FTR #1119 and FTR #1120 DARPA and the Covid-19 Outbreak, Part 1 and DARPA and the Covid-19 Outbreak, Part 2
A thought-provoking and disturbing article about DARPA research into bat-borne diseases, including some caused by coronaviruses–is set forth here.
Whitney Webb has provided us with troubling insight into Pentagon research–some of which remains classified:
1.– Into bat-borne coronaviruses. ” . . . . the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), began spending millions on such research in 2018 and some of those Pentagon-funded studies were conducted at known U.S. military bioweapons labs bordering China and resulted in the discovery of dozens of new coronavirus strains as recently as last April. Furthermore, the ties of the Pentagon’s main biodefense lab to a virology institute in Wuhan, China — where the current outbreak is believed to have begun — have been unreported in English language media thus far. . . . For instance, DARPA spent $10 million on one project in 2018 ‘to unravel the complex causes of bat-borne viruses that have recently made the jump to humans, causing concern among global health officials.” Another research project backed by both DARPA and NIH saw researchers at Colorado State University examine the coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in bats and camels ‘to understand the role of these hosts in transmitting disease to humans.’ . . . For instance, one study conducted in Southern China in 2018 resulted in the discovery of 89 new “novel bat coronavirus” strains that use the same receptor as the coronavirus known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). That study was jointly funded by the Chinese government’s Ministry of Science and Technology, USAID — an organization long alleged to be a front for U.S. intelligence, and the U.S. National Institute of Health — which has collaborated with both the CIA and the Pentagon on infectious disease and bioweapons research.. . . .”
2.–At biological research facilities ringing both China and Russia. ” . . . . One of those studies focused on ‘Bat-Borne Zoonotic Disease Emergence in Western Asia’ and involved the Lugar Center in Georgia, identified by former Georgian government officials, the Russian government and independent, investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva as a covert U.S. bioweapons lab. . . . Another U.S. government-funded study that discovered still more new strains of ‘novel bat coronavirus’ was published just last year. Titled ‘Discovery and Characterization of Novel Bat Coronavirus Lineages from Kazakhstan,’ focused on ‘the bat fauna of central Asia, which link China to eastern Europe’ and the novel bat coronavirus lineages discovered during the study were found to be ‘closely related to bat coronaviruses from China, France, Spain, and South Africa, suggesting that co-circulation of coronaviruses is common in multiple bat species with overlapping geographical distributions.’ In other words, the coronaviruses discovered in this study were identified in bat populations that migrate between China and Kazakhstan, among other countries, and is closely related to bat coronaviruses in several countries, including China. . . .”
3.–Networked with Chinese research facilities in Wuhan. ” . . . . The USAMRIID’s problematic record of safety at such facilities is of particular concern in light of the recent coronavirus outbreak in China. As this report will soon reveal, this is because USAMRIID has a decades-old and close partnership with the University of Wuhan’s Institute of Medical Virology, which is located in the epicenter of the current outbreak. . . . Duke University is also jointly partnered with China’s Wuhan University, which is based in the city where the current coronavirus outbreak began, which resulted in the opening of the China-based Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in 2018. Notably, China’s Wuhan University — in addition to its partnership with Duke — also includes a multi-lab Institute of Medical Virology that has worked closely with the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases since the 1980s, according to its website. . . . ”
Into the DNA of both Russian and Chinese populations. ” . . . . Since the Pentagon began ‘redesigning’ its policies and research towards a ‘long war’ with Russia and China, the Russian military has accused the U.S. military of harvesting DNA from Russians as part of a covert bioweapon program, a charge that the Pentagon has adamantly denied. Major General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military’s radiation, chemical and biological protection unit who made these claims, also asserted that the U.S. was developing such weapons in close proximity to Russian and Chinese borders. China has also accused the U.S. military of harvesting DNA from Chinese citizens with ill intentions, such as when 200,000 Chinese farmers were used in 12 genetic experiments without informed consent. Those experiments had been conducted by Harvard researchers as part of a U.S. government-funded project. . . .”
4.–Into “gene-driving”–a biotechnological development that can permanently alter the genetic makeup of entire population groups and lead to the extinction of other groups. ” . . . . Concerns about Pentagon experiments with biological weapons have garnered renewed media attention, particularly after it was revealed in 2017 that DARPA was the top funder of the controversial ‘gene drive’ technology, which has the power to permanently alter the genetics of entire populations while targeting others for extinction. At least two of DARPA’s studies using this controversial technology were classified and ‘focused on the potential military application of gene drive technology and use of gene drives in agriculture,’ according to media reports. The revelation came after an organization called the ETC Group obtained over 1,000 emails on the military’s interest in the technology as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Co-director of the ETC Group Jim Thomas said that this technology may be used as a biological weapon: ‘Gene drives are a powerful and dangerous new technology and potential biological weapons could have disastrous impacts on peace, food security and the environment, especially if misused, The fact that gene drive development is now being primarily funded and structured by the US military raises alarming questions about this entire field.’ . . . .”
Into overlapping technologies manifesting philosophies of eugenics and ethnic cleansing. ” . . . . In addition, one preliminary study on the coronavirus responsible for the current outbreak found that the receptor, Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), is not only the same as that used by the SARS coronavirus, but that East Asians present a much higher ratio of lung cells that express that receptor than the other ethnicities (Caucasian and African-American) included in the study. . . . the U.S. Air Force published a document entitled ‘Biotechnology: Genetically Engineered Pathogens,’ which contains the following passage: ‘The JASON group, composed of academic scientists, served as technical advisers to the U. S. government. Their study generated six broad classes of genetically engineered pathogens that could pose serious threats to society. These include but are not limited to binary biological weapons, designer genes, gene therapy as a weapon, stealth viruses, host-swapping diseases, and designer diseases (emphasis added).’ . . .”
5.–Into the use of “Insect Allies” to supposedly provide crops with protection against pests and disease–a technological program critics have charged masks an offensive biological warfare manifestation. ” . . . . The most recent example of this involved DARPA’s “Insect Allies” program, which officially “aims to protect the U.S. agricultural food supply by delivering protective genes to plants via insects, which are responsible for the transmission of most plant viruses” and to ensure “food security in the event of a major threat,” according to both DARPA and media reports. However, a group of well-respected, independent scientists revealed in a scathing analysis of the program that, far from a ‘defensive’ research project, the Insect Allies program was aimed at creating and delivering ‘new class of biological weapon.’ The scientists, writing in the journal Science and led by Richard Guy Reeves, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany, warned that DARPA’s program — which uses insects as the vehicle for as horizontal environmental genetic alteration agents (HEGAAS) — revealed ‘an intention to develop a means of delivery of HEGAAs for offensive purposes (emphasis added).’ . . .”
6.–Ostensibly aimed at preventing pandemics but–very possibly–masking preparations for offensive biological warfare projects. ” . . . . Many of these recent research projects are related to DARPA’s Preventing Emerging Pathogenic Threats, or PREEMPT program, which was officially announced in April 2018. PREEMPT focuses specifically on animal reservoirs of disease, specifically bats, and DARPA even noted in its press release in the program that it ‘is aware of biosafety and biosecurity sensitivities that could arise’ due to the nature of the research. . . . In addition, while both DARPA’s PREEMPT program and the Pentagon’s open interest in bats as bioweapons were announced in 2018, the U.S. military — specifically the Department of Defense’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program — began funding research involving bats and deadly pathogens, including the coronaviruses MERS and SARS, a year prior in 2017. . . .”
