On 17 October 2022, U.K. Minister of Defence, Ben Wallace, made a hurried, unscheduled trip to Washington, D.C. for an emergency meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley and other senior U.S. officials. One explanation suggested insecure communications as the motive for the frantic visit.
A defence source told The Telegraph the meeting Mr Wallace had could have been held in person because of concerns about the security of communications between the Pentagon and Ministry of Defence.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: ‘The Defence Secretary is in Washington DC to discuss shared security concerns, including Ukraine. He will be visiting his counterpart at the Pentagon and senior figures at the White House’.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11330205/Defence-Secretary-Ben-Wallace-jets-amid-fears-Putin-launch-nuclear-force.html
After further reflection, I have concluded that explanation is nonsense. Classified communications between London and Washington can be handled in a number of ways, such as:
- A “secure” telephone–STE (Secure Terminal Equipment) and other equipment using the more modern Secure Communications Interoperability Protocol (SCIP).
- Secure Video Conference Call via the internet. I am talking about an encrypted ZOOM call. It is not really called ZOOM, I am using the term because most folks understand what a ZOOM call is.
- Tactical Satellite phone call.
If Wallace really believed that all of these three systems were compromised, then we are talking a extraordinary counter intelligence problem. The only way you find out that your communications have been compromised is that someone from the side of the adversary tips you off or you discover that something you said on a secure call quickly shows up in the foreign press. If one of the U.K.’s foreign adversaries had succeeded tapping into the secure communications network, they certainly would be loathe to let that secret out of the bag.
Remember how a team of Brits and Americans cracked the NAZI Ultra code and went to great lengths to hide that fact? Same principle applies to any foreign intelligence service that has deciphered the encrypted communications of an adversary. By the same token, if you have discovered that your communications have been breached the last thing you want to do is advertise that. If you know that the Russians, for example, are listening in then you can feed them bullshit painted to look like gold.
So what was Ben Wallace up to? I believe what Ben Wallace had to say to the United States officials was so sensitive that it had to be said in person with a strict accounting of who was in the room hearing what he had to say. As Donald Trump learned in his phone call with Vladimir Zelensky, even a secure phone or computer communication can produce a transcript or can have other people who are not principals listening in. If Wallace is sitting in Lloyd Austin’s office with General Milley in attendance, he could ensure that only a limited number of people were present to hear what he had to say.
What did he have say that was so important he needed to deliver the message in person? Was he explaining the details of a dirty bomb pretext that the Brits were helping the Ukrainians prepare? Had British intelligence assets been compromised or penetrated? I am pretty sure he was not delivering a weather report nor his assessment of the next British Prime Minister. What ever the substance, it was so important and so sensitive that it had to be discussed in person with a limited audience attending.
Speaking of Communications, I had another fascinating chat with Gerry O’Neil, an Irish podcaster. We covered a range of issues regarding Ukraine and NATO’s military capability.
I believe you are 100% correct, however I would not be surprised if the secure communications systems were compromised, I would be if the Russians let the cat out of the bag.
Something to consider, it may not be the Russians they’re worried about. Perhaps a different faction within our own government? Maybe DoD doesn’t want Blinky and Victoria ‘Secret’ Nuland to know what they’re up to.
Factions against factions. Befitting of the US’s new status as the world’s biggest and most expensive banana republic
This is likely. The folks at the Pentagon know what a nuclear war is, and are probably not keen on the idea of them and their families becoming radioactive barbecue because of the shenanigans from the crazies at the White House and the department of state
Thanks, Larry.
Confirms my unqualified suspicions.
Speaking of dirty radioactive bomb, since Nikolaev is the only town I know of in the Ukraine that has been recently evacuated of civilians, and since it looks to be the Ukrainian master-schemers’ classical choice for “ground zero,” why wouldn’t Russia virtually obliterate it with rocket and artillery fire (yes, I guess range is a prob for the latter) as well as air-dropped munitions including Russia’s thermobaric/air-fuel [or whatever they are] bombs to reduce the place to so much ash? Why allow any remaining pretext?
It seems like it sure would help Russia’s likely advance to, first, the north and east of Nikolaev, and then its (I suppose) wheel to the west to press vigorously on toward Transnistria to link/relieve with Russian-aligned forces there.
Not military myself, so mystified by most of the actual military machinations (the genuine part of which seem to be coming from Russia, with the leming-like harakiri actions coming from the Ukraine’s General HQ).
I lived in Nikolaev; it used to be about 500,000 population, similar to Mariupol, and I think that since it is the Ukrainian government evacuating civilians, whom they normally use as human shields, maybe they want to remove all locals so there won’t be anybody left to vote in a referendum in Nikolaev oblast.
