CIA Director William Burns said in a speech on Saturday that the war in Ukraine provides his spy agency a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to recruit Russians.
“Disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership, beneath the steady diet of state propaganda and practiced repression. That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA, at our core a human intelligence service,” Burns told the Ditchley Foundation in the UK, according to The Hill.
Burns mentioned how the CIA has been openly trying to recruit people inside Russia using social media. “We’re not letting it go to waste. We recently used social media — our first video post to Telegram, in fact — to let brave Russians know how to contact us safely on the dark web. We had 2.5 million views in the first week, and we’re very much open for business,” he said.
The CIA published a video on Telegram and YouTube in May asking Russians to contact the spy agency with links using Tor, a web browser that encrypts user activity. The idea is to use Tor to access a CIA site on the dark web that the agency uses to gather information from people around the world. The CIA has been posting similar instructions on social media throughout the war.
On the same day Burns delivered his speech, CNN reported that he had recently traveled to Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A US official said that the trip took place before Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s short-lived uprising against the Russian military establishment.
Zelensky confirmed that he met with Burns in an interview with CNN recorded on Sunday but said his dealings with the American spy chief should be kept secret. “My communication with the CIA chief should always be behind the scenes,” he said. “We discuss important things — what Ukraine needs and how Ukraine is prepared.”
It may just be me, but shouldn’t this guy not be sharing about their recruitment efforts?
If the CIA is using social media to recruit potential agents, then Burns isn’t disclosing anything the FSB doesn’t already know. He is going public to encourage more Russians to oppose the war.
Jokes evidently are not your forte.
Life is not always serious….
Are you thinking about joining? Go ahead.
Go WEST. 🤷🏽♂️
If you are the type who they are looking for why have you not joined?
Serious question.
CIA (and FBI) should shut down and completely revamped with adequate controls. They both are out of control.
Yeah, that will never happen, the uniparty does not answer to the sheeple.
Two republican candidates have openly committed to defunding the FBI and CIA. One of those two is second in the poles.
One of the democrat candidates openly believes the CIA killed his uncle, and that Eugene Thane Cesar killed his father.
The anti-establishment sentiment has never been stronger in america. If not now, then when?
Agree, sentiment gradually changing. Question is will it be enough.
Enormous power and control exists to preserve the corrupt status of the uniparty by its handlers with one of the keys is the stenographic MSM.
To continue the mindless recitation of the blob’s talking points is the only way for career enhancement and money.
If we stand against them in large numbers they will kill us all.
We are already morally and politically dead men walking.
But I would bet that those two republicans are only concerned about republicans being targeted. And considering the candidate polling second is the most authoritarian candidate running, I question his sincerity.
“most authoritarian” b.s.
Where have you been living, under a rock?
Is it “most authoritarian” to be the governor of the only state that actually kept the promise of two weeks to flatten the curve to two weeks instead of two months or two years? The only state where it’s legal to keep your job or walk outside? That’s authoritarian?
DeSantis didn’t say he’d put Republicans in the CIA/FBI. He said he’d “break it” so that “they can’t fill the swamp back up again”. So your theory is completely abolishing the FBI and CIA is authoritarian?
“the only state that actually kept the promise of two weeks to flatten the curve to two weeks instead of two months or two years?”
Not sure what state that may have been, but DeSantis had nothing to do with it. He declared a statewide lockdown on April 1, 2020, slightly eased it at the end of April, and only ended it after five months. During his lockdown, he stationed state troopers at highway crossings into the state and at airports to order travelers into quarantine. He only changed his tune and stopped being a Cuomo/Whitmer/Newsom Mini-Me on lockdowns when he realized that rural Floridians in general were ignoring/laughing at his orders and that his electoral base preferred a different kind of authoritarianism.
South Dakota’s Kristi Noem did a little bit better, but probably only because when she asked the state legislature to give her lockdown authority, they told her no.
I agree and that was wrong if him. But by comparison with anywhere else Florida was practically peachy.
You can cherry pick policies that lasted months. And some of them did. But many others were weeks long. But even so, you’re complaining about months when most places were locked down for years?! And you think this is a compelling argument?
