And that it’s a Polish movie directed by a German.
Who has no arms.
And who changed his name.
I have run the names of all the actresses in the credits.
And none of them are an obvious match for the star of this film.
The star is not Christina Ormani.
It’s the other girl.
The one that gets cheated on.
The jilted lover.
She gets cheated on, so she cheats back.
And in cheating, she finds love.
True love.
This masterpiece short film (feature?) was credited to Niko Brücher.
It was his first film.
You may know him (but probably not) as Niko von Glasow.
It makes sense that this is a masterpiece.
Because Von Glasow trained with Fassbinder.
The actor-auteur of Kamikaze 1989.
I could be wrong, but I think Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a better actor than he was a director.
And let me be unequivocal: he was a GREAT actor.
On par with Bogart.
Really.
Back to Von Glasow.
He studied film at NYU.
And in Poland.
From the latter is drawn the cast of this film.
They are, it seems, Polish student actors.
Some went on to stable careers.
Others didn’t.
The star.
Who is she?
What is her name?
Which one of these inscrutable Polish names represents her?
I can’t be a fanboy if I don’t have a name.
My suspicion is that this is just about the only film she made.
But I don’t even know what to call her.
These are OBSCURE actors in this film (with a couple of exceptions).
Von Glasow has no arms because of Thalidomide.
Born this way.
But none of this adulation for this mystery actress would matter had Von Glasow not made this masterpiece where there are no spoken words for the first nine minutes of the film.
Indeed, over the course of its 38 minutes, there is no FUNCTIONAL dialogue whatsoever.
There is some whispering.
Some chattering.
But there are no subtitles.
And there need not be.
For this is essentially a silent film with sound.
Not to be confused with a silent film with musical accompaniment.
There’s music here, alright.
A strange, mournful (and rather clownish) marimba scores much of this film.
Just little melodies.
No crazy four-part harmonies or anything.
Very minimal.
Marimba (!)
What a choice!!
It makes for an ODD amalgam.
To reiterate, this film is powered strictly by VISUAL SYMBOLISM.
The actors’ movements and the camera’s light-sucking registration make up the entirety of this visual poem.
I must give credit to the cinematographer.
Although she is credited with merely “Kamera”, it is Jolanta Dylewska.
Between Von Glasow and herself, this is one of the most beautifully-shot black and white films I have ever seen.
It is on par with the two early Godard masterpieces À Bout de souffle and Vivre sa vie in this regard.
As well as being reminiscent in tone and mood to Antonioni’s breathtaking L’Avventura.
And our mystery actress (Anna Dabrowska?) is the equivalent of Monica Vitti.
We are talking about the same level of beauty.
And we are talking about having that beauty captured on film in such a singular way.
But no one should be killed or tortured for their political beliefs.
A crime must be committed in order for rule of law to come into play.
It is not a crime to hold naive theories (like communism) on what is a good economic system.
A Marxist can only be punished insofar as they promote the overthrow of the government.
I do not think Joe Biden was duly-elected.
But I am not calling for him to be overthrown.
That is not my place.
I could play no role in that.
The only entity which could overthrow Joe Biden’s regime would be the U.S. military.
They should do what they think is right.
They do, however, have an obligation to NOT FOLLOW illegal orders.
Would all orders emanating from a President who was not duly-elected be illegal?
I would think they would be.
But it is not my role to decide that.
Our military will either let us suffer and cease to exist as a country (under the criminal leadership of Joe Biden), or they will make their voices heard.
Every time our military follows an order of Joe Biden, they are making the choice that that order is legal and valid.
And that is their choice.
History will judge them.
It is not my place to give the military advice.
Even though they work for me.
And Joe Biden also derives his (stolen) power from me.
I repudiate Joe Biden.
He is not the legal President.
But what can I do about it?
Here’s what I CAN’T do about it.
I cannot act like a Marxist and encourage the overthrow of the government.
I don’t encourage that.
But I do encourage our military leaders to think.
I do encourage our military leaders to take the situation and condition of the country into consideration.
And I do encourage our military leaders to be abreast of the “irregularities” (to put it nicely) of the 2020 election.
It is up to them to decide what to do.
If they think they are following legal orders by carrying out the commands of Joe Biden, then there’s not much I can do about that.
Joe is right.
We the people would need nukes and fighter jets.
But we the people will only allow our rights to be infringed UP TO A POINT.
An unjust law is no law at all.
Natural law.
I reserve the right to peacefully protest and to utilize my First Amendment rights of free speech.
I wish Biden well.
I hope he keeps us out of WWIII.
I wish he would get us out of NATO.
But I know he won’t.
Because he’s a corrupt moron.
I hope the 2022 midterms actually happen.
I hope Bill Gates doesn’t unleash a smallpox attack.
I hope the 2022 elections are actually free and fair.
I believe the 2020 elections were neither free, nor fair.
Trump won.
I am very disappointed with Trump’s stance on the COVID vaccines.
I am also quite disappointed that Trump called Zelensky a hero.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Trump won.
Would I vote for Trump again?
I don’t know.
I voted for him two times.
I might prefer Ron DeSantis, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, RFK Jr., Robert Malone, Joe Rogan, Alex Jones…
I think any of these people would make a fine President.
And I am liking Tulsi Gabbard more and more.
Which brings us to NATO.
NATO is clearly (CLEARLY!) at fault in the Ukraine war.
NATO precipitated this war.
And the presence of the USA in NATO is unnecessary.
Being in NATO is an unnecessary danger for the United States.
NATO should not even exist anymore (because its enemies…the USSR and the Warsaw Pact alliance) no longer exist.
NATO is no longer a force for peace.
Was it ever?
That brings us to our current film.
Years of Lead.
Anni di piombo.
Italy.
Guido Salvini.
Good guy.
CIA using groups like Ordine Nuovo (fascists) in Italy.
New Order.
New World Order.
Britain wants to maintain that MI6 are choir boys.
P-26.
But what about SHAPE?
And SACEUR?
Gladio (Italy) reported (“responded”) to SACEUR.
It is GOOD to know how communist revolutions work.
It is GOOD to stop them before they happen.
But it is VERY, VERY BAD to murder innocent dumbasses who are wearing Che Guevara t-shirts.
And it is even worse to indiscriminately bomb banks and train stations to scare a population into not voting communist.
The formula was:
-NATO-led (right-wing) stay-behind networks commit terrorist attack on behalf of US/NATO
-attack blamed on leftists
-population avoids voting for communists out of fear
Children were killed in these operations.
Bombings.
Mass shootings.
All blamed on leftists.
And most (if not all) carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups under orders from US/NATO.
P26.
Switzerland.
Felice Casson.
Good guy.
