Zev Shalev’s brand new serial “The Dragon’s Tail” reveals the untold story of China’s war on US democracy.

“The Dragon’s Tail” is a multi-part serial written by Zev Shalev for @NarativTV. Shalev and Eric Garland host the series on Narativ TV.

“We didn’t just arrive at this conclusion today or this summer,” Shalev says of the investigation. “This has been flashing in the background of our investigation for six years, but until now, there has been insufficient evidence to reach the conclusion we can make today.”

“China and its operatives have played a significant role In every aspect of what we now term the attack on democracy,” Shalev says.  

Preamble

In the preamble to “The Dragon’s Tail,” Shalev reported:

Throughout the rise of MAGA, Donald Trump’s election and presidency, the pandemic, the big lie, and the attempted coup of Jan 6, we reveal the very detailed and deliberate hand of Beijing either funding, coercing, bribing, or influencing US events that further extremism in the US, the attempted destruction of many American institutions and a weakening position of the U.S. around the world.

To be sure, they have not done this on their own. As we discovered, the Chinese are adept at playing a shadow role in executing their operations – often using other countries, networks, or individuals to execute operations they would not or could not do themselves. 

This has been true for Russia, China’s closest ally and ideological paramour, as it has for other countries like Saudi Arabia and The United Arab Emirates, and perhaps most troublingly, our closest Middle East ally Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu.

It has also been true of many American citizens who have profited from China through business dealings, some of whom have been witting Beijing operatives. The likes of Rupert Murdoch – the owner of FOX NEWS – which has become a propaganda weapon for the Chinese, recently sank another 100 Million dollars into his operation.

Some have been unwitting assets, perhaps succumbing to the influence of Chinese American spies or the vast propaganda network owned or heavily influenced by the Chinese government – from Epoch Times, NTD, and Fox News – or even the evangelical churches.

In the coming weeks, we’ll explore China’s role in the big lie and the Jan 6 attempted coup. We’ll look at the many levers of influence Beijing had in the White House, and yes, we’ll expose the financial tentacles had into Donald Trump and his immediate family, which is where we begin today.

1. Femme Fatale

In Part 1, we explore Chinese spy Wendi Deng Murdoch’s grooming of Ivanka Trump and the mole she placed inside the Trump-Kushner household during the Trump White House.

This episode is posted at the top of this page.

2. Rupert and Me

In Part 2, we reveal the secret pact between Jared Kushner and Rupert Murdoch to elect Donald Trump as president and how all three men received cash windfalls from China.

3. Christian Nationalism

In Part 3 of Dragon’s Tail, Zev Shalev and Eric Garland investigate the forces behind Christian nationalism – the new political force that’s emerged from Q-Anon and is openly embraced by Donald Trump. Their report will shock you.

4. The Strange Case of Guo Wengui

In Part 4 of Dragon’s Tail: Guo Wengui, a Chinese spy who has spent the last few years building a propaganda network with Steve Bannon, targeting the US with propaganda designed to polarize the US.

The post appeared first on Narativ.

Sooner or later – at dinner, the gym, or a PTA meeting – someone will ask you: “What do you think of Elon Musk wanting to buy Twitter?” Here’s what to tell them.

Like most people, you probably haven’t given it much thought, or your thought pattern may go something like this: if the man who made affordable space exploration possible and made the electric vehicle a reality – all while finding time to host SNL, fathering eight kids, and sleeping with the hottest women alive still has the energy and the money to buy Twitter, why shouldn’t he?

As for the truth about Elon Musk, the answer to that question is far more complicated than it seems – as Keri Kukral and I recently began to expose in part one of the “Secret Life of Elon Musk” series on NarativTV. 

Firstly, you should know that the Elon Musk story is a well-constructed fabrication. Of course, he’s an actual human, but the narrative he tells the world is inconsistent, suggesting it is part obfuscation, if not complete fiction.

Chief among the obfuscations is his wealth. Musk may be the world’s richest man (worth, on paper, $264 Billion), but in reality, he’s cash-poor. He’s only worth the amount of money a bank will loan him against a portion of his current stock in Tesla. We found out last week a bank would loan him $25 Billion to fund the purchase of Twitter, but we don’t know much more about the origins of those funds.

Musk is a creation of a large conglomerate of wealth made up of foreign and domestic interests. That’s not to say Musk is not intelligent or capable. Of course, he is, but he hasn’t ever really created anything himself – except for maybe a program called “zip2it”. Musk acquired everything else from PayPal to Tesla. And he’s failed more times than he cares to admit. 

Musk’s unorthodox approach to management is viewed as inherently risky and could present risks to his future holdings. TESLA and SpaceX are financially intertwined, which is unusual for two publicly traded companies – each borrowing from the other to avoid public collapse. If the stock falters or the technology fails in one company, both companies could come crashing down. If Musk succeeds in buying Twitter, the social network’s fate will also lie with Tesla and SpaceX.

We’ll have astronauts stranded in orbit, cars careening off the roads, and the virtual town square inexplicably grinding to a halt. Musk’s track record on democratic values is dodgy at best, and the SEC is investigating his businesses. Twitter is too essential to democracy to entrust it to him. Someone as cavalier and reckless as Musk is pursuing profit should not be in charge of regulating free speech in the town square.

Musk says he wants to buy Twitter to “save civilization”.

I agree with his underlying premise that Twitter is essential for civil discourse. Twitter is the virtual town square in an epic battle between autocracy and democracy.

If you have something to say and a box to stand on and are willing to endure the hecklers and trolls, you can say it on Twitter.  Viewed this way, Twitter has become the last remaining vestige of unfettered free speech.

Musk may be right that Twitter is essential for saving civilization, but what does he mean? People who use the word “civilization” — people like Putin, Xi, Trump, monarchists, and actual monarchs like soon-to-be King Charles use it in a particular way. 

They have a hankering for the good old days – where the elite held sway and lorded over their subjects, governed by a sense of entitlement by birthright that they alone should chart the course of human development. They bestow favor and wealth on the loyal and dispatch zealots, disease, war, and famine on those who are not. Anything and everything to strike fear into our hearts. A modern-day equivalent of the plagues of Passover at the end of another civilization from a long-forgotten time. 

These so-called kings and dictators sell us religion as an opiate and deal opiates as religion – anything to tame the unruly masses – in the name of wealth and power.

Zev Shalev and Keri Kukral recently exposed Elon Musk in part one of the “Secret Life of Elon Musk” series on NarativTV. 

A few years ago, it became apparent to these masters of the universe that we were approaching a tipping point. The disparity between rich and poor had crossed over a significant milestone and suggested the conditions were ripe for a global revolution against the wealthy. 

When a black man named Barrack Obama walked into the White House in January 2009 and became one of the greatest American presidents in history, as he ushered in the Arab spring, you could sense the enemies of democracy recoil. 

The enemies of democracy responded with a hybrid offensive which included installing Donald Trump as president and a psy-op called Q-Anon. On MSNBC last week, a pundit described Q as an assault on the media. A conspiracy theory so pervasive and filled with inaccuracies it raised doubt over the source of truth – the media.

The same people who created Q spawned amplification networks like OAN and Newsmax and turned Fox News into a parade of idiocy – and gave us Facebook, a social network capable of burrowing under our skins and mainlining designer fear into every citizen. The perfect accompaniment to a president who decried everything as fake news.

Truth is an effective weapon against tyranny.

Challenge even the most potent liars with a fundamental truth, and they shrink in size. The battle over democracy is not about weapons and land – it’s about the hearts and minds of men and women who inhabit that land.

You see it in the courage of the Ukrainian armed forces. They know firsthand what authoritarianism looks like and refuse to go back. They are not just fighting for their survival – they are fighting for generations of people oppressed by mad kings and cold-blooded dictators.  

