do what she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ space to do , keep going .
I ’ d like to leave you with this quote to reflect on , taken from a paper published in the International Journal for Crime , Justice and Social Democracy by professor Paddy Rawlinson , from Western Sydney University .
Critical criminology repeatedly has drawn attention to the state-corporate nexus as a site of corruption and other forms of criminality , a scenario exacerbated by the intensification of neoliberalism in areas such as health .
The state-pharmaceutical relationship , which increasingly influences health policy , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when pharmaceutical products such as vaccines , a burgeoning sector of the industry , are mandated in direct violation of the principle of informed consent .
Such policies have provoked suspicion and dissent as critics question the integrity of the state-pharma alliance and its impact on vaccine safety .
However , rather than encouraging open debate , draconian modes of governance have been implemented to repress and silence any form of criticism , thereby protecting the activities of the state and pharmaceutical industry from independent scrutiny .
The article examines this relationship in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to intensify its mandatory regime around vaccines .
It argues that attempts to undermine freedom of speech , and to systematically excoriate those who criticise or dissent from mandatory vaccine programs , function as a corrupting process and , by extension , serve to provoke the notion that corruption does indeed exist within the state-pharma alliance .

What Happened: Update: According to Children’s Health Defense, Brandy Vaughan passed away due to gallbladder complications, a medical issue that she privately struggled with throughout 2020. We will continue to provide more updates as/if more information becomes available.
2nd Update: I have been in contact with a close friend of Brandy. According to her, she was find, ate a lot over thanksgiving and seemed totally healthy. Apparently it was a sudden death that happened out of nowhere.
“A great friend, amazing warrior, and loving mom, Brandy Vaughan of Learn The Risk has passed. Please send your prayers for her 9 year old son, her dogs, her cats… Her son was her world. Her son is in safe hands currently. We don’t have many answers yet — please try to avoid engaging in rumors out of respect to her and her son. Thanks to all who have been reaching out to offer condolences, and asking for ways you can help. We are so deeply saddened by this news.” – Tina Maria, close friend, via GoGetFunding Campaign to find out what happened. This was one of Vaughan’s requests if she were to be found deceased, more on that later in the article.
“It is with such a heavy heart that I list yet another activist found dead, and this time it is my friend and colleague, Brandy Vaughan, the founder of the well-known non profit Learn The Risk. She was found dead by her son who is a minor.” – Erin Elizabeth, founder of Health Nut News. Snow Jacket Women Wate... Buy New $45.98 (as of 04:58 UTC - Details)
Tragedy has struck in the alternative/independent media world as Brandy Vaughan, a well-known drug, health & vaccine safety advocate, and former Merck (pharmaceutical company) representative, was found dead in her home leaving behind a nine year old child who found her. This information comes from multiple friends of Vaughan across social media outlets, as well as Facebook itself, having now posted a note atop her Facebook page.
Little is known about her death right now.
Vaughan was the founder of learntherisk.org, a website/non-profit organization that created awareness about the dangers of various pharmaceutical drugs and concerns that many scientists and doctors have been raising about vaccines.
Her background, working for pharmaceutical giant Merck, inspired her to do the incredible and brave work that she did. She was a legend and worked extremely hard with enormous amounts of passion and determination. While working in the pharmaceutical industry she sold Vioxx, a painkiller that was found to double the risk of stroke and heart attacks and was eventually taken off the market as a result. “From that experience, I realized that just because something is on the market doesn’t mean it’s safe,” explained Vaughan. “Much of what we are told by the healthcare industry just simply isn’t the truth.”
Her organization created awareness in a very credible way. She gathered countless doctors and scientists from around the world and archived published peer-reviewed research outlining the concerns being raised in the scientific community about various drugs and vaccines.
