Difference between revisions of "Udo Ulfkotte"

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|description=Former editor of a German broadsheet who writes about press corruption while also subscribing to an Islamophobic narrative.
 
|description=Former editor of a German broadsheet who writes about press corruption while also subscribing to an Islamophobic narrative.
 
|birth_date=1960-01-20
 
|birth_date=1960-01-20
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|death_date=2017-01-13
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|death_date=13 January 2017
 
|birth_place=Lippstadt, West Germany
 
|birth_place=Lippstadt, West Germany
 
|nationality=German
 
|nationality=German
 
|powerbase=http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Udo_Ulfkotte
 
|powerbase=http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Udo_Ulfkotte
 
|sourcewatch=http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Udo_Ulfkotte
 
|sourcewatch=http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Udo_Ulfkotte
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Revision as of 13:38, 15 April 2018

"whistleblower"
Person.png Udo Ulfkotte   Powerbase Sourcewatch WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(Editor, Journalist)
Born1960-01-20
Lippstadt, West Germany
Died13 January 2017 (Age 56)
6)
NationalityGerman
Member ofMarshall Memorial Fellowship
Former editor of a German broadsheet who writes about press corruption while also subscribing to an Islamophobic narrative.

Udo Ulfkotte was a former editor of the German broadsheet, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He depicted himself as a whistleblower exposing press corruption and control by the CIA. He was a member of Stop Islamisation of Europe and founder of Pax Europa.[1]

Ulfkotte speaks on RT about how the European media wrote pro-US stories under CIA pressure

Career

In 1991, Ulfkotte reported in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that large quantities of uranium were on sale in the Mozambican capital Maputo. The Mozambican ambassador denied the claim saying Ulfkotte had damaged Mozambique's image internationally "at a time when democracy has already become a reality."[2]

In 1994, Ulfkotte claimed in an interview with CNN to have witnessed four Iraqi republican guard divisions moving towards Kuwait.[3]Ulffkotte's was the first eyewitness account of the troop movements, which led to a US build-up in response, and which coincided with UN speech attacking sanctions by Tariq Aziz, and with reports of a failed uprising by the Iraqi military. Iraq's UN ambassador said they were moving their troops within their own territory and not posing a threat ot anyone.[4]

In 1995, Ulfkotte reported that proximity talks organised by Germany between Iran and Israel were close to securing the release of captured Israeli airman Ron Arad. Israeli analyst Zeev Schiff suggested that Israel was not directly involved in the talks, and that they had been leaked by Germany to divert US pressure over its economic relations with Iran.[5]Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who initially denied the whole thing, confirmed later that German-Iranian negotiations had been held, but denied any "current" Israeli-Iranian talks and Ulfkotte's claim that Arad would soon be released.[6]

In the Jerusalem Post, Israeli political scientist Susan Hattis Rolef wrote that "It's difficult to avoid the feeling that the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Germany's foreign minister are making a lot of empty fuss over the Ron Arad affair.

What exactly has journalist Udo Ulfkotte revealed, other than that his foreign ministry has been one of hundred of channels used to determine the navigator's fate? In one article, he wrote that Arad was being held in an Iranian prison; then in another, he spoke of Arad being held captive by a group of Iranian fanatics unconnected with the government.[7]

Rolef noted that Ulfkotte's story emerged as the German Foreign Minister Kluas Kinkel was facing questions over $102 million trade insurance being extended to German businessman trading with Iran. She concluded that "With all due respect to Ulfkotte and his serious reputation, he has probably done more harm than good in this instance. And if the German channel might have yielded anything of value, it is now clogged."[8]

BND Research

Ulfkotte was reportedly given unprecedented access to the files of Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) spy agency for a 1997 book on the service. Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the BND were reportedly unhappy with the results. Among Ulfkotte's claims was that Boris Yeltsin was offered German medical help in order to monitor his condition.[9]

