Episode 23: Amnesty International and Syrian Dirty War Propaganda w/Kit Klarenberg
Added 2022-02-20 02:40:42 +0000 UTCAaron is joined by our man in Belgrade, Kit Klarenberg--an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions. We spoke about a number of subjects related to his recent GrayZone piece, "Propagandist for Syria terror proxies compromised Amnesty International, leaked docs show." The article was a follow-up of sorts to a previous article that Klarenberg co-authored with Max Blumenthal, "Leaked files expose Syria psyops veteran astroturfing BreadTube star to counter Covid restriction critics."
Special thanks to Casey Moore for the episode art and Dana Chavarria for the sound engineering!
Music: "Payroll" by Mock Orange
Comments
Right on! I can see how it would be redundant for you given your area of specialty. Thanks for responding brother! Keep up the good work!
Sick dude
2022-02-20 23:21:43 +0000 UTCWasn't this the set of documents that Twitter labels as being naughty docs possibly obtained via hacking?
Aaron Good
2022-02-20 19:54:04 +0000 UTCI've seen his work. Counterintelligence was very good from what I saw. But it's so in my wheelhouse that I didn't finish it years ago.
Aaron Good
2022-02-20 19:53:20 +0000 UTCAaron, I just remembered to point to a great source for eight historically focused & deep state oriented documentaries at a website called Metanoia Films. Writer/Director Scott Noble created the documentaries between 2010 and 2021 and he even provides reference pages for his work on the website linked here: http://metanoia-films.org/films/ The one called "Counterintelligence" is like 6 hours in 5 parts and is my favorite. I haven't seen the latest two part video yet but it looks great too!
Sick dude
2022-02-20 19:48:00 +0000 UTCKit is totally under rated as a journalist! After some anonymously leaked documents were published about a secretive UK cyber psyop cell, he corroborated the existence of the previously unknown offices of "Integrity Initiative" which was basically a pro-war counterintelligence operation working inside the UK governments Ministry of Statecraft.
Sick dude
2022-02-20 18:26:46 +0000 UTCFirst guy to hire GG was David Talbot, fwiw. Unless and until there is some solid expose on something concretely nefarious that he did, I can't devote the energy to trying hash out what his angle is. The Intercept/Omidyar thing could be construed as that special kind of naivety wherein one's naivety leads to a huge payday. Regardless, I think these media personalities in the McPravda landscape are epiphenomenal--technofeudal capitalism via spectacular domination. I will say that I am alarmed be the absence of any sort of integrated network of financial and media platforms that is not susceptible to corruption of confiscation.
Aaron Good
2022-02-20 18:12:30 +0000 UTCOne thing I’ll add to this, we all are a combination of “light and dark” to borrow Aaron’s metaphor for the show. And by creating a culture where making mistakes are allowed and encouraged - taking risks (Greenwald included) we gain more insight into what can be done to really create change - not posture for it. Anyway, I would contend that “trust” is not all or none, instead it’s incremental and requires a well rounded understanding of any person in their contexts - no such thing as purity here since we all contribute in small or big ways to empire. My conclusion is that we do not disregard useful neoliberal thinkers, competitive personalities or even academic pols (none of which I would characterize GG as) because they have a great deal to teach us about how the system really works. While billionaire affiliations inside the intelligence community are fundamental in this inquiry, I prefer to take Glen at his word until I get a piece that troubles me. The fact that he’s independent, connected to people I tend to read (Taibbi, Blumenthal, et al), means he has a solid foothold in my reading preferences compared to the Mockingbird 2.0 outlets
John McElroy
2022-02-20 17:45:29 +0000 UTCI hear you regarding Thiel and it does seem like in effect he sold the Snowden archive back to the deep state. But in the conflict with The Intercept, he seemed in the right. To my knowledge, Substack does provide a platform which doesn't censor so at least there's the possibility of writing for a living if one is good and/or lucky enough etc. It's a conundrum--there's no viable media platform that isn't tied to pretty terrible forces, it seems. The Chelsea thing was pitiful. She seemed to be unwell and GG should have just ignored her rather than dumping all that stuff imo. As for the darker side of Glenn Greenwald, I can't go down that rabbithole myself, but if there's a definitive article out there, I could check it out. Just don't direct me to Tweets or a meme slideshow because, well, I'm an academic and I do my best to ground my positions in solid citable sources.
Aaron Good
2022-02-20 16:54:26 +0000 UTCSaying Greenwald has integrity when he went from an Omidyar platform to a Thiel platform is a little strange to me. Both “PayPal Mafia” deep politics billionaires. Glenn’s “beef” with the Intercept seemed obvious kayfabe. He was responsible for gatekeeping and closing the Snowden archive. Are you aware of his trajectory? Did you catch when he dumped his chats with Chelsea Manning, effectively doxxing a bunch of folks?
Stewie
2022-02-20 16:39:11 +0000 UTCIt's been my pleasure!
Aaron Good
2022-02-20 16:16:05 +0000 UTCIt is a mess. Lance used to call this mentality in the public, "conspiracy realism." That is to say that while they know the empire is lying and doing other horrible, immoral things, they think that they somehow benefit from it. Except for the wealthy, I don't think they do. We could live in civilization where most big social problems are solved, and it would benefit the vast majority of people. But part of maintaining the global empire entails maintaining a balance of insecurity among a Balkanized population at home. So here we are. We shouldn't despair. Human civilization has always operated under some form of despotism. The high points of US history were the low points for that despotism...say, from the New Deal to Dallas. But as we know from Hiroshima to Paperclip to Taft/Hartley to MKULTRA to the JFK assassination--the fascistic forces of top-down rule were never divorced from power.
Aaron Good
2022-02-20 16:15:24 +0000 UTCGreat stuff, Aaron. Thank you for going where no other JFK podcast goes.
Johnny Case
2022-02-20 15:30:33 +0000 UTCOne of themes we keep bumping up against for the last 60 years at least, that doesn’t get debated as much as it should in circles of power (only when they are caught) is notion of the CIA or US intelligence apparatus being a protective force for the American people. Not too long ago, 1967 - we had the Georgetown set - like ex-CIA Thomas Braden writing in the Saturday Evening Post an article titled - “I’m glad the CIA is ‘immoral’ “ in the best of mockingbird tradition cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/Braden_20may1967.html These networks have been constructed with implicit and explicit intention to kill, to exploit, and to collect resources to maintain US hegemony. And when called out, they use these implicit and explicit biases to re-route the conversation to TINA, or in Braden’s case, self-serving arrogance and incongruence between a small group of elites deciding upon how the lives of millions will turn out. And when they are catastrophically wrong, it’s not their children, their jobs or their lives on the line - accountability in this milieu is what Red in the Shawshank Redemption would say is “a made up word” and as so many people imprisoned in American exceptionalism say - “stamp your forms sonny, because I don’t give a shit”. Maybe the work is making people give a shit? Bringing that to light 💡 👍🏼 Thanks Aaron!
John McElroy
2022-02-20 14:28:00 +0000 UTCKit Klarenberg is always excellent, well sourced and solidly evidenced!
BruceInAdelaide
2022-02-20 07:35:22 +0000 UTC
