The Russian Agents, Obama, and the Cover-up

Accuracy in Media ^ | 7-16-10 | Cliff Kincaid

[afraidfortherepublic]

Our media do not seem to be interested in the curious matter of why the Russian agents accused of trying to acquire sensitive nuclear information from the U.S. Government were so quickly released. Why were they were sent back to Moscow less than two weeks after they were arrested?

It is certainly the case that a continuing spy scandal threatened to undermine U.S.-Russia business “opportunities” and “cooperation.” It is also true that there is evidence that the Russian agents targeted the Obama Administration and former Clinton Administration officials.

Just before the scandal broke, a $4 billion deal had been announced between Boeing and a Russian firm. During the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the U.S., Cisco Systems had announced it was going to spend $1 billion in Russia, in part to develop a Moscow version of Silicon Valley. The United States Export-Import Bank had also announced a new deal to underwrite, with U.S. taxpayer dollars, U.S. business exports to Russia.

Plus, Obama had submitted a U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation agreement, backed by powerful business interests, to the U.S. Congress.

All of this was clearly in jeopardy if the Russian spy scandal led to additional revelations of Russian spying on the American government and businesses. So the scandal had to go away—and quickly.

The exchange was hammered out so quickly and was so advantageous to the Kremlin, however, that it should have become apparent to some journalist somewhere that there was much more to the story. But the issue was just as quickly dropped by the media, liberal and conservative alike.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at cliff.kincaid@aim.org

There is much, much more at the link, including references to the old Clinton ally, Strobe Talbott.

[Islander7]

The book, Comrade J, identifies Strobe Talbott, a former high-ranking Clinton State Department official and the current president of the Brookings Institution, a major liberal think tank, as having been a trusted contact of the Russian intelligence service. Talbott has denied serving as a Russian agent, but when he was up for his State Department job in the Clinton Administration, he admitted a relationship with Soviet “journalist” and KGB agent Victor Louis.

Hmmmm . . . . we need some serious house cleaning in D.C. Both parties.

[EverOnward]

for later read/reference

[Dahoser]

The media have yet to find any interest in Ted Kennedy offering to help the Kremlin against Ronald Reagan at the height of the Cold War, why would they start caring now?

[Carley]

IIRC Strobe Tallbutt was a Soviet agent well before the Klinton administration.

[Desdemona]

for later

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

“Scratching the surface of the scandal, Walter Pincus of The Washington Post wonders if all of the Russian agents have been rounded up.

He writes, “The best public indication of the extent of Moscow’s efforts comes from the late Sergei Tretyakov, the former Russian intelligence officer who under the guise of a press officer at the U.N. Mission ran espionage operations in New York City from 1995 to 2000.

He served the last three of those years as a double agent for the FBI until he defected to the United States. As Tretyakov told author Pete Earley in the book ‘Comrade J,’ at one time he had more than 60 SVR officers working inside the United Nations and more than 160 contacts made up of illegals, outright spies, and other people who knowingly or unknowingly could supply information useful to Russia.”

According to Earley, Tretyakov died “unexpectedly” on June 13. The circumstances were so suspicious that an autopsy was performed under the supervision of the FBI.

The Strobe Talbott Case

But there is something else that Pincus did not mention. It has to do with those “other people” targeted and used by Tretyakov and the Russians.
The book, Comrade J, identifies Strobe Talbott, a former high-ranking Clinton State Department official  and the current president of the Brookings Institution, a major liberal think tank, as having been a trusted contact of the Russian intelligence service. Talbott has denied serving as a Russian agent, but when he was up for his State Department job in the Clinton Administration, he admitted a relationship with Soviet “journalist” and KGB agent Victor Louis.

The Talbott case is consistently ignored by the major media because he is respected and trusted by his colleagues in the press. He is also trusted by Senator Richard Lugar, who served as Obama’s mentor when Obama was in the U.S. Senate and traveled to Russia, only to be detained and have his passport examined by Russian authorities. Obama joked about the detention, saying he wasn’t in the Gulag.

Pincus asked, “What will the Russians do now?” He noted that Tretyakov had said that when the Cold War was over, “the United States asked Russia to stop the KGB’s covert propaganda activities that portrayed Washington in foreign media as carrying out terrible activities, such as saying the United States was spreading HIV in Africa.”

In response, Pincus noted that Tretyakov said that the KGB closed down “Department A,” which ran the propaganda and disinformation operations, but then established another program which did the same thing. “Nothing changed,” Tretyakov said.

