Said former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., quoted by the WaPo fact checker Glenn Kessler in "The Hunter Biden laptop and claims of 'Russian disinfo.'"
The Politico story, published October 16, 2020, just before the last presidential debate, was "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say."
The Politico story, published October 16, 2020, just before the last presidential debate, was "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say."
As Glenn Kessler describes it:
The article said that more than 50 former senior intelligence officials, including five CIA chiefs, had signed a letter saying the release of the emails “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
That’s what Biden referred to in the presidential debate and on “60 Minutes” — though his wording was much stronger than the letter’s. Biden said the letter said the laptop story was a “Russian plan,” “a bunch of garbage,” “disinformation from the Russians” and “a smear campaign.”
The letter artfully does not say any of those things.
In fact, it does not even say what the Politico headline claimed — though that headline likely shaped perceptions of the letter that continue to this day. The article itself does not say the letter made a disinformation claim....
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75 comments:
So what? Niceties aside, the purpose of the spies' letter was to put "Hunter's laptop" and "Russian disinformation" side-by-side. There was no pursuit of truth involved anywhere in that mendacious memo.
I’m sure there’s no reason this article is appearing now…
When has undermining-your-credibilty ever been a successful strategy?
Speaks to the quality of misinformation, disinformation, handmade tales, and a return to Palmerism.
"There was message distortion." That's why Clapper was so quick to point out the distortion, just a few days after it was brought to his attention last week.
The contempt these people have for us even when caught red-handed manipulating elections is open, another demonstration of their power. It's good to be the Deep State.
If that isn't what they wanted to say, why did they go with the story at all? When you want to sow doubt on whether a story is true you go with formulations like "Republicans accuse..." or "Intel analyst's claims called 'unsubstantiated'" or the like.
I suppose they have to say something when they are asked about it. But that doesn't mean we have to believe it.
Love when the media accepts the lie about the previous lie that the media was happy to lie about.
The regime is just a bunch of corrupt traitors with a demented puppet. They are enemies of the American people.
People that support it at this point are just stupid and evil.
Every single person involved in the purposeful lie knew perfectly well it was a lie.
Every single person who signed the letter with the wiggle room phrasing of "all the earmarks...." knew perfectly well the letter would be used by the dems/left/LLR's (but I repeat myself) to state explicitly and emphatically that the laptop story was pure russian disinformation.
That's why every single person who signed that letter never spoke up when every other dem/lefty/LLR (but I repeat myself) declared without equivocation the laptop story was russian disinformation.
They were all in on it right from the beginning.
There’s the long Elton John “goodbye yellow brick road tour”, as of now the longest in history.
Right behind it is the longest, never ending fact check in the history of fact checking. Is the Hunter Biden laptop the real mccoy?
WTF?
Why not point this out at the time Mr. Clapper, and not two and a half years later.
Our intelligence officials regard themselves as so much more intelligent than us.
They knew exactly what they were doing and the media carried their water.
It was pretty easy to spot...
The letter was used exactly as the signatories intended, as they knew it would. They’re not off the hook just because they were careful to include some weasel words. They did this, intentionally, and they need to face consequences.
Clapper, John Brennan, Comey, Wray, Clinton, and all the underlings like Strzok doing they're dirty work, should be tried, and then put up against a wall and shot. Add Fauci and all those NIH and CDC fucks.
Clapper and his ilk lied at the beginning, are lying now, and will continue to lie. With impunity.
The FBI, CIA, Intel, everybody needs to admit, straight up, we fought to get Trump ousted. They can claim they stayed within the bounds of the lines but the fact remains our intel community fought against one particular candidate. They tipped an election. This is the antithesis of democracy. This same body, who claims they are spreading an umbrella of democracy across the world, actually hates the rule of the people and refuses to let it happen here.
Rotten to the core does not go deep enough to describe this.
Lem Former Twitter Aficionado said...
"There’s the long Elton John “goodbye yellow brick road tour”, as of now the longest in history.
Right behind it is the longest, never ending fact check in the history of fact checking. Is the Hunter Biden laptop the real mccoy?
WTF?"
All they have to do is sow doubt and they will consider it a success.
My question is, how does the Swamp control the Media? I mean, what is the actual mechanism? Who calls whom?
