Christopher Black
The dark web of American propaganda is made up of many facets, some of them official government propaganda agencies, as well as the private media controlled by people with the same thinking or by direct influence from the intelligence agencies.
In late January 2021, NATO think tank, The Atlantic Council, published a paper termed, The Longer Telegram, which sets out a proposed strategy for the United States to achieve domination of the world, a strategy which focuses on China as the main obstacle to that domination, with Russia now considered an "irritant." It is the fantasy of megalomaniacs who sit in dark rooms dreaming of world power and achieving it using any means necessary, including world war.
It is in essence a propaganda document designed to not only proclaim a new world war, the American war against China, but to try to justify this war. It describes a China that does not exist except in the fantasies of these right wing ideologues. The insults litter every page; against President Xi, against the Communist Party, against Chinese culture and achievements. It's secondary purpose of course is to try to create unrest and division within China, to weaken it, to bring down socialism, to bring down Chinafor it claims to know things, to reveal things. Almost written as a script in a drama but in essence is a criminal document written by criminals and fools.
The title of the document is a reference to a document known as The Long Telegram, written by U.S. foreign policy advisor, George Kennan, in 1946 setting out a strategy to destroy the Soviet Union, a strategy that was followed. So it has to be assumed that the author or authors of this document expect it to become the strategy adopted by the Biden regime and, indeed, we have seen a lot of discussion of this document in the western media and political circles, mainly in approval, indicating it is being considered in high circles, and we have also seen with the first pronouncements of President Biden that American aggression will continue and will be intensified.
The mystery for many is who wrote the document as it was signed by Anonymous. It may be have a single author but the word "anonymous" could be a mask for a committee, or it could have been written by Biden's new Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Whoever the author is, it clearly has the approval of the Atlantic Council, and therefore NATO and the NATO governments. However, several other names have been suggested in its drafting; including the usual anti-China suspects, Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and Steve Bannon.
Why are those names considered as possibilities? Blinken, and the Obama team, who began the "pivot to Asia" are obvious candidates. But Mike Pompeo, as former head of the CIA, and Trump's Secretary of State, is a possibility because of his positions of great power and influence. His anti-China rhetoric is notorious. John Bolton is a possibility for the same reasons, a series of high posts, a man of influence on the right, who has held positions in in the U.S. no matter which party holds the presidency, who is only able to think in terms of domination and war and who holds strong views against China and the Communist Party.
Then there is Steve Bannon, one of the loudest of the anti-China hawks in the United States today, whose constant propaganda against China and socialism is designed to create general hostility towards China. Since he is out of power now he is less likely to be involved directly. But his propaganda internet and radio programme is rabidly anti-Chinese, and supports the views expressed in the Longer Telegram.
Of him less is known, but he is worth examining to understand the workings of the American propaganda system. He is a figure coming out of the shadows, rising through a series of steps from U.S. Navy officer and assistant to the Chief of U.S. Naval Operations, to Goldman Sachs banker, to Hollywood producer, to friend of the wealthy, radio host, to advisor to President Trump, to member of the National Security Council, who now continues his anti-Chinese propaganda on his TV and radio show, tellingly called War Room, which he co-hosts with British far right personality Raheem Kassam. Kassam among other things, was advisor to Nigel Farage of the British Independence Party and before that worked for the far right Henry Jackson Society in London which has the objective of spreading capitalism everywhere and which targets Russia and China as "dangers to democracy."
On his War Room programme of February 11, Bannon repeated his big lie that the covid-9 virus is from a Chinese PLA laboratory in Wuhan despite the fact the WHO confirmed it was highly unlikely and said its origins elsewhere must be investigated. In that programme Bannon pretended to interview a Chinese woman, not named, except by the code name TCC, who claims she is a doctor with inside knowledge of China who supported Bannon's claim that it is a "bioweapon." This is the type of propaganda that is being fed to the American people and others constantly by Bannon and his crew, propaganda designed to raise fear and hatred of China and directly accusing China of making an attack on the United States. The clear objective is to push the U.S. government to go to war with China.
Where Bannon gets the money to run his operation is also a question. Some of it is said to come from royalties from reruns of the American comedy show Seinfeld, in which he had invested in 1990 but he also has very close ties to Guo Wengui, aka Miles Kwok, a Chinese billionaire who fled China when he was charged with corruption, bribery and fraud and has since been a constant propagandist against China and the Communist Party. He and Bannon became involved a company called GTV Media Group which they founded in 2020. The two men are being investigated for fraud in a scheme that saw 300 million dollars vanish from the pockets of investors and are also being investigated for fraud and mail fraud for their role in a Go Fund me campaign to fund the Trump wall at the Mexican Border. It is alleged people gave money to be used for the wall but it was siphoned off by Bannon and Guo for their personal use. It was for these crimes that Bannon was pardoned by Trump so he can never be held accountable for his fraud except in civil lawsuits.
Bannon claims he is driven by ideology, by concerns for democracy. But news service Axios revealed in October 2019 that after Bannon left the White House he was given a contract by Guo to provide "consulting services" for which, in 2018-19, he was paid one million dollars. The man who pays the piper calls the tune.
Working for foreign money is nothing strange to Bannon who now claims to be an "anti-globalist." He began his financial career at Goldman Sachs, one of the big global investment banks, involved in mergers and acquisitions. Then, when he found he could make more money on his own he formed his own investment company in 1990, Bannon and Company, which he used to take advantage of the expansion of the U.S. film industry globally. Unable to raise sufficient funds for investments in intellectual properties like film royalties he partnered with the Japanese investment bank, Nissho Iwai, which gave him millions of dollars over five years.
Relying on foreign money became his modus operandi. He once stated, "our forte was working with American companies to work with foreign investors." It was through his dealings in California that he acquired shares in the "Seinfeld" TV series that has reaped him large profits. In 1996, after the Japanese deal expired he linked up with the French investment bank, Societe General and at the same time he also had an investment deal with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king, who was head of the United Saudi Commercial Bank who he helped to obtain investments in the Hollywood movie business. It is at this time that he becomes involved with Donald Trump, buying Trump's yacht in 1991, he claimed "to bail Trump out" and in 1995, when he and a Singapore investor acquired the Plaza Hotel in New York.
He claims he turned further to the right as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, and then began supporting films about America's decline, supported the right wing Tea Party movement and then joined Bretibart Media in 2012 owned by the billionaire Mercer family and used his internet programme to support Trump's candidacy for president. When Trump was elected he was made a member of the National Security Council. Bannon was one of those who pushed Trump to abandon the Pars Climate Agreement, and to impose a travel ban on Muslims into the USA, an action that angered his Saudi friends.
After conflicts arose in the White House, Bannon was forced out, to return to Breitbart. But some of his statements and racist views led to even right-wing heiress, Rebekkah Mercer, who owned part of Breitbart, to force him off his radio show which resulted in his consolidating his connections with Guo, taking his money and starting his own programme.
The dark web of American propaganda is made up of many facets, some of them official government propaganda agencies such as Voice of America, the CIA, NED and so on, as well as the private media controlled by people with the same thinking or by direct influence from the intelligence agencies. Bannon is an example of the sleazy characters that populate this shadowy world, who move between the government and the private spheres, almost seamlessly. They are opportunists who think they can make a buck by creating propaganda against foreign nations and peoples and cashing in.
They claim to be concerned about "democracy" and "human rights" but they are really only concerned with their lining their own pockets, and they don't care how they do it. For them, lying is their business. "