There were 3 huge ship-building manufacturing facilities in Nikolaev, and the city was “closed” to foreigners. They built aircraft carriers, etc., so maybe Russia wants to preserve something.
Outstanding analysis, Larry: “I believe what Ben Wallace had to say to the United States officials was so sensitive that it had to be said in person with a strict accounting of who was in the room hearing what he had to say. ”
What could be so sensitive other than a military matter that directly threatens the UK and cannot find its way into the media?
Keep up the podcast appearances, Larry!
When your about to or have committed some war crimes, you want to make sure there is little to no evidence or documentation, the meeting minutes may not even disclose what was talked about.
this works both ways, an anonymous official was reported to have overheard ben wallace discussing the use of non conventional weapons. and just like that a narrative is created.
That is the offensive theory, which has merit. The defensive theory is fear of the “official” Russian response to the Nordstream and Crimean bridge attacks.
Good interview. I wonder how many foreign troops are now in Ukraine?
That’s the 64,000 dollar question…
And the follow-up: Whose flag(s) do these foreigners fly?
Views in the interview linked below, I imagine, will be beyond the pale for most who read Larry’s blog:
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/url-putins-endgame/101582432
Why direct anyone to such drivel? Keep your propaganda to yourself. Comparing Putin to Nixon is the supreme give-away.
The give-away is that this comes from the Australian Bullshit Creators (ABC), those partisan gobshites couldn’t lie straight in bed and unless you’ve had a frontal lobotomy beforehand, being lectured to be the idiots on the ABC should come with a health warning.
For anyone who hasn’t suffered the ABC, it’s Australian gubbermint’s clone of the British Bullshit Creators (BBC) ony cheaper, crappier and with rough as guts accents. The best way to describe the difference between the two bullshit creators comes from the animated character Megamind when he explains that the difference between an ordinary villian and a super villian is ‘presentation’.(https://youtu.be/dy2zB8bLSpk)
The guy Gideon Rose begins with something bleeding obvious, Henry, each war has a beginning, a middle and an end …well, if this doesn’t put anyone off what else would.
He then proceeds to say that Russia didn’t take Kiev … true, but it was never the intention to break into Kiev, the one aspect of the Kiev argument that nobody of the pro-Ukrainian mob ever addresses is why wasn’t the long line of the Russian forces attacked? Not one single attempt to hit it, even though it was there, the drones were filming it over and over again. The idea was to lure the Ukrainian forces from the Donbas area west towards Kiev, it didn’t work.
If the long line of the Russian military hardware were attacked, we would have seen the pictures of it, there aren’t any pictures because the Russians stopped, then withdrew unmolested, what sort of victory is that?
Larry, that was a great interview with Gerry. Tremendous insight as to what’s really going on in the Ukraine and why. I vividly recall what the attempted coup to overthrow Bashar al-Assad in Syria with the false flag gas coming from the rebel forces, not Assad as the War Mongers McCain, Graham, and Kinzinger were proffering at the time! I followed that closely and reported on it as it was happening! Keep up your great work.
Could the same people who did the OPM hack during the Obama years to steal personnel records on millions of government employees, and the same people who have the personal data of thousands of American election workers ( via Konnech).
The same people who have god knows what other sensitive, compromising information on American elected officials? The same people who may have exploited our secure comms?
The same people who are becoming more closely aligned withe Russia with every passing day? The same people on whom the US just levied a massive embargo of computer chip exports?
Yes, it could be the Chicoms coming home to Rus. Our vaunted, omniscient IC may have to go back to 200 year old methods to be absolutely sure there is no record and no interception of their skullduggery. Out of an abundance of caution, as they love to say. But there’s always the chance of a fly on the wall. Interesting times and tangled webs.
Larry, if you are correct it likely didn’t work. Check out timeline:
Oct 18 – Wallace in US.
Oct 21 – Shoigu calls Austin about dirty bomb.
I wonder if the Chinese got the intel through their people in the United States, and passed it onto the Russians.
Exactly.
I think the dirty bomb narrative is a cover for something else. Ritter has explained the technical limitations on dispersal; it jibes with what I remember of the pre-propaganda discussions on the subject during the Gulf War. It would be interesting to see if Larry believes something else is at work here.
Do you think that the Russians are incapable of intercepting intel? The FSB and SVR are, without question, the best in the world
How to read between the lines . . .
“On 17 October 2022, U.K. Minister of Defence, Ben Wallace, made a HURRIED, UNSCHEDULED TRIP to Washington, D.C. for an EMERGENCY MEETING with the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley and other senior U.S. officials. One explanation suggested insecure communications as the motive for the FRANTIC visit.”
