11/27/11

flying blind


A narrative we have followed for a long time is progressing. Some recent posts about this narrative:

http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2011/07/team-effort.html
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2011/07/spandex-on-hudson.html
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2011/07/gassing-up-narrative-hot-air-balloon.html
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2011/05/wheel-of-misfortune.html

The narrative says that Hezbollah threatens the US from Latin America. Specifically, Hezbollah -- a proxy of Iran and a terrorist organization according to the US -- has tentacles from Iran to Lebanon to West Africa to South America's TBA. That much has been long established. The progression of the narrative covered earlier in 2011 brings the tentacles up through Isla de Margarita off the coast of Venezuela, to Central America, and into the US via organized crime. So the story goes.

Generally how these narratives work is that a very minor thing is stretched into something that looks like compelling evidence to people who are predisposed to the narrative. However on closer examination, the whole thing falls apart.

For instance, you will often read references to the Argentina bombings of Jewish targets in 1992 and 1994, allegedly by Hezbollah, an allegation which has never been proven. The non-proven allegations just get bandied about for two decades by irresponsible, lying, warmongering "EXPERTS" at think tanks, by which time it becomes "longstanding" "evidence" of Hezbollah's terrorism, simply by being repeated enough times. Evidence not required. IN FACT, investigators found NO EVIDENCE to blame Hezbollah for those Argentina bombings, as all actual evidence indicated the bombs were INSIDE the JEWISH CONTROLLED BUILDINGS --  something that we here at TB have pointed out repeatedly, because these false flag events form the base of the narrative pyramid about Hezbollah in Latin America as a threat to the US.

http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2011/02/as-noted-in-last-post-by-james-dimitri.html
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2010/07/violence-around-world.html
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2010/06/run-along-and-play-now.html
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2010/05/setting-up-spotlight.html
http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2010/02/bangkok-of-latin-america.html

We like to remind readers of this because if we can kick out that lie the whole damn narrative comes down like a house of cards, as it should, before some horribly irresponsible and murderous EXPERTS start another war based on LIES, a war in which many innocent people would die.


The progression of the narrative now involves the ruthless, murderous, sophisticated nature of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the sudden, dangerous loss of the ability to track Hezbollah, and a fuse-like Hezbollah tentacle into Syria.



http://www.dccomics.com/mad/media/downloads/spys_800x600.jpg

^^^^^^^

Recently a nest of CIA spies was outed in Lebanon. The spies are now feared dead, although no one presents any evidence of that.

United States officials are saying that shortcuts, unaccountability, laziness and general mismanagement are to blame for the compromising of several CIA informants in Iran and Lebanon who are now feared dead.
A CIA-led program in the Middle East is up in the air after officials confirmed to news organizations today that paid informants in Iran and Lebanon working for the US government have disappeared while attempting to infiltrate Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed military organization considered a terrorist group by the US.
Iranian intelligence minister Heidar Mosleh announced in May that more than 30 US and Israeli spies had been discovered and he quickly took to Iranian television to broadcast information explaining the methods of online communication that the agents would use to trade intel. Only a month later, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah announced that two high-ranking officers within his own organization had been identified as CIA spies. Just now, however, does the US government confirm that not only is this information true, but they believe that the rest of their Hezbollah-targeted operations in the Middle East have been compromised.
It is interesting that the spy ring began to disintegrate back in May, but only now are we hearing about the loss of all these informants, who are feared dead but there are no bodies, so who knows. We are told by RT that the two spies originally caught were high-ranking officers within Hezbollah.

NOTE what Hezbollah leader Hasran Nasrallah said about these agents in June 2011: they were low level, oops:

In June, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah said two members of the group were found to be working for the CIA, and a third member was working for another unidentified foreign entity.
“When Israel failed to break into Hezbollah’s body, it requested the assistance of the most powerful intelligence agency ... we have two cases of spies affiliated with the CIA and one more might be affiliated with either the CIA, European intelligence or Mossad,” Nasrallah said in a TV address at the time.
He said the two members, whom he described as low-level, had been in contact with diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
“Our investigation has found that ... intelligence officers [with the CIA] have recruited two of our members, but we’ll not name [them] out of respect for the privacy of their families,” he said.
“The U.S. Embassy ... is a nest of spies recruiting [spies] to serve Israel. We have become a direct target of U.S. intelligence. This put us in a new stage of a security struggle,” Nasrallah said....
At the time, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut denied Nasrallah’s claims.
“These are the same kind of empty accusations that we’ve repeatedly heard from Hezbollah,” the embassy spokesman told The Daily Star, adding that “there is no substance to them.”



