This article is the translation of a research on the mechanism of misinformation on the web that I had written in English recently.
NOTE BENE1: The sources and references used in this research are exclusively in English and it is unfortunately impossible for me to translate everything for you. It’s not terrible quality level but try google translate to read the sources in their entirety.
NOTE BENE2: the disinformation services of the Elysée or in the French language are not mentioned, if you have sources to add thank you in advance.
Good reading, it’s long, not too much I hope… Each part is important to understand what’s going on.
Contents
Introduction
I. Why would our governments organize propaganda on the web?
II. The concrete evidence of Western propaganda on www
III. The corporate construction of personas management software providers and the direct link with the CIA
IV. Disinformation tactics
V. Responses to puppeteers
Conclusion
Sources
The debate on the possibility of an orchestration of disinformation on the web is a constant on the internet with user-generated content (to a lesser extent on the French internet than on the English web). Unfortunately it is too often a superficial debate with always the same arguments used to ridicule those who would dare to denounce agents of disinformation and their techniques of debate:
“Why would the government spend money to pay agents of disinformation?”
“stop accusing those you disagree with of being COINTELPRO”
Very annoying because when you confront these with concrete evidence of the reality of Western & Zionist propaganda on the web, they ignore it and endlessly continue to bludgeon their emotional rhetoric.
Why these reactions?
Would they themselves be pros of disinfo to take such a firm position leaving no room for the necessary doubt, for a detached (emotionally) and objective study of the facts in a logic of search for the truth?
It is not possible to answer this question because there are many “willing” disinfo agents lost in their refusal to accept the reality of the lies of our governments and our media. Too fearful and programmed as they are to face this fact and question their convictions, their representations of the world, protecting and reinforcing their beliefs, they come to “troll” the investigations of individuals sincerely committed to the search for the truth.
The purpose of this article is to address this problem in the most objective and factual manner possible, leaving repercussions and implications to the discretion of the reader.
First answers will be given to these questions from the deniers, then concrete evidence of the orchestration of disinfo will be presented. Third will be exposed the corporations that execute propaganda contracts in partnership with alphabetical government agencies. Fourth will be a list of the most commonly used disinformation strategies and finally we will try to propose a counter-strategy of debate so as not to fall into the traps of disinformators and other deniers.
I. Why would our governments organize propaganda on the web?
Have you ever heard of Goebbels?
He theorized state propaganda by making it a science in its own right. Of course this science has been further developed since his time because of disciplines such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NRP – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming – NRP is an approach to psychotherapy and organizational change based on “a model of interpersonal communication concerned with the relationship between patterns of behavior and the subjective experience stimulating them”) but it was Goebbels who laid the foundations for the massive propaganda that we constantly undergo from the mass media and politicians.
| “If you tell a big lie and repeat it over and over again, people will eventually believe it. The lie can only be maintained as long as the state can protect its people from the political, economic and military consequences of the lie. It therefore becomes vital for the state to use all its powers to suppress all dissent, for truth is the mortal enemy of falsehood, and so by extension, truth is the greatest enemy of the state”. “The most brilliant propaganda operation will not be successful unless one fundamental principle is constantly respected: it must be confined to a few points which must be repeated ad infinitum.” “Think of the press as a big keyboard on which the government can play” Goebbels |
Why wouldn’t our elites have adapted these techniques used in abundance for 70 years on www, this medium taking more and more importance?
Need a complementary perspective?
| Majority influence (…) is a form of social influence where people adopt the behavior, attitude and values of the majority of members of a reference group |
http://www.psychexchange.co.uk/glossary/majority-influence-534/
| The term conformity is often used to indicate agreement with the majority position, brought about either by the desire to fit in, or to look like (normative conformity) or even the desire to be right (informational conformity) or simply to conform. to a social role (identification). |
http://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.html
On a forum, a blog or a project like agoravox where agents of disinformation run rampant, the editors and commentators do not monopolize the traffic of the site. On the contrary, most traffic is generated by silent visitors who do not necessarily have an opinion on the subject of the survey or the debate of ideas they are reading.
It is completely obvious that on a site of investigation and exposure of the truth, the vast majority of participants have different beliefs than what our governments would like us to have.
So how could the elites recreate a majority opinion – which will convince, unconsciously, via majority influence and group pressure – the visitor without an opinion yet clearly established or who would be inclined to begin to doubt?
Hmm ?
Make no mistake about the objective of deniers and advocates of order: disinformation posts are directed solely at this silent visitor. They know full well that they will not convince the speakers who invest so much of their time in researching and understanding the truth: these are anti-conformists and are not influenced by the majority opinion.