This is narrative-building.” The fact is that Wallace attended a meeting in Washington. The adjectives are an attempt to “frame” the meeting in a certain light. The questions to ask are “what purpose does it serve to frame this meeting in this way” and “who benefits from the sense of anxiety is creates?” Also, notice all these “sources” are anonymous from what I can tell. That alone should tell you what is going on with this.
My take is that the compromised communications were between the UK and Ukraine. And it seems that it has been going on for a while based on the level of detailed knowledge Russia claims to have about dirty bomb plans.
But then why would Russia give up such a huge strategic asset?
Because they are a rational actor who does not want WW3, imo.
It’s pretty obvious that the incompetence which permeates the global elite class has oozed down to the apparatchik level, hastened by ideological monomania. While the elites obsess on purging Their Democracies of domestic enemies, they have lost sight of foreign adversaries, except in scapegoating them for domestic political purposes, and the IC’s of the West have taken on that mission to the exclusion and detriment of their original purpose.
Meanwhile, other more pragmatic nations have taken notice and taken advantage of the situation. It’s not that these nations are playing 3-D chess with us. It’s more like they’re playing checkers with drunken cokeheads.
Rough men may stand ready to defend us, but they’re being sent on fool’s errands by the worst possible people.
Thank you gentlemen for a brilliant and mature analysis. First time I have listened to you Gerry, I am an Irish descendant in Canada, love indigenous Galway wool Aran sweaters!
Your thinking makes sense, Larry. If you’re right, then there are some internal struggles between the lunatics and some sane factions that won’t go along with false flags leading to escalation. I guess that represents a reassuring conclusion.
This Gerry fella does a good job. Hope you can do more.
The audio was a bit wonky. MUST BE THE Russians! LOL
The Russian were convinced a false flag was in the works. Mr. Shoigu’s call was very possibly to outline the likely Russian reaction to such an event.
The version I’ve heard is that a modified Tochka U had been prepared to resemble a Russian Iskander. This would be launched from close to the Belarussian border and then intercepted and shot down in the Chernobyl vicinity. Providing the belligerents with an excuse to try and turn the tide against Russia and take out Belarus too.
Wally’s visit could have been in the very typical British “Dodgy Dossier” vein, that MI6 had intel Russia was planning a “decapitation” strike on Kiev.
CENTCOM’s Kurilla’s very public visit to an active duty SSBN and a NATO nuclear drill to coincide with this false flag is one too many coincidences.
Good point.
Christopher Steele roams free.
Key exchange and encryption methods used in the civilian sector are in the open and have been analyzed to death. Yes, the military and the special services played a role in developing them but they have been in the open for decades for everyone to apply utmost scrutiny. Unless the Russians or the Chinese have made some major breakthrough in terms of mathematical insights or computing power gained, these methods can be considered unbreakable. Here we are talking about breakthroughs on the level of building a workable quantum computer. But even that would not help, because we are already in the era of post-quantum encryption. (We would also see some other breakthroughs on the level of solving the differential equations required to make nuclear fusion reactors work.) State actors with their essentially unlimited resources can always use the open methods with hardware and software that supports longer keys e.g. 4096 bit keys instead of 2048 bit keys. This boosts security exponentially. Conclusion is, if communications have been compromised, then that must have occurred on end devices. Something like directly tapping into the earpiece used by the British guy when talking to the US guy. Of course they are sitting in shielded rooms whenever they talk to each other. No un-encrypted information leaves these rooms, or so we believe. It’s a little bit hard to believe that any breach might have occurred but what are the physical distances in between the Russian and Chinese embassies and the Pentagon or the British ministry of defence, respectively?
On the other hand, if all of that is the case, then why talk about communications having been compromised?
Key exchange and encryption methods used in the civilian sector are in the open and have been analyzed to death. Yes, the military and the special services played a role in developing them but they have been in the open for decades for everyone to apply utmost scrutiny. Unless the Russians or the Chinese have made some major breakthrough in terms of mathematical insights or computing power gained, these methods can be considered unbreakable. Here we are talking about breakthroughs on the level of building a workable quantum computer. But even that would not help, because we are already in the era of post-quantum encryption. (We would also see some other breakthroughs on the level of solving the differential equations required to make nuclear fusion reactors work.) State actors with their essentially unlimited resources can always use the open methods with hardware and software that supports longer keys e.g. 4096 bit keys instead of 2048 bit keys. This boosts security exponentially. Conclusion is, if communications have been compromised, then that must have occurred on end devices. Something like directly tapping into the earpiece used by the British guy when talking to the US guy. Of course they are sitting in shielded rooms whenever they talk to each other. No un-encrypted information leaves these rooms, or so we believe. It’s a little bit hard to believe that any breach might have occurred but what are the physical distances in between the Russian and Chinese embassies and the Pentagon or the British ministry of defence, respectively?
On the other hand, if all of that is the case, then why talk about communications having been compromised?
