Gold, DSK and a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream


By way of an introduction, I’ve been kindly asked by the guys at the Screwtape Files to post a few articles on some of the information and disinformation that, in my view, pervades every precious metals website. Whilst chewing my pen and wondering where to start, along came this glorious article in the EU Times. Dear reader, how could I resist such provocation?

Louis wasn’t wrong when he said we’d need to 'adjust our antennae to way out there'.

The CIA! The Russian Prime Minister! The IMF! The Chinese! Fort Knox! Wealth, power and sex! Influential men, secret plots, and a smear campaign so vivid in its concoction that no-one who knows the truth would ever again dare challenge the powers that be. Even the X-files never had so many clichéd elements in one story - all we’re missing is the obligatory car chase at the end.

Thusly, the latest buzz in Goldsilverland has started doing the rounds of all the blogs and chatrooms and I think it needs a decent de-bunking before the story gets legs. So get a coffee, print yourself off a copy of the article, and let’s go through it step by step:

- First, the EU Times itself. This is not a European site – its focus is largely on either North American issues or European issues that affect North America. Look at today’s headlines and compare them with those in le Monde, the Guardian or El Pais. The five leading stories in the EU Times(Aspartame, Canada free speech, CIA officer, Irish tap water, and moon water) do not, in fact, appear in any major European newspaper today. This lack of correlation is striking for what purports to be a purveyor of European news, even if it likes to revel in being outside of the MSM. This need not surprise us too much, however: The ‘EU Times’ is registered in Toronto, Canada.

- It is not a genuine news site, either. Major events are ignored at the expense of a few themes which are repeated over and over again: Jews in high places, gold vs the US dollar, CIA conspiracies, food scares, survivalism, etc. How many news sites do you know which have an ‘interracial’ section under ‘Crime’? Or a ‘Zionism’ section under politics, for that matter? The EU Times is, by any objective measure, a far-right propaganda site dressed up as news.

- Those who registered it seem rather coy about their origins, it seems. No address, email, phone number or any other way of writing to the editor if one wishes to address points raised in the articles. That’s pretty unique for a ‘news’ site. Further, it is an anonymously registered site. Compare this to any genuine news site, where registration information is given freely, as are contact details.

- OK, the story itself. The EU Times’ source is the UK ‘Daily Mail’ (although the story actually appeared in the New York Post a few days earlier). British Screwtape fans will know all about this erstwhile publication but, for the benefit of others, it is a right-wing tabloid daily newspaper with a strong anti-immigration, anti ‘nanny state’ and anti-welfare agenda. Much of its output is rather thinly disguised homophobia, racism and scare-mongering, and it is the butt of many a joke in the UK. It is, however, a real newspaper, started in 1896. Back in the 1930s it was a strong supporter of the British fascists, and ran the memorable headline, “hurrah for the Blackshirts”. But I digress.

- Regardless of the wisdom of using the Daily Mail as a source for anything, let us compare the two claims about what Putin said. The DM says simply (and probably correctly) that Putin said, “it’s hard for me to evaluate the hidden political motives but I cannot believe that it looks the way it was initially introduced. It doesn’t sit right in my head.” That's it. No mention of the FSB or secret reports. A search of the Kremlin’s website in English reveals no hits at all for ‘Dominique Strauss-Kahn’, and nothing relevant for ‘IMF’. I don’t read Cyrillic, so can’t check the Russian version, but it seems strange that comments meant to be seen internationally would appear on the Russian language site only.

- This should not surprise us. The FSB does not post its reports on websites any more than the CIA posts on the White House website or MI6 on the British Prime Minister’s. If Putin posted anything at all to the Kremlin website before suddenly thinking better of it and removing it, then it was clearly just the quote that appeared in the Daily Mail. The EU Times has apparently fabricated the story of an FSB report.

- Let us assume for a foolish second that this conspiracy was real. Then, the last people on earth that would know about US ‘plans’ to capture DSK would be the French DGSE. The US cannot afford to have bad relations with a strategic ally as important as France, and the DGSE would necessarily have to be totally out of the loop. Likewise, the 'rogue' elements of the CIA is a simply laughable concept, and the product of a mind that has seen too many fifth-rate spy series.

