Letterbomb
Letterbomb
"Blame the unvaccinated", Russian collusion, Ukraine corruption, Spanish letter bombs, and questionable domestic terror narrative
Rounding the Earth
The following article serves as the show notes for the video presentation of the same name released through the Rounding the News series, presented by Rounding the Earth. It is provided to allow RTE listeners to verify my sources and conduct their own due diligence, and is intended as a supplement to the video. As such, I highly encourage readers of this Substack to watch the full episode and support Rounding the Earth, whose founder Mathew Crawford has provided me the platform and resources to conduct this important work. Thank you, Rounding the Earth!
My name is Liam Sturgess and I am your host for this weekly news roundup, presented by Rounding the Earth. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that you can support the show by sending us a Rumble Rant, a tip on Rokfin, or LBRY tokens on Odysee. Even more importantly, I invite you to join us over on our Locals community, where I have posted the show notes for today's episode along with the links to watch the show live on Rumble, Rokfin and Odysee, as well as directly through the StreamYard platform.
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Without further ado, let’s get started!
Real, parody, or something else?
Over the last few days, an article has been circulating with a rather alarming headline:1
Of course, the premise of the piece is absurd on its face, as many readers pointed out in the article’s comments section. Some reacted with frustration, others with disbelief, and even more with their own stories of trying to inform their friends and family of the risks of the novel COVID-19 gene therapies before being banished — or worse yet, losing a loved one regardless of their pleadings. It’s pretty heart-wrenching stuff, to be frank.
Given that the article’s author is not disclosed, it’s pretty reasonable to conclude that it is intended as a parody. On the other hand, it strikes just in the right place so as to cause outrage on both sides of this particular issue, leading one to suspect there may be more at play.
As you’ll see later on in today’s video, I chastise the New York Times for citing anonymous sources, but I’m going to do it in this case to illustrate an interesting perspective on the article and its host website, IQfy:2
On the other hand, I lean towards a second theory.
In any case, at this point, IQfy does not appear to be entirely earnest in the content it generates and shares.
“Russiagate”: FBI agent charged with Russia collusion
Remember back when a good chunk of the world was convinced that then-President Donald Trump was a Russian asset?
I was one of those people.
I’m still picking up the pieces in my own head.
As the public has come to learn over the last few years, the “scandal” known as RussiaGate was nearly entirely fabricated. Not that Donald Trump is by any means an man innocent of all crimes; my current understanding is that there are certainly some interesting financial connections to reckon with to organized crime in both New York and Russia relating to his real estate business, as briefly touched on by Whitney Webb in her two-volume book One Nation Under Blackmail.34
The long and the short of it is that Donald Trump was not found to have been colluding in any form with Russia. In a stunning and ironic turn of events, though, it would appear the colluders were under the FBI’s nose the whole time.
As reported in PBS NewsHour:5
Charles McGonigal, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018, is accused in an indictment unsealed Monday of working with a former Soviet diplomat-turned-Russian interpreter on behalf of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire they purportedly referred to in code as “the big guy” and “the client.”
McGonigal, who had supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska, worked to have Deripaska’s sanctions lifted in 2019 and took money from him in 2021 to investigate a rival oligarch, the Justice Department said.
The indictment is a black eye to the FBI at a time when the bureau has become entangled in separate politically charged investigations involving the handling of classified documents by both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, and as newly ascendant Republicans in Congress have pledged to investigate high-profile decisions by the bureau and Justice Department.
My brain hurts. Let’s do a couple of rapid-fire stories.
Ukraine corruption sees high-profile government dismissals
On January 24, a number of high-ranking officials in the Ukrainian government were fired as a result of a "ballooning corruption scandal."6 This included the country's Deputy Minister of Defense, Viacheslav Shapovalov, as well as a deputy infrastructure minister who had been detained days prior.
Expounding on the implications of the “government shakeup”, the article concludes:
…while support for Ukraine remains high in the United States and Europe, some U.S. officials have begun to express worries about the risk of corruption in postwar reconstruction efforts, while others have voiced concerns that American weapons could be diverted or stolen for resale, though there has been no evidence of this.
Unfortunately, the NYT seems to have a selective memory.7
Emerging Domestic Terrorism Narrative Picks up Speed
On Wednesday, January 25, Whitney Webb joined Ryan Cristián on The Last American Vagabond to discuss a recent incident in Spain involving supposed domestic terror operatives sending bombs through the mail.8
While this is obviously a frightening topic and not something to be taken lightly, Ryan and Whitney make very clear that the facts of the story are far different than how the story is being portrayed. So, what exactly is the story?
