UK Engaged in Large-Scale Secret Propaganda War Against Russia
This has truly turned into conspiracy theory central - please keep this stuff in the subforum.
No longer a theory. But, anyway, the subforum was not listed as a option when creating a thread.
no longer a theory by who specifically? Name the key person with the facts?
jamie said:
no longer a theory by who specifically? Name the key person with the facts?
I already posted the working notes (http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/briefing-note-on-the-integrity-initiative). That is where you should start. That lists the chronology and facts.
You could at least highlight something instead of making people read as book - with 200 references.
Here's one of their responses:
https://www.integrityinitiative.net/articles/statement-russian-media-publication-hacked-ii-documents
jamie said:
You could at least highlight something instead of making people read as book - with 200 references.
Here's one of their responses:
https://www.integrityinitiative.net/articles/statement-russian-media-publication-hacked-ii-documents
Your link is the response of the Integrity Initiative to the hacking--they admitted they were hacked and doing damage control. The briefing I posted (http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/briefing-note-on-the-integrity-initiative) is not a book--it's basically a cheat sheet.
I've posted the summary from the link below. Basically, the Integrity Initiative is supposed to be an above the board agency pointing out Russian disinformation. But, instead they have been using government funds to spread disinformation about Russia, anti-war activists and Progressive politicians (Jeremy Corbin, for example). They were doing this secretly through an established charity called "The Institute for Statecraft." So public money was being used by the government to smear people in government and to limit public discourse. The rest of the briefing goes into who is funding them and people that have been so far named as being involved (Bill Browder is listed). Many of the people listed have intelligence community backgrounds.
Using public funds to engage in partisan politics is unethical and a big breech of trust.
Going back to the briefing, here is the summary:
Summary
- The Integrity Initiative now accounts for most of the budget of a Scottish-registered charity named the Institute for Statecraft founded by Daniel Lafayeedney and Chris Donnelly in 2006. Most of the overt funding for this programme – about £2.6 million / year – comes from the Conflict Security and Stability Fund’s Russian Language Programme, now merged with a secret Counter Disinformation and Media Campaign. Office space in central London and most of the staff salaries, appear to be provided as a covert benefit in kind.
- A close examination of past and present posts held by individuals associated with the Integrity Initiative indicates that specialists in military intelligence and other senior military personnel with responsibility for StratCom (strategic communication) operations are closely involved in the programme.
- The activities of the Integrity Initiative include:
- setting up covert networks ‘clusters’ of journalists, academics and military/foreign service StratCom practitioners in each country including the UK: – The programme has begun to create a critical mass of individuals from across society (think tanks, academia, politics, the media, government and the military) whose work is proving to be mutually reinforcing.
- covert manipulation of the public sphere, including campaigns to smear and suppress dissenters and block their appointment to public office. The silencing of pro-Kremlin voices on Serbian TV is listed as an achievement.
- overt attacks on British politicians, academics and other critics of UK government policies, most notably on the Leader of the Opposition and his staff.
- in the Baltic states and Ukraine, working closely with organizations and governments that foment hatred of ethnic Russian minorities and encourage Holocaust revisionism.
- promotion of a hate campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church in the Balkans.
- These activities:
- are not the charitable purposes set out in the Institute of Statecraft’s constitution, and are not charitable purposes in general.
- violate the accepted principle that government funding may not be used for partisan political purposes.
- indicate that the Government has misled the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee about the scope of the Russian Language Programme of the Conflict Security and Stability Fund.
- indicate that military units specialized for information warfare are now participating in covert manipulation of political discourse at home, subverting parliamentary government.
- have contributed to narrowing the range of public discourse so as to marginalize reality-based evaluation of policy options for relations with Russia and evidence-based assessment of events in which Russian involvement is alleged.
- There are serious concerns about the transparency of the Institute for Statecraft (formerly the Institute of Statecraft and Governance):
- Its registered corporate address is a derelict building in rural Scotland which is being demolished
- In a High Court judgement in 2006 against Lafayeedney, the judge commented adversely on his probity and his business methods.
