The Shadowland Journal: KGB

Showing posts with label KGB. Show all posts

Monday, November 18, 2019

The Berlin Wall Fell Over a Weekend, 30 Years Later We're Still Trying to Cope with the Consequences

Mike Pompeo was in Germany serving with American forces there when the Berlin Wall came down. It seems he has no illusions about the Soviet threat back then, or the threat posed by Vladimir Putin today. This is what he had to say in a speech in Berlin on Friday:

Yet Pompeo's boss, on whose behalf he lies and deceives whenever he deems it necessary, is talking about going to Moscow to hang out with Putin on "Victory Day" next May.

"Today, Russia – led by a former KGB officer stationed in Dresden ‒ invades its neighbors and slays political opponents. It suppresses the independence of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Russian authorities, even as we speak, use police raids and torture against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians who are working in opposition to Russian aggression. In Chechnya, anyone considered 'undesirable' by the authorities simply disappears."

There is something wrong with this picture.

My comments on MSNBC on Saturday:
http://us.wildmoka.com/c/clip/7FlqGL

At The Daily Beast we ran several stories about the Fall of the Wall which I invite you to read, watch, and share.

Among them is an essay that I wrote this week, but should have written 30 years ago:

HAMMER, SICKLE, AND SWASTIKA

The Night the Cold-War World Turned Upside Down

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY

This vivid context by Andrew Nagorski:

THE GREAT ESCAPE

The Berlin Wall and the Collapse of Communism in Five Acts

ANDREW NAGORSKI

And this provocative 2014 essay about the impact of November 1989 on one Vladimir Putin:

COLD WAR

How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Radicalized Putin

In 1989, as East Germany collapsed around him, a KGB spy in Dresden named Vladimir Putin came to some hard conclusions that would later inform his bellicose geopolitics.

MASHA GESSEN

We also ran several great photographs by the redoubtable Turnley twins:

REUNION

The Fall of The Wall as Captured by Peter and David Turnley

PETER TURNLEY

And we embedded this slide show that has even more of their extraordinary pictures: https://vimeo.com/369238488

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Sunday, November 03, 2019

Trump's Syrian Oil Shakedown, Plus News of Russia, Spies, ISIS, and More

Good morning USA, and welcome back to Standard Time. I have never decided whether I prefer Standard or Daylight Savings time, but making the switch always seemed to me to be rather silly, and since there is a two week delay between the changing of the clocks here in Paris and the spring forward or fall back in the States, things can get confusing.

Here on the Continent, the European Parliament has voted to end the twice-a-year change as of 2021, if the Council of Europe agrees. Hard to imagine it will not, since a query to the public generated 4.6 million replies and 84 percent wanted to do away with the bi-annual clock changes. But under the new rules each member state can decide what kind of "standard" time it wants, and some may choose to remain on "daylight." That could get problematic.

Still, the question of how we "keep time" (a curious locution if you think about it) and how we perceive time has always fascinated me. This is a piece I wrote for Newsweek several years ago which, I am happy to see, is still available on line: "Turning to God's Time'"

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I mentioned last week that I would be writing about Trump's Syrian oilfield shakedown. And so I did:

'SO VALUABLE'

Is Trump Saving Those Syrian Oil Fields for the Russians?

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY

In an appearance on MSNBC Saturday morning, I discussed the issue further, along with questions about whether the danger of ISIS as increased, Trump's efforts to roll back the clock on Russian interference in the 2016 elections by squeezing allied intelligence services, and the difference between the crimes of an average citizen and the highest crime that a president can commit: abuse of power. This is the link: http://us.wildmoka.com/c/clip/75r69v

****
Here are some of the other stories published in the World News section of The Daily Beast over the last few days:

RETURN TO 'RIGHTEOUSNESS'

What Baghdadi's Death Means for al Qaeda—and Why It Matters

The faithful followers of Osama bin Laden and his successor are not mourning the demise of the Islamic State's leader. They're hoping to recruit his fighters.

RITA KATZ

ALL I WANT FOR XMAS

Britain Resorts to Wild, Populist Election to Settle Brexit

Britain is set to hold its first December general election for almost a century with both of the main parties touting their most radical populist messages.

NICO HINES

LEGACY OF BRUTALITY

Rights Group: CIA's Afghan Militias Are 'Death Squads'

Paramilitaries trained and funded by the CIA in Afghanistan commit summary executions, village-wide roundups, and other atrocities, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.

SPENCER ACKERMAN

MALTESE TEASER

Bill Barr's Josef Mifsud Conspiracy Story Is Plain Dumb

Mifsud's deep connections with Putin's foreign policy establishment and his glowing appraisals of Russia's role in global affairs show Barr has barked up the wrong tree.

AMY KNIGHT