The story actually breaks down into a sequence of events beginning November 30, 2022, when an envelope delivered to the Ukrainian embassy in Spain “exploded.”9
The embassy’s manager was checking an envelope received in the mail when it exploded in his hands, Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, said in a statement on Telegram.
The Spanish National Police said they were investigating the episode and that no suspects had been identified. The employee, who sustained a minor injury to a finger on his right hand, was treated at a hospital and has been released.
The envelope, which arrived with the embassy’s regular mail delivery, was addressed to Serhii Pohoreltsev, Ukraine’s ambassador to Spain, a spokesman for Madrid’s government said in a statement.
Note that no suspects had been identified at the time of the publication of the New York Times article. Furthermore, the resulting damage seems to have been limited to “a minor injury to a finger,” which could quite literally be referring to a paper cut (based on the limited information available).
On December 1, 2022, the New York Times ran a follow-up story that revealed a further five packages described as “letter bombs” were in play in Spain.10 In addition to the Ukrainian embassy, the recipients are listed as including:
the home/office of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez;
the American embassy;
the headquarters of Instalaza, "a Spanish firm that manufactures weapons and military equipment, including some used to help Ukrainian forces";
Sorin Ducaru, Director of the European Union Satellite Center (SatCen);
Margarita Robles, the Spanish Minister of Defence.
This is where things start to get interesting. We get a better description of the parcels themselves, which allows us to start painting a more concrete picture in our minds. For example, the Spanish Interior Ministry is cited stating that the object intercepted en route to the Prime Minister was “an envelope sent by regular mail” which “appeared to contain ‘pyrotechnic material’”. A few paragraphs later, however, it is then referred to as a “package,” before broadly describing all of them as “envelopes.”
The other parcels also reportedly contained “similar material” as that which caused the aforementioned finger injury at the Ukrainian embassy. Three of the six parcels were detonated (two of them by authorities), and the remaining three were ostensibly put through testing to determine their origin.
Initial indications suggested that the envelopes were sent from within Spanish territory, Mr. Pérez said, and the Spanish police were analyzing the packages for fingerprints and DNA, and carrying out handwriting tests.
So, what of the motivations behind the attempted attacks from within Spain? The New York Times article offers the beginnings of a theory:
The targets in the Spain attacks are either connected to Ukraine or have expressed support for the country in its war effort against Russia…
To be fair, that’s not saying much in a world where anybody even minutely critical of Ukraine, or the West’s support of the enigmatic nation, is deplatformed, censured, tarred and feathered.
…but Ignacio Torreblanca, director of the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, cast doubt on the idea that Moscow was behind the attacks.
If Russia, were involved, he said, he would have expected the country not to hide its role, although he acknowledged, “of course, we cannot know what is going on.”
Again, speculation. But the European Council on Foreign Relations is a significant and highly biased player in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with funding from the Aspen Institute Italia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Investment Bank (who is a stakeholder in BioNTech, by the way),11 European Parliament, Google, Open Society Foundations, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, among others.12
The Russian Embassy in Spain issued a statement condemning the attacks. Translated to English, it reads in part, "Any threat of terrorist act, even more directed against a diplomatic mission, is totally condemnable."13
This was roundly rejected by a mob of Twitter users who equated the letter bombs to Russia's "bombing of Ukraine", even going so far as to accuse Russia of being a “terrorist state.”14
Thus, the conflations have begun. Russia’s military action/war in Ukraine is now becoming linked in with Spain’s series of letter bombs, at least part of the public consciousness. The logic here is equivalent to simply, “Russia bad, therefore…”
How dare employees at the Russian embassy express solidarity with their Spanish diplomatic colleagues!
Reminding readers of yesteryear’s terror
The remainder of the second NYT article focuses on reminding readers of terror of days’ gone by, including a quick summary of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, 9/11, and the U.S.-led wars of terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Funnily enough, all of these stories have their own narrative ties to Russia. In a 2017 letter, Kaczynski wrote:15
I suggest that the movement that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Bolsheviks in particular, could provide a model for action today. I don’t mean that anyone should look at the Bolsheviks and say, “The Bolsheviks did such-and-such and so-and-so, therefore we should do the same.” What I do mean is that the Russian example shows what a revolutionary movement might be able to accomplish today.
