Many of you may have noticed that Mike Sylwester--who has been a major contributor here--has been absent in recent weeks. I heard from Mike late last night. He had a heart attack not long ago but has returned home and says he's recovering well. Your prayers are solicited.
Mike also sent along a link to an article at Consortium News by Craig Murray. It's the same article that also appeared at Zerohedge, but I forgot to mention Murray by name--which I should have--when I wrote A Good Place For Tim Shea To Start? To refresh everyone's recollection, that article (and the blog) dealt with the recent discovery that the FBI appears to have concealed the existence of emails with the subject line "Seth Rich" that were requested in a FOIA suit. The FBI, of course, denies any intent to conceal.
Like me, Mike was drawn to the passage in Murray's article about Wikileaks (Julian Assange) offering a $20K reward for information regarding the murder of Seth Rich. While it's possible to construct various theories for why Assange would offer this reward, the obvious one seems to me to also be the most probable: that Seth Rich did, in fact, provide Wikileaks with the DNC emails and Assange was simply seeking justice for a Wikileaks informant.
The failure of the FBI to interview Julian Assange regarding Seth Rich--as far as we know--seems inexplicable except as a measure to preserve the "Russian hack" narrative that has formed so much of the basis for the various hoaxes perpetrated on the American public by the Deep State. To suggest that this is a logical line of inquiry for the Barr/Durham investigation(s) would be a vast understatement.
Yes, I had noticed the absence of Mike lately. He is in my prayers, as are you and all the commenters to your blog.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that he seems to be on the road to recovery.
I missed your "A Good Place for Tim Shea to Start" article, because you published it when I was in the hospital. That article was superb.
ReplyDeleteThe FBI's supposed lack of curiosity about Seth Rich is puzzling. After all, on August 10, 2016, ten days after the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Julian Assange offered a reward for information about the murder of Rich. Subsequently, there was much discussion on the Internet about whether Rich was murdered for providing DNC files to Assange.
So, the FBI has generated only four brief e-mails, all sent on that August 10? Nothing more in FBI files?
It seems that the FBI search remains incomplete. These emails were located for a separate request that specifically asked for emails between Strzok/Page--no subject specified. Are there other email refs to Seth Rich in which Rich is not in the subject line? It seems entirely possible and those refs should be easily discoverable. The fact that these emails exist seems to indicate that the Seth Rich murder was on the FBI's radar in one way or another, and the fact of the extensive redaction seems to indicate that the FBI doesn't want the public to know the full range of their interest. That they should want to respond to press inquiries is reasonable, but in that case what are all the redactions about?
DeletePresumably there is no MAIN case file titled "Seth Conrad Rich"--as stated by the FBI. OTOH, based on investigative actions taken by the FBI, there must be a MAIN case file related to Wikileaks and/or Julian Assange--or the DNC "hack." Any or all of those would be a likely repository for any docs re Seth Rich (or variations on that name) in connection with Assange/Wikileaks--which the FBI clearly had an interest in.
Note the wording of the FBI's first response: only MAIN file records were sought, not ALL REFERENCES. And the wording suggests the possibility that if SETH CONRAD RICH wasn't hit, no other efforts were made--such as for SETH RICH.
Why was Seth Rich murdered?
ReplyDeleteThe main reason was NOT to punish Rich for leaking DNC files to Assange.
Rather, the main reason was to prevent Rich from ever revealing that Russia had nothing to do with the leaking of the DNC files.
At the end of July 2016, a cabal of Trump-haters at the top of the US Intelligence Community committed itself to developing within the US public the idea that Russia was hacking the Democrat Party's computers. Thus, the cabal was preparing the battlefield for an October Surprise that might enable Donald Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton in the election.
If the October Surprise was based on stolen computer files, then the cabal would argue that the files had been stolen AND ALTERED by Russian Intelligence in order to help Trump defeat Clinton. This argument had to work only for the few days between the revelation and Election Day.
In this plan to deal with the October Surprise, a huge problem for the cabal was Seth Rich. The US public had to believe that the DNC files had been stolen by Russia. Rich might reveal that the files had NOT been stolen by Russia.
Makes sense. The leak was in the past and was out of the control of the USIC at that point. But Rich had specific knowledge that was an as yet unrealized threat to other plans by the "cabal". His murder would preempt that threat.
DeleteI have always thought Rich's death was not intentional, at least as far as him being shot. If the shooting were intended to kill him, they would have put a second bullet, that time in the back of his head, to make sure.
DeleteBut they didn't. And they left him wounded but conscious. That's not a hit. And it didn't silence him until he died later that morning in the hospital.
I thus conclude Rich's shooting was the result of some other plan (not a robbery, not a hit) that went awry.
I'll admit that the shot placement puzzled me. For a professional hit with a small caliber (.22lr) one would expect careful shot placement in a highly vital spot. Obviously, they got the job done here, but it's not what you'd expect. Is it possible they were somehow disturbed and bolted? Or that they chose shot placement that would not give it away as a professional job?