Returning to the RT story, supposedly, it all went pear shaped because the CIA informants insisted on meeting at a Beirut Pizza Hut, and used the code word PIZZA, over and over again, for their spy meetings. Sounds pretty stupid. And thus, they were eventually caught out, even after being warned by Hezbollah.

Speaking to ABC News, one former US senior intelligence official speaking without accreditation says that CIA agents were warned to avoid using the same Lebanon hub for secret meet-ups — a Beirut Pizza Hut restaurant — though spies continue to use the location for countless meet-ups with a wide range of informants.
"We were lazy and the CIA is now flying blind against Hezbollah," the former official tells ABC.
According to several US officials speaking to the press, the CIA used the codeword “PIZZA” to arrange for would-be clandestine meetings at the restaurant. To ABC, however, a current CIA officer denied the allegations that the entire operations evaporated at the eatery
Others within the agency, but currently and formerly, say that outside of the Pizza Hut sting, the revealing of the online communication conducted between the CIA and informants in Iran led to “dozens” of assets being compromised. Officials have confirmed that the websites that Intel Ministero Mosleh showed an Iranian television audience were indeed used by the CIA in their secret web chats.
"We've lost the tradition of espionage," one former intelligence official tells ABC. "Officers take short cuts and no one is held accountable.”
Another anonymous official tells the Associated Press that the CIA was warned by Hezbollah’s Nasrallah that they were cracking down on American spies, but the US pressed on despite the consequences.

 Sportsmanship... Hezbollah's got it.

One almost does not know what to say. Supposedly we are to believe that the CIA behaves with extreme sloppiness, and are warned that they will be caught, and then they are supposedly caught, and now these stupid spies are now supposedly dead, or maybe it is just the informants who are dead we are not sure, there are no bodies because this is all secret spy business conducted at the Pizza Hut, and it is all a terrible disaster proving....proving.....

....that the CIA is very sloppy and stupid? NO!

It proves that Hezbollah is extremely malicious and deadly, and trouble surely lies ahead, now that we are "flying blind." Obviously people. Get with the narrative.

"Hezbollah has disappeared people before. Others they have kept around,” counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt tells the AP.
"If they were genuine spies, spying against Hezbollah, I don't think we'll ever see them again," former CIA officer Robert Baer tells ABC. "These guys are very, very vicious and unforgiving."
You see, in a way, this is one of those "opportunities" that should not be wasted. "If they were genuine spies..." Well maybe they weren't. Maybe they were expendable people on the payroll, thugs not spies, and they've all been flushed and that allows for a great big dramatic show about the terrible and dangerous Hezbollah, and the perils we now live under, since this grave loss and now we are flying blind....

Regrettables.

Or maybe these people returned to wherever they came from. The point is, who knows. Without evidence, who knows. It's just a bunch of allegations from people who literally lie for a living. It could be 90% true, it could be 9% true.

And if they were genuine spies... ? How might this story be different? Let's think if we have anything to compare.




"Former CIA contractor Raymond Davis arrives at the Douglas County Courthouse in Castle Rock, CO. for a court hearing on felony assault charges on Oct. 4, 2011." (Ed Andrieski/AP Photo)
 http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/raymond-davis-cia-contractor-charged-parking-lot-fight/story?id=14663216#.TtE0q1ZZqAg

When Raymond Davis, a real CIA asset, got into trouble and ended up in jail, so much power was brought to bear on his behalf that it strained the US Pakistan relationship to the breaking point. And that all went away nicely, didn't it. Our government paid the blood money to the families of the men killed by Davis on 1/27/11, and Raymond returned to the US in March and became a firearms instructor often working in Washington, DC. In October he was arrested in Denver after beating up a guy in a bagel shop parking lot... which you probably did not hear about. But you can see from his picture that he looks just as creepy as can be, smirking with that creepy dead-eye stare. RAY got away with murder, and he knows it, and we all know it, because he is a very important intelligence asset.