- The filed accounts show unexplained ‘defects’ for the year ending 23 November 2010. After the Board had approved accounts showing income of £158,470, Lafayeedney filed accounts for a dormant company. The accounts were amended more than a year later by Donnelly who filed the accounts that the Board had approved.
- Donnelly and Lafayeedney have on at least two occasions set up Scottish Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) with names that could easily be confused with existing charities or foundations. Thus in 2009 they set up ISG Corporate LLP at a time when the acronym ISG was used for the Institute of Statecraft and Governance by a charity with which it was in partnership, and in 2010 they set up Council on Foreign Relations as an LLP, with a name that is identical to that of a respected US foreign policy think tank.
- Scottish Limited Partnerships and LLPs are notorious as a vehicle for non-transparent financial transfers.
Here is a real life example. Tim Haywood, an anti-war activist professor (I've posted his writing in threads about Syria) and target of disinformation, describes how he was attacked and labeled a "useful idiot" in major publications by people found to be associated with this program:
Integrity: Grasping The Initiative
This is my first personal blogpost since April. At that time I referred to a ‘coordinated smear campaign’ against anti-war journalists, tweeters and academics, whose number included myself and other members of the SPM Working Group. The portrayal of us as “useful idiots” for some or other official enemy, I suggested, was evidently a strategic communication.
We now know a lot more about the coordination of that communications strategy, thanks to the recently accessed documents exposing the Institute for Statecraft’s so-called Integrity Initiative (here, here and here).
Numerous points of interest and concern emerge, one of which regards the high profile attack launched at our Working Group on the front page of The Times. Two of its authors, we learn, are named in the newly available documents. They – Deborah Haynes and Dominic Kennedy – have not so far responded to invitations to clarify their association with the “Initiative”.
Another example of Scottish Nationalists being labeled Russian bots.
Cui Bono? David Leask, Ben Nimmo and the Attack on Ordinary Scottish Nationalists
Here is a widely circulated article by Moon of Alabama on the Integrity Initiative, with background information about the founder of the Integrity Initiative and a focus on the 3rd and latest release by Anonymous.
The 'Integrity Initiative' - A Military Intelligence Operation, Disguised As Charity, To Create The "Russian Threat"
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/12/the-strange-mind-of-christopher-nigel-donnelly.html
The British government financed Integrity Initiative is tasked with spreading anti-Russian propaganda and thereby with influencing the public, military and governments of a number of countries. What follows is an contextual analysis of the third batch of the Initiative's internal papers which were dumped by an anonymous yesterday.
Christopher Nigel Donnelly (CND) is the co-director of The Institute for Statecraft and founder of its offshoot Integrity Initiative. The Initiative claims to "Defend Democracy Against Disinformation".
The Integrity Initiative does this by planting disinformation about alleged Russian influence through journalists 'clusters'throughout Europe and the United States.
Both, the Institute as well as the Initiative, claim to be independent Non-Government Organizations. Both are financed by the British government, NATO and other state donors.
Among the documents lifted by some anonymous person from the servers of the Institute we find several papers about Donnelly as well as some memos written by him. They show a russophobe mind with a lack of realistic strategic thought.
Bellingcat and the Atlantic Council are listed as partner organizations.
British Government Runs Secret Anti-Russian Smear Campaigns
It lists Bellingcat and the Atlantic Council as "partner organisations" and promises that:
Cluster members will be sent to educational sessions abroad to improve the technical competence of the cluster to deal with disinformation and strengthen bonds in the cluster community. [...] (Events with DFR Digital Sherlocks, Bellingcat, EuVsDisinfo, Buzzfeed, Irex, Detector Media, Stopfake, LT MOD Stratcom – add more names and propose cluster participants as you desire).
The Initiatives Orwellian slogan is 'Defending Democracy Against Disinformation'. It covers European countries, the UK, the U.S. and Canada and seems to want to expand to the Middle East.
A video interview with John Pilger. He talks first about the Integrity Initiative and then goes into lies told about Julian Assange.
