WikiLeaks - Sony Archive & Public Interest

WikiLeaks Release: US Recruits Hollywood to Boost 'Anti-Russian Messaging' 23:06 17.04.2015(updated 04:09 18.04.2015) Get short URL The latest documents released by Wikileaks reveal some uncomfortable – yet unsurprising – truths about the relationship between Hollywood and the US Government. In its propaganda efforts against Russia, the US State Department may have pressured Sony – and some of the biggest stars – into cooperating. The latest Wikileaks release includes thousands of documents which reveal ties between the White House and Sony pictures. It’s taking journalists a long time to comb through the weeds, but some troubling details are emerging. As Wikileaks notes, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton is also on the board of trustees for the RAND Corporation, a research arm of the US military. According to emails, the State Department may have taken advantage of Lynton’s dual positions to further its own propaganda aims. "As you could see, we have plenty of challenges in countering ISIL narratives in the Middle East and Russian narratives in central and eastern Europe," an email to Lynton from Richard Stengel, US State Department undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, reads. "Following up on our conversation, I’d love to convene a group of media executives who can help us think about better ways to respond to both of these large challenges." "This is a conversation about ideas, about content and production, about commercial possibilities," Stengel adds. "I promise you it will be interesting, fun, and rewarding." "Who are folks I can or should see in NY re anti-Russian messaging — and also anti-ISIL messaging?" he asks Lynton in another email. While comparing a sovereign nation to a terrorist group may be nothing new for US officials, such blatant evidence of Washington’s propaganda war is newsworthy. In response, Lynton provided a list full of other Hollywood executives who would presumably also be cooperative. This included senior level management from Turner Broadcasting and Walt Disney International. Other emails suggest that Lynton was also asked to pressure Hollywood celebrities into promoting foreign policy objectives of the Obama administration. "We have already started to think through ways your superstars could potentially help amplify some of the great work US Embassy Paris is doing," wrote a staffer on behalf of the US ambassador to France. "We’d love to include Sony names in events here, either as guests or performers, and would love the opportunity to leverage their popularity to promote the President’s priorities and agenda overseas." Celebrities suggested by Lynton include George Clooney, Kerry Washington, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as well as major filmmakers like David Fincher and Steven Spielberg. "Would also include Natalie Portman as she has just done a movie in Israel and is very involved there," one email read. But Sony’s ties with the government extend even beyond the State Department emails. Documents reveal that Lynton also had contact with the president, having dinner with the Obamas. Wikileaks also revealed an email from Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, which detailed his concerns with a perceived Russian threat. "Putin is little more than a schoolyard bully, so if he refuses to back down, we must bring Europe in as part of an aggressive solution," Schumer wrote to Amy Pascal, a senior executive with Sony. "Sanctions have already hurt him, and the threats of expelling Russia from the World Trade Organization and forbidding it from hosting the next World Cup give us a strong hand." Of course, the knowledge of close coordination between Hollywood and the US government is nothing new. As David Sirota points out in his book, Back to Our Future, a conflict of interest has existed for years. "The Pentagon – and it’s very open about this – the Pentagon will line edit screenwriters scripts that are about the military if those screenwriters and the studios want to have access to be able to photograph planes, or tanks, or aircraft carriers," Sirota said during an interview with RT. Giving the example of 1986’s Top Gun, Sirota notes that the "filmmakers of that movie submitted their script to Pentagon editors, for the Pentagon to line edit it to make sure it was perfectly mimicking what the Pentagon wanted it to say." War correspondent Keith Harmon Snow echoed these sentiments in relation to the film Act of Valor. "We have at it as a psychological operation against the American public," Snow told RT. "That means this is not Hollywood, it’s total propaganda by and for the Pentagon using Hollywood as the face…" Still, during a State Department briefing on Friday, spokesperson Marie Harf noted that Sony Pictures is only the tip of the iceberg. "We have a dialogue with companies, with social media companies, about the challenges as we see them and what we are doing to counter that kind of propaganda," she said. "We are having this conversation not just with social media companies, but other people who have public platforms, and that could be entertainment organizations." http://sputniknews.com/us/20150417/1021045330.html?utm_source=t.co%2Fp0b8RkEe22&utm_medium=short_url&utm_content=efG&utm_campaign=URL_shortening COMMENT This pretty much sums up why the WikiLeaks Sony archive is (and should be) in the public domain. The article demonstrates how Hollywood collaborates with the US government to feed the public Orwellian propaganda, to sell the US corporate & military agenda.  WIKILEAKS MSM DETRACTOR    MURDOCH PRESS WikiLeaks detractors such as the Murdoch press (above) presumably stand by and defend Hollywood (& media) collaboration with the US government, in a USG orchestrated Hollywood propaganda merger, that's probably spent decade upon decade deviously manipulating an unsuspecting and receptive public, in pursuit of shaping public attitudes and, thereby, manufacturing public 'consent' to their puppet masters' agenda. PS  ... What's the point of a 'free press' if the 'free press' just supports the status quo?