Her organization reached millions of people globally every single month on social media, and tens of thousands through her website alone. They posted 38 billboards which reached over 30 million people, and they have hosted over 30 campaigns and rallies in the past two years. They’ve produced videos and educational materials that reach over 1 million people, and did educational talks and events worldwide.(source)
We are actively changing the conversation around vaccines and the pharmaceutical industry, which should never be trusted with our collective health (source)
She Was Worried: One chilling factor about her death remains, and that’s the fact that she was concerned that she was going to pass away. On December 1st 2019, she wrote the following on her Facebook Page: The Truth About the Dr... Angell, Marcia Best Price: $2.41 Buy New $9.75 (as of 05:31 UTC - Details)
The post I wish I didn’t have to write… But given the certain sudden tragedies over the last couple of years, I feel it’s absolutely necessary to post these ten facts…and please screenshot this for the record I’ve NEVER had any thoughts of taking my own life, not once, ever. Even before I had my son. I have a huge mission in this life. Even when they make it very difficult and scary, I would NEVER take my own life. Period. Bastien means everything to me and I would NEVER leave him. Period. I have sole custody and he needs me as much as I need him. I would NEVER think of leaving him for a second. I have NEVER been on an antidepressant nor been diagnosed as depressed – don’t believe it if you ever hear anything like this.
I’ve NEVER taken a daily pharmaceutical drug. And I haven’t taken any pharmaceuticals in 10 years (and ten years ago it was one pill, one day). Nothing over the counter, nothing by prescription. In other words, I’m not on anything that could kill me unexpectedly or suddenly. I’ve never done illegal drugs either. Not even once. There’s no way anyone could get into my house, no robbers, no angry exes (which I don’t have btw), no fanatical people – my house is like Fort Knox…unless it was someone super professional. It just wouldn’t be possible for anyone without highly special equipment and tactics (I.e. remotely taking down my high-level security system, which they have done before, unfortunately). But my place is also highly secure in a hard-wired kinda way. So even if the power was out, most people could still never get in. If something were to happen to me, it’s foul play and you know exactly who and why – given my work and mission in this life. I’m also NOT accident prone. And I got the highest health rating possible when I went through a battery of medical tests a couple of years ago for my life insurance policy. Charles River Apparel ... Buy New $34.40 (as of 04:58 UTC - Details) If something were to happen to me, I have arranged for a close group of my friends to start a GoFundMe to hire a team of private investigators to figure out all the details ( I have the team and have passed the info on to them). Oh, and money for a PR firm to make it national news. There would be a press release sent to every journalist in this country (and more). It would not be swept under the rug, and it would be their worst nightmare. There have been many on this mission or a similar one that have been killed and it’s time this bullshit stopped. The darkness cannot win. I will never stop speaking out for those who no longer can. Even if from the other side, where I image I would be FAR MORE powerful. I have a team of angels surrounding me every step of this journey, but prayers of protection and love are ALWAYS appreciated
You can access the funding page, here as she mentions in her Facebook post above.
In a video she made years ago, she outlines the covert intimidation she experienced and has been experiencing for quite a while. It’s quite disturbing and chilling, and as she emphasizes in the video, it was quite scary.
Here’s a recent Facebook post by her best friend, mentioned near the beginning of the article, so we’re not sure how long this video will be up.
Closing Remarks: Little has been made public about her death, or how and when exactly she died, and she is not the first. There are still many unknowns and we will provide updates as more information emerges. Many mysterious deaths have plagued the alternative media/health community over the years, especially when it comes to holistic doctors.
Vaughan was one of many to create awareness about issues, especially concerns about vaccine safety, in a credible way. It’s one thing we pride ourselves on doing here at Collective Evolution. Despite presenting information from credible sources, renowned scientists and peer reviewed publications, concerns raised by vaccine safety advocates are often labelled as “conspiracy theories.” Anybody who presents any type of information that raises any type of concerns about them is always referred to as an “anti-vax conspiracy theorist” while the concerns they raise are never really properly addressed nor countered. This happens to doctors and renowned scientists publishing research all over the world, yet their concerns, again, continue to remain unacknowledged and ridiculed by the mainstream. Confessions of an Rx D... Olsen, Gwen Best Price: $2.07 Buy New $10.20 (as of 04:58 UTC - Details)
Why does this happen these days with so many controversial topics? What’s going on here? Here’s one topic on the issue, out of many, that is a great example of what I am talking about.
Our sincerest thoughts go out to all of her family and friends, we will continue to do what she would want all of us in this space to do, keep going.