It’s just dishonest to claim there was any sort of comparison to be made between Cuomo, whiter, newsom and DeSantis. The people who moved to Florida from California and new York and Michigan know the truth of the situation. Florida was freedom by comparison. Nobody cares if it wasn’t a purely libertarian ideal with nothing more than a night watchman state. What they care about is the fact that they had more freedom in Florida than elsewhere.
“His electoral base preferred a different kind of authoritarianism”. I’d love to hear an example of these phantom cases of authoritarianism (above and beyond what is typical in America; remember liberty is a relative thing; You are more or less free, and there has never in history been a “free” people in an absolute sense.)
He was EXACTLY like Cuomo, Whitmer, and Newsom for a couple of months. Then he realized his bread was buttered on the other side of authoritarianism — trying to tell employers whom they couldn’t fire, cruise lines whom they couldn’t refuse a ticket to, etc.
The main difference in Florida wasn’t DeSantis, it was the people. Out here in the sticks, when we deigned to notice his orders at all, we laughed at him. My wife was out of state for the first month or so of the lockdown, so I didn’t really go anywhere. When she got back, we went to to our local Publix. The mask orders, social distancing, etc., were still in full force. We got near the front door, saw they had a guy out front to keep count, etc. for occupancy maximums, and I remembered I’d left my mask in the car. I told her I had to go get it, and the guy looked over at me and said “oh, we don’t ENFORCE it, we just tell you about it. If the gummint wants it ENFORCED, they can come do that themselves.” And this was at a location on the edge of a hard Democrat city (Gainesville).
Again, it’s not convincing to say Ron Desantis is a tyrant because he did for two months what other places did for two years.
And I don’t care at all whether Ron Desantis acted out of principle or because he was following the political winds. It’s totally besides the point. The fact remains that he was less of a tyrant than other governors. So what if it was because he was responding to his voters?
Similarly, I don’t care if RFK and Vivek’s statements about the FBI and CIA are principled or political. They still said it. And I’m more likely to get actual action from someone who’s pandering to an anti-authoritarian base than one who isn’t, regardless of the fact that it’s nothing more than pandering.
Finally, freedom is a relative thing. Governor desantis saying businesses couldn’t fire people over not taking the shot is much less of an infringement on freedom than requiring people to get the shot. I asked for examples where his authoritarianism was worse than the alternative, not worse than an absolute ideal libertarian society. When you find eden, let me know and your arguments will become persuasive. Until then, then fall flat.
Even so, these actions need to be taken in context. When a business is being harrassed by the federal government to fire employees who don’t comply with federal government standards, and a state government comes in and say “actually, we’ll harass you if you comply with the federal government”, this isn’t a diminution of freedom; it’s restoring the balance that people wanted anyway.
State governments were made to combat federal government. So it’s not convincing to say “hey look, the state governments are taking any action, and by definition, that is anti-liberty”. No, policies that are meant to directly counter federal authoritarianism are to be applauded.
Of course I wish businesses to choose to fire someone based on their vaccination status. But if you think businesses were freely choosing to do this without federal pressure you weren’t paying any attention during the pandemic. Desantis’ order was just countering that federal pressure.
He was exactly as much a tyrant as the other governors. It’s just that after a couple of months he switched tyranny types.
I don’t distinguish between federal and state-level tyranny. It all looks the same to me.
Nor do I, nor did I claim to. You totally missed the point.
What happened to you Thomas? In the past I’ve never had a disagreement with you in which, while disagreeing, you weren’t always very respectful and honestly trying to counter my views, not some straw man. Now you you’re consistently using sleazy tactics.
What’s “sleazy” about pointing out that Ron DeSantis is an authoritarian careerist swamp creature who does not and never has given a tinker’s dam about anyone’s rights or freedom?
I don’t think that’s sleazy. But I do think it’s sleazy to intentionally missrepresent a person’s arguments, which you have now done multiple times. And I think it’s sleazy to make an argument that does not address the concerns raised and present it as though it did. It’s a dishonest way to discuss things.
For example, I said it was sleazy to make a straw man of my position. Let me be specific. I made the argument that while both state and federal governments can be authoritarian, state governments are easier to influence (smaller voting pool), and can in some instances be used against federal government over reach. This isn’t some niche argument. This is the position of many notable libertarians and anarchists, like Hans Hermann Hoppe, or Murray Rothbard.