7.–That is heavily networked with the U.S. health and medical infrastructures. ” . . . . The second pharmaceutical company that was selected by CEPI to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus is Moderna Inc., which will develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus of concern in collaboration with the U.S. NIH and which will be funded entirely by CEPI. The vaccine in question, as opposed to Inovio’s DNA vaccine, will be a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Though different than a DNA vaccine, mRNA vaccines still use genetic material ‘to direct the body’s cells to produce intracellular, membrane or secreted proteins.’ Moderna’s mRNA treatments, including its mRNA vaccines, were largely developed using a $25 million grant from DARPA and it often touts is strategic alliance with DARPA in press releases. . . .”
8.–That is heavily networked with firms chosen to develop vaccines for the Covid-19. ” . . . . the very companies recently chosen to develop a vaccine to combat the coronavirus outbreak are themselves strategic allies of DARPA. . . . For instance, the top funders of Inovio Pharmaceuticals include both DARPA and the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the company has received millions in dollars in grants from DARPA, including a $45 million grant to develop a vaccine for Ebola. Inovio specializes in the creation of DNA immunotherapies and DNA vaccines, which contain genetically engineered DNA that causes the cells of the recipient to produce an antigen and can permanently alter a person’s DNA. Inovio previously developed a DNA vaccine for the Zika virus, but — to date — no DNA vaccine has been approved for use in humans in the United States. Inovio was also recently awarded over $8 million from the U.S. military to develop a small, portable intradermal device for delivering DNA vaccines jointly developed by Inovio and USAMRIID.”
9.–Into vaccines that have not been used on human beings and that use gene-altering manipulation that alarms critics. ” . . . . Not only that, but these DARPA-backed companies are developing controversial DNA and mRNA vaccines for this particular coronavirus strain, a category of vaccine that has never previously been approved for human use in the United States. . . . Inovio’s collaboration with the U.S. military in regards to DNA vaccines is nothing new, as their past efforts to develop a DNA vaccine for both Ebola and Marburg virus were also part of what Inovio’s CEO Dr. Joseph Kim called its ‘active biodefense program’ that has ‘garnered multiple grants from the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and other government agencies.’ . . . . ”
10.–Involving the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, located at Fort Detrick, Maryland, a facility that was closed down in August of 2019 by the CDC for multiple safety violations. ” . . . . The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland — the U.S. military’s lead laboratory for ‘biological defense’ research since the late 1960s — was forced to halt all research it was conducting with a series of deadly pathogens after the CDC found that it lacked ‘sufficient systems in place to decontaminate wastewater’ from its highest-security labs and failure of staff to follow safety procedures, among other lapses. The facility contains both level 3 and level 4 biosafety labs. While it is unknown if experiments involving coronaviruses were ongoing at the time, USAMRIID has recently been involved in research borne out of the Pentagon’s recent concern about the use of bats as bioweapons. . . .”
11.–Into the application of genetic engineering in order to create ethno-specific biological warfare weapons, as discussed by the Project for a New American Century. ” . . . . In what is arguably the think tank’s most controversial document, titled ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses,’ there are a few passages that openly discuss the utility of bioweapons, including the following sentences: ‘…combat likely will take place in new dimensions: in space, ‘cyber-space,’ and perhaps the world of microbes…advanced forms of biological warfare that can ‘target’ specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.’ . . .”
The program concludes with a summary of six pandemics that struck China within a period of a little less than two years. Are these connected to the many-faceted destabilization of China discussed in past programs and/or the research programs highlighted in the Whitney Webb article?:
. . . . In the past two years (during the trade war) China has suffered several pandemics:
1.–February 15, 2018: H7N4 bird flu. Sickened at least 1,600 people in China and killed more than 600. Many chickens killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products.
2.–June, 2018: H7N9 bird flu. Many chickens killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products.
3.–August, 2018: outbreak of African swine flu. Same strain as Russia, from Georgia. Millions of pigs killed. China needs to purchase US pork products.
4.–May 24, 2019: massive infestation of armyworms in 14 province-level regions in China, which destroy most food crops. Quickly spread to more than 8,500 hectares of China’s grain production. They produce astonishing numbers of eggs. China needs to purchase US agricultural products – corn, soybeans.
5.–December, 2019: Coronavirus appearance puts China’s economy on hold.
6.–January, 2020:China is hit by a “highly pathogenic” strain of bird flu in Hunan province. Many chickens died, many others killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products.
FTR #1118 Update on the Coronavirus Outbreak
As the title indicates, the broadcast updates a number of points of inquiry and analysis concerning the Covid-19 outbreak. Of particular note in this context, is the fact that the CDC shut down the Army’s research facility at Ft. Detrick. In early August of 2019, shortly before the recorded start of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at that facility was closed down by the CDC due to multiple safety violations. “All research at a Fort Detrick laboratory that handles high-level disease-causing material, such as Ebola, is on hold indefinitely after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the organization failed to meet biosafety standards. . . . The CDC sent a cease and desist order in July. After USAMRIID received the order from the CDC, its registration with the Federal Select Agent Program, which oversees disease-causing material use and possession, was suspended. That suspension effectively halted all biological select agents and toxin research at USAMRIID . . . .”
Much of the program centers on an article from Global Research. It is Mr. Emory’s opinion that J. Kyle Bass’s comments (see above) and the State Department crackdown on Chinese media are related to some of the elements of discussion in this article. He had heard allegations for weeks that there was discussion in Chinese media about the virus having originated in the United States. Up until this article came to his attention, he had seen nothing to that effect.
NB: Although Western media and official treatment of Chinese media pronouncements on the coronavirus’s origin being in the U.S. will be dismissed as “fake news,” “propaganda,” etc., the speculation in a major Japanese TV broadcast and the analysis presented in a Taiwanese scientific video presentation are not easily dismissed as “Communist Chinese disinformation.” It is altogether dubious that major Japanese media or Taiwanese scientific presentation would carry water for the Chinese Communist Party.
The article raises a number of points of discussion and analysis, including:
1.–” . . . . A new study by Chinese researchers indicates the novel coronavirus may have begun human-to-human transmission in late November from a place other than the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan. The study published on ChinaXiv, a Chinese open repository for scientific researchers, reveals the new coronavirus was introduced to the seafood market from another location(s), and then spread rapidly from the market due to the large number of close contacts. . . .”
