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Luke Harding is exactly the kind of overton window journalist the deep state loves. He touts all the same poorly evidenced claims relating to the last 4 years o
by arminiusreturns 5y ago
Luke Harding is exactly the kind of overton window journalist the deep state loves. He touts all the same poorly evidenced claims relating to the last 4 years of Russia-gate narrative in a sloppy fashion in a not so subtle attempt to push his newest book, Shadow State, which does the same I assume.
Between his false wikileaks claims, his questionable Snowden book, his unquestioning buy-in on the Litvenko propaganda, and his unskeptical attachment to the Steele dossier, he has lost credibility in spades among those looking for a journalist that tells hard truths.
“This is old-style espionage,” said David Clark, a former special adviser to the late foreign secretary Robin Cook. “You find a human source who is willing to be persuaded to do this for money from an intelligence service.
“We have become very used to the idea that everything is done in the virtual world of hack and leak. This feels like a bit of a throwback.”
I don't know how any purporting to be a serious journalist on the topic can even think to put this kind of an exerpt in an article. This is just normal espionage, the same way we all do it. I think the take away is just that... Harding isn't a serious journalist, and you'd be better off looking elsewhere for your analysis. (if it's even his analysis in the first place!)
The Guardian sure has gone downhill since Snowden... it's such a shame.
- prox 5y agoOne point I find interesting is that he mentions that Boris Johnson is doing nothing with the recommendations of the report. Why could that be? There was a lot of outrage when the poisoning happened.
- chanc3e 5y agoI think it’s common knowledge that the Conservative party in the UK accepts large donations from Russian citizens[1] and that a section of the London property market is swimming in Russian money.[0] It would be a stretch to say Johnson is kompramat, but there is certainly little appetite in that party to get actively hostile with Russia. Somehow this lightweight was defence minister during Salisbury[2] [0] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/russia-report-real-estate https://www.wired.co.uk/article/russia-report-real-estate [1] https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/21/tory-donors-husband-given-8m-by-kremlin-linked-oligarch https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/21/tory-donors... [2] https://news.sky.com/story/amp/gavin-williamson-the-man-who-told-russia-to-shut-up-11708819 https://news.sky.com/story/amp/gavin-williamson-the-man-who-... Edit: Formatting
- prox 5y agoInteresting reads!
- ianhawes 5y agoI do think you have a point that the excerpt is pretty weak and boring, and overall the article isn’t particularly compelling. I won’t comment on the deep-state stuff as that appears to be a dog whistle for some other political argument. What I do find interesting: a lot has changed since the 80s. The idea proposed in this article that low level employees still have access to documents is far-fetched in the modern age of email, virtual ACLs, etc. I suspect that the agent was not instructed to steal documents but rather to execute binaries on computers in the secure network. We know from other reporting that Russian tradecraft has the agent use shortwave communication to transmit and communicate with their handler. For example, the agent would sit in a cafe and await the arrival of the handler, who would never enter the cafe but be nearby in a car. That is modern tradecraft. We also know from the Vault 7 leaks that the CIA focused most of their implant development on binaries that would be executed by someone knowingly infecting their computer. That is another example of modern tradecraft.
- ncmncm 5y agoThe bulk of spycraft remains extortion: get us this or else. Else varies.
- arminiusreturns 5y agoI'd say incentives are used more, with the or else as a failsafe if the incentives fall through, but yes.