- DSK left behind one of his cell phones. He had others which he did not forget, although this is not noted in the EU Times article. So he could have been ‘tracked’ in any case. The mundane reality is that, outside of movies, it takes time, court orders, and senior sign-off to track a cell phone, and this would never have been a viable option for New York police seeking someone that aimed to leave the country a matter of hours after the alleged crime. DSK’s phone was not tracked – he told the hotel staff that he was at the airport, and this has been widely reported in the international press and by DSK's own defence team.

- The article then merges other, actually irrelevant stories into its fabric. So we have Ron Paul giving an unsubstantiated comment about the existence or otherwise of gold in Fort Knox. This is apparently backed up by a link to a Viewzone2.com report, which is itself striking for its complete lack of sources to back up its allegations. Save for a few references to a ‘Chinese investigation’, there is absolutely nothing on which anyone could make an independent attempt to verify or refute the claims. One must always regard wholly unsourced claims with a cynical eye.

To sum up, what we have is an article constructed around a single, vague quote from Putin mentioned in a story in a British right-wing tabloid. Added to this (probably real) quote is the pure fabrication of a mythical FSB report, and the invention of a collusion between rogue elements of the CIA and the DGSE. Then the favoured ‘gold’ theme gets stitched in, à propos of nothing, which is itself backed by an unsourced story elsewhere on the web. Chuck in a few quotes from a Congressman who has high standing in parts of the precious metals community, and bingo! – you have a wonderful article guaranteed to get linked to and posted all around the PM blogs.

Easy when you know how.

JdA

15 comments:

Bron Suchecki said...

The sad thing is this stuff is only going to increase as precious metals move into the mainstream.

Warren James said...

Game set and match! Nice deconstruction Jeanne (p.s. the antennae quote belongs to Louis).

So the story is a plant, designed to 'go viral'. Any thoughts regarding motive? i.e. is this just part of business-as-usual giving the banks a small windfall in today's trading or is it part of a larger agenda? We were recently speculating whether a silver bubble was trying to be blown deliberately - GM noted that the rise from $40-$49 appeared 'unhindered' and in my opinion a bull-trap formation has been painted. Perhaps the news is placed to boost things along in the right direction? Just guessing..

You're absolutely right about the registration information of website addresses - it can typically yield a lot of useful information which can aid guesses.

Warren James said...

[[ For anyone new to the internet, you can use http://whois.net/ to get basic information about who registered a domain. However the info is not always conclusive. For example a recent site we tracked had 'Domains by Proxy, Inc.' as the registrant, and in that particular instance that's where the trail ends. It's impossible to conclude whether it was done that way because the owner had something to hide, or whether it was an outsourced activity. ]]

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the Warren/Louis mix-up: this has now been changed!

Not sure if the article is a plant as such. It strikes me as typical fodder for the EU Times, i.e. a non-too-subtle blend of pro-gold rhetoric, conspiracy, and fabrication.

However, the EU Times itself - and its strategy - certainly feels like a cover (or a plant) for something/someone else. That someone is pro-PM, anti-government and very, very far to the right. That probably doesn't narrow down the field too much, though!

Yukon Cornelius said...

This post is a breath of fresh air. I was reading Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Daily this morning and even he mentioned it and now I see The Fundamental View is talking about it. Sigh...

Don't even get me started on Toronto...

Louis Cypher said...

Nicely done Jeanne. I'll delete mine as it's unnecessary.

Yukon Cornelius said...

Don't expect many people to comment about this. Most of them are busy hanging their heads in shame for believing it. Even Zero Hedge came out with a post calling it an internet hoax:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/quick-note-internet-hoax-stories

So all the other websites that reported it should be embarrassed for themselves. I'm sure they'd say, "No. No. See I said it was just a rumor. A rumor. I knew it was a fake all along." To which I say bullshit. There's so many completely rabid sites and blogs that were all about getting this story out there as quickly as they could to sow some more fear, uncertainty, and doubt. This is no different than all the dumb asses who believe that the colored dots on their mailboxes are from TPTB and denote what will be done with them when they take over North America.

To think I should be so lucky. Someone to come in and save me and the few rest of us who actually are sane from the rest of the deluded fear mongers and bullshit con artists out there? Sign me up. What color dot do I put on my mailbox to save me from the dipshits who believed this? Someone let me know.

