Intercepted F-Bomb Phone Call Shows U.S. Role in Ukraine

[Purveyor]

By Terry Atlas and Nicole Gaouette Feb 7, 2014 11:02 AM ET

Some undiplomatic language by the top U.S. diplomat for Europe has rattled relations with the European Union and added more tension to the East-West strains over Ukraine’s political crisis.

“F--k the EU,” Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in a private phone call, expressing frustration with European Union efforts to resolve Ukraine’s political turmoil.

On the eve of Russia’s showcase Olympics in Sochi, the U.S. suggested yesterday that Moscow’s intelligence apparatus was involved in some way with the leaked recording of the intercepted phone call between Nuland and U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. The call was made last month, based on references in the discussion.

Nuland today called the audio recording “impressive tradecraft” -- a word used to describe espionage activity. The clip, posted on Google Inc.’s (GOOG) YouTube by an unidentified individual, was subtitled in Russian rather than Ukrainian and accompanied by photographs and images of people mentioned in the call. Nuland spoke at a briefing in Kiev after arriving yesterday for talks in the Ukrainian capital. She declined to discuss the conversation further.

While saying the U.S. doesn’t know who recorded the call or posted it, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said an aide to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was the first to draw attention to it in a posting on Twitter Inc. (TWTR) The aide, Dmitry Loskutov, tweeted in English: “Sort of controversial judgment from Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking about the EU.”

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-06/intercepted-phone-call-shows-u-s-role-in-ukraine.html

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Busted, again.

[KoKo]

2. The Strange Appointment of Victoria Nuland........

Thursday, 19 May 2011
The strange appointment of Victoria Nuland as State Department Spokesperson
By Patricia H. Kushlis

Update: 7/12/2013 -[Vic] Toria grilled about Benghazi role at Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing today for her next high level position: Assistant Secretary of State for Europe
.
Is Hillary asleep at the switch? What is going on here?

Earlier this week, Josh Rogin at FP and Eric Martin at Progressive Realist both flagged the curious appointment of Victoria Nuland as the next State Department Spokesperson to fill P.J. Crowley’s shoes.
Martin questions whether this has foreign policy implications, in particular the replacement of an anti-torture appointee with someone who served as Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney.

Rogin doesn’t directly raise potential administration policy shifts but does point out that once upon a time Nuland was Strobe Talbott’s Chief of Staff when he was Deputy Secretary of State during the Clinton Administration and that Talbott had thought very highly of her at the time and still does. In fact, he, according to Rogin, praised her to the hilt in an interview about the pending appointment. So the seemingly amoral Nuland, we’re led to believe, can and will do anyone’s bidding and do it well – in short, a consummate career diplomat.

Why?

But why would Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration agree to appoint to this politically sensitive position someone who willingly served such a controversial figure in suppporting and implementing the “war on terror” and all the baggage that comes with it? Furthermore, how reliable is a Talbott reference anyway? After all, I understand that he just helped his friend Robert Kagan, Nuland’s neocon husband, get a job at Brookings and Talbott is also a friend of neocon writer Marc Gerecht, the husband of Diane Zeleny who also just latched onto a likely sweetheart deal sort of appointment as Head of External Relations and Congressional Affairs at the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). Whether Zeleny deserves or is qualified for the position or not.

From what I know about the Department, an FSO doesn’t just get detailed to the staff of a highly charged and ideological Vice President unless that detailee agrees to follow the boss’s dictates. Cheney’s were all too often forceful and odious. Furthermore, does anyone really think that Cheney –with his penchant for super loyalty and secrecy - would have ever accepted Nuland (or anyone else) for the position without some kind of loyalty test?
Surely the State Department under Hillary Clinton could have found equally (or likely even better) qualified career candidates who do not carry Nuland’s political baggage.

Behind the scenes trade off?
......Continued at the Link.....

http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2011/05/the-strange-appointment-of-victoria-nuland-as-states-spokesperson.html

[FarCenter]

3. US imperialism is a bipartisan foreign policy

[KoKo]

4. Surprised there's so little interest in this...but, it's around in International News Sites....

So...some folks elsewhere think she overstepped.

[Adrahil]

5. It was PRIVATE conversation....

... I don;t think she overstepped anything. She was just saying that the U.S. was going to try and broker a deal with the help of the U.N. and if the E.U. didn't want to help... fuck 'em.

In a private conversation, what's wrong with that?

[KoKo]

6. Obviously the International Community finds this an Incredible Revelation...

IF...you READ the FULL ARTICLE...

And my whole post from the Site I linked in reply.

[Adrahil]

7. I did read it. So?

You don't think allied diplomats use colorful language when they are frustrated with us? Of course they do.

[KoKo]

8. Given the revelations by Snowden...Why would she speak so freely on her

cell phone in this conversation so that it could be quoted by Bloomberg News and go out over the wires to all the international news?

Why did she feel so secure to say "Fuck You..EU!" ????

Did she know it would be revealed? Or was she really hacked?

[Adrahil]

20. I mean, who cares?

In context she was basically saying, "if they won't help, fine we'll do it without them."

The hand wringing here is epic. In a week, no one will care. I am MUCH more concerned about how the Russians got this, and the apparently sloppy security measures.

[MattSh]

10. Frustrated with us?

I thought politicians and diplomats were supposed to be serving the people, not the other way around.

[Adrahil]

21. I was talking about foreign diplomats being frustrated with our diplomats Nt

[BelgianMadCow]

9. Glad to give the 5th rec

a less screeching headline might do the trick

[Cha]

11. So? It was a private phone call that some asshole recorded and put up for public

display. Big fucking deal she used the Fucking F Bomb.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

12. would not surprise me if Snowden national security leaks enabled this breach of private comm.

We are only seeing the very tip of the iceberg as to the damage that little fucker has caused his own country. Rot in Russia, you mole.

[Cha]

13. Could be.. if so then no doubt he's

sitting back licking his chops.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

14. yep. Snowden was certainly fully debriefed over many days by FSB as a condition of asylum

and contrary to what others surmise...he's now discovered the TRUE meaning of having your every word, thought, and action recorded.

[davidn3600]

15. NSA has only themselves to blame

They shouldnt have been violating the constitution.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

16. judges have ruled it Constitutional

so what are you talking about?

[davidn3600]

17. So our founding fathers would have no problem with the government spying on its own citizens?

The NSA created Snowden. They created Drake, and Binney, and Wiebe, and and many other leakers. And they will create many, many more with this Orwellian bullshit.

I can't tell you how sick and tired I am of our politicians using "terrorism" as an excuse to invade foreign lands and trample our rights. I'm tired of that fucking crap. We put up with that under Bush and now now Obama supports the same shit.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

18. they enslaved their own citizens and sent the military to quell riots of their own citizens

there's a lot the founding fathers would have done in today's climate.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Maybe she said "Fuck Tha Police", instead

...N.W.A. fan?