Daniele Ganser (whose article I posted near the top of the page).
Good guy.
Italian intelligence may have stolen the 2020 U.S. election.
Via the military/satellite company Leonardo.
In the days of Gladio, the prime mover within Italy was SISMI.
Military intelligence.
Italy.
Switzerland.
Belgium.
Germany.
But Italy was hit the hardest.
Along with SISMI (which no longer exists per se), another suspect would be VSSE of Belgium.
Only the Vatican’s intelligence agency is older than VSSE.
VSSE is the CIA of Belgium.
Belgium also has a military intelligence organization (GISS).
Strategy of tension.
Look it up.
It dominated the USA in the years after 9/11/01.
And it has dominated the past two years of COVID (with biological warfare [disguised as a naturally-occurring pandemic] replacing higher-intensity forms of terrorism).
The W. Bush administration denies that the USA had anything to do with the terrorism of the stay-behind networks (like Gladio) which they set up in all NATO countries following WWII.
Yeah, sure.
This same Bush administration says it’s just all “made up” by the Russians.
All evidence points to the various security services in Europe (Italy, Belgium, etc.) protecting these stay behind networks from prosecution when they committed these acts of terrorism.
So the Bush administration was (in 2006) relying on an implausible deniabilty.
It’s possible, but highly unlikely, that the United States didn’t participate in these terror activities.
And it is even less possible that they didn’t know about them and condone them.
It remains to be discovered just what just the U.S. and NATO played in this terrorism.
There is no question that NATO/US set up these stay-behind networks.
And there is very little question that these stay-behind networks committed acts of terrorism upon European civilians.
Indeed, the original mission of these stay-behind networks appears to have changed from “use in case of emergency [a Soviet takeover of Western Europe]” to “use for any purpose which will cause Europeans to fear communist political candidates”.
This violence should not have been committed.
When children are killed (as they were by a bombing in Munich at the Octoberfest), then the end does not justify the means.
Try telling the father who lost his young son and daughter to that bombing.
The girl was ripped open by the bomb.
The boy had bomb fragments which went through his head.
They both suffered.
They did not die instantly.
They both spoke to their father.
The girl said, “Please help me, father.”
The boy said, “I’m ok. I’m just cold.”
They both died soon after.
And that father had to live with that grief.
All so that communists would not be voted into power in Western Europe.
Bullshit!
FUCK THAT!!!
SDRA8 in Belgium.
Absalon in Denmark.
TD BDJ in Germany (where a former Nazi, Gehlen, was head of post-war German intel).
LOK in Greece.
Stay-Behind in Luxembourg.
I&O in Netherlands.
ROC in Norway.
Aginter Press in Portugal.
Red Quantum in Spain.
P26 in Switzerland.
Özel Harp Dairesi in Turkey.
AGAG in Sweden.
Plan Bleu in France.
OWSGV in Austria.
The name of the Finnish version is unknown.
Italy.
Giulio Andreotti.
Vincenzo Vinciguerra.
Licio Gelli.
Propagada 2 (Masonic lodge).
Nazis and fascists in South America.
Operation Condor.
CIA-backed Nazis in Ukraine.
Lebed.
Stepan Bandera.
Azov Battalion.
Ihor Kolomoyskyi.
The second or third richest person in Ukraine.
A Jew.
Who supports (and funds) the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.
Most astonishingly, Dickopf was the head of INTERPOL from 1968-1972.
So here is one Nazi (an SS member) that the CIA paid.
And INTERPOL was headed by a Nazi.
And that particular Nazi, Dickopf, was also on the CIA payroll while he was head of INTERPOL.
What if there were Ukrainian Nazis that shared this kind of cozy relationship with the CIA?
There were.
You may know Operation Paperclip.
You probably think scientists.
But there was more (and less) to it.
People avoided Nuremberg merely because the CIA found them useful.
And what this movie points out is important.
How did the CIA control former-Nazis?
By threatening to reveal their past Nazi actions.
Such was the case with Dickopf.
His Nazi activities only came to public attention after his death.
After his usefulness had been gleaned by the CIA.
Of course the Soviets had an analogous program.
Operation Osoaviakhim.
You probably know of Wernher von Braun.
SS.
1937-1945.
A Major in the SS.
Major von Braun.
I believe my father crossed paths with von Braun at Redstone Arsenal.
They did not meet.
But they were there at the same time.
Strange, isn’t it?
Nazi Wernher von Braun worked with Walt Disney (the man) on a series of films about space travel.
1955-1957.
Let me repeat, Disney worked with a Nazi.
For two years.
Von Braun took music composition as a boy from Paul Hindemith.
One of my texts as a music theory and composition undergraduate was by Hindemith.
There is solid testimony that Von Braun picked slave laborers from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp.
There is solid testimony that this Nazi SS Major did nothing to help those who were being tortured and worked to death.
But to Von Braun’s credit, he was (supposedly) arrested by the Gestapo for “not being Nazi enough”.
He was considered a defeatist who knew the war wasn’t going well.
He complained that he wasn’t working on a spaceship.
And POOF, a young female dentist reported him.
Himmler, who was trying to angle in on the production of V-2 rockets, had him charged as a communist sympathizer.
There was also fear that Von Braun, who piloted his own plane, might defect to England.
There were 14 tons of paper (!) documents on the V-2 rocket which Von Braun hid in the Harz mountains.
These were located by Army Counterintelligence (who blocked and have me blocked on Twitter).
Wernher von Braun and his brother Magnus turned over the V-2 rocket technology to the USA (and not the Soviet Union) because they ostensibly perceived the Americans to be “guided not by the laws of materialism but by Christianity”.
Hmmm.
SOUNDS good.
To flesh out the story, I should mention that Wernher von Braun conspired to be captured by the Americans (and not by the Soviets).
Von Braun and his team were housed at Fort Bliss (near El Paso, TX).
Von Braun and team then spent the next 20 years in Hunstville, Alabama.
Redstone Arsenal.
The war we are currently facing is a face-off between two nuclear powers (USA and Russia).
The USA owes its development of rocketry in a large part to a Nazi.
There are American satellites in space because of a Nazi (beginning in 1958 [Explorer 1]).
The idea and dream of traveling to Mars can largely be attributed to this same Nazi.
In 1946, this Nazi had become an Evangelical Christian after attending church in El Paso.
Pretty amazing, eh?
Makes for a good story, doesn’t it?
But is it true???
But let’s get another Nazi into the picture, shall we?
What about Kurt Debus?
The first director of Kennedy Space Center.
A NASA Nazi.
SS.
Debus joined the SA (Brownshirts) in 1933 and the SS in 1940.
By the way, Von Braun signed an affidavit where he erroneously said that he joined the SS in 1939.