By the way, anyone who believed that story or posted it on their blog should just get off the internet for at least a month to try and find themselves again. I mean, you got told by Zero Hedge that it was a fake. Zero Hedge. The irony. The irony.

Louis Cypher said...

YK,
Colored dots on mailboxes? I'm intrigued tell me more :)

Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory especially guys. It's the male version of soap opera viewing.

Anonymous said...

Yukon,

"I mean, you got told by Zero Hedge that it was a fake. Zero Hedge. The irony. The irony."

Lol! You're not wrong about the irony...

I hadn't seen the ZH note before I published (actually, I'm unsure of which time zone is used for ZH time stamps, so I may have posted before they did - which raises another interesting question...)

The Sorcha Faal link seems to be correct. He loves rabid, fake news sites like the EU Times, which greedly lap up his outpourings. The relationship between them seems to be rather chicken and egg, and might merit further investigation.

I'm a fan of your blog, btw. It's good to know that there are PM sites out there that are prepared to scrutinise, criticise and question.

JdA

GM Jenkins said...

Nice job debunking this, JdA.

But, in defense of conspiracy theorists, while I only had time to read the headline of the "EU Times" article yesterday, I do remember thinking "this could be true." And as far as the main subject is concerned --no gold at Fort Knox-- my opinion hasn't changed. It could be true. Out of principle, I'll stop my skepticism when they stop refusing an audit.

I was born into a 100% fiat global monetary system, so, the way a fish doesn't realize he's wet, I need to remind myself sometimes that dishonesty pertains to a fiat money system. To the very ridges on a dime or quarter... those have been put on coins throughout history so people wouldn't file off metal off it. Who the hell would do that with a modern quarter? But in 1964 (or whenever) the fuckers in power tried to trick us by keeping the coins' appearance the same.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Louis:

The colored dots nonsense is so asinine that I've invested no time even for entertainment value, so anyone feel free to correct me, but I believe it's essentially:

Rural newspaper delivery people affix small colored stick-on circles of different colors onto the newspaper delivery tubes to assist them in identifying whether a particular household gets the daily paper, the daily and Sunday paper, or just the Sunday paper.

This has been spun into some tale that these are placed by FEMA in order to indicate who is to be killed outright, or just put on a train to a concentration camp, or ???.

Yukon Cornelius said...

Louis,
Yeah, colored dots on mailboxes. Google it. It's just a way for the newspaper guys or mailman to know who gets the newspaper and who opted out of junk mail, stuff like that. The whacko fringe came up with some really crazy meanings for the dots though. I love a good conspiracy as much as the next person. I just wish people would put some more thought and time into their conspiracies so they'd stand up to more than just a light breeze.

JDA,
Yeah, I thought that Zero Hedge coming out and debunking it was as ironic as it gets. I'm glad you enjoy the blog. :)

Jenkins,
There might not be any gold at Ft Knox and if I were to bet on it I'd say it's 66% sure that we shipped that stuff all off to London a long time ago. Just like in any game though, it's not what you have it's what folks think you have. The U.S. is never going to let folks in Ft Knox because they have nothing at all to gain and possibly a lot to lose out of doing so. In the end, I'm not even sure it really matters. The big players in the precious metals (and soon to be the base metals) are the banks.

Now if someone wants to come up with a conspiracy there's some really good ones you could come up with showing precious metal holdings say from 1940 to now with a specific focus on the ETF's. You could then look at all the money that these ETF's have taken away from the miners and mining interests which would have been there's before the ETF's were formed. You can start then making some pretty good guesses about who is on what side and why.

I love conspiracy theories. I just want more work put into them. :)

Louis Cypher said...

Damn that was good one with the dots. No dots on my mailbox and I live in the sticks and the mailman hates me. Maybe he doesn't know about the concentration camps :)
As for Fort Knox they probably leased it a long time ago but who the hell knows and we will probably never know in our lifetimes.
One more debunking article (at least) this week to go. Keep those antennae in a fixed position on the North Star.

Robert LeRoy Parker said...

So where's the heartfelt apology? Good timing on my part, eh?