{"id":170538,"date":"2020-10-19T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=170538"},"modified":"2020-10-14T07:03:41","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T06:03:41","slug":"two-massive-new-leaks-show-dirty-underbelly-of-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/10\/two-massive-new-leaks-show-dirty-underbelly-of-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Massive New Leaks Show Dirty Underbelly of Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Flowers and slogans in the intersection in Minneapolis near which George Floyd was killed, days earlier, by a policeman on May 25, 2020. (Fibonacci Blue, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)<\/p><\/div>\n

Shhhh, don\u2019t tell Americans about the Blue Leaks and the Syria PR Leaks. The\u00a0mainstream media\u2019s virtual blackout must mean they aren\u2019t supposed to know.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

12 Oct 2020 – <\/em>Most Americans don\u2019t know reality.<\/p>\n

They know their personal reality, but unfortunately their reality is thoroughly detached from real pure, uncut reality. For example, do they know that police across the country work with corporations to criminalize journalism? Do they know that large PR companies created a false reality to justify U.S. intervention in Syria? Do they know the word \u201cintervention\u201d acts as a euphemism for \u201ccold-blooded murder under false pretenses\u201d?<\/p>\n

Americans don\u2019t know these aspects of reality. You and I wouldn\u2019t know either if it weren\u2019t for leaks and whistleblowers.<\/p>\n

Two recent massive leaks have received a near blackout in the mainstream media , and yet again only leaks allow us to glimpse the dirty underbelly of the empire. The Blue Leaks revealed the corruption and incompetence behind police departments across the country, and the Syria PR Leaks revealed that large U.S. & U.K.-funded PR companies helped sell regime change efforts in Syria.<\/p>\n

The Blue Leaks <\/strong><\/p>\n

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DHS officer in San Francisco, 2011. (Steve Rhodes, Flickr)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Let\u2019s start with the Blue Leaks \u2014 thousands of documents revealing corruption, wrongdoing and incompetence by American police departments and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). \u00a0As the Intercept<\/em> reported<\/a>, some documents \u201cshow police agencies including DHS share thinly-sourced conspiracy theories as if they are truth. \u2026For example, Homeland Security\u2019s Office of Intelligence and Analysis circulated a tweet to law enforcement agencies across the country reporting that Antifa was stashing bricks to \u2018fuel protests.\u2019\u00a0As Mainer<\/em> magazine reported, the original source of the information was a pro-Trump biker who called himself \u2018The Wolfman\u2019 and previously spread conspiracy theories online.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, the Wolfman can just tweet that protesters are preparing to hit cops with bricks and that\u2019s all it takes? I\u2019ve been tweeting true shit<\/em> for years, yet it never<\/em> results in a national police bulletin. What do I have to do to have an over-inflated impact on society? Dress up like a biker and start going by \u201cSquirrel Boy?\u201d I\u2019ll do it. I have no shame. (I haven\u2019t had any dignity since the middle school mooning incident of 1993.)<\/p>\n

But the leaks don\u2019t just reveal our little boys in blue chase lies around the country; they\u2019ve also been illegally surveilling people<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cDHS officials in San Diego oversaw a sweeping, binational intelligence gathering operation targeting lawyers, journalists, and asylum-advocates associated with the migrant caravans\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In a normal universe, this type of behavior would be exceedingly illegal. In a rational dimension, the whole country would be up in arms as much as following the unveiling of New Coke. In a logical and free country, no one would stand for this level of government overreach and injustice. But alas, we don\u2019t live there. We live here \u2014 a nation where the media hardly even reports on the DHS spying on lawyers, activists and journalists.<\/p>\n

Well, at least they weren\u2019t accusing peaceful protesters of being terrorists \u2014 riiiight<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Back to the Intercept,<\/a> \u201c\u2026a substantial portion of the intelligence on Black Lives Matter protests flowed through the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center\u2019s Terrorism Liaison Officer program\u2026 The terror info program became a clearinghouse for information on upcoming demonstrations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Homeland Security advisory scale. (Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Yeah, we\u2019re not calling you terrorists \u2014 we\u2019re just putting all the information about your peaceful demonstrations in the Terror Info Program<\/em>. But in their defense, to the overwhelmingly white police officers across this country, it is terrifying that black people could actually gain equality \u2014 like being able to stand in line at a fast food place without fearing they\u2019ll be tackled and arrested, sending Chalupa sauce all over their children. White cops probably do view equality as a form of terrorism.<\/p>\n

