Politico, the most read “Capitol Hill” publication online, has released an investigation arguing that Veterans Today and SouthFront are shaking pillars of American society, foremost among them the military.
From our own point of view the article written by Ben Schreckinger provides another evidence of a high evaluation of our collaborative effort by mainstream media outlets and think tanks funded by corporates and governments. It explains why more and more people turn away from the mainstream coverage and analysis of the military and geo-political issues of our time.
SouthFront provides a full text of Politico’s investigative report (LINK):
“How Russia targets the U.S. Military. With hacks, pro-Putin trolls and fake news, the Kremlin is ratcheting up its efforts to turn American servicemembers and veterans into a fifth column.”
In the fall of 2013, Veterans Today, a fringe American news site that also offers former service members help finding jobs and paying medical bills, struck up a new partnership. It began posting content from New Eastern Outlook, a geopolitical journal published by the government-chartered Russian Academy of Sciences, and running headlines like “Ukraine’s Ku Klux Klan — NATO’s New Ally.” As the United States confronted Russian ally Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons against Syrian children this spring, the site trumpeted, “Proof: Turkey Did 2013 Sarin Attack and Did This One Too” and “Exclusive: Trump Apologized to Russia for Syria Attack.”
In recent years, intelligence experts say, Russia has dramatically increased its “active measures” — a form of political warfare that includes disinformation, propaganda and compromising leaders with bribes and blackmail — against the United States. Thus far, congressional committees, law enforcement investigations and press scrutiny have focused on Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s successful efforts to disrupt the American political process. But a review of the available evidence and the accounts of Kremlin watchers make clear that the Russian government is using the same playbook against other pillars of American society, foremost among them the military. Experts warn that effort, which has received far less attention, has the potential to hobble the ability of the armed forces to clearly assess Putin’s intentions and effectively counter future Russian aggression.
In recent years, intelligence experts say, Russia has dramatically increased its “active measures” — a form of political warfare that includes disinformation, propaganda and compromising leaders with bribes and blackmail — against the United States. Thus far, congressional committees, law enforcement investigations and press scrutiny have focused on Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s successful efforts to disrupt the American political process. But a review of the available evidence and the accounts of Kremlin watchers make clear that the Russian government is using the same playbook against other pillars of American society, foremost among them the military. Experts warn that effort, which has received far less attention, has the potential to hobble the ability of the armed forces to clearly assess Putin’s intentions and effectively counter future Russian aggression.
In addition to propaganda designed to influence service members and veterans, Russian state actors are friending service members on Facebook while posing as attractive young women to gather intelligence and targeting the Twitter accounts of Defense Department employees with highly customized “phishing” attacks. The same Russian military hacking group that breached the Democratic National Committee, “Fancy Bear,” was also responsible for publicly posting stolen Army data online while posing as supporters of the Islamic State in 2015, according to the findings of one cybersecurity firm. And the hacking group’s most common target for phishing attacks in the West has been military personnel, with service members’ spouses making up another prominent target demographic, according to another cybersecurity firm.
While the military and its contractors have long been the targets of cyberattacks from hostile foreign powers, the Russian campaign is noteworthy for its heightened intensity, especially since the imposition of Western economic sanctions following the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and for the novel tactics it is employing online. All of it amounts to a new kind of low-intensity or “hybrid” warfare that Western governments are still struggling to effectively counter.
“We are focused on the azalea bushes at the edge of a redwood forest,” said retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, who stepped down last June after three years as supreme allied commander of NATO, where he witnessed a surge in Russian active measures against Baltic states and in efforts to spread negative disinformation about the alliance’s soldiers stationed in Europe.
The active measures campaign has followed Breedlove home and into retirement. In July, emails hacked from his Gmail account were published on the Russian front site DC Leaks, and Breedlove said he was recently targeted with a series of more than a dozen sophisticated phishing emails purporting to come from his bank. Breedlove declined to name his bank but said it is used by the majority of his fellow officers, leading him to conclude the motives of the phishing attack were political rather than financial. “What Russia is doing across the gamut from our internal audiences to military audiences and others,” he said, “is quite astronomical.”
***
In the 20th century, intelligence agencies looking to build ties with foreign soldiers might have gone through the trouble of sending agents out to watering holes near military bases, waiting for servicemen to show up and gaining their trust one drink at a time.
Now, social media makes it cheap and easy to target soldiers and veterans in their virtual hangouts for intelligence gathering and influence campaigns.
John Bambenek, a threat intelligence manager at Fidelis Cybersecurity, whose work has included investigating the DNC breach, said Russia is one of several foreign powers using social media lures to gather intelligence on the U.S. military. “Some are quite unsophisticated (attractive women sending friend requests), some get more complicated,” he wrote in an email. “Spies understand that a great deal can be discerned about what militaries are up to based on the unclassified behavior of soldiers.”
Forming connections on social media could help foreign states directly communicate with groups of American soldiers, a tactic employed in recent conflicts by both Russia and the U.S. During the first days of the annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian soldiers were bombarded with demoralizing text messages such as, “Soldier you are just a raw meat for your commanders.” Ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military emailed Iraqi soldiers en masse, encouraging them to surrender, according to Richard Clarke’s 2010 book, “Cyber War.”
