Nick Turse – Tomgram: Nick Turse, Special Ops, Shadow Wars, and the Golden Age of the Gray Zone

Don’t think the fad for “draining the swamp” began on the campaign trail with Donald Trump.  It didn’t, although the “swamp” to be drained in the days after the 9/11 attacks wasn’t in Washington; it was a global one.  Of course, that’s ancient history, more than 15 years old.  Who even remembers that moment, though we still live with its …

Robert Parry – Details Still Lacking on Russian ‘Hack’

Amid more promises of real evidence to come, the Obama administration released a report that again failed to demonstrate that there is any proof behind U.S. allegations that Russia both hacked into Democratic emails and distributed them via WikiLeaks to the American people. The New York Times, which has been busy flogging the latest reasons to hate Russia and its …

DAVE LINDORFF – It Wasn’t the Russians: Hillary Lost Because She Blew Off Sanders and His Voters

The incredible group-think that has seen the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, President Obama, the Clinton campaign and most of the corporate media braying that Vladimir Putin scandalously upended American democracy and threw the election to his favored candidate Donald Trump is based on a ludicrous premise. That premise: that the election went Trump’s way because several tens of thousands …

Paul Craig Roberts – The Striking Audacity of the Coup-in-Process

Unsubstantiated stories have been planted throughout the presstitute media by anonymous CIA officials that Donald Trump’s electoral victory was the result of Russian intervention. This absurd claim has now been elevated to the even more absurd claim that Putin himself oversaw and even conducted the manipulation of the US presidential election. No evidence has been provided for these amazing claims. …

Leid Stories—‘Deep-Dive’ Probes of Russia’s Alleged ‘Interference’ in U.S. Presidential Election Also Should Apply to U.S. Political ‘Interventions’ Abroad—12.15.16

Since President Barack Obama ordered a “deep-dive” probe of Russia’s alleged role in fixing the 2016 presidential election to favor Donald Trump—Hillary Clinton’s main reason for why she lost—there have been a number of demands for similar investigations by members of Congress. It’s in the interest of protecting U.S. democracy, they say, although few feign neutrality about Trump and have openly expressed a desire to torpedo his presidency.

The CIA’s Absence of Conviction

I have watched incredulous as the CIA’s blatant lie has grown and grown as a media story – blatant because the CIA has made no attempt whatsoever to substantiate it. There is no Russian involvement in the leaks of emails showing Clinton’s corruption. Yes this rubbish has been the lead today in the Washington Post in the US and the …

Glenn Greenwald – Anonymous Leaks to the WashPost About the CIA’s Russia Beliefs Are No Substitute for Evidence

THE WASHINGTON POST late Friday night published an explosive story that, in many ways, is classic American journalism of the worst sort: The key claims are based exclusively on the unverified assertions of anonymous officials, who in turn are disseminating their own claims about what the CIA purportedly believes, all based on evidence that remains completely secret. These unnamed sources told the Post that …