{"id":244005,"date":"2023-09-11T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=244005"},"modified":"2023-09-10T06:50:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T05:50:22","slug":"transparency-internationals-covert-agenda-a-pawn-in-western-intelligences-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/09\/transparency-internationals-covert-agenda-a-pawn-in-western-intelligences-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Transparency International\u2019s Covert Agenda: A Pawn in Western Intelligence\u2019s Game"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Illustration by MintPress News<\/p><\/div>\n

7 Sep 2023 <\/em>– On July 24, it was revealed<\/a> that Transparency International\u2019s New Zealand wing had enlisted the specialist advice of some of the country\u2019s biggest, most notorious lobbying firms on improving ethical standards in the political and corporate lobbying industry. A local businessman, who\u2019d independently offered to assist TINZ in cleaning up the sector, blew the whistle.<\/p>\n

Expressing \u201castonishment,\u201d they compared TINZ\u2019s consultation of high-ranking lobbyists on how to clean up their own industry as akin to \u201cpolice recruiting gang members to determine new rules on pursuit of fleeing drivers.\u201d Yet, anyone familiar with Transparency International\u2019s history would hardly be surprised.<\/p>\n

Founded by World Bank apparatchiks in 1993, Transparency International (TI) has relentlessly exposed<\/a> public sector corruption in the Global South while leaving government-enabled criminality in rich nations unexamined. In other words, it is a means of perpetuating privatization overseas for the benefit of Western investors. Accordingly, the organization is financed by a welter of major corporations, including firms implicated in industrial-scale corruption and tax evasion, such as Google<\/a>, Microsoft<\/a>, and Siemens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mainstream media never subject Transparency International or its dubious annual Global Corruption Barometer and Corruption Perceptions Index to critical scrutiny, invariably giving prominent billing to the organization\u2019s regular publications and pronouncements. Nonetheless, a report<\/a> on the TINZ controversy by New Zealand public radio contained a remarkable disclosure. The division was noted to receive sizable funding from several local government sources, including Canberra\u2019s equivalents of the CIA and NSA, the Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Security Bureau.<\/p>\n

TINZ\u2019s CEO defended this sponsorship, arguing spying agencies \u201chave a strong interest in fighting corruption \u2013 that is one of their primary issues, the things that they do.\u201d Western intelligence services have indeed been heavily focused on \u201cfighting corruption\u201d in recent years. As we shall see, though, the objective is to weaponize the issue in order to demonize and destabilize \u201cenemy\u201d governments and perhaps even foment regime change. Frequently too, Transparency International has played a starring role in these efforts.<\/p>\n

\"Transparency
Transparency International\u2019s branding belies its nefarious goals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Complex and Controversial\u2019<\/h2>\n

In 2013, TI published <\/a>its first Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index, measuring levels of alleged corruption in the defense sectors and militaries of 82 countries. Many of the governments that ranked poorly criticized the findings, and report methodology, under which 77 \u201ctechnical questions\u201d were posed to local state officials and representatives of think tanks and universities.<\/p>\n

As Mark Pyman, then-head of TI UK\u2019s Defence and Security Programme, explained in response<\/a>, simply not answering these questions was sufficient to bag a country a negative rating. These queries ranged from frivolous \u2013 such as whether a country\u2019s defense chiefs \u201cpublicly commit\u201d to fighting corruption \u2013 to intensive interrogation of military operations and procurement. It\u2019s quite understandable government officials in, for example, Venezuela \u2013 among the Index\u2019s worst performers that year \u2013 would be very wary of such approaches.<\/p>\n

Those anxieties would no doubt be maximized by TI\u2019s Defence and Security<\/a> program being at that time funded by NATO and a number of Western governments. Since then, despite not generating much in the way of press coverage, it has become a standalone division of TI, with its own website<\/a>, issuing a steady stream<\/a> of reports on corruption issues in the international defense sector.<\/p>\n

