The dominant narrative of modern Middle East history emphasizes the depredations visited upon the region by European colonization and accepts as a truism that the former colonial powers prioritized the protection of their material interests—in oil, above all—above the dignity and self-determination of the region’s inhabitants. Thus did botched decolonization result in endless instability. The most intractable of the regional conflicts to which this gave rise, that between the Arabs and Israelis, is attributed in this narrative to Israel’s unwillingness to accede to Palestinian national aspirations. Thus did the region become a breeding ground for radicalism, intensified by Cold War rivalry between the superpowers, who replaced the European colonizers as the region’s meddling overlords. Then came Mikhail Gorbachev—a Westernizing reformer. At last, the Cold War was over. A new world order was at hand.
What if this conventional wisdom is nonsense? Russian exile Pavel Stroilov argues just this in his forthcoming book, Behind the Desert Storm. “Not a word of it is true,” he writes. “It was the Soviet Empire—not the British Empire—that was responsible for the instability in the Middle East.” (...) >>>
June 24, 2012
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The war of demoralization again - The gist is borne out by Bezmenev "Just doing his job" -
Free Republic: "Current Communist Goals (1958)"
I don't know how many of you have read this; it's been posted at FR dozens of times since the site was stood up. But there's a lot of new FReepers around that should read this. It is taken from the 1958 book "The Naked Communist
" by Cleon Skousen, an FBI Agent. In it, he published a list of what Communism's goals were/are for America. It was later entered into the Conressional Record by Congressman Albert Herlong (D-FL). It is a chilling document when looking back at how many of the 45 goals have been accomplished. Many assume that Skousen somehow acquired a list of goals, which is highly unlikely. What's more likely is that Skousen looked at Communist documents and actions at the time, then extrapolated how they would accomplish those goals. BUT THIS DOES NOT DETRACT FROM THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DOCUMENT. Regardless, words written in 1958 are dead-on accurate predictions of how the Left operates today. You might need to send it out to everybody you know. (...) >>>Aug. 23, 2010
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Shock! the cold war isn't over! -
Update: The Cold War isn't over, says Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy, a former KGB agent who became one of the KGB’s harshest critics. He is the author of seven books about the KGB and Japan. His new book is KGB/FSB’s New Trojan Horse: Americans of Russian Descent
. The '10' spooks caught may be related to money laundering ops. Also: brace for retaliation ... this is the mob and Putin used to say a proverb of the Russian criminal world: “The one who offends us will not survive a day.”FrontPage: "Spies Like Putin"
(...) Americans are still in euphoria about the supposed end of the Cold War. But as I asked earlier, who signed a capitulation? And where were the Nuremberg-style trials of communists for their crimes against humanity? Make no mistake about it: The Russians know the war is still going on. And they do not share American values. Russia is mostly an Asian country. And the very fact that Americans do not understand, and do not want to understand, this is a result of the great Russian influence here. (...) >>>
Jul 8, 2010
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USA/UK special relationship -
Capital Bay: "Details of Cold War intelligence pact published"
Details of the sweeping intelligence sharing pact struck between the United States and Britain at the dawn of the Cold War were made public for the first time Friday, laying bare the details of an unprecedented espionage arrangement.
The 1946 UKUSA agreement - a secret deal to not to spy on one another and to share nearly every single piece of radio intercept material - was a keystone of the United States' global intelligence-gathering apparatus, allowing it to pool its resources with Britain and other countries.
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand signed on to the pact in later years.
At the heart of the agreement was a pledge that "each party shall make available to the other without request and as a matter of routine, and shall furnish as requested, all communication intelligence produced by its operating agencies." (...) >>>
PDFs on National Archives
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Straightening Vietnam -
Washington Times: "BOOK REVIEW: 'America's victory in Vietnam'", by y James S. Robbins
America won the Vietnam War. You hadn't heard? Then check out "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War," Phillip Jennings' new entry in the popular Regnery series. Mr. Jennings wrote the book with a specific purpose: "To settle scores with the pernicious mythmakers of the Vietnam War." These include journalists, politicians and academics, who both created the myths of Vietnam and profited from them. For this group, Mr. Jennings has three words: "Shame on you."
