War correspondent reveals dirty secrets of mainstream media: journalists are bribed to pry, lie and spy.
AMERICAN FREE PRESS frequentlyexposes the noxiouscollaborators with tyrannywho operate the mainstreammedia. A courageousGerman former journalist,Dr.Udo Ulfkotte, has writtena powerful new bestsellingbook that exposes the rampant cooperation of the“Fourth Estate” with the world’s largest intelligenceagencies, trans-Atlantic organizations,banks, corporations and billionaires, making itinto a political “fifth column.”
The book, «Gekaufte Journalisten» (literally,«Bought Journalists»), is not yet in English, butthis writer interviewed Ulfkotte on October 17 to bringthis newspaper’s readers his stunning revelations. Admittingfirst his own guilt of participating in the destructiveunderworld of journalism, Ulfkotte fearlesslynames other collaborators in his latest work andcalls for a return to a free and morally-uprightpress. The book has garnered worldwide interest,but the German journalistic establishment is givingit the „silent treatment” – and worse.
Ulfkotte, 54, was raised in a devoutChristian family and even educated at a religiousschool. During early adulthood, like manyyoung people, he began investigating other beliefs.At the university in Freiburg in Breisgau he tookan interest in law and Islamic studies. He becamefluent in Arabic – important for his future, albeitunintended, career.
During college in the 1980s, Ulfkotte also wasrecruited into the world of espionage. Prior to aparticular semester break, when he hoped to visitItaly and meet young women, a professor asked ifhe would like to attend a two-week seminar inBonn on the East-West conflict. This was duringthe Cold War in a divided Germany. Ulfkotte wasnot at all interested, but university professors inGermany were (and are) highly respected. It wasdifficult to refuse.
He was promised that his travel would be paidfor, as well as lodging and meals, and he would receivespending money into the bargain. For a youngman from poor economic circumstances, this wastoo much. Relates Ulfkotte, „I suddenly felt thisdeep feeling inside me that I had ‘always’ wantedto go” to such a seminar. Such “innocent” beginningswere the first bribes, which would draw himever deeper into a widespread network of corruptionand spying, where no one considered such behaviorimmoral, but rather “accepted practice”.
No one said, „I’m from the CIA,” or from theBundesnachrichtendienst (BND) – the German intelligenceservice. But the seminar leaders sortedout „who was communist and who was pro-Western”among the young attendees. After furthersimilar events, someone asked Ulfkotte if hewould work for the BND – the last thing on hismind. But again, a professor – his doctoral advisor – pressured him to “think about it”. And oncemore, a poor boy found a free automobile and a good salary very attractive.
Upon receiving his doctorate, Ulfkotte – who never studied journalism – was provided a job as a reporter for the leading conservative German newspaper, theFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), hired over hundreds of other applicants. He became a war correspondent in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Iran and much of the Middle East, and later an FAZ editor. Eventually, he did indeed meet agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), BND, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6), and Israel’s Mossad, who valued his ability to travel freely in countries largely closed to the West. His editors were knowing accomplices.
Former journalist Udo Ulfkotte in his own words
„I’ve been a journalist for about 25 years, and I’ve been educated to lie, to betray – and not to tell the truth to the public… The German and American media [is trying] to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia. This is a point of no return, and I am going to stand up and say it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do, and have done in the past, because they are bribed to betray the people not only in Germany, but all over Europe… I am very fearful of a new war in Europe, and I don’t [want to see] this situation again. There are always people who push for war, and this is not only politicians, it is journalists too. We have betrayed our readers. . . . I’m fed up with this propaganda. We live in a banana republic [Germany], and not in a democratic country where we have press freedom” – Udo Ulfkotte
What is insidious, as Ulfkotte confesses, is thattypically, intelligence agencies use „unofficial covers” – people working for the agency but not actuallyon its payroll as agents. It is a broad, loosenetwork of “friends,” doing one another favors.Many are lead journalists from numerous countries.This informality provides plausible deniabilityfor both sides, but it means an „unofficialcover,” as Ulfkotte became, is on his own if captured.