Elon musk may present himself as a modern-day liberal, but he is not that. He, like me, is a product of Apartheid South Africa – he comes from the capital Pretoria – an oppressive place where only the most ardent white nationalists resided. I grew up in the white liberal suburbs surrounding the metropolis of Johannesburg, or what is today Jo’burg. I had a healthy distaste for the apartheid regime – notoriously racist and homophobic. My first job as a rookie journalist was at a radio station that helped eradicate apartheid. Radio 702 was the equivalent of Twitter in South Africa – a town square where listeners could discuss all topics out of the reach of government censors. 

Musk is a libertarian with autocratic tendencies and a supporter – at least in the 2016 election – of Donald Trump. His recent transformation into a free speech activist isn’t about giving the oppressed unfettered access to the public airwaves. Instead, it appears centered around returning Donald Trump to a platform that banned him after leading an insurrection.

And there seems to be an uncanny coincidence between Musk’s Twitter crusade and the collapse of Trump’s Truth Social (despite what the Musk media machine says).

Musk is a free speech “absolutist” when it comes to allowing Vladimir Putin’s propagandists access to Ukrainian minds, but not when it comes to media criticism of him or even his interactions with “those bastards” at the SEC. You never hear him decry the censorship inside Russia or economic “discrepancies” of South Africa, but you will see him tweet about woke culture.

This website and podcast are an excellent example of the type of content Musk, and his backers may find problematic about Twitter. Narativ was all about truth before it was fashionable – and well before Donald Trump launched Truth Social.

Narativ began live streaming over Twitter in 2019, taking advantage of a tech advancement that allowed for live independent broadcasting – television out of the proverbial reach of the masters who run American television.

We do the same show over on YouTube and Facebook, but algorithms being what they are, only a fraction of our Twitter audience shows up on YouTube, and barely anyone shows up on Facebook. 

We’re not alone, but we are among the genuine few who do it for the reasons we say. 

If Truth is an effective weapon against the forces of tyranny, and Twitter is the one place people can express that truth, wouldn’t that explain why Elon Musk wants to own the social network? 

Say you were cash poor, and the only money you could access was to borrow against your stock – would a barely profitable third-tier social network be what you buy? Wouldn’t you buy Facebook or Instagram – not Twitter?

Elon Musk isn’t just interested in a social media network. He wants to buy the only social network that hasn’t bolstered Donald Trump, and Q. Musk says he wants to save civilization, but what he’s doing is removing a significant roadblock to imposing authoritarian rule.  

Musk’s plan involves taking Twitter private – away from the scrutinizing eyes of the stock market and the SEC. 

He openly admits he wants to change Twitter’s algorithm so that GOP views would carry equal weight to Democrats (or vice versa) regardless of the accuracy of a position. By doing that, Musk would permanently entrench our current state of national polarization and elevate opinion over fact.

Like the Reagan Doctrine decreed that all news should cover both sides of an issue regardless of accuracy, Musk’s plan turns political discourse into popular sports and further away from fact and truth.

You might call it progress, but it’s retrograde. As Joni Mitchell lamented in Big Yellow Taxi (and later covered by the Counting Crows):

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot 
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot 
Don’t it always seem to go 
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone”

Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell

Twitter is not perfect by any stretch, but it is the one place you can still find truth and reason if you seek it.

If Elon Musk buys Twitter, he won’t improve it. He’ll kill it.

The post Elon Musk: The Twitter Killer appeared first on Narativ.

by Zev Shalev and Heidi Cuda

A suspected Russian asset was involved in organizing the January 6 attempted coup, including supplying accommodation and a gathering place for protest leaders in the weeks and days leading up to the storming of the Capitol.

Charles Bausman’s father was the Moscow Bureau Chief for Associated Press between 1968 and 1972, just the type of role Soviet officials would have targeted for recruitment to their intelligence services. It’s unclear if the elder Bausman was ever recruited, but Charles who has spent most of his adult life in Moscow, bears all the hallmarks of a man working for the Kremlin.

Bausman lived in Russia for 30 years before moving to Lancaster, PA in 2018 with enough money to buy three properties. On his arrival, he immediately launched US versions of his three Russian web sites pushing disinformation and propaganda, most notably Russia Insider, which included rabidly anti-semitic sentiment and Holocaust denialism. One of Bausman’s common themes is that America is “fractured.”

His websites were pro-Russian but the content decidedly focused on divisive U.S. domestic issues. Bausman promoted “Stop the Steal”— including appearing in and organizing anti-lockdown election protests in December and January outside the office and home of the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He was spotted at protests outside Speaker Brian Cutler’s home and office in December. 

On the season premiere of Narativ, we broke the story about Bausman’s barn being used as a venue to plan for the insurrection and also discussed Bausman’s relationship with Sean Moon. Our guests were “Cult of Trump” author Dr. Steven Hassan, a former “Moonies Rev” himself and Michael Edison Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who wrote the first expose of Bausman. Heidi Cuda co-produced the show. Scroll down for Part 2.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

In psychological warfare, there are no strange bedfellows, and the purported Russian sleeper agent Bausman and gun crazy Pastor Sean Moon, of the Rod Iron Ministries, also known as the World Peace Unification Sanctuary, have been linked together during the lead up to the January 6 insurrection.

Turns out the next-gen Moonies and the alleged Russian spy Bausman reportedly played a much bigger role in the January 6 Insurrection than previously known.

And on Jan. 3, Bausman allowed out of town groups to stay over at his Pennsylvania property, specifically Sean Moon’s Rod of Iron group from Warren County. In fiery speeches, Moon invoked God’s name and fear of a Chi Com planet to whip people into a Trump-defending frenzy. Moon’s brother owns a tommy gun warehouse, whose 2016 grand opening was attended by Eric and Lara Trump. Eric was the guest speaker at the event. Donald Trump is scheduled to spend the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with Moon’s mother, Hak Ja Han Moon, the widow of Moonies founder Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Trump is listed as the featured speaker at the billionaire widow’s conference.

MEET THE MOONIES

According to multiple media reports and its own website, Sean Moon’s “Moonies” splinter group, Rod of Iron Ministries, worships at the altar of the AR-15, and Moon recently purchased a Waco-style compound about 40 miles from Waco, Texas, to prep for a war with the “deep state,” he said. Political provocateur Steve Bannon has spoken at Rod of Iron events, and both Moon and Bausman were present at the Insurrection. Moon was seen at the Capitol leading members into scaffolding. Bausman advanced to the Capitol, according to news reports, and then fled the country for Moscow.  

The Moonies weren’t the only Russian friendly assets at the Insurrection. Putin’s favorite former Congressman Dana Rohrabacher was at the Capitol; Russian chants can be heard as windows are being smashed; a Russian expat now living in Florida, Stanislauv Doudnik, broadcast live to Russian news outlets blaming Antifa and BLM for the violence. Two Russian women–a mother and daughter, originally from Moldova–were arrested for illegal entry. The daughter, Kristina Malimon, is a GOP activist living in Portland, according to a McClatchy report. In addition, a Ukrainian infowars host who appears on a network with ties to oligarch Dmitry Firtash posed with the QAnon shaman, Jake Angeli, on January 6.

Bausman left Russia where he had been living for decades and arrived in the US in 2018, quickly establishing his pro-Russian pop-up blogs and acquiring three properties. He left the US on Jan 7 in such a hurry, he didn’t have time to take down the Christmas lights at his home. Neighbors a say a friend took down the decorations weeks later.

One of Bausman’s Lancaster properties is a barn not far from his family home in Lancaster, PA, which he acquired under an LLC. The barn has been used to host white nationalist events like the launch of the National Justice Party, which is virulently anti-Zionist.

The following year he and Bausman’s family traveled to Verona for the 2019 anti-LGBT World Congress of Families conference.

Handler? Leaked emails from Charles Bausman reveal he sought funding from Konstantin Malofeev through an intermediary Alesksei Komov.

RENDEZVOUZ IN VERONA

In Verona, Bausman would likely have met up with another delegate at the WCF that year – the organization’s Russian representative, Aleksei Komov. One of Komov’s many job titles was journalist for Bausman’s Russia Insider.

Bausman’s emails also revealed Komov often arranged financing for Bausman’s projects through the St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation. Komov served as head of foreign charities at the Foundation.

The charitable foundation is a philanthropic effort Russian oligarch, Konstantin Malofeev. Malofeev also funds the WCF and is a staunch supporter of Russia’s Orthodox Church. He is also said to have been the architect of Putin’s invasion of Crimea. Komov is considered one of Malofeev’s right-hand men. Malofeev was sanctioned by the U.S., EU, and Canada for his alleged role in financing financing Russian military operatives in Ukraine.

After a couple of surprisingly successful financial years, Bausman encountered some financial trouble at his publications and shuttered them in late 2020, soon after the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Michael E. Hayden published an expose about him.

Part 2 of our podcast about Bausman and Moon: ‘A Bear in our House’

PLANNING PROTESTS

He may have quit his online news business, but Bausman kept engaged in politics, hosting Sean Moon and delegation from his “Rod Of Iron” Church overnight on Jan 2. The next day the heads of many insurrectionist groups were attending a secret closed-door meeting in an unknown location in the same PA town. It’s unclear if Bausman’s barn was used for the meeting or if he attended.

Bausman’s trail of strange associations with extremist groups, Russia’s Orthodox Church, and a continuing association with Konstantin Malofeev’s right hand-man, suggest Bausman’s pro-Russia agenda may have been operational in an espionage sense, or as we like to say on Narativ, he is likely a spy.

Bausman is now back in Moscow full-time and denies any link to the Russian state. His funder Aleksei Komov denies Malofeev funds Bausman or his publications.

If Bausman is an agent for the Kremlin, it would be standard operating procedure to wire up a meeting room like the barn for surveillance. Extremist leaders like Mike Peinovich of the National Justice Party and Sean Moon may have believed they were meeting in secret, when in reality they could have been meeting at a SVR-owned and monitored venue.

This is the first time we’ve been able to link a suspected Russian asset to the insurrection.

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The post A Bear in Our House appeared first on Narativ.

Narativ was live in the hours after the historic verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.  

In this podcast, Zev Shalev was joined by attorney Andrew Laufer, former Federal Prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, Journalist and author Nina Burleigh and guest co-host comedian and activist Noel Casler. Parts 1 & 2 below.

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Donald Trump’s favorite Florida congressman just found out his party buddy, Seminole County’s former tax collector Joel Greenberg, has flipped on him and intends to plead guilty on reduced charges on May 15. The question is: in which of Greenberg’s many crimes is Matt Gaetz allegedly involved?

Zev Shalev is joined by Noel Casler, Andrew Laufer and for the first time on Narativ, filmmaker Melissa Jo Peltier.

PART 1 – Panhandle to Palm Beach

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PART 2 – Palmer to Pardons

The post The Many Possible Crimes of Matt Gaetz appeared first on Narativ.

This week’s Narativ After Show took on Andrew Cuomo’s relations, the failed Trump coup, GOP whining and Brett Kavanaugh.

Authors Nina Burleigh and Greg Olear, and journalist Sandi Bachom joined Zev Shalev on the After Show.

PART 1: Cuomo and the Coup

Sandi began the show by revealing she had just had an unexpected Twitter spat with one of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s accusers.

PART 2: Pantheon and Kavanaugh

Followers of Greg Olear’s Prevail site will have read Greg and L.B.’s 5-part investigation into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s questionable path to the SCOTUS bench, which sets you up perfectly for Greg’s Friday night rant.

You can watch a live taping of Narativ’s After Show every Friday at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET on @ZEVSHALEV‘S Twitter feed.

The post Cuomo and the Coup appeared first on Narativ.

Donald Trump was first spotted as a potential KGB asset in 1980 by the owner of Joy Lud Electronics, Sam Kislin, and cultivated as a Russian intelligence asset over the next 40 years.

For the first time, a former KGB officer has gone on the record to confirm that Donald Trump was an asset for Russian intelligence. The detailed claim is laid bare in Craig Unger’s new book, American Kompromat. Unger and the former KGB officer Yuri Shvets join L.B. and Zev Shalev on the latest Narativ and described the cultivation process in breathtaking detail.  

The Cultivation Of Donald Trump 1

From Joy Lud Electronics to the White House, the grooming of a Russian asset.

THE CULTIVATION OF DONALD TRUMP 2

Trump’s puppet presidency was a money making operation, just like his business was a money laundering vehicle for Russian intelligence.

The post The Russian Asset appeared first on Narativ.

Can the people fire Brett Kavanaugh? Greg Olear thinks the answer is yes, and explains why on the latest Narativ Podcast.

Greg Olear wears many hats. He is the publisher of the great Prevail newsletter and a regular contributor to Friday night’s “After Show’ on Narativ. On the latest episode, Greg introduced us to one of the most thought-provoking pieces about taking back power I’ve read in years.

Written under the pseudonym of Moscow Never Sleeps, the author lays out a very specific case for ejecting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh from SCOTUS, without a single impeachment vote being cast in the house or senate.

Maybe, as the Republican talking points go, it is mere anecdotal supposition that Kavanaugh the man is a functional alcoholic, a compulsive gambler, and an abuser of women. Nevertheless, it is objective truth from the signed financial disclosures of Kavanaugh the public servant that he and his wife are a solidly middle-class suburban couple living significantly beyond their means. In 2006, when he was a federal judge, Brett and the Missus put an unexplained down payment on a jumbo-mortgaged $1,225,000 house; at the time, he was making $63k a year, and she was mostly a SAHM. The family went heavily into unsecured credit card debt every year thereafter.

MOSCOW NEVERS SLEEPS IN PREVAIL

I recommend the entire piece, along with the accompanying piece about Clarence Thomas. The posts are well-written and convincingly argued but what really strikes the reader is something we need to get used to: doing – striking preemptively and with precision.

Rules and order are great when everyone adheres to them, but what is happening now is one side is wantonly ignoring the rules while simultaneously using the rules to break the system. In nature, as in some case law, the rules don’t matter when you’re facing an imminent threat.

The Republic remains in grave danger. We have chased the invaders from our House but they have left their emissaries planted all across government, our institutions and in every court circuit of the land.

Democrats are entitled to take whatever precautionary measures they deem necessary to avert a complete breakdown of everything being attempted by the GOP.

And I don’t mean only House Representatives. House Dems have a slim majority and a long agenda. They should focus on policy. But there’s plenty of room for citizens to keep watch over our democracy on every level and strike with precision to save the Republic.

The post B Is For Brett appeared first on Narativ.

How Billionaire GOP donors are using dark money to rig the US justice system.

The very same dark money funding the selection of federal judges is also funding the draconian cases attempting to turn back legislation like gay marriage rights and Roe vs Wade and the recruitment of vulnerable churchgoers as GOP voters.

Watch part 1 and 2 of The Threat of Amy Coney Barrett. 

In part 1, we look at how US churches have become fertile ground for GOP data-miners to recruit future voters by targeting their algorithms to seek out vulnerable people based on their social media profiles and other available data.

This data-driven recruitment drive is the main premise of Dr. Charles Kriel’s new film “People You May know.”

Kriel was joined on the panel by national political journalist Nina Burleigh and author of “The Trump Women: Part of The Deal” and Greg Olear author of “Dirty Rubles” and publisher of “Prevail“.

Part 2 looks at how the GOP’s voter recruitment efforts connect to a much broader plan to influence every aspect of the United States Judicial system: from the selection of judges to the funding and mounting of specific cases designed to reverse rights. The plan has an even more pernicious goal.