One more from the myriad Blue Leaks<\/a> \u2014\u201cAmid terror warnings, a Railroad Industry Group passed intel on environmental journalists to the cops\u201d and made the cops think that the journalists were linked to terrorism. \u2026 And there was extensive communication between private industry and public law enforcement \u2014allowing the industry to influence law enforcement and national security policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basically, corporations are not only guiding law enforcement, they\u2019re also tricking them into thinking a standard environmental journalist is a terrorist.<\/em> Yes, the 24-year-old blogger with the acne problem \u2014 he\u2019s the true <\/em>terrorist. Not the corporate CEO who mourns as much for the people he blew up<\/a> in Wheeling, West Virginia, with a bomb train as a race car driver mourns the flies splattered across his windshield during a race.<\/p>\n

The Blue Leaks consist of thousands more documents I can\u2019t go into here, but seeing as the mainstream media and big tech social media platforms are scared to death you\u2019ll read the<\/a>leaked documents, you should totally NOT <\/em>read them. Do not <\/em>look up the Blue Leaks and find out what they say. Definitely don\u2019t<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PR Wars<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A Turkish-backed FSA fighter loads an M2 Browning during fighting in northern Aleppo Governorate, November 2016. (Mada Media, Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Next up in this Showcase Showdown of \u201cLeaks That Expose the Empire,\u201d you might recall that throughout the U.S. attacks on Syria, the mainstream media told Americans that a bunch of awesome rebels were fighting for a free Syria and the U.S. government was helping them. When those stories were in full force, I don\u2019t know about you, but I thought, \u201cEverything the corporate media is telling us must be absolutely true. They would never lie to us about this. Sure, they\u2019d lie about everything else. But THIS<\/em> \u2013 they are totally telling the truth because they just want to help the poor people in Syria. All the other times the corporate media has lied us into war (Iraq, Libya, Vietnam, the Spanish American War, the Great Wet T-Shirt Contest of 1872) notwithstanding, when it comes to Syria, our military media industrial complex are basically Oscar Schindler. No doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alas, much to my shock, I was wrong.<\/p>\n

The Grayzone <\/em>has reported on a new leak of hundreds of documents<\/a> that show \u201cWestern government-funded intelligence cutouts trained and funded Syrian opposition leaders, planted stories in media outlets from BBC to Al Jazeera, and ran a cadre of journalists. \u2026UK government contractors developed an advanced infrastructure of propaganda to stimulate support in the West for Syria\u2019s political and armed opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right \u2014 government contractors \u2014 meaning we taxpayers in the U.S. and U.K. funded the propaganda that manufactured consent for destroying Syria. (Quick note for the oligarchs: If you\u2019re going to lie to us and enlist our consent in nearly collapsing a country of 20 million people, the least you can do is not make us pay for it ourselves<\/em>. That\u2019s just poor sportsmanship.)<\/p>\n

But how much impact could these few planted news stories possibly have? I mean, I\u2019m sure this false crap wasn\u2019t that prevalent.<\/p>\n

Well, according to the leaked documents<\/a> \u2014 \u201cThese UK-funded firms functioned as full-time PR flacks for the extremist dominated Syrian armed opposition. One contractor, called InCoStrat, said it was in constant contact with a network of more than 1,600 international journalists and influencers, and used them to push pro-opposition talking points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixteen hundred <\/em>media people, many calling themselves \u201cjournalists,\u201d were simply printing hack stories by pro-war government cut-outs?! Compare that number to those of us reporting the truth. \u2026I count, um, seven. \u2026Nine if you include the two who only do their \u201creporting\u201d on the telephone to telemarketers who are unlucky enough to accidentally call them. A single PR company used 1,600 people and millions of dollars pouring in from the U.S. and U.K. With that kind of money, they should\u2019ve won a goddamn Oscar \u2014 like Schindler\u2019s List<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Poster for \u201cThe White Helmets.\u201d (Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2026Wait. I now remember. They DID <\/em>win an Oscar. A documentary about the White Helmets in Syria won an Oscar<\/a>!<\/p>\n