Delete.22 revolvers are very common in inner city crimes, which is why there are so many wounded as opposed to killed. But here there was no robbery. Just senseless killing?
But so many things don't make sense here. Except that Rich may have been the source for Wikileaks.
MY assumption is one or more of the people accosting Rich that night were known to him. This explains why he said nothing alarming to his girlfriend on the phone when the initial confrontation took place.
DeleteI also surmise from the fact that they didn't finish him off that their purpose was NOT to kill him.
Whatever the purpose was, I suspect things spun out of control, and somebody with a gun (the "muscle" man of the team) panicked, and fired as a scuffle broke out. Once the gun was fired -- which was not planned -- and Rich was struck by the bullet, they all panicked and ran like hell because shooting him wasn't the plan.
That's the best I can come up with based on the publicly available info.
OK, makes sense, except that the holes were in his back. Nevertheless what you're suggesting points to what every sensible persons knows: there are major unanswered questions involved in Seth Rich's death and they've been ignored.
DeleteMike, get well fast, I love reading your posts.
ReplyDeleteRob S
Maybe it is time to change their title Was: FBI Now: FIB
ReplyDeleteRob S
I had noticed Mike's absence here and at Althouse. Mike, hope you mend well, you were missed.
ReplyDeleteI'm very sorry to learn that you suffered a heart attack, Mike. Great that you are back home though. May your recovery continue to go well!
ReplyDeleteGina
Praying for your recovery, Mike!
ReplyDeleteA few thoughts on the Seth rich ordeal.
First, it's significant that Craig Murray chose to write about the serendipitous foia discoveries re Seth Rich. Craig is closer than most to Wikileaks "inner circle" of associates, so that he chose to discuss this issue suggests he is at least sympathetic toward the theory that Seth Rich leaked the DNC emails. A further interesting point about Craig: in an interview in December of 2016, Murray claimed to have met the individual who leaked the Podesta emails and strongly hinted that this individual was someone within the US intelligence/law enforcement community.
Another interesting aspect to the Seth Rich story I recently came across was uncovered by the Twitter user, @LarryBeech. He noted that Malia Zimmerman's May 2017 Fox News article on Seth Rich contained a very specific detail, namely that a forensic report of his computer had been produced within 96 hours of his death. That's quite specific--so specific that it is hard to imagine that this detail was simply made up. This matters because 96 hours after the death of Seth Rich would bring us to the morning of July 14th. What else happened on July 14th? July 14th was the second time Guccifer 2.0 sent an encrypted file to Wikileaks, which the Weissman report disingenuously implied was the source of the July 22 Wikileaks DNC email dump. Strange, isn't it, that Guccifer 2.0's second attempt to bait Wikileaks occurred on the same day as the alleged forensic computer report on Seth's computer was complete?
Thanks. Very interesting.
Delete@Luke
DeleteYes. Thank you.
For the rest of us, here are some relevant links.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/12/cias-absence-conviction/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbOql1gt-8c
If Durham isn't going to talk to Assange, he should certainly talk to Craig Murray. Murray, like many others, suggests that it might be a good idea to follow the money. He also makes some interesting observations about the new cold war with Russia.
Funny Mueller and Weissmann seemed not to have followed Murray's leads.
Read the article and it makes total sense to me.
Deletehttps://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/05/the-real-muellergate-scandal/
ReplyDeleteI should add a follow up link to a more recent Murray post, wherein he blasts the Mueller Report. There is plenty of interesting stuff in the post (dated May 2019). Here's a money quote: "Robert Mueller is either a fool, or deeply corrupt. I do not think he is a fool."
My wife tells me that Trump used the word "scum" in referring to Mueller today. Seems about right to me.
DeleteCraig Murray, the author of the Consortium News article, participated in Wikileaks' activities. An insightful explanation of Murray's activities was written by a Consortium News who calls himself Norumbega.
ReplyDeleteIn a series of comments under an article titled Why Didn’t Mueller Investigate Seth Rich? (and under other articles), Norumbega explains that Murray in September 2016 met in Washington DC with the US Government official who had leaked John Podesta's e-mails to Wikileaks.
The leaker of Podesta's e-mails was distinct from the leaker of the DNC files.
The leaker of Podesta's e0mails was a US Government official who had been assigned to study the Podesta brothers' lobbying communications with Saudi Arabia. The official was given access to NSA information and thus came across Podesta's political e-mails. The US Government official was outraged by those e-mails and so leaked them to Wikileaks. After Wikileaks received the leaked e-mails, Wikileaks sent Murray to meet personally with the US Government official.
Although Murray does know for sure the US Government official's identity, Murray does not know the identity of the person who leaked the DNC files to Wikileaks. Apparently, though, Murray assumes that that the latter leaker was Seth Rich.
Ah, yes, I remember finding Norumbega persuasive.
DeleteBest wishes, Mike S., for a speedy recovery of good health, and the assurance of my poor prayers. Althouse threads are better when you're there.
ReplyDelete