The post The Threat of Amy Coney Barrett appeared first on Narativ.

By attempting to construct an elaborate narrative, Donald Trump has exposed his own cover-up.

Donald Trump’s coronavirus infection has spread to more than 100 people in and outside the administration.

Zev Shalev continues to make the case for an independent investigation into the Trump’s administration’s Covid-19 contagion. The White House has repeatedly refused to reveal when Trump last had a negative coronavirus test, citing HIPAA privacy laws.

In part 2, Zev and his guests explore Trump’s attempt to shape the narrative of this explosive scandal, which has unwittingly revealed a clumsy cover-up.

@Lincoln’sBible and Dr. Bandy X. Lee, author of the upcoming “Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul” join Zev.    

Watch Part 2 above; Listen to Part 2 below.

Watch Part 1 here.

The post Covidgate Cover-Up appeared first on Narativ.

Donald Trump and the First Lady now have Covid-19, or so we are led to believe.

Truth has become so disposable for the Trump administration, we no longer believe anything that comes from the White House. Special guests Jean Guerrero, author of “Hatemonger” and Greg Olear, Eric Garland and Lincoln’s Bible.

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The first presidential debate of the 2020 elections was an unwatchable, debasing affair that still delivered political blows. Our live special aired directly afterwards.

Immediate post-debate analysis from an all-star panel: Former Republican strategist and host of ‘Politics with Cheri Jacobus’ podcast, Cheri Jacobus,  Former ‘Apprentice’ talent executive and comedian Noel Casler and ‘Dirty Rubles’ and ‘Prevail’ founder author Greg Olear. 

Narativ’s content is provided free of charge to everyone thanks to the support of Narativ’s patrons. Video podcast are available on Apple IOS devices, Audio podcasts are available everywhere. and on player like Spotify.

The post Debate Debacle appeared first on Narativ.

This week: Jared Kushner’s coronavirus cash grab, Peter Thiel is selling everything about you for $22 Billion and should you watch the Comey Rule on Showtime?

Narativ Live has two podcasts: Our Tuesday shows delves more deeply into a single topic.  Fridays is really ‘anything goes’ night.  We call it the After Show but it’s regularly our best,  as was the case with this week’s episode with @LincolnsBible @GregOlear @ZevShalev. Watch it above or listen below.

The post After Show: New Hope appeared first on Narativ.

Zev Shalev talks to investigative journalist Jean Guerrero whose new book ‘Hatemonger’ profiles Donald Trump’s key advisor Stephen Miller, and traces his ‘radicalization’ from a young age. 

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We were live on the air, when Greg Olear spotted the news: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died at 87.

The reactions in the pod below are as raw as they come and generated an outpouring from our viewers and listeners. Watch the full pod below and join in the conversation in the replies to this tweet.

Here’s the full Narativ podcast about RBG with @LincolnsBible @Ericgarland @GregOlear and @ZevShalev

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What role did China play in electing Donald Trump? That question has largely evaded Trump-Russia watchers, but Erik Prince helps us answer it.

Gregg Smith was the CEO of Chinese logistics firm, Frontier Services Group, where he worked alongside Erik Prince, a key advisor to Donald Trump. Smith had been at Prince’s side as a business associate through a number of joint ventures for the two decades prior to 2016.  

Now, Smith is coming forward with new information about Prince, about how the disgraced mercenary boss of Blackwater continues to involve himself in illegal private contracting. Smith believes Prince was likely involved in two recent aborted attempts to overthrow the US-backed UN government in Libya, a mission undertaken on behalf of Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, who is backed by Russia.

Smith joined Zev Shalev and Eric Garland on the Narativ Live podcast to discuss the attempted coup and also Prince’s role as a private contractor for China.

“We had $110 Million in cash, an airstrip in Mombasa, Kenya and a Chinese partner, CITIC,” Smith recounted to Shalev about how he and Prince landed up being bankrolled by China’s powerful CITIC Group.

That’s in part 2 of our special “Prince of Proxy“, you’ll find it near the bottom of this page.

But first, the big news this week is that Prince is being investigated by the United Nations for his role in an attempt to overthrow the US-supported UN government in Libya.

LIBYAn COUP ATTEMPT

In Part 1, Smith revealed Prince is under investigation by the United Nations for his role in an attempted overthrow of Libya’s UN-backed-government. The twice-aborted mission was intended to install warlord Khalifa Haftar, and was helmed by Prince’s longtime associate, Christiaan “Serge” Durant, who owns the gun-for-hire company, Lancaster 6.  

Watch Part 1 on Libya above. Part 2 about China is below.

CHINA’S MAN

Former Frontier Services Group CEO Gregg Smith revealed in Part 2 of of the podcast that Erik Prince answers to Chang Zhenming, the chairman of FSG, and a powerful ally of President Xi in the Chinese Communist Party.

Watch Part 2 of “Prince of Proxy” below.

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For ten years, The Apprentice made Donald Trump a household name while creating a wholly fictional narrative that hid Trump’s criminal activity.

The Apprentice was much more than just a hit shows for Donald Trump, it was a calling card that gave him access to the world’s organized crime syndicates and helped him foster a cover story for a lifetime of crime.

As a talent handler on The Celebrity Apprentice, Noel Casler was an eyewitness to Donald Trump’s behind-the-scenes behavior. He joins Zev Shalev on the podcast to reveal secrets of the Apprentice: sex, drugs and Donald Trump. With panelists @LincolnsBible and @GregOlear.

In Part 2, The panel discusses how The Apprentice enabled Donald Trump’s organized crime activity around the world and exposes even more secrets of The Apprentice.

Support Narativ’s independent journalism by joining our Patreon community.

Subversion of Democracy: Explaing Trump’s Charge

by Zev Shalev May 29, 2024

The Spy Games 2024

by Zev Shalev April 22, 2024

Exposing the enemies of democracy since 2016

by Zev Shalev December 11, 2023

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EXCLUSIVE: Jeffrey Epstein was a key member of a global arms trading network that sold weapons of war to the world’s most ruthless leaders.

Of the many terms used to describe Jeffrey Epstein’s tradecraft, international arms dealer rarely comes up. Epstein became globally infamous for trafficking in teenage girls and blackmailing politicians with compromising evidence of encounters with those women.

The human trafficking and blackmailing operation was just a means to an end – an elaborate cover story to protect from Epstein’s biggest secrets from leaking.

In this exclusive report, I reveal how Epstein was a key part of a global arms trading network which trafficked in weapons of war sold to countries mostly in the Middle East for decades.

I’m joined by Steve Hoffenberg, Epstein’s former business partner, strategic analyst Eric Garland and organized crime researcher @LincolnsBible.

Part 1: EPSTEIN, TRuMP AND a guy named ADNAN

In part 1, we trace the ties between Epstein, U.S. President Donald J. Trump and the world’s most famous arms trader, the late Adnan Khashoggi.

PArt 2: WASH AND FOLD

In Part 2, we look at the complex money laundering operation Epstein may have set up at Towers Financial to launder his profits of war.

PARt 3: THE AGENCY

In Part 3, we reveal that Epstein inherited some of his personal fortune from Robert Maxwell, but where did Maxwell get his fortune from?

Liked these? You can help Narativ grow without spending a cent. All you have to do is subscribe, rate and comment on the shows whether you watch them on your podcast player, YouTube or Periscope.

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Exposing Donald Trump and Bill Barr’s cynical plan to use a military clampdown against protesters to help them win the November election. Strategic Analyst @EricGarland joins Narativ’s @ZevShalev.

Liked the show? Support Narativ’s independent journalism by joining our Patreon community for as little as $5 a month by clicking the button below.

Many ways to watch and listen to Narativ’s podcast.

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Is Jared Kushner a White House mole for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?