In response you said you “don’t distinguish between federal and state level tyranny”, as though I did; as though I though the lock downs would have been wonderful if they had only happened at the state level and not the federal level. That was never my position and nothing I said could possibly have implied that, and if you had actually cared to address the contention I made you would have know I don’t view the lock downs as justifiable in any way. But you didn’t. you made the sleazy argument, that my position wasn’t actually my position.
And then, when I pointed it out, you did it again! You suggested that I thought it was sleazy to critisize ron desantis, when I have never said anything of the sort! That’s a sleazy argument. I have never contended that ron desantis “has given a tinker’s dam about anyone’s rights or freedom”. in fact, I specifically pointed out that my argument does not depend on Ron DeSantis’ intentions or the thoughts of his heart or his inner character in any way. But did that give you a moments pause? apparently not. You straight away implicitly accused me of believing it was sleazy to criticize Ron DeSantis.
I really don’t mind disagreeing with you, and have in the past very much enjoyed our conversations, heated though they’ve been. In the past your arguments were honestly made. I had a lot of respect for you as being knowledgeable and well read. But my goodness, you’re rapidly losing any respect I had for you. Why do you have to behave this way?
I think you’re being over-sensitive.
As for which levels of government are “easier to influence,” I disagree that that’s necessarily the case in every situation.
A president may be “easier to influence” in October of a re-election year than a governor the month after he takes office, for example. And the size of the voting pool may or may not be relevant, depending on what kind of money and favors and threats are being spread around by which lobbyists, and whether they’re doing their work in DC or Tallahassee.
Then there’s the Byles Mather factor: “Which is better — to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away or by three thousand tyrants one mile away?” I suspect the former is better than the latter. I’ve never had as much annoyance out of DC as I had out of the local government when I last lived in a town.
DeSantis’s chosen forms of authoritarianism differ based on what he thinks the voter base he’s lobbying wants, but he never, ever, ever strays so much as a degree away from authoritarianism as such. His version of “freedom” is that everyone gets to live exactly, and only, as he shall decree. That’s Trump’s and Biden’s version, too, of course, but they’re talking into the void a thousand miles away while DeSantis is talking to the state troopers I see driving around every day — and to the sheriffs’ departments and local police departments that he’s effectively seized control of, at the behest of his supporters in the police unions, by scaring the public and baiting the legislature with the prospect of TEH LEFTISTS “defunding the police.”
I don’t really care much what self-proclaimed Marxist Hoppe has to say about anything, but I am interested in whether Rothbard made the argument you attribute to him when he was a libertarian, or after he abandoned libertarianism for paleoconservatism?
Thomas, I go about my day reading papers on generalized singular value decomposition and compression of deep learning models. I really don’t care much whether our conversation is an honest or productive one or not and it will never have much of an effect on my life. But I’m going to call you out on the tactics you use when you use them.
Rothbard never “abandoned libertarianism for paleoconservatism”. He made an expedient alliance in 1992 because the parallels between the two groups are obvious. But his views on government and economics never really changed. His alliance with the left wing groups prior to 1992 was also one of expedience made after 1955 ( during the rise of cold war politics). He made that alliance primarily because of their opposition to the war state, (and too my knowledge, for no other reason). People who want to segment rothbard into “good” pre-1992 rothbard and “bad” post-1992 rothbard don’t really understand rothbard. His positions never really changed. His alliances did. He viewed his “return” to the right (or rather the right’s return to him) as a homecoming, because that is and always was his position. He was never “not libertarian”.
Nor is Hoppe a marxist. Nor has he described himself as such for decades. He did say “Marx was right about 90% of things”. And I agree. That’s not being a marxist, because hoppe disagrees with marx on the most crucial areas, namely, the labor theory of value, and the idea that the government can “fix” the economy, that all property is theft, etc. The area on which Hoppe agrees with Marx is the same area that you agree with marx. That governments around the world use their power in wrong and imperialist ways, that governments steal the property of the poor to give to the church or the politburo, etc. Do you insist that an alliance with marxists on these issues is wrong simply because they are marxist?
Hoppe is libertarian to the core, and uses Marxist rhetoric and his Marxist background to convince Marxists to be libertarian. Imagine that, someone who actually wants to reach across the very longest of aisles rather than demonize them.