These publications deploy lofty rhetoric and frequently identify very serious issues and problems. But their recommendations are typically concerned with making the art of invasion and killing more efficient<\/a>, ensuring that NATO state weaponry, technology and skills can\u2019t be accessed by the \u201cwrong\u201d governments, and encouraging slightly enhanced<\/a> state oversight of certain areas, such as private military companies. And only then because Western governments might lose money, and risks could be posed to their \u201cforeign policy interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Transparency International\u2019s corruption risk index focuses heavily on mitigating risks to \u201cforeign policy interests\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Measures to seriously curtail the most dangerous, innate excesses of the international arms industry, let alone prevent conflict in the first place, are never on the agenda. Moreover, just as TI has a blindspot to Western private sector corruption, so too does TI Defence and Security incongruously overlook the utterly routine graft and villainy engaged in by U.S. and European governments and defense contractors to market and sell lethal wares overseas.<\/p>\n

Mark Pyman himself made this agenda very clear in 2007 when the furor over the Al-Yammah arms deal was reaching a fever pitch. Signed in the mid-1980s between Britain and Saudi Arabia, it remains the former\u2019s largest-ever weapons export agreement, netting London 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day and BAE Systems many billions of pounds ever since. Government officials on both sides \u2013 and their relatives \u2013 improperly profited<\/a> from the deal, but multiple criminal investigations<\/a> were scuttled.<\/p>\n

Pyman wrote to \u201cThe Guardian\u201d that year<\/a> arguing a \u201cjoint Saudi-British committee\u201d to examine the two countries\u2019 defense relationship should be founded. Albeit, \u201cone that is focused forward\u201d and only concerned with \u201censuring the probity\u201d of future arms deals. He actively warned against \u201ctrawling through the history\u201d of Al-Yammah\u2019s \u201ccomplex and controversial\u201d as it \u201cmay well have an insubstantial outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, to this day, the official websites of numerous British embassies abroad openly encourage<\/a> homegrown arms dealers to trade with local markets and offer guidance on \u201chow to do business\u201d there. This extends to providing contact introductions, privileged market information, and even the British Ambassador\u2019s private residence for business lunches and receptions \u201cwith targeted top management from government and\/or private entities\u201d in the defense sector. All for an appropriate fee, of course.<\/p>\n

\u2018Non-Lethal Engagement\u2019<\/h2>\n

This background is vital to consider, as TI UK\u2019s Defence and Security Programme has a formal, albeit largely concealed, relationship with 77th Brigade, the British Army\u2019s psychological warfare division. The Winter 2017 edition of Corruption Cable<\/a>, TI UK\u2019s quarterly newsletter, has a dedicated section on this suspect bond, through which members of the shadowy and highly controversial military unit are regularly seconded<\/a> to the Programme for a year.<\/p>\n

A 77th Brigade secondee was quoted at length praising the Programme, which provides \u201copportunities [that] extend beyond relating to the Army-related work.\u201d This included producing material for \u201ccase studies, reports and teaching packages\u201d:<\/p>\n

All of this will eventually benefit the Army, as I take the knowledge I have gained back with me and the value of being surrounded by knowledgeable and passionate people cannot be underestimated!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"77th
Transparency International\u2019s 2017 \u201ccorruption cable\u201d heavily lauds Britain\u2019s controversial 77th Brigade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This sounds wholesome enough, although as the secondee openly stated, the 77th Brigade\u2019s core components include the foremost media and psychological operations divisions of British military intelligence. As such, they added, the unit is concerned \u201cwith using non-lethal engagement and non-military levers to adapt behaviours of opposing forces and adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

As was revealed<\/a> during the COVID-19 pandemic, these \u201cforces and adversaries\u201d include average social media the world over, whose perceptions and behavior the unit seeks to \u201cadapt\u201d through propaganda, manipulation and informational subterfuge. It seems all but inevitable that knowledge 77th Brigade operatives gain while seconded to TI \u2013 which may include the answers to Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index questions provided by foreign defense officials \u2013 is exploited for psychological warfare purposes.<\/p>\n

This analysis is reinforced by a series of leaked documents related to the internal workings of Integrity Initiative, a British intelligence black propaganda unit. Among the papers is a proposal for a government-funded program exposing state corruption in the West Balkans, which names none other than Mark Pyman alongside a British Army Brigadier who founded TI\u2019s Defence and Security division, and two 77th Brigade veterans, including its founder-and-chief Alex Aiken, as potential project staff.<\/p>\n