The Pentagon is clearly worried. Defense Department spokeswoman Linda Rojas declined to comment on specific activities, but said new technologies have made the military more vulnerable in cyberspace. “The proliferation of internet-based communications and social media applications has elevated the potential for nefarious use that could affect our personnel,” she wrote in an email. Rojas also said the military was working to address the mounting threats posed by hacking and online influence operations. “We make every effort to educate and inform DoD personnel of these threats, while bolstering our network defense capabilities to protect IT infrastructure from outside intrusions,” she wrote.
Becoming Facebook friends with American soldiers also gives foreign agents the ability to post propaganda that will show up on their news feeds.
Serena Moring, a former military contractor from a military family, said she first became concerned about pro-Russian sentiment among soldiers on social media last spring, when an unverified report purporting to relate the story of a Russian soldier who died heroically while fighting ISIS in Syria began circulating among American service members on social media.
“All of the response from the military guys was like, ‘That is awesome. That’s an epic way to die,’” recounted Moring, 39. “It was a very soldier-to-soldier bond that was created through social media.”
Moring said she has become further alarmed as friends of hers in the military, including military intelligence, have become avowed admirers of Putin, and that she now expends considerable effort arguing about Russia on Instagram and Facebook channels geared to military audiences.
In the Wild West of social media, it is difficult to sort out pro-Russian sentiment that is organic—Putin’s approval rating has surged among U.S. Republicans since 2015, and he is often the subject of positive coverage in right-leaning outlets like Fox News—from that which is manufactured. But Breedlove said much of the sentiment is being generated by a concerted Kremlin influence campaign. “People popping up on veterans’ sites and singing the praises of Putin, you can guarantee those are trolls and part of the army that’s sitting over there attacking us every day,” he said.
***
Putin has made the creation of a pro-Russian “alternative media ecosystem” to, in his words, smash “the Anglo-Saxon monopoly on the information stream” a top priority of his foreign policy. A significant prong of those operations is aimed at the American military community, and the Russian activity has ramped up in recent years as tensions have increased over sanctions, the annexation of Crimea and the expansion of NATO.
Veterans Today is a homegrown American site that was founded in 2003 in opposition to the invasion of Iraq and soon began publishing wild conspiracy theories. Before it partnered with Russia’s New Eastern Outlook in 2013, it had forged ties with Iran’s state-backed PressTV and counted among its editorial board of directors a former head of Pakistan’s intelligence services, publishing headlines like, “Israeli death squads involved in Sandy Hook bloodbath” and “Water Terrorism by India to Overawe Pakistan.”
New Eastern Outlook “chose to work with VT after following us for a while and seeing us for the unique platform that we are,” Veterans Today managing editor Jim Dean explained in an article about the arrangement. He described it as a “marriage made in heaven.”
A Veterans Today bio for Dean lists several relatives and ancestors who served in the military and describes his membership in several military-themed groups but does not indicate he himself has served. The site’s chairman, Gordon Duff, served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam and began contributing to the site in 2008. In one 2012 interview, he stated, “About 30% of what’s written on Veterans Today, is patently false. About 40% of what I write, is at least purposely, partially false, because if I didn’t write false information I wouldn’t be alive.”
Veterans Today is the flagship property of the “Veterans Today Network,” which includes a jobs board, a cancer foundation and a sister site, Veterans News Now, which describes itself as “an independent online journal representing the positions and providing news for members of the military and veteran community.” The network is also affiliated with the Veterans Housing & Education Foundation, which has the stated goal of raising $500 million in five years.
A form on VeteransTodayCancerFoundation.org, which as of this writing was down for maintenance, invited veterans in need to request help by filling out a form that asked them to submit personal details, including the handles for their social media accounts.
An administrator for the Veterans Today Network who asked that his name not be used said that the jobs board, HireVeterans.com, currently has 35,000 active résumés in its system and that it has partnered with “major companies in the U.S. in helping them find veterans for employment.” The jobs board lists dozens of featured employers — including Bank of America, Merck, Geico and Westinghouse — that according to the administrator have purchased premium annual memberships. A 2011 article by Fox Business recommends the jobs board to employers.
The administrator said that though Veterans Today and the jobs board were both owned by Success Spear, there would be no way for foreign states to access veterans’ personal information via their partnerships with Veterans Today. The administrator said the cancer foundation had not yet fully launched.
In October 2013, at the same time that Veterans Today began publishing content from New Eastern Outlook, its sister site Veterans News Now began publishing content from the Strategic Culture Foundation, a Moscow think tank run by Yuri Profokiev, a former head of Moscow’s Communist Party and member of the Soviet Politburo.
In October 2015, Veterans Today also partnered with a slickly designed, anonymously authored military affairs website called South Front that had been registered in Moscow that April just as Russia was ramping up its influence operations in response to Western sanctions.