Hillarious John Tefft appointment as US Ambassador to Russia

NEW US AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA John F. Tefft ... is a career U.S. Foreign Service Officer since 1972. He was confirmed as the United States Ambassador to Russia on July 31, 2014. He has previously served as the United States' ambassador to Ukraine, Georgia, and Lithuania, as well as chargé d'affaires [diplomat in charge of matters] of the Embassy of the United States in Moscow, Russia. He joined the United States Foreign Service in 1972 and has served in Jerusalem, Budapest, Rome, Moscow, Vilnius and Tbilisi. 2009 President Viktor Yushchenko accepted Teffts credentials of Ambassador .... Tefft delivered his speech in Ukrainian. 2013 President Obama nominated Geoffrey R. Pyatt to succeed Tefft as Ambassador of the United States to Ukraine. 2014 President Obama nominated Tefft as the United States Ambassador to Russia in Moscow, after receiving Russia's approval. [Wikipedia]

Newsweek Article (May 2014) Ambassador Tefft Would Upset Russia, and That's the Point By Lynnley Browning / May 14, 2014 6:23 AM EDT When the man most likely to be America’s next ambassador to Russia, John Tefft, moves into the stately Spaso House embassy in Moscow, he will dwell there amid the iciest relations between the Kremlin and Washington since the dark days of the Iron Curtain. ... In early April, the burly Tefft made a behind-the-scenes round of analysts in Moscow to gauge the Kremlin’s increasingly anti-American mood, according to private sector sources with whom he met. Currently the executive director of the Rand Business Leaders Forum, a clubby lobbying group focused on strategic issues involving Russia, the U.S. and Europe, Tefft declined to speak with a reporter, citing the diplomatic approval process now in process. A White House spokeswoman also declined to comment. ... Tefft’s imminent appointment comes after years of American neglect of Russia as a force to contend with. President Barack Obama’s move in 2009 to push a reset button aimed at gaining cooperation from the Kremlin on strategic issues such as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and, later, Syria, got off to a famously bad start when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, still in his job under Putin, with a red button that said not “reset” but peregruzka (“overload”). ... Tefft is widely regarded as a “traditional” diplomat who operates with old-school, low-key professionalism, “a huge asset in Moscow, and perhaps the only style that can work in this situation,” says the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Trenin. McFaul, the most recent ambassador to Russia—known for his prolific Twitter feed of Russia news and tidbits, from a broken finger sustained while shooting hoops to support of hot-button Kremlin issues like gay rights and meetings with Russian opposition figures—simply pissed off the Kremlin. ... (An official State Department Twitter feed packed with anti-Kremlin tweets is unlikely to help Tefft. In one zinger, on April 24, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki tweeted, “The world stands #UnitedforUkraine. Let’s hope that the #Kremlin & @mfa_russia”—Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry—“will live by the promise of hashtag.”) Amid the “hashtag diplomacy,” the Kremlin tightened control over the online activities of Russian pundits and activists on May 5. Tefft knows how to push some of the right emotional buttons. In a 2013 exit interview in his post as ambassador to Ukraine with the Ukrainian newspaper The Day, he said that if he were a Ukrainian reading the 19th century poetry of Taras Shevchenko, the nation’s Shakespeare, “I’d cry every time” because “it just captures the essence of what it means to be Ukrainian.” “Diplomacy certainly still does matter to Putin, but he just happens to have different terms of reference to the West and a disrespect for many of the niceties,” Mark Galeotti, a Russia specialist at New York University who is teaching at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, tells Newsweek. “But this means that the next U.S. ambassador’s character, remit and approach will be crucial. Putin seems to have come to believe that the USA is hypocritical and weak-willed.” Extracts only ... Full @ Source - Newsweek - May 2014 - here.