Aiken\u2019s accompanying biography notes that he was personally responsible for \u201cforming the strategic relationship with Transparency International,\u201d a clear indication of how valuable and significant the secondment program was considered at the highest levels of the British Army and 77th Brigade. Integrity Initiative operative Euan Grant was also proposed for the project. Other leaked files indicate he concocted a variety of wide-ranging plans for \u201cinformation operations,\u201d exposing purported Russian state and corporate corruption.<\/p>\n

\"Source
Source | UK Army<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One scheme entailed sourcing damaging intelligence on Russian organized crime activities from major financial institutions, then publicizing the yield via a number of sources, such as journalists at major publications and the producers of the hit TV show McMafia, but \u201cespecially\u201d the 77th Brigade. One of Grant\u2019s proposed information sources was HSBC, a major British bank linked to<\/a> every form of corruption and malfeasance imaginable globally. Coincidentally, his contacts there included former high-ranking MI5 and MI6 officials.<\/p>\n

Boys from Brazil<\/h2>\n

One might argue that even if corruption by governments, businesses, organizations, and individuals is exposed via intelligence agency \u201cinformation operations,\u201d the ends justify the means. After all, corruption is a serious crime for which the perpetrators should always be held accountable to the full extent of the law but rarely ever are.<\/p>\n

Yet, the public and media appetite for righteous defenestrations of corrupt officials can easily be exploited for malign ends. This is precisely why Western intelligence agencies have so determinedly sought to foment such an appetite over many years.<\/p>\n

In November 2009, the Brazilian Federal Police Agents Association\u2019s fourth congress was convened<\/a>. Among the speakers was Judge Sergio Moro, a minor celebrity for his recent role in busting a major money laundering operation, who led a panel on \u201cFighting Corruption and Organized Crime\u201d He argued for changes in the law and more judicial autonomy to facilitate the prosecution of white-collar crime in the country.<\/p>\n

Also present was American prosecutor Karine Moreno-Taxman, who was then based in the U.S. Embassy in Brazil. She led a panel advocating for Brazilian authorities to maintain an informal system of collaboration with their American counterparts, circumventing formal cooperation structures as set out in international treaties. Along the way, she stressed the need for manipulating public opinion in prosecutions of high-profile figures to engender loathing of those being investigated:<\/p>\n

Society needs to feel that that person really abused the job and demand that he be convicted. If you can\u2019t bring this person down, don\u2019t do the investigation.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Five years later, Moro and Moreno-Taxman were key figures in Operation Lava Jato. Publicly presented as a crusading anti-corruption effort heralding a new dawn in Brazil, in which democracy and the rule of law reigned supreme, in reality, it was a fraud<\/a> directed by the CIA, FBI, and U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ). The objective was to destroy the country\u2019s most profitable companies and prevent the left from retaking power.<\/p>\n

For years, Lava Jato prosecutors \u2013 all graduates of FBI and DoJ training programs \u2013 along with Moro, who oversaw the effort, were hailed by Western journalists and officials. Moro was even named one of Time Magazine\u2019s \u201c100 Most Influential People\u201d in 2016<\/a>. In December of that year, TI gifted the Lava Jato team its annual \u201cAnti-Corruption Award,\u201d which \u201chonours remarkable individuals and organisations worldwide\u2026who expose and fight corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither \u201cTime\u201d nor TI acknowledged that months earlier, local media revealed Moro illegally wiretapped<\/a> former Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva\u2019s defense team. This was one of many egregious criminal tactics in which the judge, and Lava Jato prosecutors, routinely engaged. In fact, TI Brazil ignored a great many damaging disclosures about investigators, instead giving the Operation blanket, fawning coverage, and documenting and praising their crusading efforts every step of the way.<\/p>\n

Following Moreno-Taxman\u2019s prescription that \u201csociety needs to feel that that person really abused the job and demand that he be convicted\u201d to the letter, Lava Jato prosecutors went to enormous lengths to demonize Lula. In regular press conferences, prosecutors presented laughable PowerPoints<\/a> depicting him at the epicenter of a grand, labyrinthine regional and international corruption conspiracy through which the former President was intimately implicated in every serious crime imaginable.<\/p>\n

