Tag Archives: foreign influence

The Teflon Don’s Company

08 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Spychology, United States of America

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I know this blog seldom presents first-hand (primary) reporting and that the reference lists I create (drudgery!) hardly represent “writing”, but having gone to the very minor bother of looking up and thinking up names as well as coming up with related articles, what’s an old blogger to do?

Chris Zillizza’s piece for The Point (July 21, 2021) provided some helpful reminders, but I didn’t simply copy and list for not recognizing the names Tom Barrack or Elliott Broidy. I’ve added reference for each. I was also sorry about having to list Michael Cohen in the gallery of rogues although as Trump’s fixer I’m sure he was no picnic either. Nonetheless, as an instantly transformed witness and apparently recovered Trump goon, mention feels like throwing a perfectly good carrot back into a festering stew of rotten vegetables.

If the “festering stew” of Don’s rogues were to take hold and one were to ask about the gelatinous substance holding all of them in the same pot, there might be just the two ingredients: greed and a most American vainglory that would bring all back to the here familiar “Malignant Narcissism“.

Related Online

I’ve remained loose with BackChannels as regards discipline and style . . . perhaps it’s been an old hippy’s blog…. Nonetheless, the entries are alpha but from time tot time I present one or two (or more) as a quotation with reference. Among the enduring themes to be associated with Donald John Trump in history will be those pertaining to character, criminality, errant political psychology, integrity, loyalty, and trust both in relation to himself and in relation to his country and America’s national character.

Cillizza, Chris. “11 Trump associates have now been charged with crimes. 11!” The Point, CNN Politics, July 21, 2021.

Clark, Dartunorro, Michael Kosnar, Dareh Gregorian, and Tom Winter. “All four Roger Stone prosecutors resign from case after DOJ backpedals on sentencing recommendation.” NBC News, February 11, 2020.

Hoffman, David. “Paul Manafort: Handmaiden to dictators.” Op-ed. The Hill, December 24, 2020.

Millhiser, Ian. “The 4 major criminal probes into Donald Trump, explained.” Vox, September 21, 2022.

O’Brien Rebecca Davis. “Trump Adviser’s Trial May Shed Light on Foreign Influence Campaigns.” The New York Times, September 19, 2022.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump Lawyer Christopher M. Kise, Registered Foreign Agent.” BackChannels, September 19, 2022.

Shamsian, Jacob. “Rober Stone and his wife are trying to settle the Justice Department’s lawsuit over $2 million in unpaid taxes.” Business Insider, July 12, 2022.

Schmidt, Michael S., Maggie Haberman, and Katie Benner. “Justice Dept Is Said to Believe Trump Has More Documents.” The New York Times, October 6, 2022.

Smith, David. “‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years’ – ex-KGB spy.” The Guardian, January 29, 2021.

Shaw, Conor. “President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged crimes.” Crew, September 27, 2022.

U. S. Department of Justice. “Elliott Broidy Pleads Guilty for Back-Channel Lobbying Campaign to Drop 1MDB Investigation and Remove a Chinese Foreign National.” October 20, 2020.

Defendants PAUL J. MANAFORT, JR., (MANAFORT) and RICHARD W. GATES Ill
(GA TES) served for years as political consultants and lobbyist’i. Between at least 2006 and 2015,MANAFORT and GATES acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to Russia). MANAFORT and GATES generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work. 111 order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, MANAFORT and GATES laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships, and bank accounts.

U.S. Department of Justice. PDF. “United State of America v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr. and Richard W. Gates III.” Case 1:17-cr-00201-ABJ Document 13, October 30, 2017.

Nader has had several run-ins with the law over the years related to sexual abuse of children. He was convicted in the 1990s of transporting child pornography publications, and imprisoned in 2003 for sexually abusing ten boys in the Czech Republic.[6] He pleaded guilty in early 2020 to flying a 14-year-old boy from Europe to the US for sex, and transporting pornography depicting child sexual abuse and bestiality.

Wikipedia. “George Nader”.

Wikipedia. “George Papadopoulos”.

Wikipedia. “Michael Flynn”.

Wikipedia. “Paul Manafort”.

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Those Seeking to Divide Us . . . .

12 Saturday Aug 2017

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Politics

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https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/12/trump-condemns-violence-at-charlottesville-alt-right-rally-says-country-must-come-together-as-one.html

Now who would seek to divide the American political campus against its own best interests?

The above played live on YouTube earlier today.  It’s now appears or sounds like a recording.  (Post-Publication Note: the YouTube poster revoked third-party replay (perhaps) because it knows its feed was designed to present Charlottesville and the United States of America as a House Mightily Divided, and while it has seemed that through the election season and this most turbulent of Administrations, we may not be so divided as confused by so much media devoted to the dramatizing of extremes.  “Active Measures”?  Could be.  The poster, “CCW News”, boasts (boasted) some arrangement with PressTV — and, reliably (if you click over to YouTube), listen to who is talking, masking away history, and framing the present.

