In SpyTalk, veteran intelligence reporter Jeff Stein reviews a diverse slew of recent books in the realm of espionage and national security. Three recommendations A Hollywood feature on The Trial of the Chicago Seven, coming October 16, starring Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen and Frank Langella, among others, as the colorful anti-Vietnam War defendants, their lawyers and...
Category: Trump Russia
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Peace Data and Prigozhin’s Service to Putin
Some journalists on the left like Aaron Mate and Dan Lazare tell me that the charges of Russian interference in U.S. politics are a “hoax” or “don’t really matter.” While I share their opposition to a new Cold War with Russia, that does not require averting one’s eyes from the record of Yevgeny Prigozhin, international...
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The Origins of the Ukraine Conspiracy Theory
It all began with Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, now serving a seven-year prison sentence for bank fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, false statements, and witness tampering. Now Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is promoting Manafort’s defense of his felonious behavior: I was looking for the Democratic National...
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A Right-Wing Bubble Bursts: Durham Talks and Brennan Walks
The soft sobbing sounds you hear come right-wing media scribes who are crying in their beer. For months, the faithful tribunes of Trumpism have been hyperventilating about the Justice Department’s investigation of the FBI and CIA’s decision to investigate the Trump-Russia contacts in 2016. On the scarcest of evidence these partisans have hyped the possibilty...
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Brennan Is Reportedly Not a Target of John Durham investigation
If this Washington Examiner report proves to be true, it will be a bitter pill for right-wing media. The Examiner and other pro-Trump outlets have talked themselves into believing, on the basis of very little evidence, that Durham had a criminal case against former CIA director John Brennan. The Obama-era CIA director has been told...