Delayed Russia Report Underwhelms

Russia Report Finally Arrives to an Underwhelming Reception

The 2016 “Brexit” referendum and the 2017 election were scrutinized by The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament in its

“Russia Report “: (the ‘ISC’ is appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community)

Three ‘expert commentators ‘ discussed the Report on Going Underground, a current-events program:
The Daily Mail Consultant Editor Andrew Pierce:
Max Blumenthal director of ‘The Grayzone’ news service
Lord Balfe , The Tory peer of 60 years.
Afshin Rattansi was the journalist-broadcaster interviewing them….

Pierce agreed that the Report focussed criticism on the government.Yet it did nothing to implicate PM Johnson himself. In fact PM Johnson announced ‘ it has given me a clean bill of health’. Adding, that claims of Russian control of UK elections were “just froth” as he countered Labour accusations of insufficient investigative effort from the Tories. Johnson’s focus is indeed not on Russia but China can be corroborated by the sending of a UK military aircraft carrier to the maritime borders of China.
The Report continued, in similar vein, to describe the Russian news Broadcaster RT as ‘biased’ and a ‘ actual and potential danger ‘: However individual presenters remained exonerated. PM Johnson disagreed that RT was a threat: born out by the drama of Johnson’s rebuke of Labour’s Kier Starmer, for wanting RT effectively banned: Starmer had asked the UK’s media regulator to pull RT’s license .
Pierce found it ‘odd’ that controversial figure and arch-conspiracist Chris Steele appeared as an “expert witness”. Blumenthal agreed Steele had been discredited in the USA: The US Senate Judiciary Committee had, in previous investigations, revealed the inauthenticity of Steele’s sources .Thus the legitimacy of our UK Report could be said to be damaged.
Pierce contrasted the Report’ claims of foreign interference with our own governments subterfuges ” A figure called Christopher Donnelly heads the ” Integrity Initiative Think Tank “: a covert troll farm, posing as a legitimate operation. It is secretly funded by the the Foreign Office via the shadowy Institute For Statecraft. It subverts clusters of journalists, using them to meddle in the careers of EU diplomats and national security officers who are pro-Russian. This inappropriate figure gave testimonies for the Report says Blumenthal. Blumenthal points out another such figure performing his ‘designated role’ within the ‘national security establishment’ i.e. Kier Starmer. The secret services groomed and cultivated him when he was director at the crown prosecution services, he states. Questions about KS remain unanswered: Why is he enforcing the ‘antisemitism code of silence over Israeli transgressions’ against anyone who questions UK policy as the West Bank is annexed ? What was his role in the prosecution and persecution of Julian Assange ? Why did Starmer (being the head of public prosecution) meet with MI5 for informal drinks in April 2013, before the time he decided not to prosecute MI5 for committing torture. Blumenthal says now Starmer is in a political role, he can enforcing the agenda of the security sate, which is to silence any broadcaster which provides a counter-hegemonic view or platforms voices which threaten their political imperatives. Balfe agrees on Starmer’s being a ‘new cold war’ stooge and gives as example the observation that Starmer has banned his front bench from appearing on RT.
The report moots the benefits of a proposed ” Espionage Act” or “Foreign Agents Act ” for the UK. Blumenthal reminded us that America, unpleasantly, has an ‘espionage act’ ; under which journalist Assange is famously wanted in a Virginia courtroom, for the crime of spying. Obama was in fact the instigator for this trend of prosecution. He used it against a record number of whistleblowers: e.g. Geoffrey Sterling, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou. The resultant ‘chilling effect’ on security service staff and Washington’s press staff , makes them fearful of publishing official secrets or speaking out for Assange. Blumenthal says the Espionage Act is a totally outdated concept and he is afraid for UK freedoms if we started to bring it in. Blumenthal continues: The fear of espionage had been weaponised by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: He congratulated the UK’s Foreign Secretary for blocking Huawei from 5G progress in UK. This fear of Chinese espionage being just a ruse to stymie China economically.
The Report warns against Russian manipulation of journalism and media, yet, says Blumenthal , USA-UK are old hands at that. Take the uproar in the Western Press over claimed Uyghur concentration camps, claims of mass killing, torture and internment of a quarter of the people by the Chinese Communist Party.
Investigator Nathan Law thought this odd, so he examined the claims sources: Only two sources for these genocide type reports existed .
The first was a person called Adrian Zenz: During the time of his Uyghur claims , he had never gone to China nor could he speak Mandarin. He is a RW homophobe, he is anti-diversity and ‘on a mission from God against Godless China’ as he himself says. He is the director of a RW organisation called ‘ The Victims of Communism Memorial Fund ‘ funded by Washington. His data does not stand up to scrutiny says Nathan Law.
