Carlyle Group
The Hate Mongers Among Us – Part 4: Staying on Message to Advance the Narrative
September 13, 2010 by Jeff Gates · 9 Comments
Keeping the “anti-Semitism” theme front-and-center remains essential to advance the hate-monger’s narrative with the assistance of mainstream media.
Thus the Anti-Defamation League criticized the current cover of Time magazine for what ADL President Abe Foxman suggested was a portrayal of Israelis as more interested in making money than in striking a peace accord with the Palestinians.
The article highlighted Israel’s booming real estate market and the pleasure Israelis are taking in late-Summer vacations.
Nevertheless, according to Foxman: “The insidious subtext of Israeli Jews being obsessed with money echoes the age-old anti-Semitic falsehood that Jews care about money above any other interest, in this case achieving peace with the Palestinians.”
Foxman insisted that Managing Editor Richard Stengel issue an apology to readers both for the timing of the article and for calling up old anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money.
As if right on cue, the next day filmmaker Michael Moore jumped into the Islamic Cultural Center debate, arguing that the center should not be near the 911 site but inside it as a way for Muslims to recover their religion from Islamic extremists.
In his branded controversial style, Moore could have left it at that. Instead, he used his assured media profile to relate an account of George Washington’s wish to see Jews receive equal rights.
Impressionistic Warfare
From a psy-ops perspective, the subject matter is secondary to the impressions left with the public. The imbedding of imagery and emotion is the strategic purpose of much of what you see.
For instance, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, speaking to ABC’s “This Week,” said on September 12th that the controversy over the site of an Islamic Cultural Center has heightened concerns among Muslims of rising anti-Muslim sentiment, saying he felt there was “growing Islamophobia in this country.”
That’s a foreseeable result of creating widely shared impressions that foster and sustain widely shared beliefs that, in turn, are kept intact with emotional triggers. That’s how the hate-monger narrative progresses in plain sight.
When waging war in the shared field of consciousness, the most powerful weapon is often the power of association. Michael Moore’s film success shows how it’s done.
In his popular Fahrenheit 911, he deployed impressionistic “weaponry” to associate the war in Iraq with “Bush Oil.” How was that done? He showed on film that one of the several dozen siblings of Osama bin Laden served on the board of advisers to the Carlyle Group, an investment banking firm in Washington, D.C.
Also serving on that board was former president George H.W. Bush, the father of George W. Bush. Therefore, by the power of association, the war in Iraq was for “Bush Oil.” Storylines don’t need to true, just plausible. The point of psy-ops is not reality but credibility.
Impressions gain the traction required to advance a storyline—in plain sight.
Consensus beliefs create and sustain a narrative—in plain sight.
Psy-ops succeed when they attract enough eyeballs to misdirect the public’s attention—in plain sight.
Fahrenheit 911 was produced by Miramax, a Disney subsidiary. Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein loudly claimed that Disney reneged on its promise to distribute Moore’s film. Disney chief executive Michael Eisner objected—just as loudly.
The high profile sparing between these two Hollywood titans dragged on for months in mainstream media. By the time the film was released, the interest generated by this “dispute” ensured that Moore’s film opened on a record number of screens for a “documentary.”
At virtually no cost, that public relations ploy helped ensure an international audience for a film that discredited not only the U.S. but also the office of the president. In its practical effect, the Moore film helped ensure there was virtually no mention of how key Zionist goals were advanced by this war—in plain sight.
Real-time Terror
Meanwhile, September 12 news reports highlighted the extradition to France from Egypt of a terrorist who reportedly planned to bomb an Israel Defense Forces event in Paris. Noticeably absent were facts about the timeframe of this threat or even when the arrest was made.
That account provided an opportunity for the chief of French intelligence to make a high profile announcement that the risk of a terrorist attack on France “has never been higher.” This week, the French Senate is scheduled to vote a ban on wearing Islamic veils known as burgas, a vote certain to reinforce The Clash of Civilizations as the consensus narrative
Also on September 12, the leader of Shin Bet announced in Tel Aviv: “Hamas forces in Gaza and the West Bank are engaged in an effort to foil peace talks.” Israel’s domestic security chief told cabinet ministers “threats are due to increase in the near future, as diplomatic developments occur…This isn’t just an estimate but is supported by real intelligence.”
