let joining us now is max blumenthal he's a journalist
and off their of republican to moral which is an absolutely essential book
for understanding the modern republican party ironies talking with us about his
new piece in the alternet
exposing the dark forces behind the snowed in smears
how you imax
i'm good
competitive to be back with the us uh... good to have you on so on it
over the past couple of days ah... obviously there's been a couple of
articles one of the uh... new york daily news the other and buzzfeed which were
you know
and just sort of the sensual e
uh... you know at best at worst uh... at best gossipy at worst sort of hit pieces
on glenn greenwald uh... and uh... d_c_ nps to followed very similar pattern
uh... and i'm wondering
uh... your article kind of contextual eyes is that and you have some ideas as
to what
uh... might be behind those pieces and i'm wondering if you kind of explain the
the main takeaways of your peace
uh...
backpacks clarify that uh... well-liked
to home kind of put those articles in the context as
uh... coordinator opposition research dumps
uh... what i focused on is the case that appear to be a before those two articles
elected invites feed which was another shepherd opposition down designed to you
uh... cast epic to support this emerging narrative of edward snowed in the
whistleblower the source of great lol
of all of the present program that uh... you know if the president on a global
pocket beach or in order to karthikeyan walter that ben vanity fair
and uh...
what this article
relied on ironically or documents will be true inside and out of ecuador
government
uh... apparently back some opposition shores classified documents showing that
army ecuadorian government
and attempted to procure
on spy equipment from two israeli terms for u_s_ middleman
for surveillance equipment after about five hundred thousand dollars but there
was no evidence in this article
i would be great
uh... which was
your market is there's big exclusive
there is no evidence that mister bailey equipment
and ever been used
i mean i thought this was funny you know where did they get the documents from
um...
i knew you know i'm pretty well aware of it
in a situation in
in washington that their
all right
that there's a whole network think tanks and lobbyists
huard
i'm incredibly opposed to the government of rockville korea who is the sort of
left-wing populist president of ecuador and their attempting to they would love
to
whom she had disappear in a coup
pro-nafta leftist president of honduras
and on that they can't do do do do which i think he's already faced one crew
on the they've been clamoring for um... the u_s_ to cancel all trade deals with
them
this network of right wing lobbyist and think tanks
since uh...
quoted you
sanctuary at p ecuadorian embassy in london giulianna knowledge
on the the dinner plans against them so they expect the when it appeared that he
was going to expand the silent to uh... snowed in who stuck in moscow i'm not
sure who's going to do it now
on this group really started amplifying their calls
or sanctions on ecuador
and and i thought so i thought the story is really funny who who planted this
story and i started
you know and i know that but he did the p_r_ laundromat and that would be great
invention that
the but he had a great she
uh... are happy to do the bidding
uh... neal conan so
that you'd allow them to turn their website in q
the platform
for these kind of attack so i i just started
you know looking into it
and i found some pretty remarkable things
yes but let's get into
the more the kind of specific discussion critique the bus fee but i'd find
interested in this kind of devils brew
who kind of put together of lobbyists and exile
the people connected to aristocracy in the far right dot in latin america and
former kind of senior minister bush administration officials
new but you know this is there
business essentially pushing for uh... right policies of right wing policies in
latin america and they've been agitating as you say
uh... against all of these latin governments for the past several years
regardless of you know even before on the emergence of the signs in this type
of situation so could you give us some details on to whom
these people are specifically
uh... and what information
uh... the really did
to buzzfeed
fairly started studying this network backing up two thousand or when i get a
piece were still on
dot com about the crew that calms
the cool in haiti
on that
at fort st john bertrand aristide from power on an idyllic anna and i was able
to really trait the crew through the
each other
para governmental groups that work
uh... ngos but they're really doing double work
yeah i i used to do in latin america especially in central america in the
nineteen th
uh... in the nineteen sixties in the nineteen eighties
uh... covertly and they would do it overtly they're basically or collections
and prop up opposition figures in a car to them
you take action against leaders the u_s_ didn't like him referring to the
national endowment for democracy is
the international republican instituted a national democratic institute
and uh... they act race
plot against aristide all the way to roger noriega who has been
um... george w_ bush is assistant secretary
western hemisphere
uh... an auto reiko also held that position he was
bushes
uh... latin american and we're right to vote for a bit interesting character i
don't know how you manage to get through senate confirmation
this is a guy who possibly
arnelle
uh... cuban parents
uh... named orlando bosch
uh...