So the propaganda and disinformation activities continue. Indeed, that is what the Kremlin-financed global Russia Today television channel is all about. It has a major presence in the U.S.

But wait. Didn’t the Reverend Jeremiah Wright repeat the KGB disinformation that the U.S. was spreading AIDS? Indeed he did. In fact, Wright, who was Barack Obama’s pastor for 20 years, actually claimed at a National Press Club appearance during the 2008 presidential campaign that the U.S. Government had manufactured the AIDS virus to kill black people.

So we have one identified channel of influence whereby Soviet propaganda and disinformation was spewing from the mouth of someone with direct influence over the President of the United States. But few in the major media were interested then—or now—as to whether or not Obama believed any of that nonsense.

Documents in the case, as we have reported, demonstrate that the Russian agents were seeking information about the proposed arms treaty with Russia and other nuclear weapons information. That treaty, the New START, has now been signed and submitted to the Senate for ratification. It is being criticized by conservatives for giving Russia a strategic and tactical advantage in nuclear weapons.

One document says four Obama Administration officials were specifically targeted in the intelligence-gathering effort. But their names were omitted from the Justice Department documents about the case. If they actively conspired with the Russians, shouldn’t they be identified and arrested and prosecuted?”

[jazminerose]

Anything by Cliff is a worthy read, IMO.

[Carley]

There was no reason to ‘target’ anyone in the O administration.

They were and are willing co-conspirators with any and all of our enemies.

[jazminerose]

Guess who was Talbott’s partner in crime? Soros, yet again:

“The Clinton administration allowed It’s- Not- Easy- Being God Soros to run wild in the dying Soviet Union. The results were entirely predictable.

Working in tandem with Strobe Talbott, Russian Policy Czar, they set about playing games with government funds. Soros reveled in having so much access to the Clintons and fancied himself part of the ‘Clinton team.’ Clinton squandered the opportunity to help the Russian people form a healthy democracy and instead allowed Soros and his team to profiteer, leaving the country in shambles. (Horowitz, David and Poe, Richard. The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party)

According to journalist Anne Williamson, Soros appeared before the House Banking Committee in September 1999 attempting to explain to stunned congressmen exactly how so many US taxpayer dollars had evaporated in Russia. The Clintons managed to shut that scandal down quickly, thanks to their expertise in covering up turpitude.”

Read more: http://joytiz.com/2010/the-bear-we-could-have-tamed/

[conservativeharleyguy]

pfl

[G Larry]

The Boeing deal sends some of our key production jobs over seas.
The nuclear deal weakens our national security.

Every Obama policy is designed to undermine America.
NONE of his policies are designed to “fix” ANYTHING!!

[dljordan]

“Hmmmm . . . . we need some serious house cleaning in D.C. Both parties. “

I seriously doubt that will ever happen. To many connections between these parasites and too much power.

[pingman]

IIRC, ol’ Strobe was a Rhodes Scholar concurrent with Bill Clintoon. Must have spent many evening all smoked up and romancing the idea of perfecting the world through Marxism.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

And Foggy Bottom.

[penelopesire]

PING to an excellent article about the spy case. November can’t come soon enough. Can’t wait for the hearings into this usurper presidency to begin.

(snip)

“One document says four Obama Administration officials were specifically targeted in the intelligence-gathering effort. But their names were omitted from the Justice Department documents about the case. If they actively conspired with the Russians, shouldn’t they be identified and arrested and prosecuted?”

[Darnright]

find later

[rlmorel]

I don't watch television. So, the morning they were returned, I walked by a television, and that racist piece of crap Holder is on TV being interviewed.

Some newsdrone asked him: "Why is this happening so quickly?"

Holder says (paraphrased): "We want to get this out of the way, so the public outcry doesn't have a chance to mushroom and affect the good relations we have with Russia."

I was appalled. I don't think I have heard anything from a high government official in years that shocked me the way that comment did.

Russia had a dozen or so spies (probably more, I am guessing) buried DEEP into our society, and we don't want to "affect our good relations"??????????

I guess it must have been the super-secret Amish Russians who sent them over here...the regular Russians, well, they haven't done anything that might have an effect on "good relations".

I feel like we are intentionally wearing an international "KICK ME" sign. Put there by this administration.

[Jackson57]

I tend to agree with you. Makes a person wonder if the “spies” were in actuality “handlers” ...

[alice_in_bubbaland]

All of DC and especially the State Department, they have to be purged of all the liberal lifers working there.