White House chief-of-staff Mick Mulvaney appears on Fox News Sunday with swamp gatekeeper Chris Wallace. As customary Wallace uses the Share Blue talking points, one example: Notice how Wallace says “a statement from a senior justice department official”, then puts up an “anonymous” quote. Official statements from the DOJ are not anonymous.
The background context has already been outlined –SEE HERE– so we won’t repeat. Instead, we look at today’s defensive narrative engineering from the New York Times with a similar perspective, but a different set of reminders.
Content and distribution tells us this information is from the DOJ and FBI faction of the “Small Group“. Not accidentally, and VERY importantly, this is the same faction under the microscope of Inspector General Michael Horowitz and his pending IG report. Additionally, and again very importantly, the principles within the IG report have already had an opportunity to review the part of the upcoming report that highlights their conduct.
So this New York Times reporting, from conversations with the DOJ and FBI small group participants, is coming out in advance of the IG report and with their review in mind.
Here’s the article, emphasis mine:
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors reviewing the origins of the Russia investigation have asked witnesses pointed questions about any anti-Trump bias among former F.B.I. officials who are frequent targets of President Trump and about the earliest steps they took in the Russia inquiry, according to former officials and other people familiar with the review.
[Note “prosecutors” is plural; more than one. “prosecutors” also implies a shift from investigative review, to a likelihood of criminal conduct. The media presentation of John Durham has gone from a single U.S. Attorney with a mandate from his boss, to a group of people, ‘prosecutors’, working with the U.S. Attorney.]
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Within today’s reporting from the New York Times and NBC, a key aspect is how CIA analysts are worried about explaining and/or justifying the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). As such it is well worth remembering information about John Durham’s originating focus from June, 2019:
Against the backdrop of the DOJ admitting FBI investigators never had access to the DNC servers to verify a Russian hack; and with new information about the FBI receiving partial and redacted analysis from Crowdstrike; the review by U.S. Attorney John Durham toward the downstream assessment/claims of the CIA takes on new meaning.
CTH has previously outlined how the December 29th, 2016, Joint Analysis Report (JAR) on Russia Cyber Activity was a quickly compiled bunch of nonsense about Russian hacking.
The JAR was followed a week later by the January 7th, 2017, Intelligence Community Assessment. The ICA took the ridiculous construct of the JAR and then overlaid a political narrative that Russia was trying to help Donald Trump.
The ICA was the brain-trust of John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey. While the majority of content was from the CIA, some of the content within the ICA was written by FBI Agent Peter Strzok who held a unique “insurance policy” interest in how the report could be utilized in 2017. NSA Director Mike Rogers would not sign up to the “high confidence” claims, likely because he saw through the political motives of the report.
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The activity of the “small group” of coup plotters consists of three generalized subsidiary agencies: (1) DOJ/FBI, (2) CIA/ODNI, and (3) The State Department.
Within each “small group faction” a years-long review of their narrative constructs shows the groups have specific and unique media outlets for their offensive (’16, ’17) and defensive (’18, ’19) propaganda efforts.
•The DOJ/FBI faction of the “small group” leaks to narrative engineers at the New York Times and NBC. •The CIA/ODNI faction utilize the Washington Post and ABC; and •the State Dept. faction use CNN and CBS. Each faction uses the same reporters & pundits for their distribution. This pattern, albeit generalized, has been consistent for several years.
The originating media entity -utilizing the leaks, opinions and agenda of the faction most concerned- starts the process. The secondary media groups come in for support – reporting on the reporting; and then reporting on the reporting of the reporting… and so on. This process provides a concentric distribution effort to bolster the originating premise.
Similar to the Journ-o-list effort of Ezra Klein, all of the ideologically aligned reporters share information for the larger process of defending the prior activity and advancing a unified narrative. [Reference Buzzfeed’s Ali Watkins sharing leaks from SSCI Security Director James Wolfe to her peers at WaPo and New York Times while she had sex with the source to keep the information pipeline open.]
It is important to remember this concerted process whenever we are reviewing media articles concerning the matters of interest to each of the “small group” factions.
In essence, the propagandists within the media are the same; and the sources for the positions reflected in the articles are the same. Wash, rinse and repeat depending on the identified risk.