Mr. Jennings' book is a well-researched, brisk review of the central myths of the Vietnam War, set in historical context. It is not a comprehensive history of the war, nor does it claim to be, but an all-out assault on the negative and misleading way in which the war has been portrayed. (...) >>>
May 2, 2010
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The Soviets and INGSOC -
Image by adotjdotsmith via FlickrThe Spectator: "Reaching through the Iron Curtain", by Pavel Stroilov
In the pages of the Kremlin’s secret diary, Pavel Stroilov discovers what Labour’s Soviet sympathisers said when they thought no one was listening
It is almost 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall — and still the truth keeps trickling out of Moscow. The Soviets, like the Nazis, were meticulous note-keepers and there is decades worth of material still to be uncovered. (...) this is how I came across the extraordinary diaries of Anatoly Chernyaev. (...)
By the late 1970s it became clear that the USSR could no longer compete on an equal footing in the Cold War arms race, which perhaps explains their support for organisations such as the ‘World Peace Council’. A separate tranche of Soviet secret documents, obtained by Vladimir Bukovsky, claims that the left’s ‘peace campaign’ in the early 1980s was secretly orchestrated from Moscow. (...)
Politicians like Foot or Kinnock, however, did not have the closest connections with the USSR. In those years, the Labour party was effectively controlled by its affiliated trade unions — and that is where the KGB and the International Department aimed to infiltrate. Today, we know that the union leader Jack Jones, once regarded as the most powerful man in Britain, was a KGB agent for most of his life. He was exposed by his last case officer, Colonel Oleg Gordievsky — the most famous MI6 agent in the KGB. Jones’s trade union — Transport and General Workers (T&G) — was the most powerful one in the Labour party. (...)
On the whole, however, the communist infiltration of the T&G is hardly a joking matter: its influence in the Labour party was substantial. The decision to give Gordon Brown his first and only safe seat, Dunfermline East, was made by two T&G officials: Hugh Wyper, the regional boss and a Communist Party member, and Alec Kitson. This is not exceptional. Neil Kinnock, Tony Blair, Margaret Beckett, Harriet Harman, John Reid — to name just a few — were all T&G people who made their Labour party careers thanks to the union’s backing. (...) >>>
Dec. 7, 2009
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FEATURE - Der Spiegel Photo Gallery: Berlin Kicks off Wall Celebrations - Der Spiegel: 20 Years On: Berlin Celebrates the Day the Wall Fell - Boston.com The Big Picture Blog: Amazing big photos -
- Der Spiegel: "'Nov. 9, 1989 Could So Easily Have Ended in Bloodshed'"
- Der Spiegel: Medvedev: "The Fall of the Wall United Us Again"
- NRC: Lech Walesa: "The first wall to fall was in Poland"
- Der Spiegel: Lt-Col. Harald Jäger: "'I Gave my People the Order -- Raise the Barrier'"
- Washington Times Editorial: "Mr. Obama, stay away from this wall - Democrats tried to thwart Reagan's Cold War vision"
- Mediaite: "Twenty Years Ago Today: Peter Jennings Reports “Astonishing News” Out Of Germany"
- The Foundry: "Morning Bell: Reagan, Obama and the Berlin Wall"
- The B-Cast: "Twenty Years of Lessons Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall" (video)
- Mediaite: "20 Years Later: The Berlin Wall Remembered In Magazine Covers"
- Pajamas TV: "Collective Amnesia: 20 Years After Defeating Communism, Where's the Celebration?" (video)
Nov. 9, 2009
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USA Today: "Castro's sister says she worked for CIA before leaving Cuba in 1964"
The younger sister of Fidel Castro became so disillusioned with the Cuban regime before going into exile that she began working for the CIA against her brothers' rule, she tells Univision Noticias 23. Juanita Castro, 76, says in the interview broadcast on Sunday that she became especially upset that Castro was executing opponents and moving the island toward communism. "I began to become disenchanted when I saw so much injustice," she says. (...) >>>
Oct. 26, 2009
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Der Spiegel: "West German Secret Service Opens GDR Files", by Klaus Wiegrefe
Germany's foreign intelligence agency recently released some of its files from the run-up to the collapse of East Germany. The papers show that West German spies had conflicting information. At times they were well sourced, but they failed to see that the Berlin Wall was about to collapse (...) >>>
Oct 18, 2009
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Der Spiegel: "East German Jokes Collected by West German Spies"
Did East Germans originate from apes? Impossible. Apes could never have survived on just two bananas a year. Such jokes were whispered in communist East Germany -- and West German spies recorded them diligently to gain insights into the public mood, according to recently released intelligence files.