Here, I will leave the copy as initially published.

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We are told that we are divided.

Are we?

We’re “reminded” in the Jahi Issa interview that southern slavery was a colonial enterprise apparently absent of African and Arab practices in conquest and trade.

Here’s a block of URL’s on the history of the world’s most spiritually dismal industry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world http://autocww.colorado.edu/~toldy2/E64ContentFiles/AfricanHistory/SlaveryInAfrica.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Sudan https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/slave-trade.php

Contemporary (and a sad thing to note):

http://www.africanholocaust.net/articles/21stcentury%20slaves.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_contemporary_Africa http://www.dw.com/en/as-slave-trade-abolition-is-celebrated-millions-of-africans-continue-to-live-as-slaves/a-18337189 |
Portal Page: http://www.stoppingslavery.org/slavery-in-mauritania.html

Regarding the “southern” contribution, which seems archaic in this day and age: “blood and soil” and “the Jews will not replace us . . . .” — even absent of close-up evidence, the process has Moscow’s political “fingerprints” all over it.

Color codes previously noted and applied on Backchannels:

Red = Old Comrades (Soviet Era communists)
Green = Islamists (strident of Islam)
Black = Black Segregationists

“Red-Green Alliance” serves to represent the effort in the 20th Century to combine political forces to unseat the political intentions of the liberal democratic west.   The “Black” component flows down, imho, from older radical politics.

“ANTIFA” is a mystery organization with a global footprint, BackChannels wonders who is behind its development, recruitments, and evidently (and ironically) uniform counter-demonstration programming.

Regarding the New Nationalism (and resurgent feudalism and embrace of the medieval mode) in Europe and North America, BackChannels has suggested that Islamic Terrorism (“Allahu Akbar Terrorism”) has been channeled to goad Americans and Europeans toward the defense of their respective homelands.

Related Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Peace_Council

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Obama’s State Department and Campaign Staffers Accused of Meddling in Upcoming Israeli Elections

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Politics, United States of America

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Screen capture shows emblem of the United States Department of State as a partner in an organization with offices in Israel supporting a campaign against incumbent President Benjamin Netanyahu.

Screen capture shows emblem of the United States Department of State as a partner in an organization with offices in Israel supporting a campaign against incumbent President Benjamin Netanyahu.

OneVoice is the civil society partner for peace, and the spectrum of our partnerships reflects the validation our work on the ground has received from like-minded organizations. We leverage a broad network that includes membership organizations, government agencies, charities and foundations, academic institutions, corporations, and thought leaders to mobilize support for the two-state solution, not just in the Middle East but across the globe. See below for a complete list of our current partners.

http://onevoicemovement.org/partners – as viewed 2/2/2015.

V15′s complete takeover of OneVoice’s Tel Aviv offices, however, may raise some questions not only about the grant usage, but also about the State Department’s current partnership with OneVoice.

Indeed, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has called for an investigation into the State Department’s ties to OneVoice and the group’s anti-Netanyahu effort.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/netanyahu-fires-back-at-ex-obama-team-plotting-his-defeat/#rxFfbzKAPKPdKszP.99 – 2/1/2015.

The anti-Netanyahu campaign organization “Victory 2015” AKA “V15” has reportedly filled the offices fronted by the left wing base that is One Voice International.

United States Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY-1) have called for an investigation into the Administration’s “partnership” with One Voice International and its tenant “V15”.

Journalist Aaron Klein’s above-cited article in World Net Daily lists three major funders for the effort to unseat Netanyahu.

Billed as an “ardent Zionist” by Ben Caspit in a Jerusalem Post op-ed published in February 2013, this is how financial mogul S. Daniel Abraham appears to practice his version of people’s diplomacy:

“Then he turned to Abu Mazen and asked, what do you want of Netanyahu? At this point, Erekat intervened and said, in Hebrew, the following: One, nine, six, seven. 1967. Abu Mazen approved. That’s what we want. That’s what we insist on.

Abraham said he returned to Jerusalem, but Netanyahu was already in Tel Aviv.

One Voice International founder Daniel Lubetzky (the link is to his Peaceworks biography) appears to have little political profile apart from encouraging business partnerships between Israelis and the refugees of 1948.  From the bio “At Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, the seeds of PeaceWorks were planted as Mr. Lubetzky wrote his 268-page thesis, “The Influence of Economic Factors in Resolving the Arab-Israeli Conflict.”