So let me get this straight. Your versions of events is that DeSantis stationed state troopers at borders to enforce lockdowns and that was bad and authoritarian, and when he realized his people didn’t want that, he switched gears and instead banned the federal government’s vaccine passport system, and that’s just as authoritarian as when he himself was enforcing it? Is that your position?
Unfortunately this claim is not true, though I wish it was. I interact with the effects of the federal government on a daily basis, even more so than I interact with local police. And even when I do interact with the local police, their actions are distorted by policy coming out of washington D.C. For example, qualified immunity was established at the federal level. Civil asset forfeiture was passed at the federal level.
I pay well over a quarter of my income, very nearly a third, on federal taxes. The federal government has inflated the money supply many times over. Prices in my lifetime have gone up 132%, and thats after you consider hedonic adjustment (the lie of all lies). The federal government has attempted to force everyone into a bloated monopolistic medical system in which according to the CDC over 30% of children are born though C-Section, insulin is priced well over 10X it’s free market value, drugs across the board are inflated in price for the purpose of bribing the FDA into propagandizing drugs that have been proven to be ineffective and ban drugs that have proven to be effective, and I’m forced to pay for these anti-services whether I want to or not. I pay no import duties to my state, but I pay enormous duties to import into my country, on inflated shipping costs due to federal regulation in the jones act. I can’t sell my products abroad without permission. I’m not safely private in my own home thanks to the NSA. I’m just now old enough I won’t be drafted, but that privilege isn’t yet extended to my loved ones, my brothers, my cousins, my nephews, and in a bit over a decade my son. If I publicly oppose these blatantly immoral actions, I’m at risk of being thrown in jail. The CIA views americans as potential martyrs for false flags they have already planned out and rehearsed. Is that “speaking into the void”?
Though my city council is stupid, and needlessly harasses me for allegedly renting out my basement when I’m not zoned as such, this is miles short of the damages done to me by my federal government. There is no comparison at all! Add up every ticket I’ve ever been given, all the stupid city and state regulations I’ve had to comply with, all the forgone goats I could have raised in my back yard, etc, it doesn’t add up to even one hundredth of what the federal government has done to me. This is the furthest you could possibly get from speaking into the void!
You know who is actually speaking into the void? My city councilors, who have made it illegal to raise quail and rabbits for meat in my own home, and yet… now, I’m not confessing to any illegal activity or implicating any of my neighbors of the same. But lets just say I don’t think the city actually has the capacity to enforce any such things.
It is much easier to influence local politicians than federal ones. Contrast the battle of Athens with the civil war. The civil war resulted in 620,000 deaths, the institution of the income tax, increased protectionism, etc. and in the end, the federal government was not dissolved. In the battle of Athens, there were no fatalities on either side, and the city government was completely dissolved and recreated without the fee grabbing. Yes, it is much easier to influence local politics than federal ones.
“So let me get this straight. Your versions of events is that DeSantis stationed state troopers at borders to enforce lockdowns and that was bad and authoritarian, and when he realized his people didn’t want that, he switched gears and instead banned the federal government’s vaccine passport system, and that’s just as authoritarian as when he himself was enforcing it? Is that your position?”
No, because that’s not what he did. After he abandoned pro-lockdown authoritarianism, he switched to anti-vaccine authoritarianism — trying to tell cruise lines they couldn’t choose to only carry vaccinated passengers, employers that they couldn’t choose to only hire/retain vaccinated employees, etc.
First of all, “telling cruise lines they couldn’t choose to only carry vaccinated passengers” is the same thing as “banning the federal government’s vaccine passport system”. How do you think the cruise lines were enforcing this?
It’s obvious to anyone with two eyes in their head that the reason employers were not hiring unvaccinated people and cruise lines were carrying only vaccinated passengers was not due to an overwhelming and independent market demand, but because of federal government fearmongering. When the CDC is going around banning cruise lines entirely (https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/s0716-cruise-ship-no-sail-order.html) it’s pretty clear the cruise lines were behaving that way to appease the government, not their customers. When the government is is threatening to make OSHA rules requiring businesses to only hire vaccinated people, it’s pretty darn obvious the employers are just prepping to comply with that regulation, not responding to some overwhelming desire people have to only work with vaccinated people.
You’re examples of “authoritarianism” are quite obviously just giving people the freedom to do what they wanted to do anyway.