Unmentioned in this volatile mix is the psychology of the hate monger. The purveyors of hate routinely project onto their opponents both their own personality traits (hatred) and, as here, their anticipated agenda. This announcement is far more likely to mean that Shin Bet will stage provocations designed to make it appear that Hamas is the instigator of violence.
For the Zionist agenda to continue in plain sight, peace must be avoided no matter what the cost. Disruption of the peace process, in turn, must plausibly be the work of others. The hate monger must appear to be hated; the aggressor must plausibly appear to be the victim.
Thus the need to portray as anti-Semitic (a hater) those who document the dynamics of how hate-mongers induce hate—in plain sight.
The Assassination of Bibi Netanyahu
Should we see a revival of the U.S. national security apparatus, we will also see a push back against the right-wing extremist coalitions that have long ruled Israel. However, any resistance to the Zionist agenda runs the risk that Israel’s masters of game theory warfare will collapse another government.
That’s how Tel Aviv responded when in June 1963, President John F. Kennedy pressured David Ben-Gurion for inspections of Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona. This young president sought to ensure that the Zionists of that era did not start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. He foresaw what we now see.
Before JFK’s strongly worded letter could be physically delivered, Ben-Gurion resigned citing undisclosed personal reasons. By the time a replacement governing coalition was in place and fully functional, the Kennedy problem had been handled.
In the parlance of national security, that’s called an entropy strategy.
Fast-emerging circumstances suggest the likelihood of a similar strategy, particularly should there emerge any prospect of peace with the Palestinians. As Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman candidly put it, peace is impossible: “not next year and not for the next generation.”
Should “Bibi” pressure his fragile governing coalition for an extension of the “temporary partial freeze” on settlements, members of his nationalist government could withdraw, collapsing the government. Key members of the coalition signaled their intentions on September 12th by announcing that any extension of the freeze will end the Netanyahu government.
On September 13th, four Likud Party members threatened to withdraw budget support if the freeze is extended. That threat was issued as Netanyahu departed for peace talks in Sharm el-Sheikh with Palestinian leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Clinton.
The recurring possibility of governmental collapse has long given Tel Aviv leverage over peace talks sought by the U.S. That era may soon draw to a close if our national security apparatus is now guiding U.S. foreign policy. To date, our elected officials have proven themselves unable to navigate through the manipulations often deployed by Israel to stymie agreement on the terms of a peace accord.
Tel Aviv knows the power that the perception of political vulnerability offers in negotiations. When the game theory dynamics of Israeli psy-ops are fully grasped, that leverage will quickly dissipate as negotiators realize they have long been manipulated. That makes the duplicity personal.
The key barrier to realization is the fast-fading belief among policy-makers in the U.S. and the E.U. that Israel is an ally and a friend rather than a sophisticated foe skilled at using deception to leverage its small numbers to great effect.
Though collapse is one possible strategy, Bibi may instead be assassinated.
The threads of a plausible storyline were laid in a September 9th article on Haaretz.com where he was compared to French president Charles de Gaulle against whom French nationalists staged numerous assassination attempts.
Either approach would inject enough entropy into the peace process to sustain the Palestinian conflict and extend the occupation yet again.
Either strategy would strengthen the hand of the hate-mongers as settlers build another 19,000 homes and U.S. legislators continue to pretend that the Zionist state is a victim of anti-Semitism rather than a serial agent provocateur.
Carlyle Group
All Too Familiar
November 29, 2008 by Jeff Gates · 1 Comment
Is a multi-trillion dollar fraud being perpetrated on America by Lawrence Summers and the same transnational network that defrauded Russia of $1 trillion?
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The appointment of Lawrence Summers as Barack Obama’s top economic adviser may herald a U.S. version of the loans-for-shares fraud that financially pillaged Russia, leaving in its wake a politically powerful oligarchy.
