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New
report reveals how ‘American neocons’ stage attacks against
alternative media
20
March, 2014
The
recent on-air resignation by former RT news anchor Liz Wahl was just
the latest stunt orchestrated by a neo-conservative think tank,
according to a new investigative report shedding light on the group’s
role in an ongoing Cold War revival campaign.
An
extensive account of the days and minutes leading up to Wahl’s
remarks and public denunciation of “propaganda” tactics during
her news segment on March 5 by authors Max Blumenthal and Rania
Khalek via truthdig has revealed connections with the little known
neoconservative think-tank Foreign Policy Initiative.
FPI
was founded in 2009 by a group of high-profile neo-conservative
figures, including Robert Kagan and William Kristol, founder of the
Weekly Standard, who themselves were cofounders of the Project for
the New American Century (PNAC) -- an organization that played a key
role in advocating for the US invasion of Iraq by the Bush
administration following the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda.
According
to the authors, as well as evidence readily available online via the
group’s Twitter feed, FPI was privy to what would take place at RT
on-air that day.
Just
twenty minutes prior to Wahl’s last appearance on RT, FPI announced
that “something big” would be “going down” on RT, and
directed followers to RT's live web feed.
Just
over an hour later, an exclusive interview with Wahl was posted to
The Daily Beast, authored by James Kirchick, a 31-year-old writer who
had appeared regularly on the pages of conservative publications such
as Commentary and the Weekly Standard.
As
the truthdig report points out, Kirchick, a senior fellow with FPI,
considered by most beltway insiders as a rebrand of PNAC, had been in
contact with Wahl since last August.
But
while Kirchick himself appears to be more of neo-con waterboy, the
FPI has a deep bench when it comes to Washington insiders at the
heart of the current crisis in Ukraine.
It
turns out that the husband of Victoria Nuland, the top US diplomat
for Europe, is none other than Robert Kagan. Kagan not only serves on
the FPI Board of Directors, but was also John McCain's foreign policy
advisor during the Arizona senator's failed 2008 presidential bid.
McCain, known for his harsh anti-Russian rhetoric, appeared alongside
Ukrainian opposition leaders in December, including far right
nationalist Oleh Tyahnybog.
The
very same week McCain was meeting with Ukraine's opposition, Nuland
was on Independence Square, the epicenter of the Kiev protests,
handing out cakes to protesters and riot police. The diplomat,
however, sparked a media frenzy for a far less saccharine gesture.
While
discussing the situation on the ground with US ambassador to Ukraine,
Geoffrey Pyatt, Nuland criticized Europe's more cautious Ukrainian
policy with her now infamous "F*** the EU" remark. The US
State Department said at the time that if if Moscow had been
responsible for recording and disseminating the conversation, it was
"a new low in Russian tradecraft".
"F***
with the Russians"
Kirchick,
who has taken a less than amicable approach to Russia himself, had
himself appeared on RT after accepting an invitation to participate
in a panel and discuss his recent op-ed calling for Bradley Manning’s
execution.
The
panel was derailed when Kirchick took the opportunity to denounce
recent “gay propaganda” laws ratified by Russia’s government.
As Khalek and Blumenthal write, moments after the uncomfortable
appearance Kirchick had removed his microphone and remarked “I only
go on that station to f*** with the Russians.”
Several
days after Wahl's resignation, after she appeared on a number of
networks, Kirchick camped out outside of RT’s DC studios,
apparently on a self-assigned mission to “find out more about RT.”
Kirchick,
after befuddling random office workers with questions on Pussy Riot,
was approached by building security, who eventually contacted local
police. Though the resulting piece posted by Kirchick for the Daily
Beast had denounced “the wannabe thugs” at RT’s DC headquarters
who had contacted police, the piece was later quietly updated to
clarify that it had been building security who had contacted
authorities, not RT staff members.
Beyond
the extensive analysis of FPI and James Kirchick’s political
purpose, the investigation also delved into Wahl’s tenure at RT.
Six employees were contacted by the authors, all of whom professed
“qualms with the network’s coverage of Russia-related issues,”
though they also portrayed Wahl, who had previously been demoted from
anchor to correspondent and suspended without pay, as “apolitical
and without any clear principles.”
“Wahl
expressed her outrage at co-workers, often berating them, according
to her former colleagues, and by ‘screaming’ at management,”
write Blumenthal and Khalek.
Other
interviewed employees professed knowledge of Wahl’s association
with Kirchick.
[Kirchick’s]
obviously been trying to charm her into doing this for a while,”
said one, adding that Wahl had confided that she had been approached
by an unnamed individual to “take down RT.”
Certainly
Wahl's and Kirchick's behavior the day of her resignation alluded to
a close relationship, evidenced by a photo posted by Kirchick to his
Twitter feed the day following her resignation entitled
'#freedomselfie'.
Ultimately,
Wahl’s public outcry seemed to echo “the cold warrior themes
familiar to neoconservatives like Kirchick” and the FPI, write
Blumenthal and Khalek.
The
seemingly coordinated stunt appears to have met with some success,
winning praise from MSNBC’s prime-time pundit Chris Hayes, who
described Wahl as “remarkably badass,” along with conservative
writers such as Amanda Carpenter, who noted that the former anchor
was “proud to be an American.”
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