The second source of the anti-China allegations comes from the organisation called ” Human Rights Defenders ” again funded by USA government.
They extrapolated witness evidence from a mere eight Uyghur persons to the entire region. The result was that incredulous claim of 250K to 1.0M being in camps.
This organisation is weaponising minority ethnic perceptions to achieve geopolitical goals.
The offices of ‘The World Uyghur Congress ‘ are funded by ‘ The National Endowment for Democracy’ A USA funded QANGO which thinks in a ‘cold war language’.
In Portland we see how the Presidency is interfering in public perceptions in the USA in the same way Russia is accused. Trump is using his enhanced homeland security powers to deploy the Federal Guard against peaceful protesters, to stir up a phoney culture war to attack his political opponents. Russia is accused of interference yet today we see USA’s scandalous interference in the ME: as demonstrated by the suspicious (after falling from a first floor window) death of James LeMesurier of the ‘Syrian White Hats ‘so called ‘humanitarian group’. UK and US money was funnelled into this group to establish extremist militias to foment the criminal proxy war there. LeMesurier had probably deceiving the donor governments and paid the price of his calumny. USA and UK continue funding of this organisation.
Pierce was asked why Johnson had tried to delay the Report . To explain this it was pointed out that the Brexiteers in Number-10 disliked the chairman of the investigation: Dominic Grieve; Grieve was the former Attorney General who revealed, before the Brexit Bill vote, that he was going to rebel, and had previously said he would stop a no-deal Brexit even if it means Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister.
He said he wanted to remain in the Conservative Party to “save” it from the likes of Mr Johnson – whose rhetoric he blamed for receiving death threats.Before the vote , he said he knew he could have have the whip removed but had not been directly threatened. indeed Grieve was one of the 21 anti-Brexit MP’s removed from Tory Whip last September. DG was planning to run agains Johnson’s Tory Party as an independent.Johnson delayed the report as a political snub, Pierce theorises. Pierce suggests a further source of delay could be due to MI5’s lack of cooperation. This is merely a consequence of the secrecy in operation. Evidenced by the great deal of redaction in the Report
Pierce discussed the lack of Russian names in the Report ( Only one oligarch Aaron banks was mentioned and his is not Russian ). No evidence was found that Banks was in collusion with Russia. Pierce said this is why he finds the report underwhelming. Blumenthal is also of the view that the Reports conclusions are no way near those held by “Russiagaters” in fact the Report says no evidence of election interference was found but The Report adds a ridiculous ‘let out clause ‘ by saying Theresa may and Boris Jonson did not work hard enough to find evidence. Blumenthal agreed that this was a highly political and scandalous statement to be in a security Report.
Balfe’s opinion is contrary to that in the Report with respect to RT. He says that RT has low viewing figures and would be unlikely to influence an electorate and secondly Manchester University academic researchers had examined RT in 2019 and found it to be “satisfactory and unbiased.”
“ That RT could do actual and potential harm.” is a nonsense statement Balfe emphasised.
Conservative Life Peer Lord Balfe MP. former member of international relations committee He discusses the findings of the Russia Report, When asked if Putins spies operate in the Lords he replied that
it actually says is some Lords have business links to Russia . That is unexceptional . We must remember a Russian millionaire owns the Evening Standard a major London paper. He continued that he had spent 60 years in foreign affairs. To say Russian power is influencing Westminster as per the Report is wrong . It
absolutely is not. We Peers are placed in the House of Lords give advice on new laws, due to our experience and wide interests, not how much we are lobbied by foreign powers.
Balfe was asked about influences from party donors. He replied that if you are saying Johnson is a stooge of Putin because he receives a little funding from Russian individuals , that is laughable.
Balfe wants Putin Macron Johnson and Merckle to come together as a unified polity called Europe. The reason to do this is to stand up to the problem of China in the future. Russia is not the problem. The problem will be China.
About Russia and Brexit: No country had anything to do with the Brexit result.
It is the xenophobia of the British vs EU. I don’t blame Russia
the report says MI5 did not look hard enough for interference…
well its not their job to find evidence of anything influencing a vote in any election or referendum especially if they took place years ago. MI5’s job is to prevent terrorism on our streets. The Salisbury incident was such a failure that to link Russia with it does not make Russia a threat but a laughing stock.
The report is either deficient or rather more of a political statement he says.

An opinion is that the ISC Report says more about what it doesn’t say, than what it does. The bigger picture is about the threat to UK politics – specifically UK elections and the EU referendum – by the media, the Conservative Party, and the establishment generally. These are the real, home-grown subversives, who in many ways pose an even greater threat to our democracy.