Ep 103 Russiagate Origins & Questions About the Mueller Report feat Daniel Lazare

Guest: Daniel Lazare. We discuss the origins of Russiagate, some key questions that we have about the Mueller Report and surprising things that the Mueller Report doesn't cover at all.

In Lazares's own words:

"Mueller's door-stopper of a report may be chockfull of facts, but it's also filled with the non sequiturs, loose threads and self-serving arguments that we've come to expect from official Washington.  It's good on collusion, pointing out that reports of a Trump-Russia conspiracy remain unsubstantiated despite desperate Democratic efforts to spin it otherwise."

"But it's lousy on interference, regurgitating the standard intelligence-community line that Russia 'interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.' Simultaneously, it is remarkably incurious about how the scandal began, who propelled it along, and how it all snowballed into a mega-Watergate."

Timestamps:

• 02:00- historical recap (from 2014) of US-Russia relations and flawed US foreign policy: Maidan revolution, Crimea, Syria regime change war, Russian intervention and subsequent fury and panic of US War Party, Trump campaign's pro-Russia stance leading to War Party believing Trump was in league with Putin
• 8:30 Origins of Russiagate: US and foreign intelligence suspicions about Trump campaign's contacts with Russians, counterintelligence investigation. Informants, creating pretexts for investigations, Papadopoulous, Mifsud, Roger Stone, Felix Sater
• 18:00 Mueller and Weismann reputations, Manafort, collusion section of Mueller report
• 24:00 Other foreign policy and empire ambitions and problems that influenced Russiagate, e.g. Syria, Ukraine, refugee crisis in Europe, rise of right-wing parties
• 32:00 Watergate narrative, DNC alleged hack, neverending Russiagate, Assange
• 36:00 Key questions we have about the Mueller Report and questions the Mueller report does not answer, creeping conspiracy culture, the Steele dossier, IRA, GRU, new investigations and the political impact

Daniel Lazare is a journalist and author of three books: The Frozen Republic; The Velvet Coup, and America's Undeclared War.

FOLLOW Dan  on Twitter @dhlazare. Find his work at Consortium News and find his writings and his books at daniellazare.com.

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Recorded on May 8, 2019. Music by Fluorescent Grey.

Reference Links:

1. Top Ten Questions About the Mueller Report, Daniel Lazare, Consortium News
2. The 'Guccifer 2.0' Gaps in Mueller's Full Report, Daniel Lazare, Consortium News
3. The Tale of a 'Deep State Target', Daniel Lazare, Consortium News
4. Bachelor Show 5/7/29 interview with Andrew McCarthy: "I think they're not finding Mifsud because they don't want to find him."