The following is thus the ultimate goal of disinformation:
| Informational conformity: This occurs when a person lacks knowledge (ndr: to create and understand his opinion) and turns to the group for guidance. Or when this person is in an ambiguous situation (for example does not perceive it clearly) and socially compares his behavior with that of the group. This type of conformity involves internalization – where a person accepts the views of groups and embraces them as an individual |
http://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.html
II. The concrete proofs of the Western propaganda on www
Here are two proofs, sufficiently clear, sufficiently factual and irrefutable since they are on American government websites.
| News American Forces Press Service CENTCOM Team Engages ‘Bloggers’ By Capt. Steve Alvarez, USA American Forces Press Service (…) Blogs sometimes include information—accurate or not—about the US military’s global war on terrorism. Officials from the US Command Center noticed this and created a team to hire editors and their electronic news forums. (…) “Now they (online readers) have the opportunity to read positive stories. At least the public can go there and see the full story. The public wants to hear these good stories,” he said, adding that this information that the army generates is “very factual”. From his office at CENTCOM headquarters, army reserve Spc. Claude Flowers of the 304th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment in Kent, Wash., fights in his own way every day in the global war on terrorism. It’s an effort, officials said, that is making a big difference in the communications arena that is the online world. The team’s motto is “Engage” and Flowers and the others are working with over 250 bloggers to try to spread news of the good work being done by US forces in the global war on terrorism. The effort, officials said, reached more than 17 million readers online. “The mission of electronic media engagement was given to us,” Flowers said. “The idea being that there are so many people consulting electronic news sources that it would be negligent to ignore this audience” |
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=15287
This seems enough to mock the arguments of deniers of government disinformation on the web, but wait for the sequel.
| Revealed: US spy operation manipulating social media Military puppet software creates fake online identities to spread pro-US propaganda. The US military is developing software that allows them to secretly manipulate social sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda. |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
now see image attached to article, screenshot from government site US of this page: http://www.usaspending.gov/explore?&typeofview=complete&tab=By+Prime+Awardee&agencyid=9700&record_id=47503572&fiscal_year=2010&piid=FA481410C0015
And yes, the Air Force spends millions of dollars of public money to buy these persona management software. In my humble opinion, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If the Air Force does it, all the other departments and agencies of the Western armies and secret services do the same, probably using their secret funds (estimates of around $200 million in the US,
To illustrate what online persona management services are:
| This is an excerpt from a word document that was sent as an attachment by Aaron Barr, CEO of HBGary’s to several of his colleagues to present to their clients: “To build this capability we will create a set of personas on twitter, blogs, forums, buzz and myspace under nicknames adapted to the profile (satellitejockey, hack3rman, etc.) These accounts are maintained and updated automatically via rss feeds, retweets and link together the comments posted through the platforms. By choosing from a pool of these accounts a persona with a real name, you create with a facebook account, linkedIn, you lock them and link them to a set of previously created accounts, automatically adding to the newly created accounts a complete history. |
HB Gary’s email Email which should concern us all
Technically, it’s heavy, with a different hardware config for each profile (ip appearing as that of an individual, different operating systems, different user-agents and browser signatures, switching from one profile to another in one click)
To start further research, you can search for these expressions:
* “operation earnest voice”
* the metalgear software (add “-solid” or you will have 5 billion results for the video game)
* HB Gary leaked emails
Before proceeding to the following, the bonus proof in the form of quotes translated from Hebrew to English and then into French from the work of an Israeli journalist
| Twitterers Paid to Spread Israeli Propaganda Internet War Squad Exposed by Jonathan Cook Monday, 03 August 2009 06:04 (…) In an interview this month with the Calcalist, an Israeli business newspaper, Mr Shturma, deputy director of the department of the ministry of hasbara admits that his team would work in secret. “Our staff won’t say ‘Hi, I’m from the hasbara department of the Foreign Ministry and I want to tell you the following things’. They won’t identify themselves as Israelis either,” he said. “ Rona Kuperboim, a columnist for Ynet, Israel’s most popular news site, denounced the move, saying it indicated that Israel had become a “police state of thoughts”. She added that “good public relations cannot sugarcoat the reality of the occupied territories. Children are being killed, homes are being bombed and families are starving.” His column was greeted by several questioners asking how they could apply for this job with the ministry. The project is a formalization of public relations practices that the ministry developed specifically in view of the assault on Gaza in December and January. “During Operation Cast Lead, we appealed to Jewish communities abroad and with their help we recruited several thousand volunteers, joined by Israeli volunteers,” Mr Shturman said. “We gave them background sources and hasbara sources and sent them to represent Israel’s point of view on news sites, surveys and polls” The Israeli army also created one of the most popular channels from youtube and regularly posted clips, although they were criticized by groups of human rights representatives as videos misleading viewers about what was being shown. (…) Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books: “Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the Middle East Redesign Plan” (Pluto press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiences in Human Despair” (zed books). His website: www.jkcook.net . |
The entire article is edifying, and terrifying: twitterers paid to spread israeli propaganda
III. The corporate construction of persona management software providers and the direct link with the CIA
On usaspending.gov we learned that the contract had been offered to a company called “Anonymizer”.
