The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire

22 Replies to “The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire”

1. I love the irony. A Russian hacker exposing the normal workings of the State Department to the world while the world’s largest leviathan state-hacker complains about one of its “high-level” amateurish cell phone conversations being hacked.
   At least they were clumsily (who could argue with “f..k the EU”?) attempting something on the Ukrainian situation but as is common with this administration, were upstaged by Russians.

2. Has anyone asked Angela Merkel what she thinks of having german calls monitored by NSA and now having american calls made public?

3. That may well be the most blatantly, breathtakingly hypocritical statement in the history of modern civilization.

4. Poetic justice!
   Next excuse?
   Uh, ummm, Victoria Nuland had JUST checked into her Sochi apartment and retched at the condition of the bathroom. “F__ the… EEEWWW!”

5. This wasn’t some anonymous hacker. This intercept would have been made by Russia’s intelligence service. It’s being released as a clear message to the amateurs running State Department these days:
   “We know that you’re messing around in Ukraine, we know that at least some of the opposition are American stooges, and now the rest of the world knows it too.”
   Releasing this intercept does several things for Uncle Vlad:
   1. it provides ammnunition for the pro-government forces in Ukraine to say the opposition is nothing more than a coup attempt run by the Yanks,
   2. It cripples communications between Washington and their officials overseas. Now they have to worry about what else the Russians have intercepted,
   3. It cripples communications between Washington and pre-western forces in Ukraine. Naturally the Ukrainians will be worried about just who and what is being talked about. For the Americans, the consequences are embarrassment at most; for the Ukrainians, much worse.
   4. Nuland’s ham-handedness drives an unnecessary wedge with the EU with whom the US is supposed to be acting in concert. After all, they are supposed to be allies.
   You have to hand it to Uncle Vlad. The man may be a tyrant, but he sure does know how to lob a hand grenade into a diplomatic punchbowl and drown the fancy-dress party in goo.

6. Oh, and it also does one other thing. It shows to Americans and all the rest of the world that the US State Department really is a gang of complete twits who can’t even manage to talk privately among themselves. Coming on top of the Snowden leaks, Canada’s huge security leak a couple of years ago and all the other communications gaffes from State, everyone in the world will be thinking twice about saying or sharing anything with Washington.

7. “It’s concerning that private conversation was recorded.”
   Yes. YES. IT. IS.
   On the other hand, listening on government diplomatic calls – OLD AS GOVERNMENT ITSELF, who would even doubt that it was happening by your team, the other team, interested 3rd parties, mickeymouse, and the partridge inthe pear tree.

8. Exactly. Whatever else you can say about Putin and Russia today, they sure checkmate the bumbling idiots in the current White House administration.
   In 2000, Russia was on the verge of collapse when Putin took over the presidency, and now is back as a power on the world stage while the US is collapsing.

9. “… a new low in Russian tradecraft…”?
   Certainly a low in U.S. State Dept. tradecraft. (I don’t know whether it’s a new low for them. Having a conversation like that recorded and leaked is so incompetent even by amateur that a fiction writer wouldn’t put such an event in a spy thriller because it would be too implausible.

10. Someone owes me a new keyboard. The sheer hypocrisy of a US govt official being shocked that their conversation was recorded by foreign spooks in light of Snowden’s revelations is breath-taking. Surely they learned about the Zimmerman telegram at Harvard?
    I believe the US government uses encrypted comms which only a super computer can decrypt. To use a vulnerable landline for a sensitive conversation is careless.
    What’s it going to take to have adults in charge of the USA?

11. Al…”I believe the US government uses encrypted comms which only a super computer can decrypt”…and if that is so, the possessors of said super computers in the USA rent out time on said super computers. So maybe the Ruskies used a USA based and owned stuper computer to do the job. Now that would be hilarious. And that all conversations in and out of Russia/ussr are recorded has long been known, Vald just released this as to show he’s a better chess player than the Idiot in Chief. As to the content of the conversation, nothing new there either, especially with lefties, they are all superior in their own minds.

12. The Americans are consumed with paranoid hatred of everything Russian;
    more so, oddly enough, than in the days of the Soviet Union. It probably
    has to do with the Russian rejection of Communism and re-embrace of
    Orthodox Christianity. I mean, after all, given the vast number of
    leaks from the US government in the past, it is likely that this is
    yet another leak from some little official in the US government –
    who knows? some flunky of a flunky of a flunky of the Assistant
    Secretary of State. Their staffs are enormous, which is never good for
    security. Canadian security is better, partly because we are naturally
    devious and secretive, but also because we don’t provide our ministers
    of state with huge entourages.
    Again, the American officialdom tends not to think about “little
    people”. And yet a secretary can know as much as a Cabinet minister,
    if she is in the right position.
    Look at PMSH’s trip to Israel – the entire Canadian contingent was
    smaller than Obama’s security detail.
    I say above that we Canadians are naturally devious and secretive –
    it occurs that our national animal, the beaver, is devious and
    secretive. It is much easier to see muskrat in the wild than beaver!

13. “Surely they learned about the Zimmerman telegram at Harvard? ”
    I sincerely doubt it. A Harvard education isn’t worth very much. It
    teaches arrogance but nothing of substance.

14. “I say above that we Canadians are naturally devious and secretive”…
    I prefer ‘inscrutable.’ Or, as a Canadian, I keep my own counsel.
    Sounds *so* much better. 🙂
    Our eastern media had a fit at the enormous size of PM Harper’s entourage for the trip to Israel, yet, they write virtually nothing about Obama’s lavish spending on visits to other countries. The double standard is glaring.

15. The contents of the conversation are really neither here nor there. In what was a clearly US-only (i.e., NOFORN) discussion they were candid in their opinions about other countries and international organizations.
    Big deal.
    The question ought to be: what are “diplomats” doing blathering on like this on an insecure means. Do these people not have STU (secure telephone units) or any situational awareness about the environment they’re chatting in? Obviously not.
    That’s what’s disconcerting.
    “Has anyone asked Angela Merkel what she thinks of having german [sic] calls monitored by NSA…?”

16. Oops! The back end of my last posting was meant for “marc in Calgary”:
    “Has anyone asked Angela Merkel what she thinks of having german [sic] calls monitored by NSA…?”
    More to the point: has anyone bothered to ask her what she thinks of having American calls monitored by the BND Technische Aufklärung?

17. I think the strange thing is for the Americans to look at the Russians , the ones they detest and see a reflection in the mirror of themselves

18. The “F the EU” phone call was prolly just proof that Vlad had to show to the world and Obama that Vlad has some seriously bigger dirt he’s willing to spill if he doesn’t get to,… oh I don’t know, own the Ukraine, middle east, Syria, Iran, take your pick.

19. I wrote that before seeing the BBC headline, “Merkel condemns US over EU insult” .. which has remained on top all day. I’m not a fanboy of the BBC, simply thinking it’s a good idea to see what they’re telling the serfs… and no, I’m not about to start capitalizing “german” … 😉
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26080715
    To your point, no I don’t think it’s alright that no phone calls appear to be secure in these days, for anyone, even peons. The situational awareness you speak of seems a lost art for those that ought to expect monitoring.

20. Chess? They obviously don’t play chess, Putin had to learn to play checkers to beat them. And in the back of his KGB-trained mind he has this nagging suspicion that he must be missing something, nothing can be this easy, the Chinese must have taken over the U.S. decades ago and they’ve been running it as a false front to distract Russia from whatever they are really up to…

21. I see a comeback for carrier pidgeons…

22. Victoria nuland = Joo
    will these lefty Joos never learn,
    I think we need to lend Ezra to them to teach them smarts!!!