John Pilger special – A look back at 2018, and ahead to 2019
On this episode of Going Underground, legendary journalist and filmmaker John Pilger discusses the events of 2018, including the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen, events in Syria, Brexit, the Integrity Initiative, and more!
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/447209-john-pilger-going-underground/
RT's reporting on this:
Do it CIA style: What you need to know about latest leak on UK-funded psyop
https://www.rt.com/news/446809-integrity-initiative-third-leak-uk/
t’s been over a month since hackers began exposing the Scotland-based 'Integrity Initiative' as a UK government-funded propaganda outfit — and gradually new details of the organization's clandestine activities have come to light.
The documents were leaked by a group which claims to be associated with the Anonymous hackers. The first batch of leaks revealed the Integrity Initiative (II) was stealthily operating “clusters” of influencers across Europe working to ensure pro-UK narratives dominate the media. The second batch showed that the organization was also running disinformation campaigns domestically — specifically a smear campaign against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn; all done under the guise of combatting “Russian propaganda.”
Now, a third batch of leaks has exposed that the project allegedly operated much like a modern-day version of Operation Mockingbird — a secretive 1950s project whereby the CIA worked hand-in-glove with willing journalists in major media outlets to ensure certain narratives were adhered to. Only this time, it’s a UK-funded organization with deep links to the intelligence services and military passing itself off as a non-partisan “charity.”
jamie said:
RT really? Shocker
No, the shocker would be if it was reported on MSNBC. Here is Margaret Kimberly of the Black Agenda Report - not affiliated with RT.
Freedom Rider: UK and US PSYOP Collusion
Russiagate hysteria is an international conspiracy, with British spooks spreading lies on three continents. Now Black Americans are slandered as “dupes” of Moscow.
“There was foreign meddling in the 2016 election but it came from British spooks like Christopher Steele and undercover operatives, not Russian agents.”
For more than two years the corporate media, elite think tanks, NATO leaders, and most Democratic Party politicians have insisted that Russia interferes in American and European elections. The charge doesn’t withstand scrutiny but the lies are repeated. There is proof that surveillance state meddling in the affairs of democratic nations is real, but Russia isn’t the culprit. It is the United Kingdom and the United States who lead in skullduggery and meddling with the rights they claim to uphold.
Thanks to the Anonymous hacker community the work of the Integrity Initiative has been exposed to the public. The Integrity Initiative is a British “charity” founded in 2015. Its mission is to “bring to the attention of politicians, policy-makers, opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat posed by Russia to democratic institutions in the United Kingdom, across Europe and North America.” That mission is suspect in and of itself, a phony trope meant to cover up its own imperialist wrong doing. The Integrity Initiative is an arm of the British government and has received more than $2 million in funding from the British Foreign Office and Defense department. It has also raised money from NATO, Facebook and rightwing foundations.
“The United Kingdom and the United States who lead in skullduggery and meddling with the rights they claim to uphold.”
The Integrity Initiative is a means of undermining the sovereignty of the British people by manipulating them with lies. It engaged in numerous efforts to libel Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and prevent him from ever being elected prime minister. Corbyn has been accused of Soviet era espionage, anti-Semitism and anything else his enemies choose to use against him. Academics and writers who spoke out against UK involvement in attacks on Syria were likewise targeted by The Times and other influential British media. The reporters involved were part of this Integrity Initiative campaign. The attacks are consistent and are obviously coordinated at a very high level.
As Margaret Kimberly mentioned above, the Conservative government's "Integrity Initiative" is used to attack Jeremy Corbyn by smearing him as "a useful idiot." The same smear used by some on this board to discredit views dissenting from official doctrine:
and Margaret Kimberley is a leading authority and expert in this area? Please post 1 or 2 other articles she has authored relating to this.
jamie said:
and Margaret Kimberley is a leading authority and expert in this area? Please post 1 or 2 other articles she has authored relating to this.
She was just citing news reports of the attacks on Corbyn, maybe the same one that I did.
Edited to Add: In case it wasn't clear, my reason for mentioning her was to acknowledge that the Corbyn attacks had been discussed previously in Nan's post, which quoted Kimberley.
jamie said:
and Margaret Kimberley is a leading authority and expert in this area? Please post 1 or 2 other articles she has authored relating to this.