One might wish the partnerships entrepreneured in the Qualifying Industrial Zones programs and those fostered by Mr. Lubetzky would take hold already and modify, transform, or remove Hamas and the remnant PLO (which remnant “Abu Mazen” represents), so that the residents of Gaza and Ramallah might indeed go about their lives in peace, secure from the roaming shadows of political mafia.

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Related and still recent in the news:

A leaflet, issued by a hitherto unknown pro-Abbas group called Protectors of Legitimacy, threatened to kill 80 Dahlan supporters. The group published the names of the supporters, claiming they worked for Israel.

“Your threats will not intimidate us,” the group said. “You are beginning to play with fire. But we are made of fire, which will burn you. The language of dialogue with you has ended and as of today we will start talking to you with the language of weapons and skull-breaking.”

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/28811/why-is-hamas-smiling-opinion/#QHvC1TH3q9Ypu0Tr.99 – 2/2/2015.

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The third notable mentioned by Aaron Klein, Alon Kastiel, wealthy by way of real estate, appears in the news as a quiet enabler, merely a host to connections:

It is still unclear whether any legal entity stands behind the establishment of V15, but the story of its establishment is intrinsically linked to two Meretz activists, Itamar Weizmann (formerly an activist affiliated with Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz), and Nimrod Dweck (who has managed Meretz’s campaigns since 2012 via the marketing company he owns, Dice Marketing.)

The two met at a gathering organized by real estate mogul Alon Kastiel.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=23239 – 2/2/2015.

From Israel Hayom:

The issues surrounding the establishment of OneVoice have begun to become clear, raising difficult questions that will possibly require an investigation. Two possible avenues have emerged from this affair, showing a sophisticated system of election propaganda for the Leftist bloc, in a manner that allegedly intended to bypass the country’s Parties Financing Law (which prohibits parties from receiving campaign donations from foreign sources). It could very well be that the judicial system will have to determine its legality.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=23239 – 2/2/2015.

A closer look at Bird’s consulting firm as well as its working relationship with the Israeli groups finds he is just one of scores of former senior Obama election campaign staffers now working on the anti-Netanyahu effort.

Besides Bird, the 270 Strategies team includes the following former Obama staffers . . . .

http://israelnewsagency.com/obama-seeking-netanyahu-defeat-sends-campaign-elections-team-israel/ – 2/2/2015.

The Israel News Agency filing goes on to list 13 Obama campaign staffers now placed in the “Victory 2015” and pursuing the mission, so it appears to BackChannels, of ousting an independent Israeli president and replacing the same with an American puppet.

Addendum, July 13, 2016

Brynes, Jesse.  “Netanyahu pollster: Obama role in election larger than reported.”  March 22, 2015.

Gefen, Micha.  “American Desire for Control over Israel is Uncovered through its Funding of OneVoice.”  Israel Rising, July 13, 2016.

Johnson, Natalie.  “State Department sent taxpayer funds to group trying to oust Netanyahu.”  Fox News, July 12, 2016.

 

 

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“Soft Power” Reminder: Foreign Influence on American Policy

27 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics

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The foreign assault on western intellectual assets and channels hardly looks an assault: it arrives with money, lots of it, and funds primary academic and media jobs that in turn boost portions of the economies of the open democracies.  Although in the United States that spending may look like Washington-business-as-usual, the yellow flags are going up.  Mainstream journalists and conservative intellectuals have found cause to revisit foreign state interests and related facilities and research grant funding only superficially intended to foster greater depth with integrity in the key policy analyses by the hires that benefit from those paychecks.

Related excerpts follow with the post capped by a 25-minute talk by Mitchel Bard on his findings related to influence from the middle east.

More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

The money is increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington. And it has set off troubling questions about intellectual freedom: Some scholars say they have been pressured to reach conclusions friendly to the government financing the research.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/politics/foreign-powers-buy-influence-at-think-tanks.html – 9/6/2014.

Let Brookings take Qatar’s money—or Russia’s, or China’s, or Burma’s, or Saudi Arabia’s—if it wants. But make them own it. Make them disclose it.

http://freebeacon.com/columns/this-is-not-what-democracy-looks-like/ – 9/19/2014

The Times article exposed — astonishingly — the corruption of liberal establishments such as the Brookings Institution, the Center for American Progress, and the National Democratic Institute. How honest, honorable, and unexpected from a newspaper that has become the nation’s billboard for unthinking liberal bromides. Conversely, the exposé found not a penny going to conservative institutions such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Hudson Institute.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/387939/think-tanks-sale-or-rent-daniel-pipes – 9/15/2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Agents_Registration_Act

Bard, Mitchel.  The Arab Lobby.  Broadside Books, 2011.

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