As for disguising a Tochka-U as an Iskander, that’s not necessary. It suffices to collect debris from one the many Iskanders that Russia has launched against Ukraine, and place it at the site where the false flag is staged.
I suppose another possibility is that instead of a message he had some material object that had to be hand-delivered to a specific person and that could not be entrusted to any other courier.
No idea what that might be. Just spit-balling.
Kamala Harris’s birthday present. I believe he sang Happy Birthday Mrs President in a white Monroe dress. It is these small gestures that make a special relationship.
Good One.
Ha! I said I was spitballing, but instead I’m spitting out my coffee. Good one!
I believe what really spooked them was when Shoigu told them he had all the details and 100% proof of both of the dirty bombs.
The one in Ukraine and the one in London!
And this
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/teetering-brink-63-americans-are-living-paycheck-paycheck
Maybe that is
“The City of London elects Sunak as next British Prime Minister!”
[https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2022/10/24/the-city-of-london-elects-sunak-as-next-british-prime-minister/]
the reason. (please read)
Maybe “The City of London” has decided, not to want to die after all …
According to his postscript, Sunak’s spoken and the City is still sharpening their knives. Apparently, they believe they can win — whatever that means…
Bang on the money. This is the type of insight that is making this blog top. Taking things everyone sees and making them actually understand what they are seeing and what it means.
Possibly related?:
“CIA head visited Ukraine – CNN”
https://www.rt.com/news/565411-cia-chief-visits-ukraine/
Why direct anyone to such drivel? Keep your propaganda to yourself. Comparing Putin to Nixon is the supreme give-away.
I go with the hypothesis there are the sane & reckless factions in the US & UK, that secure communications is not about Russia, but about these 2 groups.
Austin has the air of someone not likely to be reckless, therefore this conversation with Ben Wallace was to reveal another reckless adventure that needed to be stopped cold.
What unfolded was how it was stopped, namely Russia calling everyone to let the cat out of the bag.
Blinken IMO falls in the reckless group. IMO Boris J & Liz T were replaced, not to fix anything, but because they were reckless (BJ), or feckless, clueless, no ability to halt idiocy (LT). Sunak maybe a Globalist, but reckless he ain’t.
Not having a working brain at the top (Joe B) pushes sanity checks down into the level where groups fight it out (sanity vs insanity), & that puts the outcome to chance (Nord Stream sabotage) & insanity slips through.
Joe B dementia risk is at the root of this issue, KH does not seem to be a fix, hence these ‘secure meetings’. & we have 2 more years of this to live through.
Jose Ortega y Gasset somewhere wrote that barbarism is absence of standards or norms to which one can appeal. The West, in it’s quest for world domination, has essentially reduced itself to barbarism since nothing for it is sacred, whether on earth or in heaven. Everything is seemed permissible in this quest. The individuals involved in these acts will have to give an account of themselves, sooner rather than later, because their power seems to be crumbling swiftly and this is what shielded them from accountability.
An excellent analysis . Thank you .
A minor point , which a
only class-obsessed Brits will notice.
Paulus was not a ‘von’ , a sign of being a member the nobility and Antony Beevor refers to his “comparatively humble birth”.
Larry, would Biden and Blinken and other such cabinet members been left out of the Wallace meeting?
I have no involvement in the world of Intelligence networks, and operations, other than a fascinated interest. I have long worked as an illustrator/artist, largely in the advertising and marketing fields, and what is a big interest is the concept of non-verbal communication. With this in mind, I ask a question which I’ve not seen anyone else raise about this visit to Washington… namely, “Why was it made so publicly… without any apparent attempt to be secretive?”. Was a message being conveyed… if so… what, why, and to whom?
Larry,
another reason why he had to have a face-to-face is that security can be unbreakable *today* but perhaps *tomorrow* there will be new technology or faster computers to break it.
Collect and store encrypted communications today, and who knows in some years time you may be able to break it … and find out what they were discussing.
For what reason I have no clue as it seems to me people *today* are so thickskined to all that happens, what will they care who ordered the dodgy dossier 20 years later…
Sorry… for added clarification of my question… was a message being conveyed to parties other than those directly involved in the meeting.
I resend Russia’s policy (as I perceive it) of them not disclosing information on issues which affect the whole world but rather choosing to use it as a tool to their grander strategy. I resend listening the Russian talk that they have hard evidence that somebody is planning a dirty bomb or about who destroyed the Nordstreams. Let the facts out, show the world what’s going on.
In the same vain, I resend Russia talking about denazification (which is necessary) and at the same time exchange the Mariupol nazis. This is what I understood had happened after all that Russian talk that Mariupol underground factory was Nazi HQ (which I have no doubt).