Clapper appeared on the network repeatedly and never said a word about the "distortions" in Politico's article. They knew exactly what they were doing when they prepared and signed that letter and then sent it to the media to be presented as the final answer as to Hunter Biden's laptop. It was Russian "disinformation". Clapper should be in prison along with several other members of our nation's intelligence community.
Clapper should be in jail.
Clapper is a walking felony.
"Politico deliberately distorted what we said"
Already covered by others: Politico ran with the disinformation exactly as intended.
As with other deep-state maneuvers, it isn't just the substance of the obvious malfeasance and the collusion between the MSM and the PTB that matter but also the sheer insouciance of the malefactors involved, confirmed by this late faux admission--secure as they are in the knowledge that they will never be held accountable, in fact counting on adulation and support. It's how our overlords operate.
Granted, the statute of limitations on his fucking perjury has run out.
But whenever I see Bald Satan on the television, I'm amazed that those media fuckers are propping his lying ass up on TV, like anything he says is credible.
Where do we go to get our national integrity back? Why were these 51 camels ever let in the tent to begin with? Brown-nosers.
It would have been useful had some (self-described) journalist asked in what way the laptop story displayed “the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation”?
James Clapper’s new lie problem is that he could have corrected the record 2 years ago. The problem with the previous lie was the known facts at the time negated the need to even suggest it could be a Russian operation.
This literal cocksucker wants to now lay it on the media for his mendacious activities?
Serves them right, I suppose. I can't think of better victims for his next venture.
This is the guy who literally sat in Congress, UNDER OATH, and lied through his teeth that the CIA/FBI/NSA wasn't spying on American citizens. And he walks the streets somehow thinking he's immune to street prosecution.
Now he wants to come in from the cold.
I hope the Republican presidential candidates are paying attention to who needs to be the next prisoner at Gitmo now that Joe Biden is buying homes in Belize for the al Queda terrorists he's letting go.
Interesting to read the Wikipedia page about Hunter Biden's laptop.
It's like drunk bastard Ted Kennedy driving his car into a lake and running away from the dead body. Impossible to commit a crime if you're a rich famous liberal!
Just a snowstorm of lies to cover up for Biden and his family. We'll see if he's ever arrested for anything. My guess is Mr. Crackhead goes free!
Glenn Kessler could have published this analysis in October 2020, when this still mattered to a Presidential election. It's now 2023, so this is useless as tits on a bull.
Might as well do an in-depth Fact Check on whether 1980's Miller Lite was "less filling" or "tastes great."
What an amazing time: the "progressive" wing - the left wing - is more than happy to agree with CIA types - or in other words: spies. And the left is all on board. Except Glenn Greenwald.
In October 2022, Not one of the 50 complained that Politico (or anyone else) exaggerated or simplified what they said. They didn't say a word in 2021 either. Or 2022. Its only NOW, in 2023, when the truth is out, and they're show to be liars, they are upset at the DISTORTION.
"Oh my, I'm so UPSET that Poltico took my highly nuanced wink wink HIGHLY qualified statement that the Hunter laptop was Russian Disinformation and used it destroy Trump. I'm SO upset."
NOW. When the truth has come out.
The letter was crystal clear both in its meaning and its intent. The signers can point to all the disclaiming language in that letter that they want to try to distance themselves from the notion that they were calling the emails Russian disinformation, but that is exactly the same as if I were to loudly say, based on my own experience as a political party chair in a large NY County that I don't know if Chuck is or ever was a registered Democrat acting here as a planted Dem troll, and I have absolutely no evidence that is the case. In fact, it would be very wrong to conclude that is my message.
Nonetheless, he shows every earmark of being a classic planted Dem troll even though he asserts that he is a LifeLongRepublican. It would wrong, indeed careless and mean-spirited, to say that assertion is a flat out lie, but I'm inclined to be skeptical since others here disbelieve him, and it would be a classic leftie dick move to plant someone like Chuck on this blog.
THAT's how that letter reads, and it was intended to be read in that way by every single person who signed it.