So today we see NBC and the New York Times going “out front” on behalf of their interests. Referencing the faction each outlet represents we see the *reporting* is to defend the interests of the DOJ and FBI.
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Trying to find the details within the U.K-EU Brexit deal is more difficult than finding evidence of a Yeti. The negotiating team secrecy is inherent to the way the elites within the European systems work. Essentially the “betters” rule the proles by hiding the details and relying upon the electorate to “trust” the outlined framework of their elected superiors.
Hiding details is a feature within the European system and the way the government looks at their role.
That said, tomorrow British members of parliament will begin debating the deal for the UK to exit the EU. The deal was modified by Boris Johnson. A backgrounder:
A big FUBAR happened in Culiacan Mexico yesterday as Mexican police and narcotics officers captured Ovidio Guzman, aka “Chapito”, the heir of drug kingpin El Chappo and current head of the Sinaloa cartel.
We watched via social media yesterday as a war broke out in Culiacan between the police/military and the cartel. After authorities captured Chapito, hundreds of Sinaloa cartel members came down from the mountains and cut off the city. The cartel began executing and capturing anyone who was assisting the arrest. The city shut down.
To save themselves, the surrounded Mexican officials released Chapito back to the cartels and now the world has more evidence that Mexican President Lopez-Obrador has no control over the peace and security of Mexico. The cartels are in charge.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican officials on Friday admitted they had bungled the arrest of kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s son, who they let go during shootouts with drug gangs in the streets of a major city, but the president insisted his security strategy was working.
Perhaps the only institution more corrupt than the Obama intelligence apparatus, writ large, was/is the Clinton constructed U.S. State Department. Foggy Bottom is appropriately named as the septic tank for the Administrative State.
Former President Barack Obama carved out a segment of the financial indulgence, and thereafter purchased the acquiescence of Team Clinton, when he handed Dame Hillary the keys to the State Dept as an outcome of the 2008 election. Barry from Chicago and his fellow travelers would weaponize the domestic apparatus, and Hillary could graft the international effort; thus, the compact was sealed…
The institutional bile, filth and corruption embedded within the the U.S. State Dept. is an outcome of an organization whose sole purpose is to generate credentials for leftists on their curriculum vitae; curry income for pontificating academics who have done absolutely nothing of inherent value in life; and advance ruling class ideologies through control of foreign policy. The Birkenstock peaceniks, promote the global elitist ruse, demand accolades from the subservient proles, and use Hollywood as their PR division.
Therefore it comes as no surprise a four-year internal self-investigation of their own complicity results in little more than a carefully worded 9-page letter admitting, essentially, mistakes were made by allowing Secretary Clinton to construct a parallel communication network to avoid public scrutiny of her graft and scheme operations.
WASHINGTON – State Department identified nearly 600 security violations in its now-completed review of email records of dozens of former agency officials and aides to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Office for Trade and Manufacturing Policy’s Peter Navarro discusses the China trade negotiations, the UAW General Motors strike, U.S. tariffs in European goods, and USMCA.
On the U.S-China ‘Phase-1’ construct the key issue is going to be the enforcement mechanism to ensure any agreement has strength. On U.S. placing tariffs on the EU due to the Airbus ruling Navarro reminds everyone the WTO ruling does not permit the EU to place tariffs on U.S. productions. On USMCA everyone avoids telling the truth; that is Nancy Pelosi is waiting to see what happens in the Canadian election in three days. If Trudeau wins re-election, the USMCA will likely be scrapped (tabled) by Pelosi.
From the White House – Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts Christa Koch and Jessica Meir during the first all-woman spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS). Both Koch and Meir were members of NASA’s 2013 astronaut class, half of whom were women. Koch is currently serving on an extended mission to the ISS and is scheduled to achieve the record for the longest stay in space by a woman. The President was joined on the call by Vice President Mike Pence, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. [Video Below]
Energy Secretary Rick Perry appears on Fox News to discuss his departure as Secretary of Energy from the administration.
Additionally, Secretary Perry shoots down the talking points about Ukraine outlining how the administration was working throughout 2017, 2018 and 2019 to ensure corruption was addressed in order to advance the U.S. and Ukraine relationship.