Posted on 04/13/2023 7:58:58 AM PDT by Red Badger
Editor’s Note: Sometimes, my scan of thousands of headlines from conservative and alternative news sites fails me. That’s my excuse for missing this story yesterday about journalist Seymour Hersh’s claim about massive “skimming” of U.S. aid to Ukraine by officials, including the “Hero of Democracy” Volodymyr Zelensky.
Oh, and the CIA apparently knows all about it. Because of course they do. On top of that, Hersh claimed U.S. aid is earmarked for Ukraine to buy diesel fuel… from Russia. This whole drama is like a very bad and deadly soap opera.
Here’s Dave DeCamp from Antiwar reporting on it…
Seymour Hersh: the CIA Knows Ukrainian Officials Are Skimming US Aid
On Wednesday, Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report on Substack that alleged the CIA was aware of widespread corruption in Ukraine and the embezzlement of US aid.
The report said the Ukrainian government has been using US taxpayer money to purchase diesel from Russia to fuel its military. Hersh said Zelensky “has been buying the fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments.”
Hersh said according to one estimate by CIA analysts, at least $400 million in funds were embezzled last year. Sources told Hersh that Ukrainian officials are also “competing” to set up front companies for export contracts to private arms dealers around the world.
The issue of corruption was raised during a meeting between CIA Director William Burns and Zelensky in January. An intelligence official with direct knowledge of the meeting told Hersh that Burns delivered a stunning message to Zelensky.
Hersh wrote: “The senior generals and government officials in Kiev were angry at what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, so Burns told the Ukrainian president, because ‘he was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals.’”
During the meeting, Burns presented Zelensky with a list of 35 generals and senior government officials whose corruption was known to the CIA. Zelensky responded by dismissing 10 officials who were engaged in flagrant corruption. “The ten he got rid of were brazenly bragging about the money they had—driving around Kiev in their new Mercedes,” the intelligence official said.
Hersh said Zelensky’s “half-hearted response” and the “lack of concern” in the White House angered some US intelligence officials. The intelligence official speaking to Hersh criticized President Biden’s two main foreign policy advisors, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“They have no experience, judgment, and moral integrity. They just tell lies, make up stories. Diplomatic deniability is something else,” the official said. The official said there was a “total breakdown between the White House leadership and the intelligence community.”
The report said the rift started in the fall when the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines were blown up. According to Hersh’s earlier reporting, President Biden ordered the operation that took out the pipelines. “Destroying the Nord Stream pipelines was never discussed, or even known in advance, by the community,” the official said.
The official said there is “no strategy for ending the war” within the Biden administration and offered more scathing criticism of Blinken and Sullivan.
“Burns is not the problem,” the official said. “The problem is Biden and his principal lieutenants—Blinken and Sullivan and their court of worshippers—who see those who criticize Zelensky as being pro-Putin. ‘We are against evil. Ukraine will fight ’til the last military shell is gone, and still fight.’ And here’s Biden who is telling America that we’re going to fight as long as it takes.”
Hersh’s story comes after a series of leaked top-secret documents from the Pentagon and other government agencies surfaced online. Some of the documents show US war planning for Ukraine and reveal the US doubts Kyiv’s ability to launch a successful counter-offensive, offering a starkly different view of Ukraine’s abilities than what Biden officials have been saying publicly.
You can bet that Zelensky and his pals Larry Fink, Sam Bankman-Fried, and George Soros are all siphoning some of that aid money into their accounts.
“Underreported bombshell” = claim made with zero evidence, lol
WUT? Butt, butt, butt..........trained seals clapping and stuff.
Bingo...
I think we always accepted the fact that Ukrainian officials were skimming a little off the top. Just for their retirement, doncha know.
I also think it is pretty well known the American officials are also getting their fair share.
That is simply how government to government business is carried out. Well, carried out by corrupt governments.
Now we know why the senate was so horrified by the proposal for an inspector general to be assigned over the pallets of cash.
If/When Putin takes over Ukraine, he will no doubt install loyal political cronies to run the place - but I doubt Russia will allow the level of “in your face” corruption that exists now — if for no other reason than they need to pacify the population and show “at least we are better than the last guys.”
Not a high bar, really.
It has always been thus............................
Yeah, that’s not good.
I don’t know. There are a lot of Russian “businessmen” with fancy large yachts.
What does it profit a man to gain .....
I don’t know. There are a lot of Russian “businessmen” with fancy large yachts.
What does it profit a man to gain .....
only news if you live under a rock
Ukrainian officials are also “competing” to set up front
companies for export contracts to private arms dealers around
the world.
SURE SOUNDS LIKE YOU KNOW WHO DEALINGS
We already KNEW Ukraine is a HUGE money laundering scheme, this is NOT NEWS to us!! When the head of the teachers union makes a trip to Ukraine THAT alone solidifies what we already knew!! Had to get this money into all of their off shore bank accounts with NO PAPER trail or correspondence only way to do that is IN PERSON!! ALL of the usual characters have made their trek over there STEALING our tax dollars AND devaluing our currency, they don’t give a shit about this nation they are ALL a bunch of oligarchs SCUM!!
I would bet that a huge portion of those ‘arms’ wind up in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and Syria.........................
Sadly, I think kick-backs are an integral part of our system now. We use more polite terms like PAC’s, campaign donations, or high paying jobs for relatives. There is also the promise of lucrative employment should you lose an election or decide to “retire”. Even the media/academia is in on the game now hiring those who wrongly persecuted a President. Crime pays.
Look at the revolving door at Treasury, within the Fed, or in other financial postings in the government. They often pick executives from the “too big to fail banks” who make 7 figure salaries with bonuses. These men/women leave their high paid positions to “serve the public” but then they return to the same companies they just “regulated” for even higher paid positions with larger stock options.
Many SES level government executives or military flag officers are able to line up cushy gigs or low-effort board positions that pay quite nicely when they “retire”. It’s guaranteed work and before they retire they can push contracts for think-tanks and consulting to their mentors companies with an unspoken promise that their protege’s will do the same for them.
The number of “contractor” and “consultant” positions and companies within the DC beltway has exploded in the past few decades turning Washington DC into a modern day Rome. We get a higher concentration of wealth in and around DC every single year.
If you really make the big-time hidden people will want you to ghost-write a book or produce media like the Obama’s are supposed to do for Netflix. Their benefits were worth 100 million allegedly and I doubt there is much effort on their part.
I don’t have to like Hersh, but what he is reporting is quite consistent with my understanding of the world in which we live.
Of course the CIA knows about it. They’re in on it. 🙄
The kickbacks ARE the system, and why the particular legislation or assistance is placed in play.
The actual aid received is a pittance, for show, a throw away.
If this reporter is right, and the guy has got good credibility, then the theft needs to be prosecuted. We knew there was a great deal of corruption, but that doesn’t mean that you let king rat win so that he can become an even bigger problem for the rest of us.
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