"What would happen if the desert became communist? Nothing for a while, and then there would be a sand shortage." Jokes like that made the rounds among East Germans during the communist era, and West Germany's intelligence service would collect them, as a way to assess the public mood behind the Iron Curtain but also to amuse its masters in Bonn, the West German capital. Here's another one: (...) >>>
Oct. 14, 2009
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NewsReal: "What Conservatives Need to Know About Joe McCarthy", by Ron Radosh
I noticed the controversy over the late Senator McCarthy in the comments column at NewsReal. It is a mistake for conservatives to think that just because McCarthy’s targets were real, the Senator did no harm. Stan Evans has contributed mightily to this confusion in his recent book Blacklisted By History. NewsReal readers may be interested in my review.
There were Communist spies, and they did infiltrate the U.S. Government at the highest levels during the New Deal years of F.D.R.’s presidency. While the U.S. treated the Soviet Union as an ally during the war against Nazism, the Soviet Union and its rulers used this relationship as an easy way to gain access to our nation’s top military and diplomatic secrets.
The problem was that by the time Joe McCarthy surfaced with his accusations, the key Soviet spy networks had all been closed down, due to the KGB’s well found fears that Elizabeth Bentley’s defection in 1945 compromised all of their operations. Although they tried hard, they never could successfully put together the kind of networks they had in operation during the war years. (...) >>>
Oct. 1, 2009
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What did you do in the Cold War, Teddy? On the passing of Ted Kennedy articles abound about the man's activities. Here are two noteworthies:
American Thinker: "Kennedy and the KGB", by Paul Kengor
Shortly after the announcement of Ted Kennedy's death, I had already received several interview requests. I declined them, not wanting to be uncharitable to the man upon his death. Since then, I've seen the need to step up and provide some clarification.
The issue is a remarkable 1983 KGB document on Kennedy, which I published in my 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism (HarperCollins). The document is a May 14, 1983 memo from KGB head Victor Chebrikov to his boss, the odious Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov, designated with the highest classification. It concerns a confidential offer to the Soviet leadership by Senator Kennedy. The target: President Ronald Reagan. (A pdf file of the original Russian language document and an English translation are available here.) (...) >>>
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American Thinker: "The KGB, Kennedy, and Carter", by James Simpson
Edward Moore Kennedy, whose memory was endlessly praised in the mainstream media over the weekend, conspired with our Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union, against the interests of the United States Government. The effort was to thwart the national security goals being championed by the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, as historian Paul Kengor reviews today on AT.
What is not generally known is that Kennedy collaborated with the Soviets well before Reagan was elected, and had a direct hand in crafting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. As a result of his efforts -- which appear in retrospect to have been crafted to prevent detection of his seditious activities -- the FBI was prevented from accessing critical intelligence that could have warned of 9-11. (...) >>>
Aug. 31, 2009
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Yahoo News: "Soviets planned Manchester invasion"
A map showing the route Soviet tanks would have taken in a planned invasion of Manchester in 1974 have been revealed. Moscow's generals targeted roads wide enough for the armoured vehicles to roll into the city centre. The Russians aimed to conquer the city during the Cold War by heading along Washway Road, the Mancunian Way and Princess Road.
