Tag: intelligence community

Meet the British intelligence-linked firm that warped MH17 news coverage

In November of 2022, a final judgment arrived in the trial of alleged perpetrators of the attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). Russian nationals Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Donbas separatist Leonid Kharchenko, were convicted in absentia for the murder of MH17’s 283 passengers and 15 crew members. They were ruled to have arranged the transfer of the Buk surface-to-air missile system that reportedly struck the plane.

Oleg Pulatov, the only defendant to seek legal representation during the trial, was conversely acquitted on all charges, which prosecutors will not appeal.

The Malaysian airliner had been purportedly shot down by a missile on July 17th 2014, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew aboard.

Heavily dependent on information supplied by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Western government-funded “open source” investigations organization known as Bellingcat, the guilty verdicts appeared to vindicate an established narrative in which Russia and its Donbas allies were solely culpable. 

But as this investigation will reveal, much of the news coverage of MH17 was heavily influenced by a shadowy entity called Pilgrims Group, which is closely tied to British intelligence. 

Staffed and led by British Special Forces veterans, Pilgrims Group is a private security company offering elite security services to London’s embassies, diplomats, spies, and business interests abroad, particularly in high-risk environments. It also trains foreign militaries and paramilitary groups, and provides protection to reporters and their employers. 

It was in the latter context that Pilgrims Group shaped media coverage – and by extension, official investigations – of MH17. The company had maintained a presence in Kiev since the early days of the US-orchestrated Maidan “revolution” in late 2013, shepherding journalists to and from the scenes of major events in Ukraine. In the process, it maintained control over what the reporters under its watch saw and how they understood the situations they encountered.

As such, Pilgrims Group played a pivotal role in the effort by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and British intelligence to convict Russia and the Donbas separatists for MH17’s downing. The operation began while the plane’s wreckage remained smoldering on the ground of rebel-controlled territory, and ultimately prevented the initiation of any genuinely independent investigations.

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US intelligence: No evidence foreign adversaries behind ‘Havana syndrome’

The U.S. intelligence community has determined it was unlikely that a foreign adversary is responsible for a series of anomalous health incidents (AHI) plaguing intelligence and diplomatic staffers across the globe.

A review conducted by intelligence agencies for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and released Wednesday probed a series of health incidents initially dubbed “Havana syndrome” after government employees first reported experiencing mysterious neurological ailments there in 2016.

But the review attributed those conditions to other factors and noted that intelligence agencies — with varying degrees of confidence — deemed it was unlikely that a U.S. adversary had such capabilities.

“Available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of U.S. adversaries in causing the reported incidents,” the report states. 

“There is no credible evidence that a foreign adversary has a weapon or device that is causing AHIs.”

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Pentagon Wants To Return Special Ops Propagandists To Ukraine

An article by The Washington Post titled “Pentagon looks to restart top-secret programs in Ukraine” contains some interesting information about what US special ops forces were doing in Ukraine in the lead-up to the Russian invasion last year, and what they are slated to be doing there in the future. 

“The Pentagon is urging Congress to resume funding a pair of top-secret programs in Ukraine suspended ahead of Russia’s invasion last year, according to current and former U.S. officials,” writes the Post’s Wesley Morgan. “If approved,the move would allow American Special Operations troops to employ Ukrainian operatives to observe Russian military movementsand counter disinformation.”

Much further down in the article we learn the specifics of what those two top-secret programs were. One of them entailed US commandos sending Ukrainian operatives “on surreptitious reconnaissance missions in Ukraine’s east” to collect intelligence on Russia. The other entailed secretly administering online propaganda, though of course The Washington Post does not describe it as such.

“We had people taking apart Russian propaganda and telling the true story on blogs,” WaPo was told by a source described as “a person in the Special Operations community.”

