Bamford: #Russiagate was really #Israelgate

Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence by James Bamford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

MUST read if you're not in the US duopoly political box. AND, of more relevance than ever as Oct. 7 plays out.

 This is a major expansion on my Goodreads review of this book, especially timely with the US presidential election cycle heating up, the recent Israel-Hamas clashes and more.

The book is great, but with a semi-incorrect title. It’s really about “government fail” much more than “spy fail.” (OTOH, it's not fully incorrect, and it is eye-grabbing.) Much of the book is about Israeli snooping in the US, detected by the FBI or others, and then presidents of both political parties, going back to Jimmy Carter refusing to call an Israeli-aided South African nuke test what it was, not doing anything. That's as, today, Warmonger Joe Biden refuses to talk about the "triggers" for Hamas to invade Israel.

Even before getting to the first actual “Spy Fail,” we have Sony execs going racist on Obama in text messages, and worse, they’re Jewish Sony execs. I personally thought this was laughable at first, disgusting at second, hypocritical at third.

Also before this, Bamford notes that North Korea was NOT a giant Potemkin village, let alone one without a façade. Bamford doesn't buy into the normal bipartisan foreign policy establishment, or Nat-Sec Nutsacks™, talking points, tis clear.

Re the Israeli spying, I had not heard any of the story of Arnon Milchan's various nefarious actions before.

The biggie is something related to Russiagate, a biggie, and real, and largely suppressed in discussion, and seemingly largely ignored by BlueAnon Russiagate detectives like Marcy Wheeler. And, that was Israel’s involvement. Apparently, its Unit 8200 had hacked Wikileaks and/or Guccifer 2.0’s home, the GRU. And Bibi’s personal man Friday, Isaac Moho, was feeding this to Roger Stone. Israel knew about the DNC hacks before anybody outside Russia, Bamford notes.

Per what I just posted, I searched Emptywheel’s site and got zero hits for “Isaac Molho.” Nor did I get any for Bibi’s important minister without portfolio at this time, Tzachi Hanegbi.

I didn’t realize Adam Schiff (who I don’t care for, for other reasons) was a handpicked protégé of Howard Berman and Henry Waxman. And, with his position as either chairman or ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, it makes me wonder how much he knew about all of this, whether in real time or later. Bamford doesn't speculate.

That said, it wasn’t all Israel in 2016. The UAE, Bamford shows, in terms of buying influence, was running its own string of polo ponies with both Clinton and Trump.

But, here, we’re back to Spy Fail. Bamford notes FBI and Secret Service were bush league on not uncovering United Arab Emirates bagman George Nader earlier. Nader first plumped for Clinton, then, seeing Trump start to surge, played both sides of the street while working more and more the Trump side. Nader was only nailed because of having juvenile sex porn on a smartphone, even though having previous felony conviction on this ground.

Bamford then pivots back to Russiagate to close. Here, the “Spy Fail” is not missing something, but inventing something out of nothing, and we’re talking about Maria Butina, and the desire of the FBI to nail some Russian coonskin to a wall, mixed with an odious fame-lusting DC prosecutor. Before that, of course, Bamford reminds us of #BlueAnon media like David Corn hounding and hassling Butina, the same David Corn who’s a warmonger as I type. Bamford closes by reminding us that Butina now sits in the Duma.

Outside the covers of the book, literally? I note all the blurbs are for "James Bamford and his bestselling books," and NOT this book. I think the reason is obvious, and frankly, I wonder how hard it was to get this published.

Bamford has long been skeptical of the nation of Israel. As long ago as the USS Liberty in the Six-Day War, per his Wiki page. (He was a Naval intelligence analyst during Vietnam, so has semi-firsthand knowledge.) I agree, based in additional part on later incidents. Per another section of his page, there's more reason to loathe Ruth Bader Ginsburg, too.

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Update, Nov. 3: At The Nation, Bamford says Oct. 7 could be called "All Quiet on the Gaza Front," and he goes on to tie this to, among other things, Sheldon Adelson's big 2015 Las Vegas confab that ties in with Russiagate being in part Israelgate. The bulk of the piece lists issues also detailed in SpyFail.

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