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Thread: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Quote Posted by Merry Mom (here)
    Most people are very happy with the charade. This is a key point. It took me a while to realize this. I used to try to convince people, to use logic or other means to try to allow them to see that this or that thing was a total deception or injustice. All that does is make the person dislike or hate you, the messenger. They don't want you taking away their candy.
    [...]
    I affectionately call those deeply entranced people the "Toilet Flushers" ... it totally, completely fits with Jon Rappoport's interviews with Ellis Medavoy and/or Jack True
    "La réalité est un rêve que l'on fait atterrir" San Antonio AKA F. Dard

    Troll-hood motto: Never, ever, however, whatsoever, to anyone, a point concede.

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Quote Posted by Hervé (here)
    I affectionately call those deeply entranced people the "Toilet Flushers" ... it totally, completely fits with Jon Rappoport's interviews with Ellis Medavoy and/or Jack True
    Thanks for referring me to this anecdote regarding the toilet flushers. This hypnotism method can't be foolproof, because some people can and have broken out of it. But the hypnotizers must be pleased at their widespread success so far.
    There's no time like the present.

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    "Big media attacks “fake news.” Independent reporters rightly point the finger at big media as the predominant purveyor of fake news."
    - Jon Rappoport, July 25th 2018


    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Drilling into this article --- and not ever so far --- the livelier minds amongst our readership will be able to tie-up to the mysterious and sad demise of Dr. David Kelly, amongst other events.

    It begs a question: is the real reason for his murder by the state because he found the true origin of WMDs?

    Some assert that he may not have found any at all.

    Whichever way you look at it the way things were spun by the PR behind the then Blair administration, and then presented to the public at large would fit the blueprint of "fake news" --- what Dr. David Kelly described at the time as "...sexed up.."

    Jon Rappoport reports on the traceable and evidenced trail of biowar material supply to Iraq and the deliberate and wilful neglect of the mainstream media to dig deeper and expose the real truth behind the sources.

    In a more contemporary setting one can then very simply draw another link to how easy it would be to be able to draw the sensible conclusion that sources of chemical weapons/bio-weapons, however deadly or not, could originate from really just about anywhere and may be even linked to the corporations cited here, as it may relate to the recent Skripal - Rowley/Sturgess episodes in Salisbury, England.

    As it is also so very relevant to the continuing concerns over state meddling in attempts to stifle the free flow of information that doesn't conform to the Establishment narrative I'm also including a link to Richard Dolan's KGRA Radio show of April 2nd, 2018 where he discusses "The war against fake news."

    Here's Jon's article:

    US shipped biowar materials to Iraq
    Mainstream fake-news: the devious limited hangout

    by Jon Rappoport

    July 25, 2018

    Big media attacks “fake news.” Independent reporters rightly point the finger at big media as the predominant purveyor of fake news.

    Here I want to comment on one of the most devious forms of MSM fake news: the limited hangout.

    When necessary, news outlets will do a PARTIAL EXPOSURE of a hidden crime. The assumption is, once the story is published and broadcast, everyone will shake their heads and say, “That’s terrible,” and move on. The whole thing will be forgotten in a matter of days, as if the whole truth has been revealed. Limited hangout.

    From media’s point of view, a limited hangout means: “We won’t do any further digging. We’ll shut down further investigation.” Vital questions won’t be asked:
    Why did the criminals do what they did? Why are they still at large? Who is refusing to press charges and make arrests? What deeper crimes are still secret?

    The mainstream press could set their hounds loose and build a story into a huge wave. Over time, they could bring hidden players out into the open and expose them and wring confessions out of them. They could get some of these players to roll over and point to higher-level criminals. The story could achieve tsunami status, at which point the government would have to make arrests and lay on trials in open courtrooms.

    But that doesn’t happen.

    Limited hangout rules the day.

    I’m going to present a story about a crime now. It’s big. Very big. It was covered, to a degree, by the mainstream press. The coverage seemed to be significant. But it was a limited hangout.

    As you read on, imagine what might have happened if the press had decided to go in with guns blazing and investigate all the way, over a period of months, releasing new revelations as they discovered them. Imagine the repercussions. Imagine the public outcry. Instead of a limited hangout, we would have seen…well, I’ll leave it to you to fill in the blanks.

    In 1975, the US signed on to an international treaty banning the production, use, and stockpiling of biological weapons. Ditto for chemical weapons, in 1993. Another treaty.

    Here’s a quote from the Washington Post (9/4/13,

    “When the US looked the other way on chemical weapons”): “…The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items…including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague…”

    Between 1985 and 1989, a US 501C3 firm, American Type Culture Collection, sent Iraq up to 70 shipments of various biowar agents, including 21 strains of anthrax.

    Between 1984 and 1989, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control!) sent Iraq at least 80 different biowar agents, including botulinum toxoid, dengue virus, and West Nile antigen and antibody.

    Then we have a comprehensive article by William Blum (one of the good investigators in this whole story) in the April 1998 Progressive called “Anthrax for Export.” Blum cites a 1994 Senate report confirming that, in this 1985-1989 time period, US shipments of anthrax and other biowar agents to Iraq were licensed by…drum roll, cymbal crash…the US Dept. of Commerce.

    Blum quotes from the Senate report:

    “These biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction. It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the United Nations inspectors found and removed from the Iraqi biological warfare program.”

    This 1994 Senate report also indicates that the US exported to Iraq the precursors for chemwar agents, actual plans for chemical and biowar production facilities, and chemical-warhead filling equipment. The exports continued until at least November 28, 1989.

    Blum lists a few other biowar agents the US shipped to Iraq.

    Histoplasma Capsulatum, Brucella Melitensis, Clostridium Perfringens, Clostridium tetani—as well as E. coli, various genetic materials, human and bacterial DNA.

    Blum also points out that a 1994 Pentagon report dismissed any connection between all these biowar agents and Gulf War Illness. But the researcher who headed up that study, Joshua Lederberg, was actually a director of the US firm that had provided the most biowar material to Iraq in the 1980s: the American Type Culture Collection.

    Newsday revealed that the CEO of the American Type Culture Collection was a member of the US Dept. of Commerce’s Technical Advisory Committee. See, the Dept. of Commerce had to license and approve all those exports of biowar agents carried out by the American Type Culture Collection.

    Get the picture?

    Now, as to other US companies which dealt biowar or chemwar agents to Iraq—all such sales having been approved by the US government—the names of these companies are contained in records of the 1992 Senate hearings, “United States Export Policy Toward Iraq Prior to Iraq’s Invasion of Kuwait,” Senate Report 102-996, Senate Committee on Banking Housing and Urban Affairs, 102d Congress, Second Session (October 27, 1992):

    • Mouse Master (Georgia),
    • Sullaire Corp (Charlotte, North Carolina),
    • Pure Aire (Charlotte, North Carolina),
    • Posi Seal (Conn.),
    • Union Carbide (Conn.),
    • Evapco (Maryland),
    • BDM Corp (Virginia),
    • Spectra Physics (Calif.).

    There are about a dozen more.

    This also from the Blum article:

    “A larger number of American firms supplied Iraq with the specialized computers, lasers, testing and analyzing equipment, and other instruments and hardware vital to the manufacture of nuclear weapons, missiles, and delivery systems. Computers, in particular, play a key role in nuclear weapons development. Advanced computers make it feasible to avoid carrying out nuclear test explosions, thus preserving the program’s secrecy. The 1992 Senate hearings implicated [Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA — among others].”

    Hewlett Packard said that the recipient of its shipments, Saad 16, was some sort of school in Iraq. But in 1990, the Wall St. Journal stated that Saad 16 was a “heavily fortified, state-of-the-art [Iraqi] complex for aircraft construction, missile design, and, almost certainly, nuclear-weapons research.”

    If you review and think about all these WMD shipments from the US to Iraq, you understand there were many US officials and corporate employees who knew about them. Knew about them then, in the 1980s, and knew about them later, during 2 US wars in Iraq, when American soldiers were sent to Iraq, and could have been exposed to the bio/chem weapons.

    And these officials and employees said nothing.

    Officials at the CDC and the Dept. of Commerce said nothing. People at the American Type Culture Collection said nothing. People at the Pentagon and the CIA and the NSA said nothing. Presidents said nothing. Employees of the corporations who supplied germs and chemicals said nothing.

    —Now imagine the NY Times and the Washington Post releasing their hounds to dig deeper into this boggling story.

    Interviews with the players. Investigations into the role of the CDC. The cover-ups.

    After a year of relentless probing and publishing, this would have built into an unstoppable tidal wave. The whole country (and the world) would have been agog.

    Prosecutions would have followed.
    But it didn’t happen.

    Instead, the story dissolved and went away.

    The history that could have been made…

    Wasn’t made.

    This is fake news at its finest; by omission. By limited hangout.
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    One of the biggest victims in the Fake News war over the past 200 years has been the entire field of anthropology. It can also be the most disturbing to people who have drank way too much of the Kool-Aid already.

    Whenever you see articles in the news advocating for banning politically incorrect/insensitive or even "racist" science, chances are they're talking about the field of anthropology and anthropological studies.

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    NewsGuard
    BEWARE: New Plan to Censor Health Websites
    Written by Dr. Joseph Mercola
    December 04, 2018
    https://articles.mercola.com/sites/a..._rid=486328489

    "STORY AT-A-GLANCE
    NewsGuard will rate online news brands based on nine criteria of credibility and transparency, ostensibly to help readers judge what is true in order to avoid fake news. It is currently focusing on U.S.-based media brands, but plans to expand online site reviews globally
    NewsGuard received much of its startup funds from Publicis Groupe, a global communications group whose history of clients includes the drug and tobacco industries
    NewsGuard, clearly influenced by Wall Street and indebted to big industries through its funding, is being positioned to eliminate competition, which will allow Big Industry to reign as the leading shaper of public opinion and government health policies
    Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low. According to a 2017 Survey on Trust, Media and Democracy by the Knight Foundation, 43 percent of Americans have a negative view of news media
    Sixty-six percent believe “most news media do not do a good job of separating fact from opinion”
    Americans' trust in the media is at an all-time low. According to a 2017 Survey on Trust, Media and Democracy1 by the Knight Foundation, 43 percent of Americans have a negative view of news media compared to 33 percent reporting a positive view, while 66 percent believe "most news media do not do a good job of separating fact from opinion."

    Seventy-three percent believe the proliferation of "fake news" on the internet is a major problem, and only half feel confident that readers can get to the facts by sorting through bias.

    However, individual perception about what is true and what actually constitutes fake news varies. As reported by Medium,2 "A majority of Americans believe people knowingly portraying false information as if it were true 'always' constitutes fake news."

