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Winston Churchill’s 1939 observation about the Kremlin, then the brainworks of the Soviet through a particularly pernicious period, might well apply to the Obama Administration today: image-creating and image-projecting; opaque in its machinations behind closed doors; and deliberately manipulative and misdirecting.

Subject for investigation: the reversion of America’s 20th Century democracy into a 21st Century fief beneath the cover of a wartime presidency shielded by the president’s own abundant charisma and charm.

For BackChannels, the theme developed out of correspondence involving statements by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former chief of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

Screen capture, April 1, 2015.

Screen capture, April 1, 2015.

Of interest, was Iran’s obsessive march toward ownership of The Bomb and the Obama Administration’s dippy whack diplomacy on that point and in the middle east in general.

Of greater interest to BackChannels has been how the Iranian nuclear debacle or putsch fits with an emerging image of a “Newest Nobility” engaged in global feudal-medieval politics — call it the “Politics of Criminals” for how whole constituencies have been endangered, murdered, or plundered outright beneath its various banners (among the despotic: different talks — same walks).

Is Obama the “Manchurian Candidate” as the Far Right often suggests?

Or is he a master of disguise — and we’re not going to crash into the mountain after all?


We’re a long way today from Wag The Dog (1997).

Today’s “political theater” is real but may be equally produced, for we know that “false flag operations” appear now routine in political manipulation (reference Karen Dawisha’s fine analysis of the Moscow Apartment Bombings in her book, Putin’s Kleptocracy) and both avoiding or dissembling over tough questions (first troops in Ukraine – no marked uniforms; the shoot-down of MH 17 over Ukraine; the confusion of official explanations involving the Albert Nisman murder mystery in Argentina) have become part — or simply a more evident and clearly seen part — of global politics.

Of material related to Ali Khamenei’s plundering of Iran, BackChannels would consider the stand-down order from the mayor near Mosul, Iraq as the most deeply disturbing of documents as regards Syndicate Red Brown Green’s cynical manipulation of apparent battlespace: “ISIS” may not have routed Iraq’s western-equipped and trained army: the gates appear to have been at least partially officially opened — but only on to the north of Baghdad: today, Khamenei’s forces have been handily (conveniently) fighting Daesh while Iranian influence in Iraq has itself amassed a healthy virtual pile of news clippings.


Reminder: “Syndicate Red Brown Green”

Red = Post Soviet, neo-feudal Russia

Brown = New National Socialists

Green = Islamists (leaders and rogue movements)

21st Century Feudal Arcs of Power

Putin, Kadyrov

Putin, Assad, Khamenei

Putin, Khamenei

Putin, Orban

Putin, Erdogan

Khamenei, Hezbollah, (Kirchner?)

(Putin), Castro, Maduro

Foreign affairs wonks may summon to mind energy resource competitions and deals plus the murder of Alberto Nisman in order to scratch the chaff on the top of their heads as I do.

The American questions: is Obama humoring the despots or being handled by them?

Or is he faking them out?

There is a problem with behind-the-curtain cabal and deceit: political criminals — political bullies, cowards, and liars (always blend those three into one) — inspire and promote mistrust, transforming cultures of freedom into cults of personality and fear.

Reference

AP.  “Leader of Iranian force fighting ISIS is complicating US efforts, says CIA chief.” The Guardian, March 22, 2015.

BackChannels.  “Russia-NATO Kumbaya Sayonara.”  April 2, 2014.

Behn, Sharon.  “Iran’s influence in Iraq Deeper than Assumed.”  Voice of America, March 19, 2015.

Hannity, Sean. “Is the administration giving Iran the nuclear bomb?”  Fox News, March 31, 2015.

Harrington, Elizabeth.  “Obama Admin’s New Spending Website Rolls Back Transparency.”  Free Beacon.  April 1, 2015.

Hicks, Josh.  “Former intelligence official: Obama’s Middle East policy is ‘willful ignorance’.  The Washington Post, March 29, 2015.

Lipkes, Jeff.  “Republicans see Obama as a more imminent threat than Putin.”  American Thinker, March 31, 2015.

Navalny, Alexey.  Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, Translator.  “Alexey Navalny On the Murder of Boris Nemtsov.”  Interpret Magazine, March 3, 2015.

Peek, Liz.  “A Naive Deal with Iran Tops Obama’s Bungled Mideast Policy.”  The Fiscal Times, April 1, 2015.

Tucker, Maxim.  “Russia Launches Next Deadly Phase of Hybrid War on Ukraine.”  Newsweek, March 31, 2015.

Van Buren, Peter.  “Americans see Putin as only slightly more imminent threat than Obama, poll says.” Reuters, March 30, 2015.

Walker, Shaun.  “How Nemtsov’s murder could force Putin into a big decision.”  The Guardian, March 29, 2015.

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