2.–” . . . . Chinese medical authorities – and “intelligence agencies” – then conducted a rapid and wide-ranging search for the origin of the virus, collecting nearly 100 samples of the genome from 12 different countries on 4 continents, identifying all the varieties and mutations. During this research, they determined the virus outbreak had begun much earlier, probably in November, shortly after the Wuhan Military Games. . . . ”
3.–” . . . . They then came to the same independent conclusions as the Japanese researchers – that the virus did not begin in China but was introduced there from the outside. China’s top respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan said on January 27. ‘Though the COVID-19 was first discovered in China, it does not mean that it originated from China.’ . . . .This of course raises questions as to the actual location of origin. If the authorities pursued their analysis through 100 genome samples from 12 countries, they must have had a compelling reason to be searching for the original source outside China. This would explain why there was such difficulty in locating and identifying a ‘patient zero’. . . .”
4.–” . . . . In February of 2020, the Japanese Asahi news report (print and TV) claimed the coronavirus originated in the US, not in China, and that some (or many) of the 14,000 American deaths attributed to influenza may have in fact have resulted from the coronavirus. (5) . . .”
5.–” . . . . The TV Asahi network presented scientific documentation for their claims, raising the issue that no one would know the cause of death because the US either neglected to test or failed to release the results. Japan avoided the questions of natural vs. man-made and accidental vs. deliberate, simply stating that the virus outbreak may first have occurred in the US. The Western Internet appears to have been scrubbed of this information, but the Chinese media still reference it. . . .”
6.–” . . . . Then, Taiwan ran a TV news program on February,27,(click here to access video (Chinese), that presented diagrams and flow charts suggesting the coronavirus originated in the US. (6) . . . .”
7.–” . . . . The man in the video is a top virologist and pharmacologist who performed a long and detailed search for the source of the virus. He spends the first part of the video explaining the various haplotypes (varieties, if you will), and explains how they are related to each other, how one must have come before another, and how one type derived from another. He explains this is merely elementary science and nothing to do with geopolitical issues, describing how, just as with numbers in order, 3 must always follow 2. . . .”
8.–” . . . . The basic logic is that the geographical location with the greatest diversity of virus strains must be the original source because a single strain cannot emerge from nothing. He demonstrated that only the US has all the five known strains of the virus (while Wuhan and most of China have only one, as do Taiwan and South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, Singapore, and England, Belgium and Germany), constituting a thesis that the haplotypes in other nations may have originated in the US. . . .”
9.–” . . . . With about 50 nations scattered throughout the world having identified at least one case at the time of writing, it would be very interesting to examine virus samples from each of those nations to determine their location of origin and the worldwide sources and patterns of spread. . . .”
10.–” . . . .The Taiwanese doctor then stated the virus outbreak began earlier than assumed, saying, ‘We must look to September of 2019’. He stated the case in September of 2019 where some Japanese traveled to Hawaii and returned home infected, people who had never been to China. This was two months prior to the infections in China and just after the CDC suddenly and totally shut down the Fort Detrick bio-weapons lab claiming the facilities were insufficient to prevent loss of pathogens. (10) (11) He said he personally investigated those cases very carefully (as did the Japanese virologists who came to the same conclusion).. This might indicate the coronavirus had already spread in the US but where the symptoms were being officially attributed to other diseases, and thus possibly masked. . . .”
11.–” . . . . On February 26, ABC News affiliate KJCT8 News Network reported that a woman recently told the media that her sister died on from coronavirus infection. Montrose, Colorado resident Almeta Stone said, ‘They (the medical staff) kept us informed that it was the flu, and when I got the death certificate, there was a coronavirus in the cause of death.’ . . .”
12.–” . . . . In the past two years (during the trade war) China has suffered several pandemics: A) February 15, 2018: H7N4 bird flu. Sickened at least 1,600 people in China and killed more than 600. Many chickens killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products. B)June, 2018: H7N9 bird flu. Many chickens killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products. C) August, 2018: outbreak of African swine flu. Same strain as Russia, from Georgia. Millions of pigs killed. China needs to purchase US pork products. D)May 24, 2019: massive infestation of armyworms in 14 province-level regions in China, which destroy most food crops. Quickly spread to more than 8,500 hectares of China’s grain production. They produce astonishing numbers of eggs. China needs to purchase US agricultural products – corn, soybeans. E) December, 2019: Coronavirus appearance puts China’s economy on hold. F) January, 2020: China is hit by a ‘highly pathogenic’ strain of bird flu in Hunan province. Many chickens died, many others killed. China needs to purchase US poultry products. . . .”
Program Highlights Include: Further discussion of the State Department’s crackdown on Chinese media outlets; Further discussion of Shincheonji–a South Korean cult that was apparently the vehicle for introducing the virus into that country and which has a branch in Wuhan China; the structural, operational and doctrinal overlap between Shincheonji and the Unificatin Church; Donald Rumsfeld’s position as chairman of the board of directors of Gilead Sciences–at the forefront of Big Pharma’s race to develop countermeasures to the Covid-19 and a major investment target for hedge funds; The presence on Gilead’s board of C. Benno Schmidt, Sr., who helped launch Richard Nixon’s War on Cancer–a cover for the NCI’s Special Viral Cancer Research Program.
FTR #1117 More Than One “Flu” Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Researchers found that levels of the Covid-19 virus increased soon after symptoms first appeared, with higher amounts in the nose than in the throats, which is also more consistent with influenza than SARS. Of the 18 patients they examined, one had moderate levels in their nose and throat but no symptoms–people who are asymptomatic can still potentially spread the virus. It’s this combination of airborne transmissions and asymptomatic patients who shed the virus that makes this a particularly infectious disease.
This anomalous new ability to infect the upper respiratory tract, of course, brings up the chilling experiments where researchers modified the H5N1 bird flu virus until it was capable of airborne transmissions between ferrets. That’s the same research that was banned by the NIH following the uproar but has subsequently been reallowed in early 2019. That original 2012 study specifically found that it was mutations that gave the virus the ability to infect the upper respiratory tracts of the ferrets that made it an airborne virus. We have yet to year if the SAR-CoV‑2 virus had the same or similar mutations to those that were induced in the H5N1 bird flu virus experiment but it seems likely.
The infectiousness of the SARS-CoV‑2 coronavirus is unprecedented based on this new study. As one immunologist put it, “This virus is clearly much more capable of spreading between humans than any other novel coronavirus we’ve ever seen. This is more akin to the spread of flu”.
In the context of the Covid-19’s flu-like ability to infect the upper respiratory tract, we explore experiments adapting the lethal H5N1 avian flu to ferrets. These experiments were halted in 2014 but subsequently resumed in 2017.
Might some of this experiment have been adapted to the Covid-19?
We explore additional experiments adapting the lethal H5N1 avian flu to ferrets. These experiments were halted in 2014 but subsequently resumed in 2017.
Might some of this experiment have been adapted to the Covid-19?
These experiments were resumed, shortly before the outbreak of Covid-19. Again, might some of the results of the adaptation of the H5N1 avian flu to ferrets have figured in the Covid-19 phenomenon?
Note that many experts were critical of the process.
A report on the adaptation of the A/H5N1 to ferrets notes that Oseltamivir–marketed under the brand-name Tamiflu–was successful in treating the ferrets. That is one of the anti-virals in a drug cocktail used by Thai doctors to successfully treat a Covid-19 sufferer.
In FTR#55, we noted in 1997 that U.S. Army researchers had successfully recovered genetic material from the 1918 influenza epidemic.