He actually joined in 1937.
Hmmm.
Debus was with Von Braun at Fort Bliss.
He was also with him at Redstone.
This roving band of merry Nazis.
In the summer of 1966-67 (southern hemisphere), Von Braun went to Antarctica.
Hmmm.
And guess who came up with Space Camp for kids?
You guessed it.
A Nazi!
[Von Braun]
Jawohl!
So America (and the Soviet Union) took credit for “defeating” the Nazis.
But both countries pilfered important (and not-so-important) Nazis for various purposes.
And now Putin says he is fighting Naziism in Ukraine (which I believe).
Gerald Ford (a 33rd-degree Freemason) awarded the National Medal of Science in Engineering to Wernher von Braun in 1977.
The highest science honor that can be bestowed by the American government.
Good job, Nazi!
Von Braun is buried in Alexandria, Virginia.
Nazis like Von Braun were given American citizenship.
The U.S. Navy took Herbert Wagner.
The U.S. Army took 127 rocket scientists (including Von Braun).
The Bureau of Mines (pre- Department of Energy) took seven synthetic fuel specialists.
The USAF really liked the imported Nazis.
They took 260 of them.
Did Operation Paperclip continue until 1990?
If so, continue in what sense?
Paperclip wasn’t CIA per se.
It was run by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency.
So we could start by calling it an OSS (CIA’s predecessor agency) and Army CIC (counterintelligence corps) program.
Only problem is, the CIA came into existence in 1947.
So in what way was Paperclip NOT a CIA program?
Hmmm.
Paperclip appears to have been overseen by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
So you would have:
Army Intelligence
Naval Intelligence
Air Force Intelligence
and
State Department?!?
For instance, Magnus von Braun (Wernher’s brother) had an INSCOM dossier.
Fascinating.
Wernher von Braun’s dossier has never been made public.
Hmmm.
The U.S. military helped Kurt Blome escape to Argentina to avoid trial for human experiments conducted at Ravensbruck.
Ravensbrück.
But the CIA wanted assets.
And access.
We’re not talking about the commonly-known scientists like Wernher von Braun.
We’re talking more about people such as Paul Dickopf.
Let me reiterate, the head of INTERPOL (Dickopf) from 1968-1972 was on the CIA payroll.
We’re not talking about Camp Ashcan and the 86 Nazi leaders in Luxembourg.
But it falls somewhere in the realm of Safehaven, doesn’t it?
Let’s talk about Klaus Barbie.
U.S. “intelligence services” (CIA?) employed Klaus Barbie and helped him escape to Bolivia.
Barbie was a master of torture (as disgusting as that sounds).
This was applied in Bolivia.
Why would the United States support such a thing?
In an effort to “fight communism”, of course.
I agree that communism is bad.
And should be fought.
Indeed, capitalism and communism ought to fight each other (as ideological concepts) on the “battlefield” of economics.
But torture is unacceptable.
It is evil.
To what extent did the “U.S. intelligence services” simply (and cynically) “look the other way” in regards to Barbie torturing people in Bolivia?
We are talking about 1980.
The “Cocaine Coup”.
But you gotta go back to 1973.
And Kissinger.
In Chile.
Pinochet.
To what extent were Italian Fascists allowed to set up camp in Chile by their “intelligence services” (DINA)?
To what extent were Italian Fascists (supported by the Kissinger State Department) responsible for the overthrow of democratically-elected socialist Salvador Allende?
Pinochet.
To what extent did this 1973 coup rely upon Italian Fascists?
Where were these fascists coming from?
Were there any Nazis involved in Chile?
Where had these people been since the end of WWII?
In Francisco Franco’s Spain, perhaps?
When did Franco die?
1980s?
What role did Italian Fascists (who fought on the same side as the Nazis in WWII) play in the Operation Gladio false-flag bombings in Italy?
When did this start?
If Gladio was a stay-behind network (and it was), when was it formed?
Immediately after WWII?
Yes.
But the communists lost the first elections in postwar Italy.
Gladio didn’t really get kicking with their false-flag bombings (blamed on communists) until the 1970s.
And this is just one country’s (Argentina’s) commander for Operation Condor.
Same thing in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
Now you see why Uruguay called for Kissinger’s arrest.
Because Kissinger oversaw this program (apparently).
What time period are we talking about?
1968-1989.
We are talking about 60,000-80,000 deaths under Operation Condor.
Who was targeted?
The left-wing.
Communists.
Socialists.
But also right-wingers who “weren’t right-wing enough”.
It seems the CIA had a big role in this.
U.S. government operation.
Support often “routed” through CIA.
The U.S. military was concerned about “perceived threats” and “subversives” in Latin America.
Similar to Operation Gladio.
The end justifies the means.
A brute-force way of preventing communist takeovers.
Dirty.
Clumsy.
Evil.
Fighting one evil (communism) with another (murder/torture).
But what brought Operation Condor into being?
It was a series of coups.
Paraguay (1954).
Brazil (1964).
Bolivia (1971).
Uruguay (June 1973).
Chile (September 11, 1973).
Peru (1975).
Argentina (1976).
Wow.
That is SEVEN coups in 22 years.
And FIVE coups in FIVE years.
In five DIFFERENT Latin American countries.
How the fuck did that happen?
Did they all just spontaneously get infected with anti-communist fervor???
It seems our CIA was “watching” dissidents in Argentina and Uruguay.
And don’t forget about the Brazilian “death squads”.
With whom the CIA worked.
This communism thing must be really powerful.
Granted, it’s a fucked-up, inefficient system.
A perverted, perverse system.
But was it really necessary to “disappear” and murder all these people over???
Why not just let capitalism show its merits?
Capitalism is a value-creating juggernaut (it is!).
Why did the U.S. government feel so threatened by communism?
One reason was the USSR (which no longer exists).
All those Soviet Republics.
That giant monolithic block.
Let’s name ’em:
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Estonia
Georgia (Tbilisi, not Atlanta)
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldova (Moldavian SSR)
Russia
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan.
Wow.
How many is that?
15.
The U.S. has 50 states.
So we are more impressive, right?
The USSR covered about 8.6 million square miles.
The USA covers about 3.7 million square miles.
The Soviet Union was twice as big as America.
And it was (WAS!) communist.
And it had (and HAS!) nuclear weapons.
ICBMs.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Hell, they even have hypersonic missiles now.
And the USA doesn’t.
So Russia (the main successor) could definitely fuck us up (WIPE US OUT).
But that’s not what they wanna do.
They just want us to get the fuck off their doorstep.
Because if they wipe us out, they know we will also (simultaneously) wipe them out.
And we should understand this equation too.
But apparently we don’t.
