An in-depth analysis...
The US military-industrial complex, a 'non-partisan' think tank and Sputnik
Neil Clark
5 Feb, 2016
“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex,”' US President Dwight D. Eisenhower said 55 years ago, warning of the “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry.”
Well, Ike was right to warn us. And his farewell address was the first thing I thought of when I read the new report 'Propaganda in Orbit' by the 'non-partisan' US-based policy research institute, the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
The report, authored by Ben Nimmo, and subtitled 'Information Warfare Initiative Paper No 2', focuses on Russia's “campaign of disinformation in Central and Eastern Europe” and in particular the role of “one piece of the Kremlin's media machine” - the “tabloid news site” Sputnik.
Sputnik is accused of utilizing “anti-Establishment protest politicians from both sides of the political spectrum to discredit Western governments, policies and institutions such as the European Union and NATO while simultaneously validating the Kremlin's own message.”
As an example of Sputnik's use of “anti-Establishment protest politicians,” Nimmo cites Czech Communist MEP Miloslav Ransdorf, “another go-to source of anti-Western quotes for Sputnik.”
Nimmo says that in the past four months, Ransdorf has been quoted six times by Sputnik's English service. “His comments included a claim that NATO has lost its reason for existence, criticism of the EU’s response to the refugee crisis, accusations that the Ukrainian government is undemocratic, and the claim that Europeans are “useful idiots” used by the United States for its own ends.”
Wow! How dreadful! Sputnik quotes a Communist MEP who's not a fan of NATO and who criticizes the EU, the Ukrainian government and the EU/US relationship! It ought not to be allowed! In the name of 'democracy' and 'freedom', only pro-NATO, pro EU and pro-Ukrainian government voices should be quoted!
Sputnik is even slammed by Nimmo when it cites MEPs who, by his own admission are anti-Kremlin - but who hold the 'wrong' views on other topics. One such person is Lithuanian center-right MEP Gabrielius Landsbergis. “As a regular critic of the Kremlin and a member of a mainstream party, he appears an unusual choice for Sputnik,” the report says. However, there's an objection that Landsbergis was quoted by Sputnik on Ukraine, a subject on which the Lithuanian doesn't follow the NATO party line. “As such, his inclusion can hardly be presented as an attempt at journalistic balance,” Nimmo complains.
“Such cases are only the tip of the iceberg,” Nimmo adds - which conveniently avoids the need for him to come up with more concrete examples.
The report - which is just nine pages long (with endnotes) - is laughably thin and it’s clear that Nimmo is really clutching at straws in his attempt to discredit an alternative, non-NATO friendly news outlet. In fact, reading it, I believe, would actually make the impartial observer more keen to check out Sputnik, a station which like RT, (but unlike most Western news networks), does give a platform to those outside of the neocon/neoliberal 'mainstream'.
If we are concerned about media bias, then we should surely be reserving our ire for those stations or programs which only interview or cite 'establishment' voices, and not those who interview people from across the spectrum. The question we should be asking is not why are people like Miroslav Ransdorf being interviewed on Sputnik - but why aren't they given more airtime on our so-called 'mainstream' channels? That really is the true scandal.
But the Center for European Policy Analysis is not interested in us hearing a wide range of voices. Quite the opposite - it wants to narrow the number of 'acceptable' commentators to those who promote a pro-NATO, pro-US line. A closer look at the background of CEPA - and who funds it - helps us to understand why they are targeting Sputnik.
Page 10 of the report tells us that CEPA's mission is “to promote an economically vibrant, geopolitically stable and politically free Central and Eastern European region with close and enduring ties to the United States.”
For “economically vibrant” we can read “economies fully open to US capital and which don't do socialism.” For “geopolitically stable and politically free” we can read “countries which have governments the US approves of,” and for “close and enduring ties to the United States” we can read “must be members of NATO.”
And who funds the 'non-partisan' CEPA?
Well, “recent donors” include: The US Department of Defense, Raytheon Company, Textron Systems, Sikorsky Aircraft, Bell Helicopter and the Lockheed Martin Corporation. RT notes that “nearly a third of CEPA's 'recent donors' consist of contractors and military aircraft contractors.”