People like Ray Davis and David Coleman Headley seem to be higher level assets. The CIA doesn't just say hoo boy we lost a couple dozen guys this week, shit, we really should be more careful. The CIA moves heaven and earth to get their valuable assets back.

Refresh your memory on David Coleman Headley.

^^^^^^^

So what is this incident in Lebanon all about? Perhaps this helps lay the groundwork for a false flag?
'I don't think we will ever see them again:' More than a dozen CIA spies captured in Iran and Lebanon 'feared executed'
  • It's a blow to US attempts to track Iran and Hezbollah
  • Officials warn of problems from sloppy CIA operations
  • Others say it's unlikely any found CIA agents survived [If you find them, you will know if they are alive or dead???]
More than a dozen CIA spies have reportedly been caught in Iran and Lebanon and the U.S. government now fears they have been executed.

The spies were paid informants who were targeting Iran - which is feared to be producing nuclear weapons - and the Hezbollah group in Beirut.

Their discovery is a big hindrance to U.S. attempts to track Iran’s nuclear activities and discover if Hezbollah is plotting any attacks against Israel.
Ding. Problems dead ahead. It is too perfectly dramatic.

Unsurprisingly, all the usual suspects are weighing in with dire conclusions.

UPDATE 11/29/11: This exact story from humanevents.com is now being reposted as "Intel Experts: CIA Penetration by Terrorist Group is 'Catastrophic'"   http://www.aina.org/news/20111128174922.htm

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47759

"This latest operation by Hizballah’s against a major U.S. intelligence agency is bordering on an act of war. Lebanon is a sovereign country, and a terrorist organization has had the freedom to wage counter-espionage operations against CIA, and they have detained individuals they believe were working with that U.S. agency. If the Lebanese government endorses this operation, [then] it would be responsible for an act of aggression bordering on an act of war against the United States.” ~ Walid Phares
Walid Phares, putting the screws to Lebanon. Note the conditional IF:THEN statements.
“If the Lebanese government considers such operations against a U.S. agency on Lebanese soil as rogue – and conducted without legitimate Lebanese government authority – then it should demand Hizballah cease its activities against the U.S.”
Phares also notes that the leak was not an accident. Actually we happen to agree. We think it seems quite likely that this "mishap" was completely intentional, seeing how it advances the narrative so nicely.

“The reality is someone who knew of these names must have leaked them to the organization [Hizballah].”

The leak was not an accident, he said.

Rep. Sue Myrick, bringing the threat home:

"This operation alleged by Hizballah against CIA resources in Lebanon shows their determination to hurt the United States. This terrorist organization claims their war efforts are only pursued in their war against Israel.”

“Their heavy involvement in terror operations against American interests in Iraq and the Gulf area, and in Latin America all the way to Mexico south of our borders, shows clearly that they are targeting U.S. national security.”

Clare Lopez, another former CIA operative and neo-con think tank star, talks about Hezbollah's sophisticated tradecraft:

“Up against Hizballah on its own turf, it seems that U.S. intelligence is out of its league. HIzballah's intelligence capabilities, learned from the Iranians, are highly sophisticated and include the full classical tradecraft skillset as well as very competent counterintelligence capabilities.”
The highly sophisticated Islamic jihadist enemy studies cell phone records and cases the local Pizza Hut. CHECK. They teach this skillset in Iran. An unnamed source adds to that conclusion:

“This should come as no surprise to anyone who understands the sophistication of these jihadist enemies and their professionalism in the skills of classical clandestine tradecraft...U.S. Intelligence Community failures to identify, effectively confront, and defeat the Islamic jihadist enemy speak not only to erosion of that skillset within the CIA, but also to catastrophic failure to master an understanding of the enemy ideology, the ideology of Islamic jihad...Intent and motivation are as critical as capability to the enemy's strategy and absent their accurate assessment, will lead as surely to defeat as failure to measure capability. America's enemies have penetrated its Intelligence Community in the past and betrayal of top CIA assets abroad has been tracked to moles deep inside the system more than once.”

Even Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum brought this problem up during a recent presidential debate. They provided politifact.com an American Enterprise paper as their source. The claims about Hezbollah as a threat to the US trace back to the same groups.You will see if you click through to older posts that the same names, the same think tanks, come up over and over again: the pro-Israel neo-con crowd that brought us the last few wars based on lies and false flags.