- Krumhorn
"I’m sure there’s no reason this article is appearing now…"
Maybe the scorching takedown of the elite press's lies in the Columbian Journalism Review a week or two ago? That reminds me, where's Chuck, he promised to show us that the media didn't lie about Trump for years next time it was on topic. Well, here is his chance. Can't wait.
I like this part of the story
"was carefully worded to say much less..."
No, it was carefully worded to get the story buried while not having to provide any actual evidence.
Best corrective measure: The monied asswipes distorting American politics decide to back a different horse other than Biden. Then, all the so-called journalist who spread their former paymaster’s lies, lose their cushy DC jobs—I mean Si-valley levels layoffs. Only journalists with track records of integrity get paying jobs.
I've literally had this letter bookmarked since Biden mentioned it in one of the debates because it's so obviously a piece of hastily written propaganda.
Here's the key paragraph:
"We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by
President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement -- just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case."
That sentence is designed to obfuscate, not clarify. If they really did want to emphasize that they had no evidence the wording, location, and format would be completely different.
It would two simple declarative sentences: "We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails are genuine or not. We do not have evidence of Russian involvement."
It Would be paragraph one, not paragraph five.
The actual sentence is in plain text, with italicized text two paragraphs above and one below. Your eye naturally glides past it. The sentence would be italicized if they really wanted to emphasize it.
Furthermore, this letter was released to Politico, where no one would find and read it unless they went looking for it.
No one proofread the letter. Check out this run-on sentence:
"Such an operation would be consistent with Russian objectives, as outlined publicly and recently by the Intelligence Community, to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and thereby help the candidacy of President Trump."
Pure propaganda, obvious to anyone who looked at it closely.
"Message distortion" sounds like what my ex said about the thong undies in the backseat of his pickup.
I'm amazed that those media fuckers are propping his lying ass up on TV
You talk like they're on opposite teams rather than teammates.
I knew the double speak (we have no real evidence). The spooks knew they were sending a message designed to be distorted by the media. The media knew they were distorting the message. And pols, POTUS among them, trumpeted that lie.
Reading comprehension be damned.
It was all about timing. A BIG LIE that only had to be repeated until Election Day is the Standard way it’s done All’s fair in the DC conspiracy game.Just don’t ask publicly about who arranged JFK’s slaughter and who planted the explosives that brought down the World Trade Center on 9-11. That is forbidden territory.
I don't understand why Clapper's even bothering.
As Harry Reid put it: "It worked."
Could it be that all lies are “message distortion”?
As for Clapper's claimed nuance, I look forward to him explaining under oath exactly how he and the other 49 signatories determined that literally "ALL the earmarks" of Russian disinformation were there. On the CIA's checklist of Russian Disinformation Earmarks (Dozens? One hundred?) not a single earmark was missing for the Hunter Biden Laptop story. Really?
When a MD tells you that a biopsy has all the earmarks of cancer, there's not much wiggle room there. You are being told that you have cancer.
Four weasels for the letter signed by 51 intelligence agents which did not say the laptop was disinformation but did say very clearly in paragraph five that the laptop stories were merely "like" disinformation. The right knew, anyhow, in 2020 that the laptop was evidence of corruption; Our Betters are allowed to know that now in 2023. But Our Betters learn nothing from these continual knowledge gaps because Our Betters think that a tiny fascist minority which is too stupid to realize that Senator Fetterman is in great shape occasionally, accidently stumbles into the truth. We, the Tiny Fascist Minority or TFMs, keep stumbling into the truth because we're so stupid and misogynistic and uneducated that we keep being right. (In paragraph five Our Betters are told that actually 50% of the country knew the truth about the laptop in 2020 and about Fetterman in 2022. Too bad paragraph five is written in invisible ink. Sincerely, TFM#1)
Such a cadre!
We have
Klapper- a perjurer.
Bertrand- a fraud.
Kessler- a liar and a hack.
What company! Talk about a race to the bottom.
All we need are Mike Nifong and Michael Avenatti to chime in as legal "experts."
Ah yes, the version of reality in which Russian spooks planting a laptop to interfere with U.S. elections is not a newsworthy story and should be ignored.