I’d like to leave you with this quote to reflect on, taken from a paper published in the International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy by professor Paddy Rawlinson, from Western Sydney University.
Critical criminology repeatedly has drawn attention to the state-corporate nexus as a site of corruption and other forms of criminality, a scenario exacerbated by the intensification of neoliberalism in areas such as health. The state-pharmaceutical relationship, which increasingly influences health policy, is no exception. That is especially so when pharmaceutical products such as vaccines, a burgeoning sector of the industry, are mandated in direct violation of the principle of informed consent. Such policies have provoked suspicion and dissent as critics question the integrity of the state-pharma alliance and its impact on vaccine safety. However, rather than encouraging open debate, draconian modes of governance have been implemented to repress and silence any form of criticism, thereby protecting the activities of the state and pharmaceutical industry from independent scrutiny. The article examines this relationship in the context of recent legislation in Australia to intensify its mandatory regime around vaccines. It argues that attempts to undermine freedom of speech, and to systematically excoriate those who criticise or dissent from mandatory vaccine programs, function as a corrupting process and, by extension, serve to provoke the notion that corruption does indeed exist within the state-pharma alliance.
Reprinted with permission from Collective Evolution.


lewrockwell--2020-12-14--Back in the Bahamas

Back in the Bahamas

HARBOUR ISLAND , BAHAMAS—A singer named Shawn Mendes recently announced to millions of his fans that : “ The truth is , it ’ s so hard to be human.
” Gee whiz , poor Mendes , and I thought I had drawn the short straw of life .
Depressed as I was about how hard it is to be human , friends like Prince Pavlos of Greece and Arki Busson came to my rescue .
They picked me up from my hovel on Park Avenue and whisked me to a private airport in White Plains , where Bob Miller @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , magnificent Gulfstream 650 was waiting to transport the three of us to a place where it ’ s less hard to be human : Harbour Island , a lump of an island on top of a hundred-mile-long reef overgrown with vegetation that is an escape to a simpler way of life .
Yippee !
America was always a country on the move , starting with the Pilgrims , the Homesteaders pushing west , the gold rush of ’ 79 , Huck and Jim drifting down the Mississippi , and so on .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone , including the traveling Americans , stayed put .
Not your intrepid high-life correspondent , however .
I hadn ’ t visited the Bahamas in fifty or so years .
Last time I was there I got into a fight with Margaux Hemingway ’ s boyfriend outside the casino in Nassau .
I already wasn ’ t mad about the place , a tropical Blighty with an American accent , with some of its parts Yankee-owned .
The then-mega-rich Huntington Hartford had purchased Paradise Island , and the poor little Greek boy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ making me a hated figure to some of his dependents , and there were many .
Never mind , that was long ago and time puts a halo on many things .
Better yet , Harbour Island turned out to be as far removed from the glitz of Nassau as Margaux ’ s gigolo was from me .
Globalhandmade Summer ... Buy New $ 39.00 Back in 1880 Harbour Island had a population of two thousand and three sugar mills .
But after the mills were abandoned the green acres of the cane @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Today the place has an air of ancient and established peace , a curious conception of then and now , with men and women loitering and idling in the shade of ancient gnarled trees .
It felt like sleepwalking during the ’ 50s .
Some years ago , smart men who foresee things rather than follow trends discovered the place , built houses that blended in with the surroundings , and did not compete with each other over who had the most toys .
People like Bob Miller and Arki Busson .
Bob @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has other attributes : like coming from a very old American family—I saw some pictures of his officer ancestors in Civil War uniforms , alas in blue , or so it seemed , rather than gray—but he ’ s a self-made man .
He invented something most of us could have thought of but never did , duty-free shops in airports , and as a result owns beautiful dwellings the world over , plus a little shoot called Gunnerside in Yorkshire .