COMMENT

This is hilarious.
USA's sending over a guy who was all misty-eyed and rallying Ukraine nationalism.
And the dude's been hanging at some arm of Rand Corporation.

I'm new to watching politics, but this strikes me as hilarious and pointless.

Tefft will have zero influence.

But that's probably the case for all ambassadors for all I know.  Not sure how it works.

Just strikes me as the most improbable dude to send.

MH17 - US - Civilian aircraft anti-missile systems

Lawmakers push for airline anti-missile systems

Associated Press 4:53 p.m. EDT July 27, 2014

ALBANY – Two U.S. legislators on Sunday urged the government to study whether American passenger jets should be equipped with devices protecting them against missiles like the one that brought down a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine and projectiles fired near Tel Aviv's airport.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Steve Israel are asking the Department of Homeland Security, Defense Department and Federal Aviation Administration to consider technologies that would shield commercial aircraft.

A government study should include specific recommendations on the best technology needed to combat both shoulder-fired and surface-to-air missiles, they said. Anti-missile devices include onboard lasers, warning systems, flares and infrared countermeasure systems, costing from $1 million to $2 million per plane, Schumer and Israel said.

The Democratic lawmakers say two major events have raised red flags that require a quick study of defense technologies.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down on July 17 by what U.S. officials believe may have been a Russian-made surface-to-air missile fired by separatists in Eastern Ukraine. All 298 people aboard died. And last week, the FAA banned American flights to Israel after a rocket landed near Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport.

"The tragedy of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, plus numerous missiles being fired near the Tel Aviv airport have made one thing clear this week: we cannot let this happen to an American passenger plane," Schumer said.

As a result, "we are once again reminded that an attack on a civilian aircraft remains a significant threat," Israel said.

The Government Accountability Office believes there are between 500,000 and 750,000 portable surface-to-air missiles in existence worldwide. The State Department estimates thousands may be in the hands of terrorists.

Packaged in tubes, portable missiles can be concealed in a car trunk along with a launching mechanism and battery, making them especially dangerous, the lawmakers said.

Schumer noted that since 1973, at least 30 civilian aircraft have been downed by shoulder fired missiles, killing about 920 people, according to Stratfor, a Global Intelligence firm in Austin, Texas.

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/2014/07/27/lawmakers-push-airline-anti-missile-systems/13241951/

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[wikipedia]

Charles Ellis "Chuck" "Pro-Israeli Hack" Schumer ... is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party.

He attended Harvard College ... passed the New York State Bar Exam in early 1975, but never practised law, entering politics instead.

Steven J. "Steve" Israel ... is a U.S. Representative for New York's 3rd congressional district, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party and head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

[wikipedia]

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MANPADS

Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS) are shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). They are typically guided weapons and are a threat to low-flying aircraft, especially helicopters. [wikipedia]

They look like a big shoulder-steadied portable 'telescopes' that have a barrel to fire off what I'd consider 'snack-sized' missiles at targets -- ie small sized missiles.

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 [ wikileaks.org/gifiles/attach/25/25335_MANPADS%20for%20c.e..doc ]

Civilian Attack History

The first known cases of attempted MANPADS attacks against civilian aircraft were in 1973 in Rome. In both January and September of that year, Black September militants attempted to strike Israeli flights, one of which was carrying then-prime minister Golda Meir. Both attempts were thwarted in their final minutes. In the case of Golda Meir’s plane in January, the militants who were positioned around the airport with the weapons were caught before her plane touched down. In the second attempt, police raided the militants’ apartment as the militants, who had positioned themselves outside on the balcony, prepared to shoot at the plane as it taxied down the runway.

Two years later, the first successful MANPADS attack against a civilian aircraft came in the form of an SA-7 missile launched by North Vietnamese forces against a Douglas C-54D Air Vietnam flight, resulting in the deaths of all 26 passengers and crew members. One of the most famous civilian MANPADS attacks was in 1994, when two SA-16s were used to shoot down a Rwandan government flight whose passengers (and victims) included the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. This event sparked the Rwandan genocide, which resulted in approximately 800,000 deaths in 100 days. (The identity of those responsible for this attack remains a matter of debate.) Over the years, MANPADS attacks have been plotted and actively attempted in at least 20 countries, resulting in more than 900 civilian fatalities.