    NewsGuard — The New Strategy Used to Deceive You
    All of this brings me to the topic at hand, and the strategy the media is using to restrict your access to the truth from websites like mine, namely the latest self-appointed arbiter of trustworthiness in online media, NewsGuard.3 According to the group's website:4

    "NewsGuard uses journalism to fight false news, misinformation and disinformation. Our trained analysts, who are experienced journalists, research online news brands to help readers and viewers know which ones are trying to do legitimate journalism — and which are not.

    Our Green-Red ratings signal if a website is trying to get it right or instead has a hidden agenda or knowingly publishes falsehoods or propaganda."

    Currently, the NewsGuard "SWAT team" is only focusing on U.S.-based media brands, but is planning on expanding "to serve the billions of people globally who get news online."

    In other words, NewsGuard is setting itself up as the self-appointed global arbiter of what information is "trustworthy" — based on nine "credibility and transparency" factors — not only for information viewed on private electronic devices, but also for information accessible in public libraries and schools. Librarians will even provide instructions to patrons on how to install the NewsGuard extension on their personal computers, tablets and cell phones.

    Once you've installed the NewsGuard browser plugin on your computer or cellphone, the NewsGuard icon rating will appear on all Google and Bing searches and on articles featured in your social media news feeds:

    Green icon — Sites that follow "basic standards of accuracy and accountability" based on nine criteria,5 which include full disclosure of possible conflicts of interest, financing, and "notable ideological or political positions held by those with significant financial interests in the site"
    Red icon — Sites that do not fulfill NewsGuard's criteria for credibility and transparency
    Orange icon — Satire and humor sites that mimic real news
    Blue icon — Sites that primarily host user-generated content
    Gray icon — As yet unrated site
    These icons are meant to influence readers, instructing them to disregard content with cautionary colors and cautions. While the warnings may be enough to prevent someone from clicking these links, I believe the true intent will be to bury this content entirely from search results and social media feeds.

    It is very likely Google, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms will use these ratings to lower the visibility of content — making nonconformist views disappear entirely.

    NewsGuard's Own Transparency Is Wanting
    Fake news is certainly a problem. But determining who should have the final word on credibility and what is "truth" is not a simple one. Who is going to verify the credibility and transparency of the verifiers, i.e., NewsGuard?

    It was hard to believe multibillion-dollar companies would rely on the likes of Snopes or Web of Trust to be the guardians of truth and credibility, and in fact they didn't. Over time, most people using the internet learned to disregard article and website ratings dispensed by either Snopes or Web of Trust.

    But now, enter NewsGuard, which for all its promises to vet any and all independent online media for conflicts of interest, credibility and transparency, apparently does not expect you to put them under that same scrutiny. On NewsGuard's United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form D filed March 5, 2018, there is an option for disclosing the size of its revenue, but that box was checked, "Decline to disclose."6

    Shouldn't a corporation setting itself up as the judge and validator of the transparency of others be 100 percent transparent as well? NewsGuard also claims a Rule 506(b) exemption,7 which among its benefits allows for an unlimited amount of money to be raised from an unlimited number of accredited investors.8

    Well, in doing some digging of our own, aside from internet giants Microsoft9 and Google — one of the largest monopolies in the world — it appears NewsGuard is backed by companies that are presently involved, or have been in the past, in advertising and marketing of pharmaceutical products, cigarettes and unhealthy junk food to kids.

    Are we to believe that the profit preferences of such entities will have no influence on NewsGuard's ratings of individuals, organizations and companies that criticize the safety or effectiveness of those products?

    If this conflict of interest and lack of transparency concerns you I urge you to contact NewsGuard now and let your voice be heard. Click on the button below to send NewsGuard a message today.p>

    Contact NewsGuard
    NewsGuard and Microsoft are also partners in the Defending Democracy Program, a program aimed at safeguarding electoral processes by working with government.

    According to Microsoft's April 2018 announcement,10 "The Defending Democracy Program will work with all stakeholders in democratic countries globally" to protect campaigns from hacking, increase transparency in political advertising, exploring technological solutions to protect electoral processes and remediate cyber threats, and ward against disinformation campaigns.

    Overall, it appears NewsGuard is just another big business aimed at keeping the chemical, drug and food industries, as well as mainstream media, intact by discrediting and eliminating unwanted competition, which likely includes yours truly and many others who empower you with information that helps you take control of your health.

    What You Need to Know About NewsGuard Backer, Publicis Groupe
    NewsGuard's $6 million startup was funded in part by the Publicis Groupe,11 the "third largest global communications group," according to the Publicis website.12 Publicis was founded in 1926 by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, a French entrepreneur, with the goal of improving the image of advertising and turning it into "a real profession." In fact, Publicis Groupe's name is derived in part from the French word for advertising.13

    The Publicis Groupe has been manipulating what people think about commercial products for nearly a century. Over that century, this advertising and communications firm bought or partnered with targeted advertising avenues, beginning with newspapers, followed by radio, TV, cinema and the internet. Some of its self-described accomplishments include:

    The first press advertising appeared in 1927

    In 1930, Bleustein-Blanchet pioneered the first radio advertising

    In 1935 Publicis started acquiring cinemas

    In 1958, after becoming heavily involved in newspapers and expanding into partnerships with major industry names like Colgate, he created the "industrial information" department

    In 1972, he entered the technology world

    In 1983, he introduced the concept of global communication driven by marketing

    With revenue avenues secured, Publicis' clients and partners built a global presence that dominated the advertising world. Be it tobacco or junk food, Publicis Groupe found a way to promote and strengthen big industries. Within the Publicis Groupe are four networks serving its clients,14 including Publicis Health,15 which boasts its clients are "some of the biggest and most exciting names in health and wellness."

    The wallpaper on the Publicis Health site shows Lilly, Abbot, Roche, Amgen, Genentech, Celgene, Gilead, Biogen, Astra Zeneca, Sanofi and Bayer, to name a few of those clients. The Publicis Health board also consists of a power pack of high-profile individuals with Big Pharma position backgrounds or affiliations.16,17,18,19,20,21

    Leo Burnett, the ad company famous for creating the Marlboro man ad campaigns that made Marlboro the best-selling cigarette in the world and led to the nicotine addiction of millions, many of whom died from smoking, is also part of Publicis.22,23

    If a company such as NewsGuard has such atrocious conflicts of interests, they should take their own advice and be transparent about their investors' sources of income. How can you trust a group associated with funders known for promoting cigarettes, drugs and junk food?

    The Fourth Estate
    While pro-industry advertising worked well for decades, there was still the irksome problem of the Fourth Estate, a term that refers to the press.

    The problem was that professional investigative journalists working for magazines, newspapers and broadcast outlets would write in-depth exposés, outing the truth behind deceptive advertising and countering industry propaganda with science, statistics and other documented facts — and when a free press with honest reporting based on verifiable facts actually does its job, ineffective or toxic products are driven off the market.

    So, the answer that industry came up with in the late 20th century to combat truth in journalism was, pure and simple: Control the Fourth Estate with advertising dollars. By partnering with the "big guns" of media, such as The Paley Center for Media, Publicis and its industry clients were able to influence and, essentially, control the press to restrict or virtually eliminate your ability to ever hear the truth on many important issues, especially ones that affect your health.

    The Paley Center, by the way, is composed of every major media in the world, including Microsoft, AOL, CBS, Fox, Tribune Media and entertainment — and those are just a handful of the big-name media. One of The Paley Center's activities is to sponsor an annual global forum for industry leaders.24

    NewsGuard, founded by journalists Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, is housed in The Paley Center in New York City and, in November 2015, Publicis' chairman of North America, Susan Gianinno, joined the Paley Center's board of trustees.25 Additionally, Brill's and Crovitz's former business partner in a different venture, Leo Hindery,26,27 was a prior trustee and director of The Paley Center, adding up to some fairly influential connections that NewsGuard has with the Center besides being a tenant in their building.

    Publicis and Google are also partners, forming an interlocking triangle with NewsGuard. Publicis and Google joined forces with Condé Nast in 2014, creating the marketing service La Maison, "focused on producing engaging content for marketers in the luxury space."28

    The Rise of Fake News
    In the 21st century, industry advertorials are looking more like editorial writing in mainstream publications, while news stories increasingly parrot press releases with no probing questions to balance industry perspectives. And, when news reporters like Sharyl Attkisson dare to tell the truth, they are bullied, threatened and/or fired to prevent damage to the bottom line.

    Simultaneously, another proverbial fly in the ointment for industry has emerged — the growth of alternative internet media, beginning in the early 1990s. It's easy to imagine how these independent, online news sources posed problems for the brand marketing initiatives that Publicis and similar mass communication corporations had worked so hard to develop for their industry clients.

    So, consider how distraught those industry giants must have grown over time, as alternative internet media grew into a whole New Fourth Estate, with sourced analyses and investigative reporting that reflected what the old Fourth Estate used to do. Additionally, this alternative internet media has become a place where news and exchange of opinions are free, and where people all over the world can talk to each other in real time without being controlled by advertising dollars.

    These alternative online news sources attract people who want to know more than what they see on TV or in paid subscription magazines and newspapers — they are people who don't take everything at face value and who intelligently question marketing and propaganda tactics.

    But, as more and more independent-thinking people gravitate toward alternative journalism in ever-growing numbers, everything these Wall Street corporations have built to influence mainstream media is at stake. Again, you can imagine what they were thinking: They had to come up with a way to stop the wide reach of these New Fourth Estate internet sites.

    Their answer was to create a policeman, an arbiter of truth and credibility who appears upstanding and trustworthy but who, under the radar, with a single tap on a keyboard, can "undercut" those alternative websites, independent journalists and consumer advocates. That policeman is NewsGuard. And better yet, when they chose a policeman, they made sure those heading up this final arbiter of "truth" and "fake news" came from the original Fourth State itself.

    This trend of industry infiltrating the Fourth Estate — the press — was in many ways the very root and beginning of the fake news problem. So, it's ironic that NewsGuard, fronted by Publicis, connected to The Paley Center, is now cashing in on the fake news trend the press itself fostered.

    Another irony is that NewsGuard's cofounders, Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, have both written in the past, or supervised articles, about Big Pharma's influence on the health care industry (Brill as an award-winning journalist and Crovitz as publisher of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal — which is a business-friendly publication as it is.29,30,31

    But now, drug industry money is being used to fund the "fact-checking" Brill and Crovitz do of websites that expose the abuse of the people's trust and health by the pharmaceutical industry.

    Is NewsGuard Industry's Ace Up the Sleeve?
    We already have evidence that those of us providing free information and perspective that do not conform with what industry and media giants like Publicis want the people to think, believe and do, have been targeted for elimination by big search engines and social media platforms that label our information as "fake news."