In July 2017, TI welcomed Lula\u2019s conviction<\/a> on corruption charges as \u201ca significant sign the rule of law is working in Brazil and that there is no impunity, even for the powerful.\u201d It added that prosecutors and judges involved in the probe were \u201cfacing attacks from all sides\u2026proof corruption does not distinguish between ideologies or political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Democratic Credentials\u2019<\/h2>\n

Yet, Lava Jato did <\/i>have a heavily partisan bias. Investigations by \u201cThe Intercept,\u201d based on the hacked communications of investigators, starkly exposed<\/a> from June 2019 onwards the Operation\u2019s fraudulent nature and intimate ties to U.S. intelligence. One prosecutor dubbed Lula\u2019s incarceration<\/a>, which disqualified him from the race and laid the foundations for far-right Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s resultant victory, \u201ca gift from the CIA.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to these bombshell revelations, TI quickly issued a statement<\/a> claiming to be \u201cclosely following the reporting.\u201d Strikingly though, rather than condemning how Lava Jato unlawfully weaponized corruption for malign ends, the organization instead primarily praised the Operation. It had claimed TI \u201crevealed criminal schemes\u201d and \u201cchallenged powerful politicians and businesspeople\u201d while \u201cbolstering a positive anti-corruption dynamic in Latin America, which has produced significant results in several countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

While TI conceded Lava Jato prosecutors needed to explain \u201calleged irregularities and violations of the principles of equality of arms and impartiality\u201d revealed by \u201cThe Intercept,\u201d it considered \u201crigorous investigation of the violation of private communications\u201d to be \u201cequally crucial.\u201d A cynic might suggest TI was concerned subsequent disclosures would directly implicate the organization in Lava Jato\u2019s malign machinations, which they did.<\/p>\n

Hacked communications show TI Brazil director Bruno Brand\u00e3o enjoyed a very warm relationship with lead Lava Jato prosecutor Delton Dallagnol, and he was a member of several messaging app groups in which various connivances were formulated and discussed<\/a>. Furthermore, Brand\u00e3o personally helped produce<\/a> a TI Brazil-approved list of candidates in the 2018 election who avowedly shared Lava Jato\u2019s ethos, along with a ranking of politicians according to their legal problems and purported commitments to democracy.<\/p>\n

Brand\u00e3o has since attempted<\/a> to distance himself from Lava Jato, claiming he and TI had simply made a mistake \u201cin believing that the leaders of Lava Jato had democratic credentials.\u201d Yet, in April 2022, Brazil\u2019s Federal Auditing Court and Public Prosecutors Office sought to open an investigation<\/a> into TI Brazil for having illegally collaborated with prosecutors. There are suggestions the organization may have stood to benefit financially<\/a> from that relationship.<\/p>\n

Questions can only abound as to whether Brand\u00e3o \u2013 and by extension TI Brazil \u2013 was in on the con all along. In 2<\/a>016<\/a>, he made dozens of appearances<\/a> in national and international media, denying that a coup was in swing after Dilma Rousseff was improperly deposed<\/a> due to bogus corruption allegations. Immediately after she left office, Brasilia started auctioning off its offshore oil reserves to foreign buyers. Two of the largest beneficiaries<\/a> were Shell and ExxonMobil, both donors<\/a> to Transparency International.<\/p>\n

This was just one of many examples of Lava Jato\u2019s economic destruction<\/a>. The Operation created a climate in which even vague insinuations of impropriety could damage major companies if not entire industries. It paralyzed construction, while millions of jobs and tax revenues were lost, causing the country\u2019s GDP to contract by at least 3.6%. For the CIA, which wanted to reduce Brazil to its impoverished, authoritarian, and easily exploitable Cold War status, this was precisely the point.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mintpressnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 Sep 2023 – Expressing \u201castonishment,\u201d many compared TINZ\u2019s consultation of high-ranking lobbyists on how to clean up their own industry as akin to \u201cpolice recruiting gang members to determine new rules on pursuit of fleeing drivers.\u201d Yet, anyone familiar with Transparency International\u2019s history would hardly be surprised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":244007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[550,2783],"class_list":["post-244005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","tag-corruption","tag-transparency-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244005","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=244005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244009,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244005\/revisions\/244009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}