Yes, folks, the US military-industrial complex is funding a 'non-partisan' think-tank which produces reports attacking news stations which give the microphone to 'anti-establishment' voices critical of NATO and who question Europe's continued military dependence on Washington.
And what about CEPA's Advisory Council?
It reads like a Who's Who of Russophobic Western foreign policy hawks.
There's former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright - the Bomber of Belgrade who thought the death of half a million Iraqi children from sanctions was a price worth paying. There's Zbigniew Brzezinski. Eliot A. Cohen- co-founder of the Project for a New American Century and a strong promoter of the illegal Iraq war. There's neo-con columnist Anne Applebaum, the wife of former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. And there's David Kramer, a senior director of the McCain Institute and former President of 'Freedom House' who last year called for RT to be closed down.
The report's author, Ben Nimmo, is a former NATO lead Press Officer on Russia and Ukraine.
It is of course in the financial interest of the military-industrial complex to big up a “Russian threat” to Central and Eastern Europe in order to boost arms sales. Last April, Poland's government picked US-made Patriot Missiles - manufactured by Raytheon- and Airbus helicopters for a $5.53 billion military “upgrade''. Raytheon - as we've seen- is a donor to the Center for European Policy Analysis. Last year, CEPA's Executive Vice-President Marcin Zaborowski, praised the Polish military “upgrade”.
Additionally, it's also in the interest of the military-industrial complex to attack media outlets which might make people question whether there really is a “Russian threat” which justifies such major expenditure on weapons - especially for countries like Poland where large sections of the population struggle to make ends meet. These attacks are made through 'non-partisan' think tanks.
Which of course brings us back to dear old Ike.
“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex”.
Instead of spending billions on new weaponry to deal with a non-existent Russian “threat”, countries in Central and Eastern Europe would be better off spending on public health care, transport and things which benefit the majority of their citizenry.
But 'non-partisan' think tanks like CEPA are out to make sure that profits for the 'defense' industry keep rolling in - and to discredit any media outlets whose deviation from the 'mainstream' pro-NATO narrative might jeopardize those profits. Let's be quite clear about what we are witnessing here: an attempt to stifle legitimate debate on European foreign policy by those with a vested financial interest in stifling it.
And disgustingly, it’s all done in the name of "democracy" and being "politically free".
Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He has written for many newspapers and magazines in the UK and other countries including The Guardian, Morning Star, Daily and Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Week, and The American Conservative. He is a regular pundit on RT and has also appeared on BBC TV and radio, Sky News, Press TV and the Voice of Russia. He is the co-founder of the Campaign For Public Ownership @PublicOwnership. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66
Readers' comments:
# Shut off Bushes, Rockeffelers, Duponts, Rothschilds, Warburgs, and the rest of the elite from economic and political life. Round them up in a camp for few years. and completely cut them off from ANY contact with rest of the world. and this is what would happen: Social security retirement checks would double or triple, wages would sky rocket, health care costs would plummet, or health care would become free, wars would become a rarity. Stock market fraud would cease. Politicians would be free willed rather than bought and sold to highest bidder. Would it really happen? No. Smaller time crooks would fill the void left by big time criminals. I'm just saying, the "elite" is stealing things that belong to those who made them and live in luxury while those that work barely survive. What's worse? the elite stealing from workers or workers not even knowing it's happening. The current market crash it's the work of "elite" $$ by the millions leave the investors and go into pockets of elite thieves and investors have no clue what's really going on.
# Brenda Nickel
I don't believe anyone would buy such bogus twisting and lying just to continue to destroy the ME. The truth is I rarely come across any US citizens in both parties who doesn't respect Russia and especially Putin. Every now and then you get the most ignorant who'll sound like their grandpaw when Russia's name pops up. But the truth is Americans know our leadership is horribly corrupt, and we are being lied to, and that's those who aren't even awake yet. The US is looking more and more pathetic, even by their allies, particularly Germany.with charades of lies to control! Russia is looking quite the way to go nowadays, especially with all the psychopaths risen to the surface! Most of those who do not possess this mental defect can see and recognize some glorious sanity in the Leadership of Putin, and even China. It gives us hope ! The US is grappling at hanging on to their superpower bullying status, but it's gone. The US is absolutely NO democracy at all now. We're under a dictatorship of a handful of Elite psychos and they're likely are trying to thin us out, and believe me, we know and feel it greatly. The US is like that fairytale called "The Emperor's New Clothes ", they're naked and don't know! And the US and Israel will be the last to know it! Why? EGO! There's nothing more blinding than EGO!
