March 3 Update: German Intelligence Catastrophe; 3rd Adams Aide Raided by FBI; NYT Goes Full Nixon on Internal Criticism; Israel, the Holocaust & Gaza

Rest in Peace, Aaron Bushnell

A profoundly sad week that began with echoes of the Vietnam War era: Aaron Bushnell, an American Airman, immolated himself while screaming "Free Palestine" in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. last Sunday. Bushnell livestreamed the whole episode. Bushnell, an intelligence analyst who claimed to have seen evidence of American special forces operating inside Gaza, died of his injuries on Monday. He is the second American to engage in the most radical act of civil disobedience: a young woman lit herself on fire in front of the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta last December, and is still in critical condition. May Aaron find peace in the next life.

There's also been a notable crackdown by law enforcement this week on pro-Palestine demonstrations in the United States, with cops in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco involved in several violent clashes over the past week. There are reports of progress in talks over a potential ceasefire, undoubtedly sped up as a result of Thursday's hideous 'Flour Massacre' when more than a hundred Palestinians were killed as Israeli troops opened fire on desperate civilians swarming a relief convoy in devastated North Gaza, where famine is rife.

For my part, deep in the trenches on a long story that will see daylight in a week and a half. The Guardian was kind enough to let me write up the twists and turns in Robert Rundo's legal saga that Bleeding Edge readers will recall from last week. Tl;dr - he's back in custody at the federal jail in Los Angeles until the Ninth Circuit concludes his appeal. No hat-trick of extradition warrants.

There's also been some developments in another trial I'm following: jury selection was delayed last week in the murder trial of Atomwaffen Division member Sam Woodward after an outburst by the young man accused of murdering Blaze Bernstein in a Southern California park six years ago. More on that case from me later this month - I was on the team that broke news of Woodward's Neo-Nazi affiliation for ProPublica way back when.

Let's get to it.

BLEEDING EDGE JOURNALISM

-German society is quite thoroughly penetrated by Russian intelligence: the fugitive head of Wirecard, Germany's one-time FinTech unicorn, worked for the GRU as an agent for a decade. In recent years, Russian spies also infiltrated Germany's federal legislature, and dissidents have been assassinated on Berlin's streets at Moscow's direction.

With this backdrop, the eye-popping news that Germany's Luftwaffe chief revealed classified information about British troop presence in Ukraine and French weapons deliveries in the trunks of private cars driven across mainland Europe is a little less surprising. Per reporting by The Times of London The Luftwaffe chief's loose-lipped conversation took place on an unsecured WebEx voice call, which Russian intelligence intercepted.

-The New York Times keeps digging a deeper hole for itself over the debunked "Screams Without Words" article from last December allegedly documenting systematic sexual assault by Hamas during the October 7th attacks (also, that title is shit - a "scream without words" is a scream). The Intercept published a deep exploration of the internal criticism of the article, citing several Times insiders to document how the standards editor was pushed aside for reigning in some of the worst impulses of the early coverage, how accuracy concerns about the sexual assault piece were dismissed, and the masthead's attempts to quash internal criticism.

Late this week, Vanity Fair reported that Editor-in-Chief Joe Kahn has opened a leak investigation to ferret out The Intercept's sources, an ignominious move for the newsroom that published the Pentagon Papers and relies on leakers to do actual accountability journalism. Adding insult to injury, on Friday the NYT's own newsroom union released a letter to Kahn and Publisher A.G. Sulzberger lambasting the leak investigations focus on the NYT's own Middle Eastern and North African Employee Resource Group. Aside from the naked racism involved in such a decision, it is an insult to think only Middle Eastern employees would take issue with the coverage of Gaza.

The NYT's masthead has not only torched its credibility within the profession over the war on Gaza, it is alienating readers. Even the crosswords are erasing Palestine. Last week, I wrote about the shameful decision by the Polk Awards to honor the paper's checkered reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict, while deigning to pay respect to the hundred-plus journalists who have been killed so far while covering this story. This week, the Polk Awards announced it stands by that honor. Let's see how far Joe Kahn descends into Haldemann territory before that stance is reversed.

-A third aide to Eric Adams had their home raided by the FBI in one of the two apparent corruption probes targeting the former NYPD captain who now occupies Gracie Mansion. Winnie Greco is a key liaison between the current administration and the Chinese community. The current probe appears distinct from a separate case tied to Adams' fundraising amongst businessmen from New York City's Turkish diaspora and potential illegal support for his 2021 campaign from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government, but who knows? The feds are being tight-lipped, but Eric is definitely in the hot seat.

-Pankaj Mishra authored a devastating look at Israeli society in the context of the current siege of Gaza, specifically examining the legacy of the Holocaust and decades of Israeli war crimes during the occupation of Palestine. It makes for sobering reading, particularly Mishra's takeaway that the Israeli state's raison d'etre as a safehaven for Jews from persecution following the Holocaust is replaced wholesale with a doctrine of ethnic supremacy and anti-Democratic religious zealotry.

BOOK OF THE WEEK - Catherine Belton's 2020 masterpiece Putin's People is a devastating look at the Russian autocrat's rise from a despondent KGB agent running Red Army Fraktione cells out of East Germany to a ruthless leader hell-bent on restoring Russia to the peak of its former Soviet glory, aided by a coterie of his former intelligence colleagues who seized control of the country's resources and security apparatus following the breakup of the Soviet Union three decades ago.

It's also the sort of title where the first edition unexpectedly becomes a collector's item. Belton's book uncovered Putin's role in directing oligarch Roman Abramovich to purchase Chelsea Football Club in the early 2000s, leading to a period of unparalleled success for the West London club and greatly enhancing Russian soft power in the United Kingdom. Abramovich predictably sued for libel, and that particular section was excised from future printings and the paperback.

FILM

Olivier Assayas and Edgar Ramirez masterminded one of the best limited series ever crafted back in 2010 with a gripping five-and-a-half hour biopic of international terrorist Illich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal. With extremely high production values, surprisingly hilarious writing and a career performance from Ramirez as the foppish Left-wing gun for hire, the film/miniseries (it was broken up into episodes for the initial streaming release) does not let up, or disappoint.

MUSIC

French rock always trails in the wake of their Anglo neighbors across the Channel. The same applies for punk, and the rise of stridently political bands like the Clash was refracted through the mirror of France's own substantial domestic tradition of dissent in the form of the seminal band Beurier Noir. They have too many bangers to count - including "Porcherie" and its evergreen refrain: "la jeunesse emmerde le Front Nationale" - but I'm opting for 1985's Joyeux Merdier EP. It's only three songs long, features the riotous "salut a toi", in which France's answer to The Clash rattle off their worldwide salute to Leftist and Third World Movements.