Post by Origanalist on Dec 16, 2018 18:11:07 GMT -8
by Jacob G. Hornberger
December 14, 2018
The Justice Department’s criminal prosecution of 30-year-old Russian Maria Butina, along with the mainstream media’s reporting on the case, gets more comedic with each passing day. Yesterday, Butina pled guilty to the grave federal criminal offense of befriending the United States.
What could be more evil and nefarious than that? Imagine the audacity of a Russian trying to make friends with the United States! What could possibly have been going through her mind? Lock her up!
Okay, it’s true that that wasn’t the actual charge to which Butina pled guilty. Technically, she pled guilty to conspiring to fail to register as an agent of the Russian government. But it is clear that that “crime” is just a sham. Her real offense is befriending the United States on behalf of the Russian government, which is a grave crime in the eyes of the U.S. national-national establishment (i.e., the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA), whose existence has depended on a hostile relationship with Russia since the time the U.S. government was converted from a limited-government republic to a national-security state after World War II.
Take a look at these excerpts from the Washington Post’s reporting on Butina’s guilty plea:
Thus, befriending the United States on behalf of Russia is Butina’s real crime and, indeed, Russia’s real crime. Russia isn’t supposed to do that. Russia is supposed to continue playing its role as an official enemy of the United States. How else can the Pentagon, the CIA, the NSA, and the entire military-industrial complex justify their existence and their ever-increasing taxpayer-funded largess?
One of the funniest aspects of all this is that during the Cold War, the spiel that the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA were using to propagandize and indoctrinate the American people was that Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union were trying to infiltrate the United States from the left.
That’s why the the entire military-intelligence establishment, including the FBI, was obsessed with spying on, exposing, and destroying the U.S. Communist Party, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, leftist Hollywood writers, and everyone else who had any taint of communism or socialism in his background. (Well, except for Lee Harvey Oswald, a openly and publicly self-avowed U.S. Marine communist who sauntered across the Cold War stage of history without being adversely affected, no doubt because he was actually a U.S. intelligence operative who was trained to be a communist infiltrator.)
It’s also why the Pentagon and the CIA got the United States embroiled in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, where more than 100,000 American citizens, some of whom had been conscripted (i.e., forced to serve in the military), were killed.
The commies, we were told, were everywhere, possibly even in the military itself. They were coming to get us, Americans were told. It was all because of a worldwide communist conspiracy to take over the United States and the world, a conspiracy supposedly based in Moscow, Russia.
Yes, that Russia! The Russia that is now committing the heinous crime of trying to befriend us!
But here’s the thing: The Russians have now apparently converted from leftist Reds to rightwing conservatives! This radical change in ideological direction is reflected by Butina’s nefarious scheme to infiltrate right-wing organizations like the NRA, the Heritage Foundation, and CPAC.
Those crafty Russkies! They’ll do anything to make friends with the United States, even becoming rightwing conservatives!
continued... www.fff.org/2018/12/14/butina-pleads-guilty-to-befriending-the-united-states/
December 14, 2018
The Justice Department’s criminal prosecution of 30-year-old Russian Maria Butina, along with the mainstream media’s reporting on the case, gets more comedic with each passing day. Yesterday, Butina pled guilty to the grave federal criminal offense of befriending the United States.
What could be more evil and nefarious than that? Imagine the audacity of a Russian trying to make friends with the United States! What could possibly have been going through her mind? Lock her up!
Okay, it’s true that that wasn’t the actual charge to which Butina pled guilty. Technically, she pled guilty to conspiring to fail to register as an agent of the Russian government. But it is clear that that “crime” is just a sham. Her real offense is befriending the United States on behalf of the Russian government, which is a grave crime in the eyes of the U.S. national-national establishment (i.e., the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA), whose existence has depended on a hostile relationship with Russia since the time the U.S. government was converted from a limited-government republic to a national-security state after World War II.
Take a look at these excerpts from the Washington Post’s reporting on Butina’s guilty plea:
As part of the deal, Ms. Butina admitted to being involved in an organized effort, backed by Russian officials, to open up unofficial lines of communication with influential Americans in the N.R.A. and in the Republican Party, and to win them over to the idea of Russia as a friend, not a foe. (Italics added.)
She openly advocated Russia-friendly policies and closer connections between her homeland and the United States in speeches and during her time at American University in Washington, where she earned a master’s degree. (Italics added.)
Beginning in 2015, prosecutors said in the plea deal, Ms. Butina “agreed and conspired” with Mr. Torshin and Mr. Erickson … to infiltrate the Republican Party and the N.R.A. and to promote Russia-friendly policies on behalf of the Kremlin. (Italics added.)
She openly advocated Russia-friendly policies and closer connections between her homeland and the United States in speeches and during her time at American University in Washington, where she earned a master’s degree. (Italics added.)
Beginning in 2015, prosecutors said in the plea deal, Ms. Butina “agreed and conspired” with Mr. Torshin and Mr. Erickson … to infiltrate the Republican Party and the N.R.A. and to promote Russia-friendly policies on behalf of the Kremlin. (Italics added.)
Thus, befriending the United States on behalf of Russia is Butina’s real crime and, indeed, Russia’s real crime. Russia isn’t supposed to do that. Russia is supposed to continue playing its role as an official enemy of the United States. How else can the Pentagon, the CIA, the NSA, and the entire military-industrial complex justify their existence and their ever-increasing taxpayer-funded largess?
One of the funniest aspects of all this is that during the Cold War, the spiel that the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA were using to propagandize and indoctrinate the American people was that Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union were trying to infiltrate the United States from the left.
That’s why the the entire military-intelligence establishment, including the FBI, was obsessed with spying on, exposing, and destroying the U.S. Communist Party, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, leftist Hollywood writers, and everyone else who had any taint of communism or socialism in his background. (Well, except for Lee Harvey Oswald, a openly and publicly self-avowed U.S. Marine communist who sauntered across the Cold War stage of history without being adversely affected, no doubt because he was actually a U.S. intelligence operative who was trained to be a communist infiltrator.)
It’s also why the Pentagon and the CIA got the United States embroiled in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, where more than 100,000 American citizens, some of whom had been conscripted (i.e., forced to serve in the military), were killed.
The commies, we were told, were everywhere, possibly even in the military itself. They were coming to get us, Americans were told. It was all because of a worldwide communist conspiracy to take over the United States and the world, a conspiracy supposedly based in Moscow, Russia.
Yes, that Russia! The Russia that is now committing the heinous crime of trying to befriend us!
But here’s the thing: The Russians have now apparently converted from leftist Reds to rightwing conservatives! This radical change in ideological direction is reflected by Butina’s nefarious scheme to infiltrate right-wing organizations like the NRA, the Heritage Foundation, and CPAC.
Those crafty Russkies! They’ll do anything to make friends with the United States, even becoming rightwing conservatives!
continued... www.fff.org/2018/12/14/butina-pleads-guilty-to-befriending-the-united-states/