Because we have led a NATO (Now A Terrorist Organization) that has continuously gobbled up former Soviet territories for the past 30 years (since the fall of the USSR in 1991).
But I understand why America was concerned.
I understand the concept of fighting communism in Vietnam.
I respect those soldiers who went.
Maybe that war needed to happen.
Maybe the United States was right for fighting.
But let’s be frank: what’s the strategic significance of Vietnam?
There is none.
Unless you’re in the heroin business.
Which may be the main reason we were ACTUALLY there.
Same with Afghanistan.
Heroin.
Poppies.
Oil?
The pipeline across Afghanistan?
Sure, maybe.
But that never materialized.
And why were we in Bolivia?
And Peru?
Cocaine.
Perhaps.
The “Cocaine coup” in Bolivia.
1980.
When the mafia took over the country.
With the help of Klaus Barbie.
Who worked for American intelligence (CIA?).
By the way, Russia is still the biggest country on Earth.
6.6 million square miles.
But they didn’t come to Mexico.
They don’t have a mutual-defense treaty with Canada.
They don’t have troops and military bases on our border.
Hell, they don’t even have nukes in Cuba anymore (Havana being 230 miles from Miami).
Tallinn (Estonia [part of NATO]) is 230 miles from Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Are there nukes in Tallinn?
Probably not.
But there are NATO troops in Estonia.
Right on Russia’s fucking border.
And same with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Norway.
NATO was not content to border Russia with merely Norway for 50 years (since 1949).
NATO saw fit to add Poland in 1999 and the Baltic countries in 2004.
FIVE NATO members border Russia.
That is unacceptable.
USAoutofNATO.
Now!
NoMoreNATO!
America first!
Who founded Operation Condor?
Pinochet?
Hmmm.
Don’t forget about Orlando Letelier.
Car bomb.
D.C.
Pinochet.
Operation Condor.
30,000 dead in Argentina alone.
Nuns.
Anyone even tangentially-Marxist.
I hate Marxism as much as the next capitalist (I am a proud capitalist!), BUT YOU DON’T FUCKING KILL MARXISTS JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE ADOPTED AN INEFFICIENT ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY!!!
Violent Marxists are another thing.
I have no tolerance for violent Marxists.
Whether they be BLM or Antifa.
But there should be a proportionate riposte.
If somebody commits and arson, YOU ARREST THEM.
You don’t just indiscriminately kill people.
Rule of law is the best way.
Rule of man is a pitfall.
There is, however, a problem.
The 2020 election was stolen.
And I believe Trump left office.
I believe he threw us to the wolves.
I believe our military leaders are pussies.
But Vladimir Putin, who was presented with an immediate threat on his doorstep (a creeping invasion by NATO that he personally oversaw and had patience for FOR 30 YEARS), actually did something.
So I respect Putin more than I respect Trump.
Putin, at this rate, is going to save Russia.
Trump, at this rate, will have no America left to save.
I respect Putin more than I respect the American military’s top leaders.
The American military, at this rate (if they ever decide to actually PROTECT the country), will have no America left to protect.
Death flights.
Taking dissidents out to sea by plane or helicopter and dropping them in the water.
Argentina.
Chile.
Disgusting.
Something the French also apparently did in Algeria.
Bodies washing up in Buenos Aires.
1977.
Kidnapped babies.
Illegal adoptions.
Babies taken to punish mothers who are in jail.
Don’t have a different economic philosophy.
Or we will kidnap your children.
Disgusting.
Latin America as one big network of torture and psychological warfare.
DINA in Chile (Pinochet) and SIDE in Argentina.
Propaganda.
Counter criticism.
Cultivate national pride.
I love America!
I really do.
But the best thing for America to do right now is to get the fuck out of NATO.
America first!
Operation Condor was going to murder a Uruguayan opposition politician.
And leaders of Amnesty International.
That’s pretty fucked-up!
Operation Condor really had a “if you see something, say something” mentality.
A big police state across the entirety of Latin America.
Number of dead as a result of Operation Condor:
Paraguay: 2,000
Chile: 3,196
Uruguay: 297
Brazil: 366
Argentina: 30,000
Archives of Terror.
Archivos del Terror (Spanish).
Arquivos do Terror (Portuguese).
Found in a police station in Paraguay.
4 tons of documents.
[14 tons for V-2]
Operation Condor: 50,000-90,000 people killed in South America
Condor ended in 1983 after Argentina’s defeat in the Falklands War.
The military dictatorship was ousted and democracy restored.
Desaparecidos.
The disappeared.
Perpetrators of Operation Condor who were executed:
General Carlos Prats (Chile)
Uruguayan MP Zelmar Michelini
Uruguayan MR Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz
former Bolivian President Juan José Torres
Argentina was involved with the Cocaine Coup of Klaus Barbie in Bolivia.
1980.
Italian fascists in South America.
December 1977.
Two French nuns and several founders of Madres de la Plaza de Mayo disappeared.
Put on death flights.
Dropped in the ocean.
Remains washed up on beaches south of Buenos Aires in December 1977.
Remains identified.
A commission.
COVID.
Forced disappearances.
Crimes against humanity.
Kudos to writer Ernesto Sabato.
Argentina.
Getting to the bottom of the 30,000 dead/missing/disappeared.
Life in prison:
Jorge Rafael Videla (Argentina [d. 2013])
Emilio Eduardo Massera (Argentina [d. 2010]) P2 Masonic lodge member
Roberto Eduardo Viola (Argentina [d. 1994])
Armando Lambruschini (Argentina [d. 2004])
Orlando Ramón Agosti (Argentina [d. 1997])
Omar Graffigna (Argentina [d. 2019])
Leopoldo Galtieri (Argentina [d. 2003])
Jorge Anaya (Argentina [d. 2008])
Basilio Lami Dozo (Argentina [d. 2017])
In 1986 and 1987, amnesty laws were passed to protect military officers involved in human rights abuses.
What?!?
No more prosecutions of the Dirty War.
In 1989-90, the leaders of the junta were pardoned.
An attempt at “healing”…
FUCK THAT!!!
Massera was pardoned in 1990 and lived to be 85 (d. 2010).
Massera imprisoned again in 1998.
Viola was pardoned in 1990 and died four years later.
Viola served a mere seven years in prison.
Lambruschini pardoned in 1990.
Later came under house arrest (2003).
Died 2004.
But here’s an interesting fact.
Lambruschini’s 15-year-old daughter was murdered in 1978 when a bomb was placed under her bed by an Argentine left-wing guerrilla organization.
Equally disgusting.
All because one side loves communism and the other side hates communism.
Fucking idiots!
But Operation Condor started in 1975.
So was this payback?
Either way, it’s disgusting.
Murdering children is the lowest of the low.