As will be seen in future programs, one of the variants of the Covid-19 does indeed behave like the 1918 flu virus. As we will also see in future programs, that virus was resurrected by researchers in 2005.
In the past, we have heard it alleged by credible sources that Germany was behind the 1918 flu epidemic that killed scores of millions worldwide.
From Germany Watch comes another post reinforcing this line of inquiry.
After maintaining that German agents were sabotaging livestock with anthrax, the post discusses British intelligence distillate indicating that, after discovering the particular strain of virulent flu, German agents began deliberately spreading it in the U.S.
NB: We don’t feel that the information from the book Three Wars with Germany confirms the hypothesis that the flu pandemic was a German bio-warfare weapon gone awry beyond the point of debate. It DOES, however, highlight that possibility.
We then tackle the subject of a cult/church that is at the epicenter of a Covid-19 outbreak in South Korea. The overlap between this organization and the Unification Church is discussed in a Food For Thought post. Might this cult have been a vector for introducing the virus into Wuhan?
The fascistic nature of the cult and some of the rituals and beliefs of the organization would render the group and/or some of its members as viable “useful idiots” for manipulation in connection with this outbreak.
The next two points of discussion concern the fact that the current U.S. Ambassador to South Korea was the former head of the United States Pacific Command. We wonder if he might be ONI and/or CIA, and if he might have any connection to the anti-China blitzkrieg and the Covid-19 outbreak?
As the former Commander of the Guantanamo base in Cuba, Admiral Harris certainly did have operational links with the intelligence community.
FTR #1110 Miscellaneous Articles and Updates
As the title indicates, this program presents a potpourri of articles covering a number of topics.
A common thread uniting them is the ongoing New Cold War and elements factoring in the impeachment proceedings underway in Washington.
Reputed evidence of a new “hack” allegedly done by the G.R.U. doesn’t pass the sniffs test.
Factors to be weighed in connection with the latest “hack” of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma (on whose board Hunter Biden sits–a fact that has been a focal point of the impeachment proceedings):
1.–Blake Darche, co-founder and Chief Security officer of Area 1, the firm that “detected” the latest “hack” has a strong past association with CrowdStrike, the firm that helped launch the New Cold War propaganda blitz about supposed Russian hacks. Darche was a Principal Consultant at CrowdStrike.
2.–CrowdStrike, in turn, has strong links to the Atlantic Council, one of the think tanks that is part and parcel to the Intermarium Continuity discussed in FTR #‘s 1098, 1099, 1100, 1101. Dmitri Alperovitch, the company’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
3.–An ironic element of the “analysis” of the hacks attributes the acts to “Fancy Bear” and the G.R.U., based on alleged laziness on the part of the alleged perpetrators of the phishing attack. (Phishing attacks are very easy for a skilled actor to carry out in relative anonymity.) Area 1’s conclusion is based on “pattern recognition,” which is the embodiment of laziness. We are to believe that the G.R.U./Fancy Bear alleged perp used a “cookie cutter” approach.
As we have noted in many previous broadcasts and posts, cyber attacks are easily disguised. Perpetrating a “cyber false flag” operation is disturbingly easy to do. In a world where the verifiably false and physically impossible “controlled demolition”/Truther nonsense has gained traction, cyber false flag ops are all the more threatening and sinister.
Now, we learn that the CIA’s hacking tools are specifically crafted to mask CIA authorship of the attacks. Most significantly, for our purposes, is the fact that the Agency’s hacking tools are engineered in such a way as to permit the authors of the event to represent themselves as Russian.
” . . . . These tools could make it more difficult for anti-virus companies and forensic investigators to attribute hacks to the CIA. Could this call the source of previous hacks into question? It appears that yes, this might be used to disguise the CIA’s own hacks to appear as if they were Russian, Chinese, or from specific other countries. . . . This might allow a malware creator to not only look like they were speaking in Russian or Chinese, rather than in English, but to also look like they tried to hide that they were not speaking English . . . .”
This is of paramount significance in evaluating the increasingly neo-McCarthyite New Cold War propaganda about “Russian interference” in the U.S. election, and Russian authorship of the high-profile hacks.
With Burisma at the center of the impeachment proceedings in Washington, we note some interesting relationships involving Burisma and its board of directors, on which Hunter Biden sits.
Some of the considerations to be weighed in that context
1.–Burisma formed a professional relationship with the Atlantic Council in 2017: ” . . . . In 2017, Burisma announced that it faced no active prosecution cases, then formed a partnership with the Atlantic Council, a US think-tank active in promoting anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine. Burisma donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Atlantic Council last year . . . . Karina Zlochevska, Mr. [Burisma founder Mykola] Zlochevsky’s daughter, attended an Atlantic Council roundtable on promoting best business practices as recently as last week. . . .”
2.–The firm had on its board of Burisma of both Aleksander Kwasniewski and Cofer Black. ” . . . .When prosecutors began investigating Burisma’s licenses over self-dealing allegations, Mr Zlochevsky stacked its board with Western luminaries. . . . they included former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski, who had visited Ukraine dozens of times as an EU envoy, and . . . . ex-Blackwater director Cofer Black. In Monaco, where he reportedly lives, Mr Zlochevsky jointly organises an annual energy conference with Mr Kwasniewski’s foundation. . . . ”
3.–Kwasniewski was not only the EU’s envoy seeking fulfillment of the EU association agreement, but a key member of Paul Manafort’s Hapsburg Group. The evidence about Manafort working with that assemblage to maneuver Ukraine into the Western orbit is extensive. Some of the relevant programs are: FTR #‘s 1008, 1009 (background about the deep politics surrounding the Hapsburg–U.S. intelligence alliance) and 1022.That the actual Maidan Coup itself was sparked by a provocation featuring the lethal sniping by OUN/B successor elements is persuasive. Some of the relevant programs are: FTR #‘s 982, 1023, 1024.
4.–Kwasniewski’s foundation’s annual energy conferences bring to mind the Three Seas Initiative and the central role of energy in it. The TSI and the role of energy in same is highlighted in the article at the core of FTR #‘s 1098–1101. In this context, note the role of the Atlantic Council in the TSI and its energy component, along with the partnership between Burisma and the Atlantic Council. The TSI and its energy component, in turn, are a fundamental element of the Intermarium Continuity, the military component of which is now being cemented in the Impeachment Circus: ” . . . . Under the mentorship of Jarosław Kaczyński, the new Polish president, Andrzej Duda, elected in 2015, relaunched the idea of a Baltic-Black Sea alliance on the eve of his inauguration under the label of ‘Three Seas Initiative’ (TSI). Originally, the project grew out of a debate sparked by a report co-published by the Atlantic Council and the EU energy lobby group Central Europe Energy Partners (CEEP) with the goal of promoting big Central European companies’ interests in the EU.[116] The report, entitled Completing Europe—From the North-South Corridor to Energy, Transportation, and Telecommunications Union, was co-edited by General James L. Jones, Jr., former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, U.S. National Security Advisor, and chairman of the Atlantic Council, and Pawel Olechnowicz, CEO of the Polish oil and gas giant Grupa Lotos.[117] It ‘called for the accelerated construction of a North-South Corridor of energy, transportation, and communications links stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and Black Seas,’ which at the time was still referred to as the ‘Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea Initiative.’[118] The report was presented in Brussels in March 2015, where, according to Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, it ‘generated a huge amount of excitement.’ . . . .”