( The one and only time Geldof was nice to anyone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a few kind words to Bob . )
The Best of Taki Theodoracopulos

HARBOUR ISLAND, BAHAMAS—A singer named Shawn Mendes recently announced to millions of his fans that: “The truth is, it’s so hard to be human.” Gee whiz, poor Mendes, and I thought I had drawn the short straw of life. Depressed as I was about how hard it is to be human, friends like Prince Pavlos of Greece and Arki Busson came to my rescue. They picked me up from my hovel on Park Avenue and whisked me to a private airport in White Plains, where Bob Miller’s, Prince Pavlos’ father-in-law, magnificent Gulfstream 650 was waiting to transport the three of us to a place where it’s less hard to be human: Harbour Island, a lump of an island on top of a hundred-mile-long reef overgrown with vegetation that is an escape to a simpler way of life. Yippee!
America was always a country on the move, starting with the Pilgrims, the Homesteaders pushing west, the gold rush of ’79, Huck and Jim drifting down the Mississippi, and so on. Then the virus wreaked its havoc and everyone, including the traveling Americans, stayed put. Not your intrepid high-life correspondent, however. I hadn’t visited the Bahamas in fifty or so years. Last time I was there I got into a fight with Margaux Hemingway’s boyfriend outside the casino in Nassau. I already wasn’t mad about the place, a tropical Blighty with an American accent, with some of its parts Yankee-owned. The then-mega-rich Huntington Hartford had purchased Paradise Island, and the poor little Greek boy was stepping out with his wife, making me a hated figure to some of his dependents, and there were many. Never mind, that was long ago and time puts a halo on many things. Better yet, Harbour Island turned out to be as far removed from the glitz of Nassau as Margaux’s gigolo was from me. Globalhandmade Summer ... Buy New $39.00 (as of 04:59 UTC - Details)
Back in 1880 Harbour Island had a population of two thousand and three sugar mills. But after the mills were abandoned the green acres of the cane were replaced by bush once again. Today the place has an air of ancient and established peace, a curious conception of then and now, with men and women loitering and idling in the shade of ancient gnarled trees. It felt like sleepwalking during the ’50s. Some years ago, smart men who foresee things rather than follow trends discovered the place, built houses that blended in with the surroundings, and did not compete with each other over who had the most toys. People like Bob Miller and Arki Busson.
Bob is a member of Pugs but also has other attributes: like coming from a very old American family—I saw some pictures of his officer ancestors in Civil War uniforms, alas in blue, or so it seemed, rather than gray—but he’s a self-made man. He invented something most of us could have thought of but never did, duty-free shops in airports, and as a result owns beautiful dwellings the world over, plus a little shoot called Gunnerside in Yorkshire. (The one and only time Geldof was nice to anyone was when he visited there and sent a few kind words to Bob.)
Read the Whole Article
The Best of Taki Theodoracopulos


lewrockwell--2020-12-14--Texas GOP Chairman Suggests ‘Constitution-Abiding States Should Form a Union’ After SCOTUS Tosses El

Texas GOP Chairman Suggests ‘Constitution-Abiding States Should Form a Union’ After SCOTUS Tosses Election Suit

The Texas Republican Party chairman has blasted the Supreme Court for establishing a “ precedent that says states can violate the US Constitution and not be held accountable , ” and proposed a new “ union of law-abiding states.
” State GOP chair Allen West floated the idea on Friday following a decision by the nation ’ s highest court to throw out a lawsuit brought by the Texas attorney general , which alleged that mail-in voting measures introduced in a number of states before the 2020 race were unconstitutional .
“ The Supreme Court… has decreed that a state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own election law , ” West said of the ruling , noting that the lawsuit was “ joined by 17 states and 106 US congressmen.
” This decision establishes a precedent that says states can violate the US Constitution and not be held accountable… Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a union of states that will abide by the Constitution .
Lock and Love LL WJC66 ... Buy New $ 59.95 Brought by Texas AG Ken Paxton , the suit looked to bar four key battleground states – Georgia , Pennsylvania @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their electoral votes , asking the court to shift the selection of new electors to the state legislatures .
Seven out of nine justices ruled to dismiss the case on Friday , however , stating that Paxton had not “ demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.
” Though Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas issued a dissenting opinion , they , too , said they would not have granted relief to the case , only suggesting that the court should hear the complaint .

