Chris Butler, using the pen name Bo Zhongyan (
柏忠言
), coauthored anti-Western books in China with his wife Wai Lana (Zhang Huilan,
张蕙兰
). They described Westerners as
"no more than dogs"
and dedicated their 1986 book to
"the great and magnificent Chinese nation"
—
这个伟大，壮丽国家的全体中国人民.
Source
Note: Thousands of decrypted documents and emails from Butler's secret political operation have been independently examined by the Washington Post. The content on this website is attributed solely to the site's author.
The confident soundbites that made Tulsi Gabbard a cable-news favorite, on Fox, CNN, and MSNBC alike, were not her own. Her guru, "Jagad Guru" Chris Butler, drafted them for her in advance, interview by interview, sometimes down to the exact question and answer.
Tulsi Gabbard's rise ran through the green room. The young veteran with crisp, contrarian takes on war became a booking favorite across the political spectrum, from Sean Hannity to Rachel Maddow. Viewers saw spontaneous conviction. What they were actually watching was a script.
The forensic archive of her guru's operation contains the prep: dated, show-by-show talking points for Wolf Blitzer, Neil Cavuto, Rachel Maddow, CBS's Face the Nation, Morning Joe, Megyn Kelly, and more, drafted by Butler in her first-person voice and handed to her before air.
Butler wrote the questions and her answers
For an April 2015 Fox News hit with Neil Cavuto, Butler did not just suggest themes. He drafted the anticipated questions and the exact replies for her to give.
Q: Are you in favor of negotiations with Iran?
A: "Of course we all want to solve the problem, and negotiations are much better than going to war."
Q: Does Congress have enough role in this process?
A: "I think that this compromise bill is as good as the Congress is going to get…"
Chris Butler, SIF script, "Fox News Cavuto: Iran Condensed," April 15, 2015 1
Her sharpest soundbites were drafted for her
The lines that played as quick-witted and off-the-cuff were composed in advance. For a January 2015 Wolf Blitzer appearance, Butler wrote her zinger mocking the Secretary of State.
"According to the Administration, all we need to do is give these terrorists a big hug, a trophy, and $10,000 or more and they'll be happy and stop fighting."
Chris Butler, SIF script, "Wolf Blitzer Talking Points," January 23, 2015 2
For Rachel Maddow's show, Butler even wrote her opening, the personal-sounding framing and all.
"Today is the 12th anniversary of our invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. When I look at the AUMF, I look at it through the prism of this invasion… Obama has continued the same failed strategy…"
Chris Butler, SIF script, "Talking points for Rachel Maddow - final," March 19, 2015 3
The same script, recycled show to show
These were not one-off notes for a single host. Butler reused the same prepared "angles" across rival networks. His prep for CBS's Face the Nation simply pointed her back to the lines she had run on MSNBC.
"Angles would be basically similar to Rachel Maddow…"
Chris Butler, SIF script, "Notes on Iran Situation for CBS Face the Nation," March 20, 2015 4
Even the stage directions
Some of Butler's scripts read like a teleprompter with blanks: a statement written in the first person, with bracketed instructions for what she still needed to fill in.
"I have not made up my mind because evidently… Iran has a framework… different than what the White House is handing out. [Put down some of the points you're going to be trying to get clarified that we need to make sure of.]"
Chris Butler, SIF script, "Wolf Talking Points - Iran," April 5, 2015 5
Why it matters
This is the mechanism beneath every other story on this site. It was not that Tulsi Gabbard happened to agree with her guru. It was that Chris Butler wrote the literal sentences she spoke on national television, then watched her deliver them as her own. The topic could be Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or ISIS; the pattern was always the same.
The man who drafted the exact scripts, "Jagad Guru" Chris Butler, spent four decades producing propaganda for the People's Republic of China. 6
The woman reading his lines would go on to become Director of National Intelligence.
When you watched Tulsi Gabbard on cable news, you were watching a performance. The script was written backstage by Chris Butler, a man you were never meant to see.