Total insanity.
Total EVIL!
Agosti.
Convicted of eight counts of torture.
Served a mere three years and nine months.
Was accused of 88 murders.
11 abductions of minors.
Was pardoned in 1990.
Graffigna was initially acquitted.
2003 arrested again.
Was not sentenced until 2016.
Was found responsible for the abduction, torture, and murder of a married couple in 1978.
The woman was eight-months-pregnant.
The child was born and given to an Air Force Intelligence operative.
Galtieri was sentenced in 1986 to 12 years in prison for human rights violations during the Dirty War.
He was pardoned in 1989.
Still received an Army pension for the rest of his life.
Invited to military parade in 2002.
New charges of kidnapping of children and disappearance of 18 people brought against him in 2002.
Because of his poor health, he was allowed to remain at home.
Bullshit!
Anaya was acquitted in 1985.
Spain intervened in 1997 because some of their citizens had disappeared during the Dirty War.
Extradition requested.
Request denied.
Criteria amended.
Proceedings proceed.
Extradition ceased.
Overturned.
Extraditions continue.
Heart attack.
House arrest.
Dozo was acquitted in 1985.
1989 sentenced to eight years.
Pardoned in 1990.
Didn’t even lose his rank.
Came under same extradition request from Spain.
What happened?
Lived until 2017.
Brazil’s military dictatorship lasted 21 years.
1964-1985.
Brazil also had a bullshit amnesty law that protected the human rights abuses of the military leaders.
In 1978, the Uruguayan Army crossed into Brazil and kidnapped two activists and their children: ages five and three.
The Uruguayan Army made the mistake of capturing two Brazilian journalists during this operation.
This probably saved the lives of the couple and their children.
Otherwise they would have been tortured and dropped in the ocean on a death flight.
But the couple was tortured and imprisoned for five years.
The children were sent to live with grandparents in Montevideo because the whole operation had been fucked up by the presence and arrest of the Brazilian journalists (and the ensuing international attention of this particular case).
In the case of the Brazilian reporters, they were actually kidnapped by the Brazilian military regime.
Uruguay also passed a bullshit amnesty law.
No one ever got in trouble for torturing the couple.
It is likely that two ex-Presidents of Brazil were assassinated as part of Operation Condor.
João Goulart (“heart attack” )and Juscelino Kubitschek (“car accident”).
Goulart was likely poisoned.
Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998.
The “big wedding” was Franco’s funeral in Spain.
That’s when Pinochet met Italian fascist Stefano Delle Chiaie.
It is quite possible that Pablo Neruda was murdered by the Pinochet regime.
Reagan finally withdrew support for Pinochet after the Chilean Army set two protestors on fire.
We’ll end with this.
Colonia Dignidad.
Chile.
Germans.
Nazis.
Internment, torture, and murder of dissidents in the underground tunnels of a farm known as the Dignity Colony (Colonia Dignidad).
1970s.
During Pinochet regime.
Leader of Colonia Dignidad: Paul Schäfer.
German fugitive.
Colonia Dignidad later changed its name to Villa Baviera.
This facility existed about 200 miles south of Santiago from 1961-2005.
Sexual abuse and torture of young children were committed there.
Torture and execution of political dissidents (under Pinochet) were committed there.
Schäfer spent a mere five years in prison at the end of his life.
He had been a rumored child molester (in Germany) since 1945.
He lost his job as an Evangelical preacher on account of this.
In 1959, he was charged with sexually abusing two boys.
He fled.
The Chilean ambassador to Germany invited him to Chile.
He set up a cult near Parral, Chile (the Colonia Dignidad).
Schäfer had a bit of David Koresh about him.
A coup against Salvador Allende was organized at Colonia Dignidad by Germans including Roberto Thieme.
Schäfer began punishing children in his cult by electric shocks to their genitalia.
After the coup, Colonia Dignidad became a secret detention, torture, and execution center for DINA (the National Intelligence Directorate under Pinochet’s military government).
Then the biological weapons production began.
#biolabs
Nazis in Ukraine.
CIA Nazis.
CIA protecting Ukrainian Nazis after WWII who should have been subject to Nuremberg.
Schäfer used sedatives on children and then raped them.
The farm contained “subterranean living containers”.
Tunnels.
Schäfer was charged with all matter of crimes.
He fled.
He was found in 2005 in Buenos Aires.
There was a plethora of military weaponry buried at Colonia Dignidad.
2006: Schäfer sentenced to 20 years for abusing 25 children.
He was found guilty on five counts of child rape.
The compound was surrounded by barbed wire and had searchlights and a watchtower.
There were underground prisons.
There may have been cooperation between the BND (Klaus Barbie’s employer from 1965 onwards) and Colonia Dignidad.
Only German was spoken inside the colony.
Children were “imported” from German.
Schäfer first arrived in the early-1960s with kidnapped children.
Illegal adoptions.
Torture in the tunnels.
Torture specifically tailored to their personality.
At least 100 murders at Colonia Dignidad.
A Soviet-born math professor from Penn State disappeared while hiking near Colonia Dignidad in 1985.
Escapees of the colony claim that the facility housed former Nazis.
But who did Chilean secret police operative Michael Townley report to about the DINA/Colonia Dignidad links?
Fucking INTERPOL!!!
Was the head of INTERPOL in 2005 also on the CIA payroll (as the head of INTERPOL from 1968-1972 had been)???
What Townley seems to have done right is expose Colonia Dignidad as a LABORATORY ON BIOLOGICAL WARFARE!!!
Biological experiments were done on political prisoners at Colonia Dignidad.
Now here is the fucking kicker.
The CIA and Simon Wiesenthal have both proven that Josef Mengele was at Colonia Dignidad.
This South American network for escaped Nazis was partially supported by Juan Perón in Argentina.
Was Klaus Barbie at Colonia Dignidad?
I would not doubt it.
Former SS and Gestapo TAUGHT torture methods at Colonia Dignidad to the Chilean secret police.
Just as Barbie would later do in Bolivia–teaching the Bolivian military.
Hartmut Hopp was Schäfer’s “right hand man” at Colonia Dignidad.
He went with Schäfer at age 17 to Chile in 1961.
Michael Townley, an American-born former agent of Chile’s DINA (wait…what?!? how the fuck did he get that job???) pled guilty to the 1976 car-bombing murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt.
There was a plea bargain.
He was not extradited to Argentina (where he was wanted for the 1974 murders of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife).
He was convicted in absentia in Italy for the 1975 murder attempt on Bernardo Leighton.
What was Townley’s specialty (apart from being a prolific assassin)?
Chemical and biological weapons.
And who did he develop these for?
For his employer DINA.
With the help of Colonel Gerardo Huber and DINA biochemist Eugenio Berríos.
