Who Is Behind Adam Kokesh and Russia Today Television?

The relationship demonstrates that the liberal media have no real objection to government sponsorship or funding of media companies, even when the money comes from authoritarian regimes such as Vladimir Putin’s in Russia

A closer look at the Moscow-funded Russia Today television channel, whose host, American Adam Kokesh, was arrested after a disruption last Saturday at the Jefferson Memorial, reveals some interesting and disturbing corporate and foreign intelligence connections.

As AIM reported, Kokesh, who hosts the show, “Adam Vs. The Man,” joined with pro-Marxist agitator Medea Benjamin to disrupt Memorial Day weekend activities. “I had to spend 4 hours in jail,” whined Kokesh. Now he is threatening to do it again this coming Saturday.

Under pressure from false media reports that Kokesh was just “dancing” and had been unfairly roughed up by police, U.S. Park Police officials are now saying that they are investigating whether officers were “too aggressive” in handling Kokesh and other demonstrators.

As we explained in a column, what happened at the memorial was a deliberately designed provocation, planned in advance by Kokesh, Benjamin, and their comrades. The video shows officers warning them to stop and arresting them when they didn’t. They were arrested because the law prohibits activities that interfere with the solemn atmosphere at the memorials.

A sympathetic profile of Kokesh, a veteran who served in Iraq, gives some of the background necessary to understanding his motivation. It says:

“…in February 2006, two days before he was to be deployed on his second tour, he was told by his commanding officer that he was under investigation for bringing back a pistol he had purchased from an Iraqi policeman. His car had been broken into on campus and the pistol was missing. He was charged with three felonies, but accepted a plea bargain for disturbing the peace —a misdemeanor—and his case was passed along to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. After an eight-month investigation, he was demoted from sergeant to corporal and given an honorary discharge.”

This incident reportedly played a role in his decision to participate in protests as a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. His Facebook page when he ran for Congress as a Republican describes him as a Ron Paul supporter and “freedom fighter spreading the message of liberty.”

Subsequently, the article said, a Marine Corps three-person review board found “significant negative” conduct on the part of Kokesh and recommended a “general discharge under honorable conditions” for him.

A website for the group, American Patriots Against Kokesh, which opposed his run for office, accused him of working with several different Marxist groups.

This may be why Russia Today, which regularly features Marxist groups on the air, gave Kokesh a show on its English-language affiliate. RT treats fringe characters such as Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation as major political figures, even using her to defend Castro’s spies jailed in the U.S.

But Kokesh is just one part of this growing propaganda operation. Russia Today has various “partners” in the media business, including the Huffington Post, which is now part of AOL, and What REALLY Happened, a website that features such stories as “Israel’s Whores in Congress” and “Reflections of Comrade Fidel.” The website mostly features articles about a number of conspiracies, with a focus on the “inside job” theory that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were staged by the U.S. Government.

Other RT “partners” include Izvestia, which was the official publication of the old Soviet regime, and Trud, the mouthpiece for Soviet labor unions.

A partnership with RT means that the channel runs articles from those “news” organizations.

The acquisition of the Huffington Post by AOL produced a media group claiming to reach 117 million Americans and 270 million globally. For its part, Russia Today is one of the foreign networks, along with Al-Jazeera, carried by the American taxpayer-supported MHz Networks, into various U.S. media markets.

But the focus on Kokesh has missed the addition of another American to the line-up. Thom Hartmann, who describes himself as the leading “progressive” radio talk-show host in the U.S., is hosting a show called “The Big Picture” on the Russian channel.

In a defense of its programming, the channel has also pointed out, “Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks was coming on RT long before MSNBC snatched him up to fill a seat in their very own anchor chair.”

The embrace of the channel by the liberal-left, which regularly criticizes Fox News, a private media company in the U.S., is shocking. The relationship demonstrates that the liberal media have no real objection to government sponsorship or funding of media companies, even when the money comes from authoritarian regimes such as Vladimir Putin’s in Russia. But the controversy goes beyond the simple matter of progressives sharing a political ideology with those, including Putin, a former KGB intelligence officer, behind the Russian channel.

“America is enjoying euphoria of victory over Communism in the Cold War, but Russians say the war is still going on,” notes Konstantin Preobrazhensky, a former Soviet KGB officer. He says the channel is serving the interests of the Kremlin, especially its intelligence agencies, by spreading disinformation about Russian intentions in domestic and foreign affairs.

During the Cold War, it was customary for the Soviet intelligence services, led by the KGB, to use American and Western news outlets and personnel in operations against the United States. Preobrazhensky says nothing has really changed, except that Russia Today television is a more overt way of carrying out the aims of the Kremlin.

more [link to www.liveleak.com]