BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS

AARON MATE—Although the identity Bellingcat-HuffPost UK’s dodgy source is unknown, the participation of a third outlet in this story – the UK state broadcaster BBC — offers a strong candidate.

Just weeks after Bellingcat’s debunked story appeared, the BBC released a podcast that attempted to advance the same bogus line. “Mayday” host Chloe Hadjimatheou repeated the Bellingcat letter’s falsehoods about the wood samples and the secret Syria-Russian acceptance of the OPCW’s final report. In yet another uncanny crossover, Hadjimatheou also falsely suggested that one of the OPCW whistleblowers received a payment from Wikileaks. In emails to Wikileaks and Whelan one month before Mayday was aired, Bellingcat’s Nick Waters made the same insinuation.

While her uncritical promotion of the Bellingcat-HuffPost UK letter’s debunked assertions was nothing new, Hadjimatheou did offer one significant contribution. To make her case against the whistleblowers, Hadjimatheou interviewed someone whom she claimed was an anonymous OPCW official operating behind the pseudonym, “Leon.” Hadjimatheou did not specify what role, if any, Leon played in the Douma investigation. The anonymous official also offered nothing of substance beyond what was already claimed in the bogus OPCW letter released by Bellingcat.

Editor’s Note: Russell Bentley, American expat and volunteer antifascist soldier in the struggle of Eastern Ukraine’s young republics of Donetsk and Lugansk against Kiev’s Nazi-infested, NATO-supported regime, has produced a moving video showing the people of Donetsk commemorating Russia’s victory in the Great Patriotic War. Simple and eloquent, the images say it all. I believe that decent people everywhere who understand these things, what WW2 meant to so many in terms of losses, pain and sacrifice,  will have a tough time holding back the tears. Paul Robeson’s singing is a most felicitous addition.—PG. 

When you consider Obama’s record after four years in office–a multi-trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street, the continuing “war on terror,” more civil liberties shredded, the Employee Free Choice Act abandoned, deportations on the rise, a deepening assault on public schools–the answer has to be no. The list of broken promises and betrayed hopes goes on and on, outweighing anything that could be described as progress.

CHRIS HEDGES INTERVIEW—This is a rather extraordinary interview for a variety of reasons. For one, Hedges is given space to say what he likes about the topics he is most interested in, chiefly the implosion and extreme toxicity of late-stage capitalism. Apparently, VICE News, which since this interview has become an almost complete propaganda tool for the Deep State, one designed to lure younger viewers wary of the mainstream engines of disinformation (CBS, CNN, NYTimes, Fox, etc.), felt they could not totally control Hedges, and they were right. 

PAUL TREANOR—Libertarianism is part of the Anglo-American liberal tradition in political philosophy. It is a development of classic liberalism, and not a separate category from it. It is specifically associated with the United States, and to a lesser extent with Britain and its former ‘white colonies’ (Canada, Australia, New Zealand). Many libertarian authors know only North American political culture and society. They claim universal application for libertarianism, but it remains culture-bound. For instance, some libertarians argue by quoting the US Constitution – apparently without realising that it only applies in the USA. Most online material on libertarianism contrasts it to ‘liberalism’, but that is also culturally specific.