You recall the White Helmets \u2014 the amazing people in Syria who just rescue children from rubble. And America \u2014 who bombs children all over the world \u2014happens to care about these particular children. Nothing to see here. Nothing unusual. We Americans just really care about Syrian children. Don\u2019t give a tip of a turd about any other children crushed by our wars (hot, cold or lukewarm) around the world. Only Syrians caught in rubble rescued by the White Helmets pull at heartstrings.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this next part won\u2019t shock you. The new leaks confirm earlier reporting by The Grayzone<\/em> and others showing the White Helmets were funded by Western governments<\/a> and claimed to be saving innocent civilians while also trying to get America to bomb more<\/em>. They literally called for more air strikes. It\u2019s not so dissimilar from all those emergency room doctors who spend their days trying desperately to save lives and then run around at night trying to start gang wars by making fun of Li\u2019l Boom-Boom\u2019s swastika tattoo before yelling \u201cWEST SIDE!\u201d and running away. That\u2019s super common among doctors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe White Helmets were founded<\/a> in collaboration with USAID\u2019s Office of Transitional Initiatives \u2014 the wing that has promoted regime change around the world \u2014 and have been provided with $23 million in funding from the department.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, the U.S. helped create the war, helped create the destruction, created the so-called heroes (who want more destruction), created the award-winning documentary about the \u201cheroes,\u201d and created the news reports about the documentary about the \u201cheroes<\/em>.\u201d That isn\u2019t just wag the dog; that\u2019s wag the whole fuckin\u2019 kennel and the buildings next to the kennel and everything down the street and the whole city.<\/p>\n

Putting further flesh on the (dog) bone \u2014 the leaked documents also show another Western contractor called \u201cARK admitted that it sought<\/a> to whitewash Syria\u2019s armed opposition, which had been largely dominated by Salafi-jihadists, by \u2018Softening the FSA Image.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One should not be shocked that taking terrorists who sometimes behead innocent people and making them look like \u201cmoderate rebels\u201d does indeed require a great deal of \u201csoftening.\u201d In my experience terrorists often need just a bit of smoothing over before you bring them home to meet your parents. (It\u2019s useful to remind them just before you walk in the door, \u201cIf my dad asks what you do, rather than say \u2018I yank the infidels out of their beds and execute them,\u2019 say \u2018I\u2019m a door-to-door knife salesman.\u2019 It\u2019s sort of true.\u201d)<\/p>\n

But these PR companies didn\u2019t stop at creating false stories. Ben Norton at T<\/em>he Grayzone <\/em>reports<\/a>, \u201cU.S. and European contractors trained and advised Syrian opposition leaders at all levels, from young media activists to the heads of the parallel government-in-exile.\u201d<\/p>\n

These Western-funded PR firms actually helped create the Syrian government-in-exile. It\u2019s clear that at every level the catastrophic events in Syria have been stage-managed by the U.S., U.K. and Western-backed PR firms trying to create regime change, trying to manifest a failed state thousands of miles away from your average Americans or Brits who don\u2019t know about the crimes perpetrated in their names. And sadly, even many in the somewhat-independent media \u2014 who are often adversarial to U.S. imperial aims \u2014 still fall hook-line-and-sinker for this garbage propaganda.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an easy rule of thumb to follow in the future \u2014 any time the U.S. government says they care about human beings, you know some awful shit is going down.<\/p>\n

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Lee Camp is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and activist. Camp is the host of the weekly comedy news TV show \u201c<\/em>Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp<\/a>\u201d on<\/em> RT America. He is a former comedy writer for the <\/em>Onion and the <\/em>Huffington Post and has been a touring stand-up comic for 20 years.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Go to Original – consortiumnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Oct 2020 – Most Americans don\u2019t know reality. They know their personal reality, which is detached from the real one. Shhhh, don\u2019t tell them about the Blue Leaks and the Syria PR Leaks. The mainstream media\u2019s virtual blackout must mean they aren\u2019t supposed to know. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":170540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[867,1441,393,1268,1563,950,2158,1062,91,86,1190,413,639,2200,70],"class_list":["post-170538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exposures","tag-anglo-america","tag-big-oil","tag-coup","tag-european-union","tag-expose","tag-invasion","tag-jihadists","tag-mercenaries","tag-nato","tag-occupation","tag-regime-change","tag-syria","tag-uk","tag-us-empire","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}