Largely overlooked in coverage of the war on Russia has been the role of Western Deep State intel agencies—CIA and MI6. The role of these agencies in fomenting the coup that overthrew Ukraine’s elected government and installed a radical Ukro-Nazi regime is well known. What’s not so generally known is the role of these agencies in building up Ukrainian Deep State capabilities, that have enable Ukraine to commit significant infrastructure sabotage operations inside Russia as well as targeted assassinations.
On Tuesday, 10/23/23, the WaPo published a quite thorough article that makes it abundantly clear that but for CIA complicity—from training, equipping, funding, up to operational planning—little of this would have been possible. The narrative that’s presented through the WaPo is that, oh, we’re troubled by some of the things the Ukrainians have done, but: That narrative is threadbare under examination and close reading. Larry Johnson and Andrei Martyanov argue that this article represents CIA CYA, prior to dumping the Ukrainians. Andrei Martyanov argues—correctly—that the Russians won’t be fooled by this.
All of this illustrates, once again, that the empowerment of a Military Industrial Intel Complex is a danger to the normal population of any country. The proof is in this campaign of sabotage and assassination targeting a major nuclear power—enabled by the CIA. How crazy is that? Well, there’s something even crazier, and Martyanov is on top of this. Our legislative Gang of Eight actually supervises CIA. The problem is that the Gang of Eight, like our “regulatory” agencies, are largely the creatures of the agencies they’re supposed to supervise. Place this in the context of the Deep State narrative that Russia has been conducting assassinations in the West. As is so often the case, we accuse the Russians of doing what we do.
Let’s take a look at some highlights of the WaPo article:
Ukrainian spies with deep ties to CIA wage shadow war against Russia
The operation [the assassination of Darya Dugina] was orchestrated by Ukraine’s domestic security service, the SBU, according to officials who provided details ...
These operations have been cast as extreme measures Ukraine was forced to adopt in response to Russia’s invasion last year. In reality, they represent capabilities that Ukraine’s spy agencies have developed over nearly a decade — since Russia first seized Ukrainian territory in 2014 — a period during which the services also forged deep new bonds with the CIA.
The missions have involved elite teams of Ukrainian operatives drawn from directorates that were formed, trained and equipped in close partnership with the CIA, according to current and former Ukrainian and U.S. officials. Since 2015, the CIA has spent tens of millions of dollars to transform Ukraine’s Soviet-formed services into potent allies against Moscow, officials said.
What we just read: The capabilities of Ukraine to conduct sabotage and assassination missions inside Russia follow upon ten years of formation, training, equipping of Ukraine by the CIA. Now the CIA wants Russia to believe they never thought Ukraine would use the capabilities they received from us. But the article goes on to detail some capabilities, like the ability to operate clandestinely inside Russia. What did we think they’d do?
U.S. intelligence officials stressed that the agency has had no involvement in targeted killing operations by Ukrainian agencies,
Many of Ukraine’s clandestine operations have had clear military objectives
Like energy infrastructure sabotage.
Ukraine’s affinity for lethal operations has complicated its collaboration with the CIA, raising concerns about agency complicity and creating unease among some officials in Kyiv and Washington.
Uh, please: if we were winning this war there would be no concern whatsoever.
“If Ukraine’s intelligence operations become even bolder — targeting Russians in third countries, for example — you could imagine how that might cause rifts with partners and come into serious tension with Ukraine’s broader strategic goals,” the official said. Among those goals is membership in NATO and the European Union.
Current and former U.S. and Ukrainian officials said both sides have sought to maintain a careful distance between the CIA and the lethal operations carried out by its partners in Kyiv. CIA officials have voiced objections after some operations, officials said, but the agency has not withdrawn support.
What kind of objection is it when you continue “support”. What does “support” mean, anyway? Money? No, it actually means operational support of many different sorts. For example:
The emphasis was “more on secure communications and tradecraft,” and pursuing new streams of intelligence inside Russia
boundaries were occasionally blurred. CIA officers in Kyiv were made aware of some of Ukraine’s more ambitious plans for strikes. In some cases, including the bombing of the Kerch Bridge, U.S. officials registered concerns.