    Is NewsGuard a very clever new media strategy influenced by industry and designed to further discredit and block public access to websites like ours? Is their real purpose a plan to squelch websites like ours that publish referenced information questioning the safety and effectiveness of commercial products aggressively marketed by industry, government and mainstream media? It appears that it is.

    As I already mentioned, NewsGuard was founded by two Fourth Estate veterans: Gordon Crovitz32 is an attorney and former Wall Street Journal publisher and executive vice-president of Dow Jones; Steven Brill33 is an attorney "journalist-entrepreneur" who founded The American Lawyer magazine and the Court TV cable channel.

    With plans of world domination as the arbiter of the "trustworthiness" of information published online, NewsGuard completes industry's ring of power. With the help of NewsGuard, Wall Street-dominated media firms like Publicis can go on as before and industry can keep selling products to an unsuspecting public that has no clue they're just pawns in the game.

    While many fake news sites will be eliminated by the Google and Microsoft-backed NewsGuard rating system, many legitimate news sources and information-based nonprofit organizations publishing online will also get buried by it.

    The Wheel of Industry Fortune
    To make sense of why NewsGuard may not be in the best interest of truth seekers, it's important to realize the key role of Publicis Groupe. By methodically acquiring and partnering with media, it has kept the wheel of industry profits going.

    With the addition of the school system (Google's domination in schools being one example), the circle was nearly complete when the stumbling block in the form of alternative media emerged. That's where NewsGuard comes in — to destroy alternative media that might detract customers from Publicis Groupe's clients — industry and their products, which include but are not limited to vaccines, drugs and junk food.34,35

    The Wheel of Industry Fortune
    At the center of this circle is industry — from agriculture to junk food to the drug and technology industries, and more. The Paley Center for Media is connected to all the major media companies, while the Fourth Estate represents the press at large, both big and small.

    The school system is an important cog in this wheel, as that's where indoctrination and generation of new customers begins. With NewsGuard's partnering with public libraries and schools, this lagging cog is now being brought fully into the fold.

    To this wheel you could add a number of other players as well, such as the legislative branches of government, government health agencies and governmental consumer protection agencies, the medical community, the internet as a whole, and institutions of higher education.

    But regardless of how many spokes you add, Publicis Groupe is the organizer and therefore the anchor of this wheel of industry fortune. It helps pave the way in various ways to allow industry to generate revenue. As mentioned, Publicis Groupe consists of four separate but interconnected networks that service industry clients:36

    Publicis Communications, where the client's brand image and message are skillfully and creatively crafted37
    Publicis Sapient, specializing in the design of digital business platforms38
    Publicis Media, where "the power of the modern media landscape" is harnessed "to drive business transformation"39
    Publicis Healthcare Communications Group
    Now add NewsGuard, funded by Publicis and physically headquartered in The Paley Center.

    Indebted to Big Industry through its funding, it appears that NewsGuard is being positioned as a "competition eradicator" that will allow Publicis and Big Industry to maintain their undisputed reign as shapers of public opinion about health-related issues, including the safety of food, air and water, medical devices and products, prescription drugs and vaccines, as well as public health policies that endorse the use of those products.

    If I'm right about this, the influence of NewsGuard's ratings of websites could pose a serious threat to freedom of the press across the world. With a simple check mark, this Wall Street corporation will have the power to direct online readers to industry-approved sources of information, and to block readers from accessing sources of information that enable them to make fully informed decisions about how to take control of their health.

    Blowback from censorship and bias has plagued many of these platforms for years. NewsGuard is the third party the media and social platforms have been looking for to make nonconformist views disappear altogether.

    The age of electronic book burning is advancing quickly as corporate elitists are losing control of the people. NewsGuard has become the latest weapon to fortify the crumbling walls of the Wall Street castle."

    Contact NewsGuard: https://www.newsguardtech.com/feedback/give/

    + Sources and References
    Sources and References
    1 Knight Foundation January 16, 2018
    2 Medium January 15, 2018
    3 Publicis Grupe March 5, 2018
    4 Newsguardtech.com
    5 Newsgtuardtech.com 9 Criteria
    6, 7 United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form D, NewsGuard
    8 Syndication Attorneys PLLC May 18, 2017
    9 axios.com August 23, 2018, NewsGuard Launches First Product With Help From Microsoft
    10 Microsoft April 13, 2018
    11 Washington Post March 3, 2018
    12 Publicis Groupe
    13 Publicis Groupe History
    14, 36 Publicis Groupe, The Power of One
    15 Publicis Health
    16 Bloomberg, Alexandra von Plato
    17 LinkedIn, Andrew Adams
    18 Bloomberg, Philip Chin
    19 Bloomberg, Kathy Delaney
    20 LinkedIn, Shannon Boyle
    21 MarketScreener, Michael du Toit
    22 Adage.com March 29, 1999
    23 Leo Burnett
    24 The Paley Center for Media 2018 Agenda
    25 Paley Center for Media November 23, 2015
    26 The Paley Center for Media
    27 USCC.gov
    28 The Drum June 20, 2014
    29 Time, “Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” August 4, 2013
    30 The Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2008
    31 AdAge, February 22, 2006
    32 Wikipedia, Gordon Crovitz
    33 Wikipedia, Steven Brill
    34 Publicis Groupe, 2017 Annual Results
    35 Publicis Groupe, Wall of Creation
    37 Publicis Communications
    38 Publicis Sapient
    39 Publicis Media
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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Amongst its many other activities consider the "Integrity Initiative" a shady and suspicious organisation indeed (Think "Media Matters, "Atlantic" etc..) And do please keep a close eye wherever these may be mentioned in future as they are very much tasked with censoring as well.

    I did a little digging around a couple of weeks ago and had a read through The Institute for Statecraft list of fellows.

    What's in a name (or several dozen)?! "Statecraft" in itself would be enough to send a chill down the spine.

    There may be plenty of skullduggery ahead of course and some of these names are sure to pop up at some point.

    Craig Murray writes an interesting piece in his blog, below.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "By sleuthing the company records of this “Scottish charity”, and a couple of phone calls, I discovered that the actual location of the Institute for Statecraft is the basement of 2 Temple Place, London. This is not just any basement – it is the basement of the former London mansion of William Waldorf Astor, an astonishing building. It is, in short, possibly the most expensive basement in London."

    "The Integrity Initiative offers us a glimpse into the very dirty world of surveillance and official disinformation. If we actually had a free media, it would be the biggest story of the day."

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    British Security Service Infiltration, the Integrity Initiative and the Institute for Statecraft

    13 Dec, 2018 in Uncategorized by craig

    The British state can maintain its spies’ cover stories for centuries. Look up Eldred Pottinger, who for 180 years appears in scores of British history books – right up to and including William Dalrymple’s Return of the King – as a British officer who chanced to be passing Herat on holiday when it came under siege from a partly Russian-officered Persian army, and helped to organise the defences. In researching Sikunder Burnes,

    I discovered and published from the British Library incontrovertible and detailed documentary evidence that Pottinger’s entire journey was under the direct instructions of, and reporting to, British spymaster Alexander Burnes. The first historian to publish the untrue “holiday” cover story, Sir John Kaye, knew both Burnes and Pottinger and undoubtedly knew he was publishing lying propaganda. Every other British historian of the First Afghan War (except me and latterly Farrukh Husain) has just followed Kaye’s official propaganda.

    Some things don’t change. I was irresistibly reminded of Eldred Pottinger just passing Herat on holiday, when I learnt how highly improbable left wing firebrand Simon Bracey-Lane just happened to be on holiday in the United States with available cash to fund himself, when he stumbled into the Bernie Sanders campaign.

    "Recent university graduate Simon Bracey-Lane took it even further. Originally from Wimbledon in London, he was inspired to rejoin the Labour party in September when Corbyn was elected leader. But by that point, he was already in the US on holiday. So he joined the Sanders campaign, and never left.

    “I had two weeks left and some money left, so I thought, **** it, I’ll make some calls for Bernie Sanders,” he explains. “I just sort of knew Des Moines was the place, so I just turned up at their HQ, started making phone calls, and then became a fully fledged field organiser.”"


    It is, to say the least, very interesting indeed that just a year later the left wing, “Corbyn and Sanders supporting” Bracey-Lane is hosting a very right wing event, “Cold War Then and Now”, for the shadowy neo-con Institute for Statecraft, at which an entirely unbalanced panel of British military, NATO and Ukrainian nationalists extolled the virtues of re-arming against Russia.

    Nor would it seem likely that Bracey-Lane would be involved with the Integrity Initiative. Even the mainstream media has been forced to give a few paragraphs to the outrageous Integrity Initiative, under which the MOD-sponsored Institute for Statecraft has been given millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money by the FCO to spread covert disinformation and propaganda, particularly against Russia and the anti-war movement.

    Activities include Twitter and Facebook trolling and secretly paying journalists in “clusters of influence” around Europe. Anonymous helpfully leaked the Institute’s internal documents. Some of the Integrity Initiative’s thus exposed alleged covert agents, like David Aaronovitch, have denied any involvement despite their appearance in the documents, and others like Dan Kaszeta the US “novichok expert”, have cheerfully admitted it.

    The mainstream media have tracked down the HQ of the “Institute for Statecraft” to a derelict mill near Auchtermuchty. It is owned by one of the company directors, Daniel Lafayeedney, formerly of D Squadron 23rd SAS Regiment and later of Military Intelligence (and incidentally born the rather more prosaic Daniel Edney).

    By sleuthing the company records of this “Scottish charity”, and a couple of phone calls, I discovered that the actual location of the Institute for Statecraft is the basement of 2 Temple Place, London. This is not just any basement – it is the basement of the former London mansion of William Waldorf Astor, an astonishing building. It is, in short, possibly the most expensive basement in London.

    Which is interesting because the accounts of the Institute for Statecraft claim it has no permanent staff and show nothing for rent, utilities or office expenses. In fact, I understand the rent is paid by the Ministry of Defence.

    Having been told where the Institute for Statecraft skulk, I tipped off journalist Kit Klarenberg of Sputnik Radio to go and physically check it out. Kit did so and was aggressively ejected by that well-known Corbyn and Sanders supporter, Simon Bracey-Lane. It does seem somewhat strange that our left wing hero is deeply embedded in an organisation that launches troll attacks on Jeremy Corbyn.

    I have a great deal more to tell you about Mr Edney and his organisation next week, and the extraordinary covert disinformation war the British government wages online, attacking British citizens using British taxpayers’ money. Please note in the interim I am not even a smidgeon suicidal, and going to be very, very careful crossing the road and am not intending any walks in the hills.