Rush Limbaugh thou should be living at this hour!....I don't expect any of them, journalist or intelligence official, to formally apologize, but it would be nice if someone was a bit hangdog or a teeny bit remorseful. I get the impression that they're still proud of the service they rendered to their country and are ready to step up to the plate to do it again. "I'm no good about being noble but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of you little people don't amount to a hill of beans." Their critics don't stand on the moral high ground. They stand on a hill of beans.
Well, Clapper is just splitting hairs. Russian disinfo was the message they wanted to push, and they did.
In a just world all 51 of them would be told to go over there and stand against that wall...
These crooks are all lying liars who lie.
The credibility crisis these assholes created for themselves must be more damaging than they anticipated.
Well, they have a year or so for repair and rebuild before they start wrecking it again during heavy propaganda season…
“he didn’t win, did he?”
Thank you, St. Croix, for that link to an article by Angelo Codevilla that I never saw, oh! how I have thought of him since the 2020 election, and oh how sad he's was gone from us too soon.
he tried to warn us of where we had come to. https://americanmind.org/salvo/revolution-2020/
Kessler is a regime toady. My disgust with these people grows every day.
He's a lying sack.
Clapper is just a lying sack of shit- always was. Kessler, too.
I think Kessler is carefully picking through all the details, and carefully ignoring the forest for the trees. This was a disinformation campaign, planned and designed to provide deniability while allowing Democrats to claim a known lie as fact. They were all in on it.
When are we going to quit messing around with these guys. The cia/fbi/doj are corrupt traitors ( and I’m not using that word lightly ). Let the country go into default until they are gone. It is the joy way to deal with this level of corruption.
When are we going to quit messing around with these guys. The cia/fbi/doj are corrupt traitors ( and I’m not using that word lightly ). Let the country go into default until they are gone. It is the joy way to deal with this level of corruption.
It’s fun when the toxic left turns on watch other.
Where is Hamilton Burger, I mean Chuck? I guess the Bulwark hasn't had time to respond to this yet.
Well, Biden knew the laptop was real. And he knew the "letter" was a spy op. And he told everyone in that debate that the laptop was "Russian disinformation" used by "the Russians" support his political opponent. When he absolutely knew that was a lie.
There is nothing plausibly deniable about that.
But he got away with it. He's THe President of the United States.
Will Cate: "Well, Clapper is just splitting hairs. Russian disinfo was the message they wanted to push, and they did."
Its simply another dem/left/LLR (but I repeat myself) motte and bailey ploy executed on a national scale as part of the dems/left/LLR (but I repeat myself) to completely rig a presidential election.
IIRC nobody was ever named as the drunk driver who hit Angelo. Hmmm.
The letter by 50 senior intelligence officials had all the earmarks of a CIA disinformation operation.
"There is nothing plausibly deniable about that. "
Biden is an actual sociopath. This really struck me after meeting a sociopath at a business dinner, and he got a coupe drinks in him and OMG. Trump's problem is that he is *not* a sociopath, and therefore he is too easily manipulated by the sociopaths who have risen to powerful positions. Joe Biden is louche, he's utterly amoral, and he is completely out for himself, cravenly corrupt, and therefore easy for people with great heaps of money to control, that's why the oligarchs all love him. If you have so much money you could never spend it, you want a president who can be bought for money.
Too bad East Germany doesn't exist anymore as a portal to the other side.
Unless Clapper fell into a previously unreported coma in November 2020 and just woke up this is way too late for him to pretend to speak up. Where the fuck have you been Jimmy! The time to correct “wrong” reporting is when it fucking happens not after your disinfo campaign crumbles under the weight of the facts now exposed.
If Clapper and Brennan go before me, the opportunity to piss on both their graves may be bucket list worthy.
what Drago said plus:
Clapper has before......
Clapper, CNN interview with Erin Burnett, October 2017: "“To me, this is just classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft at work."
Twitter - CNN Interview Clip
"Our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue is consistent with two other significant data points as well."
That's from the letter. "are involved" - No hedging there.
"The letter by 50 senior intelligence officials had all the earmarks of a CIA disinformation operation."
Actually classic KGB disinformation: send information out through a reliable leftist in the West, which then gets laundered to what became known as mainstream media, and then repeated into truism.
"The battle is won when the average American regards a corporate journalist exactly as they regard a tobacco executive."
-Michael Malice
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