And there are many Ukrainian Nazis the Russians didn’t exchange as well…
Perhaps those they released did not commit war crimes? Perhaps they were more hangers-on than hardcore? Maybe one, or two, or a few decided it was better to work for Russia than rot in their gulag…
And why should Russia disclose anything it considers useful in forming and executing their political and military policies and plans?
Life isn’t always simple. Get used to it.
I just dusted off my copy of Edge Of Darkness, a late 2000’s movie about devious intel outfits and contractors involved in making up phony Jihadi nuclear weapons for false flag events. Mel Gibson was a Boston cop who’s daughter was murdered by her defense-contractor employer operatives because she and others were aware of what they were up to. a lot of cloak and dagger, operatives, all believable, very revealing. I know it was delayed and tied up for release for awhile, I bought a copy from wherever, but it was disappeared, I don’t know if it ever made theaters. I highly recommend it if you can find it. I burned a copy for a friend last night, he’d never heard of it. He called after he and his wife watched it and just went, “Holy Shit”. Maybe Larry remembers it, but no one I talk to about this stuff has. Someone who knew what he was doing consulted on that movie.
It is suddenly and strangely relevant today. DC must be sizzlin’ right now.
Jim 0 the film is on the Internet but I don’t know if it’s the complete version or if it has been edited…
https://www.bilibili.tv/en/video/2041595400
Regardless of all those new tech toys for secure communications, it’s easy to see how the Ukraine side would have been careless, and/or the UK side would have been so arrogant they were also careless in some piece of all this.
All that seems obvious, is that 2 days later Austin calls Shogui and threatens him on a Friday. Shogui goes to Medeve, Putin etc & Sunday they call everyone & give them their response to their threat.
One curious NON response is Turkey’s. It’s been crickets from them. And honestly, why call Turkey at all? That’s what I am mainly curious about. What’s Turkey gonna do about it anyways? Just not sure how Turkey was involved, but obviously they are/were.
To thank them for the tip? To let ’em know that it checked out?
I too found Turkey’s silence telling… of something…
Maybe Wallace’s trip was all about Turkey’s betrayal. Erdogan owes Putin big time for saving his arse when the West moved to coup him. Throw in some revenge served cold, and Erdogan just balanced his books.
Hey, wild-assed speculation is still free…
Turkey’s betrayal? Who did Turkey betray? Europe who has always considered them as third world savages and will not let in the EU? The US? Brother you cannot betray the Devil. The US has screwed over and used every ally we ever had. No one “owes” the US anything. Turkey is in NATO. As long as it is convenient. Which is the case for every NATO member. And as Russia turns to Asia, and Europe dies? Turkey’s future is with Russia. Especially as a gas hub. Since the Germans won’t protect their gas facilities. And just sit there when the US blows up the NordStream. Betrayal. What a term to be used when discussing the US and EU.
i cannot recommend stongly enough for everyone in this blog read one book by Chalmers Johnson.i recommend especially BLOWBACK.you will learn just how callous,and devious all U.S. foreign policy is and has been since WW2.
I agree, that is an excellent book, well worth the time. All of them actually especially “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic “
I guess I shoulda’ put “betrayal” in scare quotes, but I thought it obvious that Wallace and Austin would’ve see it that way (if it happened at all).
Try to find the original BBC TV series from 1985. Joe Don Baker is something else. Spooky Eric Clapton soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4UxyFuhc9A
Yes they are compromised. The enemy is among us. Victoria Neuland and her neocon thugs are listening.
What must not been spoken about on phone ; drugs , arms , murder and any kind of fraud.
Recently , the British economy body was recovered in a mud-pit … and more and more clues are pointing at the US proxy war in 404 and US bankers profiteering from it. Some begins to chattering in the city…
See how LNG’s price in Europe brutally plunged few days after the visit ? Was Britain ready to defect ? Was Wallas on a mission to save the war ?
1. Yes surely the “enemy” spying on Wallace is internal. You can’t plan any sensible Ukraine policy or strategy in the open right now, too many internal villains out to punish anyone for “practical thinking”. Lots of factions in governments and no top down control.
2. “Remember how a team of Brits and Americans cracked the NAZI Ultra code and went to great lengths to hide that fact?”
The Americans too? Don’t think so. Unless you mean the heroic divers that went deep into the ocean to capture an Enigma machine in a sinking German ship. But that was only in the film version, not history.
On the other hand the Poles had a big role in cracking the earlier simpler Enigma machines before they added extra disks.
The Enigma Code (one of several nazi codes grouped together at GCHQ as Ultra code) maintained its reputation as being impregnable with the result that various smaller countries used it believing it to be safe into the 1960s. We Brits read it easily of course while keeping the secret that it had been broken.