| Proprietary Technologies – Customizable Solutions Our technologies enable us to provide solutions for individuals, businesses and other customers. |
http://www.anonymizer.com/company/
“and other customers”!?
No mention on their site when to their owner. but looking around a bit…
| Abraxas acquired Anonymizer in May 2008, naming Lance Cottrell, founder and CTO of Anonymizer, the firm’s chief scientist. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Allied Capital invested $52 million in anonymizer shortly thereafter. |
What is Abraxas?
First a short parenthesis on the etymology of the word
| Opinions abound on Abraxas, who in recent centuries has been claimed to be both an Egyptian god and a demon. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung wrote a short Gnostic treatise in 1916 called ‘The Seven Sermons to the Dead’ in which he refers to Abraxas as a god superior to the Christian god and the devil, combining all opposites into one being |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraxas
| “Abraxas has a focus – – national security risk mitigation technology”“Abrawas develops special technology and implements unique and trusted technical solutions to meet the challenges faced by the national security community today and those they will encounter tomorrow” |
http://www.abraxascorp.com/company.php
They don’t mention their founder on their website, which is a shame:
| The firm was founded after 9/11 by CIA veteran Richard Helms. |
http://wiki.echelon2.org:8090/wiki/Cubic_Corporation#Abraxas.2FAnonymizer
Ni who they belong to today:
| in 2010, Abraxas was acquired by another intelligence contractor, Cubic Corporation, for the handsome sum of $124 million in cash. Some of Anonymizer’s top talent, who had joined Abraxas, left Cubic to start another intelligence firm. They are now listed as leaders of Ntrepid, making it the ultimate winner of the $2.7 million government contract. |
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201111/6939/Anonymous-Government-contractor-has-weaponized-social-media?page=2
From Anonymizer to Ntrepid the path is not so straight forward, however we find the same person at both ends and along the way:
| The CTO of Ntrepid is Lance Cottrell, simultaneously CTO of anonymizer and advisor to Taia Global, Inc. (20.6.2011), previously CTO/Chief Scientist at Abraxas |
This image is a diagram of the executive and activities of Cubic Corporation: http://i.imgur.com/yuOt5.jpg
microchip, tracing, transport, cybernetics… Cubic is a very large horizontal player working almost only for the US Department of Defense (DoD).
If you want more details about takeovers and mergers abraxas/anonymizer/ntrepid follow this link: http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/EFX_dll/EDGARpro.dll?FetchFilingHtmlSection1?SectionID=7690853-67284-375768&SessionID= QuZFHe-yRP0T6P7
And to learn more about Cubic Corporation who therefore controls the disinfo company on the web (and much more), you can follow this one: http://wiki.echelon2.org:8090/wiki/Cubic_Corporation# Abraxas.2FAnonymizer
IV. Disinformation tactics
Among the dozens of articles that can be found on the subject, only one is cited below but several links are then proposed to explore the subject.
Source: Disinformation and Tactics: The Methods Used to Keep You in the Dark
First, let’s review those good old strategies used by the mass media (and picked up by puppeteers for the web).
| * Lie out loud, retract in a low voice (…) * use unconfirmed or unverified sources and turn them in fact – we are talking about government sources, anonymous sources or even “expert” speech (.. .) *Calculated Omission(…)when a fact is omitted the lie can appear entirely rational(…) *Distraction and the fabrication of relevance (…)ironically a media can turn unimportant information into the reporting ad nauseam (…) *dishonest debating tactics (…) TV pundits are trained to become masters of Alinsky’s tactics (…): 1) Power is not what you have but what the enemy thinks you have(….) 2) Never deviate from the known experience of your audience and at every opportunity deviate from that of your opponent(…) 3) Maintain the enemy at the height of his own rulebook(…) 4) Ridicule is man’s most powerful weapon(…) 5) A good tactic is one that is relished by your audience(…) 6) A dragging tactic becomes a hindrance(… ) 7) Maintain the pressure with different tactics and acts, use all the current events in favor of your objective (…) 8) A threat is generally more terrifying than the thing itself (…) 9) The first premise is the development of operations that will maintain constant pressure on theopposition(…) 10) if you push a negative too hard or too deep it turns into its counterpart (…) 11) the price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative (…) 12) Choose the target, immobilize it , personalize it, polarize it(…) |
All of these techniques are highly developed and tested and it is the duty of readers/listeners to understand them, recognize them, and keep them in mind when exposed to mass media and advertising.