Townley moved to Chile in 1957 at the age of 15.
His dad worked for Ford.
In Chile.
Townley came back to Miami.
Hooked up with anti-Castro Cubans.
Prats and his wife were killed with a radio controlled car bomb.
Enter Italian fascists again.
Townley was the go-between for DINA and Avanguardia Nazionale.
Enter Stefano Delle Chiaie again.
Connection to DINA.
Townley got a mere five years and two months in jail for the murders of Letelier and Moffitt.
Whether truthful or not, DINA’s now-deceased chief Manuel Contreras claims that Townley was partially working for the CIA when he murdered Letelier and Moffitt.
This was around the time that Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters was Deputy Directory of Central Intelligence (CIA).
Walters proposed an American military intervention in Italy in 1961 if the Socialist Party had won.
Townley give us the goods on the Laboratorio de Guerra Bacteriológica de Ejército (Bacteriological Warfare Laboratory of the Army) that was located at Colonia Dignidad.
Carmelo Soria (a Spanish diplomat) was assassinated in 1992 with sarin gas produced at Colonia Dignidad.
It is thought that Pablo Neruda was assassinated with an injection of Staphylococcus aureus.
The sarin gas was produced with the expertise of biochemist Eugenio Berríos.
Other bioweapons Berríos produced were anthrax and botulism.
Berríos also produced cocaine for Pinochet.
There is a suspicion that he worked for both drug traffickers and the DEA.
Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva was likely killed with a poison devoloped by Berríos.
Did Operation Condor continue as La Cofradia?
Don’t underestimate Chile’s role in Haiti.
MINUSTAH.
Eduardo Aldunate Hermann.
Berríos producing “black cocaine”.
Gerardo Huber also worked on the DINA biochem program.
Stepan Bandera.
2010.
Awarded title Hero of Ukraine.
By Viktor Yushchenko.
Banderites.
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
And here’s the magic bullet, you fuckers:
Mykola Lebed.
Leader of OUN-B.
Responsible for the genocide of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
Died in 1998 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (aged 89).
Why?
Because he had “a relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War”.
His Prolog (or Prologue) Research Organization in New York (where he emigrated) was funded by the CIA.
Lebed gathered intel on the Soviet Union.
The CIA paid him for this.
The CIA shielded Lebed (as late as 1991) from prosecution for war crimes (aka “his wartime connections to the Nazis”).
How many people did Lebed massacre?
50,000-100,000.
And the CIA hired him.
Yes.
Putin is right.
Ukrainian Nazis exist.
And they have for a long time.
And we’re not just talking about the Azov Battalion.
Lebed was the chief of a Nazi Abwehr school for espionage and sabotage in 1939-1940.
Lebed took over Stepan Bandera’s faction in western Ukraine.
During AND AFTER the Cold War, the CIA supported the OUN.
What groups are we talking about?
Svoboda.
Right Sector.
Ukrainian National Assembly — Ukrainian National Self Defense.
Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists.
Babi Yar/Babyn Yar.
Ukrainian Auxiliary Police.
Made up of people from Ukrainian People’s Militia.
Svoboda. 2014. Euromaidan. Major role.
Yatsenyuk (installed by U.S./Soros coup) had three Svoboda ministers.
Sich Battalion formed by Svoboda for war in Donbass.
Why is billionaire Ukrainian Jew Ihor Kolomoyskyi an apologist for Svoboda?
He’s the second or third richest person in Ukraine.
Kolomoysky has triple citizenship: Ukraine, Israel, and Cyprus.
What if I type in white? Ahh, yes. That does the trick. But it ruins my style. Louis-Ferdinand would not be happy. Totally Air. Pocket Symphony. Who is Kevin? Shields? Ayers? Fairlight. Synth clouds. Rich chords. Very sophisticated harmonies and arrangements. Cornelius from Japan. This sounds very modern. OH FUCK! Groove is in the motherfucking heart. Vogue! So on track two, we are straight up on a catwalk. But it could be Alan Vega or Martin Rev. Kinda Sun City Girls. Zoviet France. Fridmann never gets this crazy with bass. Wayne is driving it weirder. This was, from what I hear, done with ZERO budget. Is this a dance album? First you have poetry. Then you are prose. Amateurs. Into Odelay. That was a good drum break. The Strokes. Fuzzy vocals. Paliament/Funkadelic. Sly Stone! Later Stereolab. Tim Gane processing. Counter melody! For fuck’s sake. Somebody listen to this bloke. Whoa. What is up with this chorus? Roland Kirk? Like in Switzerland? Definitely hitting some Os Mutantes twee. Lo-fi as fuck. Great Godard tongue in cheek. Apparently about Neil Young and Rick James being in a band together when they were young and still in Canada. Yonge Street? Beats. Drake needs to hear this. Bit crusher lisp. Spiritualized at the grocery store. Swipe barcode. Song peaks at end. Masterful mix. A true climax. Savage mastering on every album. Whole mix jumps. It works. Needle skipping. American Supreme. Claustrophobic. COVID. Sad. Scared. Apocalyptic. The concept of the gaze in cinema. Bass drops in. Feel it in your sex organs. A sexy song. “Cobra Strike”. This is unequivocally a dance album. EDM all up in here. Lots of panning. Spliff it. Micro gestures. Pandemic planning. How long will it last? Soul-crushing. Zombie metaphor. Shaun of the Dead. Masterpiece. Beatle drums. First Velvets album. Rat trails. “Black Angel’s Death Song”. “The New Pollution”. Dr. No. Walther PPK. What does this kid know? He can’t possibly know, can he? Pure phase. Visconti. Lanois. Acid jazz. Nick Cave. Montage, mon beau souci. Flaming Lips. Jeff Tweedy drawl. Jesus and Mary Chain team up with The Cure. Disintegration. Heartbreak here. Who broke his heart? Bleeps and bloops. Robot noises. Heartbeeps. Jazz funk ’70s experimental upright. Great lyrics. Superimposition. Steenbeck! Fucking great lyrics on “Snip Snip”. Oh, damn. Glockenspiel at just the right time! Icy. Air. Virgin suicides. Dazed and confused. Blonde. Braids. Like glazed bread. German. Texas. Floating world. Old world. No one to smoke a doobie with and stare up at green trees. No tits. What is wrong with this world? Rambo. Fort Bragg. Delta. Boykin. Intelligence Support Activity. Send me. George Crumb. Black angels. Jungle echoes. 4thPOG. Ghosts. PSYWAR op. Make it loud. Romeo foxtrot. Shall we dance? Charlie don’t surf. Death on the dance floor. Public Image Ltd. Modes of limited transposition. Messiaen. Primal Scream. Standing with Johnny Rotten. #Trump2021 . But this is more about big tits. Giant opals. Garth Hudson. Telegraph. Total loss. Persona non grata. Window still missing. Swastika eyes. Paul Weller. XTRMNTR. Shoot speed. Kill light. Eyes owned 2020. The ugly had a chance. Masks work…if you’re ugly and need to get laid. Back with another block rocking’ beat. Private psychedelic reel. War metaphor. Is this about election? No. Too early. Look at liner notes. Living in COVID times was like a world war. War just beginning? Got my pina colada. Fuck it! Arizona. Living boldly. Masks have lost. Two weeks. Could have been a contender. Circuit bending. Talking about big titty schizophrenic. All footwork ruined. Toys. Falling apart gremlin workmanship. Awkward line about Thora Birch. Explicit warnings a little lazy. Getting a bit Lenny Bruce up in here. Russ Meyer. Second line. Double time. Crazy drums. Smooth as Sade. Tambourine is the star. One organic element. Wrote a song. She didn’t care. Wrote her 200 songs. She didn’t care. One has zero plays globally. She never bothered listening to it. Some things not meant to be. Liberals and conservatives. Go and create. Lobster. Work wasn’t. Bought her every flower imaginable. Thousands of dollars on flowers. Yoshimi laser warfare. A piano not standard. Some Tori Amos bullshit. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Only the finest pianos. Internationally famous. Neither deserve it. Pulled the plug at the wrong time. Would he have still kept the same track listing? Maybe so. Heartbreak to rehash. Goes by quick. Good drum programming. James Bond future theme. Brian Wilson. Phil Spector. Absolute Nigel Godrich. Cinematic. The album that never was. But this one is worldwide, motherfuckers. Third this summer. And a fourth already out. I can hardly keep up. I need to review movies. Doesn’t Pauly Deathwish know I don’t have time for Galaga? Falling apart. Short-circuit. Charlotte Gainsbourg. Flashback to Bucolic.