# The Soviet Union, North Korea and the rest of the former socialist block put together could never compete with the all pervasive zombification by the "free" western media with its grotesque metamorphosis of turning lies into truth, its puerile and uniformly monolithic propaganda that falls apart at the slightest scrutiny or analysis, which is why it is consumed by brainwashed audiences without challenge or question. As we know from insiders of these venal propaganda factories (only yesterday reported on ZDR, ARD and BBC), editorial policy is dictated directly by the state. Nowhere else so much resource is spent that in the "democratic" west to create such a febrile and russophobic climate of hate and paranoia. Western media is synonymous with complicity and justification of war crimes and invasions by their governments where war and invasion = freedom, regime change and violent coup = revolution, demonization and slander = free speech, war crimes = right of exceptional nations. No one else can hollow out and infect populations en masse with such perverse perception of themselves and the world. In comparison RT and the Russian media are paragons of objectivity and truth.
# That is the difference between the cleptocratic west ruled by elites funded by rich "friends" and Russia ruled by a president with a genuinely democratic mandate supported by a majority of people. The insanity is all on your side - 5 illegal invasions, destruction of states, millions dead and even more refugees, countless regime changes and several economic crises, all in the last two decades.
# MSM don't report about Turkish violation in the Greek airspace, at least I found it in RT. And lots of other things, thoroughly missing in the NATO corporate media.
# If you watch RT and any western MSM, you will see that RT is much more truthful.
# The British military-industrial complex is not in need of passing the yarmulke around either:
"... in one three month period last year UK arms sales to Saudi soared by 11,000%. From a mere nine million pounds the preceding three months: “The exact figure for British arms export licences from July to September 2015 was £1,066,216,510 in so-called ‘ML4’ export licences, which relate to bombs, missiles, rockets, and components of those items.” (Felicity Arbuthnot: As Yemen Bleeds, British Profits from Weapons Sales “Bury Human Rights”.
# America is full of war mongering Zionists They will start WWIII if not brought down !
The US military-industrial complex, a 'non-partisan' think tank and Sputnik
Neil Clark
5 Feb, 2016
“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex,”' US President Dwight D. Eisenhower said 55 years ago, warning of the “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry.”
Well, Ike was right to warn us. And his farewell address was the first thing I thought of when I read the new report 'Propaganda in Orbit' by the 'non-partisan' US-based policy research institute, the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
The report, authored by Ben Nimmo, and subtitled 'Information Warfare Initiative Paper No 2', focuses on Russia's “campaign of disinformation in Central and Eastern Europe” and in particular the role of “one piece of the Kremlin's media machine” - the “tabloid news site” Sputnik.
Sputnik is accused of utilizing “anti-Establishment protest politicians from both sides of the political spectrum to discredit Western governments, policies and institutions such as the European Union and NATO while simultaneously validating the Kremlin's own message.”
As an example of Sputnik's use of “anti-Establishment protest politicians,” Nimmo cites Czech Communist MEP Miloslav Ransdorf, “another go-to source of anti-Western quotes for Sputnik.”
Nimmo says that in the past four months, Ransdorf has been quoted six times by Sputnik's English service. “His comments included a claim that NATO has lost its reason for existence, criticism of the EU’s response to the refugee crisis, accusations that the Ukrainian government is undemocratic, and the claim that Europeans are “useful idiots” used by the United States for its own ends.”
Wow! How dreadful! Sputnik quotes a Communist MEP who's not a fan of NATO and who criticizes the EU, the Ukrainian government and the EU/US relationship! It ought not to be allowed! In the name of 'democracy' and 'freedom', only pro-NATO, pro EU and pro-Ukrainian government voices should be quoted!
Sputnik is even slammed by Nimmo when it cites MEPs who, by his own admission are anti-Kremlin - but who hold the 'wrong' views on other topics. One such person is Lithuanian center-right MEP Gabrielius Landsbergis. “As a regular critic of the Kremlin and a member of a mainstream party, he appears an unusual choice for Sputnik,” the report says. However, there's an objection that Landsbergis was quoted by Sputnik on Ukraine, a subject on which the Lithuanian doesn't follow the NATO party line. “As such, his inclusion can hardly be presented as an attempt at journalistic balance,” Nimmo complains.
