The Mediasphere

The anonymous operations of the Wire services.

Published: 2024-03-31

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The Mediasphere

National intelligence services exist to inform powerful actors, political and otherwise, of events which are of concern to them. This naturally involves any organized political behaviour in the host national, as well as major political events internationally. The Intelligence organizations are usually split along these lines because the national one needs, theoretically, to be restrained by national law. Examples of this split are the USA’s FBI and CIA and the UK’s MI-5 and MI-6.

The simplistic view of media is that it reports to the populace events which inform them of important political and societal activities. While this may be true at a local level, at a national and international level, media take on a far more important role. They can make or break political campaigns. They can sway opinion towards or against war. They do also report on "important events".

A hierarchy exists within the print media. The print media is the source of the vast majority of topics discussed. Radio and television, cable or otherwise, predominantly derive their topics from it. While the scope of topics covered on the "Social Media" platforms far exceeds any preceeding form of communication, within the realm of important political topics, here again, print media is the driving force.

Below the well known commercial or state brands of media, like CNN or the NYT or BBC, are the Wire services. One is maintained by each of the three western nations which possess a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and with it, their veto. These wire services are Reuters (UK), Associated press - AP (US) and Agence France Presse - AFP (France). Their publications are the basis for the majority articles published in the 'well known' print media. These Wire services are the font of news.

Wire services can and do shape news by selecting which events are to be covered and if so, how they are to be framed. When the operations wings of national intelligence services are conducting their international, extra-legal activities which are of service to the powerful and these activities remain unnoticed, nothing is required. When they err and revelation of their activities is or could be exposed, a covert service of the Wire services, their control of topic and framing, are employed. This public activity is hidden in plain sight.

The recent terrorist attack on the outskirts of Moscow serves as a useful case study in which this covert service can be presented. An associated question is, how does a Wire service train and select its employees so that they are reliable and understand their role.

This exploration of the mediasphere, and the Reuters Wire service in particular, begins with Mustaq Ali reporting on a different terrorist attack in Pakistan.

The Road to Khorosan

Within 8 months of Mushtaq Ali's first article being published at Reuters he found himself reporting at the "coalface" of Empire.

On March 27th, 2024, Reuters had published a single author article with his by-line on a suicidal terrorist attack using a car packed with explosive near Dasu, Pakistan.

Ali's article has evolved in the 48 hours since your author first saw it. Then as now it connected the attack on Chinese engineers (5) and their Pakistani driver with both the local hydroelectrical dam project and the significant upgrade to a port in the southwestern provide of Belochistan. The article is more clearly written now than the version I saw 48 hours ago. It now better connects these Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects to this and other attacks. Ali named the Pakistani section of this gargantuan multi-trillion dollar Chinese BRI, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Two days previous, Ali contributed to a collaborative article which serves as our first example of narrative support to Western geopolitical objectives. The article on developments in Pakistan does well to cover its topics and does not present much of narrative slant, as opposed to the joint article which exposes the Reuters Wire service's customers.

Within two hours of the terrorist attack on Crocus Hall, Moscow oblast, Admiral Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, lost his brain by saying that he could "disabuse" the gathered journalists and videographers of the notion that Ukraine had anything to do with the attack. This "tell" created a requirement for the cover story, which had been built into the intelligence service’s operations wing's plan for their involvement in the attack, to be rolled out by the media. This rolling out of cover stories is one of the Wire services' raisons d'etre. To task they lept.

This example of narrative support is a deflection, away from the natural response to Kirby's statement: What do you, Kirby, know which lead you to make that statement about Ukraine's involvement or not in the terrorist attack?

The problem was that only recently, one of the major news agencies (rather than Wire services), the NYT, published a 10 000 word article which documented the US and British intelligence services’ role in the Ukrainian intelligence services immediately following the US led 2014 coup. They have been collocated and collaborating there for a decade. Thus, Ukrainian intelligence service involvement in the Moscow attack would imply US+UK involvement. So, inquiries in this direction needed to be diverted.

The cover story of ISIS-K was rolled out. Ali co-authored "How ISIS-K leader forged one of Islamic State's most fearsome groups".

The article quotes "officials" with roles but no names. The published copy has also changed somewhat since first seen by this author 48 hours ago. Reuters' current publication methods seem to inhibit Archive.org archiving copies, which is frustrating as it is impossible to authoritatively cite a changing article. The following were 'cut and paste'd from the article when first read. The phrases express the identities of sources or veracity of events referred in it:

• "U.S. officials have said"

• "Washington has said"

• "A source familiar with this intelligence said"

• "security experts say"

• "was initially reported"

• "is believed to be living"

• "two sources in the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban told Reuters"

• "Reuters spoke to more than a dozen sources" [which they do not name]

• "the sources said"

The article quoted nameless "security experts" and "intelligence officials" for its key points. It demonstrates the connection between the Wire services and the Intelligence services. The Wire services have access to them, especially when an Intelligence operation's cover story needs be issued.

Because none of the officials are named, all are unaccountable. This is not 'holding the powerful to account', but the opposite, issuing their "talking points" with the shield of anonymity. However, the journalists who did the work of issuing the unaccountable narrative are named as the authors.

By Reuters

The Reuters Wire service goes one step beyond, with its quintessential propaganda narrative article, the "By Reuters".

Our example relates directly to the cover story issuance: "What is ISIS-K and why would it attack a Moscow concert hall?". A screen shot of the title and most importantly its datetime of publication is provided. An archived copy of it is available for 30 days from this article’s publication date (SHA-256 '164a4fc051711805b0e93e8a9df8a4f73f4b642958ae502ea925f1d0f2df0f44').

The "By Reuters" article begins:

The U.S. has intelligence confirming Islamic State's claim of responsibility for a deadly shooting attack at a concert near Moscow on Friday, a U.S. official told Reuters.