Margaret Kimberley is a leading authority on , propaganda, but this is a new topic and she has just started to write about it. I have posted multiple reports from various people. Craig Murry, whom I posted above, wrote this yesterday, 12/22/18
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/12/cui-bono-david-leask-ben-nimmo-and-the-attack-on-ordinary-scottish-nationalists/) He has been following closely. In the piece above he showed how Scottish Nationalists were targeted by David Leask and Ben Nimmo, journalists being paid by the Atlantic Council (funded by NATO--actually Leask claims he only got a cheese sandwich for his work).
Here are other Craig Murry posts on the Integrity Initiative:
British Government Covert Anti-Russian Propaganda and the Skripal Case (12/21/18)
British Security Service Infiltration, the Integrity Initiative and the Institute for Statecraft (12/13/18)
Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal of Grayzone went to the actual offices.
The Grayzone entered the carefully concealed offices of a covert, British government-backed propaganda mill that is at the center of an international scandal the mainstream media refuses to touch.
Recent hacked documents have revealed an international network of politicians, journalists, academics, researchers and military officers, all engaged in highly deceptive covert propaganda campaigns funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), NATO, Facebook and hardline national security institutions.
According to David Miller, professor of political sociology in the school of policy studies at the University of Bristol and the director of the Organization for Propaganda Studies, the Integrity Initiative “appears to be a military directed push.”
“The most senior government people are professional propagandists and spooks,” Miller explained. “The ‘charity’ lead on this [Chris Donnelly] was also appointed as a colonel in military intelligence at the beginning of the project — a truly amazing fact that suggests this is a military intelligence cut out.”
A minister for the UK FCO has officially confirmed that it has been funding the Integrity Network.
In addition to conducting diplomacy, the FCO oversees both the Government Communications Headquarters(GCHQ) the UK equivalent to the National Security Agency, and the Secret Intelligence Services (SIS) commonly known as MI6.
Operation Mockingbird.
The exposing of the Integrity Initiative has just scratched the surface of what appears to be a much more sophisticated, insidious, and extremely online version of Operation Mockingbird. With new internal documents appearing each week through a hacker’s organization called Anonymous Europe, the revelations are yielding one of the most potentially explosive national security scandals in recent times.
The article goes into detail about the secret work locations (with pictures!) and some of the activities including the smears on Corybin and a "successful covert campaign to destroy the appointment of Pedro Baños to Director of Spain’s National Security Department." They did not feel he was anti-Russian enough.
paulsurovell said:
jamie said:She was just citing news reports of the attacks on Corbyn, maybe the same one that I did.
and Margaret Kimberley is a leading authority and expert in this area? Please post 1 or 2 other articles she has authored relating to this.
Edited to Add: In case it wasn't clear, my reason for mentioning her was to acknowledge that the Corbyn attacks had been discussed previously in Nan's post, which quoted Kimberley.
Thanks for that. No, I had not posted this yet, as I was just trying to put in some basic background information before getting into the details. But, this is an important article, because the mainstream media has been trying to ignore the Integrity Initiative, with the exception of the Corbyn smear. Guess when they start using government money to attack their own it does not look good. Hopefully, the investigation will be through.
Highlights:
Duncan said he had learned about the allegations at the weekend and ordered an immediate investigation.
“I don’t know the facts but if there is any kind of organisation for which we are paying which is involved in domestic politics in that way, I would totally condemn it, and I have already over the weekend asked for a report to be on my desk by 10 o’clock this morning to say if there is any such activity,” he said.
Asked if this meant anti-Labour attacks by Statecraft must stop, Duncan said: “Not only must it stop, I want to know why on earth it happened in the first place.”
Duncan has previously responded to a parliamentary written question on the subject. His answer showed that in the 2017-18 financial year the Foreign Office funded the Institute for Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative with £296,500. This financial year, the sum was due rise to £1,961,000, the answer said.
According to the report, the body’s programme is supposed to counter Russian disinformation by using “clusters” of journalists and others throughout Europe – with a unit reportedly proposed in Lithuania - using social media to respond.