And, of course, the extremist groups blamed for 9/11 and the subsequent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were at one point allied with the United States government against Russia.16 For a much deeper exploration of this topic, I highly recommend watching James Corbett’s excellent documentary titled False Flags: The Secret History of Al Qaeda.
Finally, the article notes that because of the United States military apparatus’ experience with the wars in the era of terror, “Federal law enforcement and the Defense Department maintain mobile laboratories that can be flown to analyze the remains of such weapons and look for clues that can be used to identify their makers.” My question is: why is the United States getting involved in this so quickly and authoritatively? Is this not an issue between Spain, Ukraine, and possibly Russia?
From innuendo to accusation
Two months later, the New York Times returned with an update on the letter bomb saga — this time, squarely directing the blame in Russia’s direction. The January 22, 2023 headline reads:17
As Whitney and Ryan repeatedly point out in their analysis, the headline and article itself rely heavily on conditional terms such as “suspected of”, “may be”, “could,” “if”, “believe that”… in other words, speculation or possibly even intentional misdirection.
Russian Imperial Movement
The prime suspect described in the article is a group called the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM).
RIM was founded in 2002 by a guy named Stanislav Vorobyev, who is described by the U.S. Department of State as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).”18 He was designated as such in April 2020, when the Trump administration officially added RIM to its list of global terrorist organizations.19
Two weeks later, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty uploaded a video to YouTube highlighting the group’s paramilitary activities:20
As explained by the narrator, the video is actually part of a promo campaign for RIM’s survival/combat training courses offered through a section of the group called the Imperial Legion.
RIM is accused of being “linked to:
Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine;
bomb attacks in Sweden; and
far-right groups across Europe and the United States.”
A man named Vyacheslow Likhachev is introduced to elaborate on these points. Likahachev works with a number of groups centred around combating antisemitism and far-right groups, including the National Minorities Monitoring Group of Networks Overcoming Antisemitism (NOA), the Center for Civil Liberties in Kiev, and the ZMINA Human Rights Center.2122
It's important to note that these organizations are funded by and partnered with some of the world’s most notable political and governmental interests, including:23242526
European Commission
George Soros (through the International Renaissance Foundation and Open Society Foundations)
National Endowment for Democracy
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
USAID
U.S. Department of State
Furthermore, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is itself an enterprise funded by the United States government through the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).27 In other words, the bias here is tangible and highly relevant.
Whitney and Ryan dive deep into each of the three items RIM is accused of engaging with, and I will direct viewers to watch their video for the full discussion. But RIM is one thing — the Russian state is another entirely. Later in the RFL/RL video, a U.S. State Department official named Jason Blazakis asserts that while the Russian government is not actually affiliated with the group (often on the receiving end of pointed criticisms from RIM) the fact that RIM operates on Russian soil implicates the Russian government by its lack of action to shut the group down. Of course, that only makes sense if RIM is, indeed, likely to have committed the acts of “terrorism” of which they are accused.
So, why does the New York Times assert that RIM is to blame for the Spanish letter bomb incidents?
…the group, which has been designated a global terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, is believed to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies. Important members of the group have been in Spain, and the police there have tracked its ties with far-right Spanish organizations.
U.S. officials say that the Russian officers who directed the campaign appeared intent on keeping European governments off guard and may be testing out proxy groups in the event Moscow decides to escalate a conflict.
The apparent aim of the action was to signal that Russia and its proxies could carry out terrorist strikes across Europe, including in the capitals of member states of NATO, which is helping defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, said the U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities around the investigation. Spain is a member of the alliance and has given military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as well as diplomatic support.
Here’s the big problem with this: none of this is rooted in fact. The sole source cited is a group of anonymous U.S. officials, which requires the reader to believe that the New York Times is trustworthy enough to stake their reputation on the veracity of the claims being made, without any possible way to verify them. Trust in legacy media organization is near its lowest, rendering this “pinky-promise” style reporting virtually useless as anything other than propaganda.2829
Stepping aside from further elaborations from various authoritative-seeming sources that don’t actually provide meaningful information, there are two questions that need to be answered in order to actually process this story:
What is the evidence that RIM had anything to do with the letter bombs?
What is the evidence that RIM has anything to do with the Russian government and/or intelligence community?
As far as I can tell, the New York Times provides no such supporting evidence for the remainder of the article. They do, however, hit home the following message: “American and European security officials have had growing concerns about white supremacist groups with transnational links for most of the last decade.”
I wish to reiterate this point: does anybody reasonably believe the New York Times — or anyone else, for that matter — is doing anything more than picking an easy target on which to blame this detestable and concerning act of violence, without making any effort to show their work or hold themselves, or their “informants”, accountable?
