September 17, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "RT"
-By
now the pattern is not only familiar. It
has become absurd. Sensitive, damning
information is leaked into the Western
public domain, and instead of explaining
the contents – the response is: “Blame
the Russians”.
This week saw the World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA) being embarrassed with the
release of confidential medical records
showing how top US athletes were
permitted to take banned drugs because
they were given “Therapeutic Use
Exemptions” by WADA. The athletes
included multi-gold medal gymnast Simone
Biles and tennis legend Serena Williams.
More leaked files by the
hacker group involved have now embroiled
British cycling champions Bradley
Wiggins and Chris Froome, who were also
permitted to take banned chemicals
through the official, but secret,
designation of
“exemptions”.
Thus far, some 29
athletes from eight countries have been
implicated in the leaks for taking
banned substances, including the US,
Britain, Germany and interestingly
enough one case from Russia. The latter
tends to contradict Western claims that
the hackers are
“Russian agents”.
Without any evidence, WADA has condemned
the publication of confidential medical
records as an act of “revenge”
by Russian state cyber agents. That
charge against Russia has been dutifully
amplified by the Western news media.
For example, Britain’s Independent
newspaper ran the
headline: “Bradley Wiggins and
Chris Froome among the athletes named in
new attack by Russian hackers”.
Note how Russian hackers are cited by
the Independent as if their alleged
guilt is fact. Notice too how the
newspaper also shifts the focus subtly
away from the two athletes’ drug use
(not mentioning it in the headline) to
the insinuation of Russian hacking.
Russian authorities have flatly rejected
any involvement in this week’s release
of WADA’s files.
The group claiming to have carried out
the hack goes by the title of
“Fancy Bear”. It is doubtful that
such an obvious name would be used by
Russian state intelligence, as is being
alleged in the Western media. Their
website design also has the look of the
Western anarchist hacker group,
Anonymous.
In
any case, the focus on who actually
carried out the information breach is
besides the most important issue, which
is the content of the disclosure. And
that in turn suggests that the rush to
blame “Russian agents” is an
attempt to shoot the messenger in order
to obscure the message.
What the public should be debating is
WADA’s criteria for permitting some
athletes from certain countries to avail
of “exemptions” for using
powerful psychotropic drugs and steroids
– and, secondly, the organization’s
self-designation to keep such
information secret from public purview.
WADA, which has an evident Western bias
from its organizational composition and
governmental funding sources, was
instrumental in accusing Russia of
“state-sponsored doping”. Those
allegations led to the banning of
Russia’s field and track athletes from
the Rio Olympics. WADA’s allegations
also resulted in banning the entire
Russian Paralympic team in subsequent
games.
The anti-doping agency’s reports into
Russian sports have been roundly
criticized elsewhere for lack of due
process and verifiable proof and for
selective use of dubious sources.
The disclosure now that top American and
British athletes were also using banned
substances – but allowed to get away
with it by WADA – only reinforces the
perception that the agency is far from
an objective international authority,
but rather is a political tool applying
double standards specifically to impede
Russia.
The media reaction-for-distraction is to
shoot alleged Russian messengers over
what is an important disclosure about
WADA’s conduct and what should be an
urgent public debate over how the Rio
Olympic games appear to have been
hijacked by geopolitical interests to
demonize Russia. Even though, there is
no substantive evidence presented that
Russian “messengers” were indeed behind
the WADA leaks.
This same absurd reaction is observed
over the earlier leak of data from the
Democrat National Committee (DNC). Those
published files showed how the DNC had
committed to fix the US primaries in
order to give Hillary Clinton the
presidential nomination over her rival,
self-declared socialist candidate Bernie
Sanders. DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman
Shultz even had to resign over the
scandal, but the scandal’s full
implications of how democratic
principles were violated were stifled by
high-flown claims that Russia was
responsible for the hack. Moscow was and
continues to be accused of
“interfering in US elections” –
despite repeated denials by the Kremlin.
A
self-proclaimed US citizen group, DC
Leaks, has made the claim of
disseminating the Democrat party
shenanigans.
Similarly, this week saw
another embarrassing email hack, in the
case of former US Republican Secretary
of State Colin Powell. Powell, who
served in the George W Bush
administration, was scathing of Hillary
Clinton, as well as Republican candidate
Donald Trump. He labelled Clinton
“greedy” and full of incompetent
“hubris”, while her husband
Bill is having trysts with “bimbos”
when she’s away from home. On Trump,
Powell dismissed him as an international
“disgrace” and
“pariah”.
(Powell also had choice deprecatory
words for former cabinet colleagues Dick
Cheney (“idiot”) and Paul
Wolfowitz (“liar”) over the
Iraq War debacle.)
These are damning
insights from a senior US political
figure on the lackluster quality of the
two presidential candidates which
American voters will decide on in a
matter of weeks. Yet, here is the
Washington Post
headline:
“Powell emails were leaked on a site
linked to the Russian government”.
Again, who is behind the Powell hack is
not clear, as with the WADA and DNC
cases. It could be any number of
citizen-anarchist groups who feel they
are doing a public service by exposing
corruption and double standards.
What is telling is the alacrity of
Western politicians, organizations and
media to finger Russia over alleged
hacking scandals.
On Powell, the Washington
Post reports:
“In what seems [sic] to be a Russian
push to embarrass the US body politic, a
website posted emails from the retired
statesman that call Donald Trump a
“disgrace” and Hillary Clinton “greedy”.
The degeneration of the US body politic
is the central issue here. However, the
ignominy is shunted out of focus with
outlandish claims against Russia. This
process of denial will only mean an even
more withering day of reckoning when the
US media run out of scapegoats by which
to distract citizens from scrutinizing
the internal collapse.
WADA revelations are a classic case of
double standards and denial. The 2016
Olympic Games were sabotaged out of
duplicity and political scheming against
Russia. The emerging files on Western
athletes having been given
“exemptions” for use of banned
substances demonstrates this duplicity.
Whoever is behind the leaked WADA files
is doing a duty for truth-telling and
genuine public debate about supposed
standards and adherence to drug
prohibitions in sports.
That is the perspective that should
prevail, as in the case of the
Democratic party’s stitching up of
voters’ choice in the US presidential
elections. Or in the case of Colin
Powell’s purported debunking of both
candidates.
The focus should be on the message, that
is, the content – not on the supposed
messenger, who is being shot down by
those implicated in wrongdoing. Smearing
Russia as the messenger only shows how
desperate the wrongdoers are.
Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has
written extensively on international
affairs, with articles published in
several languages. For over 20 years he
worked as an editor and writer in major
news media organizations, including The
Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Now
a freelance journalist based in East
Africa, his columns appear on RT,
Sputnik, Strategic Culture Foundation
and Press TV.