The Texas Republican Party chairman has blasted the Supreme Court for establishing a “precedent that says states can violate the US Constitution and not be held accountable,” and proposed a new “union of law-abiding states.”
State GOP chair Allen West floated the idea on Friday following a decision by the nation’s highest court to throw out a lawsuit brought by the Texas attorney general, which alleged that mail-in voting measures introduced in a number of states before the 2020 race were unconstitutional.
“The Supreme Court… has decreed that a state can take unconstitutional actions and violate its own election law,” West said of the ruling, noting that the lawsuit was “joined by 17 states and 106 US congressmen.”
This decision establishes a precedent that says states can violate the US Constitution and not be held accountable… Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a union of states that will abide by the Constitution.
Texas GOP Chairman Allen West’s Response to SCOTUS Decision: pic.twitter.com/Vw7Jo9qXJS — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 12, 2020
Lock and Love LL WJC66... Buy New $59.95 (as of 04:59 UTC - Details) Brought by Texas AG Ken Paxton, the suit looked to bar four key battleground states – Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – from casting their electoral votes, asking the court to shift the selection of new electors to the state legislatures. Seven out of nine justices ruled to dismiss the case on Friday, however, stating that Paxton had not “demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.” Though Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas issued a dissenting opinion, they, too, said they would not have granted relief to the case, only suggesting that the court should hear the complaint.
Reprinted from RT News.


lewrockwell--2020-12-14--Yet Another Major Escalation In Establishment Internet Censorship

YouTube , whose corporate owner Google is arguably the most powerful company on earth , is now deleting user videos which claim the US election was fraudulent .
YouTube ’ s official statement on its decision to do this is very revealing , not so much for what it says as for what it does not say .
At no point does the video publishing platform attempt to argue that it is removing these videos because they jeopardize anyone ’ s health or safety , as it did when it began deleting videos deemed to be spreading misinformation about Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 35.99 At no point does it attempt to argue that these videos are inciting violence , as it did when it began deleting QAnon videos .
At no point does it claim that these videos are misleading voters , as it initially began collaborating with the US government to prevent , since all the voting is over and done with .
It ’ s simply deleting the videos because they are believed to be wrong .
This is an important distinction , because it ’ s a marked deviation from the previous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and other new media platforms.3 “ Yesterday was the safe harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect , ” YouTube writes .
“ Given that , we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today ( or anytime after ) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election , in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections .
For example , we will remove videos claiming that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to widespread software glitches or counting errors .
We will begin enforcing this policy today , and will ramp up in the weeks to come.
” I neither know nor care whether the sort of election fraud alleged to have taken place in the contest between Joe Biden or Donald Trump actually happened ; I know the processes by which candidates are elevated to run in a US general election are corrupt and rigged from top to bottom , so the question of whether additional manipulation took place between two establishment-approved imperialist oligarch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particularly interesting to me .
But this new move by YouTube is a major escalation in the continually escalating rollout of internet censorship protocols by US government-tied Silicon Valley megacorporations .
REEBOW GEAR Military T ... Buy New $ 39.99 Even if America did not have the single most flawed election system in the entire western world ( and it does ) , and even if it had been conclusively proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that no election fraud of any sort took place ( and it hasn ’ t ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ escalation beyond previous online censorship protocols to begin censoring people simply because they are wrong .
People are allowed to be wrong .
A free society allows people the right to voice wrong beliefs because the only alternative is creating a monolithic Ministry of Truth which has authority over what the right and wrong beliefs are .
Those of us who ’ ve been warning of the dangers of government-aligned plutocratic corporations lowering their standards for silencing speech further and further were not committing a slippery slope fallacy ; it ’ s not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when the slope is demonstrably real .
The fact that we ’ ve been methodically paced from accepting the cross-platform deletion of Alex Jones a couple of years ago to random internet users being silenced for no other reason than expressing wrongthink today shows us the slope is very real and very consequential , and our slide into information totalitarianism will continue if something major does not change .
Matt Taibbi has written a solid article condemning YouTube ’ s latest ramp-up and highlighting the double standard in the way Democrats have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fraudulently steal the 2016 election for four years with no consequences whatsoever while Trump supporters are banned from doing essentially the exact same thing .
