It is so rare to see an actual journalist rather than a regime stenographer in the US mainstream media that there really needs to be a federal "endangered species" protection designation. In this case it would be AP's Matt Lee, their diplomatic affairs correspondent, who's been around the block many times and whose reputation is that he takes no crap from flacks regardless of party. Imagine that!So in today's State Department brief, spokesman Ned Price was given the unenviable task of dressing up the Administration's latest offering of bovine excrement and selling it as a gourmet dip. At issue was a "leaked" story in the Washington Post - ahem -that Russia is planning an elaborate video fabrication of a Ukrainian attack on eastern Ukraine to serve as a false flag to justify a Russian incursion into Ukraine.This after a month or so of the US Administration insisting that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was "imminent." It was a claim dramatically refuted by none other than the one political leader who on paper would benefit most from such a narrative - the Ukrainian president himself - who told Biden on a phone call to go take his meds and stop fearmongering about a Russian invasion of Ukraine! So a new threat needed to be cooked up in the bowels of Foggy Bottom and Langley.Enter Ned Price from the State Department, who had the thankless task today of selling the hollow narrative that US intelligence had uncovered a fantastical plot by the Russians to bring in crisis actors and fake bodies to sell a false narrative to justify their no longer "imminent" invasion of Ukraine.The whole thing is reminiscent of the Obama Administration's absurd suggestion that the attack on the US CIA installation in Benghazi, Libya, was motivated by a laughable anti-Muslim video (instead of a US arms deal gone wrong, as Sen. Paul uncovered).Price's pathetic talking point was this: we are declassifying intelligence information that Russia is about to release a fake video of a Ukrainian attack on Donbas as a false flag to open the door to Russian involvement. Here's a summary of what followed:
AP's Matt Lee replied with a question any normal journalist would ask before our current era: "OK, but what evidence do you have that this is indeed the case?"Ned: "Well that's it - my 'declassified' claim that Russia is about to do it."Matt Lee: "Well, that's not 'declassified' information, that's just you claiming it. Surely you understand the difference. I mean, crisis actors, fake dead bodies - that's Alex Jones territory."Ned: "You are a Russian propagandist."
Yes this is the Reader's Digest version, but essentially this is what took place in the extraordinary State Dept. briefing today. The US government's position position is that if you ask for any evidence of a US government claim...you are a Putin agent!Watch it here:
Please watch this video in which journalist Matt Lee accuses State Dept. spokesman Ned Price of veering into "Alex Jones territory" by making the claim that Russia plans to stage a "false flag" attack with "crisis actors" -- Price then sneeringly calls Lee a Russian propagandist pic.twitter.com/5xMsbfWYgz
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 3, 2022
RPI friend, the analyst, Caitlin Johnstone also perfectly captures the absurdity of the Biden claims in this thread:
I'm declassifying evidence that Nigeria is planning a false flag operation in Switzerland. Are you ready? Here it is:Nigeria is planning a false flag operation in Switzerland.The evidence is me asserting it. If you doubt this evidence, you're a propagandist for Nigeria.
— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) February 4, 2022
But as the bipartisan support for bovine excrement continues to pollute the barnyard, at least we can thank Matt Lee from otherwise odious AP for refusing to thrust his chip into the Biden dip...