Yes — giving people the “freedom” to board someone else’s ship or work at someone else’s business whether that owner wanted them on board the ship or in the workplace or not.
There are a number of philosophies based on government controlling the use of, or even outright confiscating, private property for “the public good.” Some of those philosophies conflict in the details, but they’re all the same at their authoritarian roots.
First, this is factually incorrect. No employer was forced to hire someone they did not want to hire. No cruise line was forced to sell tickets to someone they did not want to sell tickets too. They were prevented from using the federal government’s vax passport system. If an employer wanted to fire someone for whatever reason, he always has that option. If a cruise line wanted to not sell tickets, they were completely within their rights.
Again, you’re not addressing my actual contention. You’re removing the actions from the context.
Suppose the government said “everyone turn in your guns, or we’re stringing you all up!” and the state level replied “nobody abandon or turn in your guns” it’d be pretty damn obvious the second order was just telling people to do what they wanted to do anyway, and is not actually an infringement on their freedom; in fact, it is a defense of their freedom. The very fact they’re getting conflicting orders from two levels of government gives them a better defense for their actions when choosing either one. The fact that employers had no capacity to verify an employees vaccine status gives them a very good excuse to not comply with OSHA’s vaccine regulations, an excuse many employers were very happy to have. This was so obviously giving business owners a freedom they would not have otherwise had.
Now, is it lamentable that as a side effect some terminally ill hypochondriacs didn’t get to use their beloved vax passport system? yes. That’s lamentable. I too wish we lived in a world where there were neither state nor federal level government. But that’s not the world we live in, and this decision very obviously increased freedom for more people than it decreased, and hence is a move toward freedom.
But even if I accepted your argument that this is a terribly authoritarian act, your argument falls flat when you admit that liberty is a relative phenomena. People are more or less free, and there has never been a time when people are totally free. Even if I accept the vax passport ban was a terrible infringement on business owners, and a violation of their property rights, it’s a violation of far fewer people’s property rights than in the case where literally no one had the right to their own bodies!
“No employer was forced to hire someone they did not want to hire. No cruise line was forced to sell tickets to someone they did not want to sell tickets too.”
True. They took DeSantis to court over his attempts to run their businesses his way rather than letting them run their businesses their way. And they won.
“They were prevented from using the federal government’s vax passport system.”
So was everyone else, since that system was never successfully implemented. But the cruise lines beat DeSantis in court before it was more than a gleam in some bureaucrat’s eye.
“If an employer wanted to fire someone for whatever reason, he always has that option. If a cruise line wanted to not sell tickets, they were completely within their rights.”
True — once they beat authoritarian swamp creature DeSantis in court, anyway.
After Desantis’ switch in policy, all cruise lines had the freedom to fire or hire whomever they wished for whatever reason they wished, and to sell tickets to whomever they wished for whatever reason they wished. It did not take a court decision to affirm that. That only happened in your imagination.
The only thing they were not allowed to do was rely on the federal governments vaccine passport system. I have repeatedly pointed this out, and you have continued to outright lie about the situation. No one was ever forced to employ anyone they didn’t want to. Ironically, the system norwegian CEO is advocating for is the one in which people were forced to fire people.
This is another lie. That system was successfully implemented and used across the country for two years. I was one of the first to be branded with the card, as I was part of the clinical trials. That they didn’t implement all of their sick fantasies in regards to the vaccine passport doesn’t mean the entire system simply didn’t exist!
If you honestly believe that the system never existed, what’s the problem with Ron Desantis banning it’s use? If your assertion were true, then this ban would only be as harmful as banning the enslavement of unicorns.
Ironically (or perhaps not ironically, what do I know of your beliefs?) in your zeal to be anti-government You’ve come to defend the federal government’s decision to side with a CEO who is openly calling for the vax passport system to be enforced on all his competitors. You’re defending the cronyest of capitalist who is openly admitting the reason he’s trying enforcing the vax passport system is as a springboard to restore a nation wide enforcement. You’re defending one CEO (And by the way, it is ONE ceo, the cruise line industry is not as a whole backing him), who is openly admitting to trying to bring down regulations on his competition.
Yes, you have repeatedly “pointed out” that the cruise lines were not allowed to “rely on” something that didn’t exist. But that was never in question, because it didn’t exist at the time DeSantis tried to take over the cruise lines and got defeated in court.