An arrest is made
The same day that Whitney and Ryan published their discussion on this letter bomb saga, the New York Times returned with another update.30
Despite the prior article’s ramblings on the many reasons the Russian government was “likely” to be responsible, the person arrested was a 74-year-old Spanish man who reportedly “made and sent all of the six letter bombs himself.”
Not to let you think they were wrong, the NYT fills out the article with snippets of the prior one, making it seem as though their assertions about the “apparent intention” of the attack (as far as the Russian government’s motivations go) applied to this new man. This is despite the fact that the statement released by Spanish police “made no mention of any link between the man, who police investigators said had ‘technical and computer knowledge,’ and either far-right groups or the Russian government.”
Final thoughts
The reason I’m focusing on this story is this: the New York Times is not being forthright in their reporting. As far as I can tell, a tragic event occurred which thankfully resulted in essentially no damage or harm at all. Because of the simple fact that the entire Western world is presently engaged in a war on multiple fronts (including a self-described “info war”), U.S. government assets were mobilized to direct the narrative immediately towards blaming Russia. This occurred even before the New York Times rolled out its anonymous, unaccountable sources, starting with innuendo and escalating to full-blown accusations.
And how did they do it? It seems they selected a group that fit a certain narrative profile which they could focus people’s attention on, embedding the notion that “pro-Russian white nationalists” were surely the perpetrators. The Russian Imperial Movement certainly looks like a plausible perpetrator, but that’s not how justice works. You can’t just wave your hand towards someone who you don’t like, and settle on the logic of “militant nationalists, possibly even with racists views” are the most likely culprit, so have at ‘em!
Because if this is the standard by which we conduct ourselves in the court of law and public opinion, it will reinforce a system that allows this to be turned on anybody not aligned with the powers that be. Russia and white supremacists are easy boogeymen, but remember that the Freedom Convoy was also described as racist white supremacists with “unacceptable views”, possibly even funded by Russia. How did that pan out?
If RIM is to blame, or Russia, then the New York Times and their government handlers need to present some evidence. Really - any would do. Until then, I caution readers to ask themselves whether or not what they’re seeing is rooted more in speculation than real reporting.
If you’ve enjoyed the show, please drop us a Rumble Rant or a tip on Rokfin, and before you leave, go sign up as a member of our Locals community at www.RoundingtheEarth.locals.com. You can even snag yourself a free month of premium support using the promo code included on the pinned comment, after which you can keep us going and gain access to behind-the-main-scenes discussions that we’re keeping within our more intimate community.
I have been Liam Sturgess, and you can find me at www.LiamSturgess.com, or on Twitter @TheLiamSturgess!
They knew: why didn’t the unvaccinated do more to warn us? IQfy. Retrieved January 24, 2023, from http://archive.today/2023.01.24-121628/https://iqfy.com/unvaccinated-silence/
Maxmars. (2023, January 25). They Knew: Why Didn’t The Unvaccinated Do More To Warn Us? p. 2. Above Top Secret. https://web.archive.org/web/20230129020205/https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1325265/pg2
Webb, W. A. (2022). One Nation Under Blackmail - Vol. 1 (pp. 505–530). TrineDay. https://amzn.to/3GWn0KL
Webb, W. A. (2022). One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime That Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein - Vol. 2 (pp. 401–418). TrineDay. https://amzn.to/3kqhmJb
Sisak, M. R., & Tucker, E. (2023, January 23). Former FBI agent charged with aiding Russian oligarch. PBS NewsHour. http://archive.today/2023.01.24-064856/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/former-fbi-agent-charged-with-aiding-russian-oligarch
Schwirtz, M., & Varenikova, M. (2023, January 25). Ukraine Fires Officials Amid Corruption Scandal, as Allies Watch Closely. The New York Times. http://archive.today/2023.01.25-050117/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/world/europe/ukraine-corruption-firing-western-aid.html
Chaudhury, D. R. (2022, August 8). Only 30 per cent Western weapons making it to Ukraine frontlines: CBS. The Economic Times. https://archive.ph/j1HO2
Cristián, R. (2023, January 26). Russia Blamed (As Whitney Predicted) For Spain “White Supremacy Attack” - Vanilla ISIS Psyop Begins. The Last American Vagabond. https://web.archive.org/web/20230126203222/https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/russia-blamed-as-whitney-predicted-for-spain-white-supremacy-attack-vanilla-isis-psyop-begins/
Bautista, J., & Olson, C. (2022, November 30). A letter bomb delivered to the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid explodes. The New York Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20221217005755/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/30/world/europe/madrid-ukraine-embassy-explosion.html