I consider it an auspicious sign that my survey of Indian cinema begins in earnest with the masterpiece Filmistaan.
Do not mistake this piece of cinema for a half-baked idea.
Do not even attempt to lower it by calling it a comedy.
And not least, do not think only of India.
I wanted to come up with a catchy pigeonhole.
Indian Subcontinent.
The Subcontinent.
But I have too much respect for the great traditions of Bollywood (and Lollywood) to do such a thing.
And so this is very much an Indian film.
India.
And it is very much a comedy.
So funny!
But it is touching in a way to which few films can ever aspire.
Filmistaan, like Roberto Benigni’s magnum opus La vita è bella, takes on a very serious subject with the best weapon of all: humor.
But instead of the Holocaust, we get the Partition.
And yet, Filmistaan is not some laborious period piece.
[leave that to the artless Spielbergs]
No, our film addresses the tension between India and Pakistan in the most deft, feather-light manner imaginable.
And for this we have to thank a new auteur on the world stage: Nitin Kakkar.
I say “new” because Mr. Kakkar has not been graced with the honor of his own Wikipedia page in English yet.
Well, he is wholly deserving of that honor (based on Filmistaan alone).
But Mr. Kakkar had to have magical actors to pull this off.
Luckily for him, he did!
Sharib Hashmi is undoubtedly the star of this picture.
His performance as Sunny goes from the highest highs of emotion to the lowest lows.
It is truly remarkable.
Mr. Hashmi is about one month older than me.
40 years old.
Perhaps that’s why I identified with his youthful optimism and passionate devotion to cinema.
But to understand our film, we must first locate Rajasthan on a map.
It is the biggest state in India.
It is northwest.
And it borders Pakistan.
To understand Rajasthan, we must comprehend the Thar Desert.
Most of the Thar Desert is in Rajasthan, but it extends somewhat into Pakistan.
These are all important details in understanding our film.
Rajasthan is arid.
Like the American Southwest, it’s a good place to get lost…or kidnapped.
But friends are to be found in the most unlikely places.
And the friendship of shared interest, such as two cinema devotees, knows no borders.
For Mr. Hashmi, the brilliance of his performance depends on the artful support he receives from fellow-actor Inaamulhaq.
But let’s examine the divide between India and Pakistan for a moment.
It is a fact that a man from Peshawar (if he speaks Urdu) can communicate with a man from Delhi (if he speaks Hindi).
Peshawar, of course, is in Pakistan.
Indeed, it’s so far into Pakistan that it’s almost in Afghanistan.
Delhi, of course, is in India.
It is in the north-central part of the country.
It is, further, not essential that the two talkers hypothesized above be men.
The salient detail is that Hindi and Urdu are essentially the same language (in their spoken forms).
This is vital to understanding Filmistaan.
But continuing, the two languages could not look more different once they are written down.
[Which is to say, the two hypothesized men might be at loggerheads were they forced to communicate with pen and paper]
Urdu looks similar to its written forebear Farsi (the language of Iran) [which is itself a descendent of Arabic script].
To put it quite simply, a neophyte like myself would probably have a difficult time telling the difference between Urdu, Persian (Farsi), and Arabic.
Hindi is in the wholly different Devanagari script.
You will not confuse written Urdu and Hindi.
It’s at least as obvious as Picasso to Pollock (if not Warhol to Rembrandt).
But enough analogies.
Why should you watch Filmistaan?
Well, for one…it’s currently on Netflix.
Yes, ever since I have joined the streaming service, I have ventured to be a more “worthwhile” film critic by giving you relatively-spoiler-free reviews of current titles to be found on the U.S. version of the site.
But that’s only the beginning.
Yes, there are wonderful performances from Kumud Mishra and Gopal Dutt (as well as a plethora of fine supporting actors).
But the real reason is that Filmistaan expresses the sublime.
The context is terrorism.
The context is border tension.
Indeed, on the Indian Subcontinent, the context is two nuclear states.
Pakistan and India.
But the context goes back.
To Jinnah and Nehru.
And the threads bind.
Cricket. Cinema. Music.
There is an excellent example in Filmistaan which illustrates the situation.
Dilip Kumar.
Now 94 years old.
Like my hypothetical man from earlier, born in Peshawar.
Then a part of “Pre-Independence India”.
Now a part of Pakistan.
Bordering Afghanistan.
In Filmistaan, Inaamulhaq knows him as Sir Yusuf.
Sunny knows him as Dilip.
Dilip Kumar was born Muhammad Yusuf Khan in Peshawar in 1922.
Sir Yusuf.
Dilip Kumar.
Same person.
It’s like the World Wars.
fenêtre in French
das Fenster in German
window.
/\
fenêtre /\ Fenster
But when you look through a window (or a border), everything can look backwards.
You’re so close, in reality.