I’m not “defending the CEO.” I’m defending the property rights of the cruise line owners for whom the CEO works. Personally, I just decided that anyone demanding proof of vaccination from me as a requirement for doing business with me or hiring me didn’t want to do business with me or hire me very badly, and acted accordingly.
We can go back and forth simply asserting things, and make no progress. I have provided you evidence that the vaccine passport system was in effect. You have failed to provide evidence to the contrary.
Your claims have quite inflated without any evidence. now DeSantis tried to “take over” the cruise lines. I’m sorry, but Desantis didn’t nationalize their stock. He didn’t sit on their board of directors. He didn’t even disallow them from refusing services to people with COVID. This is entirely in your imagination.
You have completely failed to address the fact that your accusation is that Desantis is authoritarian over banning something you have asserted does not exist.
And since when was your claim that Desantis was just “authoritarian”? This I have never disagreed with this. Your claim was supposed to be that he was “just as authoritarian” as before, but you’ve failed to defend that claim, opting for the easier and much less hard hitting claim that he is authoritarian in some absolute sense, rather than any relative one.
Finally, I suppose you’d have a case if there were some vaccine passport system that was operated by the free market. In that case, the executive order would have been a violation of property rights. as no such system was being used anywhere, it’s pretty obvious the executive order was limiting the use of the federal vax passport system, which never was part of the cruise line owner’s property rights, and so this was not a violation of property rights.
On the contrary, Desantis’, despite the best efforts of norwegian, won major victories in court to open up cruise lines for business. The factual evidence in the case of the cruise industry is clearly in desantis’ favor. https://www.flgov.com/2021/06/18/governor-desantis-wins-major-victory-to-protect-floridas-cruise-industry/
“I have provided you evidence that the vaccine passport system was in effect”
Really? Where?
I had one myself. Don’t play stupid Thomas.
You had one what? A federal vaccine passport? No such thing ever existed.
April 7, 2021:
Wow, thanks, Its so comforting to me that the vaccine passport system that was demanded by the federal government and issued by government backed corporations (i.e. proxy government), wasn’t actually directly issued by the federal government, and only one of it’s various arms.
You keep referring to a federal “vaccine passport system.”
I keep asking you for evidence for the existence of such a system.
You keep not presenting any evidence for the existence of such a system.
So I’d say we’re at an impasse on its existence, let alone its supposed use by cruise lines based in Florida in defiance of Ron DeFuhrertis’s diktat.
https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/order-safe-travel.html, we were all required to show evidence of having taken an “approved” vaccine to board airlines, as per CDC dictat
https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA4162.pdf you needed to show evidence of having “acceptable proof of
vaccination” to work a job
Now one must wonder, what is an “acceptable” proof of vaccination? It’s the vaccine passport that I and everyone I know was branded with, which you now insist isn’t evidence because “don’t believe your lying eyes”. Actually you didn’t even give that much of a defense you simply refused to address the fact that I brought this up.
That the passports were being issued by “private” companies in no way is evidence it wasn’t a federal passport system, considering these “private” companies are heavily regulated and subsidized by the federal government, and were producing these passports for the purpose of complying with federal regulation. They are arms of the federal government. So it was a federal passport system.
There were some actual state “COVID passport” schemes.
What you’re talking about is a piece of card stock that anyone could print out, fill out, and show to anyone who demanded “proof of vaccination.” And the real things weren’t “issued by a private company.” They were issued by the CDC.
The “Implementing Presidential Proclamation on Safe Resumption of Global Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic” order you cite applied to air travel, not to cruise ships. And was issued long after DeSantis’s bullshit authoritarian “you don’t have freedom of association, you associate with whomever I order you to” stunt.
The OSHA order you link to was kiboshed by the Supreme Court.
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been working for months on plans to tear down and rebuild both the Department of Justice and the FBI, consulting with experts and members of Congress to develop a “Day One” strategy to end what conservatives see as the weaponization of the justice system.”
This is about partisan politics and has nothing to do with DeSantis giving a rat’s ass about anything else. And he, like Trump, want to be the lead tyrant of their own brand of the swamp.
The Demopublicans. All for one, one for all, at the bequest of the MIC.