Bautista, J., Kwai, I., & Ismay, J. (2022, December 1). U.S. and Ukrainian Embassies Targeted by Letter Bombs in Spain. The New York Times. http://archive.today/2023.01.23-061541/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/world/europe/spain-letter-bombs.html
BioNTech - Funding, Financials, Valuation & Investors. Crunchbase. Retrieved December 28, 2022, from https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/biontech-ag/company_financials/investors
Our funding. European Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved December 21, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.12.21-133916/https://ecfr.eu/donors/funding/
Puta vida [@macia260775]. (2022, December 1). “Tirais la piedra y escondeis la mano. Cierre de la embajada de Rusia en España y todas sus oficinas consulares y comerciales.” [Tweet]. Twitter. http://archive.today/2023.01.27-200333/
Kaczynski, T. (2017). Ted Kaczynski Letter to A.O. The Anarchist Library. https://web.archive.org/web/20230127201457/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-ted-kaczynski-letter-to-a-o
Corbett, J. (2022, December 27). False Flags: The Secret History of Al Qaeda. The Corbett Report. https://web.archive.org/web/20230127201827/https://www.corbettreport.com/alqaeda/
Wong, E., Barnes, J. E., & Schmitt, E. (2023, January 22). Russian Agents Suspected of Directing Far-Right Group to Mail Bombs in Spain. The New York Times. http://archive.today/2023.01.24-011242/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/us/politics/russia-spain-letter-bombs.html
Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev. Counter Extremism Project. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://web.archive.org/web/20200810161447/https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/stanislav-anatolyevich-vorobyev
Gertz, B. (2020, April 6). State Department targets Russian group for links to U.S. white nationalists. The Washington Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20230127232920/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/6/state-department-targets-russian-group-links-us-wh/
Furlong, R. (2020, April 26). The Gun-Toting Tsarists Washington Calls Terrorists. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. https://www.rferl.org/a/the-gun-toting-tsarists-washington-calls-terrorists/30574960.html
Vyacheslav Likhachev. LinkedIn. Retrieved January 27, 2023, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/vyacheslav-likhachev-64610b19a/
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Matviichuk, O. (2022). Annual Report 2021. Center for Civil Liberties. https://web.archive.org/web/20230116164329/https://ccl.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/zvit-czgs-anglijska-2021-2.pdf
Matviychuk, O. Annual Report 2020. Center for Civil Liberties. Retrieved January 28, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230128065454/https://ccl.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2020_ann_report_ccl_eng-3.pdf
Annual Report 2019. (2020). Center for Civil Liberties. https://web.archive.org/web/20230128070428/https://ccl.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2019_ann_report_ccl_eng.pdf
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About Us. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved February 14, 2021, from http://archive.today/2021.02.14-035109/https://pressroom.rferl.org/about-us
Brenan, M. (2022, October 18). Americans’ Trust In Media Remains Near Record Low. Gallup. http://archive.today/2022.10.18-202045/https://news.gallup.com/poll/403166/americans-trust-media-remains-near-record-low.aspx
Do Americans trust the news media? (2022, January 5). Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/2022/01/05/trust-in-america-do-americans-trust-the-news-media/
Ward, E., & Bautista, J. (2023, January 25). The Spanish police make an arrest in the letter bomb case. The New York Times. http://archive.today/2023.01.26-091718/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/world/europe/letter-bombs-spain-arrest.html
Good post. Priceless article on "Why didn't the unvaccinated warn us?" Wow - not why didn't our governments, corporations, institutions, warn us? Not why didn't out doctors warn us? Not why didn't the mass media warn us? We, the much maligned great unwashed unvaccinated, shouted from the rooftops - for three years on social media and where ever we could gain purchase. Suffered nothing but abuse for our efforts. Rich.
You're an incredible newshound w fab instincts & research hat tip and thanks for that! I'm only part way but have to note this or it will be long forgotten and made me laugh big time...
"The remainder of the second NYT article focuses on reminding readers of terror of days’ gone by, including a quick summary of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, 9/11, and the U.S.-led wars of terror in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Everything but the Unabomber feels pretty recent & enduring like regular announcements in NYC subway & emergency suspension of our Constitutional rights.. gives me a cramp every time it plays "backpacks & other large containers are subject to random search by the police"...