But you’re reading the word as if in a mirror.
Nitin Kakkar directed a masterpiece with Filmistaan because he put his heart and soul into evoking peace.
There are no winners in a nuclear war.
And peace is a rare commodity on the world stage.
Geopolitics…
But we must reach out that hand.
And shake it.
I congratulate Nitin Kakkar and Sharib Hashmi for their dedication.
It is evident.
Though I speak neither Hindi nor Urdu, I was able to watch.
And understand.
I needed the subtitles.
But sublime emotions may be mutually intelligible across cultures.
I have always written about Edward Snowden glowingly.
But this film is an enigma.
If you know the history of film, you realize that certain filmmakers (particularly Robert Flaherty) presented staged events as if they were documentaries.
This is known as docufiction.
And if you have followed my take on the two US Presidential candidates (Johnson and Stein can suck it…though Stein has true credibility), you’ll know that my assessment of Trump and Clinton has been mainly through the lens of film.
What we (I) look for is credibility.
Having watched all three Presidential debates (in addition to extensive supplemental research), it has been a no-brainer to conclude that Hillary Clinton has ZERO credibility while Donald Trump has immense credibility.
The differentiation could not be more mark-ed.
[Docu-fiction]
But what about Edward Snowden?
Let me start off by saying that Mr. Snowden does not come off as a wholly believable whistleblower in this film.
Perhaps Laura Poitras’ inexperience as a filmmaker is to blame.
Perhaps it is indeed because Edward Snowden is no actor.
But Mr. Snowden is completely inscrutable and opaque in this documentary.
HOWEVER…
there is something about his ostensible North Carolina drawl which rings true.
And so there are two major possibilities…
Edward Snowden is an extremely brave individual who succeeded in “defecting to the side of the public” (to paraphrase)
Edward Snowden is a superspy
I had read of Snowden. In studying what he had leaked, his credibility seemed beyond a shadow of a doubt. Such a damaging agent could not possibly have been a Trojan horse operation (so I thought).
Indeed, the most believable part of this film is the last 10 minutes or so.
Sadly, my “copy” of the movie switched to a German overdub for this final segment.
Which is to say, I was more focused on images in the finale.
Every once in a while I was able to make out the beginning of a phrase from William Binney or Glenn Greenwald.
At all other times during this last portion, the German superimposed upon the English made the latter an almost palimpsest.
My German is that bad.
Entschuldigung.
But here are my reservations concerning hypothesis #1 (from above).
A). Glenn Greenwald’s earliest interview after the leak was clearly shot with the skyline of Hong Kong in the background. It is somewhat inconceivable that the NSA in conjunction with the CIA (and possibly the FBI or DIA) did not immediately follow Greenwald’s every move from that point forward (courtesy of operatives under the Hong Kong station chief of the CIA).
B). Glenn Greenwald is a little too smooth to be believable (the same going for Snowden). Greenwald’s sheer fluency in Portuguese (a bizarre choice for a second language) seems particularly suspect. The credulous me wants to believe that Greenwald is simply brilliant. The incredulous me sees Greenwald as just as much a CIA operative as Snowden.
Indeed, hypothesis #2 would be that Edward Snowden is in fact a CIA operative. His complete calm at The Mira hotel in Hong Kong does not harmonize with a computer geek who just lifted the largest cache of the most top-secret files in world history. Instead, his mannerisms almost all point to someone who has been hardened and trained at Camp Peary rather than someone who grew up so conveniently close to NSA headquarters.
Snowden is admittedly a former employee of the CIA.
But what could the purpose of such a Trojan horse exercise possibly be?
One strong possibility comes to mind.
As we learn in Dr. Strangelove, there’s no purpose in having a “doomsday machine” if the enemy doesn’t know about it.
In fact, we don’t even need cinema to illustrate this.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were demonstrations as much as they were mass-murder war crimes.
Weapons are “tested” often as much for the power of display as for the exercise of weapon efficacy.
But the world has always been a weird place.
And it is indeed possible that Edward Snowden is an idealistic, independent party in this affair.
The esteemed Dr. Steve Pieczenik (of whom I have spoken much recently) has lately called Snowden “no hero”.
I’m not exactly sure what he means by that.
Possibly Pieczenik knows the Snowden affair to positively be an intel operation.
Possibly Dr. Pieczenik (whom I respect deeply) merely sees Snowden as of no great bravery when compared to the men and women (both military and intelligence employees) who risk their lives on battlefields across the world…by direct order through the US chain of command.
But Dr. Pieczenik has also pointed out that some orders must be disobeyed.
That is part of the responsibility of defending the Constitution “against all enemies foreign and domestic”.
So we have a very interesting case here.
And it directly parallels our current election choices.
What SEEMS to be?
What is patriotism?
At what point must standard operating procedures be put aside?
What constitutes peaceful protest?
Who among us has the duty and privilege to spearhead a countercoup?
I’ve often thought to myself that I would be a horrible NSA employee because I would have a framed picture of Snowden on my desk.
Suffice it to say, I’m sure that is strictly NOT ALLOWED.
But this film makes me doubt the Snowden story.
As a further instructive detail, why does Snowden (in this film) feel so confident in his ability to withstand torture (!) as a means of coercing from him his password(s)?
Again, that does not sound like a standard ability of an “infrastructure analyst”.
Snowden does not admit in this film to ever having been a field operative.
Indeed, it almost feels like Louisiana Story or Tabu: A Story of the South Seas when Snowden drapes a red article of cloth over his head and torso to ostensibly prevent Greenwald and Poitras from visually seeing his keystrokes.
It is overly dramatic.
These are thoughts.
No doubt, someone knows much more than me about the truth in this strange tale.
And so the film is, in turns, shockingly brilliant and daftly mediocre.
In a strange way, it is just as suspect as James Bamford’s books on the NSA (which I have long suspected were really NSA propaganda pieces).
One of the keys to propaganda and social engineering is gaining the trust of your targets.
In a large-scale psychological operation, the entire world (more or less) is the target.
Back to cinema, we need look no further than Eva Marie Saint “shooting” Cary Grant in North by Northwest.
Yes, Body of Secrets (Bamford) was damaging to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and US military in general (the revelation of Operation Northwoods) while also exposing Israel as a craven “ally” (the USS Liberty “incident”).
But if we are not careful, we are taken in by these juicy bits of “truth” (in all likelihood, very much true) on our way to accepting the whole book as an accurate exposé.
And this is what makes the world of intelligence so tricky.
Like a chess game in which you are blindsided by a brilliant move.
It takes years (perhaps decades) or an innate brilliance (perhaps both) to discern the organic from the synthetic in the shifting sands of this relativistic world of espionage.
paulydeathwish 