Kevin Gosztola Profile picture
Feb 18 7 tweets 3 min read
President Joe Biden says Russia President Putin is going to invade Ukraine. Reporter asks, "What reason do you have to believe he's considering that option at all?" Biden replies, "We have significant intelligence capability." Again, no evidence. Just trust us.
Biden says "Russia has falsely asserted" shelling of Ukrainian kindergarten was carried out by Ukraine forces. Russia tried to create "false justification" for invasion. But school was in Ukraine-controlled territory, not Russia-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine.
What Biden is saying would make sense if a school in territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists was shelled by their forces, and then blamed on Ukraine. Then US-NATO could say that's ludicrous and argue Russia was creating a pretext for troubling escalation.
Russia saying the gas pipeline in Luhansk was allegedly sabotaged and Ukraine forces are responsible for explosion *could be*—if verified—a false flag by Russia. That fits way better than the school incident.

Problem is, what reliable source is going to verify any of this?
CNN update says Biden did not plan before February 18 speech to state definitively that Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine. Also again apparent the so-called bleak intel assessments are entirely based on Russian forces deployed for military drills, which end February 20.
The US Commander-in-Chief spoke and now they can't allow it to look like an error. So Pentagon Secretary repeated it to make it seem this is some kind of consensus—Russia "uncoiling and poised to strike" Ukraine
France is mostly refraining from hyperbole. Keeping talk about Russia invading Ukraine limited to an elevated "risk."

"We're not in the head of President Putin."

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More from @kgosztola

Feb 17
Unnamed State Dept official quoted by @CBSNews: Not "immediately clear whether shelling was actually the false-flag incident the U.S. has worried about, or just more of the low-level, tit-for-tat skirmishes that have plagued Donbas for years." #Russia cbsnews.com/news/russia-uk…
@CBSNews While British officials, especially Prime Minister Boris Johnson claim without verification that false flag event just happened in Ukraine, "Western security officials" told UK media itv.com/news/2022-02-1…
@CBSNews US, UK, and NATO officials won't wait to verify. They're keen to fit it into narrative they've spun for the past week and will react accordingly. But all along—as even pro-war Atlantic Council notes—it's been known Russian military drills would last from February 10-20.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 24
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted permission by the British High Court of Justice to appeal to the Supreme Court
In court to cover the proceedings, @MElMaazi reported that the High Court certified the issue of diplomatic assurances was important enough to allow Assange an appeal to the Supreme Court
Assange will remain in Belmarsh prison throughout the duration of this appeal to the UK Supreme Court.
Read 9 tweets
Jan 17
Martin Luther King Jr.'s analysis of "consensus presidents" applies considerably to Joe Biden.

Biden is a technician, not an innovator. His admin works only for what is widely acceptable, which there isn't much consensus on anything.
shadowproof.com/2016/01/18/mar… #MLKDay
Biden delays action constantly. His administration abandons promises and doesn't fight for policy.

MLK Jr. would likely say Biden lacks mass movement that will force him to act and give him an achievement to define his presidency as more than an exercise in mediocrity. #MLKDay
To Martin Luther King Jr., "The overwhelming national consensus followed" the acts of the most lauded US Presidents. "It did not precede them." That was owed to grassroots social movements (i.e. Civil Rights Movement). #MLKDay
Read 4 tweets
Jan 10
I spent several hours in December watching "Bob Saget's Here For You" when I needed a break. One evening, I was drawn into Bob Saget's charm as he called fans. He was so warm and kind. I watched over an hour of Bob joking & talking with them about life in our pandemic normal.
Then there was this episode of Bob Saget's podcast with one of his best friends, Gilbert Gottfried. In between stories, Bob and Gilbert kept going back to this unusual problem Gilbert has with birds and damn, it's funny.
And thanks to Bob Saget's show I heard George Lopez tell story of the Secret Service coming to his house while Donald Trump was president after he tweeted, "We'll do it for half"—a response to a report of an Iranian legislator putting out a bounty against Trump. #RipBobSaget
Read 4 tweets
Dec 22, 2021
CPJ (@pressfreedom) is deeply concerned about Assange's extradition but not enough to defy US government's decade-plus campaign to redefine Assange as someone who is not a journalist—which officials have done to justify the criminalization of his journalistic work.
CPJ may dislike pushback they're receiving for excluding Julian Assange from annual journalists index. That's why they posted this thread on December 21. But CPJ is increasingly an outlier.

The European Federation of Journalists recognizes Assange as a jailed journalist.
For more background, including their inadequate response to my question about why Assange remains excluded from CPJ's jailed journalists index: thedissenter.org/cpj-still-excl…
Read 4 tweets
Dec 10, 2021
British High Court of Justice will announce their ruling on the US government's effort to overturn a district judge's decision, which blocked the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. I'm covering.

Thread for following proceedings at the High Court.
If you are not familiar with the grounds of appeal in the Julian Assange case submitted by the US government, which the High Court will rule for or against today, here is the guide I assembled outlining each aspect:

thedissenter.org/a-guide-to-the…
Programming Note: I've reported on every stage of the case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pursued by the US government. thedissenter.org/tag/julian-ass…

Should you be able or interested in supporting this work, please subscribe to The Dissenter:
thedissenter.org/#/portal/signup
Read 17 tweets

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