The American reporter James Foley, allegedly executed by ISIS, found that out. Ulfkotte confirmed to this author that Foley did indeed work for various intelligence organizations, as this newspaper reported on last month. He also stated that if a journalist is accused of spying, such reports are almost always credible.
We asked the former spy about the extent of recruitmentof journalists into espionage. Hereplied, „Well, they don’t wear stickers on theirforeheads”, but he told the following anecdote asan illustration.
Once, he accompanied Helmut Kohl, then chancellorof Germany, on a visit to the king of Jordan.The president of Israel wasalso there. Ulfkotte wentaround the room, blithelygreeting a number of journalistsand officials with whomhe was friends – and who, heknew as well, were workingfor the CIA, the BND and theMossad. He was orderedsharply back to his place. Otherwise, „everyonewould know” who the other intelligence assetswere. It must have been an appreciable percentage,because Ulfkotte then realized they were „all in thesame boat”.
He also recalls giving a series of lectures oncounterespionage at the University of Lueneburg,where Richard Tomlinson of MI6 and other intelligenceassets were seeking recruits.
Ulfkotte reveals that there are manyquid proquoexchanges between news correspondents and intelligence agencies. Large sums of money, gifts, public recognition and significant career advancement go to those journalists who provide useful information on people they meet or know, or on places to which they travel. Many times, the reporter, like Ulfkotte, need only put his name on an article written for him by some spy agency or financial institution. Money and gifts change hands; doors open to elitist groups, like the Trilateral Commission,Atlantik-Brücke, the Aspen Institute and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Those who do not cooperate are fired.
Always, some “friend” asked for simple things,like a soil sample from Ulfkotte’s travels, or reportson the behaviors of his Iranian politicalfriends. Because Iran has no U.S. embassy, hewould enter the Turkish embassy and follow athen-secret, underground escape tunnel into theGerman embassy, where he would turn over hisreports for the CIA or BND. In a recent RT interview, Ulfkotte noted that the BND was created bythe CIA. To him, it is a symbol of Germany’s statusas a „banana republic”, a „colony of the U.S.”
Ulfkotte was severely injured several times duringhis reportorial years – one of the few to survivea poison gas attack by Iraq on Iran in 1988,which used German-manufactured mustard gas.In Spring 2003, he suffered serious nerve damagein one leg and realized he could not continue inthe Middle East. He thereafter resigned from FAZ.
In Spring 2004, a German politician askedUlfkotte to spy on a political rival, offering a largesum of money for the criminal activity. Refusing,Ulfkotte at last realized: „How deep am I sinking?” – and vowed „never again”. Almost immediatelythereafter, the government searched hishome and office a total of six times, alleginghe had revealed „official secrets”.Clearly a reprisal, but they could nevershow any proof in court.
Why the bookGekaufte Journalisten? Ulfkotte knows the mass media have become merely the willing slaves of warmongering governments and self-interested billionaires like George Soros. He fears the outbreak of nuclear war with Russia, based on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization propaganda peddled by his old comrades as “news.”
By speaking out in this way now,Ulfkotte hopes most of all to convinceother journalists to give up the lucrativebut corrupt world of espionage and falsereporting. He was young, like many others,when he „fell into the trap”. Hewants a „new generation of journalists”, whowon’t be bribed.
„I just hope that I could stop this”
The rats will not leave the ship without a fight,though. Reporters have been threatened with alawsuit by FAZ for publicizing efforts to get thepaper’s official reaction to Ulfkotte’s book. Somuch for “press freedom”.
On the day of our interview, the FAZ releasedan otherwise bland statement, seeming to implyfalsely that Ulfkotte was fired from his position.But, as in his well-documented book, this formermember of elitist international organizations holdsthe trump card: a written work reference, in whichthe newspaper praises him, especially for his „secretservice activity”.
Ulfkotte has suffered three heart attacks andother health problems from his work. AFP’s interviewrequest was one of the few he accepted. Hehas no children to worry about and so cannot beblackmailed. That is a good thing, becauseGekaufte Journalisten seems to have unleashedthe wrath of the New World Order, which nowstands more clearly exposed before an outragedworld public.