Not since Jonathan Pollard, has the United States had a public spy scandal involving our closest mid-east ally, Israel. Now within the space of a few years, we’ve learned about Jeffrey Epstein, George Nader, Psy Group, and George Papadopoulous, all off whom are, or were suspected of being assets for Israel.

Now there’s compelling evidence to suggest Kushner is heavily influenced by Netanyahu as part of a multinational conspiracy to destroy American democracy.

On the latest podcast, I’m joined by futurist and strategic analyst Eric Garland and Twitter’s authority on organized crime, Lincoln’s Bible. We break down the evidence from every angle: America’s interest, domestic politics, and intelligence operations

If you don’t already follow them, I highly recommend doing so @EricGarland and @LincolnsBible on #Twitter

Part 1 of Jared Kushner: Inside Man

Before you watch Part 2, Narativ relies on donations from viewers like you to fund our investigations and podcasts. Go to Patreon.com/Narativ and support real independent journalism for as little as $5 a month.

PART 2 OF JARED KUSHNER: INSIDE MAN

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The DOJ’s reversal on prosecuting Michael Flynn means reopening the case of Flynn’s alleged treasonous acts.

In my latest podcast, I was joined by strategic analyst Eric Garland. We discussed Flynn’s crimes and why Jared Kushner’s and Bibi Netanyahu’s actions need closer examination.

Before you watch Part 2, Narativ relies on donations from viewers like you to fund our investigations and podcasts. Go to Patreon.com/Narativ and support our independent journalism for as little as $5 a month.

Here’s part 2:

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EXCLUSIVE: It’s official. Donald Trump fits the clinical profile of a psychopath or sociopath.

A couple of years ago, a book came out claiming Donald Trump had Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Dr. Daniel Winarick says that diagnosis is not widely accepted by the medical community.

Dr. Winarick says Trump does fit the profile of the disorder associated with psychopaths and sociopaths known as Anti Social Personality Disorder.

Winarick joined Zev Shalev on Narativ Live to explain why Trump’s behavior is consistent with ASPD.

Support Narativ’s independent journalism. Join our Patreon community by clicking the button below.

Remember to subscribe, rate and share the podcast. It help a lot.

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Narativ is premiering There’s Something About Rudy, a pop-up podcast about the man at the center of Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry, Rudy Giuliani.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT RUDY

Rudy Giuliani is fond of his nickname, America’s Mayor, which he earned after 9/11. It suits his reputation as a mob-busting federal prosecutor and a tough New York City Mayor.

These days Giuliani calls himself the president’s personal attorney and cybersecurity adviser, but the truth about Rudy is a far cry from the image he presents.

Here are all three episodes of Narativ’s pop-up series “There’s Something About Rudy”.

PART 1: MAFIA MYTHS

Part one is all about Rudy and the mob. Giuliani claims credit for the cracking down on La Cosa Nostra as a federal prosecutor in the 1980s, but that’s only part of the story.

PART 2: RUSSIAN MISSION

My investigation into Rudy Giuliani leads me to a Ukrainian oligarch with direct ties to Vladimir Putin and a discovery of a series of ‘consulting’ agreements that appear to be bribes.

PART 3: LIBYA SCHEME

Rudy Giuliani has been linked to many world leaders of questionable repute and businessmen who play fast and loose with the law, but a connection to a Libyan oil smuggling ring involving ISIS is the last thing I expected.

MORE RUDY IN THESE PODCASTS

For the Rudy pods, my special thanks to colleagues @LincolnsBible and @PortlusGlam. They are required follows, in my opinion.

Subscribe and download the video podcast by searching “Narativ Live” wherever you get your podcasts. Follow me on twitter here, or leave your comments below or on email. Reach out if you have any new information or insights.

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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appears to have ‘lost’ the world’s most expensive painting. The Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, Salvator Mundi, may hold the key to the Trump-Russia investigation. And, the artwork itself could be evidence of collusion.

Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘last’ masterpiece was to be unveiled on September 18 at the spellbinding new Louvre in Abu Dhabi, but the exhibit was put on a temporary hold, amid rumours the painting was lost.

The art world has become increasingly alarmed. After all, Salvator Mundi is the most expensive artwork ever sold. “Nobody outside the immediate Arab hierarchy knows where it is,” Da Vinci scholar Martin Kemp told The Times.

Questions are being raised. First, why did the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, an art novice, buy the masterpiece? Secondly, why did he overpay for it by $300 million? Even for the stupendously wealthy Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that’s not just a simple rounding error. How do you misplace a $450 million painting anyway?

We can also reveal Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating both the buyer and the seller of the Da Vinci masterpiece as part of the Trump-Russia investigation.

All the intrigue suits Salvator Mundi’s already storied past well, but as I write this, no-one has seen the rare masterpiece in over a year, and its exact whereabouts have been unknown for over 100 days.

Masterpiece or Fraud?

Leonardo da Vinci is said to have painted the Salvator Mundi, which literally translates to ‘Savior of the World’, as a male counterpart to his Mona Lisa, and an homage to his other Christ masterpiece, The Last Supper. The result of those intersecting ideas is an eerie portrait of Jesus Christ in a blue renaissance robe, offering benediction with his right hand raised and while holding a glass orb in his left.

Da Vinci was not prolific. He only pained 20 great works his entire life. That’s why the art world heralded Salvator Mundi’s rebirth over a decade ago with a messianic zeal only it could muster. “A painting of the most iconic figure in the world by the most important artist of all time,” gushed Loic Gouzer, co-chairman of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s. “The opportunity to bring this masterpiece to the market is an honour that comes around once in a lifetime.”

Salvator Mundi has a pedigree, but also a bit of a sketchy past. The painting was first recorded in the collection of King Charles I in the early 1600s, but since then ‘Salvator’ was inauspiciously passed down from one lesser royal collection to the next, until it eventually sold for a mere £45 at a Sotheby’s auction in 1958, before disappearing for more than half a century.

In 2005, ‘Salvator Mundi” had its second coming when a consortium of businessmen acquired the damaged masterpiece from the estate at a small regional auction house. The Savior needed saving itself. Christ’s hair and face were painted over, and the canvas ripped on the side of his face.

It took six years of painstaking research and inquiry by the world’s ‘leading authorities on the works and career of Da Vinci’ to not only authenticate the lost masterpiece but to completely restore it, allowing Christie’s to present it to the world as it would have looked when Da Vinci painted it.

The reborn Salvator Mundi was unveiled at London’s National Gallery in 2011 to much fanfare, although you’d be hard-pressed to find mention of the masterpiece in the gallery’s official guide. You can read a back-pedaling attribution to Da Vinci in the Gallery’s statement: “an important opportunity to test this new attribution by direct comparison with works universally accepted as Leonardo’s.”

As if that weren’t enough, a quick reading of Jonathan Jones’ review in The Guardian would convince any ardent art follower something was afoot. “The transparent orb is far too brilliantly painted to be the work of one of his disciples,” Jones wrote, referring to a painting technique not yet invented in Leonardo’s time. Some doubted it was a genuine Da Vinci, others thought the reconstruction was heavy-handed. Despite the question marks over its authenticity, the world’s wealthiest art collectors scrambled to acquire it.

A Russian in the House

Dmitry Rybolovlev’s story is typical of many Russian oligarchs. He made his fortune as a potash miner until the Kremlin bought him out, sending him into a friendly “exile”. Rybolovlev chose the Grimaldi House of Monaco to set up shop. He bought the luxurious penthouse “La Belle Epoque” on Monaco’s famous seaside cliffs, the AC Monaco football team, 10% in the Bank of Cyprus and allegedly an extensive network of corruptable judges, ministers and other officials.

He also met Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, from whom he bought about $2 billion in art. Rybolovlev officially paid Bouvier a 2% commission per painting, but he later found out the Swiss art dealer was also acting for the seller, marking up prices and pocketing the margin along with both buyer’s and seller’s commissions.