The presence on the Burisma board of Cofer Black “ex”-CIA and the former director of Erik Prince’s Blackwater outfit is VERY important. Erik Prince is the brother of Trump Education Secretary Betsy De Vos and the business partner of Johnson Cho Kun Sun, the Hong Kong-based oligarch who sits on the board of Emerdata, the reincarnated Cambridge Analytica. Both Cofer Black and Aleksander Kwasniewski are in a position to provide detailed intelligence about the operations of Burisma, including any data that the supposed “Russian hack” might reveal.
With the impeachment proceedings now heading toward their most probable conclusion–Trump’s acquittal– and with the incessant babble about the non-existent “Russian interference” in the U.S. election, it is worth contemplating American interference in Russian politics.
Against the background of decades of American-backed and/or initiated coups overthrowing governments around the world, we highlight U.S. support for Boris Yeltsin. Following the NED’s elevation of Nazi-allied fascists in Lithuania and the expansion of that Gehlen/CFF/GOP milieu inside the former Soviet Union courtesy of the Free Congress Foundation, the U.S. hoisted Yeltsin into the driver’s seat of the newly-minted Russia. (One should never forget that Jeffrey Sachs, a key economic adviser to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez headed the team that sent the Russian economy back to the stone age.)
Key points of consideration:
1.–” . . . . . . . . In late 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin won a year of special powers from the Russian Parliament: for one year, he was to be, in effect, the dictator of Russia to facilitate the midwifery of the birth of a democratic Russia. In March of 1992, under pressure from a discontented population, parliament repealed the dictatorial powers it had granted him. Yeltsin responded by declaring a state of emergency, giving himself the repealed dictatorial powers. Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that Yeltsin was acting outside the constitution. But the US sided – against the Russian people and against the Russian Constitutional Court – with Yeltsin. . . .”
2.–” . . . . Yeltsin dissolved the parliament that had rescinded his powers and abolished the constitution of which he was in violation. In a 636–2 vote, the Russian parliament impeached Yeltsin. But President Bill Clinton again sided with Yeltsin against the Russian people and Russian law, giving him $2.5 billion in aid. . . .”
3.–” . . . . Yeltsin took the money and sent police officers and elite paratroopers to surround the parliament building. Clinton ‘praised the Russian President has (sic) having done ‘quite well’ in managing the standoff with the Russian Parliament,’ as The New York Times reported at the time. Clinton added that he thought ‘the United States and the free world ought to hang in there’ with their support of Yeltsin against his people, their constitution and their courts, and judged Yeltsin to be ‘on the right side of history.’ . . .”
4.–” . . . . On the right side of history and armed with machine guns, Yeltsin’s troops opened fire on the crowd of protesters, killing about 100 people before setting the Russian parliament building on fire. By the time the day was over, Yeltsin’s troops had killed an unconfirmed 500 people and wounded nearly 1,000. Still, Clinton stood with Yeltsin. . . .”
5.–” . . . . In 1996, America would interfere yet again. With elections looming, Yeltsin’s popularity was nonexistent, and his approval rating was at about 6 percent. According to Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at Princeton, Stephen Cohen, Clinton’s interference in Russian politics, his ‘crusade’ to ‘reform Russia,’ had by now become official policy. And, so, America boldly interfered directly in Russian elections. Three American political consultants, receiving ‘direct assistance from Bill Clinton’s White House,’ secretly ran Yeltsin’s re-election campaign. As Time magazine broke the story, ‘For four months, a group of American political consultants clandestinely participated in guiding Yeltsin’s campaign.’ ‘Funded by the U.S. government,’ Cohen reports, Americans ‘gave money to favored Russian politicians, instructed ministers, drafted legislation and presidential decrees, underwrote textbooks, and served at Yeltsin’s reelection headquarters in 1996.’ . . . .”
6.–” . . . . Then ambassador to Russia Thomas Pickering even pressured an opposing candidate to drop out of the election to improve Yeltsin’s odds of winning. . . .”
7.–” . . . . The US not only helped run Yeltsin’s campaign, they helped pay for it. The US backed a $10.2 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan for Russia, the second-biggest loan the IMF had ever given. The New York Times reported that the loan was ‘expected to be helpful to President Boris N. Yeltsin in the presidential election in June.’ . . .”
FTR #1098, FTR #1099, FTR #1100 and FTR #1101– Fascism: 2019 World Tour, Part 8 (The Intermarium Concept), Fascism: 2019 World Tour, Part 9 (Intermarium Redux: “Will the National Socialist Revolution Begin in Ukraine?”), Fascism: 2019 World Tour, Part 10–The Intermarium Continuity, Fascism: 2019 World Tour, Part 11–The Intermarium Continuity, Part 2 (Reflections on The Pivot Point)
In these programs, we continue discussion of the Azov milieu and its “Intermarium” outreach, in the context of Ukraine as a “pivot point” central to control of the World Island or Earth Island. The evolution of the Intermarium concept is fundamental to analysis of this phenomenon.
Ukraine’s significance as a global epicenter of burgeoning fascism extends to the region’s online, ideological and iconic manifestation. Two recent Canadian teens–Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky–who apparently killed three people in cold blood were influenced by Nazi culture and Azov Battalion manifestation in particular. ” . . . . A Steam user confirmed to The Globe and Mail that he talked to Mr. Schmegelsky regularly online. He recalled Mr. McLeod joining their chats as well. The user, whom The Globe is not identifying, provided photos sent by an account believed to be owned by Mr. Schmegelsky, showing him in military fatigues, brandishing what appears to be an airsoft rifle – which fires plastic pellets. Another photo shows a swastika armband, and yet another features Mr. Schmegelsky in a gas mask. The photos were reportedly sent in the fall of 2018, but the user said he stopped playing online games with Mr. Schmegelsky earlier this year after he continued to praise Hitler’s Germany. One account connected to the teens uses the logo of the Azov Battalion, a far-right Ukrainian militia that has been accused of harbouring sympathies to neo-Nazis. . . .”
Discussing Zbigniew Brzezinski’s doctrine of controlling Eurasia by controlling the “pivot point” of Ukraine. Fundamental to this analysis is the concept of the Earth Island or World Island as it is sometimes known.
Brzezinski, in turn, draws on the geopolitical theories of Sir Halford Mackinder, and, later contemporary Intermarium adovcates such as Alexandros Petersen.
Stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar, all across Europe, most of the Middle East, Eurasia, Russia, China and India, that stretch of land: comprises most of the world’s land mass; contains most of the world’s population and most of the world’s natural resources (including oil and natural gas.) Geopoliticians have long seen controlling that land mass as the key to world domination.
Most of the three programs highlighting the evolution and application of the Intermarium concept consist of reading and analysis of a long academic paper by Marlene Laruelle and Ellen Rivera. Of paramount significance in this discussion is the pivotal role of Ukrainian fascist organizations in the Intermarium and closely connected Promethean networks, from the post World War I period, through the time between the World Wars, through the Cold War and up to and including the Maidan coup.
Military, economic and political networking has employed the Intermarium idea, with what the paper terms the “ideological underpinnings” stemming from the evolution of the Ukrainian fascist milieu in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Some of the most important U.S. think tanks and associated military individuals and institutions embody this continuity: ” . . . . The continuity of institutional and individual trajectories from Second World War collaborationists to Cold War-era anti-communist organizations to contemporary conservative U.S. think tanks is significant for the ideological underpinnings of today’s Intermarium revival. . . .”
Program Highlights Include: Review of the incorporation of the Gehlen “Org” into the U.S. and Western intelligence apparatus; the key presence of the OUN/B and other Eastern European fascist groups into the Gehlen outfit; approval given to Gehlen for his deal with the Americans by Admiral Doenitz (who succeeded Hitler) and General Franz Halder (Gehlen’s “former” chief of staff); the incorporation of the OUN/B/Gehlen/ABN milieu into the Republican Party via the Crusade For Freedom; the key roles in the CFF played by Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, William Casey and George H.W. Bush; Allen Dulles and William Donovan’s wartime collusion with Nazi Germany to craft the Christian West entity; the formation of the Black Eagle Trust by John J. McCloy, Robert Lovett and Robert B. Anderson (this assured the continuity of both Japanese fascism and German Nazism in the postwar period).
FTR #1097 Fascism: 2019 World Tour, Part 7 (Azov on Our Mind, Part 3)
This program continues analysis of the Azov milieu’s networking with fascist indidviduals and organizations at an individual level, at an organizational level and online.
Embracing “lone wolf” fascists around the world, as well as networking with fascist organizations and combatants who have joined the war in Ukraine’s Eastern provinces, Azov is recapitulating the “Intermarium” concept, minted by Polish head of state Josef Pilsudski in the period between the World Wars. Working with Croatians aligned with the “Neo-Ustachi’ milieu we have covered in many past programs, Azov is seeking to develop a nascent Eastern and Central European alliance of fascist and reactionary elements.
Of particular interest is the significance of the Ukrainian and Croatian fascist alliance, which will be explored at greater length in future programs.
Other programs highlighting the return of the Ustachi to power in the “new” Croatia include: FTR #‘s 49, 154, 766, 901.
Next, we note that The FBI arrested a US Army soldier for planning domestic terror attacks. Jarrett William Smith–charged with one count of distributing information related to explosives and weapons of mass destruction.
Smith has been in contact with the Azov Battalion. As early as 2016, he talked about traveling to Ukraine to join Azov. He joined the US military instead in June of 2017. After joining the military, Smith used Facebook to connect with another American who had traveled to Ukraine in 2017 to 2019 to fight with a group similar to Azov, which appears to be Pravy Sektor. This American reportedly acted as Smith’s mentor.
Using the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Smith discussed with an undercover FBI agent his plans for a car bomb attack against an unnamed major cable news network’s headquarters and distributed bomb-making materials. He also talked about attacks against members of antifa and interested in finding like-minded individuals to help him.
Looking ahead to other articles below, we note that: “. . . . Earlier this month, former FBI agent Ali Soufan, who runs the global security firm the Soufan Center, testified that 17,000 foreigners, including from the U.S. have traveled to Ukraine in recent years to gain paramilitary skills there. They fought alongside far-right groups like Azov and were returning home with those new skills. . . .”
Updating the story of Jarrett William Smith, we note:
1.–Smith’s apparent mentor is Craig Lang, another US Army vet.
2.–Craig Lang joined Right Sector, and then the Georgian National Legion in the Ukrainian civil war.
3.–Lang, along with fellow Army vet Alex Zwiefelhofer, is accused of robbing and killing the couple in an effort to get money to travel to Venezuela to “participate in an armed conflict against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
4.–After leaving Right Sector he joined the Georgian National Legion, which is also fighting in Ukraine.
5.–In previous programs, we have highlighted the apparent role of Georgian snipers in the Maidan provocation, the temporary role of former Georgian president Saakashvili as governor of Odessa, as well as UNA-UNSO combat activity in Georgia’s war with Russia. (UNA-UNSO is a branch of the UNA.)
6.–Zwiefelhofer also fought with Right Sector.
7.–The article below states that Lang and Smith were in contact in 2016, which is a year before Smith joined the US Army.
8.–The previous Vice article stated that the FBI said Smith got into contact with Lang after he joined the US Army in June of 2017.
9.–According to a June 23, 2016, conversation between Smith and Lang, Smith wrote, “No former military experience, but if I cannot find a slot in Ukraine by October I’ll be going into the Army … To fight is what I want to do. I’m willing to listen, learn, and train. But to work on firearms is fine by me too.”
10.–Lang responded, “Alright, I’ll forward you over to the guy that screens people he’ll most likely add you soon[ … ] Also as a pre-warning if you come to this unit and the government comes to shut down the unit you will be asked to fight. You may also be asked to kill certain people who become on the bad graces of certain groups.”
11.–It appears that Lang was prepping Smith both to fight against the Ukrainian government, if necessary and to be prepared to commit assassinations.
12.–Given everything we know about this case at this point, it appears that Right Sector was sending a potential recruit into the US Army to learn the kinds of skills that would be useful for neo-Nazi terror campaigns and that recruit was arrested for disseminating those skills and planning exactly that kind of terror campaign.
Against the background of 17,000 foreign fighters gaining paramilitary experience in Ukraine, a Vice piece from July notes that Ukraine really is becoming a nexus for the international far right. That is precisely what the Azov Battalion has been working on doing.
In that context we note that:
1.–Foreign fighters have taken the combat skills honed in Ukraine’s war to other European nations. ” . . . . Researchers warn that Ukraine is radicalizing far-right foreign fighters in the same way Syria has with jihadis — albeit on a smaller scale — creating a global network of combat-tested extremists who pose a security threat that is now beginning to manifest itself. . . .”
2.– ” . . . . [Kacper] Rekawek said Ukraine fulfilled the need, expressed by many ideologues on the extreme right, for a ‘safe space’ for Nazis outside the West, where they could network and organize beyond the prying eyes of domestic security services. . . .”
3.–Russian fascists have fought on both sides of the conflict–a harbinger of possible fascist subversion of Putin should they gain the upper hand in Russia after their return.
4.–” . . . . Swedish neo-Nazis who joined on the Ukrainian side saw it as essentially ‘the continuation of the Second World War on the eastern front. You are white Europe and you’re fighting Asia, in the form of Russia.’ . . . .”
5.–” . . . . Joachim Furholm, a Norwegian neo-Nazi and recruiter for Azov said their efforts would also help white nationalist forces in the one country where he believed they had the best shot of coming to power. . . .‘It’s like a Petri dish for fascism… and they do have serious intentions of helping the rest of Europe in retaking our rightful lands,’ he said. . . .”
We conclude by noting that House Democrats are lobbying that the Azov Battalion be labeled a Foreign Terrotr Organizaation. This would facilitate attempts to neutralize combatants who had served with Azov upon their return to this country.
Good luck with that!
FTR #1086 Fascism: 2019 World Tour, Part 1
Beginning an overview of burgeoning fascism around the world, this program commences with further documentation of the operation and heritage of fascism in Ukraine.
We begin with discussion of a Kyiv legal decision maintaining that the C14 militia of the Svoboda organization is not a neo-Nazi organization.
A lawyer for C14 asserts that the group, while nationalist, is not neo-Nazi in nature and labeling it a neo-Nazi group hurt its “business reputation”.
The Kyiv City Commercial Court agreed, ruling that Hromadske TV couldn’t establish that C14 – a group named after David Lane’s “14 words” white supremacist slogan – was actually a neo-Nazi group. As a result, Hromadske TV has to retract its tweet and pay 3,500 hryvnyas ($136) in court fees for C14.
This despite the fact noted in the article below that: ” . . . . [C14’s] own members have admitted to joining it because of its neo-Nazi ideology . . . .”
It’s a sign of how far along the mainstreaming of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi groups is in Ukraine: If you call the open neo-Nazis “neo-Nazis”, they can sue you and win.
As the article also notes, C14’s youth cadre is funded by the Ukrainian government: “ . . . . Nevertheless, C14 has received state funding for two years running from the Ministry of Youth and Sport to conduct “national-patriotic education” courses at summer camps for the country’s youth. . . . .”
In FTR #907,we noted the profound presence of the Ukrainian fascists in the United States, as well as their operational connections to the Third Reich. In FTR #1072, we noted the Ukrainian youth cadre in the U.S., and its affiliation with the OUN/B milieu in Ukraine.
Our next story fleshes out these connections, noting:
1. The CYM organization and its presence in the U.S.
2. The decisive involvement of post-World War II emigres in the growth of that movement.
3. CYM’s close affiliation with the OUN/B.
4. CYM’s uniformed, military orientation: ” . . . . Among the most popular activities are military-style games where campers are divided into two teams that have to dodge or capture their opponents by moving stealthily and organizing ambushes. . . . .”
Next, we highlight the fascist ascent in the Baltic states.
In Estonia, the EKRE party is implementing a fascist agenda, capitalizing on an anti-immigrant theme, in a country that has had little immigration.
In addition, the party has targeted the LGBT milieu and “globalization,” as well as resuscitating Nazi economic theory and practice.
After review of Carl Lundstrom’s financing of the Sweden Democrats, as well as Lundstrom’s central role in financing the Pirate Bay site (which hosted WikiLeaks, courtesy of Julian Assange’s fascist associate Joran Jermas/Israel Shamir), we delve into the operations of Lundstrom’s associates.
Utilizing the anti-immigrant theme utilized with great effect by fascists around the world, the Sweden Democrats are gaining ground on the Swedish political landscape.
Key points of discussion include: The Nazi origins of the Sweden Democrats; the Waffen SS background of one of the party’s founders; networking of the Sweden Democrats with fascists and reactionaries in other countries, including the U.S., France and Germany.
FTR #1074 FakeBook: Walkin’ the Snake on the Earth Island with Facebook (FascisBook, Part 2; In Your Facebook, Part 4)
This program supplements past coverage of Facebook in FTR #‘s 718, 946, 1021, 1039 noting how Facebook has networked with the very Hindutva fascist Indian elements and OUN/B successor organizations in Ukraine. This networking has been–ostensibly to combat fake news. The reality may well highlight that the Facebook/BJP-RSS/OUN/B links generates fake news, rather than interdicting it. The fake news so generated, however, will be to the liking of the fascists in power in both countries, manifesting as a “Serpent’s Walk” revisionist scenario.
Key elements of discussion and analysis include:
1.–Indian politics has been largely dominated by fake news, spread by social media: ” . . . . In the continuing Indian elections, as 900 million people are voting to elect representatives to the lower house of the Parliament, disinformation and hate speech are drowning out truth on social media networks in the country and creating a public health crisis like the pandemics of the past century. This contagion of a staggering amount of morphed images, doctored videos and text messages is spreading largely through messaging services and influencing what India’s voters watch and read on their smartphones. A recent study by Microsoft found that over 64 percent Indians encountered fake news online, the highest reported among the 22 countries surveyed. . . . These platforms are filled with fake news and disinformation aimed at influencing political choices during the Indian elections. . . . ”
2.–Narendra Modi’s Hindutva fascist BJP has been the primary beneficiary of fake news, and his regime has partnered with Facebook: ” . . . . The hearing was an exercise in absurdist theater because the governing B.J.P. has been the chief beneficiary of divisive content that reaches millions because of the way social media algorithms, especially Facebook, amplify ‘engaging’ articles. . . .”
3.–Rajesh Jain is among those BJP functionaries who serve Facebook, as well as the Hindutva fascists: ” . . . . By the time Rajesh Jain was scaling up his operations in 2013, the BJP’s information technology (IT) strategists had begun interacting with social media platforms like Facebook and its partner WhatsApp. If supporters of the BJP are to be believed, the party was better than others in utilising the micro-targeting potential of the platforms. However, it is also true that Facebook’s employees in India conducted training workshops to help the members of the BJP’s IT cell. . . .”
4.–Dr. Hiren Joshi is another of the BJP operatives who is heavily involved with Facebook. ” . . . . Also assisting the social media and online teams to build a larger-than-life image for Modi before the 2014 elections was a team led by his right-hand man Dr Hiren Joshi, who (as already stated) is a very important adviser to Modi whose writ extends way beyond information technology and social media. . . . Joshi has had, and continues to have, a close and long-standing association with Facebook’s senior employees in India. . . .”
5.–Shivnath Thukral, who was hired by Facebook in 2017 to be its Public Policy Director for India & South Asia, worked with Joshi’s team in 2014. ” . . . . The third team, that was intensely focused on building Modi’s personal image, was headed by Hiren Joshi himself who worked out of the then Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office in Gandhinagar. The members of this team worked closely with staffers of Facebook in India, more than one of our sources told us. As will be detailed later, Shivnath Thukral, who is currently an important executive in Facebook, worked with this team. . . .”
6.–An ostensibly remorseful BJP politician–Prodyut Bora–highlighted the dramatic effect of Facebook and its WhatsApp subsidiary have had on India’s politics: ” . . . . In 2009, social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp had a marginal impact in India’s 20 big cities. By 2014, however, it had virtually replaced the traditional mass media. In 2019, it will be the most pervasive media in the country. . . .”
7.–A concise statement about the relationship between the BJP and Facebook was issued by BJP tech office Vinit Goenka: ” . . . . At one stage in our interview with [Vinit] Goenka that lasted over two hours, we asked him a pointed question: ‘Who helped whom more, Facebook or the BJP?’ He smiled and said: ‘That’s a difficult question. I wonder whether the BJP helped Facebook more than Facebook helped the BJP. You could say, we helped each other.’ . . .”
In Ukraine, as well, Facebook and the OUN/B successor organizations function symbiotically:
(Note that the Atlantic Council is dominant in the array of individuals and institutions constituting the Ukrainian fascist/Facebook cooperative effort. We have spoken about the Atlantic Council in numerous programs, including FTR #943. The organization has deep operational links to elements of U.S. intelligence, as well as the OUN/B milieu that dominates the Ukrainian diaspora.)
Overlapping cybersecurity outfit CrowdStrike, the Atlantic Council has been at the forefront of the “Russia” was behind the high-profile hacks meme:
CrowdStrike–at the epicenter of the supposed Russian hacking controversy is noteworthy. Its co-founder and chief technology officer, Dmitry Alperovitch is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, financed by elements that are at the foundation of fanning the flames of the New Cold War: “In this respect, it is worth noting that one of the commercial cybersecurity companies the government has relied on is Crowdstrike, which was one of the companies initially brought in by the DNC to investigate the alleged hacks. . . . Dmitri Alperovitch is also a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. . . . The connection between [Crowdstrike co-founder and chief technology officer Dmitri] Alperovitch and the Atlantic Council has gone largely unremarked upon, but it is relevant given that the Atlantic Council—which is is funded in part by the US State Department, NATO, the governments of Latvia and Lithuania, the Ukrainian World Congress, and the Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk—has been among the loudest voices calling for a new Cold War with Russia. As I pointed out in the pages of The Nation in November, the Atlantic Council has spent the past several years producing some of the most virulent specimens of the new Cold War propaganda. . . . ”
In May of 2018, Facebook decided to effectively outsource the work of identifying propaganda and misinformation during elections to the Atlantic Council, so choosing someone like Kruk who already has the Atlantic Council’s stamp of approval is in keeping with that trend:
” . . . . Facebook is partnering with the Atlantic Council in another effort to combat election-related propaganda and misinformation from proliferating on its service. The social networking giant said Thursday that a partnership with the Washington D.C.-based think tank would help it better spot disinformation during upcoming world elections. The partnership is one of a number of steps Facebook is taking to prevent the spread of propaganda and fake news after failing to stop it from spreading on its service in the run up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. . . .”
Since autumn 2018, Facebook has looked to hire a public policy manager for Ukraine. The job came after years of Ukrainians criticizing the platform for takedowns of its activists’ pages and the spread of [alleged] Russian disinfo targeting Kyiv. Now, it appears to have one: @Kateryna_Kruk.— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) June 3, 2019
Kateryna Kruk:
1.–Is Facebook’s Public Policy Manager for Ukraine as of May of this year, according to her LinkedIn page.
2.–Worked as an analyst and TV host for the Ukrainian ‘anti-Russian propaganda’ outfit StopFake. StopFake is the creation of Irena Chalupa, who works for the Atlantic Council and the Ukrainian government and appears to be the sister of Andrea and Alexandra Chalupa.
3.–Joined the “Kremlin Watch” team at the European Values think-tank, in October of 2017.
4.–Received the Atlantic Council’s Freedom award for her communications work during the Euromaidan protests in June of 2014.
5.–Worked for OUN/B successor organization Svoboda during the Euromaidan protests. “ . . . ‘There are people who don’t support Svoboda because of some of their slogans, but they know it’s the most active political party and go to them for help, said Svoboda volunteer Kateryna Kruk. . . . ”
6.–Also has a number of articles on the Atlantic Council’s Blog. Here’s a blog post from August of 2018 where she advocates for the creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church to diminish the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
7.–According to her LinkedIn page has also done extensive work for the Ukrainian government. From March 2016 to January 2017 she was the Strategic Communications Manager for the Ukrainian parliament where she was responsible for social media and international communications. From January-April 2017 she was the Head of Communications at the Ministry of Health.
8.–Was not only was a volunteer for Svoboda during the 2014 Euromaidan protests, but openly celebrated on twitter the May 2014 massacre in Odessa when the far right burned dozens of protestors alive. Kruk’s twitter feed is set to private now so there isn’t public access to her old tweet, but people have screen captures of it. Here’s a tweet from Yasha Levine with a screenshot of Kruk’s May 2, 2014 tweet where she writes: “#Odessa cleaned itself from terrorists, proud for city fighting for its identity.glory to fallen heroes..” She even threw in a “glory to fallen heroes” at the end of her tweet celebrating this massacre. Keep in mind that it was month after this tweet that the Atlantic Council gave her that Freedom Award for her communications work during the protests.
9.–In 2014, . . . tweeted that a man had asked her to convince his grandson not to join the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia. “I couldn’t do it,” she said. “I thanked that boy and blessed him.” And he then traveled to Luhansk to fight pro-Russian rebels.
10.–Lionized a Nazi sniper killed in Ukraine’s civil war. In March 2018, a 19-year neo-Nazi named Andriy “Dilly” Krivich was shot and killed by a sniper. Krivich had been fighting with the fascist Ukrainian group Right Sector, and had posted photos on social media wearing Nazi German symbols. After he was killed, Kruk tweeted an homage to the teenage Nazi. (The Nazi was also lionized on Euromaidan Press’ Facebook page.)
11.–Has staunchly defended the use of the slogan “Slava Ukraini,”which was first coined and popularized by Nazi-collaborating fascists, and is now the official salute of Ukraine’s army.
12.–Has also said that the Ukrainian fascist politician Andriy Parubiy, who co-founded a neo-Nazi party before later becoming the chairman of Ukraine’s parliament the Rada, is “acting smart,” writing, “Parubiy touche.” . . . .
In the context of Facebook’s institutional level networking with fascists, it is worth noting that social media themselves have been cited as a contributing factor to right-wing domestic terrorism. ” . . . The first is stochastic terrorism: ‘The use of mass, public communication, usually against a particular individual or group, which incites or inspires acts of terrorism which are statistically probable but happen seemingly at random.’ I encountered the idea in a Friday thread from data scientist Emily Gorcenski, who used it to tie together four recent attacks. . . . .”
The program concludes with review (from FTR #1039) of the psychological warfare strategy adapted by Cambridge Analytica to the political arena. Christopher Wylie–the former head of research at Cambridge Analytica who became one of the key insider whistle-blowers about how Cambridge Analytica operated and the extent of Facebook’s knowledge about it–gave an interview to Campaign Magazine. (We dealt with Cambridge Analytica in FTR #‘s 946, 1021.) Wylie recounts how, as director of research at Cambridge Analytica, his original role was to determine how the company could use the information warfare techniques used by SCL Group – Cambridge Analytica’s parent company and a defense contractor providing psy op services for the British military. Wylie’s job was to adapt the psychological warfare strategies that SCL had been using on the battlefield to the online space. As Wylie put it:
“ . . . . When you are working in information operations projects, where your target is a combatant, the autonomy or agency of your targets is not your primary consideration. It is fair game to deny and manipulate information, coerce and exploit any mental vulnerabilities a person has, and to bring out the very worst characteristics in that person because they are an enemy…But if you port that over to a democratic system, if you run campaigns designed to undermine people’s ability to make free choices and to understand what is real and not real, you are undermining democracy and treating voters in the same way as you are treating terrorists. . . . .”
Wylie also draws parallels between the psychological operations used on democratic audiences and the battlefield techniques used to be build an insurgency.
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