The map is on display in an exhibition at the University of Manchester's John Rylands Library as part of the Royal Geographical Society annual conference. Soviet mapmakers used colour codes to describe targets - black for industrial sites, purple for public buildings and green for military sites. (...) They also added secret information left out of Ordnance Survey maps from 35 years ago, such as the Risley Moss nuclear research site. (...) >>>
Aug 26, 2009
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... spilling the NKVD/KGB beans ...
Accuracy in Media: "A Valuable New Book on the KGB"
The new book, Spies, The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev (Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2009) provides us with valuable new information about how the KGB penetrated the United States government in the 1930s and 40s. It supplements our earlier information, including the Venona intercepts (Soviet intelligence communications between the U.S. and Moscow during World War II, on the website of the National Security Agency); the FBI files on their lengthy investigation of the interrelationship between the KGB and the American Communist Party in the 1930s and for many years later (on the website of Stan Evans' Education & Research Institute); and the extensive work on Soviet espionage of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security, and the Senate Permanent Investigation Subcommittee of Senator Joseph McCarthy. The printed transcripts of Senate and House hearings can be found at any good library. (...) >>>
May 14, 2o09
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Reuters: "Cuba silent on Russian bomber report: Fidel Castro"
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday said Cuba does not have to explain or "ask forgiveness" about a report out of Russia this week that Russia might use its Cold War ally Cuba as a refueling base for nuclear-capable bombers. He did not address whether the report was true or false, and Cuban officials have made no comment. "Raul did very well keeping a dignified silence," Castro wrote, referring to his brother, President Raul Castro (...) >>>
Updated: 24th July 2008
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Accuracy in Media: "AIM Report on Senator Joe McCarthy Gets the Attention of the U.S. Senate!"
AIM Report Ignites a Debate Over Senator Joe McCarthy’s Record: Donald A. Ritchie, the Senate Associate Historian, Exchanges Views with Journalist Wes Vernon and M. Stanton Evans, author of Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies.
(The following exchange of letters from Donald Ritchie, Wes Vernon, and M. Stanton Evans concerns Wes Vernon’s AIM Report, The Ultimate Vindication of Joe McCarthy.)
Dear [AIM Editor] Mr. Kincaid, >>>
Updated: 17th Jan. 2008
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Accuracy in Media: "AIM Report: The Ultimate Vindication of Joe McCarthy - December B"
... Unsnarling the errors, distortions and deliberate falsehoods that have been spread regarding McCarthy's stormy five-year exposé of Soviet agents is nothing less than a full-time job. Why is it necessary to set the record straight on so-called "McCarthyism" at this point? First and foremost, we have a mainstream media which go along with or are cowed by the "political correctness" police. (...) the State Department routinely hired and covered up the records of Communists and their friends (...) McCarthy blew the whistle on conspirators and their enablers who aided and abetted the downfall of the pro-western Chinese government of our World War II ally Chiang-Kai-Shek (...) Joe McCarthy—aptly described by Evans as "grassroots, blue-collar all the way"—clearly defined the enemy of that day. So too should we define today's threat. >>> ... a highly recommended read of historical proportions ...Updated: 19th Dec. 2007
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Human Events: "McCarthyism: The Rosetta Stone of Liberal Lies", by Ann Coulter
After printing rabidly venomous accounts of McCarthy for half a century based on zero research (...) >>>
(Dated: 7th Nov. 2007)
Update:
Part II: "They'll Never ForgiveYou"
This week, he's apologizing in the pages of the increasingly irrelevant National Review with a nasty review of the greatest book since the Bible, M. Stanton Evans' Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies . (...) >>>
Part III: "Joe McCarthy Invented the Internet"
(...) But liberals are still fighting the 2000 presidential election -- if only to take a break from fighting the 1973 Chilean coup (...) >>>
Related:
- National Cold War Exhibition (UK)
- International Spy Museum (USA)
- The Cold War Museum (USA)
- Diefenbunker: Canada's Cold War Museum
- Free Wagon Films: "The Subversion Factor" (moles throughout the last century)
- International Spy Museum (USA)
- The Cold War Museum (USA)
- Diefenbunker: Canada's Cold War Museum
- Free Wagon Films: "The Subversion Factor" (moles throughout the last century)
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