Even the best modern codes are a bit like that. People believe that they can’t be broken, but it has not been proved for certain that they can’t. Perhaps they can. If I was the mathematician that could – which would I go for – a Fields medal (CA$15k and fame many mathematicians would avoid) or the ginormous bonus my intelligence handlers would pay me to stay quiet?
You need to do some reading. Americans were involved.
The Americans cracked the the Japanese codes at the time of the Washington Naval Treaty negotiations between Japan, the US and Britain France and Italy just after WW1 and they never told anyone, certainly not the British.
Desperation hangs in the air. Russia has never fought this as a war. Yet. And now it is coming. Ukraine and the EU were destroyed when Russia was playing with Ukrainian Russian militia members and limited Russian military backup. Every day more mobilized troops arrive. Every day the huge Russian military factories crank out more armaments. And they are waiting for everything to be in place, and the ground to freeze. And the Ukrainians shot their wad trying to give Pedo Joe a win before the MidTerm elections. Soon, JD Vance will be in the Senate. Asking questions about this bullshit war. And it takes one brave voice to open the gate. And very day, the EU economies die on the vine a little more. Every day more European leaders fall. Desperation.
test
The Rising Danger of Putin’s Go-Slow Limited War
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/10/27/the-rising-danger-of-putins-go-slow-limited-war/
Larry,
Dr. Roberts captures the situation above succinctly and comprehensively. What is your critique of his analysis?
President Putin,
How do you respond to Dr. Roberts’ description of your ‘Go-Slow Limited War’?
Jim Giles
RT Mississippi
https://youtu.be/0tw3g88JtWA
https://youtu.be/dQHUAJTZqF0
Roberts displays a remarkable degree of ignorance. He understands very little about military affairs and is clearly uninformed about the tactical situation on the ground. He should stick with economic analysis.
In fairness to Roberts Larry he has never show much interest in the “tactical situation.” His criticism of this SMO dates back more than a decade, actually, when it was clear to him that the US was marching toward Russia – with its first strike weapon systems in tow – with the sole intention to wrap the noose around the Federation’s neck, and to possibly yank it, and the Russian Federation, its General Staff, and its President, Vladimir Putin, clear reluctance to draw a red line at any time, or any place, as these dark forces approached the Motherland, would lead to a confrontation of conventional kind in the Ukraine that would probably escalate to WWIII.
Unless the said confrontation was executed so swiftly, and with such ruthless effeciency by the aggrieved party, there wouldn’t be time for the escalation to the nuclear by the party of the pathologically insane.
It troubles me to see this division between geo-political scholars (sane men and women all!) such as yourself (and Andrei Martyanov et.al.) versus Paul Craig Roberts (and Gilbert Doctorow et. al.) on a subject in which you are all in 9/10ths agreement.
Both “schools,”: if we can call them that, have their merits. Lords knows I feel like I have a boot in both “camps” most of the time, but occassionally do find I have both boots in one camp because that’s how I’m rolling that day.
And with good reason, because the thing of it is, I would be my life that both “schools” are battling it out now daily in the Kremlin, as to which has the best approach for getting this done without getting us all killed.
Note: I have twenty years in with this Putin character at this point Larry. I have always believed him to be a neo-liberal, and the neo-liberal is my mortal enemy, and nothing he has done has ever swayed me from this position, but there was always something there in the man, a kind of trascedent brilliance, truly once in a generation type stuff, that made me hesitate to write him off completely, to draw my own, red line.
Because I knew his moment to shine would come, and now here it is. And so I give him one last chance. My red line concerning Vladimir Putin begins the moment the ground freezes.
Are the communications compromised?
Short answer? We don’t know.
Longer answer: Maybe.
My guess is that there are a quite a few people in the west who secretly admire Putin and Russia for fighting a battle that they themselves cannot – being trapped in a fascist, pardon, neocon/ultra-liberal virtual prison camp their countries have become, where people get fined (the guy in Hamburg who got fined 4,000 EUR for driving around with a Z symbol in the back window of his car), lose jobs, get crushed online, whole cultures get cancelled etc. for expressing an opinion that may not be perceived as politically correct.
Some of these people see this and they may also be employed in positions where they have access to things – look at Edward Snowden for an example, he is a Russian citizen now. Yikes!
Theoretically, at least, it is possible that some in the western services are increasingly afraid that there are people who have learned to keep their thoughts to themselves but may be yearning for a leader who, like Putin, can fix their country in as little as 20 years. Looking at the sh*tshow UK has become and the fact that USA is officially run by a 90-year old who shakes hands with air and a word-salad VP who nobody ever sees and who has no coherent positions/opinions on anything, well, ordinary people already have concerns, it is not inconceivable that people on the “inside” have even more concerns. There must be at least some people with enough access who are wondering/analyzing – who is really in charge?