I would add that the primary source of this double standard is not ideological bias ( though that ’ s surely a factor as well ) but the coziness these Silicon Valley tech giants have formed with US government agencies who signed off on Russiagate but not on Trump ’ s claims .
It ’ s not so much a liberal bias as it is a US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... Buy New $ 16.99 In reality , there was never any more evidence for liberal claims of Russia interfering with the US election in any meaningful way than there is for election fraud in 2020 .
Actual journalists and impartial social media platforms would have recognized the indisputable fact that the Russian hacking narrative was extremely porous and remains completely unproven , and the narrative about Russian memes swaying the election is a complete joke .
The only thing giving the Democrats ’ claims more narrative weight than those of the Republicans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the US intelligence cartel ( the same US intelligence cartel which just so happened to wind up advancing multiple preexisting agendas using Russiagate ) and the other was not .
That ’ s it .
Those who understood that whoever controls the narrative controls the world and that plutocrat-controlled mass media is the linchpin of the oligarchic status quo were very excited about the arrival of the internet , because they understood its information-democratizing potential .
Now we ’ re all watching those hopes slowly eroded into nothing as the same power structures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now work to take full control over online information .
“ On average 88 % of the videos in top 10 search results related to elections came from authoritative news sources ( amongst the rest are things like newsy late-night shows , creator videos and commentary ) , ” YouTube boasts in the aforementioned statement on its deletion of wrongthink election videos .
“ And the most viewed channels and videos are from news channels like NBC and CBS.
” As though rigging your algorithms to give users results which link to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helped deceive the public about every war and continuously manipulate them into believing status quo politics totally work is something to be proud of .
If information which isn ’ t approved by the powerful continues to be squeezed into smaller and smaller fringe circles , the information-democratizing potential which once gave revolutionary thinkers so much hope will be completely nullified , and all that will remain is a network which allows establishment power structures to distribute propaganda much faster than they could back in the days of the old media .
Here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their attempts to do this , and that we succeed in our desire to stop them .
Thanks for reading !
The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish .
My work is entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around , liking me on Facebook , following my antics on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tip jar on Patreon or Paypal , purchasing some of my sweet merchandise , buying my new book Poems For Rebels or my old book Woke : A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers .
For more info on who I am , where I stand , and what I ’ m trying to do with this platform , click here .
Everyone , racist platforms excluded , has my permission to republish , use or translate any part of this work ( or anything else I ’ ve written ) in any way @ @ @ @ @ @

YouTube, whose corporate owner Google is arguably the most powerful company on earth, is now deleting user videos which claim the US election was fraudulent.
YouTube’s official statement on its decision to do this is very revealing, not so much for what it says as for what it does not say.
At no point does the video publishing platform attempt to argue that it is removing these videos because they jeopardize anyone’s health or safety, as it did when it began deleting videos deemed to be spreading misinformation about Covid-19. DIGBUG Military Tactic... Buy New $35.99 (as of 05:00 UTC - Details)
At no point does it attempt to argue that these videos are inciting violence, as it did when it began deleting QAnon videos.
At no point does it claim that these videos are misleading voters, as it initially began collaborating with the US government to prevent, since all the voting is over and done with.
It’s simply deleting the videos because they are believed to be wrong. This is an important distinction, because it’s a marked deviation from the previous policy of content deletion used by YouTube and other new media platforms.3
1/ Our goal this election was to connect people to authoritative info, limit harmful misinfo & remove violative content. Subsequently, authoritative news was widely watched & recommended, and since Sept, we removed 8K+ channels for violating our policies. https://t.co/3It2xphe70 — YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) December 9, 2020
“Yesterday was the safe harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect,” YouTube writes. “Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections. For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors. We will begin enforcing this policy today, and will ramp up in the weeks to come.”
