Ep. 5307 – Gareth Porter on the Pentagon’s ‘Bountygate’ Hoax – 7/10/2020

Scott interviews Gareth Porter about the Russian bounties story, or “Bountygate” as it has come to be known. Porter describes attempts by outlets like the New York Times to portray this as a well-sourced story with consensus among America’s intelligence agencies—in reality, he says, the NSA and CIA have rated the intelligence with only low- to medium-confidence, and even the Department of Defense, which thoroughly investigates every U.S. death in Afghanistan, hasn’t found evidence to support the idea that the Russian government is paying bounties to the Taliban. Moreover, says Porter, Russia has very little to gain from such a policy, and a lot to lose. However, the people who would benefit from increased tensions with Russia are the war hawks in the U.S. government and the big players in the arms industry. Just like with the hundreds of other lies told by the U.S. government and sold by the media to benefit powerful military-industrial complex interests, we should be highly skeptical.

Check out the interview page here: https://libertarianinstitute.org/scotthortonshow/7-10-20-gareth-porter-on-the-pentagons-bountygate-hoax/

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