By Diana Johnstone
The European Union is girding for a long war against Russia that appears clearly contrary to European economic interests and social stability. A war that is apparently irrational – as many are – has deep emotional roots and claims ideological justification. Such wars are hard to end because they extend outside the range of rationality.
The Specter of Germany Is Rising
Tag: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East
Dozens of social media accounts operating for years in an attempt to influence people in the Middle East and Asia have been shut down. Now a major new study believes the US is likely behind it
US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East
Related:
CONOPs
Evaluating Five Years of Pro-Western Covert Influence Operations
The US government got caught using sock puppets to spread propaganda on social media
The data analyzed came from 146 Twitter accounts (which tweeted 299,566 times), 39 Facebook profiles, and 26 Instagram accounts, along with 16 Facebook pages and two Facebook groups. Some of the accounts were meant to appear like real people and used AI-generated profile pictures. Meta and Twitter didn’t specifically name any organizations or people behind the campaigns but said their analysis led them to believe they originated in the US and Great Britain.
For anyone who’s ever been within 15 feet of a history book, the news that the US is using covert action to push its interests in other countries won’t come as a surprise. It is, however, interesting that these operations were uncovered just as social media companies are gearing up to deal with a wave of foreign interference and misinformation in our own elections.
The report also comes right on the heels of a bombshell whistleblower report from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former head of security, which accused the company of lax security practices and misrepresenting the number of bots on its platform (something the US government is investigating and that Twitter has strongly denied).
Poland’s Position as the “Next Ukraine”
While Western governments and the Western media continue clinging to the hope of an eventual “victory” for Kiev’s forces in Ukraine, the “frontline” is quietly being moved back to western Ukraine and even Poland just across the border. Recent pledges by NATO as well as arms deliveries this year and next appear to be headed in the direction of using Poland as the next battering ram with which US-led NATO will use against Russia.
Poland’s Position as the “Next Ukraine”
U.S. targets Russia with tech to evade censorship of Ukraine news
U.S. targets Russia with tech to evade censorship of Ukraine news
Related:
US funds software for Russians to slip past censors:
While some, like Ukraine’s leadership, have called for Russia to be cut off from the internet, others have noted access is key for opposition groups.
OTF was used during the Hong Kong riots/failed color revolution:
Hearing Reveals US Govt’s Invisible Hand in Protests Around the World
Washington finally admits it has been interfering in Hong Kong
Washington’s Anti-Chinese “Pan-Asian Alliance”
For US Corporate Media, Not Intervening in Chinese Politics Is Journalistically Suspect
Origins of OTF:
Internet Privacy, Funded By Spies (BBG is now USAGM)
51 years of RFE/RL: How the CIA-founded American state run media outlet survived the Soviet collapse to fight Cold War 2.0
Originally established as an anti-Bolshevik endeavor, RFE/RL has thrived as US-Russia relations have nose-dived
51 years of RFE/RL: How the CIA-founded American state run media outlet survived the Soviet collapse to fight Cold War 2.0
Information Sovereignty More Important Than Ever
The elimination of Russian media across the West and to a greater extent from across US-based social media platforms used worldwide, is a stark demonstration of the power the West still wields within global information space.
Information Sovereignty More Important Than Ever
Documents Reveal US Gov’t Spent $22M Promoting Anti-Russia Narrative in Ukraine and Abroad
The National Endowment for Democracy can claim it is in the business of democracy promotion. In reality, it does anything but that, unless “democracy” is entirely synonymous with elite U.S. interests.
Documents Reveal US Gov’t Spent $22M Promoting Anti-Russia Narrative in Ukraine and Abroad
EU’s “Alternative” to China’s Belt and Road Initiative
US Writes Belarus into Its Familiar Regime-Change Script
The primary reason the U.S. government opposes the Lukashenko administration is not its authoritarianism, real as that might be. Instead, Lukashenko’s steadfast refusal to privatize state assets, join NATO, or open the country up for foreign exploitation are Washington’s principal objections.
US Writes Belarus into Its Familiar Regime-Change Script
Lost In Translations – The Dangers Of Being Misled By Them
Lost In Translations – The Dangers Of Being Misled By Them
The issue of errors in translations, innocent as well as intentionally misleading ones, may soon become an even bigger issue. The U.S. Congress is providing money to produce many more of them:
The House bill introduced by Democratic Representatives Joaquin Castro and Bill Keating and Republicans Mike Gallagher and Brian Fitzpatrick would provide for the establishment of a federally funded Open Translation and Analysis Center (OTAC) focused on China.
It would be based on the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), which provided translation and analysis of Soviet bloc and other foreign government media during the Cold War.
The bill calls for funding of $80 million for fiscal 2022 and that same amount annually for each fiscal year through 2026 as well as “such sums as may be necessary for each fiscal year thereafter.”
…
Referring to the acronyms of the People’s Republic of China and its ruling Communist Party and armed forces, the aide said OTAC would “systematically translate PRC/CCP/PLA speeches, documents, reports, strategies, news articles, commentaries, journal articles, procurement contracts into English and publish them freely online.”
…
Castro said that for the United States “to effectively both compete and cooperate with” countries like China and Russia it needed a better understanding of them.
“A nuanced understanding of foreign countries is impossible without reading how they communicate in their own languages,” he told Reuters.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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