During his research for the book, Ulfkotte claimed to have uncovered US Secret Service documents which showed that 1940s bandleader Glen Miller died not, as previously thought, in a plane crash, but in a Paris brothel.[10]Miller's former pilot disputed the claim, suggesting it would have been impossible for him to reach Paris at the time suggested.[11]A subsequent report suggested Miller's plane was downed by friendly fire and noted: "The main function of the Secret Service is to protect the life of the president and his family. Its only other job is to protect the integrity of the U.S. currency (counterfeiting)."[12]

Islamophobia

Ulfkotte was one of the organisers of an anti-Islam demonstration in Brussels on 11 September 2007, which was banned by the city's mayor. Ulfkotte reportedly attempted to cancel the event because he "was was not happy with the fact that the far-Right was increasingly usurping the demonstration." However, British and Danish co-organisers said they intended to go ahead.[13]

Gekaufte Journalisten

The cover of Gekaufte Journalisten, the English translation of which may be being suppressed.[14][15]

In 2014 Ulfkotte published Gekaufte Journalisten (Bought Journalists) where he mixed previously published research by media analyst Uwe Krüger[16] with disinformation and his own experience in the commercially-controlled media.

He admitted planting stories in the media for the CIA or other intelligence agencies and stated that the corruption of journalists and major news outlets by the CIA is routine, accepted, and widespread in the western commercially-controlled media, and that those who do not comply either cannot get jobs at any news organization, or find their careers cut short.[17]

Problems

His posturing as "whistleblower" provides no new information and is at odds with the establishment friendly islamophobic books and front groups he operates. His views of how the media is controlled is outdated and incomplete and seems to rely on declassified documents from Operation Mockingbird. It is incomplete because researchers such as Herman and Chomsky[18] , Krüger[19] , Müller[20] , Lueg[21] , Jaworski, Stern and Stremme[22] , Husting and Orr[23] have shown that direct control of journalists is a rare exception today. Instead control is represented by a kind of Darwinian selection process. Those "fittest for the job" survive by a top-down controled process influenced by their socialization, schooling, class conciousness, higher education, etc.

Of concern was the way Ulfkotte implies that by revealing this incomplete and outdated information his life might be at danger, which makes it easy to question the mental health of those citing his "revelations":

"When I told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that I would publish the book, their lawyers sent me a letter threatening with all legal consequences if I would publish any names or secrets – but I don’t mind. You see, I don’t have children to take care of. And you must know I was severely injured during the gas attack I witnessed in Iran in 1988. I’m the sole German survivor from a German poison gas attack. I’m still suffering from this. I’ve had three heart attacks. I don’t expect to live for more than a few years."

Death

Ulfkotte died from a heart attack on 13 January 2017 at the age of 56.[24]

 

A Quote by Udo Ulfkotte

PageQuote
Marshall Memorial Fellowship“I was invited by the think-tank The German Marshall Fund of the United States as a fellow. I was to visit the United States for six weeks. It was fully paid. During these six weeks I could...this think-tank has very close connections to the CIA, to this day, they acquired contacts in the CIA for me and they got me access to American politicians, to everyone I wanted. Above all, they showered me with gifts.

There one told me, they knew exactly, 'hello, you were [earlier] on a diving course in Oman...' The CIA knew very precisely. And the CIA also gave me something: The diving gear. I received the diving gear in the United States, and I received an invitation from the state of Oklahoma from the governor. I went there. It was a small ceremony, and I received an honorary citizenship.

I am now honorary citizen of an American state. And in this, it is written that I will only cover the US positively. I accepted this honorary citizenship and was quite proud over it. I proudly told about it to a colleague who worked in the US. He said 'Ha, I already have 31 of these honorary citizenships!' I don't tell about this to be witty, today I am ashamed, really.

I was greedy. I accepted many advantages that a regular citizen at my age in my occupation doesn't have, and shouldn't have. But I perceived it - and that is no excuse - as entirely normal, because my colleagues around me all did the same. But this isn't normal. When journalists are invited to think-tanks in the US, like German Marshall Fund, Atlantic Bridge to 'bring them in line', for friendly making them complicit, naturally to buy them, to grease them with money.”