    I am not alleging Mr Bracey-Lane is an intelligence service operative who previously infiltrated the Labour Party and the Sanders campaign. He may just be a young man of unusually heterodox and vacillating political opinions. He may be an undercover reporter for the Canary infiltrating the Institute for Statecraft. All these things are possible, and I have no firm information.

    But one of the activities the Integrity Initiative sponsors happens to be the use of online trolls to ridicule the idea that the British security services ever carry out any kind of infiltration, false flag or agent provocateur operations, despite the fact that we even have repeated court judgements against undercover infiltration officers getting female activists pregnant.

    The Integrity Initiative offers us a glimpse into the very dirty world of surveillance and official disinformation. If we actually had a free media, it would be the biggest story of the day.

    As the Establishment feels its grip slipping, as people wake up to the appalling economic exploitation by the few that underlies the very foundations of modern western society, expect the methods used by the security services to become even dirtier. You can bank on continued ramping up of Russophobia to supply “the enemy”. As both Scottish Independence and Jeremy Corbyn are viewed as real threats by the British Establishment, you can anticipate every possible kind of dirty trick in the next couple of years, with increasing frequency and audacity.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    POST UPDATE: To view the leaked Anonymous batches of Integrity Initiative internal documents please see here.

    Example: Integrity Initiative Handbook V2

    Alternative download options via Anonymous here - scroll to the pdfarchive clusters as the Scribd links no longer work.

    Moon Of Alabama writes a (typically) good article here.

    From that article an extract, below:

    The Initiative has a black and white view that is based on a "we are the good ones" delusion. When "we" 'educate' foreign national audiences through a secretive government operations it is a legitimate operation. When others do similar, it its disinformation. That is of course not the reality. The Initiative's existence itself, created to secretly manipulate the public, is proof that such a view is wrong. If its work were as legit as it wants to be seen, why would the Foreign Office run it from behind the curtain as an NGO?
    Last edited by Tintin; 19th December 2018 at 23:17.
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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    UK-funded 'Integrity Initiative' Exposed Infiltrating European Media Through Fake News Factories

    RT
    Wed, 19 Dec 2018 16:20 UTC



    It's been over a month since hackers began exposing the Scotland-based 'Integrity Initiative' as a UK government-funded propaganda outfit - and gradually new details of the organization's clandestine activities have come to light.

    The documents were leaked by a group which claims to be associated with the Anonymous hackers. The first batch of leaks revealed the Integrity Initiative (II) was stealthily operating "clusters" of influencers across Europe working to ensure pro-UK narratives dominate the media.

    The second batch showed that the organization was also running disinformation campaigns domestically - specifically a smear campaign against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn; all done under the guise of combatting "Russian propaganda."

    Now, a third batch of leaks has exposed that the project allegedly operated much like a modern-day version of Operation Mockingbird - a secretive 1950s project whereby the CIA worked hand-in-glove with willing journalists in major media outlets to ensure certain narratives were adhered to. Only this time, it's a UK-funded organization with deep links to the intelligence services and military passing itself off as a non-partisan "charity."

    1. A "vast and ambitious infowar campaign"
    In one of the most revealing leaks yet, a French company called Lexfo allegedly offers a "strictly confidential" proposal to spread propaganda for II across "several hundred existing and credible" news sites in "multiple languages." Lexfo even offers to create news sites to serve II's objectives - sites which it says will be "ostensibly independent to assure their credibility."

    Lexfo also suggests monitoring and editing Wikipedia pages, launching aggressive campaigns to "discredit and intimidate" websites or outlets deemed to be promoting "fake news" - including through legal action and encouraging advertisers to abandon those platforms, the documents show. Ultimately, Lexfo offered a "vast and ambitious infowar campaign" which would be "untraceable."

    In a December 16 editorial, the Scotland-based Daily Record, which has been one of the only major outlets reporting on the scandal, suggested that if the II was "gift-wrapping intelligence for journalists desperate enough to pass it off as their own work without proper attribution" then that is "worthy of further investigation."

    Indeed, these new links seem to reveal that this is exactly what has been happening.

    Quote
    Tim Hayward‏ @Tim_Hayward_

    Ever feel you missed something? When did the military's role shift from defending us to "influencing" us? Was there ever public discussion? Isn't it an important constitutional matter what the military is for? #IntegrityInitiative

    1:22 AM - 17 Dec 2018
    55 replies 459 retweets 768 likes
    2. Military intelligence cut out?
    The new leaks also unveiled more detail about Chris Donnelly, a key player at the Institute for Statecraft (IfS) - the 'parent' of the Integrity Initiative. Donnelly boasts an extensive background in military intelligence. One document, which appears to be a summary of a trip Donnelly took to Paris confirms that the II sought to enlist supposedly independent journalists into their activities. Donnelly gives a list of journalists he feels the project can "safely involve" and "who see things our way."



    Another document reveals that Donnelly had drafted a list of suggested "military measures" that he would implement during the height of the Crimean crisis in 2014 if he was "in charge" - including laying mines in Sevastopol Bay. The question should be asked: Why would a disinformation-busting charity be drafting proposals on UK military measures?

    Perhaps because it seems the UK military had a keen interest in promoting the II's activities. Not only was the project receiving funding from the British Foreign Office, but also the British Army and Ministry of Defense - something which the MoD had denied before a leaked invoice proved it.

    In a summary of a "private discussion" between Donnelly and retired British Army officer Gen. Sir Richard Barron, the British Army's Twitter and Facebook wing, the 77th Brigade is praised for its "exploitation of social media."

    In a document published on the IfS website, Donnelly also suggested special training programs to instill "moral and ethical values" into children as young as eight-years-old, in what appears to be some kind of 1984 Orwell-style effort to indoctrinate children with a pro-government bias.


    Quote
    Rachel Pirani‏ @Liberty5380

    So the Mental Terrorists at the #IntegrityInitiative are targeting children 8-16 to instill “morals” and “ethics” to prevent them from being radicalized by “Russia or ISIS.” Kid you not...@CraigMurrayOrg @Tim_Hayward_ @haloefekti @Ian56789 @yashalevine @ukcolumn @KitKlarenberg




    2:10 PM - 16 Dec 2018
    12 replies 79 retweets 78 likes
    3. Skripal 'monitoring campaign'
    The II leapt into action after the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in March and supposedly put together a proposal to monitor social media discussion to "evaluate how the incident is being perceived" across Europe. The goal was to establish "key influencers" on social media and determine who is "friendly" to the UK.

    Lists of tweets on the Skripal affair were put together, along with country reports detailing how journalists in Europe were responding, the leak suggests. One report noted that in Italy, doubts about the UK narrative had been raised by "high-quality newspapers" and suggested that an "effective, discrete and articulated information campaign" must be directed at key figures in Italian politics and media.

    4. Scotland at risk: 'Nutcases in kilts'?
    Some of the leaks also reveal worries about fissures within the UK itself, particularly in relation to Scotland and Northern Ireland. "Will the current relationship survive, or will we have a federal relationship, or will some become independent?" one document reads.

    In a summary of a meeting with David Leask, a chief reporter at the Herald in Scotland, the II writes that a "looser federal nature" is forming between the UK's four parts and that the English don't realize it. Leask feared that some odd "nutcase in a kilt" might go to a separatist conference held in Moscow, but was relieved when that did not happen. There are also concerns that "satisfaction with BBC" is now low among ordinary Scottish people.

    Recent reporting by the Grayzone Project suggested that the offices belonging to the IfS seem to be in the basement of a building at Two Temple Place in London - but any effort by journalists to approach staff there have been aggressively rebuffed.

    Labour MP Chris Williamson has said the government has "serious questions to answer" about why it is funding "dubious groups that interfere in the affairs of European democracies and distribute misinformation about the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn" - a reference to earlier leaks showing an orchestrated smear campaign against Corbyn.

    The Daily Record has called the II revelations "one of the biggest political scandals of the year."

    Quote
    Danielle Ryan‏Verified account @DanielleRyanJ

    The #IntegrityInitiative story is insane. If this was a shady org set up in the basement of a building in Moscow it would have been instantly blasted across the pages of the WaPo and NYT. But it's just a British gov-funded disinfo outfit so...silence.

    12:19 AM - 18 Dec 2018
    10 replies 186 retweets 223 likes
    It is a wonder then, that the story has not attracted the attention of most of the mainstream media. In Britain, a handful of high profile outlets, including the Guardian, have done the bare minimum in reporting the controversy, but most have shied away. In the US, there has been near total silence on the issue.
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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Is Deep State Ruled From Britain? How British Intelligence-Linked Integrity Initiative Drafted US For New Cold War

    RT
    Wed, 09 Jan 2019 22:33 UTC



    Shortly after Donald Trump's election, the UK-funded covert influence group proposed opening a new office in the US to train "younger generation of Russia watchers" and "strengthen" American role in countering Moscow, leaks show.

    The latest tranche of documents, anonymously uploaded online last week, include an outline for "developing a US arm of [the] Integrity Initiative Program" and a schedule for a visit to Washington of its director, which details meetings with former senior Trump advisor Sebastian Gorka, and top diplomats and officials.

    'West badly needs US leadership'
    Despite the elected White House administration tentatively attempting a rapprochement with the Kremlin at the time, the group, effectively a foreign agent on US soil, suggests in the first document, dated to August 2017, that Washington needs to go in a radically different, if familiar, direction, "before it is too late."
    "The West is badly in need of a reassertion of US leadership. The EU has been unable to generate any strategic thinking or to exercise convincing leadership. Russia (& China) are successfully driving wedges between EU Member States and between Allies within NATO," reads the plaintive precis.

    "The US needs to rebuild its understanding of Russia and how to deal with it," while

    "the UK needs reminding how to play its key role of encouraging/enabling US leadership in Europe/NATO."
    To serve these aims Integrity Initiative plans to "bring together academics, think tankers, journalists, civil servants, politicians, business people," who understand "the problem" of Russia, but "have not been working coherently."

    This is a facsimile of the model Integrity Initiative unrolled in the UK after its founding in 2015, where it used its "cluster" of influential public voices to discreetly sway, manipulate or outright dictate Russia coverage on such issues as cyber warfare, Syria, and the Skripals. Or as the text euphemistically puts it, their function is "to ensure the popular support for governments that democracies require."

    With many of the original Cold Warriors now of pensionable age, a vital responsibility of the recruits would be "attracting a new generation of younger analysts to learn from the older generation."


    Screenshot from the leaked US office proposal

    There also appears to be implicit criticism of how the actual chosen US president is handling foreign policy, with the document urging the US to "improve its own governance at a time of transition."

    But luckily for America, it doesn't have to fear foreign meddling, as "the cluster will work completely impartially and not become involved in US party politics."

    Goulash with Gorka

    The second document contains the dates and locations of a trip by Chris Donnelly, the UK military intelligence veteran and director of Integrity Initiative, to the American capital between September 18 and 22 of an unstated year. In the same upload folder, there are several support documents related to some of the events he was set to attend.


    Deep State tool © REUTERS/JOSHUA ROBERTS

    The trip is wall-to-wall with meetings, dinners, lectures and workshops, and comprises separate visits to the State Department, National Defense University, and the Pentagon, but several names stand out.

    One is breakfast with Sebastian Gorka, the hawkish TV intelligence pundit, who served as a deputy assistant to Donald Trump between January and August 2017, and was credited as a key foreign policy inspiration prior to that. Another is a meeting with McCain Institute director Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to NATO, who currently represents the US in the Ukrainian peace negotiations.


    Kurt Volker meddling in Ukraine in 2017 © REUTERS/VALENTYN OGIRENKO

    There is a meeting with officials from the State Department's Global Engagement Center, an official counter-propaganda department, which, perhaps not coincidentally, has recently switched from fighting jihadis online, to combating Russia, having received a boost in funding. On the last day of the four-day trip, Donnelly was due to talk to Dorothy Rayburn, an official at USAID, the civilian aid agency, which has previously been accused by foreign governments of operating as an arm of US intelligence, and has been expelled from Russia since 2012.


    Screenshot from leaked file

    It's not meddling when Integrity Initiative does it
    Integrity Initiative has acknowledged that its private documents were "hacked" though has not confirmed or denied the authenticity of any that have been made public in four separate tranches starting from November.

    So, with only partial evidence available, it is not possible to conclude if Integrity Initiative did open an office in the US, or whether the talks held by Donnelly resulted in a shift in Russia policy.

    Nonetheless, the first leak did contain a document listing a dozen names under the heading "US Cluster," including several Donnelly was due to meet. There is also an exchange with an FCO official in which Integrity Initiative says that it is in the process of opening a non-profit in the US, and as well as a "simple office" in Washington, plans to create several clusters "in key states, not in DC." It is not clear what would constitute a "key state" for an agency with Integrity Initiative's apparently boundless remit.

    What does appear certain is that the outfit was setting up its networks of influence covertly, and without declaring its true purpose, despite operating in an allied state. While the meeting with government figures seem to give it a sheen of legitimacy, it is also notable that none of those it met are representative officials, but rather narrowly-known but influential members of various Washington letter agencies. Its policy aims are not democratically-vetted, and possibly even at odds with those officially pursued by the United States.

    Nonetheless, while a Russian outfit operating in "key US states" - even if it cultivated peaceful engagement - would surely command the attention of the Mueller investigation, the activities a UK organization advocating a return to Soviet-era tensions are almost sure to be allowed to continue, without so much as a peep from Washington.
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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    How the Integrity Initiative spun the West's highly improbable Skripal narrative

    21st Century Wire
    Sat, 05 Jan 2019 11:59 UTC



    One of the biggest and most under-reported stories of 2018 was also one of the most dazzling propaganda operations ever conducted in modern history. The narrative went something like this: a retired former Russian spy and UK double agent, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were having lunch in a sleepy Wiltshire town, before being brutally poisoned by an alleged "military grade chemical weapon" known as Novichok.

    What followed was a textbook, state-managed media operation. Incredibly, within only 48 hours, the UK government had already attributed blame to the Russian Federation and its president, Vladimir Putin. The motive: no apparent reason, just Putin being mean. "There's no logic in it; it doesn't make sense, and I don't think it needs to make sense, because essentially what the media is doing is propagandizing the population in favor of the madman theory. That's critical to do when you're trying to start aggression against a country," said Moon of Alabama at the time.

    How can the state and the mainstream media coordinate in a way that would make the inconceivable become the accepted 'official' western consensus reality narrative? Enter the British government-funded anti-Russian propaganda effort ironically named, the Integrity Initiative. A bona fide deep sate agency working under the guise of an anodyne 'think tank,' this clandestine government-media complex network not only helped craft the mainstream Skripal Affair narrative, but it also coordinated and organized attacks against any dissenting persons in the alternative press and on social media who dared to challenge their 'official' western propaganda line.

    The level of Kafkaesque corruption in this government-funded psy-op is simply breathtaking...

    RT International reports...

    The Integrity Initiative, a UK-funded group exposed in leaked files as psyop network, played a key role in monitoring and molding media narratives after the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal, newly-dumped documents reveal.

    Created by the NATO-affiliated, UK-funded Institute for Statecraft in 2015, the Integrity Initiative was unmasked in November after hackers released documents detailing a web of politicians, journalists, military personnel, scientists and academics involved in purportedly fighting "Russian disinformation." The secretive, government-bankrolled "network of networks" has found itself under scrutiny for smearing UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a Kremlin stooge - ostensibly as part of its noble crusade against anti-Russian disinformation.

    Now, new leaks show that the organization played a central role in shaping media narratives after Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were mysteriously poisoned in Salisbury last March. It's notable that many of the draconian anti-Russia measures that the group advocated as far back as 2015 were swiftly implemented following the Skripal affair - even as London refused to back up its finger-pointing with evidence.

    'Operation Iris'
    Days after the Skripals were poisoned, the Institute solicited its services to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, offering to "study social media activity in respect of the events that took place, how news spread, and evaluate how the incident is being perceived" in a number of countries. After receiving the government's blessing, the Integrity Initiative (II) launched 'Operation Iris,' enlisting "global investigative solutions" firm Harod Associates to analyze social media activity related to Skripal.

    However, Harod's confidential report did more than just parse social media reactions to the Skripal affair: It compiled a list of alleged "pro-Russia troll accounts" accused of "bombarding the audience with pro-Kremlin propaganda and disinformation relevant to the Skripal case."

    Among those who found themselves listed as nefarious thought-criminals were Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa, and a gentleman from Kent who goes by Ian56 on Twitter.

    Quote
    Ian56‏ @Ian56789 Jan 4
    Ian56‏ @Ian56789

    #IntegrityInitiative examples of Logical, Critical Thinking & Objective Analysis by yours truly Ian56. https://www.pdf-archive.com/2018/12/28/appendix-r---ian56789-example-tweets/appendix-r---ian56789-example-tweets.pdf … They didn't even include my best ones and they didn't show the pic that went with each tweet. I wonder why? #Skripal #Novichok #FalseFlag



    10:39 AM - 4 Jan 2019
    2 replies 32 retweets 42 likes
    https://twitter.com/ValLisitsa/statu...84566239899649

    Pushing a narrative
    Another document, dated March 11, 2018 - and titled "Sergei Skripal Affair: What if Russia is Responsible?" - contains a "narrative" of the Skripal incident, which blames Russia and President Vladimir Putin personally, as well as containing a number of recommended actions. These included boycotting the 2018 World Cup, starting campaigns to boycott the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, blocking Russian access to the SWIFT international banking system, and banning "RT TV and Sputnik from operating in the UK."

    Other suggestions included propaganda directed at British Muslims "to publicize what has been happening with their Muslim brethren in Crimea since the Russian invasion [sic]" and getting members of parliament to publicize the "threat Russia poses."

    It's not clear who the document was drawn up for, but it may have been provided to II-affiliated journalists in the UK and other countries. This would certainly explain the evidence-deficient echo chamber that emerged in the aftermath of Skripal's poisoning - which the UK and its allies unanimously blamed on Moscow.

    Ahead of its time?
    One of the more intriguing revelations from the fresh leaks is a document from 2015, in which Victor Madeira of the Institute for Statecraft proposes a series of measures targeting Russia, including mass expulsion of diplomats along the lines of 1971's Operation Foot.

    Coincidentally, more than 100 Russian diplomats were expelled from 20 Western countries in an apparently show of solidarity with the UK following the Skripal attack. At the time, UK Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed what she said was "the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history."

    Former MP George Galloway noted that the documents, written long before the Salisbury events, also call for the arrest of RT and Sputnik contributors (such as himself), adding: "Makes you think..."

    Quote
    George Galloway‏Verified account @georgegalloway

    So: #IntegrityInitiative funded by the British Govt called for the arrest of people like me like @afshinrattansi @JohnWight1 @NeilClark66 et al in the event of an “incident” like the #Skripal affair. Written incidentally before the #Salisbury events. Makes you think...@RT_com

    9:53 AM - 4 Jan 2019
    56 replies 554 retweets 693 likes
    A curious connection
    The new trove of hacked documents also revealed an unexplained link between the II and Skripal himself - a connection made all the more noteworthy by the group's central role in coordinating an evidence-free campaign to blame and punish Moscow for the alleged nerve-agent attack.

    A document from July 2018 contains contact details for Pablo Miller, Skripal's MI6 recruiter, handler and (conveniently) neighbor in Salisbury. Miller, it seems, had been invited to a function hosted by the Institute.

    Quote
    Moon of Alabama‏ @MoonofA

    Moon of Alabama Retweeted Kit Klarenberg
    It was already known that Pablo Miller, the MI6 handler of Sergej Skripal, attended #IntegrityInitiative meetings. There is now more material to draw a connection. It is indeed possible that IfS/II initiated the affair.

    Moon of Alabama added,
    Kit Klarenberg @KitKlarenberg
    What role did #IntegrityInitiative play in the #Skripal affair? I looked for answers from a brief look at the newly released files. More very much to follow.... https://sputniknews.com/europe/20190...iative-miller/ … #SergeiSkripal #Disinformation #Propaganda #InformationWar

    11:38 AM - 4 Jan 2019
    7 replies 234 retweets 283 likes
    Quote
    Fvnk‏ @WhatTheFvnk

    EXPLOSIVE: @DanKaszeta of @Strongpoint_UK invoiced @InitIntegrity #IntegrityInitiative £2,276.80 in July 2018 during the #Skripal #Novichok affair for writing articles on the subjects of poison gas; nerve agents; treatment; nerve agent persistency & #PortonDown @RTUKproducer







    10:24 AM - 4 Jan 2019
    34 replies 165 retweets 170 likes
    It's not clear to what degree Miller is or was involved with the group, but his appearance on an Integrity Initiative guest list adds another layer of mystery to a coordinated campaign which sought to impose punishments on Moscow that were drawn up years in advance.


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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    How Integrity Initiative's German cluster aims to end Berlin's ties with Moscow

    Sputnik
    By Kit Klarenberg
    Thu, 10 Jan 2019 16:09 UTC


    Integrity Initiative logo © Screenshot Integrity Initiative

    In my previous report on the Integrity Initiative's German cluster, I outlined why the country was a "most important" target for the shadowy information warfare effort. In this article, I discuss the various individuals cluster chief Hannes Adomeit, a political scientist and "cold warrior of the old school", has sought to recruit to the effort.

    The Initiative's overseas clusters are networks of politicians, businesspeople, military officials, academics and journalists who "understand the threat posed to Western nations" by Russian "disinformation", and work in support of the "Anglo-Saxon worldview", and a "tougher stance" towards the Russian state.

    Its German operation is no different - in fact, its target membership is among the most influential and sizeable of any cluster I've yet come across, perhaps a reflection of the vital significance of Germany to the Initiative's objectives, and the vast scale of the organization's plans for the country.

    'Full Engagement'
    Its chief, political scientist Hannes Adomeit - who on January 4 menaced me with promises of "criminal charges" - produced an 'interim report' on the cluster on October 3 2018.

    In his opening remarks, Adomeit commits to "full engagement" with the Initiative, having been hitherto obliged to withhold his full, undivided attention from the organization in order to meet "prior commitments" connected to his role as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (IPSK).


    German Cluster Chief Adomeit's Discussion of 'Specifically German Conditions'

    This primarily concerned a paper - Nach dem Helsinki Gipfel: Trübe Aussichten für eine Verbesserung der russischamerikanischen Beziehungen (After the Helsinki Summit: Dim Prospects for an Improvement of Russian-American Relations) - published under the auspices of the ISPK. Adomeit goes on to note "affiliation to ISPK and access to the journal is important" - as remarks elsewhere make clear, he intends to write and commission articles for the resource moving forward, so he continues to be involved with both "without taking on significant new commitments" for either.

    A review of the 'paper' reveals the work to be far from academic in tone or content - it's pure polemic, with a perhaps predictably extremely negative stance towards Russia. Adomeit strongly condemns the country's "intransigence" while bemoaning the "absence of a coherent Washington approach to Moscow", and in conclusion fulminates that Trump missed a golden opportunity to "reject the Kremlin's narrative", "address [Russia's] malicious behavior", and try to secure "fundamental change in Russian politics".
    "The effectiveness of this could have been enhanced if he'd sought strong European backing at the NATO summit in Brussels...[instead] Trump has further devalued the transatlantic relationship...he placates Putin's Russia. American policy [must] set boundaries for Russia...it's not clear the Kremlin wants improved relations with Washington," he writes.
    Cluster Meetings
    As of October 3 2018, the only confirmed members of the Initiative's German cluster 2018 are Harold Elletson - a long-time MI6 operative, who conducted espionage operations in the former Soviet Union - and Joachim Krause, Adomeit's "close friend" and former Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Institute for International and Security Affairs) colleague, currently Director of the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel.

    Krause is chief editor of Germany's "only journal on strategies studies" - Zeitschrift fur Strategische Analysen, where Adomeit's Helsinki summit attack appeared - and the cluster chief stresses the "importance of this connection", as articles will appear in the periodical expressly "for the benefit of the Initiative".


    Hannes Adomeit Outlines the German Cluster's Makeup

    At time of writing though, Adomeit had met with three others, scheduled rendezvous with three more, and intended to secure meetings with 12 further prospective members "after London and Vilnius" (it's unclear when these trips occurred).

    The three individuals Adomeit met prior to authoring the document were Marieluise Beck (German Green MP 1994 - 2017 and founder of think tank Zentrum Liberale Moderne), Claudia von Salzen (journalist at Der Tagesspiegel), and Susanne Spahn (academic). Each was provided of an outline of "what the Initiative is all about" and "what [their] role in it might conceivably be".

    Despite the Initiative's handbook indicating cluster members are compelled to sign non-disclosure agreements, I reached out to the trio, asking whether they joined and if so, what their responsibilities within it will be - as of January 8, Beck and Spahn haven't responded, while von Salzen replied in the negative.

    Nonetheless, it's abundantly clear why she was a person of interest for Adomeit - her journalistic output output is rife with articles highly critical of Russia, which directly and indirectly advocate a harsh government line on Moscow not merely in Germany but throughout Europe. One article published November 26 2018 - Europe must set clear boundaries for the Kremlin - even has direct echoes of Adomeit's writing on the Helsinki summit.

    Had von Salzen become part of the German cluster, the Initiative would've secured an intimate relationship with a prominent journalist writing for Berlin's "most serious and biggest daily newspaper" - which boasts a daily circulation of 148,000 - through which the organization could "pass on information by way of research papers, articles, presentations, individual conversations and personal contacts", without Initiative input being publicly disclosed.

    Moreover, as the activities of the Initiative's Spanish cluster make clear, cluster members have been mobilized to influence government policy in concerted operations - and an individual with a significant national media platform and sizeable social media following could be particularly influential in this regard.


    Hannes Adomeit's 'Interim Report' on the German Cluster

    A review of the professional and political history of Beck likewise amply demonstrates why she made such an attractive candidate for cluster recruitment. While in the Bundestag she was a consistent and voluble critic of Vladimir Putin and modern Russia, and via Zentrum Liberale Moderne (LibMod) she's continued her crusade. The organization convened its first event in March 2018, The Putin System and the Kremlin's Influence in Europe, at which participants apparently agreed Russia was an "authoritarian kleptocracy" attempting to destroy liberal democracy in Europe, and influencing and manipulating the continent with ease due to "Western weakness" - all points of view resonating closely with the Initiative's own.

    Intriguingly, as an MP Beck was an outspoken supporter of controversial US financier Bill Browder - named as being part of the Initiative's UK cluster. Browder has long-claimed the Moscow wing of his firm Hermitage Capital Management was stolen by Russian authorities in service of a vast tax fraud and his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was jailed for trying to expose the crime, where he later died.

    However, when documentarian Andrei Nekrasov, himself a long-time Putin critic, presented Beck with strong evidence to suggest Browder was himself in fact behind the fraud, and Magnitsky - in reality an accountant - had potentially facilitated it, she was left lost for words. Nekrasov subsequently made a film about the affair - The Magnitsky Act Behind the Scenes- and Beck played a significant role in the cancellation of its scheduled April 2016 premiere at the European parliament, and subsequent shelving of its broadcast on French and German TV.

    How High?
    Of the 15 remaining cluster candidates Adomeit had scheduled meetings with or intended to in future, it's likewise unclear who was receptive to his advances, as few have deigned to respond to my enquiries. Alice Bota, Editor of Der Zeit, said nobody had asked her to join, she was "not involved in any initiative", and had "no intention to do so in the future". Stefan Meister, of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said Adomeit "only wrote" to him about the Initiative, and he wasn't interested as there "[wasn't] enough information on the project [and] partners".

    Still, again it's clear why Adomeit was interested in Meister - as the Council's Head of the Robert Bosch Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia, he contributed to a virulently anti-Russian November 2016 report published by the NATO-funded Atlantic Council, The Kremlin's Trojan Horses.


    Cover of Atlantic Council Report, 'Kremlin's Trojan Horses' - Gerhard Schroeder Features Prominently

    The document claimed a number of individuals the world over - including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder - are used by Russia to "destabilize European politics", in exactly same manner as German cluster coordinator and MI6 operative Harold Elletson's 'report' on Russian information warfare in Germany claimed 'Russlandvesteher' (including Schroeder) had been "cultivated" to propagandize for Kremlin interests, with similarly absent supporting evidence.

    However, perhaps the most high-profile names included in the document are Barbara and Arndt Freytag-Loringhofen - Barbara previously worked for the German government's coordinator for Russia policy, Andreas Schockenhoff, and her husband is NATO's first Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security, having previously been Germany's ambassador to the Czech Republic and worked as a diplomat at the German Embassy in Moscow.

    Adomeit notes - possibly with some relish - Arndt is "responsible for providing intelligence support to the North Atlantic Council and the Military Committee as well as for advising the Secretary General on intelligence and security matters". He planned to "travel to Brussels at some time", and brief and interview both, "preferably simultaneously and privately".

    The nature of the targets further underlines the degree to which the Initiative is a military intelligence operation in all but name - but while it's unclear whether the pair did eventually meet with Adomeit, their inclusion in his plans for the cluster is also a palpable demonstration of how high up the organization intends to, and potentially could, spread its international network.

    'Actual and Potential'
    Furthermore, in his bullying email to me, Adomeit made clear I'd been contacting both "actual" and "potential" members of the German cluster, in the process revealing at least some of the "well-informed people from the political, military, academic, journalistic and think-tank spheres" he approached did join the cluster.


    Integrity Initiative's German Cluster Chief Hannes Adomeit Threatens Sputnik Journalist Kit Klarenberg with 'Criminal Charges'

    While it's unclear who he's referring to, there are some clues sprinkled throughout the interim report. For instance, he writes of a 'tentative project' involving "commissioning, updating and translation" of a paper by academic Susanne Spahn - who he met September 28 2018 - on Russian media in Germany.

    Spahn is said to be "prepared to make the paper available" to the Initiative, for the sum of US$1,280 (£1,000), and Adomeit offers to translate it "also for a fee" - he adds "a decision is needed on this" from "Chris", presumably referring to Institute for Statecraft chief Chris Donnelly. It's uncertain whether Donnelly acquiesced, but an English-language version was certainly published in December.

    Even more significantly, in a section marked 'examples of networking in progress', Adomeit refers to another project by Spahn on the "political orientation of the more than three million Germans with a post-Soviet migration background", including "the 2.3 million Russlanddeutsche and their family members, i.e. persons with German ethnic roots deported in 1944 to Siberia and Kazakhstan".

    He notes she received funding for the project from the German government, but when they met had been unable to find an academic or research institution that would "ostensibly monitor the soundness of the research and affix its stamp of approval". In response, Adomeit discussed the issue with his "close friend" and former colleague Joachim Krause, who agreed the IPSK "would be ready to provide the necessary institutional affiliation", and presumably publish it in Zeitschrift fur Strategische Analysen.

    These comments offer much cause for alarm. Evidently, despite state backing, Spahn couldn't find a single research outlet willing to verify, support or publish her 'research', seemingly suggesting it fell far short of scholarly and/or scientific standards - yet Adomeit enthusiastically secured the superficial "stamp of approval" and publication for the paper from an academic institution closely connected to another cluster member, despite being acutely aware of its potentially dubious probity.

    It's not hard to see why he did so though, for it's highly probable - if not certain - the paper would very much "benefit the Initiative". While Spahn's work is seemingly yet to appear in Krause's specialist journal, in May 2018 Berlin's Institut für Strategie, Politik, Sicherheits und Wirtschaftsberatung (Institute for Strategic, Political, Security and Economic Consultancy) published a brief paper she wrote, Russischsprachige im Fokus: Wie Russland und die AfD Einfluss nehmen (Russian Speakers in Focus: How Russia and the AfD Influence).

    The document has very, very close parallels with Harold Elletson's aforementioned 'report' on Russian information warfare in Germany - just as he claimed 'Russlandvesteher' were a core part of Russian 'information warfare' operations in Germany, so too does Spahn allege Russia "[exploits Germany's] Russian speakers for its political goals", using them to "spread a negative image of Germany and its western allies."


    MI6 Operative Harold Elletson Discusses 'Russlandvesteher'

    Evidence for her incendiary assertions is either absent or extremely suspect indeed, the only citations offered typically mainstream media articles, or papers she herself has written. For instance, the alleged "socialization in authoritarian systems" of Russlanddeutsche is claimed to account for the group's high receptivity to populist parties such as the AfD - but the only supporting basis for this notion is polling data suggesting 30 percent of such individuals think Germany needs a "strong leader", versus 18 percent of the wider population.

    Likewise, she finds Russlanddeutsche viewing AfD leader Alexander Gauland "slightly negatively, but not as negatively as Germans without a migration background" somehow highly significant.

    "These results suggest a positive attitude towards President Putin and his foreign policy," she concludes, declining to elaborate on how and why any of the data she's presented could possibly support such a conclusion.

    Amused to Death

    Laughable as her findings may appear to some, what's not remotely amusing is the prospect of such venomously anti-Russian propaganda being given a legitimizing "stamp of approval" by a questionable academic institution "for the benefit" of a secretive British state and NATO-funded organization, passed to high-ranking journalists, politicians and military figures - both connected and unconnected to the Initiative - and disseminated publicly under the guise of 'independent' and/or 'expert' research.

    It's even more sobering that such papers are just one way in which the Integrity Initiative is seeking to worsen relations between Germany and Russia - and indeed Germany is just one country in which the Initiative has constructed or is seeking to construct a network to impact domestic and international government policy in its own interests, and the political, financial and military interests of those who fund it.

    Moreover, while it'll surely be a relief to many Adomeit wasn't apparently successful in getting all his targets 'on-side', it's still troublingly unclear who became an "actual" cluster member, and whether he reached out to anyone comparable to those who rejected him in their place - and if so who.

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Bellingcat activist fails to ban blogger who exposed his ties to UK propaganda outfit on Twitter

    RT
    Published time: 14 Jan, 2019 08:59
    Edited time: 14 Jan, 2019 10:38
    Get short URL


    FILE PHOTO © Reuters / Kacper Pempel

    An activist of the controversial investigative site Bellingcat has tried to make Twitter ban a Canadian blogger, who highlighted his links to a UK-backed covert influence network.

    A recent Twitter post by a Canadian blogger, Stephen McIntyre, apparently did not sit well with Dan Kaszeta, an active contributor to the self-styled “citizen journalism” investigative website Bellingcat. The Canadian apparently drew the ire of the activist by highlighting some of his connections to the Integrity Initiative (II), a clandestine propaganda outlet funded by the UK government.

    McIntyre posted an invoice sent by Kaszeta’s firm, Strongpoint Security, billing II’s parent organization, the Institute for Statecraft, for about $800 for an article penned by the man. The document is part of a trove of II’s data leaked online. The former US Marines veteran apparently got pretty annoyed and turned to the Twitter administration, demanding that the blogger be banned for exposing his personal data. He argues that posting personal data is banned by Twitter rules.


    © Twitter / @ClimateAudit

    McIntyre was briefly banned on Twitter, but promptly appealed his case by arguing that he violated no rules as he simply wrote about Kaszeta’s employment, which is not prohibited on Twitter. His arguments appeared to be convincing enough for the social media giant to lift the ban without any preconditions and leave all the information posted by the Canadian as it is.

    Quote


    Stephen McIntyre @ClimateAudit
    Replying to @ClimateAudit
    2/ on the grounds that my tweet observing that my tweet did not violate their privacy policy and, in particular, that my observatino that Kaszeta had been employed by a "UK government propaganda campaign" was squarely within their policy for permitted speech

    5:21 AM - Jan 13, 2019
    36 people are talking about this
    Quote
    Stephen McIntyre @ClimateAudit

    Replying to @ClimateAudit
    3/ In their suspension notice, Twitter required me to remove tweet about Kzszeta as condition of return of service. Much to my surprise, Twitter accepted my appeal and restored my account with no condition on removing the tweet about Kaszeta. Good for Twitter.

    102

    5:28 AM - Jan 13, 2019
    The two men’s spat apparently attracted some attention as new people joined in McIntyre’s investigation, and starting speculating which of the articles Kaszeta wrote for II was the work to which the invoice related. The latter rushed to file more complaints with Twitter, but these were to no avail.

    The Integrity Initiative appeared on the public radar following a series of leaks by a group which claims to be associated with the Anonymous hackers group. Documents published by the group showed that the network was stealthily operating “clusters” of influencers across Europe, who were working to ensure that pro-UK narratives dominate the media. Ostensibly, the outfit is fighting against “Russian propaganda.”
    Last edited by Hervé; 14th January 2019 at 12:48.
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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Hard times create strong men, Strong men create good times, Good times create weak men, Weak men create hard times.
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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    another great example of blantant lies and media manipulation:




    and






    media is in a bit of a panic and seems to be in full damage control mode:

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Quote Posted by TargeT (here)
    IT'S
    ALL
    LIES
    Now a watch company has put out an ad in response:



    There's a successful businessman on YouTube, "Coach Red Pill," that gives free advice on various subjects. He's one of many I've seen predicting this trend of companies explicitly siding with a given set of values in order to attract a loyal customer base.

    In the past, most companies tried to avoid politics and ideologies in general in order to appeal to the largest market possible. As companies start coming under pressure to explicitly conform to new social diktats, first we see junk like the Gillette ad, and then we see a reaction to it. Or deplatforming, or boycotts. Companies are being forced into choosing an ideological position in order to satisfy their customer base, or else face backlash. We can expect marketing to increasingly take this turn. In other words, free market capitalism is going to prevail as people begin to "vote" with their wallets.

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Quote Posted by TargeT (here)
    another great example of blantant lies and media manipulation:
    its getting so much better.... these kinds of blows to the MSM are exactly what is needed for "normies".

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    [Integrity Initiative related]
    “By showing the real sources of information on which they rely, newspapers like El País or El Mundo are exposed as conduits of the intelligence services to support the suppression of maverick political viewpoints… Last year, El País carried out a frenzied and paranoid campaign claiming that the Catalan crisis was not sparked by the Popular Party government’s violent repression of the secessionists, but was the result of Moscow and its “fake news.” It quoted experts and specialists working for Spanish think tanks like Instituto Elcano and Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), and the European Council on Foreign Relations. The leaked documents show that many members of these think tanks are members of the “Spanish Cluster” of the Integrity Initiative.”
    [Elizabeth Vos in Disobedient Media]



    Integrity Initiative And Affiliates Behind Multiple Attacks On Disobedient Media

    January 15, 2019 Elizabeth Vos


    Last month, an anonymous hacking group published a slew of documents that revealed a vast operation by the Integrity Initiative and its parent group, the Institute for Statecraft. The organizations and their slew of affiliates sought to propagandize a Western audience by crafting false narratives, creating smears out of whole cloth, and in all of these efforts, backed by the UK intelligence community. In other words, make psychological warfare sound like journalism, while accusing Russia of the same.

    The influence of the group and its contacts stretches from news outlets in Europe to Washington DC insiders to Silicon Valley. Multiple reports published by Grayzone, the World Socialist Website and others map this infinite array of relationships, which we will not endeavor to outline in full here.

    The revelation is not merely an embarrassment to some factions within the British intelligence community, but represents a glimpse into the inner workings of the propaganda machine that keeps the plutocratic class in control of the public.

    John Pilger once wrote of Edward Bernays, the founder of modern propaganda:

    “Bernays’ influence extended far beyond advertising. His greatest success was his role in convincing the American public to join the slaughter of the First World War. The secret, he said, was “engineering the consent” of people in order to “control and regiment [them] according to our will without their knowing about it. He described this as “the true ruling power in our society” and called it an “invisible government.”


    It is this same invisible controlling force that has been exposed at work in the anonymous hack of the Integrity Initiative.

    Grayzone’s Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal summarized the scandal, writing:

    “Recent hacked documents have revealed an international network of politicians, journalists, academics, researchers and military officers, all engaged in highly deceptive covert propaganda campaigns funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), NATO, Facebook and hardline national security institutions… The whole operation appears to be run by, and in conjunction with, members of British military intelligence… The exposing of the Integrity Initiative has just scratched the surface of what appears to be a much more sophisticated, insidious, and extremely online version of Operation Mockingbird.”


    In the weeks following the hack, major narratives pushed by the legacy press in the last two years have been exposed as state-friendly propaganda, including but not limited to: Russiagate, the Skripal poisoning, the smearing of Jeremy Corbyn, and the pushback against the Catalan independence movement. Grayzone also illustrated the group’s ties to Trump-insiders Katharine and Sebastian Gorka and neoconservative interests, detailing the direct involvement of the State Department’s Todd Leventhal.

    The Integrity Initiative was not only involved with propagandizing against Russia. The group also interfered in American politics, according to Grayzone:

    “It is clear that the influence operation has already been activated in the US. Hacked documents reveal that the Integrity Initiative is cultivating powerful allies inside the State Department, top DC think tanks, the FBI and the DHS, where it has gained access to Katharine Gorka and her husband, the fascist-linked cable news pundit Sebastian Gorka.”


    As commented on by Jimmy Dore, the leaked documents reveal the identity of a probable British intelligence asset, Bracey-Lane, who worked for the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign. Again, this suggests that the group was not simply aimed at scare-mongering against Russia, but also actively worked to interfere in American politics while blaming Russia for the same thing.
    Click image for larger version

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    The World Socialist Website described the sources of funding for the Initiative, writing:
    ” … with £1.96 million from the FCO and the rest from the US State Department, NATO and the American neoconservative Smith Richardson Foundation. Facebook, which plays an integral role in imposing censorship on behalf of US imperialism, donated £100,000.”
    The larger-than-life quality of the story included in Grayzone’s discovery of a fake, derelict location and real offices located in an area known as “the Temple,” that is filled with “barristers’ chambers and used to serve as the precinct for the Knights of Templar.”

    Grayzone also cites UK Parliament Member Chris Williamson, who directly compared the machinations of the Integrity Initiative with the CIA’s cold-war Operation Mockingbird:

    “These tactics resemble those deployed by the CIA in Operation Mockingbird that was launched at the height of the cold war in the early 1950s. Its aims included using the mainstream news media as a propaganda tool.”