Remember, public dissent is good (functional democracy – you say something even if it is wild and it turns into a respectful/healthy discourse) but hidden dissent is dangerous in any society.
Now, the paradox is this: Soviets tried and failed to impose a single-think kind of a society (ideology based). The woke culture is the same thing just with a different ideology. In such a setup, everyone is a potential security risk and so you start potentially going down the Soviet path. We are becoming Soviets and Soviets are becoming us from 50 years ago? Possible? Who knows….
Of course, all of the above is pure conjecture, it is entirely possible Wallace just loves spending time with Austin, perhaps the only place they can talk is a private bathroom stall or under the same blankets in a secure bed (do these exist?). However, as a concerned citizen, I sure hope our security professionals are considering the above scenarios/possibilities, as remotely impossible as they are…..
Larry,
Thank you for your response.
I have read Dr. Roberts for a long time and I was introduced to you by MI Spooks only recently.
My instincts tell me that you are right and Dr. Roberts is wrong.
Because I’m so dumb like most Americans I’m trying to learn what you know about the situation.
I’m looking forward to your next article describing the situation. And please consider not only the highly intelligent audience you are addressing here but also the dumb Americans who need to be told in clear and simple language. In general, you do that but I’m just emphasizing how important I think that is.
Thank you for your courage! I don’t know of a braver American than you!
Jim Giles
RT Mississippi
https://youtu.be/0tw3g88JtWA
https://youtu.be/dQHUAJTZqF0
I am reposting this comment in case it went AWOL:
If a security protocol is not breakable today it does not mean it will not be breakable tomorrow, when there will be faster computers and cleverer people.
Collecting and storing encrypted signals can be useful in the future… though with people getting more thickskinned to the shenanigans of those on top, I don’t see any reaction to decrypting this conversation or even a conversation of bush+blair conspiring on writing the dodgy dossier.
I wonder if they needed a super confidential chat about a raid on Odessa by NATO troops.
There is a very interesting article about the Screaming Eagles and how they might get to Odessa on the Saker’s blog …
http://thesaker.is/nato-set-to-attack-tiraspol/
Maybe an adversary has access, even in the room. The Sovs had spies all over Brit governments during pretty much all of the Cold War 1.0.
But it could also be a friendly. No Such Agency hears everything, and sometimes they hear things they think are too much. Remember Admiral Rogers’ trip to then Presidential Candidate Trump, which was quickly followed by the Trump campaign decamping to NJ.
First, I want to thank Larry for enlightening us on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. With Larry, you get solid, informative, objective and truthful analysis! I say conflict, because Russia started an SMO, limited military operation, against an army with huge numerical advantage, totally supported by Washington! I know that Russia has a might military and more advanced weapons than any other nation, but it seems, they are not willing to use it! All the problems, the dangers, the coming nuclear war is a direct result of Putin’s SMO.
Please don’t tell me that Russia wants to save civilians, Ukraine killed more Russians that Russia could save! I am still wondering as to why did Russia not take Ukraine already? When nuclear war comes, it won’t make any difference whose fault it is! PCR asks: “How do we survive when vastly more political effort is directed at transgendering children and discrediting Trump than in de-escalating a conflict far more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis?”
OSINT investigation.
“Irretrievable losses” of the Ukrainian army so far; a staggering 402,000 – of which 387,000 killed.
CRUCIAL: losses among MERCENARIES and VOLUNTEERS from Poland, Romania and the Baltic midgets: 54,000 – of which 31,240 killed.
OSINT data was calculated using reports from funeral agencies, extracts from morgues, and analysis of radio, cellular and satellite exchange of forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Ukraine entered more than 320,000 appeals “about the fate of missing soldiers”; but the SBU BANNED THEM. OSINT investigators called the real irretrievable losses of the Ukrainian army. The irretrievable losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of October 20, 2022 amounted to 402,000 people, of which 387,000 were killed. Losses among mercenaries and volunteers from Poland, the Baltic states, Romania amounted to 54,000 of them, 31,240 people were killed. These are the OSINT data, calculated using reports from funeral agencies, extracts from morgues, as well as the results of an analysis of the radio, cellular and satellite exchange of forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
It is a strange thing when the whole world knows that there was a meeting, but nothing is stated about the meeting.
– Why not traveling secretly?
– Why not communicating some bullshit Blabla what would deflect from the real discussion points?
Strange.
By the way: Every second, thousands of people make phone calls between UK and US. Unless you can intercept them all and all the time, the simplest way to talk secretly is to get a random SIM card on both sides. As long as nobody knows the phone number, the chance is low that your talk will be intercepted.
East Germany had thousands of stasi workers to read all letters between east and west Germany. Even radio communication was monitored all time by people listening. All handcrafted work….