[ wikileaks.org/gifiles/attach/25/25335_MANPADS%20for%20c.e..doc ]

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Source US Dept of State:  http://2001-2009.state.gov/t/pm/rls/fs/107632.htm

Site lists some of the strategies of decommissioning MANPADS and provides links.

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RAND REPORT - 2005 - Infrastructure, Safety and Environment

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2005/RAND_OP106.pdf

Rand Corporation - Figure 2.1

Proliferation of MANPADS among Selected NON-State Groups

Rand Corporation - Figure 6.1

Summary of Potential Counters to MANPADS

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COMMENT

Civilian aircraft anti-missile systems became the subject of debate post 9/11.

The New York politicians calling for civilian aircraft anti-missile technologies, do so citing the recent downing of a civilian aircraft (MH17) flying over a Ukrainian war zone and citing rockets fired at Tel Aviv airport, in what is a Middle Eastern war zone in a conflict that has now spanned how many decades?

It's unclear how these two war zone examples could possibly amount to a perceived "significant threat" of attack on civilian aircraft that are under the control of US authorities.

There's a bunch of MANPADS that have gone missing in Libya:

U.S. Still Hunting for Missing Libyan MANPADS
Feb. 2, 2012 - 05:38PM 

...
However, while there is no definitive evidence that any of the weapons left the country, the U.S. government is not ruling out that possibility, according to Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs.
...
The weapons, also called man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS, pose a threat to commercial and military aircraft worldwide. The real concern for the United States is that the weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists.

It’s believed Gadhafi had an estimated 20,000 MANPADS when his regime collapsed, posing a “major proliferation challenge,” Shapiro said.

To date, about 5,000 MANPADS have been identified, recovered and secured, Shapiro said.

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120202/DEFREG02/302020009/U-S-Still-Hunting-Missing-Libyan-MANPADS

A more detailed New York politician (ie Schumer and Israel) and MANPADS story (later disovered) is here -

 http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140727/NEWS/140729730/-1/NEWS

... terrorist organizations like Hamas in Gaza, Al Qaeda in the Maghreb, Boko Haram in Nigeria, Syrian insurgents, and groups in Mali, Yemen, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and other places. The U.S. led a $40 million buyback program to acquire loose missiles in the region, but were only able to secure 5,000 of an estimated 20,000 anti – aircraft systems that once belonged to the Gadhafi regime. After tensions rose in November 2012 between Israel and the Hamas in the Gaza strip, Hamas released a video of it possessing MANPADS. In Syria, thousands of soldiers have defected and set up new battalions that have shot down military helicopters and jets and in Iraq the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has taken large swaths of territory and seized weapons depots of the Iraqi Army along the way.

 http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140727/NEWS/140729730/-1/NEWS

Check out that whopping $40 million buy-back program!!!

Buy-back doesn't seem very successful despite the tempting cash offer.

In my view, it's doubtful that missing MANPADS are all within the confines of the Libyan territory.  The bet is they're somewhere in the Middle East or maybe some have reached Africa or gone north. [*Still get Libya and Syria mixed up!  LOL.  They're already in Africa if they're Libyan MANPADS.  LOL.]

However, the likelihood of MANPADS threatening civilian aircraft beyond world hotspots and war zones is probably minimal.

So what are the New York politicians currently lobbying for?  

It looks like some pie in the sky civil aviation protection scheme that is going to raise the cost of travel and raise a whole lot of other costs and issues along the way.

But, first, there must be an expensive, US tax-payer funded study on the subject.

Are these guys for real or is this just a publicity stunt?  

What about a common sense approach like, uuuumm, maybe not flying over war zones?

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Other

RAND CORPORATION

RAND Corporation (Research ANd Development) is a non-profit global policy think tank formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the health care industry, universities and private individuals.

New to looking at politics and organisations, so I'm a little confused about the status of Rand Corporation. 

Is it an NGO or a GO?

Quickie check to see what others have to say:

The RAND Corporation is a notoriously powerful NGO with deep ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex as well as interlocking connections with the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations. [here]

The author of that quote (Daily Paul) wrote back in 2008 that Rand Corporation is lobbying for the goverment to start a war with China or Russia, to stimulate the economy.

Anyway, I take it Rand Corporation is an NGO.