SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Madness in the headlines -- Drugs, spies and mercenaries

New breed of Russian journalists, armed with propaganda tanks to destroy our precious bodily fluids with anti-freedom lies and bombastic conspiracy theories.

Just another day of insanity on the big blue marble. First up, Afghanistan:

Afghan drug traffic most serious threat to post-Soviet states - Russian official

"The growing scope of illegal spread of drugs is a serious threat to security, stability and health of people in CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] member states as well as in other countries in the region," Zmeevsky said.

Opium production has grown considerably in Afghanistan this year - to 6.4 tons (5.5 tons last year). UN experts warn about further worsening of the situation, the Russian official said.

Against the alarming background, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization demonstratively ignores Russia's persistent calls for establishing cooperation with the CSTO. "They just refused to talk with us," he said. In his words, "it is out of the logic of the uncompromising fight against the Afghan drug threat."

NATO even hinted that the alliance, for ideological reasons, did not consider the CSTO as an equal organization, he added.

"It sounds not only challenging, but also disrespectful, first of all for tens of thousands of their citizens who have become victims of the Afghan heroin narcobusiness expansion in NATO countries," Zmeevsky said.

That's the whole point. The Taliban had almost stopped opium production entirely in 2001. The U.S. invasion changed that immediately, and Afghanistan has been a U.S. vassal state ever since, with slight attempts at resistance from ex-President Karzai. (See Corey Schink's SOTT Exclusive: SOTT Exclusive: Psychopathic "fun and games" continue in Afghanistan) The opium trade serves not only as a way of destabilizing 'enemy no. 1' (i.e., Russia), but also to line the coffers of the CIA's black budget.

Putin said it in April, and Julian Assange is saying it again:

WikiLeaks founder: Google works for US State Department

...Google in fact works for the US State Department, as reported by the Spanish Publico.es web edition.

According to the edition, Assange arrived at the conclusion that Google works for the US government after meeting Google president Eric Schmidt and board member Jared Cohen in 2011. The meeting was also attended by Lisa Shields and Scott Malcomson who turned out to be Washington's diplomatic envoys.

WikiLeaks founder in his book says he was visited by a group of people 3/4 of whom were representatives of the US State Department and the rest being from Google.

According to the edition, the company provides FBI and CIA with unfettered access to users' correspondence. Such access can be obtained without the prosecutor's approval or a court ruling, the edition quotes Assange.

And yet Washington -- the home of Orwellian surveillance and the epitome of state-and-corporate-controlled media -- has the gall to say Moscow is 'weaponizing' information. This is how Zionist stooge Michael Weiss and journalist Peter Pomerantsev put it in their report given at a recent National Endowment for Democracy (aka CIA) discussion, joined by arch-neocons Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol:

The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture and Money

In recent years, the Kremlin has made much use of information warfare, gaining support in the West from nostalgic communist fellow travelers, the rising far-right and conspiracy theorists. The rebranding today of the international branches of Russia's state-owned Rossiya Segodnya () news group as Sputnik International speaks of the Kremlin's intent to influence and manipulate opinion abroad. Russian state-owned or state-controlled media also serve to distribute disinformation, including outright lies, as best exemplified by fabricated reports of the crucifixion of a child by Ukrainian forces. ...

- The Kremlin exploits the idea of freedom of information to inject disinformation into society. The effect is not to persuade (as in classic public diplomacy) or earn credibility but to sow confusion via conspiracy theories and proliferate falsehoods. ...

- The Kremlin is increasing its "information war" budget. RT, which includes multilingual rolling news, a wire service and radio channels, has an estimated budget of over $300 million, set to increase by 41% to include German- and French- language channels. There is increasing use of social media to spread disinformation and trolls to attack publications and personalities.