Since then, the site has consistently published articles that push the Kremlin party line, both from its Russian partner and its own contributors. Now, in addition to learning about “The Coming Shift to Cosmic Fascism,” readers who cruise to Veterans Today — which has 45,000 Facebook followers and claims more than 900,000 unique visitors per month — to catch up on the news or to check out the free services offered to veterans can read headlines like “Pravda: Ukraine indignant at 80% of Jews in power” and “Trump Humiliated: Syria Shoots Down 34 of 59 Cruise Missiles, Russia to Upgrade System Soon.” Recent contributions from South Front include “U.S. Suffers Reverses as Trump’s Plan to Aid Terrorists is Realized by Russia” and “The Political Uses Of Russophobia.” And recent contributions from New Eastern Outlook include, “If NATO wants peace and stability it should stay home” and “Brussels, NATO and the Globalists in Total Disarray.”
In late 2014, Duff and Dean attended a counterterrorism conference in Damascus at which Duff proclaimed to delegates from Russia, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon his theory that “the U.S. government is subservient to a worldwide criminal organization.” This March, the Veterans Today chairman attended a “VT Reception” in Damascus at which attendees gave speeches flanked by over-sized portraits of Assad and Putin, according to video he published on YouTube. Duff did not respond to a question about whether any foreign entities had been involved in funding his travel to Syria.
A State Department expert in Russian influence campaigns who was not authorized to speak on the record said he had taken note of Veterans Today’s partnership with New Eastern Outlook and that Southfront appears to be a Russian front that deliberately obscures its origins. The expert also described the Strategic Culture Foundation as a part of the Kremlin’s influence apparatus and noted that Russia has long sought to amplify the voices of Western conspiracy theorists.
Kate Starbird, a professor at the University of Washington who has studied the role of Veterans Today in the Russia-aligned “alternative media ecosystem,” described the website as an “active partner” in the dissemination of Russian propaganda.
Despite the often far-fetched claims and clunky feel of Veterans Today and other outlets used by Russian propagandists, Starbird said she has come to consider them potentially potent vehicles for disinformation. “I used to think it, and others like it, were quite fringe,” she said. “But the intentional targeting of U.S. military, active and retired, seems to be a strategy of information war. I have anecdotes from friends, family members and now strangers who tell me about their family members who are deeply engrossed in this information ecosystem.”
Joel Harding, a former Army intelligence officer who now works as independent researcher, describes Veterans Today, Veterans News Now and South Front as “Russian proxy sites.” Harding said that in combination with other components of Russian influence efforts, the sites could successfully influence the military community over the long term. “Veterans Today and Veterans News Now will not cause soldiers, Marines, airmen, or seamen to defect or become pro-Russian, not by themselves,” he said. “But if someone regards them as a reliable source of truthful information, does not recognize that they are pushing Russian propaganda or information with a pro-Russian perspective, over time they will change.”
In an email, representatives of South Front who did not provide their names said the site has no links to the Russian government. They suggested that identifying South Front as part of the Kremlin’s influence apparatus would run contrary to the principles of freedom of speech and be discriminatory against Russians (one common tactic of Russian influence operations is to invoke Western values in their efforts to undermine Western societies). The Strategic Culture Foundation did not respond to messages requesting comment and emails sent to the contact address provided by New Eastern Outlook were rejected by the journal’s web servers.
Dean said he was not aware that researchers had identified Veterans Today as a vehicle for Russian propaganda. “We appreciate the publicity,” he wrote in an email. “Please ask them to keep up the good work.” He did not address a question about whether the site received funding from foreign entities. Debbie Menon, the Dubai-based, recently departed editor-in-chief of Veterans News Now did not respond to an email seeking comment.
***
In addition to influence operations, military personnel and veterans have been the subject of a disproportionate share of hacking attempts in Russia’s active measures campaign against the United States.
In fact, the Russian military hackers who breached the DNC appear to expend as much effort on current and former military personnel as on political targets. A security oversight by the hacking group, most commonly known as “Fancy Bear,” gave researchers a public window into the targets of thousands of its phishing attempts between March and September of 2015. Of the people targeted by Fancy Bear outside of the former Soviet Union, 41 percent were current or former members of the military, according to a report by cybersecurity firm SecureWorks. Authors and journalists made up 22 percent of Fancy Bear’s targets; NGOs, 10 percent; political activists, 4 percent; and government personnel, 8 percent. Of the journalists and authors targeted, more than one-fifth were spouses of military members who blog about military life.
The posting of hacked data, a novel tactic used in Russia’s assault on the American political system, has also been a component of the country’s active measures against the American military. Last summer, Russian hackers leaked emails stolen from Breedlove in an effort to embarrass NATO. And in 2015, a group calling itself Cyber Caliphate hijacked the Twitter account of the United States Central Command, directing the account’s followers to a site where the group had posted data stolen from the military. Cyber Caliphate purported to be supporters of ISIS, but in fact, this was a “false flag” designed to obscure the true identity of the perpetrator, which was Fancy Bear, according to a report by the Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro that said French authorities confirmed the firm’s own analysis fingering the Russian hacking group.
As Washington comes to terms with the scope of Russian active measures, the hacking campaign against the military continues. Last month, Time reported that American counterintelligence officials concluded in March that Russian hackers were targeting 10,000 Department of Defense employees with highly targeted messages on Twitter designed to trick them into downloading malware that could compromise their Twitter accounts, computers and phones.
***
While there is no expectation of a “Red Dawn”-style Russian invasion of the United States, the Kremlin’s active measures campaign has the potential to blunt the military’s ability and weaken its resolve to counter future Russian military aggression elsewhere.
The active measures are not targeting the military and political system in isolation, but as part of a broader effort to subvert Western institutions including the news media, financial markets and intelligence agencies. Because of its multidimensional nature and use of unconventional tactics, the U.S. government has struggled to effectively combat the effort. “This is obviously a really difficult challenge and a lot of people are worried that our response to date hasn’t been effective,” said one expert on active measures who recently testified on the issue before Congress.
And rather than abating after the presidential election, these campaigns have only continued to get more brazen, according to Strategic Cyber Ventures CEO Tom Kellermann, who has watched them closely.
In May and June of 2015, Kellermann, who was then the chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro, said the firm warned the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that Kremlin hackers had drawn up a list of 2,300 people, comprising the most powerful leaders in Washington and New York along with their spouses and lovers to target with a concerted hacking campaign. Kellermann said he does not know whether the government acted on the tip, which warned that the hackers had the ability to turn on microphones and cameras on the personal devices of their targets to obtain sensitive information about their personal lives. But he believes the campaign has successfully compromised American leaders, emboldening the Kremlin. “When you wonder why certain people act certain ways,” he said, “You have to remember these people have been warned that their dirty laundry could be aired.” (Spokespeople for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI declined to comment.)
Kellermann cited the activities of the Shadow Brokers, a hacking group believed to be Kremlin-backed that began publishing data stolen from the NSA last summer and most recently published a leak in April. The upticks in online attacks are harbingers of armed aggression, said Kellermann, who predicted that conflict between the United States and Russia was most likely to break out in the Baltic region.
“I’m very, very concerned,” he said. “Cyberspace is always the precursor to kinetic reality.”
Shawn Musgrave and Andrew Hanna contributed to this report.
First of all, we’d like to thank Politico because they, as journalists, thought it necessary to contact us while preparing the article. Naturally, the final draft either omits or distorts the answers they received. But these are minor details, the customary double standards used by mainstream media (MSM).
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We are, however, astounded by something else. Is it really true that top US experts and journalists actually believe that SouthFront and Veterans Today represent a significant threat to the US military? To its morale? And merely because these sites publish information that causes discomfort in the State Department, Pentagon, or the CIA? If so, this leaves only two possibilities.
- The US society and system of government have deteriorated to such an extent that any alternative assessment of military and political activity, any neutral depiction of combat operations, is seen as a breath of fresh air in the smog of MSM lies. The principles of democracy have been discredited, and double standards are apparent to all. The people are rapidly losing faith in America’s global mission. In their government’s efforts to protect freedom and justice, rather than mere clan interests of the financial elites. If that’s the case, it is the veterans and military servicemembers who are the most vulnerable. They are the ones who were sent to the combat zones. They have seen the results of US policies overseas with their own eyes, and now they are observing them at home. They are much more resistant to being engulfed by the matrix of MSM virtual reality. Moreover, they are men and women of action. In such circumstances, even the weak voice of SouthFront should cause panic among the US political establishment.
- The other possibility is hardly better. The mainstream expert community is no longer able to discern societal trends. It is acting like a frightened ostrich who sticks his head in the nearest, pardon the expression, pile of manure. It has convinced itself that societies stopped developing. From now on, content Americans will do nothing more than silently watch the political spectacle being enacted by professional actors. But it is not so.
We believe that it is precisely that kind of perception of reality which represents the main threat to the United States. Those who call themselves the elites have separated themselves from the people and stopped respecting it. But while this state of affairs can continue for a lengthy time in countries with a short history of democracy, in the US it will quite predictably bring about protest, both within and without.
This is likely the reason the alternative positions expressed by SF and VT attract audience interest. The SF project is a form of civil society, in the main of volunteer nature. Its participants are the most ordinary citizens of the US, EU member states, Russian Federation, and other countries.
Politico experts err in the sense that SF is not attempting to create problems in the US military or society but are merely casting light on what already exists. We are interested in, and want, global stability, which is impossible without stability of the US itself.
But let’s back to the claims of SF content threatening US interests, which is the assessment of Politico, The Washington Post, and of DOD and State Department spokespeople. We’d like to draw the attention of our esteemed opponents to the fact that SF is trying to provide objective coverage of military activities. If there are US, Coalition, or US-controlled proxy force successes in Iraq or Syria, we always inform our audience of them, just as we do of their failures. This, we feel, is the main distinction between SF and mainstream media, both Western and Russian ones. Both provide only a one-sided coverage of events. Some members of our team believe that’s the reason this project has received a silent treatment by the Russian mainstream media.
As far as military and political analysis goes, we already stated above that our point of view often fails to coincide with that of official Washington, Moscow, Ankara, and others.
Concerning Politico’s claim the site is registered in Moscow, we’ll take this opportunity to explain to our dear friends in Politico certain peculiarities of the contemporary digital society. Yes, it’s true that the SF domain was obtained (and registered) using the official Russian domain registrator Reg.ru. This was done because it was more convenient for those team members who registered a new domain 2 years ago. Therefore the site contains contact information of Reg.ru’s office in Moscow, not of SouthFront. Internet allows one to obtain the domain you want from nearly any corner of the world, using nearly every registrator available. SouthFront uses a variety of services in its work, some of them based in the US, others in Russia or yet other countries. We are, after all, living in the Information Age. And yes, the SF team includes both US and Russian citizens.
Finally, we are amazed by Politico’s statements concerning anonymity. In the course of our correspondence, we received that question and provided an extended answer. One can find names of many members of our team on the SF site. The fact that much of our material has no byline simply means it’s a news item, or an editorial piece that expresses the view of the entire project. As far as we know, it is consistent with journalism standards.
In any event, we’d like to take the opportunity to thank Politico one more time for at least their desire to understand the opposing team.
“The Pentagon is clearly worried.” Best quote of the year.
I remember an acquaintance back in the 90’s a veteran enlisted of Desert Storm. He was sour on the whole thing, talked about the New World Order. He relayed a story about how a group of soldiers were ordered down at gunpoint by higher-ups, lest anyone see the damaged and exposed proprietary layers of a tank’s armor (or something). Between incidents like that, aggressive wars of the 1% (based on lies) and an ensconced and pampered officer class, the Pentagon is alienating vets fine without Putin’s help
One could suppose, if some variant of reactive armor was involved, that a real safety issue arose which might justify such a response. Still, bureaucracies like the armed forces crush the human spirit as noted by Paul Fusel and others.When you take away the real or imagined moral-high-ground, all that is left is a meager paycheck.
Since the Pentagon is currently losing 7 wars simultaneously, a war of propaganda is about the best they can do for close to a Trillion a year.
American military hierarchy is laughable.
American IC is totally corrupt and mostly criminal.
American diplomacy is infused with Russophobia and Khazarian Fantasy of possessing the best parts of Russia and all its gas, oil and water and other natural resources.
This triad of the Fascist Government in DC is losing its grip as Hegemon.
They cannot make Putin and Russia flinch or blink.
And SCO and Eurasia is like lava, unstoppable in its slow envelopment of the four civilizations of Russia, China, India and Iran.
Imagine plotting Hegemony against that mass. It will be like catching a meteor with a butterfly net.
I think the acceleration of Russia as superpower is just beginning. It’s moral judgment and wisdom is as powerful as its military and diplomacy. The Hegemon has nothing to compare.
So, they attack the messengers, the observers, the analysts.
What do they really fear? The database of their crimes against humanity. The video and infographic proof of war crimes and support of terrorist proxies.
Thank you Larch445 for a wonderful description – great imagery.
As u say all they can do is attack the messengers who are getting the truth out. Southfront just got loads of publicity to boot :)
Their lies are collapsing – Rex Tillerson has stated that every counterpart he meets all over the world tell him that they need to improve and repair their relations with Russia – the rest of the world are slowly turning their backs. As usual they (DC Govt) double down and make relations even worse:
https://www.rt.com/usa/392299-us-senate-russia-sanctions/
Look at the industries they traget – the “Khazarian Fantasy” and with other industries – they can’t compete so they cheat.
Well put Larch… I notice they’re really “doubling down” after the Oliver Stone thing hit Showtime… on NPR Terry Gross is currently interviewing, I believe, Vice President Biden (!?!) in front of an audience to hear his wit and wisdom. Truly, here is how the story ends. That’s the best they can do? Really, by pretending that Russia is super-powerful, they’re exposing imperial weakness, not strength.
They don’t even try to make their propaganda “plausible” anymore.
@Larchmonter445
“So, they attack the messengers, the observers, the analysts.”
Governments go after the messenger because the last thing they want is to deal with the message.
Veteran’s Today is a joke. A typical, energy-sucking, unfunny CIA joke.
HINT:
‘By the way of deception’ operations are always accompanied by a difficult to catch, and equally difficult to describe, humor.
This deceptive sort of humor hits the lower three chakras full force but evades cognition. It smells moldy, swampy, like a faint trail of a rotting flesh. It is threatening, passive-aggressive, mocking, sadistic. It cannot be properly localized, as the source from where it comes is always cloaked.
Well-tuned immune systems go straight into high alert. Dogs start barking. Critters rush in all directions. Modern subjects drive past it without noticing anything – eyes wide shut.
Once you have learned to recognize this unique, dead-serious, form of humor, you are blessed. Your instincts with its superior bio-tech early warning system will detect it for you, under any conditions, without fail.
The times when you fell for every fake news, every farce, every false flag will be over. You won’t be one step ahead of the pack, but a mile.
I don’t think so (partly maybe). I think it’s exactly as Duff describes it himself: “About 30% of what’s written on Veterans Today is patently false. About 40% of what I write is at least, purposely, partially false, because if I (or VT) didn’t write (also) false information I wouldn’t be alive” (or VT wouldn’t be able to exist).
So they’re partly actually very good, but are forced to publish unbelievable crap as well. Same goes for e.g. Alex Jones’ Infowars, which instead publishes for instance disgusting Zionist (e.g. Iran or Muslim demonizing) hate propaganda. Just ignore those 30%.
Case in point, Alex Jones says that a criminal elements inside the US government, along with Saudis and others were involved with 9/11. Sharia law is held to be a bogeyman — I have yet seen an alt site that takes a nuanced approach: elites pushing for parallel legal systems not good; honest money and fair trade, good. but I am rambling. In any case, i occasionally read Infowars, I never read Veterans Today. I do read New Eastern Outlook regularly which shares authors with VT and links to VT. I think the key is do not react. _smr’s point is well taken.
Laika: VT is a “Journal for the Clandestine Community” and decision makers, who can easily verify VT’s info & intel. VT contains much highly ‘classified’ info — mostly obtained from unclassified sources.
VT also publishes classified info that was classified SOLELY because it’s embarrassing. VT does not publish info or intel that compromises ‘Sources & Methods’ or that could get U.S. soldiers killed.
If you’re a decision maker or have worked in the IC, then you’ll know what’s true & what’s not. This is the context in which VT Editor Duff said what he said. Clearly, you are neither.
This all seems to boil down to:- Russia is fighting back!
Well what else is to be expected? Russia has been under under unremitting attack of varying intensities for so very long. I always had the impression that Russians were above average competence yet below average confidence. That is certainly changing, under this president of the Russian Federation; Vladimir Putin.
Harry:
This all seems to boil down to:- Russia is fighting back!
It boils down to a perceived idea that Russia is fighting back. Actually it’s ordinary people fighting the nonsense their fed by their own MSM. There’s no need for Russia to get actively involved – except for RT. (But it’s no secret that RT is financed by the Russian government. Something similar applies for US funded Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and German funded Deutsche Welle.) Those people who’re writing against government propaganda don’t need to get paid in Rubles to vent their anger. It’s genuine.
correction:
… ordinary people fighting the nonsense their fed by their own …
should be:
… ordinary people fighting the nonsense they’re fed by their own …
Politico is owned by Capital News Company, a division of Albritton Communications Company whose news outlets are all affiliates of ABC owned by Disney.
So a corporate front.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Allbritton_Communications_Company
“Is it really true that top US experts and journalists actually believe that SouthFront and Veterans Today represent a significant threat to the US military? To its morale?”
Yes indeed! Because truth is always exceedingly corrosive to empires built on universally accepted lies. That was true of the USSR, and it is equally true of today’s USA.
Truth plays the same role as water in “The Wizard of Oz” – it causes the wicked to dissolve.
“Help! Truth!! Get it away from me!!! I’M MELTING!!!!”
I think it was Herman Goering who said : the mortal enemy of the lie is the truth. That’s why dissent cannot be tolerated.
And while the Empire has to convince the public that up is down and black is white in order to keep the wars going, all the dissenters have to do is point out that it’s bullshit. They can’t win on the battlefield so they must win the propaganda war. That’s why you are seeing calls for censorship and attacks on the alternative media.
Thanks for posting the article from “Politico”. I began to read it, but unfortunately I started to feel a powerful nausea as soon as the second paragraph (“Russia has dramatically increased its “active measures” — a form of political warfare that includes disinformation, propaganda and compromising leaders with bribes and blackmail — against the United States”).
So I gave up.
Politico, the helpful news outlet provided by the Pentagon and Langley, to help you understand the world better.
It should be noted that Southfront has published a rebuttal article, https://southfront.org/politico-goes-off-deep-end-identifies-u-s-veterans-putins-fifth-column/ I also recommend this comment to the initial story, https://southfront.org/politico-veterans-today-southfront-turn-american-servicemembers-veterans-fifth-column/#comment-3362205941
It bothers me that our side has so many people who miss the gameplay so absolutely. Taking the zionist controlled mainstream media at face value is the sign of serious intelligence deficiency.
Why do psy-ops like Politico write such stuff? Cos anyone believes it- obviously not. You’d need the same IQ as a mouldy potato and the Deep State doesn’t use people that dense. No- the idea is to lay down a belief system in the minds of the sheeple, and then use that belief system as the ‘excuse’ for extreme action- like a crackdown on the non-zionist press.
This is propaganda pure and simple- but propaganda that is more hopeful than anything else. Clinton was supposed to be a shoe-in for President, and had Human History’s greatest propaganda campaign on her side- yet she lost. If Politico’s nonsense gained traction (as monitored by the NSA and GCHQ via Google, Facebook et al), then the Deep State would feel safe in changing society with whole swathes of new 1984 style laws. But in reality, these articles have the same effectiveness as buying a lottery ticket. They ***could*** win the big prize, but that outcome is vanishingly unlikely. On the other hand, mathematically you cannot win unless you participate, so that’s what they do.
Yet at a time like this, crude attacks on ‘our’ side (even if VT and Alex Jones are really more than a little zionist psy-ops than true 100% resources for the awakened) tend to make the sheeple ‘curious’ about things the Deep State tries so very hard to keep them away from. A nice little “damned if they do and damned if they don’t” paradox for the bad guys.
But the Demons of the Deep State hold all the high level cards, and their ability to work on the sheeple is unprecedented. And their no.1 opponent, Russia, never acts to expose or finish off the Demons (see the latest invasion of Syria by a pathfinder force of US military power that Putin 100% refuses to confront). The Demons want to wipe out life on Earth by ‘encouraging’ the Human race to commit suicide. And this means an arms race, perpetual and growing wars, the hopelessness of growing police states and a sheeple love of military violence.
So feel free to laugh at Politico- that propaganda is mostly self-defeating- but understand the only reason the Demons feel cool with such unlikely-to-win tactics is because they have nothing to lose since they have already saturated all the easy strategies and are making perfect progress in those (see the new sanctions against Russia by the US congress for example).
Wahhabi zionism is spreading like a perfect cancer throughout the muslim world. Ex-soviet East European nations have been perfectly subverted by the West. China dare not say boo to the USA for fear of upsetting the dollar trade and Chinese access to the marketplace of the west. Love of war and warriors has replaced the near universal anti-war sentiments of the population of the West in the 1970s and 80s. Mass murder of civilians by the various war machines of the West is now completely OK in the minds of the West’s sheeple. The 1984 police state covers the globe, and sadly Russia likes the orwellian ideas almost as much as Britain.
We are losing badly, and life on this planet hangs by a thread. So when you laugh at the ‘blunt blade’ propaganda like politico represents, remember the deep state has another billion knives in the drawer. Like the ‘last straw’ principle, fools think that because the back hasn’t broken yet, it never will- and therefore further loading can do no harm. That’s our thread by which we all hang.
If Demons didn’t run all major parties in the UK, for instance, the shameful London fire could easily be used as a rallying cause to bring down the Conservatives. The Deep State knows this, so all potential anti-government forces have long been neutralised- and instead the sheeple are given five flavours of demon controlled ‘choice’.
Russia could stand up and be a real choice to the Deep State Demons, and risk nothing by doing so. How? By playing the planet’s remaining legal ‘game’- the UN recognition of nation states. Assad’s government is legally recognised at the UN- so Russia can destroy any forces in Syria that operate there without permission from the Syrian government. If Russia were to destroy US and UK forces in Syria tomorrow, the demonic control of the UK and USA would collapse in a day as a result of the aftermath. The demons need the sheeple to think ‘right’ is on the side of the nations owned by the demons. But in Syria it is currently accepted by the sheeple that the UK and USA operate outside the law. While this is consequence free, the sheeple don’t sweat it. And Putin, sadly, will ensure it is consequence free- for while he can cry at the UN, Putin knows that the power of veto prevents any of the great powers from being held accountable there.
If the boot was on the other foot, and the West had a situation where Putin had his forces in a nation that was formally recognised as allied to the West, those Russia forces would be attacked immediately knowing that Russia could ***never*** use this action as an excuse to strike back. That is why the West has so frequently sought to have the UN condemn one regime or another- and then used that condemnation as excuse to immediately attack that nation. But Russia never does.
So the sad attacks in publications like politico will continue, on the off chance that they will stike a chord somewhere useful. And at the same time the demons will continue with their vastly more successful actions in every other sphere.
Replace the words ‘Deep State Demons’ with ‘Khazarian Talmudic Jews’.
Yes, I said it, Jews !
Their satanic quest for the subjugation of humanity and installing themselves as lords of us, worthless gentiles, for us to serve them as slaves.
Here, right from the horses mouth :
Menachem Begin: Israel’s First Prime Minister
“OUR RACE IS THE MASTER RACE. WE ARE DIVINE GODS ON THIS PLANET. WE ARE AS DIFFERENT FROM THE INFERIOR RACES AS THEY ARE FROM INSECTS. IN FACT, COMPARED TO OUR RACE, OTHER RACES ARE BEASTS AND ANIMALS, CATTLE AT BEST. OTHER RACES ARE CONSIDERED AS HUMAN EXCREMENT. OUR DESTINY IS TO RULE OVER THE INFERIOR RACES. OUR EARTHLY KINGDOM WILL BE RULED BY OUR LEADER WITH A ROD OF IRON. THE MASSES WILL LICK OUR FEET AND SERVE US AS OUR SLAVES.”
That’s right, they plot, scheme, subvert, kill, destroy humanity at every chance they get. If this sounds harsh to you, or perhaps racist, think again.
And when I speak of ‘Jews’, I’m referring to the Western/Israeli kind who are essentially decendents of Khazaria. These are the Jews who are overwhelmingly representing Judiasm as we know it today, where the Talmud supercedes the Torah.