Shielded by the credibility of a Harvard advisory team handpicked by Summers, Moscow saw a mid-1990s credit crisis used to shift the ownership of state-owned assets to a handful of Russians. At the time, Summers was serving as Under Secretary for International Affairs, the U.S. Treasury’s senior financial diplomat.
When the government of Boris Yeltsin ran low on cash, advisers urged that funds be borrowed from oligarch-controlled banks. As collateral, Moscow pledged shares in state-owned oil companies, the crown jewels of the Russian economy.
When the loans defaulted, the shares were sold to those same oligarchs in rigged auctions. Portrayed as “privatization” by Summers and Harvard’s accommodating advisers, Russians called it simply “mafia-ization.” Mikhail Gorbachev estimates that the oligarchs stripped $1 trillion from Russia’s struggling economy. With an Ashkenazi population of less than two percent, six of Russia’s seven richest oligarchs qualified for Israeli citizenship.
Summers succeeded Robert Rubin as Treasury Secretary in 1999, marking their success in repealing Depression-era laws that banned the merger of banks, brokers, insurance firms and investment banks. A former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, Rubin joined CEO Sanford Weill at Citigroup, the first financial institution to fully embrace the Rubin-led repeal.
At Rubin’s urging, Citi thrived by bundling loans as securities (mortgages, credit card loans, auto loans, student loans, etc.) and selling them as collateralized debt obligations (“CDOs”). Meanwhile Summers championed the deregulation of financial derivatives, ensuring the globalization of losses from those securities. With “assets” of $2 trillion (largely troubled loans) and operations in 100 countries, Citi is now “too big to fail.”
Rubin protégés advised Obama that taxpayers should assume responsibility for $306 billion of Citi’s junk loans–$1,000 per American. Treasury’s bailout funds will cover $5 billion and $10 billion will be paid by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (funded by banks). Additional losses will be paid by the Federal Reserve printing money as needed–with all that implies for inflation and stagnation. Summers is the leading candidate to succeed Fed chairman Ben Bernanke in 2010.
Obama picked Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary. A protégé of Henry Kissinger and then of Rubin and Summers, Geithner and Summers often vacation together. Known to wilt in the presence of Summers’ notorious arrogance, Geithner will oversee bank shares given the government in return for the bailout.
In this funds-for-shares program, what happens if, as in Russia, the funds prove insufficient? If America’s debt-laden economy continues its decline, does government become the owner? If not, to whom will those shares be sold?
Look to private equity firms adept at acquiring companies with little cash and lots of debt. Is that the political role being played by former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman? Mehlman serves as chairman of public affairs for Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts, the nation’s leading leveraged buyout firm.
Americans have long shared a healthy aversion to concentrations of financial power. Was Mehlman hired to facilitate the bank consolidation we now see emerging? The Comptroller of the Currency announced in August that private equity firms could become banks–and acquire other banks. The bank bailout covers leveraged corporate loans, clearing their books to fund more leveraged buyouts.
If, as appears likely, today’s vast pyramids of debt continue to collapse, into whose hands will control of the financial sector shift? With banking already consolidated in four major institutions–each too big to fail–the American counterpart to the Russian oligarchs could be the senior partners in private equity firms: Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts plus Stephen Schwarzman at Blackstone Group, David Bonderman at Texas Pacific Group, David Rubenstein at Carlyle Group and Leon Black at Apollo Group.
In Russia, state-owned assets shifted into a few private hands–in response to a credit crisis–when advisers urged that Moscow assume debts it could not repay. Those assets were then sold for cents on the dollar. In America, banks may well migrate into the hands of a few private equity firms, leaving in their wake a trail of socialized debts as junk loans are upgraded to gilt-edged bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S.–undermining the nation’s credit standing worldwide.
As in Russia, both the advisers and the new owners qualify for Israeli citizenship. Summers had a hand in both bailouts. As President-elect Obama scrambles to stabilize the financial system, will his pledge of clarity and transparency include an account of how–and by whom–he was advised to capitalize a transnational Ashkenazi oligarchy?