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US intelligence community warned Twitter about Ukrainian prosecutor’s book alleging Biden corruption

An internal Twitter document published by journalist Matt Taibbi has revealed that the United States (US) intelligence community warned the tech company about the publicity surrounding a book from a former Ukrainian prosecutor that claimed President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, were involved in corruption in Ukraine.

The book, “True Stories Of Joe Biden’s International Corruption In Ukraine” was written by Viktor Shokin, who served as Ukraine’s top prosecutor between February 10, 2015 and March 29, 2016. In the book, Shokin alleged that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that had Hunter Biden on its board, paid Hunter millions of dollars to prevent prosecutors from taking action against Burisma.

Shokin also claimed that then Vice President Joe Biden had ordered Shokin to be fired before he could take action against Burisma. In January 2018, Joe Biden bragged about withholding $1 billion in aid to Ukraine until Shokin was fired.

Yet despite Biden admitting that he had withheld aid to ensure that Shokin was fired, the US intelligence community warned Twitter that “in the summer of 2020 members of a Russian influence, which is at least partially directed by Russian intelligence” were “aware of a production plan” associated with the book. The US intelligence community admitted that it’s “unclear at this time how involved Russian intelligence might be in the creation or promotion” of the book but cited “previous operations” as justification for highlighting “the potential nexus between this book and Russian intelligence.”

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New Twitter Files Reveal How Company Allowed Intelligence Agencies to Influence It

A series of tweets by investigative reporter Matt Taibbi has revealed how Twitter came under the influence of American intelligence agencies after concerns about foreign influence put the company under the spotlight.

Until August 2017, Twitter was not on many people’s radars with regard to the Trump–Russia foreign influence scandal. In September that year, Twitter informed the Senate that its cursory review led to the suspension of 22 possible Russian accounts as well as 179 accounts possibly linked to the initial set of accounts. Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), who was the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee at the time, called Twitter’s report “frankly inadequate on every level.”

Facing growing anxiety over its public relations problems, Twitter started a “Russia Task Force” to investigate the issue.

“First round of RU investigation … 15 high-risk accounts, 3 of which have connections with Russia, although 2 are RT,” said an October 2017 Twitter memo shared by Taibbi. RT refers to the television network Russia Today, which is controlled by the state.

“Finished with investigation … 2,500 full manual account reviews, we think this is exhaustive … 32 suspicious accounts and only 17 of those are connected with Russia, only 2 of those have significant spend one of which is Russia Today … remaining <$10k in spend,” said a message from the same month.

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U.S. Accidentally Proves It Could Not Have Spotted the Virus in China in November 2019

In a recent article I asked why U.S. intelligence officials were following the coronavirus outbreak in China in November 2019 when there is no evidence anyone in China was aware of or concerned about the virus at that point. I noted that no evidence had been produced to explain how they spotted it and why they were concerned. Combined with a lack of cooperation with investigations into Covid origins and multiple signs of a cover-up, this unexplained early awareness of the virus is not just mysterious but suspicious.

Since publishing that piece I have been reminded about a report from Harvard University produced in June 2020 (apparently with intelligence community involvement) that appeared alongside a companion news report for ABC News and showed satellite images from Wuhan in the autumn of 2019 along with some data analysis, indicating increased hospital activity and other possible signals of disease outbreak.

The clear implication of the Harvard study is that these are the data (or some of them) that the intelligence community relied on in November 2019 to identify the outbreak and raise the alarm. The news report states the study used “techniques similar to those employed by intelligence agencies” and was “similar to work done by analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency”. The Pentagon’s Chief Spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, told ABC News he had “nothing to add” to the Harvard study, implying endorsement.

It’s therefore worth asking whether the data in the study can account for the U.S. intelligence community’s early awareness and alarm. Let’s take a look.

