30 September 2010. Add dissimulation from Keith Thomson and Cryptome response.

29 September 2010

The Huffington Post Spying Game

Cryptome was interviewed by telephone today by Keith Thomson, a reporter for The Huffington Post. After a bit of palaver Keith said a confidential source claimed a Chinese spy agency had given Wikileaks $20 million. What did Cryptome think about that?

We said that kind of money is usually given by spy agencies to publications like The Huffington Post rather than an offbeat like Wikileaks. Could be, though: according to reports Wikileaks has joined with major publications to provide the kind of information for which spies would pay $20 million.

Also, now that there are billions of dollars being distributed around the world by spy agencies for which $20 million is a small sum, it is possible that such a contribution could have been made to Wikileaks alone, if not to the illusory Wikileaks, then to an legitimate financial agent of the venture -- of which Daniel Schmitt said there are several. This would fit claims by Julian Assange to have raised over a million dollars recently, and just yesterday Wikileaks Tweeted that money was no problem.

Keith said what would you do if someone sent Cryptome a million dollar donation, a check. We said we would publish the check as a sting operation. Nothing like that can be kept secret, the recipient might try to keep it secret but it will come out, usually by someone within the receiving group aggrieved at being short-changed.

Keith said this discussion is off the record. Cryptome said it does not do off the record interviews. We publish accounts of them.

Some email exchanges:

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:33:17 -0500
Subject: Keith Thomson, Huffington Post columnist here...
From: keith thomson <kjthomson[at]gmail.com>
To: ny[at]natsios-young.com
Cc: jy[at]jya.com

John:

I admire your work. I'm eager to ask either of you a couple of quick 
Crytpome questions—analog preferably—for a story I'm working on. Please advise.

Best,
Keith Thomson
http://huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson

__________

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 07:07:17 -0500
Subject: Re: Keith Thomson, Huffington Post columnist here...
From: keith thomson <kjthomson[at]gmail.com>
To: John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com>

John:

Thanks for your reply. I'm currently doing book research in an area largely 
inhospitable to cell phones, but I expect to be back in the 21st Century late 
today or tomorrow and will call you.

Best,
Keith
http://huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson

On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 5:44 AM, John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com> wrote:
Keith,

It will be a pleasure to speak with you when convenient.

Best regards,

John Young and Deborah Natsios

212-873-8700

__________

From: kjthomson[at]gmail.com
To: John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com>
Subject: Re: Cryptome E-Gold Donation
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:41:55 -0500

John, thanks. K

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 29, 2010, at 9:29 AM, John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com> wrote:

Keith,

The E-gold contribution file:

http://cryptome.org/cryptome-gold.htm

As I said in our telephone talk, no other donation like this
has come our way.

BTW, donations to Cryptome are reported by me as taxable
income, trivial as they customarily are.

Regards,

John

__________

Added 30 September 2010, 6:42AM:

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:25:34 -0500
Subject: Re: Keith Thomson, Huffington Post columnist here...
From: keith thomson <kjthomson[at]gmail.com>
To: John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com>

John, read the following on your site.

<<Keith said a confidential source claimed a Chinese spy agency had given 
Wikileaks $20 million>> 

That a Chinese spy agency has given Wikileaks $20 million is news to me; 
I didn't say that, and wouldn't. The only time we discussed dollar amount 
was in hypothetials. Not sure where you got this.

Best,
Keith

30 September 2010

Cryptome: It is common for reporters and others who approach Cryptome to claim they have experience in the spying game with direct experience or from confidential sources with spy connections, as Keith did, specifically stating he had ex-TLA sources to which he attributed the Chinese-spy donation assertion. Cryptome told Keith that a far more needed story than recycling Wikileaks gossip is how MSM publications, including The Huffington Post, thrive on the spying game, especially those which have bribed Wikileaks lately to join them despite its long history of being hostile to the MSM. Daniel Schmitt and others have more to say on the profitability of Wikileaks suicide by MSM branding, contextualizing and authentication as a part of the spying game.

Another instance of this spying-game pretentiousness was reported by Cryptome to a reporter for Radar about NYC social reporter Anthony Haden-Guest who told Cryptome he had done free-lance work for MI6. Radar asked Hayden-Guest about his claim which he denied in the manner Keith Thomson does, "I was misunderstood, that is not what I said." To Keith, again, ex-spies are the biggest liars and braggarts -- they are never ex-, once in no escape from lying. Check with Robert Steele, ex-CIA, Huff Post's newest spying gamer:

I wanted to draw attention to recent news that the guy I'm remotely working with that is non-profit related (Robert Steele) was selected to post twice a week at Huffington Post...here's the first one which has an interesting concept to start -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-david-steele/its-officialsteele-won-vi_b_741674.html