That is how Rybolovlev came to own The Salvator Mundi for $127 million, instead of its valued $80 million. The two men have been squabbling in court ever since. Both have been arrested. And Rybolovlev is suing Sotheby’s for knowing and not telling, he was being ripped off. The case itself could be a scam: money launderers often sue each other to wash their money with a judge’s order.

Since March 2013, the now $127 million ‘Salvator Mundi’ has been hanging in Rybolovlev’s penthouse in New York City. Rybolovlev sees no shame in the $47 million he lost in the purchase of the masterpiece. It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s accused him of overpaying.

In addition to several corruption investigations in Monaco and Europe, Rybolovlev is also under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for the $95 million purchase of Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach in 2006, which Trump had bought four years earlier for $41 million. There was no market reason for the $ 54 million mark-up, except to save Trump from another bankruptcy.

After struggling to sell it, Rybolovlev demolished the property to sell it for its seafront land. Experts point out all three of Rybolovlev’s investment interests – football, art and real estate – are prime vehicles for money laundering.

The corruption investigations into Rybolovlev may connect his finances directly to the Kremlin. Especially if they prove he manages the assets of Russian deputy premier Yuri Trutnev, as claimed in Der Spiegel in November.

Rybolovlev occupies the same proximity to Putin as Oleg Deripaska, making him extremely rich and powerful and a loyal ally of the Russian president. Rybolovlev regularly mixes affairs of state with his personal business. In 2016, he met Donald Trump twice in the final days of the campaign. Both men deny the meetings took place, but radar tracking reveals their planes coincided on airport tarmacs in both Charlotte, NC and Las Vegas, just days before the election.

The ‘Other’ Don Jr. Meeting

There has been a lot of ink spilled on the June 9 meeting at Trump Tower, involving Donald Trump, Jr., Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and a significant offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton, to which Don, Jr. famously responded, “I love it.”

But a far more significant meeting took place at Trump Tower three weeks later which has received far less coverage, and yet it may be the most important evidence of collusion Robert Mueller has uncovered. The August event may well become “the single most important event of Trump-Russia,” Seth Abramson, author of “Proof of Collusion” told me this week.

Erik Prince arranged the meeting. Prince is a mercenary who is notorious for his work with Blackwater. He is still a gun for hire working for the Chinese and Emiratis yet somehow, Prince still played a pivotal, yet unofficial role for the Trump Transition and coordinating this meeting was as significant as they come.

Prince planned to meet his guests at a nearby hotel to avoid the glare of the media assembled in Trump Tower’s gilded lobby.

You’re wondering who the guests were? George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who was acting as an emissary for both the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman (MbS) and the de facto leader of the UAE, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ). Nader was accompanied by Joel Zamel, the Australian-born Israeli founder of Psy-Group, and an expert in social media manipulation.

As the three men made small talk, President Obama was on TV pleading with the Republican Party to reject Trump as their candidate, and calling him “unfit to serve.” Prince smiled and checked his watch. He knew Obama’s criticism would only strengthen Trump’s chances. “We have the green light to go up,” Prince told Nader and Zamel.

The three men made their way out of the hotel for the short walk to Trump Tower through rush-hour traffic, passed the media in the lobby and up to the 26th floor in one of those golden elevators. Donald Trump, Jr. was already in the conference room with Stephen Miller, when the three men walked in.

The Plot To Elect a President

Nader began his pitch. The Saudi and Emirati princes “were eager to help your father win election as president,” Nader said. He said Zamel’s Psy Group was particularly successful at social media manipulation and the two crown princes would bankroll a multi-million dollar plan drawn up by Zamel, to help elect his father president.

Psy-Group had figured out how to shift public sentiment by creating fake news, publishing it on fake news sites and then amplifying it through a network of some 5,000 fake social media accounts. The company’s side-hustle was providing services in the dark arts of honey-trapping, hacking and blackmail, for a fee.

Not surprisingly Don. Jr. “responded approvingly” to the pitch, according to the New York Times but he later claimed he turned down the offer. There are no contracts or invoices to prove the campaign was ever executed. Lawyers for both sides deny any campaign collaboration. Of course, if they had, it would have been illegal.

The Facts Don’t Concur

In reality, there is evidence Psy-Group carried out some work for the campaign. For one thing, the Trump Campaign’s main digital partner, Cambridge Analytica, didn’t have the tools to deliver the social media content the campaign constantly credits for its victory.

Cambridge Analytica’s raison d’etre was psychographic profiling using stolen Facebook data. Psy-Group brought to the table a fake news factory proven to sway minds.

CamAnalytica and Psy also appeared to let the cat out of the bag when, one month after Trump’s victory, they publicly announced they would partner on future campaigns together, including a joint pitch the U.S. State Department, but failed to explain how they were introduced to each other.

Sources also tell the Daily Beast contacts between Psy-Group and the Trump Campaign were far more extensive than first reported, involving at least two other members of Trump’s inner circle. Company founder Zamel also spoke to Trump officials about helping Saudi Arabia and regime change in Iran.

Psy-Group is based in Israel but it is registered in Cyprus and corporately aligns in off-shore holding databases with companies owned by Russian oligarchs and banks. Mueller has also taken a specific interest in Zamel, and his close relationship with two of Putin’s most powerful oligarchs, the aforementioned Oleg Deripaska and Dmitry Robolovlov.

In February, Mueller subpoenaed the Cypriot bank accounts of the Psy-Group and dispatched a team of investigators to Israel this Spring to interview Zamel. This clearly struck a nerve. Within a week, Psy-Group shuttered the entire operation.

And remember, George Nader is cooperating with the investigation and he was in on every conversation with Don, Jr., Zamel, Kushner and the two crown princes. Nader has already testified before a grand jury and acknowledged making a $2m payment to Zamel. Psy-Group almost certainly worked for the campaign, the question is how did they get paid?

Art of the Deal

$300 million. That’s the incredible profit Rybolovlev made on the sale of Salvator Mundi. $300 million is also the amount Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (acting through an intermediary) “accidentally” overpaid for the artwork.

At first, laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in full view of a global audience, may not seem like the smartest move, but the facts support this may have been what the two crown princes and Dmitry Rybolovlev tried to do.

Rybolovlev put the masterpiece up for auction through Christie’s in November 2017. The estimated price for Lot 9B was between $80 and $120 million. Christies’s auctioneers were stunned when bidding quickly surged past $80 million in just seconds and then, just as effortlessly over $130 million. Two anonymous bidders continuously outbid each other, not stopping until they had run up the price to $450.3 million, making it the single most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.

In the ensuing days, The New York Times unmasked Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman as the masterpiece’s real buyer but the identity of the second bidder stayed hidden for months.

In March, The Daily Mail revealed the counter-bidder was Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ). The princes claimed they had no idea the other was bidding and dismissed the whole thing as a mistake.

To be clear, these are the very same crown princes George Nader represented at the August 3rd meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. and whom, Nader promised, would pay for the social media campaign.

On the seller’s side, Dmitry Rybolovlev was not only well-acquainted with Psy-Group’s founder but as an owner of the Bank of Cyprus, he could quietly carve out payments to Psy-Group, along with any kickbacks to Putin, without anyone noticing

It’s worth noting that four months after the Da Vinci auction Mueller sent investigators to Israel to ask about specific deposits to Psy-Group’s Cypriot bank accounts. The FBI travelled to Israel in February, a month before the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince was outed as Salvator Mundi’s second bidder.

Savior of the World

I started writing this piece after watching the giddy display of backslapping by Vladimir Putin and Mohammed at the recent G20 summit. The two looked like they had gotten away with something big, Is it possible the high fiving was over this transaction?

