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Hmmm? Why isn’t America doing something like this?
Britain will spend £18 million on a 'fake news fund' to counter Russian meddling in Eastern Europe, ministers have announced.
Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, said the money would be spent bolstering independent journalists and broadcasters to prevent disinformation campaigns “undermining and destabilising” former Soviet countries.
The money is part of a wider £100 million pound Conflict, Stability and Security Fund aimed at combating fake news campaigns in Europe and central Asia over the next five years.
www.telegraph.co.uk — July 8, 2019
Answer: Donald Trump — and his ‘brain-checked’ followers — do not approve.
Unfortunately, the producers of “fake news” often get-away with damaging real world consequences.
In the past few years, Russian news outlets and social media accounts have drawn international accusations of trying to manipulate narratives away from facts and sow controversy that would benefit Russia and hurt its enemies.
“Building on the experience of the Salisbury incident, the U.K. has become a global leader in countering disinformation,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt stated at the time.
Hunt referred to a series of Russian reports that alleged the U.K. had suppressed or falsified evidence during the investigation of the nerve agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei and his daughter Yulia Skripal in the city of Salisbury. An international investigation identified Russian operatives as being behind the attack and they’re wanted on criminal charges in London.
www.kyivpost.com, Ukriane’s Global Voice — July 11, 2019
Question: If Russia did have access to incriminating — yet accurate — private memos against Trump, would Putin use them, if it suited his international Agenda?
Answer: If Putin was a global power-hungry opportunist — he would.
LONDON — UK officials are investigating whether the Russian government hacked secret diplomatic memos which branded Donald Trump "inept and incompetent," Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has confirmed.
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The so-called "diplomatic telegrams" sent by [Sir Kim Darroch, the UK ambassador in Washington] to senior UK officials revealed an unfavourable assessment of the current President and his "dysfunctional" White House administration, prompting a major Foreign Office investigation into the source of the leak.
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The inquiry into who leaked the tranche of documents initially focused on senior UK politicians and officials, but senior Foreign Office figures now believe an enemy government hoping to destabilise relations between Western powers could have been behind it.
Jeremy Hunt told The Sun Newspaper: "Of course it would be massively concerning if it was the act of a foreign, hostile state.
www.businessinsider.com — July 9, 2019
Question: Is Trump insecure and narcissistic enough, to respond to incriminating — yet accurate — private memos against him, on the international stage?
Answer: If Trump was a MAGA-base power-hungry opportunist — he would.
“I don’t see why he wouldn’t be.”
Donald Trump has lambasted the United Kingdom's ambassador to the United States over a leaked diplomatic memo describing his presidency as "dysfunctional," "incompetent," and "inept."
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In the notes, the UK ambassador to the US [Sir Kim Darroch] said that Trump's government was "uniquely dysfunctional" and added: "We don't really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal."
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[Jeremy] Hunt said: "It's really important to say that the ambassador was doing his job as an ambassador which is to give frank reports and personal opinions about what's happening in the country where he works, and that's his job to send back those reports but they are personal opinions, not the opinions of the British government, not my opinion.
www.businessinsider.com — July 8, 2019
So in this dangerous age of Fake News, Leaked Memos, and Petty Personal Outrage — this is the real world consequence for holding “private, but true opinions” ….
by Martin Kettle, Foreign Policy, The Guardian — July 10, 2019
Donald Trump’s role in the Washington ambassador’s exit has driven a stake through the heart of the UK’s postwar self-image
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Darroch was brought down by three people. The first was the leaker of successive critical memos from the Washington embassy, who gave them to one of Britain’s most effective pro-Brexit journalists. The second was President Trump, who followed up on the leaks with a fusillade of personal insults and punitive actions of his own which brought Darroch to the brink. And the third was Boris Johnson, who knowingly refused to express confidence in Darroch during Tuesday’s ITV leadership hustings with Jeremy Hunt. It was Johnson’s action that led directly to Darroch’s inevitable resignation today.
Each of these requires us to pause and digest the implications. First, consider the leaker. This must have been either a senior insider – a politician or diplomat – with access to highly classified material. Alternatively, it may have been an outside job, a hack or intercept, possibly by the agent of a state bent on mischief. Either way, these options are devastating for the practicality of diplomatic cables in the modern era. They are a reminder too of the extent to which Brexit subverts the workings of the British state. There’s been nothing like it for alternative loyalty since the Soviet spies of the cold-war era.
Second, consider Trump. He didn’t have to turbo-charge the leak. He will have had some around him who tried to stop him. But he did it once, and then he did it again. These were knowing acts, deliberate interventions, designed to weaken a country that thinks of itself, and is still often seen in Washington, as America’s special ally. They were a wilful assertion of power over Britain; an attempt to fire and hire Britain’s envoy. It was a crude act with implications for any country that seeks alliance with America or indeed with any other global power. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will have been watching approvingly. For Britain, though, it is a stake through the heart of its entire postwar self-image.
Finally, consider [Boris] Johnson. Though he has mainly been in hiding while the Brexiters’ coup against Theresa May works itself through the Tory party to his benefit, Johnson’s ITV debate exposed once again a politician who can rival Trump for self-centred and ruthless opportunism. Tuesday reminded us that, in Johnson’s world, other people are always expendable.
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We live in precarious times. The “thought police” are on patrol.
And they don’t give a damn about your rights and your opinions.
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All they care about is whether or not they have effective enough tools and methods, to reach their global power-consolidating, extreme Right-wing Agenda.
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