Likewise then it must also be a good opportunity for hostile states and individuals to insert themselves into the agency as MOLES… A GOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR spooks altogether!!!!!!!!
“We lied, we cheated, we stole…” – former CIA director Mike Pompeo
As if there was no way to recruit spies before the war…!
Is anyone else sick of Zelensky? This has been an absurd conflict on both sides. Russia invaded incompetently and had no real plan. Ukrainian leaders are likely siphoning funds from US. There are villains galore. Tired of US show.
“Burns Calls Ukraine War Major ‘Opportunity’ for CIA Recruiting Spies The CIA has been trying to recruit Russians via social media”
This war is also an opportunity for the FSB to recruit operatives.
Sergey Shigu revealed that since June 4, NATO had lost about two and a half thousand units of various weapons. 15 planes, 3 helicopters and 920 enemy armored vehicles were destroyed in the South Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Donetsk directions.
Over the past month, Russia’s air defense intercepted 158 missiles for the HIMARS MLRS, 25 Storm Shadow cruise missiles and 386 unmanned vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Of all the Nobel Prize Winners Obama by far has killed the most people.
This might surprise you all but Nobel Prize Winners are not suppose to kill people. Shocking i know. And Nobel Peace Prize Winners are not suppose to start wars.
Its like Black is White, Up is Down.
Pretty sure Henry Kissinger is probably higher.
No that dubious distinction goes to George W Bush who killed millions during his time in office.
From Afghanistan to Iraq and many other places Dunderhead W caused more murder and mayhem then many smarter Presidents.
We have good reasons for the distinction between omissions and commissions: omissions may result from ignorance, and commissions usually do not;
commissions usually involve more malicious motives and intentions than the corresponding omissions; and commissions usually involve more effort
George W. Bush wasn’t a Nobel Peace Prize winner. I was referring to the post mentioning that Obama was responsible for more deaths than any other Peace Prize winner.
Am i right in stating that Jimmy Carter was the only other President to get the award, please correct the record if i am wrong.
That appears to be correct.
https://www.thoughtco.com/american-winners-nobel-peace-prize-3367759
Ted Roosevelt, Carter, Hoover and Obama = POTUS nobel winners
Al Gore = VP nobel winner.
Great, I just threw up my July 4th cheeseburger. Thanks, Spy!
Al Gores warnings 40 years ago are all coming true faster then we can imagine because not one damn thing has changed,and will not.
It’s still true
George W. Bush was only nominated for the award. Tony Blair (a war criminal) nominated him.
Its a big club and we aint in it.
The term OREO comes to mind.
You are probably both correct. We don’t really know the actual number, but they’re probably in millions. I’m confident Thomas K. has more specifications.
It’s hard to tell who was responsible for killing how many, but I’d say CT isn’t far off the mark with Bush, especially if you factor in that e.g. Wilson, FDR and so forth presided over the US role in wars fought mostly by others (the Soviets took millions of casualties in WW2, the US about 400k — and the casualties they INFLICTED were likely similarly ratioed).
I guess there’s also the question of “casualties as a percentage of population.” Roosevelt presided over the “pacification” of the Philippines, and my impression is that the number of people killed there was pretty high as a percentage of population.
None of those fucksticks deserved a “peace” prize.
Amen, brother!
Two of the earlier winners were Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, which should tell you all you need to know about the connection between being a butcher and winning the “Peace Prize.”
Menachem Begin and Henry Kissinger.
Two of my heros,Eugene Debs and Emma Goldman had this country pegged over hundred years ago.
So did MLK.
Love is hate and peace is war if I am quoting Orwell correctly.Oceania rides again.And Big Brother is watching everything.
A poke in the eye with a stick to all who said that Burns was ever the voice of reason in this administration. He’s taking us to our total nuclear end just as enthusiastically as any good Neocon. Any “expert” who said that Burns is giving good advice to Biden has lost their credentials to give good advice. …What’s that? …No. That speech was not CGI, AI, or Russian propaganda. Or, did I dream it? …Now, I’m not sure. (Sarcasm alert)
We are all on our way to a final big bang.
Seeing how desperate the CIA is for hiring human intelligence in Russia, this is a golden opportunity for the FSB to infiltrate the CIA by planting its agents in the US spy agency.