The leakers want people to know there was a meeting. The news stories frame the meeting with words like “emergency” and “panic.” This alone implies several things:
1. The leakers are concerned about the subject matter of the meeting.
2. The leakers are concerned about being excluded from the meeting.
3. The leakers want to create the impression of a lack of control by participants of the meeting.
4. The leakers have enough power to manipulate the media but not enough to manipulate the participants of the meeting.
5. The leakers are the weaker party vis-a-vis the participants of the meeting.
An educated guess: this is part of a power struggle between two factions of the western governments, the “stewards” and the “adventurists.” The meeting is among the stewards, with the adventurists frozen out, and the adventurists are responsible for the media leaks. It actually bodes well for world peace.
Lots of assumptions, to arrive at such an optimistic conclusion… what does that imply?
> Unless you can intercept them all and all the time, the simplest way to talk secretly is to get a random SIM card on both sides. As long as nobody knows the phone number, the chance is low that your talk will be intercepted.
They can do that. Hard drive space is cheap.
Not to be too tin foil hattish. But true story time. I met three friends for lunch. I asked them if they wanted to come shoot pool one day. It was not a phone call. It was not an email, or text. I saw them again 4 days later. We were all getting pop up ads about pool cues, cases, etc. We talked about it, and none of us had shopped, googled, searched, or in any way had any other outreaches to the subject of pool. The only thing we could determine is that the smartphone speakers (which are always open) listen, digest, and report. And pop-up ads started immediately. And in reference to government crypto equipment. And this comes from an old infantry RATT van operator in Germany. No matter how much money the government spends, Amazon has better. Look at the Amazon website versus any government website. By the time the government proposal is in, the Congressman is informed of what stock to buy, the contract is let, the diversity hiring is thru, and the final already outdated product is issued? It is out of date. So, I am quite sure that any government crypto is crackable. Probably by a 15-year-old Incel living in Mom’s basement on a diet of weed and Cheetos.
Did any of you leave your location on? Did you connect to their wifi or one nearby? Did you use maps to get directions?
No maps to get direction. Out of 4 people? Location and WIFI were probably on for most.
If you all had location on and you were in a pool hall for several hours that’s probably the reason. I believe they can also tell where you are if you just have wifi on… if they know the location of hotspots near you it’s just triangulation.
Really the only way to get around this is to root an android phone and install something else on it.
What if they are hiding from their own intelligence people that they think do not fully support their ukraine disaster ? i percieved as with every organization there is opposition and dissent in US intelligence and they want to prevent disasterous leak from their own intelligence apparatus ?
I thought it was the British who broke the Nazi code! As for Wallace, he may have gone to take care of his exile. Now everybody goes to NATO Secretary General. Even BoJo and Liz. And come to think of it, there aren’t many idiots at Stoltenberg’s level. And that zipline over Victoria Park could very well tip the whole game in Bojo’s favor.
Yes, the Brits had the lead but Americans were there helping as well.
Thanks Larry!
No, it was the Poles that broke Enigma. Brits improved on their work. Americans are just taking credits for everything, as usual.
There are fundamental misconceptions going around as regards com security, which probably go back to the iconic Enigma and how the British were able to break into it.
Back in the day, the level of knowledge about how crypto can be made to work was far less than what it is today. That made the Germans adopt a scheme that the British could break with the help of rudimentary computers. The problem with the German scheme was twofold: a) It was not based on fundamental mathematical properties. b) It was secret. Yes, secret. If one party adopts a scheme that it thinks has to be kept secret, as opposed to just keeping keys secret, then it’s only that party’s resources that can be brought to bear to scrutinize it. These resources are necessarily limited and, what is more, they will suffer from institutional bias. Who wants to go to his superior to tell him that the encryption scheme that so much money and prestige has been invested in can be broken? The best German mathematician at the time, David Hilbert, besides being of old age was never put to work on trying to break Enigma.
These two aspects, a) and b), are totally different today. Encryption schemes widely used have been in the open for decades with mountains of open source research conducted on them. The asymmetric parts, which are crucial for establishing secure connections, are usually based on number factorization or elliptic curves as opposed to just guesswork as it was the case with Enigma. The symmetric parts like 3DES and AES are more ad-hoc but they have been researched extensively just like the asymmetric parts.
The bottom line is that today’s state actors can easily achive the same level of security as today’s private actors. Besides, state actors have the resources that allow them to use provably secure one-time pads to exchange shorter messages. (Not even a quantum computer allows you to break one-time pads.) That’s something that private actors usually cannot do.
“Had British intelligence assets been compromised or penetrated?”
Yes, they hacked into Truss’ phone year ago & have gained access to top secret info ever since.
Her phone is not the type of secure commo system I’m talking about. She’s not the first world leader to talk about Secret stuff on an open line.