“Such cases are only the tip of the iceberg,” Nimmo adds - which conveniently avoids the need for him to come up with more concrete examples.
The report - which is just nine pages long (with endnotes) - is laughably thin and it’s clear that Nimmo is really clutching at straws in his attempt to discredit an alternative, non-NATO friendly news outlet. In fact, reading it, I believe, would actually make the impartial observer more keen to check out Sputnik, a station which like RT, (but unlike most Western news networks), does give a platform to those outside of the neocon/neoliberal 'mainstream'.
If we are concerned about media bias, then we should surely be reserving our ire for those stations or programs which only interview or cite 'establishment' voices, and not those who interview people from across the spectrum. The question we should be asking is not why are people like Miroslav Ransdorf being interviewed on Sputnik - but why aren't they given more airtime on our so-called 'mainstream' channels? That really is the true scandal.
But the Center for European Policy Analysis is not interested in us hearing a wide range of voices. Quite the opposite - it wants to narrow the number of 'acceptable' commentators to those who promote a pro-NATO, pro-US line. A closer look at the background of CEPA - and who funds it - helps us to understand why they are targeting Sputnik.
Page 10 of the report tells us that CEPA's mission is “to promote an economically vibrant, geopolitically stable and politically free Central and Eastern European region with close and enduring ties to the United States.”
For “economically vibrant” we can read “economies fully open to US capital and which don't do socialism.” For “geopolitically stable and politically free” we can read “countries which have governments the US approves of,” and for “close and enduring ties to the United States” we can read “must be members of NATO.”
And who funds the 'non-partisan' CEPA?
Well, “recent donors” include: The US Department of Defense, Raytheon Company, Textron Systems, Sikorsky Aircraft, Bell Helicopter and the Lockheed Martin Corporation. RT notes that “nearly a third of CEPA's 'recent donors' consist of contractors and military aircraft contractors.”
Yes, folks, the US military-industrial complex is funding a 'non-partisan' think-tank which produces reports attacking news stations which give the microphone to 'anti-establishment' voices critical of NATO and who question Europe's continued military dependence on Washington.
And what about CEPA's Advisory Council?
It reads like a Who's Who of Russophobic Western foreign policy hawks.
There's former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright - the Bomber of Belgrade who thought the death of half a million Iraqi children from sanctions was a price worth paying. There's Zbigniew Brzezinski. Eliot A. Cohen- co-founder of the Project for a New American Century and a strong promoter of the illegal Iraq war. There's neo-con columnist Anne Applebaum, the wife of former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. And there's David Kramer, a senior director of the McCain Institute and former President of 'Freedom House' who last year called for RT to be closed down.
The report's author, Ben Nimmo, is a former NATO lead Press Officer on Russia and Ukraine.
It is of course in the financial interest of the military-industrial complex to big up a “Russian threat” to Central and Eastern Europe in order to boost arms sales. Last April, Poland's government picked US-made Patriot Missiles - manufactured by Raytheon- and Airbus helicopters for a $5.53 billion military “upgrade''. Raytheon - as we've seen- is a donor to the Center for European Policy Analysis. Last year, CEPA's Executive Vice-President Marcin Zaborowski, praised the Polish military “upgrade”.
Additionally, it's also in the interest of the military-industrial complex to attack media outlets which might make people question whether there really is a “Russian threat” which justifies such major expenditure on weapons - especially for countries like Poland where large sections of the population struggle to make ends meet. These attacks are made through 'non-partisan' think tanks.
Which of course brings us back to dear old Ike.
“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex”.
Instead of spending billions on new weaponry to deal with a non-existent Russian “threat”, countries in Central and Eastern Europe would be better off spending on public health care, transport and things which benefit the majority of their citizenry.
But 'non-partisan' think tanks like CEPA are out to make sure that profits for the 'defense' industry keep rolling in - and to discredit any media outlets whose deviation from the 'mainstream' pro-NATO narrative might jeopardize those profits. Let's be quite clear about what we are witnessing here: an attempt to stifle legitimate debate on European foreign policy by those with a vested financial interest in stifling it.
And disgustingly, it’s all done in the name of "democracy" and being "politically free".
Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He has written for many newspapers and magazines in the UK and other countries including The Guardian, Morning Star, Daily and Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Week, and The American Conservative. He is a regular pundit on RT and has also appeared on BBC TV and radio, Sky News, Press TV and the Voice of Russia. He is the co-founder of the Campaign For Public Ownership @PublicOwnership. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66
Readers' comments:
# Shut off Bushes, Rockeffelers, Duponts, Rothschilds, Warburgs, and the rest of the elite from economic and political life. Round them up in a camp for few years. and completely cut them off from ANY contact with rest of the world. and this is what would happen: Social security retirement checks would double or triple, wages would sky rocket, health care costs would plummet, or health care would become free, wars would become a rarity. Stock market fraud would cease. Politicians would be free willed rather than bought and sold to highest bidder. Would it really happen? No. Smaller time crooks would fill the void left by big time criminals. I'm just saying, the "elite" is stealing things that belong to those who made them and live in luxury while those that work barely survive. What's worse? the elite stealing from workers or workers not even knowing it's happening. The current market crash it's the work of "elite" $$ by the millions leave the investors and go into pockets of elite thieves and investors have no clue what's really going on.
# Brenda Nickel
I don't believe anyone would buy such bogus twisting and lying just to continue to destroy the ME. The truth is I rarely come across any US citizens in both parties who doesn't respect Russia and especially Putin. Every now and then you get the most ignorant who'll sound like their grandpaw when Russia's name pops up. But the truth is Americans know our leadership is horribly corrupt, and we are being lied to, and that's those who aren't even awake yet. The US is looking more and more pathetic, even by their allies, particularly Germany.with charades of lies to control! Russia is looking quite the way to go nowadays, especially with all the psychopaths risen to the surface! Most of those who do not possess this mental defect can see and recognize some glorious sanity in the Leadership of Putin, and even China. It gives us hope ! The US is grappling at hanging on to their superpower bullying status, but it's gone. The US is absolutely NO democracy at all now. We're under a dictatorship of a handful of Elite psychos and they're likely are trying to thin us out, and believe me, we know and feel it greatly. The US is like that fairytale called "The Emperor's New Clothes ", they're naked and don't know! And the US and Israel will be the last to know it! Why? EGO! There's nothing more blinding than EGO!
# The Soviet Union, North Korea and the rest of the former socialist block put together could never compete with the all pervasive zombification by the "free" western media with its grotesque metamorphosis of turning lies into truth, its puerile and uniformly monolithic propaganda that falls apart at the slightest scrutiny or analysis, which is why it is consumed by brainwashed audiences without challenge or question. As we know from insiders of these venal propaganda factories (only yesterday reported on ZDR, ARD and BBC), editorial policy is dictated directly by the state. Nowhere else so much resource is spent that in the "democratic" west to create such a febrile and russophobic climate of hate and paranoia. Western media is synonymous with complicity and justification of war crimes and invasions by their governments where war and invasion = freedom, regime change and violent coup = revolution, demonization and slander = free speech, war crimes = right of exceptional nations. No one else can hollow out and infect populations en masse with such perverse perception of themselves and the world. In comparison RT and the Russian media are paragons of objectivity and truth.
# That is the difference between the cleptocratic west ruled by elites funded by rich "friends" and Russia ruled by a president with a genuinely democratic mandate supported by a majority of people. The insanity is all on your side - 5 illegal invasions, destruction of states, millions dead and even more refugees, countless regime changes and several economic crises, all in the last two decades.
# MSM don't report about Turkish violation in the Greek airspace, at least I found it in RT. And lots of other things, thoroughly missing in the NATO corporate media.
# If you watch RT and any western MSM, you will see that RT is much more truthful.
# The British military-industrial complex is not in need of passing the yarmulke around either:
"... in one three month period last year UK arms sales to Saudi soared by 11,000%. From a mere nine million pounds the preceding three months: “The exact figure for British arms export licences from July to September 2015 was £1,066,216,510 in so-called ‘ML4’ export licences, which relate to bombs, missiles, rockets, and components of those items.” (Felicity Arbuthnot: As Yemen Bleeds, British Profits from Weapons Sales “Bury Human Rights”.
# America is full of war mongering Zionists They will start WWIII if not brought down !
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