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Unprecedented UAP Legislation

Unbeknownst to most Americans, President Biden just signed into law far-reaching legislation that could soon confirm the existence of an alien presence on earth. The relevant provisions, incorporated into legislation needed to provide funding for the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Intelligence Community (IC), enjoys strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. This is arguably the biggest story mainstream news organizations have ever failed to cover. Among other things, this new legislation:

  1. Provides greatly enhanced authorities and resources for the ‘All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office’ or ‘(AARO),’ which now reports directly to the leaders of the Defense Department and the Intelligence Community. The organization’s unusual name is intended to clarify that its purview extends to anomalous objects regardless of their location (i.e. land, air, undersea, or space).
  2. Mandates a review of all intelligence documents involving UAP from 1945 to the present.
  3. Requires DoD, DHS, and the IC to identify any non-disclosure agreements related to UAP and provide those to the new AARO office.
  4. Directs the new AARO office to develop a UAP science plan to assess the sometimes mysterious and mind-bending capabilities being reported as well as a collection plan to leverage America’s vast technical intelligence apparatus to determine where these objects are coming from and their capabilities and intent. This aggressive UAP investigation, using America’s unparalleled intelligence capabilities, is what I hoped to accomplish when I brought the famous DoD UAP videos (“Gimbal” and “Flir”) and Lue Elizondo to the NYT and the oversight committees on Capitol Hill in December, 2017. Recall that Mr. Elizondo had just resigned his position on the staff of the Secretary of Defense in protest over DoD inaction in the face of innumerable violations of restricted DoD airspace by UAP.
  5. Provides a secure process for anyone who has signed an official US government secrecy agreement related to UAP to come forward and reveal that information to AARO and to Congress, regardless of the level of classification, without fear of retribution or prosecution. This provision is intended to determine the veracity of longstanding allegations indicating that the US government has recovered extraterrestrial technology and perhaps even extraterrestrial beings. The alleged UAP crash in 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico, offers the most famous example, but there are many others. For example, in his new book Trinity: The Best Kept Secret, the renowned writer, scientist and venture capitalist Dr. Jacques Vallee surfaces a new case of alleged ET spacecraft recovery operations.

The historical intelligence document review, and the review of government secrecy agreements, should be completed over the next 18 months. That process alone could validate claims the US government has been concealing proof of an extraterrestrial presence near earth. If it seems unbelievable that Congress would pass such legislation, it is only because of the paucity of reporting on the facts that caused members of both parties in Congress to join together to pass these provisions.

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Former top intel chiefs silent after Musk Twitter disclosures

America’s top former intelligence officials were mostly mum Saturday after the release of internal Twitter documents detailing how The Post’s bombshell revelations were censored by the social media company.

Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and defense secretary, John Brennan a former CIA director, Mike Hayden, a former CIA director, and Jim Clapper, a former director of national intelligence — who all once said The Post’s reporting had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” — declined or did not respond to request for comment about whether the latest disclosures had changed their opinion.

The quartet made their allegations as part of an open letter denigrating The Post’s reporting as Russian misinformation which was signed by dozens of other longtime intelligence hands.

“Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,” the letter read. “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”

Of the four, only Clapper has ever publicly addressed the letter, offering a vigorous defense to The Post in March.

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AP Editor Said She “Can’t Imagine” A US Intelligence Official Being Wrong

The Associated Press journalist who reported a US intelligence official’s false claim that Russia had launched missiles at Poland last week has been fired.

As we discussed previously, AP’s anonymously sourced report which said “A senior U.S. intelligence official says Russian missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people” went viral because of the massive implications of direct hot warfare erupting between Russia and the NATO alliance. AP subsequently retracted its story as the mainstream political/media class came to accept that it was in fact a Ukrainian missile that had struck Poland.

AP’s firing of reporter James LaPorta looks at this time to be the end point of any accountability for the circulation of this extremely dangerous falsehood. AP spokesperson Lauren Easton says no disciplinary action will be taken against the editors who waved the bogus story through, and to this day the public has been kept in the dark about the identity of the US official who fed such extremely egregious misinformation/disinformation to the public through the mainstream press.

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