Wisdom From Matt Taibbi

Jack Cashill has an article today at American Thinker--Seth Rich Refuses to Stay Buried--that's worth the read all on its own. However, toward the end Cashill reproduces a very striking quote from a book by Matt Taibbi that is well worth reproducing and pondering for what it means about America--about our Deep State, about our imperialist overseas adventures, about our media establishment, about our political establishment and our political culture, and about our educational establishment:

If [Seth] Rich’s ultimate fate remains certain, what is altogether clear is the conspiratorial role the major media have played in keeping this story buried. As renegade Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi observed in his book Hate Inc., “Being on any team is a bad look for the press, but the press being on team FBI/CIA is an atrocity, Trump or no Trump.”

Prayers For Mike Sylwester--And A Note Re Seth Rich

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.

A Good Place For Tim Shea To Start?

Tim Shea is Bill Barr's right hand man, hand picked to be the USA for DC. Recall:

As the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, Shea would oversee some of the lingering cases from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, along with a number of politically charged investigations. The office is also generally responsible for handling potential prosecutions if Congress finds a witness in contempt.

There's no lack of work waiting for Shea. There's the Flynn case, of course. And all the Durham related matters--FISA fraud, the origins of the Russia Hoax, etc. There are also--or should be--any number of leak cases. And then there are old cases, some closed, that deserve another look. The Awan brothers, for example.

But here's a case that begs for a look--or another look, depending on whether you believe the FBI or not: the Seth Rich murder. If Durham is busy looking at the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that "established" for the gullible and for the cynical Never Trumpers that Russian "hacking" of the DNC and general "meddling" was a thing. Barr has consistently made skeptical noises, so why not start by finding out what the FBI did or didn't do? We know the FBI didn't examine the DNC server--preferring to take the word of a Ukrainian linked firm, Crowdstrike, that the meddling Russians had hacked it.

There's an interesting story that's been out for a few days now. It seems the FBI has been caught out lying about Seth Rich. Here's the 25 words or less version of what's going on: The FBI has always denied possessing any records related to the Seth Rich investigation; documentary evidence has surfaced that proves that position to be false.

For the sake of refreshing everyone's recollection, this is what the Seth Rich case is about:

UPDATED: Was Seth Rich Julian Assange's "internal Source" At The DNC?

CTH has a new post up titled: "IMPORTANT – Video Confirms Butowsky Lawsuit Claim: Julian Assange Told Ellen Ratner DNC Emails Received From Seth Rich – Not a Russian Hack…"

This is what we discussed just a week ago in Seth Rich In The News Again. The CTH title is a bit misleading, as I understand this new information. Ellen Ratner does not state that Assange told her that Seth Rich was his DNC source who provided the DNC emails--Assange never identifies his confidential sources. Rather, Ratner does confirm that Assange told her that the DNC emails were not received from the Russians but instead were obtained from a source internal to the DNC. It could have been Seth Rich, but it could have been someone else. OTOH, and in all fairness, it might also have been the case that Assange was lying and that he did receive the emails from the Russians.

But here's the real problem.

Imagine yourself as a Special Counsel, charged with investigating claims that the Trump campaign colluded with "the Russians" to obtain help to win the 2016 presidential election. I key issue in your investigation is the claim--made by the DNC through their contractor, Crowdstrike--that the Russian government "hacked" the DNC server, stole a huge trove of emails, and gave those emails to Assange at Wikileaks. The issue for you is whether Wikileaks was simply a cutout, whether "the Russians" gave those emails to Wikileaks precisely so that Wikileaks could disseminate them publicly to help the Trump campaign. To assess that claim, you need to know:

1) Who actually took those emails?

2) How did the emails got to Wikileaks?

3) Was the Trump campaign involved in some, all, or any of this?

Seth Rich In The News Again

There's a story that came out earlier today that injects the whole Seth Rich - DNC narrative into the public view again. Here's the slightly more than 25 word version:

A businessman and ex Fox Business contributor named Ed Butowsky has, through his lawyer Ty Clevenger, filed a lawsuit in which he alleges--among much else--that Fox analyst Ellen Ratner told him that she had been informed by Julian Assange that Seth and Aaron Rich provided the DNC emails to Wikileaks. Obviously, IF TRUE, this is mind boggling. It's that "if true" that gives pause.

This is Ed Butowsky, via Wikipedia:

Edward "Ed" Wayne Butowsky (born February 12, 1962) is an American financial adviser and former Fox Business Network commentator. Butowsky was purportedly banned from the network's building in August 2017 after he gained notoriety over his role in a story published and subsequently retracted by Fox News concerning the murder of Seth Rich and his alleged ties to WikiLeaks.

Here is Ty Clevenger's account of the facts that Butowsky alleges in his lawsuit, linked to FR: