CIA Agents to Troll Alternative Media Sites in Huge Propaganda Program

[thorfourwinds]

Are You Chatting With A CIA Agent Online? It's Possible You May Already Have | HNN – Higgins News Network

March 29, 2016
CIA Agents to Troll Alternative Media Sites in Huge Propaganda Program

The CIA are expanding an existing program that influences mainstream media outlets to promote fake propaganda stories, by having agents troll internet forums, social media, and website comment sections – in an effort to disrupt alternative media sites.

In an expansion of Operation Mockingbird, the agency are now creating fake user accounts on various internet forums and social media channels, arguing politics with real users in an attempt to stifle and subvert genuine communications between users.

Editors Note: It's been long suspected that the NSA's Domestic Spy Program is Tracking And Analyzing Every American In Real Time. It has gotten so bad the the US Justice Department is being sued for failing to adhere to Freedom of Information Act requests for documents on a federal surveillance program that has targeted the email, social media and phone conversations of Americans throughout the last five years.

Details on the Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda and trash online stories that don't fit with the Feds Agenda

Americanintelligencereport.com reports how Government Agents Hired to Argue Politics On-line:

According to RT news, agents have up to "10 fake shill accounts" used to troll and create the illusion of having a genuine network of friends. "The agents will defend current administration agenda with relentless irrational stubbornness that one can only be paid to do."

Abby Martin, from RT's "Breaking the Set," reported on an up to date Operation Mockingbird with the sole purpose of misleading the public on-line.

Published on Jan 17, 2013
Abby Martin takes with a look at America's history of government infiltration in news media citing the CIA's secret cold-war program dubbed Operation Mockingbird.


In the congressional hearing from 1976 (below) listen to how many agents are in the media to write false stories.

According to the Congress report published in 1976:

By the year 1953 Operation Mockingbird dictated information in over 25 newspapers and wire agencies.

These organizations were run by people with well-known right-wing views such as William Paley (CBS), Henry Luce (Time and Life Magazine), Arthur Hays Sulzberger (New York Times), Alfred Friendly (managing editor of the Washington Post), Jerry O'Leary (Washington Star), Hal Hendrix (Miami News), Barry Bingham, Sr., (Louisville Courier-Journal), James Copley (Copley News Services) and Joseph Harrison (Christian Science Monitor).

Even Rolling Stone claimed that journalist Joseph Alsop was under the control of Operation Mockingbird in 1977.

His articles appeared in over 300 different newspapers. Other journalists alleged by Rolling Stone Magazine to have been willing to promote the views of the CIA included Stewart Alsop (New York Herald Tribune), Ben Bradlee (Newsweek), James Reston (New York Times), Charles Douglas Jackson (Time Magazine), Walter Pincus (Washington Post), William C. Baggs (The Miami News), Herb Gold (The Miami News) and Charles Bartlett (Chattanooga Times).

According to Nina Burleigh (A Very Private Woman), these journalists sometimes wrote articles that were commissioned by Frank Wisner, creator of the program.

The CIA also provided them with classified information to help them with their work.

[space otter]

ah Thor.. we have them here  already ..two i could name but won't..

[Dyna]

It sounds like a cushy job another reason to be angry, they get paid for what others do free!

[WhatTheHey]

WAY TO GO THOR! I think I saw 1 or 2 of these guys in I.R.N. chat room. (That's Inception Radio Net.) Pretty easy to spot on occasion, when they just show up and start some political discussion crap!

WhatTheHey 

[ArMaP]

"The agents will defend current administration agenda with relentless irrational stubbornness that one can only be paid to do."

Never underestimate people's stubbornness, specially when talking about politics, religion or sports.

PS: it's interesting to see that RT is saying that, as they are a state-sponsored TV network.

[thorfourwinds]

In case you don't recognize me from that other site...look at my stats   

[thorfourwinds]

Revealed: US Spy Operation That Manipulates Social Media

by Alexander Higgins

Note: I have long suspected the the US Government was performing such operations. Specifically during the height of the BP gulf oil spill many of my posts would be absolutely viral on several social media websites and get absolutely trashed and buried on others. While this could be explained by different user communities.

However, what would explain why a story published by me gets buried on Reddit and another blogger re-posts my exact story and it goes viral. As is said I was always suspicious, particularly of the Digg and Reddit user communities, but had no proof so never wrote about it. Readers of my blog with their own blogs have complained about the exact same thing. Here's an excellent example of pro-nuclear shills hijacking a thread on Reddit.

Needless to say it has been a while since I have posted either Digg or Reddit for this reason. I can say the problem still exists on Reddit because while I no longer post there some readers do and within the last week stories posted there have been buried that have been absolutely viral elsewhere.

Shocking details on the Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda and trash online stories that don't fit with the Feds Agenda.

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

General David Petraeus

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

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 organizations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."

He said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

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.

Once developed, 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.

Centcom's contract requires for each controller the provision of one "virtual private server" located in the United States and others appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world.

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".

The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a program called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then, OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m program and is thought to have been used against jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

OEV is seen by senior US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalization program. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last year, General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US military's objective was to be "first with the truth".

This month Petraeus's successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".

Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose whether the multiple persona project is already in operation or discuss any related contracts.

Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.

In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He added that Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".

According to a report by the inspector general of the US defence department in Iraq, OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather than Centcom.

Asked whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it could find "no evidence". The MoD refused to say whether it had been involved in the development of persona management programs, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."

OEV was discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in Washington DC, where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to "communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our adversaries".

Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.

Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.

It is unclear whether a persona management program would contravene UK law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any other person's prejudice". However, this would apply only if a website or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a result.

• This article was amended to remove references to Facebook and Twitter, introduced during the editing process, and to add a comment from Centcom, received after publication, that it is not targeting those sites.

[astr0144]

I think we all know one Ex CIA member by the name of John !... is that to suggest there is two more ?

ah Thor.. we have them here  already ..two i could name but won't..

[thorfourwinds]

What makes one think that 'John' is 'ex' anything?   

This is interesting . . .

ANTYGRAWITACJA

as well as this:

gsjournal.net/books/De-Mees-Gravitomagnetism-and-Coriolis-Gravity-2011-A4.pdf

[thorfourwinds]

Operation Mockingbird Style YouTube and FaceBook Infiltrations Exposed!

by Hatrick Penry

In March of 2012 I wrote "Operation Mockingbird Style Alternative Media Infiltration Exposed!" and revealed that 95% of 'alternative' media outlets were controlled opposition and had, among other things, done their best to shield Obama (and the nuclear industry for that matter) from the consequences of Plume-Gate during his election run for a 2nd term.

My reasoning was simple: blockbuster evidence of a massive conspiracy and cover-up was being ignored by the so-called 'alternative' media.

Considering the size and scope of the Plume-Gate cover-up, the incredible amount of evidence found in the FOIA documents and considering the projected 1.3 million American fatalities, it was obvious that the so-called 'alternative' media was no alternative at all.

An 'Operation: Mockingbird' style infiltration had taken place just as it had years before in the mainstream media: gatekeeping and disinformation were now the order of the day. . .

[thorfourwinds]

Fake News? Video: Bush Admits The Government Planting Fake News Stories

[astr0144]

That maybe a valid question "Thor" !

and maybe due to me coming across articles that may seem to suggest it..  such as this..that refers to "EX"   but that may mean only EX Piliot..not agent !

ex-cia-pilot-gives-sworn-testimony-no-planes-hit-twin-towers

http://thenewyorkevening.com/index.php/2016/06/16/ex-cia-pilot-gives-sworn-testimony-no-planes-hit-twin-towers/

Also considering Johns age !   

and I thought that it had been suggested on PRC...

but who knows those guys may never retire !

Those Articles look very Interesting ! Great find..and I much appreciate you posting them..

Not sure I can understand parts of it as it looks very indepth stuff..

It maybe a remaining life time to try to understand it, if at all possible..

It may need an Einstein to try to understand it..

but it looks a great ref for certain related things that have been discussed on PRC..

Is that your only recent visit to ATS since you came to PRC ?

There is a very lot of post made in reply to your past posts/ threads..

What makes one think that 'John' is 'ex' anything?   

This is interesting . . .

ANTYGRAWITACJA

as well as this:

gsjournal.net/books/De-Mees-Gravitomagnetism-and-Coriolis-Gravity-2011-A4.pdf

[thorfourwinds]

Oh, you're speaking of that John.   

Silly me, although same size shoes . . . 

I visit ATS frequently to add to the Fukushima mega thread, and a few of my own.

We thinks their 'stat counter' has a malfunction., as some members have millions of stars, etc.     

[Shasta56]

EUTM has at least a couple of people watching our site.  We know that they're doing so.  We refuse to shut up about the things that they prefer kept quiet.  A few of us have noticed an uptick in strange things happening.  We just talk even more.

Shasta

[Norval]

, , , , VERY old news, , , , , ,

I call them IAC agents

Information Acquisition and Control agents, , , , ,