LUMPENPROLETARIAT—Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist, an honest-to-God investigative journalist, and Editor-in-Chief at The Grayzone.
In this Zero Hour interview, Blumenthal discusses various cases of violations of the freedom of the press by the CIA and state intelligence agencies, including one case, which, he explains, should damage or invalidate the U.S. government’s case against Julian Assange. Host RJ Eskow and guest Max Blumenthal discuss the, Madrid, Spain case of Stefania Maurizi, among others, “who were victimized” and their press freedoms violated by a CIA contractor, UC Global, as Blumenthal explains, where
Mike Pompeo and Sheldon Adelson, the top Trump donor, worked through a security contractor to spy on many Americans. This was a criminal Trump operation, that has been [proven]. I’ve proven it through documents out of that courtroom…
Messina
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THE ZERO HOUR WITH RJ ESKOW – “Max Blumenthal: The CIA/Assange Spy Shocker They’re Not Reporting”, 20 SEP 2020
Transcript excerpts by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow.
RICHARD “RJ” ESKOW: “And we are back on The Zero Hour. This is your host, Richard RJ Eskow.
“As the trial, or I should say, extradition hearing of Julian Assange proceeds in Great Britain with some shocking and surprising developments there, news about this story is breaking elsewhere as well. And the journalist on top of that joins us. Max Blumenthal has been on the program many times before. We’re always happy to talk to him, even if we don’t always talk about happy subjects.
“Max, for those of you, who don’t know is an author. His latest book is The Management of Savagery. And his website, which he founded and co-edits, is TheGrayzone.com. So, first of all Max, welcome back to the program.”
MAX BLUMENTHAL: “It’s good to be back.”
RICHARD “RJ” ESKOW: “So, tell us about your reporting on the Assange prosecution.” (c. 1:16)
MAX BLUMENTHAL: “Well, I’m not covering the trial, which has restarted last week. And it’s a trial in London at a court next to the Belmarsh maximum security prison where Julian Assange is being held, in which the British judge—in what appears to be a complete show trial—is deciding whether or not to extradite Julian Assange to the United States, where he will then stand trial for violating the espionage act of a country he’s not a citizen of. He’s an Australian.
“He would face 175 years in prison and be put on trial in a district in northern Virginia, where the jury is certain to consist of, you know, military contractors, veterans, CIA, DHS, FBI personnel. That’s kind of who lives there. That’s why they chose to prosecute him there, under a judge, who’s notorious for prosecuting whistleblowers. And, so, that case is really significant. The trial is extremely significant. Most reporters have been kept out of the hearing. And the hearing is being conducted virtually because of the pandemic.
“So, you have a small cast of reporters. Human rights groups were not allowed to observe the hearings, including Amnesty International. And they are just working tirelessly to convey what’s taking place inside this British court, in this show trial, to the public. (c. 3:05)
“At the same time, there is a less well known case of equal significance, that should, if there were a democratic and decent legal system in the U.S. or U.K., or in the west, completely complicate and probably invalidate the prosecution of Julian Assange.
And that is a case, that’s taking place in a high court in Spain, in Madrid. And it’s a case where the former CEO of a Spanish security contractor called UC Global, which was contracted through Las Vegas Sands, the casino corporation of one of Donald Trump’s top donors, Sheldon Adelson, on behalf of Mike Pompeo‘s CIA, when Mike Pompeo was the CIA Director, to spy on Julian Assange, his associates, journalists, and his legal team inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London when he was given sanctuary there. That CEO, David Morales, a former Spanish special forces soldier, who founded this security firm and got this contract in Las Vegas for what he called ‘the dark side‘; alternately, he referred to it as ‘the American client‘ and ‘the American friends’; and it was clearly the CIA.
“Morales was arrested in Spain in October—sorry—in September of 2019. He was put on trial in October for a violation of attorney-client privilege, bribery, embezzlement, theft. And, out of the trial in Madrid, all of these private communications inside this private contractor, UC Global, have come out to the public. And I’ve obtained a lot of those communications, text messages from Morales, testimony by protected witnesses, who were his employees, or his former business partner describing his work on behalf of U.S. intelligence and describing how he violated the Constitutional rights of Americans, American journalists, Americans like Pamela Anderson, who was a close friend of Julian Assange; and how the security employees would attempt to steal the diaper of a child they believed to be Julian Assange’s son, in an attempt to get the DNA; how they followed Julian Assange’s partner, Stella Morris, in order to connect her to him; how they plotted to poison Julian Assange, obviously, the plot was never carried out; plotted to kidnap him; plotted to rob members of his legal team in their offices. And these robberies, as I reported back in May, appear to have been carried out. (c. 6:09)
“So, you have these two trials going on right now. The trial in Madrid is significant because of all of the evidence, that I just explained because there’s a precedent here.