get out of the next whaler after bringing you down
uh... a commercial aircraft and confessing to to bring down a commercial
aircraft
uh... that contained up for example the north korean olympic team that was a
cuban flight
and he did so it's uh... you know as an act of terror against the castro xin
common orlando bosch now today named after him in miami because possibly of
the intervention
about all right
uh...
out alright was also involved
in helping mom
the contra does generate propaganda inside the u_s_ to singled out by the
u_s_ comptroller general for having engaged in prohibited covert propaganda
activities now without electricity and the best
i will write is currently a lobbyist in washington
that kind of what you do after you know in the government i guess
arm and he's working with someone named ezekiel basket her letter argentinian
economist
such kind of right-hand man at the blogging for moving over to you count
like lockheed martin exxon mobil
and bacardi
guardians of course the beyond cuban exile family that wrote the helms-burton
act of nineteen ninety-six on that
open bar got everything on on the government of cuba including omg
essential medications and prescription drugs
uh...
and indeed you do you guys
and to get these companies
are back in two places
like ecuador
where major industries and the national i spend uh... economies have been
restructured under a popular socialist model these corporations
hate raphael korea they hate
which ave bay
they hate uh...
the bolivian government
and so there's an ulterior agenda here
and to complement their lobbying operation what vasquez bernardo i kept
on
if they just turnout op ed constantly for major publications including foreign
policy
in the miami herald
even i think people like raphael korea uma who
move you know i have not always been the most democratic leader is ab
done really draconian laws cracking down on the media in this country
exploiting people ought to call but doctors further so that they are very
bitter stating their opposition under that
under the guise of human rights when we know it's about
uh... you know
corporation
controlling neoliberal it let's listen in the past year this quickly is in the
past year
uh... big really where prepared and quartet because he gave it violent
responses but used to live here
that i'm talking about
uh... who kinda pioneered it narrative
that uh... korea should be punished
or shelter natasha and making our kind of
tried to amplify it because uh... uh... rumors that he was going to do
i won't give sanctuary just noted
yes element as this one sort of i think that's an important point to reiterate
its not that's the
some of the issues raised about the human rights record of core area some or
any of these other leaders for that matter or legitimate this is that there
being cynically uses him he didn't
to push and alter at the multi ridge and uh...
uh... by these lobbyists that you've talked about
so
interestingly enough that busted out that the
the documents buzzfeed dot on uh... no ecuador zoned spying uh...
with that that deep say ecuador does
those documents where we're taking down by those web site that they were upload
them to elect us cryptic
and on
and under dot the d_n_c_ a
and buzzfeed is taking place
and turning that into a big story now where they're you know trying to push
cycle hook uh... ecuador sent some eyes shady p_r_ firm to take these documents
down as interesting to see like
that they they are able to turn back into story to attack
uh... to it's like they're just
really giving into these uh... these groups that that suddenly stories to
begin with in hopes of really painting ecuador and operate in a bad light
sierra are noticed back and the documents of they're claiming that
they're not which is uh... ecuador intelligent service uh...
uh... squared to remove the document fifteen really
no evidence of that
uh... i think it's remarkable by the way that the people
who are out to get
notin
uh... are support so overjoyed but then lead
at thirty-three documents out there from another government
so uniquely documents to support their continent
higher or what i wrote it that uh... apparently their problem isn't
leaking
on principle the problem is with which government leaks in paris
uh... man i've let me get back to those documents uh... by talking about another
uh...
