au contraire.
Peabody and his inks are their claws.

And they are very effective indeed -- they kept the WC neutered for years.

They kept old-guard/reactionary Morgan on Harry's case for a decade or so, ensuring nobody else (who might be able to teach him about the Starborn biz, or orient him to some of the political & supernatural currents swirling about him) would touch him with a 10' pole.

They kept the Merlin & his faction playing "ultra-conservative & risk-averse," and bickering with the Blackstaff & others who argued for a more-activist Rampire campaign; remember, Maggie LaFey's death-curse is part of why the Whamps were so ineffective... Peabody did the same to the White Council.

Pretty good payback from 1 embedded agent ...

I'm pretty sure that what he's implying is that, to a suspicious mind with incomplete information, Harry could just as easily be taken as a Black Council member himself.

Who is the one Warden that isn't influenced by Peabody? Dresden. Who was Luccio brainwashed into starting a relationship with? Dresden. Where does the "Traitor" Morgan go for help when he's caught for killing LaFortier? Dresden. etc, etc.

Rashid even points this out when he confronts Harry at Demonreach in Turn Coat.

Maybe you answered your own question with that.  Though the Council are wizards, and many of them are hundreds of years old, basically they are still human. Half of them never trusted Harry because of who his mother was, nor liked him.  Harry can gain their respect, which he has, but that isn't the same as trust.  Trust, they will never give him, because they fear him.

Ramirez said, "talk to me.."Those are words police say when they want a confession from a suspect.  He wasn't asking it as a friend, the vibs from Chandler warned Harry of that.  Harry has a right to remain silent because anything he'd say could and would be used against him.   Maybe trust but verify would be more apt here, Ramirez didn't come to Harry as a friend,he came as a cop, he had Harry scanned for recent sexual activity, he came in force [by that I mean he had other Wardens with him], all this screams that Harry was already suspected of something.  So if you were Harry, would you have trusted him?

Oh for sure, the time for Harry to start earning the Council's trust was well before Peace Talks. All I'm saying is that if Harry, after acknowledging that he'd need to start playing politics after saving Molly, had actually bothered to... play politics, instead of ignoring the Council until he next wanted a favour, he might have been better off for it. Instead he allowed his enemies on the White Council to act freely, relying on his connection to Eb to keep him in good standing despite never taking part in Council meetings, or doing his Warden duties, or generally acting like he was ever part of the White Council at all.

And Knight of the Cross Michael cussed in several languages words that even Harry didn't know...

I mean yeah, Michael has all the Context and stuff about Harry's actions that make him seem reasonable and not a nut-job, but the Council doesn't because the only times that the Council has seen Harry recently was Turn Coat where hard-core-loyalist-turned-'traitor' Morgan died to save him, and Changes, where he barges into a meeting and tries to murder an envoy before fucking off with no explanation.

The Council are wrong and also assholes, I won't deny it, but it's like... Harry does himself no favours with the way he approaches them, is all I'm saying. Like, I want to shake that boy sometimes and tell him to stop being so anti-social and self-sabotaging.

Though I have to say that the councils reasoning of we think Harry has been corrupted let's make sure that he only talks to monsters and let's take away our protection so he would have to make deals with them isn't what I would expect from a group of people with thousands of years of experience. It makes more sense if mab was behind it all. She never struck me as someone who shares well

Oh yeah I have no doubt that Mab had a hand in this, it feels very much her style. And the fact that the Council just went 'lol lets cut this guy off and hope that someone kills him for us' is really fucking dumb, because it:

A) Cuts off any potential leverage/influence the Council has on him and

B) Makes no fucking sense, since the Council never protected Dresden from jack shit, and everyone knows it. Remember that time when the Council almost sold him to the Red Court? Remember the time when someone sold him on Ebay and they did shit all?

But no, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was partly either Mab's agents in the Council cutting him off so that he'd be easier to mold, or Black Council agents ensuring Harry didn't ruin their next plan to take over the White Council, or something.

The Title is wrong, Ramirez Should Have Trusted Harry. Carlos is keeping secrets from Harry, the tracker, his true instructions from the White Council,  not telling him how he got injured, still refusing to admit he is a virgin, but who is vouching for Carlos?

Have you ever heard the expression "Trust is a Two-Way Street"?

Like yeah, I agree that the Council are a bag of dicks. But here's the thing...

Since when has Harry ever tried to do anything that makes him seem trustworthy to them? The answer is never. He just acts like they should have read his mind and know that he's a good guy, obviously.

Ramirez and the Council don't know that Harry has a brother, just that he's apparently super-tight with a bunch of Mind-Rapists.

Ramirez and the Council don't know about his daughter, just that one day Harry decided to join the Queen of evil faeries and immediately committed genocide.

Ramirez and the Council don't know what happened on Demonreach, just that two demigods were murdered and replaced with people that Harry is allied with.

Ramirez and Harry don't know that it was a double cross, but they probably know that Harry was making friendly with Nicodemus recently.

Remember, if you haven't been reading the books, Harry looks dodgy as fuck.

Oh yeah that's absolutely what Mab is doing. It's textbook stuff for abusers (and make no mistake, that's what Mab is) to isolate their victims from others to better manipulate them. It's why she cut off Harry when he was stuck on demonreach, it's why she tries to get Molly to abandon her human side/family.

 It's much easier to control people when they have nobody but you to turn to.

I mean that seems kinda normal, do you assume that because someone let you into their house once, you can therefore come in whenever you like?

Seems to me that would be far more rude.

I mean according to what Lash said in White Night:

I wished I could have raised my eyebrows. Possessed by what?

"An Outsider," Lasciel said. "I have felt such a presence before. This attack is drawn directly from the mind of the Outsider."

Gosh, that was interesting. Not relevant, but interesting.

"It is relevant," Lasciel said, "because of the circumstances of your birth - because of why you were born, Harry. Your mother found the strength to escape Lord Raith for a reason."

So the most obvious guess is that Maggie Sr got out because she realized that she had accidentally joined Cthulu's team and did a 180, deciding to have a Starborn Child because "shit I really fuck up there didn't I?"

As an aside, this also means that Mab had to take over paying the Za Guard while Harry was stuck in AT, which I find hilarious.

Imagine Mab in a shitty chain pizza restaurant.

Imho the real problem with a Wamp killing Malcolm is that they would absolutely have killed harry too.