“When Daniel Ellsberg was put on trial for the Pentagon Papers, he succeeded and was acquitted because of evidence, that emerged that Richard Nixon had plotted, through his cronies, to invade the psychiatrist office, of the psychiatrist, who Daniel Ellsberg had been visiting, to paint Ellsberg as a lunatic or someone who was mentally ill in the media. This invasion of privacy destroyed the whole prosecution.
“The invasion of privacy of Julian Assange and of his associates is on a much grander scale. And that’s what’s coming out in the Madrid trial.
“Now, if you’re watching this, and you haven’t heard about this case in Madrid, it’s because our media in the U.S. is not telling you about it. They’re not interested in it. I mean they’re barely interested in what I consider to be the trial of the century, where the freedom of the press is on trial in London.
“But they’re not interested in this case, where Mike Pompeo and Sheldon Adelson, the top Trump donor, worked through a security contractor to spy on many Americans. This was a criminal Trump operation, that has been [proven]. I’ve proven it through documents out of that courtroom. Other media organizations, that have reported it, have filled in a lot of the blanks here. (c. 7:51)
“And you would think this would be the perfect story for U.S. media to cover. But they’re just greeting it with a giant shrug. And what’s most remarkable about that, RJ, is that a number of reporters from the legacy publications—newspapers like the Washington Post and New York Times—were themselves spied on by this apparent CIA contractor; and they have said nothing. That, to me, is the most remarkable part of this saga.”
RICHARD “RJ” ESKOW: “So, that’s an astonishing piece of information. Tell us a little bit, Max Blumenthal, about what that spying on reporters looked like. I do want to, of course, get back to Julian Assange. But, for a moment, let’s talk about that. What kind of spying did they conduct?” (c. 8:43)
MAX BLUMENTHAL: “Well, I have a piece up at The Grayzone, that includes images, that I, basically, screen-shotted from video tape, that it was secretly recorded by UC Global, the CIA contractor, of meetings that Julian Assange held with reporters, like Glenn Greenwald and his husband David Miranda.
“Greenwald has been outspoken about how his Constitutional rights were violated by the CIA. And the CIA is not allowed to spy on Americans. Although, this did take place on foreign soil.
“Lowell Bergman, who is a renowned investigative journalist, worked for The New York Times and PBS, I included a screen shot of him being patted down by a UC Global guard, who, you know, turned out to be a spy, and the video of him meeting with Assange. Lowell Bergman has said nothing about this.
“And, then, there is Ellen Nakashima, who is the top national security correspondent for The Washington Post. And she went to the embassy at a very momentous time, the Ecuadorean Embassy, where Assange was, essentially, trapped.
“It was December 2017. And during this period, Assange and his legal team
—snip—
MAX BLUMENTHAL: (c. 12:27) “But I do know others, who have reached out to her to join a criminal complaint on behalf of the journalists, who were victimized by this CIA contractor. And that journalist’s name is Stefania Maurizi.
She formerly worked for la Repubblica, which is like the largest left-of-center publication in Italy.
And she did more reporting on the persecution of Assange, than, I think, any reporter I can think of.
So, she arrived at the embassy at this time, that I just described, December 2017. […] And she had, not only her phone unlocked, but the guard—um, I wanna get it exactly right—the guard photographed the unique international mobile equipment identity number and the SIM card number inside her phone, which is something you do, if you’re trying to hack into a phone, to get inside a phone.
They searched her backpack, took USB sticks.
—snip—
[Please check out the entire interview. It’s a must-read, or must-watch, or must-listen… This transcript will be expanded as time and resources allow. Please leave a comment, if you would like to contribute… Cheers. Solidarity.]
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[10 OCT 2020]
[Last modified on 11 OCT 2020 at 22:59 PDT]
[All images are original, reinterpretations, or used under creative commons/fair use.]
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