interesting figures involved
in this story
uh... but first down you know i i i i went to a few kill basket girl i don't
like lobbying partners twitter account i noticed the twilight twenty five minutes
after the story appeared
pop he was promoting it happily in spanish use
and he was personally thanking god
but the editor in chief got benched met her quote on basking in korea
photography so i mean it's just like
you know what i find out about a story are usually don't find out about it
twenty minutes after the peer to seems like you've been
cat thirteen new with coming somehow
and that right
noticed that a
uh... uh... really shadowy character named alex boyd
like come across in a previous investigation i did about
right wing
activist uh... who sort of
markets himself as a human rights hero in-store albert sent to lunch
on the human rights foundation in the hospital freedom for you as well anyways
when i was reading your piece in that name for our
so how those things came up i'd on a map you remembered how just out of the book
blue like last month bus he was pushing this piece called like on is this the
face of a new global human rights movement and it was all about this
thought i had never heard of him before to be honest with you as that wasn't a
very happy which is pushing this piece like like like he was this big story
that everyone should know about it yes is the name who should know instead they
seem to be to also glickman wind i was reading your piece that name to come up
is almost like full circle to me and so i think that they might want to point
that
don't let you your intervene with that because sack
important and that was by road degrading to alter the arms out this ecuador peace
and she was flown allen
without hope freedom forum
along with mostly like new york on a liberal interventionist type
journalist i don't know who flew out or whether she accepted resources from our
sympathy that story but there seem to have been some kind of quid pro quo
americans
you nobody
readers would not ordinary care about him
and shoot used to provide sympathetic uh...
coverage n support of public relations operation
let me just kinda
bring it back to be a story and not waa way too much time on albertson although
uchicago your listeners should really
reply peter electronic intifada about him in oslo freedom for
well i think that's it
okay great
uh... and so if we aren't four million employed this character alek boyd who
the london representative of the best way than opposition someone who is he
had his website to call for
yes activation and torture
uh... uh... venezuelan officials
ironic he's called for daryl dead bodies to be thrown over the slums of caracas
and he said he wished he could god to give them what genghis khan did
uh... and this is a guy who pretends to be a human rights activist dorothy on
his own website shops in itself is an opposition opposition researcher or hit
artistic says allah candy
contracted to do to diligence on individuals and companies in venezuela
and latin america
and i noticed that he actually had the story of he had the documents that busty
plane where there is exclusively he had been first on his website and more
was
in intimate contact with whoever buzzfeed source alot
uh... data in alaska and and it's possible that he could have been the
source
himself
phone and then i noticed that he treated it would be great
uh... manisha good work on your snowed in post evidently ecuadorian sports
really
same info do you guys seemed i jumped the gun before you
so this
well
that uh... i don't know if yes are you know
that without the lee
showing that they their share of the source
or that he was creating kind of plausible deniability for himself if she
was the source
uh...
and he's he's released more documents those documents have not been taken down
i think he huge spread to put those documents up so i don't know what the
hell but he's talking about that they're like
you know under attack by these repressive governments
uh... i don't know if you never met rosie gray but they are both connected
through core albertson always used to work
or
p
uh...
absolute freedom forum
and aside for the human rights foundation which covers confounded
and would be great without power for this year to provide how personally
i'm positive p_r_ by the way for allison's first cousin is one of the key
leaders of the venezuelan opposition was involved
and the crew again to do what you have it in two thousand two
i'm stoked all these characters are part of this
right wing
latin american opposition cobol that looking to take down all the stall the
socialist governments
and then you have a reporter like would be great who's basically a p_r_ agent
for it
neo content orkut lobbyist
and
uh... you know how to respond to my article that i love your passion
quoting eli awake so not much of a response
and i think it's pretty obvious what went on here even though we don't
exactly know who the act
condition worsens get it
conclusively i'd and if i dont we can tell what's going on with this article
part of a group of right wing latin american lobbyist bush administration
figures
and uh...
and and and and shabbily
uh... lightly international operates
by exploiting this noted com saga
and the drama surrounding snowed in
to target
uh... cocktail korea and his government yeah i think that this is legitimately
elected government
yeltsin's newly elected
twice believe um...
in the egg whites hit about sixty five percent popularity a new yorker all of
the repressive measures featured acrobats
the elections were judged to be free and fair