The whereabouts of Salvator Mundi remain unknown; there are no plans to exhibit the artwork; the mystery of what happened at auction is deepening and Mueller’s relentless investigation into Psy-Group continues. These are all things that suggest to me there is much more to discover about the August 3 meeting and the Saudi, UAE and Israeli involvement in Trump-Russia.

The entire affair supports the new prevailing theory about the direction of the Mueller investigation.

Up until now, Robert Mueller’s focus has been squarely on Russian collusion but as citizens from other countries are implicated, it seems the Special Counsel has widened his purview from just collusion with Russia, to a multinational conspiracy of at least four countries including Russia: Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates and Israel.

Gregg Smith, the former CEO of Prince’s Frontier Services Group told me this week he believes “the Israelis, Emiratis and Saudis all had a role and [Erik] Prince was [Steve] Bannon’s conduit to them.”

There can be no certainty when the game is subterfuge, and we need to wait for Mueller’s final report before we reach any conclusions, but if Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi proves to be a key which helps unlock Trump-Russia, “Savior of the World” could prove to be nothing short of prophetic.

The post Salvator Mundi appeared first on Narativ.

Henry Kissinger played a significant role in getting Donald Trump elected with Russian help, and it’s not the first time he betrayed his country for a Presidential nominee.

Richard Nixon would have taken the circumstances surrounding the Chennault Affair to his grave if it weren’t for a moment in space and time which placed the archived memos of Nixon’s Chief of Staff in historian John Farrell’s hands.

It was 2016. Farrell hit the historical equivalent of winning the Powerball when the Nixon Library granted him access to some of the last documents released from Nixon’s Presidency.  He came across memos by Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, from the 1968 presidential campaign.

Farrell recognized the notes as confirmation of a rumour which had persisted for decades. The Nixon campaign had colluded with the South Vietnamese to scuttle President Lyndon Johnson’s peace talks to end the Vietnam War, just as those talks appeared to be nearing a successful outcome.

In the Summer of ’68, Nixon’s election support was cratering as a result of Johnson’s overtures to the South Vietnamese. Nixon knew he’d lose the election to Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s vice-president if a peace deal were struck before election day.

Henry Kissinger, who would later become Nixon’s National Security Adviser, started the whole thing. In ’68 Kissinger was a little-known, 45-year-old Republican strategist who manoeuvred his way into the peace talks as an advisor and, in an act of considerable betrayal, leaked news of the negotiations to Nixon.

Kissinger’s calculus was personal and not political, although it certainly could have been influenced by his connections in Russia and China. He knew he’d get a cabinet position if either campaign won, but as a practitioner of realpolitik, he also knew a diplomat with his skill-set would have far greater opportunity under Nixon and a much higher profile in a prolonged war. He was also covering his bases.

Faced with a choice between peace and power, Nixon made a predictable decision. Along with Haldeman, he hatched a plan which would be tantamount to treason but would land Nixon the White House. It became known as the Chennault Affair.

As Kissinger leaked details of Johnson’s Vietnam peace talks, Nixon hatched a plan that would become known as The Chennault Affair

Nixon and  Haldeman enlisted the help of a prominent Republican fundraiser with connections to China. Anna Chennault struck a glamorous figure as she wielded power, money and influence in the US-China lobby and within Republican circles.

The affair was named after her because Chennault was also Nixon’s back channel to the South Vietnamese government. She convinced them to stall the Johnson talks, promising a better deal, if Nixon were elected.

In four pages of notes attached to memos from his years as Chief of Staff, Haldeman had left behind clues for future investigators like John Farrell, to discover. They proved that the Chennault Affair, which Nixon often dismissed as a “canard,” was a true story.  In the memos, Haldeman hand-wrote that Nixon ordered him to “monkey wrench” the Vietnam peace negotiations and that Nixon wanted to “keep Anna Chennault working on SVN.”

As Farrell read Haldeman’s notes, the cruelty of Nixon’s plan struck him. There is no doubt the memos were held back for as long as they were because they revealed Nixon won the White House at the cost of American lives.

President Johnson was furious when he discovered Nixon’s betrayal, calling it treason, but he couldn’t prove it.  The spy agencies had obtained intercepts of calls between Chennault and the South Vietnamese ambassador, pleading with him to “hold on,” and assuring him “we are close to winning,” but there wasn’t conclusive evidence of  Nixon’s involvement.

Even as peace talks collapsed and the election lost, Johnson never spoke publicly about the affair, although he did confront Nixon in the Oval Office. “My God. I would never do anything to encourage [South Vietnam] not to come to the table,” Nixon is heard saying on White House recordings.

Nixon had good reason not to fess up.  The affair was likely a violation of the Logan Act. That would have meant far more severe consequences for Nixon than a break-in. Watergate meant impeachment; treason spelled death.

Watergate brought Nixon down, but as far as Presidential scandals go, the Chennault Affair was far more consequential, not only because it potentially extended the war for years but because it revealed the lengths to which Nixon would go to seize power.  The deaths of 1000’s of American soldiers in Vietnam was not too great of a price for the man who would become the 37th President.

Haldeman died in 1993 without ever revealing the affair. Chennault was buried in Arlington Cemetery. She always denied her role was consequential. Of the four main conspirators,  Kissinger is the only one still alive today.

Kissinger became a towering figure in global affairs by often favouring profit and practicality over principles, even if it meant skirting the law and cost lives.

Kissinger has had his foot on the scale of global power for over half a century. Over the years he’s been accused of committing genocide in Cambodia, encouraging death squads in Chile and Argentina and more recently, of looking passed Russia’s atrocities in Syria and the annexation of Crimea.  He believes the world would be a better place if strong US and Russia relations could co-exist with the Kremlin’s global misbehaviour.

“The long-term interests of both countries call for a world that transforms the contemporary turbulence and flux into a new equilibrium which is increasingly multi-polar and globalized,” he said. “Russia should be perceived as an essential element of any new global equilibrium, not primarily as a threat to the United States.”

That thinking is music to Vladimir Putin’s ears. Kissinger has had a close relationship with Putin since they first met in the early 90’s. Next to actor Steven Seagal and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Kissinger is the closest connection Putin has to Washington, D.C. and the peculiar way it handles itself.   He is also friends with Donald Trump. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when it came to a political marriage between Putin and Trump, Kissinger was the inevitable matchmaker.

If Time Warner was the proposal, the Mayflower was the engagement party.

Henry Kissinger faced the prospect of a damp Manhattan reception as he made his way to the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle in March 2016. He was the star attraction at a swanky power lunch hosted by executives of the media company and was to speak about US-Russia relations.

The Center for National Interest co-hosted the lunch.  Nixon founded the Washington-based think tank in 1994 and Kissinger serves as its Honorary Chair. The Center is a remnant of a bygone era, a place where fossilizing former titans of business and politics can lay their hat when fate, age or circumstance counts them out of the game.

Dimitri Simes is the Center’s president and the publisher of its magazine, National Interest. The Center appears to operate like any other think-tank, but it has a reputation for an extremely pro-Russian ideology.

Jared Kushner sat quietly, absorbing the scene.  The soon-to-be son of the next President of the United States was invited by HBO president Richard Plepler and former Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, who both sit on the Center’s governing board (a fact which deserves greater scrutiny). CNN president Jeff Zucker, who at the time reported to Bewkes, was also present at the event.

After lunch, Kushner met Kissinger and Simes. The encounter was a formal introduction, not a chance New York meet and greet. Kissinger, it would emerge, was trying to broker a relationship between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

In the ensuing weeks, Kushner would ask Simes and the National Center to put together one of the pivotal events of the Trump campaign timeline: a foreign policy speech scheduled for April 2016, entitled “America First.”  It was to be a public announcement of Trump’s pro-Russia foreign policy platform.  If Time Warner was the proposal, The Mayflower was the engagement party.

From that moment, Kushner took over the bulk of the campaign’s foreign policy, while Simes began organizing the Mayflower event.