I neither know nor care whether the sort of election fraud alleged to have taken place in the contest between Joe Biden or Donald Trump actually happened; I know the processes by which candidates are elevated to run in a US general election are corrupt and rigged from top to bottom, so the question of whether additional manipulation took place between two establishment-approved imperialist oligarch lackeys in a pretend election is not particularly interesting to me. But this new move by YouTube is a major escalation in the continually escalating rollout of internet censorship protocols by US government-tied Silicon Valley megacorporations. REEBOW GEAR Military T... Buy New $39.99 (as of 05:00 UTC - Details)
Even if America did not have the single most flawed election system in the entire western world (and it does), and even if it had been conclusively proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that no election fraud of any sort took place (and it hasn’t), it would still be a massive escalation beyond previous online censorship protocols to begin censoring people simply because they are wrong. People are allowed to be wrong. A free society allows people the right to voice wrong beliefs because the only alternative is creating a monolithic Ministry of Truth which has authority over what the right and wrong beliefs are.
Those of us who’ve been warning of the dangers of government-aligned plutocratic corporations lowering their standards for silencing speech further and further were not committing a slippery slope fallacy; it’s not fallacious to warn of a slippery slope when the slope is demonstrably real. The fact that we’ve been methodically paced from accepting the cross-platform deletion of Alex Jones a couple of years ago to random internet users being silenced for no other reason than expressing wrongthink today shows us the slope is very real and very consequential, and our slide into information totalitarianism will continue if something major does not change.
“Do I believe the 2020 election was stolen? No. But I also didn’t believe the election was stolen from Hillary Clinton in 2016, when the Internet was overrun with conspiracy theories nearly identical to the ones now being propagated by Trump fans.” https://t.co/nvH0isGvaN — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 11, 2020
Matt Taibbi has written a solid article condemning YouTube’s latest ramp-up and highlighting the double standard in the way Democrats have been pushing narratives about Trump colluding with Russia to fraudulently steal the 2016 election for four years with no consequences whatsoever while Trump supporters are banned from doing essentially the exact same thing. I would add that the primary source of this double standard is not ideological bias (though that’s surely a factor as well) but the coziness these Silicon Valley tech giants have formed with US government agencies who signed off on Russiagate but not on Trump’s claims. It’s not so much a liberal bias as it is a US intelligence cartel bias. HAOMUK Tactical Sling ... Buy New $16.99 (as of 05:00 UTC - Details)
In reality, there was never any more evidence for liberal claims of Russia interfering with the US election in any meaningful way than there is for election fraud in 2020. Actual journalists and impartial social media platforms would have recognized the indisputable fact that the Russian hacking narrative was extremely porous and remains completely unproven, and the narrative about Russian memes swaying the election is a complete joke. The only thing giving the Democrats’ claims more narrative weight than those of the Republicans today is that one was endorsed by the US intelligence cartel (the same US intelligence cartel which just so happened to wind up advancing multiple preexisting agendas using Russiagate) and the other was not. That’s it.
Those who understood that whoever controls the narrative controls the world and that plutocrat-controlled mass media is the linchpin of the oligarchic status quo were very excited about the arrival of the internet, because they understood its information-democratizing potential. Now we’re all watching those hopes slowly eroded into nothing as the same power structures which control and influence the mainstream media now work to take full control over online information.
But Not Videos Claiming Donald Trump is a Russian Agent, Because That’s the Acceptable Election Conspiracy Theory https://t.co/gtfz4WZTlX — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) December 9, 2020
“On average 88% of the videos in top 10 search results related to elections came from authoritative news sources (amongst the rest are things like newsy late-night shows, creator videos and commentary),” YouTube boasts in the aforementioned statement on its deletion of wrongthink election videos. “And the most viewed channels and videos are from news channels like NBC and CBS.”
As though rigging your algorithms to give users results which link to the same plutocratic media outlets who’ve helped deceive the public about every war and continuously manipulate them into believing status quo politics totally work is something to be proud of.
If information which isn’t approved by the powerful continues to be squeezed into smaller and smaller fringe circles, the information-democratizing potential which once gave revolutionary thinkers so much hope will be completely nullified, and all that will remain is a network which allows establishment power structures to distribute propaganda much faster than they could back in the days of the old media. Here’s hoping our rulers fail in their attempts to do this, and that we succeed in our desire to stop them.
_____________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Poems For Rebels or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2