 

Related Document

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:Has Udo Ulfkotte been bumped offBlog post14 January 2017Hadmut Danisch
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References

  1. ↑ Organizers of banned anti-Islam march to sue Brussels mayor, BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 14 August 2007. Source: Text of report by Belgian newspaper De Standaard website on 14 August.
  2. ↑ MOZAMBIQUE: AMBASSADOR TO BONN REFUTES URANIUM-ON-SALE REPORT, Inter Press Service, 22 July 1991.
  3. ↑ Observer Reports Iraqi Troops Are Moving Toward Kuwait, CNN NEWS 4:29 pm ET, 7 October 1994.
  4. ↑ By Mona Ziade, Associated Press Worldstream, 8 October 1994.
  5. ↑ Israel: Denies Negotiating With Iran For Release Of Navigator, Associated Press Worldstream, 21 February 1995.
  6. ↑ "Israeli-Iranian talks on the future of South Lebanon", Mideast Mirror, 22 February 1995.
  7. ↑ Fig leaf, by Susan Hattis Rolef, Jerusalem Post, 6 March 1995.
  8. ↑ Fig leaf, by Susan Hattis Rolef, Jerusalem Post, 6 March 1995.
  9. ↑ Spy book reveals Bonn 'bunglers', The Ottawa Citizen, 15 July 1997.
  10. ↑ Glenn Miller 'died in Paris prostitute's bed', by Deborah Collcutt, The Times, 14 July 1997.
  11. ↑ Military Notes; Retired pilot disputes report on manner of Glen Miller's death, by Frank Perkins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas), 15 July 1997.
  12. ↑ Friendly fire probably downed Glenn Miller's plane, Sunday News (LANCASTER, PA.), 20 July 1997.
  13. ↑ Danish, British organizers plan to defy Belgian ban on anti-Islamic 9/11 march, BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 11 September 2007. Source: Text of report by Belgian newspaper De Standaard website on 8 September.
  14. ↑ http://www.globalresearch.ca/english-translation-of-udo-ulfkottes-bought-journalists-suppressed/5601857
  15. ↑ http://thedeepstate.com/udo-ulfkottes-bought-journalists/
  16. ↑ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwe_Kr%C3%BCger#Meinungsmacht.2C_2013
  17. ↑ http://www.globalresearch.ca/editor-of-major-german-newspaper-says-he-planted-stories-for-the-cia/5429324
  18. ↑ Herman, E. and Chomsky, N. (1988) “A Propaganda Model” in: Media and Cultural Studies, Revised Edition, Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner (Eds.), Blackwell 2006, p. 257-295, http://www.rasaneh.org/Images/News/AtachFile/19-10-1390/FILE634617983141947500.pdf
  19. ↑ Krüger, U. "Meinungsmacht – Der Einfluss von Eliten auf Leitmedien und Alpha-Journalisten – eine kritische Netzwerkanalyse”, Dissertation, Köln 2013, http://www.halem-verlag.de/2013/meinungsmacht-und-elite-journalismus/
  20. ↑ Müller, A. "Darf man von Gleichschaltung der Medien sprechen? Und davon, dass die Demokratie höchst gefährdet ist?", accessed Feb 19, 2015, http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=21735
  21. ↑ Lueg, K. "Habitus, Herkunft und Positionierung: Die Logik des journalistischen Feldes" (2012) Dissertation TH Darmstadt, http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/36/36575/1.html (review)
  22. ↑ Jaworski, Stern and Stremme blog on psychological aspects of media manipulation, http://www.maskenfall.de/?page_id=683, on missrepresentation of Krügers Dissertation on German TV: http://www.maskenfall.de/?p=5239
  23. ↑ Husting, G. and Orr, M. (2007), Dangerous Machinery: “Conspiracy Theorist” as a Transpersonal Strategy of Exclusion. Symbolic Interaction, 30: 127–150. doi: 10.1525/si.2007.30.2.127
  24. ↑ http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/udo-ulfkotte-umstrittener-publizist-und-ehemaliger-faz-journalist-ist-tot-a-1130008.html
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