Simes invited Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak and other foreign diplomats, he arranged for the venue to be moved from the National Press Club to the Mayflower Hotel and organized a pre-event meet and greet which would include guests like Kislyak, Michael Fynn, Jeff Sessions and Kushner (who met Kislyak for the first time at the event).

Simes is himself an intriguing figure.  He is directly connected to Putin and keeps in regular touch with Kremlin insiders.  In 2013, he sat alongside the Russian President on a panel and was effusive as one can be. “I fully welcome President Putin’s tough stance, not because I am not a patriot of the United States, but because I believe that with regard to the great powers, baby talk is not the way to agreement. You need to understand what you can expect from another country, and you need to understand where there is resistance.”

Simes also chairs the Center’s advisory board which includes Alexey Pushkov, the former head of the Duma’s international-affairs committee.

The Center has also repeatedly intersected with key Kremlin figures in Trump-Russia, Alexander Torshin is Deputy Governor of Russia’s Reserve Bank.  Torshin and suspected Russian spy Maria Butina played a significant role in influencing the NRA to become an intermediary of Russian money funnelled to Trump’s campaign. Torshin and Butina had several interactions and meetings with the Center, which remain unexplained.

After Trump was elected, Kissinger felt emboldened to come out of the shadows.   A report in the German tabloid Der Bild headlined ‘Kissinger to prevent new Cold War’, claimed the former envoy was working towards a new relationship with Russia which included the U.S. accepting Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Kissinger, now 95, had proved himself just as shrewd a diplomat as he was at 45. While it is clear Kissinger played a vital role in aligning Putin and Trump’s interests, it isn’t clear if he knew anything about Putin’s cyber plans to manipulate the electorate or hack DNC emails, not that it would have changed much. There’s a good reason the New Yorker trumpeted in a headline in 2016,  “Does Henry Kissinger have a conscience?”

The post Kissinger appeared first on Narativ.

Exclusive: Beyond Facebook, Russia colluded with U.S. anti-gay groups to stoke tensions over LGBTQ equality in the run-up to the 2016 election.

“God has decided,” Vladimir Putin told Oliver Stone in Showtime’s Putin Interviews. “I believe it’s my duty to uphold traditional values and family values. But why? Because same-sex marriages will not produce any children,” the Russian president said.

It’s not illegal to be gay in Russia but it’s a crime to wave a pride flag, show same-sex public displays of affection or demonstrate for gay rights. Gay Russians in Chechnya are routinely rounded up and tortured and vigilante gangs use social media to lure hundreds of gay men on fake dates where they are filmed being beaten or sexually humiliated. Everything from same-sex emoji bans to a total prohibition on coming out publicly has been considered by Russia’s legislature.

The anti-gay sentiment in Russia began to swell in the mid-1990’s after the fall of the Soviet Union but it wasn’t until Barack Obama’s election that Russian anti-gay activists began to build bridges with their soul mates in the fringe right of U.S. conservatism.

In the 90’s, two Russian sociologists and an American activist birthed the World Congress of Families, a global coalition of anti-gay groups with deep Russian interests. WCF is based in the U.S. and is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“The Russians might be the Christian saviors of the world,” says Larry Jacobs, WCF’s managing director. “At the UN, they are really the ones standing up for these traditional values of family and faith.”

The congress partners with U.S. conservative organizations including Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Alliance Defense Fund, Americans United For Life and Concerned Women For America.

Members of these organizations regularly meet at the WCF conventions around the world and in Russia. This gives them a direct line to anti-gay members of Russia’s parliament, the Duma, the Russian Orthodox Church and to two Russian oligarchs who “are footing many of the WCF’s bills, Vladimir Yakunin, the president of the Russian railways, and investor Konstantin Malofeev,” according to Mother Jones.

A Russian oligarch and Putin ally is a key funder of the anti-gay World Congress of Families. Its president is America’s leading anti-gay activist.

Yakunin is one of Putin’s closest oligarchs. The billionaire is adept at aligning Russian Orthodox Church policies with those of Vladimir Putin. The church has approval over any legislation tabled by the Duma and in turn the church is heavily influenced by Putin’s oligarchs.

Yakunin’s wife, Natalia Yakunina, runs Russia’s anti-gay Sanctity of Motherhood which first invited Jacobs to a conference in Moscow in 2010. The same year, Russia’s Orthodox Church dispatched one of WCF’s Russian co-founders to meet with the U.S. anti-gay group Focus on the Family.

Konstantin Malofeev is also a devout Orthodox christian and is often referred to as “Putin’s Soros”. He operates his own think tank and TV station. He believes in the restoration of the Russian empire and has fostered relations with many of Europe’s far right politicians including France’s Marine Le Pen.

Malofeev is a key financier of the Russian attack on Ukraine. He claims to only send food and water to rebel-held areas but Ukrainian officials believe the oligarch is an arm’s length way for Putin to control the war. In 2013, Malofeev used the church’s Ukrainian missions to subdue opposition to Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea

“I’m in the middle of patriotic circles.” says Malofeev. “People who have patriotic and Orthodox views know me, and sometimes I know them. You can find a link between me and almost any Orthodox activist. But that doesn’t mean I’m paying them a salary or that we’re in the same business,” Malofeev says.

In 2013, Malofeev’s St. Basil charity invited Brian Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage to attend a round table discussion. NOM rose to prominence as the main advocate for California’s Proposition 8 which overturned gay marriage rights in the state.  Brown created a campaign which demeaned the LGBTQ community as predatory, diseased and disordered. Their claims were supported by faux-science, much of it created by the WCF.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian created and funded anti-LGBTQ ads and the organizations which shared them.

Wikileaks published the hacked DNC emails and an unprecedented sequence of Trump-Russia meetings took place in June last year. It’s perhaps not too coincidental that Brown was appointed president at last year’s WCF June convention. “I look forward to continuing to work to advance the pro-family movement in the US and around the world,” Brown said in a statement about his new role.

NOM regularly publishes anti-LGBTQ ads in its Facebook feed, some of it shared from the pages of other organizations like “Moms Like Me” and “Stand With Children”.  One ad showed a photo of Hillary Clinton and Obama under a headline which read: “when you demand everyone deny science so that girls can become boys, you have overplayed your hand.”

A handful of wealthy donors keeps NOM funded to the tune of about $7.4 million annually. Amway’s Doug DeVos (Betsy’s brother-in-law) donated $750,000 to the organization between 2009 and 2012.

NOM’s goal is to support the elections of anti-gay legislators. Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who believes homosexuality should be illegal, is a recent beneficiary of a NOM endorsement. The organization has repeatedly broken election law for not revealing its donors and is listed as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

All of the above could normally fall into the sphere of state-sponsored NGO activity (the U.S. does similar things in other countries to influence human rights) but now there’s an added element of an investigation of conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. This month, Special Counsel Robert Mueller executed a search warrant on Facebook after revelations that Russian-owned accounts bought $150,000 in ads on Facebook on issues from Black Lives Matter, immigration and LGBTQ issues between 2015 and 2016.

The ads were intended to inflame tensions on wedge issues like LGBTQ rights. Mueller’s team has not publicly released the ads but is analyzing their origin and which accounts and pages shared the posts, which in itself could constitute a crime.

“These targeted messages, along with others that have surfaced in recent days, highlight the sophistication of an influence campaign slickly crafted to mimic and infiltrate U.S. political discourse while also seeking to heighten tensions between groups already wary of one another,” the Washington Post reported.

We’ve written before about Russia’s extraordinary efforts to engage the NRA between 2010 and 2016. Investigators are now probing if the Kremlin officials infiltrated social, evangelical and constitutional causes and created ads to divide and conquer an electorate. All under the pretense of shared values but with only one aim in mind: furthering Russia’s kleptocracy.

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