The FSB is already sending is spies across the open southern border
Yeah? What kind of spying do they do after swimming the Rio Grande, sneaking in packed into tractor trailers or slipping into the shadows after visiting relatives in Brownsville or El Paso?
This is a silly notion promoted by people who are professionals at weaponizing immigration issues for political leverage. Large segments of our gullible populace swallow it uncritically and vote, as intended, for candidates stirring up fear, resentment and hatred.
The FSB has much better ways of getting spies into the US. Almost all of them arrive openly, with impeccable, usually genuine, documents and plausible, often real, reasons for being here — reasons that get them into positions where useful espionage can be conducted.
Seems like you are describing a 1950’s Hollywood spy film. The old “ways” don’t work anymore
Utter nonsense. Please review the known cases of Russian espionage in the US over, say, the past couple of decades and the identities of the accused agents. Let us know if you find any that entered the US illegally via that “open border” you mentioned.
The best way to spy on an adversary is to turn one of its own agents, and that seems to be the main way of doing human intelligence. An undocumented immigrant isn’t likely to pass the background check for a security clearance, so if another regime is infiltrating people that way, it’s not to spy, it’s to be ready to take hostile action on command. And I doubt there’s much of that, either.
Yes.
Human intelligence, a contradiction in terms.
What about those “visitors” from all corners of the world that over stay visas .
those might be mediocre spies who now devote half their collection time on trying to not get snatched by the authorities looking for them.
boom!!
You will soon find out my non-prescient friend
It’s true that I’m not particularly prescient. If you are, share a few hints about what you think will soon be found out. Be as specific as your, umm . . . visions permit.
Modern days spies don’t need to cross illegally, that’s why they are spies.
This should not be news. Been going for over a century. Standard practice all countries do.
Are there other things that have happened for a long time that you think “should not be news?” 🙄
yes
They’re still looking for the those peeing prostitutes.
Burns is dirt under my shoes. Just another screwed up jackass warmonger. DC is crawling with them.
Its also a golden opportunity for Russia to install double agents into the ranks of the CIA.
The CIA along with State, USAID and NED principally work together to promote color revolutions in weak countries. Russia is not in that category. The CIA also is a source for what is happening in other countries, but they are seldom informed correctly.
From what I’m seeing today, the Anglo-American influence is at its lowest point today in Eurasia. The hate for England/US is at the highest level. So this idiocy about “CIA recruitment opportunity” is pure nonsense. The little CIA rat is just trying to make himself feel better about his failure with Ukraine. Putin is losing some popularity but not because of clean up operation in Ukraine. He is losing popularity because he is unwilling to adequately confront the Anglo-American empire. A much stronger response is needed to stop imperial aggression. This soft approach of his will only encourage more terrorism.
The national Hero of Ukraine is Stepan Bandera. Go look up who he is, a Nazi and WW2 criminal. This is why the ethnic Russians call the NATO armed and trained AFU Banderites.
In a repeat of the horrendous atrocities of the Nazi’s in WW2 todays Western heroes of Ukraine have attempted to ethnicly cleanse the Donbass for Obama. Obama needed 6 million Subhumans (this is what NATO and the Banderites refer to Russians as) in the Donbass to be removed from democratic voting to ensure that his rabidly racist, anti Russian, proxy US rump Rada could stay in power.
This is where the 5 billion that Victoria Nuland pumped into Ukraine went to, to support democracy and freedom. It started a civil war and lead to the death and displacement of millions.
Obama is one nasty evil individual, who among many others, must stand trial for his many many crimes against humanity.
No elections, forced gunpoint conscription, anti retreat troops, book burning, banning of free speech, looting of churches, government death hit lists, mass murder of civilians, ethnic cleansing campaigns, assassination of peace negotiators, bombing of Nuclear power stations, destruction of Europes energy infrastructure, terrorism, rape, torture, massive human rights abuses etc etc etc.
Yep this is a Western war for freedom and democracy right? Up is Down, Black is White its all just big lies after big lies.
The Nazi’s are back in Europe and this time we fight shoulder to shoulder with them, brothers in arms. History will not treat us well.
And remember when they come to recruit you with a gun to your head……….you should of stood against it, that is the lesson of WW2, and the failure to stand against it led to the death of 6 million ethnic people.
Burns Calls Ukraine War Major ‘Disappointment’ for CIA Recruiting Spies