Now let’s look at the techniques of trolling and derailing online discussions.
| 1) Making offensive comments to distract or frustrate: an alynski tactic to provoke an emotional reaction, although less effective given the impersonal nature of the web. 2) Pose as a supporter of the truth and then make comments discrediting the movement (…), inciting violence (…). This is the strategy of the Troyes horse (…) 3) Dominate the discussions: flood the discussion and get off topic, frustrate sincere speakers (…) 4) Post misleading and pre-written answers to counter honest arguments (see the debates on 9/11)(…) 5) False association and invocation of stereotypes with negative connotations, complementary tactic of the Troyes horse. 6) False Moderation: pretending to be the voice of reason (…) 7) The straw man: very common technique where the troll will accuse the opposition of subscribing to a certain point of view even (and especially) if it does not subscribe to it and then attack it. Example: ‘the truthers say that there was no plane in the towers, that it was a hologram. What are they? crazy?’ Sometimes these strategies are also used by some individuals with serious personality disorders. However, if you observe someone using these tactics very often, or several at the same time, there is a good chance that you are dealing with a puppeteer. |
Let us also mention two other very often observable tactics:
8) the extreme speed of interventions in a discussion or an article which has just been posted to discredit the poster and ridicule a theory by immediately using one or more of the trolling tactics
9) Systematically ignore all the strong points of a pitch to focus on the points that can be attacked – especially if they are unimportant.
Finally, to close this part, and these are neither the least nor the least dangerous
| Methods of government disinformation … 1) Control the Experts (…) 2) Control the data(…) 3) twist the statistics(…) 3) Make guilty by false association(…) 4 ) Manufacture good news(…) 5) Control the opposition(…)During the 60’s and 70’s, the FBI started a secret program called COINTELPRO (…) 6) False Paradigms(… ) One need only observe a left/right political debate to see how politics destroys real intellectual discourse. |
Additional links to explore disinformation strategies:
Seventeen Techniques for the Suppression of Truth
Eight traits of the disinformationist
25 Ways to Suppress the Truth: The Rules of Misinformation
V. Responses to the puppets
I imagine only one approach – widely debatable, it’s only an opinion:
Don’t listen to what they say, but watch what they do.
In other words, don’t use their tactics, especially don’t fall into emotional, frustrating traps, recognize the strategies used and expose them as such, help the silent visitor to perceive the bias of the disinformation post.
Conclusion
After having exposed these facts, proofs and psycho-sociological perspectives, it would appear incongruous, even indecent, to deny the reality of disinformation on the internet or the reality of this information war to which we post comments or write articles take an active part.
The purpose of this research was also to share important knowledge on the functioning of our system, the relationship between politicians, the military and the media, to offer cartridges to no longer be fooled by the rampant disinformation everywhere, all time.
Our brains must no longer be made available to their propaganda tools.
For the love of the truth, let us denounce disinformational practices at every opportunity and educate those around us in deciphering the media.
“the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State” Goebbels
Peace
Links and sources:
UPDATED: The HB Gary Email That Should Concern Us All
More HBGary Federal Fallout: The Government Wants To Buy Software To Fake Online Grassroots Social Media Campaigns
Operation Earnest Voice
Cubic Corporation
Disinformation Tactics: The Methods Used To Keep You In The Dark
Raw obtains CENTCOM email to bloggers
the “Alinsky Method” variation of the Delphi Technique
IS ISRAEL CONTROLLING PHONY TERROR NEWS ?
Persona Management Software Helps Hide Statistics That Would Raise Suspicion by Website Statistics Analyzers
Personal Management Software destroys internet authenticity
Spying on Internet Users
Why Is the US Military Creating an Army of Fake People on the Internet?
Virtual Flash Mobbing & Strategically Poisoned Consensus
Spokesman tells panel on internet ‘as strategic weapon’ army wants 120 ‘new media fighters’
Infiltration, personas and puppets
Centcom deploys virtual ‘personas’ onto Internet
countering propaganda
Sock Puppet Planet: The Secret State’s Quest for ‘ Persona Management Software’
Anonymous:
