by Scott Humor
Saint Petersburg, Savushkina, 55 is the most famous office building in the world, thanks to the relentless promotion of the United States government, the CIA, FBI, and by the powers of the entire Western media, financed by Western governments. VOA, NPR, and Svoboda, by the government of the US; the BBC by the government of the UK; CNN by the governments of Saudi Arabia; the DW, by the government of Germany; and so on and so forth. You name it, they all punched time to promote this office building.
To be specific, it’s not even a building, but several adjoined buildings that cover an entire city block, an urban development plan common for Saint Pete’s. That’s why every business here has the address of Savushkina, 55 followed by a building number. You can take a virtual tour around it, to see for yourself. The buildings are shared by several dozens of private businesses, by the local Police department, and by the newsrooms of half a dozen Russia Media sources like the FAN (Federal News Agency), the Neva News (Nevskie Novosti), Political Russia, Kharkov News Agency, publishing Ukrainian news, and others. They all are privately owned and operated and generate over 55 million unique visitors per month. Overall, several thousand people come to this building to work every morning. But you wouldn’t know this by account of Western media. For over two years now, these people are being harassed and collectively branded as “THE KREMLIN TROLLS.”
The building is very popular because it’s located in a quiet historical neighborhood and is in walking distance from a suburban train station. It’s newly renovated offices offer open floor plans with Scandinavian fleur so very appreciated by the news people. In addition, the rent for this building is less than in center city. Which is why Evgeny Zubarev, a former top editor for the RIA NEWS, choose it for his media startup. He took several offices allowing him to manage his growing media giant without wasting time to commute. Now, the FAN newsroom alone employs about 300 journalists.
This wasn’t always the case.
At the beginning of 2014, the building was still under construction and renovation, when an anti-Russian government group of hackers called first “The Anonymous International” and latter “Shaltay-B0ltay” fingered it as the “Kremlin trolls’ layer.”
Their wordpress blog is still here. It was last updated on November 2016. Its title states: “Anonymous International. Shaltay Boltay/Press Secretary of the group. Creating reality and giving meaning to words.”
November 7, 2014, Khodorkovsky, who acted as an integral part of the CIA “Kremlin trolls” Project, tweeted the picture of one of the entrances to one of the buildings saying: “Savuchkina 55. New home for bots. ID check system. Not a sign there. I won’t say who took the photo.”
Савушкина 55
Новый домик для ботов. Пропускная система. Ни одной вывески. Чье фото – не скажу. pic.twitter.com/oCVUAvSTW4— Ходорковский Михаил (@mich261213) November 7, 2014
Someone commented by saying
Nov 7 2014. The comment reads: “I live there and pass this building on my way to work. The sign on the building says “For Rent”
@tvjihad @mich261213 Михаил, я каждый день мимо проезжаю на работу. и да, чье фото с вывеской не скажу))) pic.twitter.com/FlTEJJwyTt
— Kirill_V (@Kirill_V1) November 7, 2014
The phone number on the picture 324-56-06 belongs to the commercial real estate company Praktis Consulting & Brokerage that managed the rent of offices.
Midsummer 2014, Evgeny Zubarev with his start up and several hundred journalists moved in, along with the Police department, and a slew of other businesses people. Little did they know what was to come.
***
The best way to get information is to make it up.
Everything what we know now about the so-called “Kremlin trolls from the Internet Research Agency paid by Putin’s favorite chef,” came from one source, a group of CIA spies that used the mascot of Shaltay-Boltay, or Humpty-Dumpty, for their collective online persona.
They were arrested in November 2016 and revealed as the FSB and former FSB officers. One of them even managed a security department for the Kaspersky Lab. They all were people highly skilled and educated in manipulating and creating large online databases, in any online research imagined, and the knowledge of hacking and altering databases, including those that were run by the Russian government. They weren’t poor people. They weren’t there for the money. They were ideologically driven. Their hatred towards Russia and its people was the motive for their actions.
At some point, Gazeta.ru, an online Russophobic publication, suggested that “Shaltai-Boltai was just a distraction meant to confuse everybody.” They themselves were more concise by stating that they were working to change the reality.
Russian authorities, the courts, and the lawyers, refused to call these men hackers. There was a reason for this. They weren’t so much hackers in a classic sense, as in when someone gains access to real information and copies it. This group wasn’t necessarily hacking existing information, but planting information. They were creating files about fake nonexistent companies and employees, files with blurry fake paystubs, memos, emails, phone messages and so on. The fakes looked convincing, but they still were forgeries that could be easy disproved for someone who had access to the real information.
That’s when the hacking took place, when the FSB agents went into government databases and created records of people and companies that didn’t exist.
I think that part of the reasons why some of them got the mild sentences of three years in general security prison, and some were left free, wasn’t just the fact that they agreed to collaborate with the Russian government, but also the fact that they didn’t actually steal information from government officials like Medvedev and his press secretary, Nataliya Timakova, or the owner of the largest in Europe catering business, Evgeny Prigozhin. They made information up and claimed that it was real.
These guys gave a bad name to all hackers, whistleblowers, leakers and spies. Now, journalists presented with some “hacked” and leaked secrets has to think it over, less they end up with an egg on their face like journos from the Fontanka, Vedomosti and Novaya Gazeta in case of the “Kremlin’s trolls.”
If we accept that the Shaltay-Boltay group was working to create and distribute documents they forged, claiming that those files were “hacked,” we would also understand a mysterious statement made by them to BuzzFeed.
“In email correspondence with BuzzFeed, a representative of the group claimed they were “not hackers in the classical sense.”
“We are trying to change reality. Reality has indeed begun to change as a result of the appearance of our information in public,” wrote the representative, whose email account is named Shaltai Boltai, which is the Russian for tragic nursery rhyme hero Humpty Dumpty.”
Bazzfeed also said back in 2014, that “The leak from the Internet Research Agency is the first time specific comments under news articles can be directly traced to a Russian campaign.”
Now, this is a very important grave mark.
Just think about this working scheme: Shaltay-Boltay with a group of anti-government “activists” created the “Internet Research Agency,” they and some “activists” created 470 FaceBook accounts used to post comments that looked unmistakably “trollish.”
After that other, CIA affiliated entities, like the entire Western Media, claimed the “Russian interference in the US election.” Finally, the ODNI published a report lacking any evidence in it.
The link to their report is here, but I don’t recommend you to read it. You will gain as much information by reading this report as you would by chewing on some wet newspaper. Ask my dog for details.
Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections
https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf
Only three paragraphs is interesting on the page 4:
"Russia used trolls as well as RT as part of its influence efforts to denigrate Secretary Clinton. This effort amplified stories on scandals about Secretary Clinton and the role of WikiLeaks in the election campaign. The likely financier of the so-called Internet Research Agency of professional trolls located in Saint Petersburg is a close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence. A journalist who is a leading expert on the Internet Research Agency claimed that some social media accounts that appear to be tied to Russia’s professional trolls—because they previously were devoted to supporting Russian actions in Ukraine—started to advocate for President-elect Trump as early as December 2015."
In other words, in its report with a subtitle: “Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence ODNI, is quoting the Shaltay-Boltay, a group that had been proved to work for the CIA by “creating reality.”
The only reason why they don’t provide us with evidence, with at least one lousy IP address with the Russian trace roots that would convincingly point at the company named the Internet Research Agency, is because this company never existed, it never had any IP addresses assigned to it that would be verifiable via third parties like RIPE network coordination and via online domain tools.
We understand that having hundreds of people working ten to twelve hours a day, as they claimed, posting hundreds messages hourly, would use huge amount of bandwidth. They would need a very fast internet connection with unlimited bandwidth that only a business can get. Inevitably, this internet connection would come with the assigned IP addresses. No internet provider would let this kind of bandwidth hog to create this kind traffic without being forced to separate them from other customers.
One example, a woman with the last name Malcheva filed a lawsuit in court against the companies “Internet Research, LLC” and “TEKA, LLC,” claiming unpaid wages.
The court asked her to produce evidence of her work, and then denied her claim after she produced a photo of a computer with an IP address on its screen as evidence of her employment.
IP Address 109.167.231.85
inetnum: 109.167.231.0 – 109.167.231.255
netname: WESTCALL-NET
descr: S-Peterburg Hotel Corintia Wi-Fi
An IP address that was assigned to a luxury hotel in Saint-Petersburg. A hotel that was awarded multiple international awards for excellence. An immensely popular hotel among discriminating travelers. A very expensive hotel located in the center of a historic city. The woman claimed that she was an “online troll’ working from this location ten hours a day with hundreds of other virtual trolls. The judge didn’t believe her. Would you?
People from the Shaltay-Boltay group weren’t hackers in the proper terms because they worked with and for the CIA. Middle-of the-road and run-of-the-mill intelligence agencies would collect and analyze information for their governments. The CIA invents information, then goes on to manufacture and forge documents in support of their invented information; they then recruit people inside other countries and other governments to claim that they “obtained” this explosive evidence. Being the dirty cops that they are, the CIA doesn’t obtain and secure evidence, but instead they plant fake evidence on their victims.
By this act alone they change our current and past reality, and they change our future. They change our history by forging never existing “proof” of invented myths. They hire and train groups of military men to act as “protesters” around government buildings, while other military men from other countries shoot at unsuspected bystanders whose death allows Washington to claim the sovereign governments’ wrongdoing.
CIA-operated groups arrest and kill government officials or force them to flee, like in Ukraine. They take over a couple of government buildings and declare their victory over a huge country, just like it happened in Russia in 1991 and 1993 and in Ukraine in 2005 and 2014. For some reason, they claim that governments are those people who take over a couple of buildings in one city. When in fact, our countries’ governments are those people whose names we wrote on ballots, regardless of where these people are located. We don’t run around like chickens with our heads cut off electing a new president every time our current president leaves the country.
Going back to the CIA’s Humpty-Dumpty project that came online sometime in 2013. Why would anyone name their enterprise after such predictable failure, you might ask. Because, in the Russian alliteration, Shalti-Boltai means “shake up and brag about it” and not as in its original Carroll’s version of “humping and dumping.”
I went ballistic after someone retweeted me this CNN clip titled “Russia used Pokemon Go to interfere with the US elections.”
I actually listened to the clip itself, in which they brought up the Internet Research Agency” from SP. Knowing full well that the hackers who “leaked” the information about this “Agency” were arrested and successfully charged for treason because they worked for the CIA should prevent the CIA to run fake news about the entities and people they themselves made up. You would think that the matter of the “Kremlin trolls from Saint Petersburg” should be dead and buried after the arrest. The CIA and other 16 intelligence agencies should know better than to use information that is being known now as “discovered’ with their “help.”
Because it’s all fake and we know it.
We also know everything that the CIA touches is fake. Speaking in layman’s term, it’s as if all those middle aged bald guys would start licking their balls while claiming to be in fulfilling relations. If it’s just you, guys, there is no relations. It’s just you. Deal with it!
The American intelligence community cannot claim an existence of threats against America if all fingers in those “threats” are pointing back at the American intelligence community.
By stating that someone interfered with the US election using the Internet Research Agency in SP, is plainly to state that it’s CIA that interfered in the American elections.
—
Let’s just briefly run over the matter, before I tell you what exactly took place.
—
On September 6, 2017, Alex Stamos, a Chief Security Officer, posted a statement titled “An Update On Information Operations On Facebook”:
“In reviewing the ads buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 — associated with roughly 3,000 ads — that was connected to about 470 inauthentic accounts and Pages in violation of our policies. Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia.”
To make sure that people including myself won’t find those accounts, the FB deleted them.
“We don’t allow inauthentic accounts on Facebook, and as a result, we have since shut down the accounts and Pages we identified that were still active.”
That’s how it’s done in the US. They destroy all potential evidence while laying heavy blame on Russia. Facebook destroys evidence of “Russians crimes” while public ask them to show those evidences. This means only one thing: the pieces of evidence are pointing at something Facebook wants to protect, which is the CIA.
You see, I am not suggesting that they are lying about those accounts being real or that they “affiliated with Russia,” because, if the Shaltay-Boltay group worked with people from the Soros and Khodorkovky-backed group of human rights lawyers “Team 29,” created in February 2015, then their only task, it seems, was to service the psyop of the “Internet Trolls.” It looks to me like they could also coordinated the work done by those 470 FaceBook accounts while being on the territory of Russia. Considering that, it’s not a complete lie for the FB to say that those accounts were “Russia affiliated” and that they were “likely operated from Russia.”
Facebook also can claim with plausible deniability that they are ignorant of the fact that people behind the Internet Research Agency troll hoax are proved by the Russian court to be affiliated with the CIA, while people who have been acting as the “witnesses” to this Project are lawyers from Team 29, “human rights activists and also journalists from the Norwegian Bonnier AB owned Fontanka, Taiwan-based Novaya Gazeta, and the Latvia-based Meduza; these people are factually proven to be backed by Soros, a CIA financial branch, like a journalist who has received an award from Khodorkovsky.
The entire campaign of blaming Russia in “meddling” is being reported without ANY tangible proof that could be verified by at least two independently existing sources, that’s why we should grab ANY grains of information. That’s why Facebook’s statement that “About one-quarter of these ads were geographically targeted, and of those, more ran in 2015 than 2016″ is very important.
Why?
Because, fake business entities known as “the Internet Research Agency,” and “the Internet Research” in the government electronic business registry, they were treated as real companies by the system. Because of their inactivity on all of their bank accounts and because no one ever filed required forms, they were automatically liquidated by the electronic system.
The United Business Registry database in Russia works according to the Federal laws, so after twelve months of inactivity a business is simply liquidated. The Internet Research Agency was liquidated in December 2016 by the government system after it been inactive for twelve month. It’s inactivity implied that the company had no employees, no office, and no bank transactions for at least twelve months! The Internet Research company was liquidated on September 2, 2015 by merging with TEKA company. According to the federal business Registry TEKA was a construction retailer. I wasn’t able to find any indication, like an office, phone number, names of the managers or employees, anything at all that would indicate that this company existed. Just like the Internet Research Agency and the Internet Research, TEKA existed only in the federal registry and nowhere else.
The automatic liquidation in the federal registry for inactivity explains the drop in activity on the accounts run by the Shaltay-Boltay and the others. Oh, yes, they were also hunted and on the run, out of the country. It’s hard to use bank accounts to simulate activities after you have fled the country.
The Team 29, of the human rights lawyers and activists, was created in February 2015. To give to this new company some proof of reality and instant notoriety they immediately filed a lawsuit against the Internet Research company using an activist woman with a Ukrainian last name Ludmila Savchuk (Людмила Савчук) who went and filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming some unpaid wages. Her first lawsuit the judge threw out. Only after the local general prosecutor’s office pressed the judge to take the case, the district court took the case and partially granted the Claimant her claim, but not the “moral damages.” She wanted the money for working for the “troll factory.” In essence, they wanted an official court paper that would say black on white, that there is a “troll factory” that this poor woman worked for. Without reading the file, I don’t know what the judge was thinking, but she might have smelled a rat among those virtual “trolls.”
This took place in August 2015, and by September 2 2015, a fake company named the “Internet Research” was liquidated by merging it, in the Business registry, with another fake entity, TEKA, that was created in spring 2015 as the construction materials retailer.
“Facebook disclosed on Wednesday that it had identified more than $100,000 worth of divisive ads on hot-button issues purchased by a shadowy Russian company linked to the Kremlin.”
“Most of the 3,000 ads did not refer to particular candidates but instead focused on divisive social issues such as race, gay rights, gun control and immigration, according to a post on Facebook by Alex Stamos, the company’s chief security officer. The ads, which ran between June 2015 and May 2017, were linked to some 470 fake accounts and pages the company said it had shut down.”
“Facebook officials said the fake accounts were created by a Russian company called the Internet Research Agency, which is known for using “troll” accounts to post on social media and comment on news websites.”
“The January intelligence report said the “likely financier” of the Internet Research Agency was “a close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence.” The company, profiled by The New York Times Magazine in 2015, is in St. Petersburg and uses its small army of trolls to put out messages supportive of Russian government policy.”
“To date, while news reports have uncovered many meetings and contacts between Trump associates and Russians, there has been no evidence proving collusion in the hacking or other Russian activities.”
“While there is no direct link between the Kremlin and any of these projects—both Surkov and Zubarev say their projects are privately funded—the timing, scale, and coordination of these efforts are suspicious. BuzzFeed was not able to find evidence of direct government funding to the “Internet Research Agency ,” the pro-Kremlin troll outlet operating out of 55 Savushkina, but they did reference a number of sources that revealed some level of involvement.”
—-
In my next study, I will provide you with more links, screenshots and translations. I will demonstrate to you how this story connects to the war on the Middle East and the international war on the Russian population of Ukraine.
—
In conclusion I just want to say that everything the United State touches turns into a warzone. The building on Savushkina, 55 in Saint Petersburg is no exception.
Multiple death threats are being directed at people who work there. Popular and excellent in their quality media outlets operating there have to hide their true location and rent a separate office across the city for their visitors, because people are simply afraid to come in.
Journalists and multiple business employees are threatened online with rape.
Threats to hang the journalists during a “protest meeting” on Oct 1, 2017
At least one case of terror attack on the office building that resulted in arson on October 26, 2016.
On Oct 26, 2016, several men threw bottles of Molotov cocktail in the windows of the Nevskie Novosti (Neva News). Luckily, no one was there but the owner of the Media conglomerate, Evgeny Zubarev, who put out the fire.
All of these, every threat, every simple lie is all on the United State government, its intelligence community, on those traitors, who are in prison now, and those who are still at large.
UPDATE:
A couple of Kaspersky staff members (Stoyanov and Dokuchaev), including the head of computer crime investigations (Stoyanov), were arrested by Russian FSB on treason charges in January this year. An FSB officer (Sergei Mikhailov) was also arrested. The treason charges suggest they were acting on behalf of a foreign power. Sputnik Maybe the US actions against Kaspersky Labs anti-virus software are an attempt to preempt the consequences of the trial of the Kaspersky and FSB operatives?
——————
Scott Humor
Director of Research and Development
author of The enemy of the State
In case you have forgotten what happened in Ukraine, this book should refresh your memory with the incredibly precise and humorous chronicles: ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN HUMOR: FROM MAIDAN TO TRUMP
Finally a detailed article on this.
Anyone who has read sputnik or RT during the years 2015-2016 can figure that something is wrong with those claims. We have two media outlets truelly affiliated with the Russian government (although not completely) and they didnt produce any pro-Trump article during that period. They interviewd Jill Stein and Ron Paul several times however
With the current uproar about Russia interfering in the USA elections. It has to be noted that the Kremlin is very silent on this subject. It is more important now than ever to bring forth information from Russia in exposing how serious the problem is from the USA interfering in not only Russian affairs but how the intelligence community continues unabated in interfering in most countries. This article is very important and outlines the destructive effort being done to Russia by the USA. It should be noted and clearly displayed by the psychopathic nature of USA meddling in Russian affairs. One has to wonder why people cannot see how the current government of the USA is totally out of control around the world. Everything has its cycle of life and the USA is no exception to this theory. When humanity is controlled in such a fashion, by that I mean that the USA is supported by the four pillars consisting of GREED, CORRUPTION, POWER and CONTROL. They are sitting on the top of these structures and are desperately trying to maintain their grip over the world.
“With the current uproar about Russia interfering in the USA elections. It has to be noted that the Kremlin is very silent on this subject.”
… thank goodness! Trying to reason with drunken punks is hopeless and makes you look like a fool yourself.
Perhaps the purpose is to “open Russia” to debunk those silly “Kreml hacking” claims and give Empire more important information inside Russia. E.g how to go deep through military security defense line.
Empire actually don’t know what Russia don’t know or do know. Is this chess where you have to sacrifice pawn or two or even knight to secure queen and king? Or why to shoot fly with cannon?
“One has to wonder why people cannot see how the current government of the USA is totally out of control around the world.” end quote.
It is extremely difficult and time consuming for an ordinary person to find the truth in the millions of pages on the Internet, the ordinary mushroom knowing that the MSM only serves you sh’t and keeps you in the dark. The most reliable method (not 100 % though) is the “Follow the money” method, who has to gain by this or that development, but even that can lead to false conclusions. Always count on that everyone has a hidden agenda, but watch out you are not gripped by paranoia.
Yea, just a common internet malpractice called spoofing, that any IT professional, especially one working in IT security, knows about. I suspected all along that most or all of this “Russian Hacking” and “Russians did it” was exactly that.
What a pathetic waste of time. American society and government are really getting very low.
And, of course, reality is actually defined as “what you cannot change by speaking about it”. You can change reality, a very little bit at a time, by doing honest physical work.
Agreed, well put.
At the same time, it’s strange they don’t follow up by more imbecilic slander against Russia for Charlottesville and Las Vegas. I mean, the attention span of Ziomedia consumers is parlously narrow. The US Presidential Election should have all but faded as an event in the distant past.
I wonder if the US Government and Washington political establishment are aware that the rest of the world is watching them and drawing appropriate conclusions. Probably not. What has been happening in the US during Trumps election campaign, and in the period after he became President, has left a very poor impression of the US in the eyes of the international community. The US is now perceived as an imperial power which has lost all sense of reality, thinking it can do anything it wants and having the rest of the world agree with it. That is simply not the case. All the anti-Russian rhetoric has done is to make Russia more popular and more mature in the eyes of the world, which now sees Vladimir Putin as a factor of stability.
I wish Vladimir Putin was my President
Scott can you elaborate , what is the cause of that hate towards Russian people?
What are the reasons to hate your own nation and the people who live there , after all you were born there and lived your whole life?
If you do not like to live there you can simply leave , Soviet Union is no more.
Russia is multi ethnic. I don’t think those were Russians.
It goes back to the Bible and Tree of Knowledge. Read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Explains it all.
Thanks Scott.
There’s only one thing you need to know about the recent election cycle in the USA- the organised force that operated on behalf of Hillary Clinton was unprecented in Human History and spent more money to get her elected than in any previous campaign- and they ***failed***.
Was there pro-Trump activity, including by soft ‘unofficial’ foreign sources? For sure, but it measured less than 1% of 1% of 1% of the size of the official state sanctioned efforts made by every regime of the West to get Clinton elected. The Deep State Demons, led by Tony Blair, are not angry cos Trump won, they are angry because their effort proved so impotent. After all within days of Trump winning, they got Putin to back off and thus were able to ‘turn’ Trump. So Trump ain’t the issue- but having such ‘PR’ resources fail is.
We, the people, are the living ‘batteries’ that power the Demon’s greater plans. Without our assent- even passively given- the Demons can achieve nothing major on this Planet. So the Demons battle for hearts and minds. And our support doesn’t not have to be ‘active’ so Brits protesting against Blair’s Iraq invasion in record numbers isn’t a issue if the same Brits support their ‘troops’ after the fact and then vote Blair back into power.
Americans can think they hate Trump and Clinton- but this doesn’t trouble the Deep State one whit so long as the same fools support everything Trump or Clinton do- passively or not.
Does Russia ‘troll’ the West officially and unofficially? Of course it does. Russia is obliged, as a major power, to do to the West what the West does to Russia. Do Russia’s tiny efforts ‘weigh’ as much as a far far greater chunk of the efforts of the West? Of course- Russia has to be super efficient, lacking the resources of the West. Does this mean Russia was responsible for Clinton’s defeat? Obviously not!
Russia reached a tiny section of self-aware US voters who already would never vote for Clinton. The vast majority of US sheeple are still fodder for the zionist press machine. They voted against Clinton because they could not stand her perfume of sulpher- they perceived correctly her rotted soul- and her “all about me” attitude. And the Clinton ‘dynasty’ thing was the final straw. For the ‘left’ to push the idea of ‘royal’ families was stupid beyond belief.
So why is Russia still based over its non-relevant activities at that time? Because it is always about ***now*** and not ***then***. Attacking Putin in the aftermath of Trump’s election successfully got Putin to run backward, leaving Trump exposed and without powerful allies. And the Deep State just had to walk thru that open door, and ‘take’ Trump. So Russia showed itself very weak to name-calling. And our people show themselves likewise weak, hence this article. When you spend your time apologising and denying the ‘truth’ of vindictive attacks on your reputation, you look weak and start to feel weak and always on the defensive.
Want to see how this plays out- look at the RT news service. Constant attacks on RT have RT bending over backward to present a pro-Israeli narrative. The language of RT’s news reports are the same language used by the BBC. The people running RT are constantly looking over their shoulder and asking themselves the question “are we fair and unbiased”. Let me ask you all a question. When does the zionist press of the West ever ask itself that question?
You see the Deep State, via the racist zionists, controls 99.99% of the planet’s mainstream media and 95% of the so-called indy-media (mostly via real life nazi jew Soros). It is the duty of our tiny fraction of news outlets to counter this monolith, ***not*** to worry about ‘bias’.
In Britain, the jewish run government press censorship bodies that masquerade as ‘independent’- the same ones that ***banned*** PressTV- constantly attack RT for not presenting ‘both’ sides of the story. This is the same Britain that when the jews of Israel use WW3 class weapons to holocaust the people of Gaza, insist that the BBC and ITN ***never*** interview members of the Gaza government- and give exclusive airtime to the jewish butchers so they can explain why ‘sub-Human’ non-jews must be slaughtered.
RT tries to mock these requirements by giving airtime to self-destruction rabid zionists whose very mouth-frothing evil helps ruin the arguments of the Deep State. It does not matter. RT is on ‘borrowed time’ and when things get darker in the near future, will be banned anyway.
Anyway my greater point is I don’t care about the zionist press demonising of counter propaganda using false lying examples. It is their job to make our side look bad any way they can. I car about the effectiveness of our real counter propaganda- and that we engage in it powerfully, loudly and without apology. We don’t have to present the arguements of the other side for ‘fairness’. The other side is represented by a press machine of unprecedented size, power and reach. 100% of our efforts have to be in exposing the work and agenda of the Deep State Demons, and those that willingly ally with them, like the Friends of Israel.
twilight is half half neither full light nor darkness. so are your writings. I admit you write very well very cunningly instilling confusion, the devil could not do it better. You may upset a few newcomers on this blog but that s’ it. In fact your writings have a particular air….. . Go on until nobody takes you serious anymore.
Well said.
Verbosity, generally, equates to obfuscation – especially when implemented in a turgid, pompous style of vacuous content.
Israel is not dusk it’s dark night, and every light turned on more makes it disappear.
Thanks for the detailed puncturing of this mainstream fake news balloon. But, as fake as all of the “Russian interference, Putin done it, et al” memes are, and therefore seemingly jejune and transparent propaganda psy-ops, I think their real purpose is to create a false climate, a public justification for the eventual hard censorship of internet alt-news sites for Western users. And in that they seem to be succeeding, if only, for the moment, in skewing the results of internet searches away from what are claimed to be “fake news” sites, but are, in fact, usually the real news sources, if often contradicting the mainstream party line. A fake threat is being created that will be answered by a real throttling of internet access.
Russia shouldn’t waste precious time and resources on retarded, despicable Westerners forever high on their vile, corporate mindrot. Well, I take back what I just said — it would actually be hilarious to the n:th degree if Russia dismissed the slander on pure Western supremacist grounds:
“How the hell would a nation of backward, imbecilic, Asiatic savages like us ever be able to master anything coming out of the West (except, perhaps, pornography) ?!?”
Supreme contempt accompanied by refined amusement is unbeatable when you’re dealing with Western supremacists, believe me.
”Ask my dog for details…”
hilarious. well researched scott and
very clear explanation.
Very nice detective work, Scott! Well done.
Rather than Putin being a mastermind controlling the world from Moscow, it seems that most bad things happening in the world are in fact being controlled out of Langley, Virginia. Which pretty much agrees with everything I’ve ever read about the CIA going back decades.
The US needs to disband the CIA entirely, investigate their operations and put most of the heads in jail.
Scott,
Good work on this article.
Very important resource piece. Illuminating.
Thanks.
With soros and khodorkovsky being israelis, this covert op involved a lot more than just some trouser droppers at the cia. It is part of a much wider israeloamerican series of covert ops against Russia. I suspect there is a whole lot more of this govno and this is just one individual op being described here.
This is very disappointing to read. I have now been in sharp training , to hopefully be employed by one of these nebulous actor as a bona fide troll, posting comments with a satirical edge but always advocating this or that point of view. It is most distressing to say the least.
End of satirical part.
If this article is true, i have no choice, but to post what is my current opinion, which of course is formed by the current MSM tagline… Confused ? Dont be!
The recent years have seen the rise of three letter agencies use of the internet in in their paid for masters agenda, and the truth has in fact never been further out of reach for a ordinary person.
Ohh sweet irony, 30 years ago it took searching libraries, news clippings to find the truth, but it could be done, as the smoke and diversion was only a single or few layers thick.
Not so today, with all information at hand within microseconds, the truth has never been buried deeper, the public never been more “propagandised than ever.
Scott, you were right in your intuition that the Catalonia “revolution” was remindful of Maidan. Remember that Maidan video “I am Ucrainian”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvds2AIiWLA
Well, there is this one about Catalonia that looks and sounds very very very similar. Clearly copied from the Maidan model
Help Catalonia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wouNL14tAks
Thanks for this article.
Perhaps somebody could help me to understand this story better.
It seems that the so-called “Kremlin trolls” were current and former FSB officers who went to work for the CIA.
Questions…
(1) How do we know they worked for the CIA? Reading this article, I find numerous claims to this effect but no evidence. Did I miss something? Is there a smoking gun?
(2) Why did they defect from the FSB to join the CIA? Do we have any insight on this?
to Mujo
That’s what my research is about, despite Ivan Pavlov’s defense denying the connection between the Shaltay-Boltay group and former FSB officers convicted for treason. https://en.crimerussia.com/gromkie-dela/defendant-in-high-treason-case-personally-detained-shaltay-boltay-s-leader-/
But that’s what a good defense is for, to deny.
Treason is very serious charge that includes working for foreign governments intelligence services.
I believe I have enough to prove my point, using, of course, only information openly available on the internet.
However, if these people worked for SBU or Mossad, I will write about this, also.
See also,
Arrested Russian FSB Agents Allegedly Passed Information to CIA
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/31/arrested-russian-fsb-agents-allegedly-passed-information-to-cia-trump-putin/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-treason-fsb-spies-kaspersky-labs-us-intelligence-denies-cia-hacking/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/31/russian-cybersecurity-experts-face-treason-charges-cia
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/26/report-arrested-russian-intel-officer-allegedly-spied-us/97094696/
https://www.rbth.com/politics_and_society/2017/02/02/fsb-officers-charged-with-treason-media-claim-cia-ties_693641
You wrote “(2) Why did they defect from the FSB to join the CIA? Do we have any insight on this?”
Maybe they defected, or maybe they started working there after being recruited by the foreign intelligence services. We will find out.
Scott,
Thanks for these follow-up links — very helpful.
I also found this interview with Alexander Glazastikov (Humpty), which you have probably read:
The only member of Shaltay-Boltay left on the loose reveals details on their work
As described by various media sources, the basic story about Shaltay-Boltay is that they formed in mid-2013 to hack e-mail, social media, and data of officials and businessmen in Russia, and then sold this data for large amounts of money through the digital underground. In particular, this happened through a portal called “Exchange of Information”, a kind of anonymous auction site for stolen data. Glazastikov says Shaltay-Boltay “was supposed to be a spokesman for the Anonymous International”, and was created by himself, Vladimir Anikeev, and Konstantin Teplyakov.
Although most all of the Western media sources insinuate some connection between Shaltay-Boltay, the FSB officers who were arrested, and the putative “hacking” of the 2016 U.S. election, Glazastikov denies any interest in targets outside Russia.
There is also disagreement around the connection between Shaltay-Boltay and the FSB. Glazastikov says that the FSB contacted him, saying they were aware of Shaltay-Boltay’s activity, and wanted to assert “control” and veto power in exchange for not arresting them. Russia Beyond claims that it was Sergei Mikhailov (FSB) who took control of Shaltay-Boltay and “received kickbacks from its founder, Vladimir Anikeyev”. However, Glazastikov’s testimony contradicts that of Anikeev, his lawyer (Ruslan Koblev), and Ivan Pavlov, lawyer for one of the FSB defendants, all of whom deny any working relationship between Shaltay-Boltay and the FSB.
Interestingly, Glazastikov notes that neither Anikeev nor Teplyakov had technical expertise. Moreover, Glazastikov makes it sound like even he was not primarily involved in hacking, and the “Exchange of Information” admins claim no connection with Shaltay-Boltay. For the heavy lifting, Shaltay-Boltay would use “specialized hacking sites” where they outsourced pay-to-order hacks with IT mercenaries. A target e-mail address could be hacked for a few thousand rubles. And even this, Glazastikov states, wasn’t really the original idea for Shaltay-Boltay. Instead, he imagined they would be doing “advertising or administration fee”.
Perhaps more significantly, it has more recently been claimed that members of Shaltay-Boltay have admitted to forging some parts of the correspondence that they hacked. The putative aim was to boost the profile of their group.
Reading between the lines of this, I find more support for Scott’s angle on this story. Shaltay-Boltay were indeed not hackers in a conventional sense. They were traders in an illicit information economy, and apparently weren’t above fabricating that information if it would raise their profile. For the extent and nature of that fabrication, i look forward to Scott’s next report!
As to why these guys “defected” from the FSB to join the CIA, Mujo, their individual motives are probably mixed yet not especially important. The thing is, there is a very solid body of evidence that shows the historical FACT that the CIA did indeed succeed in infiltrating and turning some key, high level Russian intelligence officers prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the CIA and their NGO front groups leveraged this into a very deep penetration into the upper echelons of the Russian intelligentsia, government, and media in the following years. Here is are some links on some of that background:
https://countercurrents.org/2017/07/17/the-us-empire-the-cia-and-the-ngos/
/no-5th-column-in-the-kremlin-think-again/
This is incredible research, you put most YTube new journalists to shame. I hope this material makes its way into your next book. “Enemy of the State” is an instant classic full of insights on how to live life that are a soothing balm to children of the Sick West with senses of humor somewhat intact.
On the east coast of the U.S., the mundane worlds of the Masters of (their imagined) Universe can be seen fairly easily, especially if you wander into places and act like you belong there.
Regarding the kinds of people that instigate the madness you describe above: I recently had the opportunity to visit a very interesting social club that was opened to the public for one day only. Three Ivy league schools I’m sure you’ve heard of. On the walls upstairs were listed all the latest presidents in different colors, like red for an “H” school: Obama, Clinton, Bush II, Bush I…. Kennedy…John Quincy Adams, etc. I can’t remember Nixon or Carter being there, but I talked to someone who’s name is on another wall, and it struck me that members of this club did not hate Trump because of his manners, parents, background, politics, or alleged business acumen. Instead, they hated the fact that his name couldn’t be written on their wall. It’s really only acceptable to be President if you’ve been BMOC at Harvard.
Out of nowhere, my gentleman acquaintance brought up the topic of the day: Russia hacking the elections. The more things change, the more they are not the same anymore.
There were pictures of famous football teams from years gone by, the place had a charm but it was shabby, and the ceiling looked like sprayed styrafoam, an aesthetic disgrace that these imaginary jocks failed to appreciate. The drinks, by the way, were terrible. They must make their highballs with Minute Maid. The creativity and intelligence, not to mention taste of the West are surely at a low ebb.
Excellent article. In depth and well reported. Blows away the MSM!
Frankly, I don’t really see too big a problem with people swallowing the hogwash about “Kremlin disinformation trolls” working to undermine the West’s irrepressible belief in itself. As usual, the most appropriate response amounts to contemptuous, refined amusement:
“They seem to know indeed what they are talking about — well worth their salary for doing honest work.”
If you cannot change the Weltanschau of Ziomedia addicts, then at least you’re fully entitled to have some fun at the slobs’ expense.
Absolutely, humor is one of the best weapons around. The more pompous a person is, the more they hate being dropped down to size. Pop goes the balloon of hot air. Humor has probably woken more people up than any other method. It’s not as though we have a lack of ludicrous, ridiculous material. As the inventor of this site once described, how did the people in the late-era Soviet Union fight their declining regime? Jokes.
Awesome work, and no one has been able to post any rebuttals. Probably because they don’t have any?
Interesting how the incorrect information masqueraded as first hand eyewitness reports by boots on the ground in St.Petersburg – in effect ‘doxxing’ the Kremin’s Troll Factory.
It’s as though someone misinterpreted (or merely read in school misrepresentations of) Asch’s conformity test results.
This was obviously aimed at those old enough to remember the Lubyanka building; fighting ghosts of the cold war in old peoples’ minds, eh?
It’ll probably work on political fools like Kelly (chief of staff)
yet, once wonders if the yet to be released JFK files will point directly at Russia (assuming the old intelligence communities planted evidence against russia long ago and sealed it among the other documents)…and if Clinton on her book tour spreading total BS about russia and wikileaks is laying the groundwork for Trump to resurrect his mentor’s McCarthyism skeletons?
I don’t think they really give a rat’s arse about Russia. Just read Bush’s speech he gave (that the MSM blatantly lies calling it anti-racist only) about the ‘cyber revolution’ coming. Who the hell do you think is the second highest paid lobbyist group besides the military industrial complex? That’s right, the USA’s ISP companies.
Aaron Swartz must be rolling in his grave. poor guy. no way he hung himself.
First, I will address the author’s attempted discrediting of the Shaltai Boltai hacking group, which included someone from the FSB. They released the internal communications of the St. Petersburg troll factory. Now, the author tries painting them as traitors working for the CIA, who planted fake information. This is entirely untrue. The group became infamous for its initial release of information in late 2013, and the subsequent hacks of various Kremlin insiders. Here are the other leaks they released:
Mandatory Questions for Putin’s Press-conference in Austria
An internal Kremlin index of the relevant bloggers: divided into “Guards” (either official Kremlin
accounts or trusted trolls), highlighted in red or “Opposition”, in yellow, or “Neutrals” in green.
Mailbox of Vera Kerova, a Kremlin PR adviser who worked closely on ensuring the Crimean referendum was a predetermined success.
Emails of Timur Prokopenko, head of the “Internal Politics” department at President Putin’s administration, de facto spin-master of the Kremlin.
Emails of Kremlin employee Alexey Anisimov, one of the assistants to the Kremlin’s chief of Domestic Politics Vyacheslav Volodin.
Emails of Georgi Gavrish, a former officer of the Russian embassy in Athens, and, like Dugin, at one point employed by oligarch Malofeev.
As you can see, their hacks were deep and numerous. Not once has any information they released been deemed fake. Further, the amount of information released is staggering. They could not forge the thousands of emails messages from the troll factory, or the tens of thousands of messages from the above personalities. Some emails contained entire drafts of unpublished books. And the information has indeed been corroborated. Shaltai Boltai also blackmailed some people for money, but despite this, none of their released have been proven to be fakes. Nor do they have a connection to the CIA. The FSB is known to hire former cybercriminals. That one of its employees ran such a hacking group is not surprising.
Now, here is some information on the hacked files:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/documents-show-how-russias-troll-army-hit-america?utm_term=.sn2B3bYRLe#.pgpO98mAj0
https://globalvoices.org/2015/03/14/russia-kremlin-troll-army-examples/
Further, the author tries claiming that the building was “for rent” in 2014 and that this means there could not have been a troll factory there. This is entirely false. The “for rent” sign was placed in some time 2013 and the troll factory moved in in 2013. By the summer of 2014, Shaltai Boltai had hacked the factory. The author also tries making some incorrect technical claims, that posting so many comments would require a huge amount of bandwith and that no ISP would allow this. This is another false argument, considering it is very easy and cheap to get high bandwith internet for businesses, which the troll factory technically is. Posting comments is not some bandwith-intensive task at all, nor is general browsing. The author also gets confused and claims that Shaltai Boltai and the CIA created those >400 troll accounts, as revealed by FB. Shaltai Boltai actually released the internal communications years before any “Russiagate” hysteria. Lastly, the author points out that there are many companies registered from the address, not just the troll factory. He then lists some of these companies and fails to note the irony of mentioning FAN. We will get to FAN news network later.
The author then states:
“This took place in August 2015, and by September 2 2015, a fake company named the “Internet Research” was liquidated by merging it, in the Business registry, with another fake entity, TEKA, that was created in spring 2015 as the construction materials retailer.”
The lawyer who won Savchuk’s case, Ivan Pavlov, who heads Team 29, says:
“Meanwhile, the company has changed its name to Teka, Pavlov said. It also has moved its legal headquarters, although the trolling operation remains in a large gray building north of the St. Petersburg city center, near the head of the Gulf of Finland.”
This is what investigative journalist Andrei Zakharov, who works for the business media group RBC, says (he has written numerous articles investigating the finances of the troll factory):
“They have a lot of legal entities, and they still, I think, change it every year or every two years.”
Another company at 55 Savushkina Street is Glavset, whose director general has the same name as the boss of IRA. Glavset lists the “creation and use of databases and information resources” as well as the “development of computer software, advertising services and information placement services” among its activities. It was listed as a company in the Russian legal entities registry in February 2015. A short time later, it began advertising for staff on a headhunting site (hh.ru). One post looking for a copywriter says the job involves “writing diverse texts for the Internet and content for social networks.” The posting offered a salary of 30,000 rubles a month (then a little over $500) and said experience was unnecessary. Recruits would work with a team of “young and enthusiastic colleagues” in “a comfortable and stylish office,” according to the posting. Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-notorious-kremlin-linked-troll-farm-and-the-russians-trying-to-take-it-down/2017/10/06/c8c4b160-a919-11e7-9a98-07140d2eed02_story.html
As you can see, the fact that the company continually changes names and merges is to obscure its existence and make it difficult to find out more information about it.
After the troll factory’s emails were hacked, various journalists contacted the trolls using their leaked email addresses, to get interviews. One such journalist was the NYT’s Adrian Chen:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html
It’s a lengthy piece, but I suggest everyone read it. It also mentions the “FAN news network”, mentioned by the author. This is another entity created to obscure the existence of the troll factory. Several other interviews were published, by Western and Russian sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11656043/My-life-as-a-pro-Putin-propagandist-in-Russias-secret-troll-factory.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/02/putin-kremlin-inside-russian-troll-house
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-trolls-headquarters-media-internet-insider-account/26904157.html
Let’s assume that all this is fake, including all the troll factory emails and that the interviews were conducted by the biased Western media outlets, using CIA actors or something. What about the Russian media? Did they report on this too? Indeed, they did:
http://mr7.ru/articles/112478/
The above is a local, St. Petersburg-based media outlet and they released several documents from the troll factory, given to them by a former employee. Are they lying too?
RBC, one of Russia’s most respected business news outlets, ran a story about the troll factory and its funders, this April. The story focused on restaurateur Evgeny Prigozhin, a close friend of Putin, responsible for the financing of the St. Petersburg troll factory:
http://www.rbc.ru/magazine/2017/04/58d106b09a794710fa8934ac?from=subject
Just today, they released this:
https://meduza.io/en/news/2017/10/17/russian-journalists-publish-massive-investigation-into-st-petersburg-troll-factory-s-u-s-operations
They also revealed the names of two highly popular troll accounts: an anti-Clinton FaceBook group with 140,000 subscribers, called “Secure Borders”, and a right-wing Twitter account called Tea Party News, with 22,000 followers. It’s my hypothesis that FaceBook used these accounts to find other accounts, as there were some of the first accounts suspended. This wasn’t the only Russian media article about the troll factory or its wealthy funder. One of the very first articles about the troll factory was published in 2013, by Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s oldest opposition papers:
https://globalvoices.org/2013/06/21/the-kremlins-kitchen-serves-up-russias-free-press/
TV Rain also recently interviewed a former troll:
https://tvrain.ru/teleshow/reportazh/oni_sdelali_video_kak_negr_zanimaetsja-448671/
Is it likely that RBC, NG, MR7, and TV Rain are also lying?
Lastly, there are several examples of the troll factory getting caught red-handed:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2002774-fake-video-of-american-shooting-a-quran-traced-to-russian-propaganda-agency/
https://globalvoices.org/2015/07/13/open-source-information-reveals-pro-kremlin-web-campaign/
https://globalvoices.org/2014/11/19/fake-ukrainian-news-websites-run-by-russian-troll-army-offshoots/
https://globalvoices.org/2015/12/22/massive-livejournal-troll-network-pushes-pro-kremlin-narratives/
In conclusion, the author was unable to prove that the leaked correspondence is fake, ignores the mountain of evidence proving the existence of the troll factory, blames, without evidence, the CIA for being behind all this, and tries using faulty logic to disprove the existence of the troll factory. He also is confused about the troll factory’s continuous morphing. Lastly, he tries linking the drop in leaking activity by Shaltai Boltai with the troll factory’s merging into other entities. The two things are completely unrelated, since the troll factory changes its name every year or so, and has gone by many names. I find it hard to believe that a Russian speaker like the author could make so many mistakes and leave out the above information. I don’t even understand Russian, yet, even I addressed the mountain of evidence from the RuNet regarding the troll factory. We have thousands of messages from the factory, leaked not just by Shaltai Boltai, but local news outlets from St. Petersburg, who received the documents from a former employee. We have numerous interviews from the American, Russian, British, and German media of not just one person (which the author tries smearing due to her Ukrainian last name), but countless other former employees. Conveniently, the author ignores them.
It’s been a few weeks, but no response to my post. I would very much appreciate one. Thank you.
You say that an alleged Russian troll farm moved into that building in 2014?
Hmm. The USA had a $200 million troll farm program already in 2010. And the difference between the existence of the US’ far larger troll farm program than anything that has been alleged of Russia, is that the US troll farm program is confirmed to exist, and was confirmed, in comprehensive detail, to exist by the US government years before any allegations that Russia might be doing something similar existed.
In fact, I suppose that you could be one of the US’ paid social media propaganda trolls, Matt. After all, they are everywhere, these days – and have been for getting close to a decade, now.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29040299/ns/us_news-military/
http://russia-insider.com/en/ny-times-frets-about-russian-propaganda-ignores-massive-troll-farms-run-america-and-its-allies
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/so-why-does-the-air-force-want-hundreds-of-fake-online-identities-on-social-media-update/
http://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5
http://russia-insider.com/en/us-prepares-lavishly-funded-anti-russia-propaganda-and-troll-army/ri21805
http://russia-insider.com/en/yet-another-us-govt-agency-spending-big-spread-foreign-policy-lies-gec/ri22087
And here is a particularly good article that details the US’ social media troll farm program, as it was already in 2010.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
“…According to publicized 2011 USA Central Command documents and contracts which detailed the program, the USA has by far the world’s largest cyber-army, and contracts companies to set up and pay people to post in social media “around the world,” “using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda…… “the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated messages, blogposts, chatroom posts and other interventions….The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as “sock puppets” – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.”
Basically, if the Russian government is paying posters to post in social media, they got the idea from the USA government (and Israel, which admitted paying social media trolls during their 2008 – 2009 war against Gaza), which was publicly broadcasting that it was doing the same thing years earlier, and with a budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Since then, a lot of countries have copies the US and Israel’s pioneering of social media troll farms, and today Israel, the US, the UK, Ukraine, Poland etc.
http://www.newsweek.com/35000-volunteers-sign-ukraines-information-army-first-day-310121
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201710111058132063-poland-cyber-army-analysis/
Hello David,
I already know about those links. First, none of them prove the U.S. has troll farms to target countries. Those links only discuss writing in foreign languages to fight Jihadist propaganda online. But no evidence of the U.S. hiring people to post messages on Russian forums, for example.
“In fact, I suppose that you could be one of the US’ paid social media propaganda trolls, Matt.”
Hmm, strange ad hominem. I never insulted you, so I don’t understand.
Hello again Matt,
“Those links only discuss writing in foreign languages to fight Jihadist propaganda online”
With the USA having the largest known troll farm budget and operation in the world, and using the phrase “around the world” to describe the scope of its social media propaganda, it is simple logic that the US is targeting everybody with their propaganda. But, the links I gave are certainly not exclusive to countering jihadist propaganda, with the US government’s own description of its social media propaganda program being focused on social media “around the world”, and with some of the links I gave explicitly focus on Russia-targeting efforts, while others involve targeting US citizens with domestic propaganda.
http://russia-insider.com/en/us-prepares-lavishly-funded-anti-russia-propaganda-and-troll-army/ri21805
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/meet-brig-gen-joel-harding-natos-ziggy-stardust-and-his-spiders-mars/ri16367
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/brig-gen-joel-harding-natos-teen-porn-addict-and-troll-king-extraordinaire-part-ii/ri16368
Also, the US spends $50 – $100 million a year just targeting Russia with propaganda in general. And that’s only what’s on the public books (the real figure could be much higher):
http://freewestmedia.com/2017/09/23/foreign-governments-spend-millions-to-influence-russian-elections/
The USAF probably is not involved in countering pro-jihad propaganda:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/so-why-does-the-air-force-want-hundreds-of-fake-online-identities-on-social-media-update/
One of the US’ social media troll farms is operated by Ntrepid, near L.A. (https://ntrepidcorp.com/). Do you expect they’re working on countering jihad propaganda? Personally, I doubt that.
Another US security company that was seeking a troll farm contract from the US government was HBGary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBGary) – a company that had a record of conducting social media disinformation campaigns and cyber attack on behalf of US corporations and in support of US government interests.
Now, why would the US government have made propaganda directed against US citizens legal (http://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5), if the US government’s only purpose was to counter pro-jihad messages, notably those in countries in the Middle East? Obviously, the US government’s propaganda programs are not only, or even mostly about countering pro-jihad messaging, but feature comprehensive social media propagandizing against many targets.
Proving this, the purpose stated in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, for the US’ Global Engagement Center, says:
http://russia-insider.com/en/yet-another-us-govt-agency-spending-big-spread-foreign-policy-lies-gec/ri22087
“The purpose of the Center shall be to lead, synchronize, and coordinate efforts of the Federal Government to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining United States national security interests.”
That does not limit the US’ social media propaganda to countering jihadist, but specifically includes propaganda against states.
Also, the phrasing of the US government, calling its own propaganda ‘countering propaganda’, is itself propaganda, and trying to white-wash the US’ hefty international offensive propaganda programs as something noble and just, and the targets of those programs as being deserving of being propagandized against. That rationalizing is by no means an honest description, being just hubris and arrogance.
At any rate, all the details make it clear that the US is committing social media propaganda not just against jihad groups, but also against its own citizens, against Russia, and against the world, in general.
And if there was still any doubt about this (though I think there shouldn’t be), then look at the US’ own description of its goals in conducting social media propaganda:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
“using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.”
Pro-USA propaganda is not countering-jihad propaganda. Those are completely different subjects, and the stated goal of the social media propaganda program that the US government detailed on a US government jobs site in 2010 was to bias internet conversation by spreading pro-USA propaganda. I imagine that a lot of that work is done in Western news sites, and on Facebook targeting English audiences. Maybe some of that work involves targeting Russian audiences, too. It probably does.
Countering jihadist propaganda is only one facet of the US’ comprehensive social media propaganda programs.
The Washington Post also explains some Russia-targeting propaganda efforts by the US government:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/effort-to-combat-foreign-propaganda-advances-in-congress/2016/11/30/9147e1ac-e221-47be-ab92-9f2f7e69d452_story.html
“The initiative grows out of a bill authored in March by Portman and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called the “Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act.” It initially sprang from a desire to help independent journalists and nongovernmental organizations in European nations such as Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia, which face a heavy tide of Russian propaganda.”
Once again, calling setting up a propaganda program a propaganda-countering program is white-washing what it is. Propaganda is propaganda. And the US had Russia-targeting propaganda long before this 2016 initiative, and that initiative is just one more Russia-targeting propaganda endeavour of the US.
“Hmm, strange ad hominem. I never insulted you, so I don’t understand.”
Is it necessarily ad hominem? My point is that I think it’s fact that people playing the apologist for US social media propaganda, or insisting that a geopolitical rival of the US is conducting this type of propaganda, could be a US paid propaganda troll. I think that the US pays propaganda trolls to do. That’s how the same messaging that many like yourself constantly push sounds when the roles are reversed – and if the public were more informed, they’d know the roles actually are reversed since before any of the Russophobic hysteria was even gestating.
Hi again, Matt,
A new article from today shows that the US’ Pentagon is seeking social media bot AI to monitor and post US propaganda in social media discussions.
https://www.rt.com/usa/415609-us-army-ai-language-bot/
I believe I’ve shown in the information that I posted above that the US is running large-scale troll farms to spam pro-US propaganda in social media around the world. But a statement made in the RT article by former Mi-5 agent, Annie Machon, parallels my own thinking when I read the article’s title:
“… the timing to me is interesting, because for sure the West has been running these so-called troll farms against other countries as well for a long time, so are they just trying to expand their operations by developing this new software? Or are they trying to disingenuously suggest to people that actually they haven’t done it before and only the Big Bad Russians, or the Big Bad Chinese, have run troll farms.”
I think that the US government is trying to retro-actively legitimatize their social media bots and paid propaganda trolls, but that this stuff that the US government is now publicly broadcasting has been happening for a very long time.
And there is evidence of it in the 2011 Guardian article, which details US social media propaganda software from 2010:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
“… the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated messages, blogposts, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.”
So, the US government’s troll farms have been, for many years, attacking social media with specialized software enabling them to facilitate tag-teaming comments sections, to make it appear as though multiple people agree with the pro-US propaganda, when in-fact it could be just 5 puppet account belonging to one paid US propaganda troll, or, it could be multiple paid US propaganda trolls, using their special software to tag-team one comments section.
We do know that the US is targeting US media with its troll farm program, as the US government did specifically change US laws in 2011 to make propagandizing against US citizens legal. And I strongly suspect that I have personally encountered US paid propaganda trolls multiple times when posting at US news sites.
I suspect that Ars Technica is one particular target that paid US propaganda trolls have been targeting and staking out over the past few years. There has been definite tag-teaming of BS US propaganda there whenever there’s an attack article about Russia – and Ars has run many, many fanatical, hysterical, and conspiracy attack pieces against Russia in the previous few years (most relying on now heavily-debunked information, and wild hypothesis, while pushing it as though fact).
Other details of the US’ social media troll farm program reveal that the US goes to great lengths to disguise its paid trolls, and to provide “powerful deniability”.
“It also calls for “traffic mixing”, blending the persona controllers’ internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer “excellent cover and powerful deniability”.”
“… US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations “without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries”.”
So, paid US propaganda trolls are not going to admit to what they’re doing, and they’re rather going to point to their identity as having robust background “evidence” that they’re normal people, that they’re IP is located somewhere else, that there are multiple people saying the same thing as they are… when it’s just one, or a few paid US propaganda trolls tag-teaming a comments section, using multiple puppet accounts each, and with VPNs to make their puppet accounts appear as though they’re posting from various different places in the US, and around the world.
I would also like to bring attention to this part of the 2011 The Guardian article:
“Centcom said it was not targeting any US-based web sites, in English or any other language, and specifically said it was not targeting Facebook or Twitter.”
That article was made regarding information on the US’ social media propaganda program as it was in 2010.
But the US government changed its law to make using the same propaganda against US citizens legal, in 2011 – 2012: http://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5
So, if the US troll farm programs weren’t targeting US citizens at the time those initial details were uncovered, it was only because it was, at the time, illegal for the US government to target the citizens of the US with propaganda. But that was changed around 2012, and so comments that the US government is not targeting US citizens no longer apply, as they’re out-dated.
This is an absolutely staggering compilation of information, Scott – fantastic work! Thank you!
Scott! A similar photo to yours has made it into a stupid Guardian article about the stupid Mueller indictments….where the article talks about the Troll farm in St. Petersburg….
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/16/robert-mueller-russians-charged-election
I’m glad to be here at The Saker where I got the scoop months ago!