‘Hero’ Journalist Who Exposed CIA Dies of ‘Heart Attack’ at 56

Could it be that government intelligence services such as the CIA actively employ journalists to plant stories or otherwise manipulate the news to achieve their ends? It is certainly more than possible, and revealing this fact could have cost one man his life.

On January 13, 2017, German journalist Udo Ulfkotte died of a heart attack. Long-time readers of Liberty Blitzkrieg will remember his name since he went public with explosive claims about how the CIA manipulates and controls much of Western media.

Here are a few excerpts from the 2014 post,  “Non-Official Cover” – Respected German Journalist Blows Whistle on How the CIA Controls the Media.

“I was bribed by billionaires, I was bribed by the Americans to report…not exactly the truth.” – Udo Ulfkotte, a former editor of one of Germany’s main daily publications, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Before going further, let’s find out what “non-official cover” is.

“Non-official cover” occurs when a journalist is essentially working for the CIA, but it’s not in an official capacity. This allows both parties to reap the rewards of the partnership, while at the same time giving both sides plausible deniability. The CIA will find young journalists and mentor them. Suddenly doors will open up, rewards will be given, and before you know it, you owe your entire career to them. That’s essentially how it works.

One thing we do know for sure — this brave journalist is now dead.

Mr. Ulfkotte’s death was reported by Spiegel, which went out of its way to make him look as bad as possible. He apparently had a history of heart attacks. The below is from Spiegel courtesy of Google translate.

The controversial book author and political activist Udo Ulfkotte has died. He succumbed to a heart attack on Friday, as his SPIEGEL ONLINE family confirmed. The former editor of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ), which already had several heart attacks, became 56 years old.

While it’s not unheard of for someone as young as 56 to have a heart attack, given the context of this story, it does raise eyebrows. Perhaps if medical records had been released detailing these “several previous heart attacks” there might be less reason to doubt the official story.

He clearly took a major risk by revealing so much incriminating information on both the media and the CIA. They must have noticed. And it would be to their advantage to discourage others from taking the same path as this unfortunate gentleman.

The government’s notorious media manipulation program, known as Operation Mockingbird, has now been fully legalized:

FBI agents conducting undercover investigations have now been given the green light to impersonate journalists, the Justice Department determined last week — effectively legalizing the government’s most notorious propaganda program, Operation Mockingbird.

Last Thursday, the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General published what’s become the subject of outrage for journalists, civil and constitutional rights advocates, and legal experts  — “A Review of the FBI’s Impersonation of a Journalist in a Criminal Investigation.”

Allowing agents to infiltrate media organizations for any reason threatens to utterly undermine public trust, kill the very concept of journalistic integrity, and throttle the flow of information from sources and whistleblowers concerned with the legitimacy of journalists they contact.

As shocking as the finding sounds, it only validates the practice — in fact, the report centers around a case from 2007 in which an FBI agent pretended to be an Associated Press journalist to identify an elusive suspect online. At the time, the FBI “did not prohibit agents from impersonating journalists or from posing as a member of a news organization,” the report states.

But even the ubiquitous, mainstream AP — whose outlet became an unwitting pawn for the agency — sharply criticized the DOJ’s announcement.

“The Associated Press is deeply disappointed by the Inspector General’s findings, which effectively condone the FBI’s impersonation of an AP journalist in 2007,” Associated Press Vice President Paul Colford said in a statement cited by US News. “Such action compromises the ability of a free press to gather the news safely and effectively and raises serious constitutional concerns.”

Source: Liberty Blitzkrieg, Free Thought Project