Not vetoes. Concerns. Like, we might be implicated.
The agency [CIA] provided secure communications gear, eavesdropping equipment that allowed Ukraine to intercept Russian phone calls and emails, and even furnished disguises and separatist uniforms enabling operatives to more easily slip into occupied towns.
The early missions focused on recruiting informants ... The SBU also began mounting sabotage operations and missions to capture separatist leaders and Ukrainian collaborators, some of whom were taken to secret detention sites.
But the operations soon took a lethal turn.
From 2015 on, the CIA embarked on such an extensive transformation of the GUR that within several years “we had kind of rebuilt it from scratch,” the former U.S. intelligence official said.
GUR operatives were trained on skills ranging from clandestine maneuvers behind enemy lines to weapons platforms and explosives. U.S. officials said the training was aimed at helping Ukrainian operatives protect themselves in dangerous Russian-controlled environments rather than inflicting harm on Russian targets.
Wait—explosives training was to “protect themselves”? Who is kidding whom?
the CIA was permitted to have direct contact with agents recruited and run by Ukrainian intelligence.
Which is the hand and which is the glove?
U.S. officials who had been notified in advance raised concerns about the attack [on the Kerch bridge, major Russian infrastructure], officials said, fearing Russian escalation. Those misgivings had presumably dissipated by the time the SBU launched a second strike on the bridge nine months later using naval drones that were developed as part of a top secret operation involving the CIA and other Western intelligence services.
The GUR has used its own fleet of drones to launch dozens of attacks on Russian soil, ...
Those strikes have involved both long-range drones launched from Ukrainian territory, as well as teams of operatives and partisans working inside Russia, officials said. Motors for some drones were purchased from Chinese suppliers with private funding that couldn’t be traced to Ukrainian sources, according to an official who said he was involved in the transactions.
IOW, these were all joint operations.
Skeptics nevertheless worry Ukraine’s use of targeted killings and drone strikes on Moscow high-rises help neither its cause against Russia nor its longer-term aspirations to join NATO and the E.U.
Andrei Martyanov comments (beginning after 17:00 in the video:
The investigative Committee of Russia has already started preparation for the war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Russian special services know who is behind this. They know who those people are from CIA and other Intel organizations in the United States. They know their names, they know their identities, they know where their families live, and things of this nature. So CIA now tries to say, 'Oh we had nothing to do with that.' Actually, they did. The Russians have damn good not only human but signal intelligence which allows to know who those people are up to the political level. No, the Russians will not go and kill somebody--they actually do not work like this, unlike CIA. The point is that when those proceedings start in the war crimes tribunals there will be names named, and a lot of the names will be Anglo Saxon or other non-Slavic foreign names. And this will be people who will be charged with the crimes against humanity, and you can bet your butt on that that the names of many so-called CIA operatives and people who have been involved in creating this basically murderous terrorist organization of the Ukrainian Military. Despicable crimes against humanity--the modus operandi of the London and Washington DC intel organizations just shines through, and that means those people will be charged with the crimes against humanity. Even if Russia will not be able to bring them to justice their names will be publicized, they will be exposed for what they are.
Again, this is all symptomatic of the deep dysfunction of our entire government system, subordinate to the purposes of aggressive imperial expansion at the behest of the Deep State and the MIIC. And it could lead us into World War 3.
10:23:23 was a Monday not a Tuesday...
Reading this makes me all-the-more surprised that they let Mike Johnson get his nose under the Gang of Eight tent. Even though Johnson will prohibited from spilling hard intel, Glitch, Marco and Turner have to be a little concerned about populist-side backlash when we learn (through the inevitable Washington trickles) about all the sketchiness they've been acquiescing in for this many years. That is, unless Johnson isn't the man we think he is.