But what if people speaking out against the Jews as a tribe are not doing it out of hate?
What if they have realized that this ‘tribe’ has seized control of positions of power and influence to enforce a self-serving global Jewish agenda?
What if they are doing it because they see the plight of humanity with all its wars, poverty and unnecessary suffering?
What if they are trying to awaken you to it out of love and compassion and its being mistaken for hatred and racism?
Think about that.
They are trying to discredit dissenting voices, and trying so hard. In the end, in their attempt to sound like the correct/true voice, and by their constant browbeating the alternate media, they start sounding like the conspiricy theorist. What an irony of, not if fate, of their own making, how things come full circle.
Nice to find so much stuff here. Always something interesting to read. Thank you Saker.
Looks like the USSA is shooting itself in the foot and VT is merely reporting that they are incompetent.
The power structure does not like political jiu jitso turned against it.
Bit long and brain-cells-killing to read it all, but I like the references to “intelligence sources” and various “cybersecurity firms” opinions and analyses without any names. It’s supposed to add credibility, I guess.
So basically, the US of A has declared a global information, economic and “other” war on the Russian Federation, and are complaining that it’s kind not working…? The other side is fighting back, and doing it better?
Boohoo. Wanna beach towel to soak up the tears?
This Politico article is just another version of the PropOrNot and FakeNews meme that the USA was peddling not long ago. It’s an example of an American “active measures” campaign to discredit dissent that questions America’s serial wars of aggression and behavior around the world.
However, the article is revealing–but not in the sense that Politico or the US Military High Comand intends.
The Politico article reveals that American ruling class is deathly afraid that not only many people around the world but also in the US miltiary are waking up from the American Matrix (aka the so-called Free Press).
Thus, in the Orwellian unreality of the Politico and the American military/spook establishment, Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction really did exist and anybody that says otherwise is possibly a Fifth Column agent for Russia!
Veterans Today, SouthFront, etc. are guilty of Thought Crimes against Amurica!
Any source that questions the official narrative must be discredited. Congrats on making the hit list I guess.
If this article hadn’t been published on this thesaker, I wouldn’t have read anything about the report published by Politico. Usually I try to avoid MSM crap as best as I can. Reading this whole Politico article makes me wonder which kind of drugs the reporters and several of the interviewees are doing. Especially weird are the statements of this Kellerman guy:
The upticks in online attacks are harbingers of armed aggression, said Kellermann, who predicted that conflict between the United States and Russia was most likely to break out in the Baltic region.
“I’m very, very concerned,” he said. “Cyberspace is always the precursor to kinetic reality.”
Either those remarks shall signal to the Russians to give up any resistance, before the US takes action (psychological warfare) or this assessment reflects the real way of thinking of the US military security complex and hints that a war is unavoidable (by false flag or forcing the Russians to make the first move).
Executive summary : Simply “telling it like it is” has a profoundly toxic effect on those who depend on “telling it like it isn’t.”
The international Jewish mafia is very, very worried by ‘content’ and ‘comments sections’ of the alternative media/social media world due to more and more people waking up to the menace that they are to humanity at large.
I see people waking up everyday, and when they do, they are generally pissed.
“How Russia targets the U.S. Military. With hacks, pro-Putin trolls and fake news, the Kremlin is ratcheting up its efforts to turn American servicemembers and veterans into a fifth column.”
Haha, it must feel somewhat tragic to Western supremacists from all walks of life that yesterday’s despised, retarded, evil, and subhuman Russians are suddenly a force to be reckoned with, and how! No ‘silly’, ‘clumsy’ imitations of alleged Western ‘prowess’ but a most convincing performance and assertive national mood accompanying it. The Tourette’s tic of the Zionazis about ‘Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea’ is something which keeps me forever high on very real Schadenfreude!
New vs propaganda is a false dialectic.
It’s all propaganda, brought to you courtesy information/disinformation specialists. As ever, the war is fought for control of your thoughts, understood since before the gospel of John told you god is the word. That coroprate logo on your shirt is telling you something.
Only you can represent yourself and only you can make yourself a champion of the truth.
Learn to discern. The truth is within.
Thankyou Saker for publishing this article. We at VT consider the Politico attack on us to be a big pat on the back, a clear sign that our hard work in exposing the truth about Trump, the Ghouta ‘gas attack’ and other stories we have given extensive coverage to has upset people in positions of power. So we are doing our job and they wouldn’t have bothered to attack us if we weren’t having some success in exposing them and their lies.
Ian Greenhalgh
Managing Editor
Veterans Today
I have sent in comment to many sites. I am not now, nor have ever been commenting from a partisan position but that of a servant of Jesus Christ and that only. I have obviously therefore been defamed by any article making similar, if not the same, allegations as Politico. Ah shucks – it goes with the territory as one Emeritus Professor once remarked to me. As well as defaming me personally and the BOSS, thousands upon thousands of the small and poor of this world have also received the treatment. One wonders what craziness is going on inside these people’s heads.