^^^^^^^

countrywatch.com


Where things get dicey is the relationship between Hezbollah and Syria. Given the full spectrum destabilization effort on Syria, Syria needs allies. Penny has done an amazing job covering the situation in Syria.

We know that Syria is absolutely in the cross hairs, and if the situation can fuse back to Lebanon via the Hezbollah connection, JUSTIFYING an Israeli attack on Lebanon, that would be considered a PLUS to the Israelis. Of course, the "self defense" excuse would be ready to go, given that the CIA spy ring has just been busted and now we are "flying blind" regarding Hezbollah's malicious intents against Israel. Anything that happens can theoretically be blamed on this regrettable situation. Shoot first explain later.


A week ago the Hezbollah and the Amal Movement of Lebanon announced their support of Syria and Iran against US and Israeli threats.

Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad said Syria, because of Russia’s and China’s support, enjoys international protection and is immune to military aggression. He said Syria still had many options available to it in dealing with its crisis.
“The supportive role for Syria – Russia’s and China’s veto at the [U.N.] Security Council – tells the world that it is forbidden for anyone to think of any military action against Syria,” Raad told a Hezbollah rally in the southern town of Nabatieh. “No aerial sanctions, no buffer zones and no aggression against Syria,” he said.
The Jpost also seems to be the source of an allegation that Hezbollah will take over Beirut if Assad falls. We have not been able to load the Jpost for MONTHS, so we cannot verify this detail. However, it was reported here:


Al-Arabiya news website on Tuesday cited a “source close to Hezbollah” as saying that the party might militarily takeover Beirut if the Syrian regime falls, Israeli daily Jerusalem Post reported.
“[Hezbollah officials] have begun to worry about the potential fallout that may result following the collapse of the Syrian regime,” the source told Al-Arabiya.

"The moment that Hezbollah feels that the fall of [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad is imminent - either as a result of the popular movement or of foreign military intervention - it will move quickly to take control of East and West Beirut," Al-Arabiya also cited the source as saying.

Of course, this is in EXACT DIAMETRICAL OPPOSITION to the quote from the actual Hezbollah official above, on the same day (11/22/11), that Syria is in no actual danger thanks to the support of Russia and China. We hope that is the case. It would take the weight of Russia and China to prevent what happened to Libya from happening to Syria, because these countries are being USED and DESTROYED according to the Yinon Plan.

The situation in Lebanon itself escalates as we write. Supposedly "tens of thousands" have rallied in Tripoli to denounce Syria's Assad and Hezbollah.

See a Press TV video with good coverage at this link:

This event was not totally absent from violence as March 14 supporters opened random fire injuring four Lebanese civilians.

As many of March 14th are hoping for the downfall of the Syrian leadership, this comes as there is talk of trying to put Lebanon into a new role in the Syrian file.

Supporters of Bashar Assad, who represent a significant percentage in Lebanon as well, accuse the March 14 alliance of being part of a foreign conspiracy against Syria. This group puts the events in Syria within the framework of a wider plot to target Iran and Hezbollah as well as the Assad leadership after this axis made significant regional gains recently.

This event follows a meeting which was held just a few days ago in Paris between the leader of the March 14 movement Saad Hariri and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has probably been the most vocal international anti-Assad voice. It also coincides with reports of British and French intelligence officers providing military training to opposers of the Assad regime in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
 
The only people flying blind these days are the people who think the US and Israel, and NATO, will bring them democracy. Don't be a fool. NATO drops the democracy in blindly, as bombs from military jets, onto children and old people, onto houses and hospitals and factories and infrastructure. They just need some excuses.

That's what their narratives are all about... making excuses to do this:

The real meaning of flying blind.

7 comments:

james said...

Great article, AP. You show the relentless march of lies and madness.

Here we have a homegrown militia forced to form itself to defend their own people against the decades of treasonous treachery of their own government and the relentless and merciless aggression of israel to murder them and steal their land and water.

And the outrage of the international jewish press whenever Hizbollah are successful in holding the cowards at bay!!

Needless to say, the Pizza Hut promotion is pure bullshit and a Trojan Horse to boot. In swallowing this story of the incompetence of the Pizza Hut Plotters, as you point out, AP, people will also consume the idea that Hizbollah are sophisticated and ruthless murderers, capable of anything. So given that pre-emptive war has already been justified in the public consciousness, israel had better act before Hizbollah do.