Here is information about the Islamic State's Afghan branch known as ISIS-K and their motives for attacking Russia:

The message is simple: The sub-group responsible is ISIS-K. Think no further. Forget about Ukraine, and Kirby, and the war between NATO and Russia being fought in Ukraine.

Alastair Crooke (ex-MI6) and Larry Johnson (ex-CIA) have both made public statements that they consider ISIS-K a Western Intelligence agency construct. Ex-CIA officer, Ray McGovern concurs. These public statements were made recently on Judge Napolitano’s program Judging Freedom in the context of discussing the Moscow terrorist attack.

The article continues, providing fluff as a background. “Reuters” employs a quote from US CENTCOM commander General Michael Kurilla stating that the Intelligence agency labeled thing is 'developing' capabilities and 'may' be a threat in 6 months. The statement is from 12 months ago in Senate testimony.

This is pure fear mongering. The CENTCOM commander is briefed on the "threat" by the Intelligence community (IC). He issued a warning 12 months ago for 6 months hence, which didn't eventuate, meaning his powers of prediction are as fallible as everyone elses, but still Reuters rolls it out. Reuters is again issuing IC talking points, but behind the front of the sloppy CENTCOM commander. The article continues in this vein.

Under the ALLCAPS sub-heading 'WHY WOULD THEY ATTACK RUSSIA?' the anonymous blob "By Reuters" titles itself to provide us with their informative reasons as to why we should blame ISIS-K and leave it at that. The sub-section begins by assuming their proposition:

While the attack by ISIS-K in Russia on Friday was a dramatic escalation, experts said [...]

Before we move on, note that there is a professional organisation with access to the crime scene and the criminals, now in custody. It, the Russian FSB, at the date of the Reuters article’s publication, had yet to issue any report. The alleged criminals, some of whom have confessed, have yet to be judged in a Russian court. Reuters, a publishing house composed of authors and editors, is usurping law inforcement and the courts. This is how brazen the nameless at Reuters are.

Secondly, note the construction of that first sentence in the key section of the article:

While <assertion of magical fact> was <attention grabbing characterization>, experts said …

The magical assertion is hinged with the alarming characerization on the verb to be, in the past tense.

To support their assertion-as-fact that "ISIS-K" wants to attack Russia, they quote two named individuals from the US foreign policy “think tank” ecosystem. The second runs:

Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said ISIS-K "sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims."

If the Western intelligence agency labelled organisation has assessed Russia as a danger to Muslims, then they have not been reading the news. The US has been oppressing Muslims via warfare for two decades straight. Thus, the organisation is ficticious, or if real and composed of people, they are as blind as Kugelman.

The article concludes irrelevantly, with:

He added that the group also counts as members a number of Central Asian militants with their own grievances against Moscow.

This "By Reuters" article is pure IC narrative. The nameless and named individuals in it relay IC narratives, with the anonymous authors.

Training and Loyalty

Mustaq Ali is being given a career and being trained. He is learning how to operate inside the Wires service, and how it serves its customers, the Intelligence Community and the powerful.

In his useful article from the 27th, he informed those who understand what is occurring, of recent developments in resistance towards China's BRI project in Pakistan. When orginally read, he had mentioned three attacks with no seeming linkage. The linkage was unstated.

Belochistan is a battleground of the Anglo-American Empire and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) headed by China and Russia. Of the three attacks, two are directly or peripherally against BRI projects. The other was against a Pakistani airbase. What is being fought over is political control of Pakistan and regional trade, which is also left unmentioned.

In Ali's article from the 25th, he joins two colleagues issuing IC talking points. The nameless "By Reuters", one must presume editors, are in parallel demonstrating how this is done. You do the What, we’ll do the Why.

Information Warfare

Members of the US' armed services take an oath to defend not the government, but the Constitution, against "enemies foreign and domestic". The Wire services are agents in Information War. Their services are used both for and against a domestic population; their scope is both foreign and domestic.

Topic selection and range of debate, or "Overton window" to employ a US phrase, controls are double edged swords. As one recognizes their role, one could be outraged that they are misleading, or to use another modern phrase, issuing misinformation. However, once one understands that this is their role, one can see the control and so understand what is being avoided or deflected. From this one can learn which issues are sensitive to the Wire services’ real customers.

Those who run the Wire services understand their role and possess the same sensitivities as the Intelligence services. They are far happier when they are left alone to quietly do their job, as is demonstrated by Ali in the article on Pakistan. Having to roll out disinformation operations like the ISIS-K cover story narrative exposes them, just as Kirby exposed the Ukrainian connection of the Crocus Hall terrorist attack.

The Wire services have to operate in public. They shield their customers with anonymity, and even themselves now and then, but they have to publish.

They cannot hide in the shadows.

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Sources

Mushtaq Ali [Author], Reuters [viewed 2024-03-29]

• 18 articles are listed

• The oldest (his first) is "Pakistan cable car ordeal ends with all on board, mostly children, rescued" published on 2023-08-23

Six killed in suicide attack on Chinese engineers in Pakistan, Mushtaq Ali, Reuters, 2024-03-27

How ISIS-K leader forged one of Islamic State's most fearsome groups, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Mushtaq Ali and YP Rajesh, Reuters, 2023-03-26

What is ISIS-K and why would it attack a Moscow concert hall?, no author, Reuters, 2024-03-25

The Anglo-American Establishment, Carrol Quigley, Archive.org, written 1949 published postumously 1981

[US] NATO v Russia: 2014 - 2024, YesXorNo, 2024-03-09

Culture

Hunters & Collectors - Do You See What I See? (Official Video), from the 1987 album of the same name, uploaded 2013-05-01

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