    Despite the story’s historic significance of the scandal, Western corporate media’s glaring refusal to cover the story requires little explanation. Disobedient Media’s William Craddick noted last year that Richard Stengel, a former Editor of Time Magazine revealed in the leak to be tied to the Integrity Initiative via the Global Engagement Center and Todd Leventhal, had publicly advocated for the use of domestic propaganda.
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    Video address:https://twitter.com/i/status/995026256214179840

    That the Integrity Initiative would be unmasked as a front for state-backed propaganda is not without precedent. In the series Decipher You, this writer and President of the Internet Party of New Zealand Suzie Dawson noted the use of NGOs as proxy organizations used by intelligence agencies.

    Virtually simultaneous to the revelations stemming from the anonymously hacked documents, Disobedient Media‘s William Craddick also reported allegations that a British intelligence asset had infiltrated right-wing outlets including the Voice of Europe. The report was not the first time that British influence has been noted interfering in various US affairs.

    In April last year, Disobedient Media reported on Joseph Mifsud’s ties to UK intelligence figures, and other connections suggesting British influence at the heart of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, concluding:

    “Is British intelligence involvement in RussiaGate, as outlined above, the international version of CrowdStrike and former FBI figures manufacturing the Guccifer 2.0 persona specifically to smear WikiLeaks via false allegations of a Russian hack of the DNC? Have we been looking in the wrong place – at the wrong country – to unearth the so-called ‘foreign meddling’ in the 2016 US election all along?”


    In light of evidence showing that Mifsud’s real ties are to British intelligence, not the Russian government, the possibility arises that the UK made efforts to subvert the Presidency of Donald Trump by creating false evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election. In this vein, former Reagan NSC staff-member Richard Levine discussed the role of the GCHQ in the evolution of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, explaining the context in which Trump’s election to the US Presidency would have been seen as totally unacceptable in British establishment and intelligence circles:

    “As perceived throughout 2016, Donald Trump and his enunciated views on Muslims constituted a threat to cohesion within the United Kingdom as well as to its external affairs, for if Trump became President, a continuance of the special relationship between Britain and America could undercut Britain’s position vis-à-vis the nation’s burgeoning Muslim population as well as its relations with Muslim-majority nations. If Britain were to suspend its special relationship with America in the wake of a Trump presidency, the island nation’s economy and security could suffer grievous harm. Further, the next British monarch might be precluded from becoming the head of the Commonwealth of Nations due to friction with Muslim-majority members incensed by Washington. Thus, both courses appeared unacceptable.”


    Levine added:

    “It may therefore be contended that former or current operatives, with decades-long associations with American and British intelligence, took part in activities, which one of these individuals alleged was penetrated by Russia. Of course, these persons were not part of the Trump campaign or presidency: rather they are connected to the CIA, the FBI, and MI6.


    Grayzone writes of the Integrity Initiative’s focus on drumming up specifically neo-mccarthyist fervor:

    “The Integrity Initiative has sought to organize journalists across the West into an international echo chamber hyping up the supposed threat of Russian disinformation—and to defame politicians and journalists critical of this new Cold War campaign.”


    Small independent outlets including Disobedient Media were among those targeted by proxies and partners of the Integrity Initiative and its parent organization, the Institute for Statecraft. One of the earliest attacks on Disobedient Media came from the Atlantic Council’s controversial DFRLab, which infamously partnered with Facebook to help shape the social media giant’s censorship policy. The Atlantic Council was also revealed to be a partner of the Integrity Initiative. Disobedient Media co-founder William Craddick wrote of the Council’s attack on this outlet:

    “On February 10th, 2017, an article distributed by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Lab attacked research published by Disobedient Media concerning the EU and added the Atlantic Council to a line of media houses and other outlets who deny the Wikileaks and Harvard Human Rights Journal supported research collected and published by Disobedient Media exposing the role that the Clintons and Department of State played in helping Laura Silsby and her co-conspirators off the hook after they were caught smuggling children illegally out of Haiti.”


    Disobedient Media’s coverage of the EU Army in particular noted the role of NATO in supplying the new fighting force with equipment and weaponry that was being shipped to Europe under the auspices of Operation Atlantic Resolve. Atlantic Resolve is an ongoing NATO operation intended to counteract Russia, a major geostrategic opponent of the United Kingdom. It should be of little surprise to anyone that British government propaganda programs would attack Disobedient Media’s coverage of operations that have allowed them to use the United States as a proxy in their centuries-long competition with Russia for political dominance both in Europe and around the globe.

    An even closer proxy of the Integrity Initiative attacked this writer in 2017, shortly after Disobedient Media covered the violent suppression of the Catalan independence movement by authorities in Spain. The Spanish paper of record El Pais then published a hit piece against this outlet, representing our coverage as a Russian disinformation front. Never mind that all individuals associated with Disobedient Media are US or UK citizens with no ties, financial or otherwise, to Russia. We are proud to accept zero financial incentive from anyone, Russian or not. We decline to so much as include Google advertising on our site, to maintain total independence.

    After being translated electronically from Spanish to English, the passage reads:

    “The digital armies of the Kremlin operate with the same pattern: viralize exaggerated or false messages and news to exacerbate a crisis and encourage division in the US or Europe, something that ends up benefiting the position of Moscow. For that, these guerrillas use websites that look like serious diaries that create or host the news that is later shared. One of the most popular is DisobedientMedia.com, which is presented under the guise of a research journalism website, but which has been dedicated to promoting all sorts of false conspiracy theories such as the one that linked Hillary Clinton to a pedophile network. According to the Atlantic Council think tank, the employees of that supposed newspaper have also spread false news in the German campaign, as Angela Merkel allowed the entrance of ISIS jihadists in Europe to achieve greater military power.”
    [Emphasis added]

    The smear attempt continued:

    “Now that same medium and those same employees have launched to disseminate information about the Catalan crisis, often interacting with Assange himself. On September 15 they published a new in which they made false claims that the cancellation of the referendum has cast doubt on the permanence of Spain in the EU, that the Spanish government has restricted press freedom or that Amnesty International has condemned the illegal vote on the independence. The news ends with a photo of Francisco Franco on horseback and its author refers to “the enduring influence of the fascist dictator Francisco Franco in Spanish politics.”


    That same author, Elizabeth Lea Vos (@ElizabethleaVos) shared his information in Twitter seven days ago with messages like “Where is the EU’s response to Spanish authoritarianism?”

    Unsurprisingly, Grayzone has described El Pais as a specifically “friendly host” to the Integrity Initiative, and the World Socialist Website reported that a key focusing of the Integrity Initiative included meddling in Spanish affairs, specifically regarding Catalan independence:

    “By showing the real sources of information on which they rely, newspapers like El País or El Mundo are exposed as conduits of the intelligence services to support the suppression of maverick political viewpoints… Last year, El País carried out a frenzied and paranoid campaign claiming that the Catalan crisis was not sparked by the Popular Party government’s violent repression of the secessionists, but was the result of Moscow and its “fake news.” It quoted experts and specialists working for Spanish think tanks like Instituto Elcano and Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), and the European Council on Foreign Relations. The leaked documents show that many members of these think tanks are members of the “Spanish Cluster” of the Integrity Initiative.”


    It appears that El Pais’s attack on this author and Disobedient Media was likely a part of the now-unmasked efforts of the Integrity Initiative’s to propagandize against anyone critical of the West or their allies. El Pais’s attempt to tie this author and Disobedient Media to the so-called “digital army of the Kremlin” didn’t so much as attempt to provide a single tie between this author or Disobedient Media and Russia, much less the Russian government. However, it would not be the last time that this outlet would be accused of acting on behalf of Russia despite all evidence to the contrary.

    Last year, Disobedient Media’s technical correspondent was shamelessly doxxed and attacked in a hit-piece authored by Duncan Campbell. Campbell, much like the Atlantic Council, similarly attacked Disobedient Media’s coverage of the EU Army and ties between certain British officials and organizations linked to terrorist networks. While multiple writers have since thoroughly debunked the claims made in Campbell’s farce of an article, Carter informed this writer that shortly before the piece was published, a photographer and journalist from the Sunday Times appeared at his residence unannounced. This would suggest that the journalists in question had been tipped off as to Carter’s real identity and address, as well as the imminent publication of Campbell’s report. Carter added that shortly after Campbell’s article was published, he received a follow-up email from Sunday Times reporter Ian Williams.

    Fascinatingly, Ian Williams is part of the ‘Russian Outer Core group of II‘ described in the Integrity Initiative scandal. While Carter cannot confirm that Ian Williams was the same reporter who appeared on his doorstep just prior to the publication of Campbell’s article, it is nonetheless relatively predictable that a reporter associated with the Integrity Initiative’s efforts to propagandize against Russia would seize on Campbell’s ad-hominem-drenched hysteria.

    It goes without saying that Disobedient Media is far from the only outlet targeted by organizations and individuals associated with the Integrity Initiative. However, by discussing the targeting of this single, minor independent outlet, one realizes the gravity of state-backed resources devoting to smearing domestic, independent voices. It provides a piece of a larger pattern seen repetitively across the independent media sphere, wherein critical thinkers are attacked viciously under the guise of “protecting democracy” and “countering pro-Russia talking-points.”

    These groundbreaking revelations documented meticulously by Grazyone and others form the latest in a series of reports linking British intelligence to meddling in US political affairs, a twisted reflection of the reality deflected from in the Russiagate saga. That state-sponsored organizations targeted the leader of a political party is a revelation whose shockwaves should reverberate for a long time to come.

    If the incestuous relationship between the State and corporate world hadn’t already been proven, the revelation of this nefarious project should put the final nail in the coffin of the separation between technocracy, plutocracy and governance.

    Disobedient Media will continue to report on this story as it develops.
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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  31. Link to Post #237
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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    Quote Posted by TargeT (here)
    Quote Posted by TargeT (here)
    another great example of blantant lies and media manipulation:
    its getting so much better.... these kinds of blows to the MSM are exactly what is needed for "normies".

    haha,,, does it get any better than this?

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    The 2nd Annual REAL Fake News Awards






    Published on 25 Jan 2019

    SHOW NOTES AND MP3 AUDIO: https://www.corbettreport.com/episod...e-news-awards/

    Live (by which I mean recorded) from western Japan, it's The 2nd Annual REAL Fake News Awards, that ceremony where the worst Fake News offenders of the past year are dishonoured with the shameful Dino awards. So will The Guardian retain its title as biggest purveyor of fake news or will a new challenger come along to take its place? Find out in this year's most exciting award show!
    ..................................................my first language is TYPO..............................................

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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    I guess it has to get even worse... before it gets better.

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  37. Link to Post #240
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    Default Re: Fake News and the War on Freedom and Truth

    this is a great clip of multiple stories and how they could (probably are) just spin and manipulation.

    It still seems like it's getting "sloppy" to me... too obvious:
    Hard times create strong men, Strong men create good times, Good times create weak men, Weak men create hard times.
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