So this is a no-brainer to me. Israel will attack Lebanon as soon as Turkey send their troops over the border into Syria. And Turkey is going to do that (on behalf of NATO) because they haven't had their special ops forces in there shooting up the place for no reason. They aim to invade.

And Russia is going to sit on its collective hands because if it was ever going to do anything they would have been preparing their intervention long ago. And the first thing they would have been doing is calling the US and NATO out on exactly what they are up to and what they are doing. They have the sig intel; they have the satellites; they have the evidence. But not a peep on that front.

Just a side note- notice in the following quote the assumption that the American gummint assumes the right to operate clandestinely in foreign countries with impunity-

""This latest operation by Hizballah’s against a major U.S. intelligence agency is bordering on an act of war. Lebanon is a sovereign country, and a terrorist organization has had the freedom to wage counter-espionage operations against CIA, and they have detained individuals they believe were working with that U.S. agency".

To be "an act of war" the US govt would have to assume that Lebanon is US territory. This is either both deluded and grandiose or . . . . factually correct - in which case the world is a lot madder than we thought.

A13 said...

Excellent post AP..great unpacking as usual :)
Cheers A13

A. Peasant said...

hey guys. James you are most certainly right here:

So this is a no-brainer to me. Israel will attack Lebanon as soon as Turkey send their troops over the border into Syria. And Turkey is going to do that (on behalf of NATO) because they haven't had their special ops forces in there shooting up the place for no reason. They aim to invade.

and i hope you are wrong here but i agree, what the hell are they waiting for:

And Russia is going to sit on its collective hands because if it was ever going to do anything they would have been preparing their intervention long ago. And the first thing they would have been doing is calling the US and NATO out on exactly what they are up to and what they are doing. They have the sig intel; they have the satellites; they have the evidence. But not a peep on that front.

Russia has said a few things but it's like a game of chicken at this point.

also re: the Phares remark, it was very coyly stated: "bordering on an act of war." what an asshole.

Lebanon, a sovereign country, does not consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization obviously. it's the US that says that. Hezbollah is part of the coalition government. thus the Phares definition of what is going on is completely wrong, US-centric, or should we say Israeli-centric. as a sovereign country, Lebanon has every right and DUTY to ferret out spies, even and especially those of its so-called allies. the US should do the same but they would have to replace vast swaths of the executive branch, state dept, congressional staff, etc....

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for the link.

Must keep an eye on Lebanon.

- Aangirfan

nobody said...

Thanks AP, good update. Off to check your vid.

Mia said...

"What the hell are they waiting for"

Eazy there, Russians are formidable political chess players, delivering a fatal blow after calculating. Running around shooting wild is what the Americans do, especially for israel, so what do you make of this?
http://rt.com/news/russian-fleet-syrian-port-513/

Note that two Russian destroyers are at port in Tartus as we speak and we dont know how many subs in the sea. The S-300 game changer is installed and guarded by the Russians as well so it seems to me they are well prepared...

unlike American aircraft carriers who is actually a landing strip the Russian one is a multi combined battle cruiser as well, among other armaments equipped with the P-700:

"The missile, when fired in a swarm (group of 4-8) has a unique guidance mode. One of the weapons climbs to a higher altitude and designates targets while the others attack. The missile responsible for target designation climbs in short pop-ups, so as to be harder to intercept. The missiles are linked by data connections, forming a network. If the designating missile is destroyed the next missile will rise to assume its purpose. Missiles are able to differentiate targets, detect groups and prioritize targets automatically using information gathered during flight and types of ships and battle formations pre-programmed in an onboard computer. They will attack targets in order of priority, highest to lowest: after destroying the first target, any remaining missiles will attack the next prioritized target"

A. Peasant said...

listen i'm all for the russians having the superior strategy. NATO/US/Israel is playing a very dangerous game and will try to force someone else to make a move. russia will need to have the superior strategy to avoid the trap.

however, meantime, libya has been destroyed. russia avoided the trap but libya was destroyed. there's not another libya that can happen now. either russia will do something to stop syria from being destroyed or not.

what does russia do? i don't know. i hope they know. one would think it would involve russians in syria BEFORE much more goes down. that would be the deterrent for NATO/US/Israel. thus it is good that russian ships are in the area. definitely a positive development.

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