- The weaponization of information, culture and money is a vital part of the Kremlin's hybrid, or non-linear, war, which combines the above elements with covert and small-scale military operations. The conflict in Ukraine saw non-linear war in action. Other rising authoritarian states will look to copy Moscow's model of hybrid war - and the West has no institutional or analytical tools to deal with it.

Russian media must be doing something right! Contrary to EdelWeiss and PomeranianTsev's transparent attempt to claim that support for the Russian perspective comes only from "American social reactionaries [i.e., conspiracy theorists], Australian anarchists, British anti-imperialists and Hungarian neo-Nazis", and that "There is increasing use of social media [by evil Russian information warriors] to spread disinformation and trolls to attack publications and personalities", the biggest supporters of the "Russian position" are real people. That is, people who are well-informed and can see through the bullshit of people like Weiss and Pomerantsev. These guys, the propagandists, are right: Russia is weaponizing , the best defense against the blatant lies spun and spewed from the mouths of the mouthpieces of 'freedom and democracy'.

Speaking of the good ol' American FAD (freedom and democracy), their Iraqi vassals seem not to be getting the message that their job is simply do what the U.S. tells them:

US Warplanes May Have Airlifted Weapons to IS Militants: Iraqi Official

The US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL/ISIL) may have allowed weapons dropped by their warplanes and intended for Kurdish fighters to be intercepted by the extremist group, Iraqi parliamentarian Hanan Fatlawi said Thursday.

"...We hear that in some places the warplanes drop weapons for ISIL... What we know is that the victories achieved on the ground are done by the Iraqi army and volunteers," the Press TV quoted Fatlawi as saying.

Fatwali added that the presence of many international anti-IS coalition advisers is not necessary.

"We are in a war and this is not the time for training, it's the time for fighting. I think this is an effort by the US to come back to Iraq," she said. ...

In October, a video published by IS showed boxes of rifles, hand and rocket grenades and other ammunition, which the Pentagon said were dropped by its Air Force planes and intended for Kurdish fighters in the town of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border.

Oops! Remember Kobani? You'd better watch out, Fatlawi! Lest you suffer the fate of al-Maliki and Karzai for daring to think you actually have any freedom to besmirch the good name of your holy patron and benefactor!

And finally, the previous headline goes some way in explaining the next one:

Russian FM urges active UN investigation into oil purchases from terrorists

"We receive information, first of all from Western and regional media, on oil being shipped from terrorists-controlled regions of Syria and Iraq. Unlike some of our partners, we will keep fighting terrorism on the firm basis of international law," Lavrov said.

"That's why we submitted, back in July, a proposal to the UN Security Council to take the problem under control, establish facts and outline solutions on that basis," he said.

"Unfortunately, for the time being, the UN Secretariat is not too active in establishing facts, so a few days ago, in a regular document adopted by the UN Security Council, we raised the issue again and formulated it in a wording, supported by Security Council members, which calls to put an end to purchases of oil from those territories," Lavrov said.

"We will be waiting for a report by the UN secretary general with facts and proposals of specific measures that might be taken to stop that trade," he continued.

"I hope this opinion laid down in the UN Security Council document will be heard in the European Union, because not long ago the EU suspended its embargo on oil purchases from Libya. Libya also has an oil producing area controlled by terrorist groups," Russia's top diplomat concluded.

Not too active? You don't say! Well, you can't expect your proxy army to thrive if one of its chief sources of revenue is hampered by a pesky investigation into the 'facts'. Especially when one of your allies (Turkey) is the country receiving said oil (not to mention training and supporting said proxy army). And just who's buying that oil, funneled through Turkey? Why, the EU! Who woulda thunkit?

Harrison Koehli

Harrison Koehli hails from Edmonton, Alberta. A graduate of studies in music performance, Harrison is also an editor for Red Pill Press and has been interviewed on several North American radio shows in recognition of his contributions to advancing the study of ponerology. In addition to music and books, Harrison enjoys tobacco and bacon (often at the same time) and dislikes cell phones, vegetables, and fascists.