But its official Twitter feed retweeted anti-Corbyn messages such as the one calling the Labour leader a “useful idiot”. It added: “His open visceral anti-westernism helped the Kremlin cause, as surely as if he had been secretly peddling Westminster tittle-tattle for money.”
Other messages targeted Corbyn’s chief aide, Seumas Milne. The Institute for Statecraft retweeted a newspaper report that said: “Milne is not a spy – that would be beneath him. But what he has done, wittingly or unwittingly, is work with the Kremlin agenda.”
nan said:
jamie said:I already posted the working notes (http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/briefing-note-on-the-integrity-initiative). That is where you should start. That lists the chronology and facts.
no longer a theory by who specifically? Name the key person with the facts?
That's just the same old cast of characters you've cited before, under a new name.
It's a fairly new project of theirs. Started this year, initially to try to debunk the idea that Russia had poisoned the former spy and his daughter in Salisbury.
Here's an article about that plucky little band of apologists -
Their "Resources" page on their website is particularly enlightening. It seems to be empty of resources.
http://syriapropagandamedia.org/resources
I think moving this discussion to the subforum was a good idea.
South_Mountaineer said:
nan said:That's just the same old cast of characters you've cited before, under a new name.
jamie said:I already posted the working notes (http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/briefing-note-on-the-integrity-initiative). That is where you should start. That lists the chronology and facts.
no longer a theory by who specifically? Name the key person with the facts?
It's a fairly new project of theirs. Started this year, initially to try to debunk the idea that Russia had poisoned the former spy and his daughter in Salisbury.
Here's an article about that plucky little band of apologists -
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/uk-academics-pro-assad-conspiracy-theories-about-syria_uk_5aa51ea7e4b01b9b0a3c4b10
Their "Resources" page on their website is particularly enlightening. It seems to be empty of resources.
http://syriapropagandamedia.org/resources
I think moving this discussion to the subforum was a good idea.
This thread is about the Integrity Initiative. I get that you don't agree with some of these people about Syria, but we are not talking about Syria. What part of their reporting on the Integrity Initiative do you not agree with? They cite all all of their sources for their briefing notes, which are the data dumps from Anonymous. To date the Integrity Initiative has acknowledged they were hacked and has not denied that any of the information came from them.
The smear campaign against Corbyn involved tweeting a link to a Times of London op-ed with quoted excerpts:
https://twitter.com/initintegrity/status/966965852892467200?s=21
The covert clusters are described this way on the Institute for Statecraft’s website: “This international project brings together in a network of clusters across Europe and North America people who understand the threat posed to Western nations by a flood of disinformation, deception and lies which is being put out by those opposed to Western concepts of liberalism, freedom and democracy.”
DaveSchmidt said:
The smear campaign against Corbyn involved tweeting a link to a Times of London op-ed with quoted excerpts:
https://twitter.com/initintegrity/status/966965852892467200?s=21
The covert clusters are described this way on the Institute for Statecraft’s website: “This international project brings together in a network of clusters across Europe and North America people who understand the threat posed to Western nations by a flood of disinformation, deception and lies which is being put out by those opposed to Western concepts of liberalism, freedom and democracy.”
https://www.statecraft.org.uk/projects-programmes/integrity-initiative-defending-democracy-against-disinformation
There is the twitter and then the linked article, which also seems to be part of the smear. I don't think we know the full extent of this yet, either. More information dumps are expected.
As far as looking at the supposed mission of the Institute for Statecraft, it sounds objectionable even without the corruption. I think Margaret Kimberly described it well (link above) when she said,
The Integrity Initiative is a British “charity” founded in 2015. Its mission is to “bring to the attention of politicians, policy-makers, opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat posed by Russia to democratic institutions in the United Kingdom, across Europe and North America.” That mission is suspect in and of itself, a phony trope meant to cover up its own imperialist wrong doing.
It just seems so obviously a Cold War relic, trying to purposefully manipulate public perception of Russia for political and perhaps financial purposes.
DaveSchmidt said:
The smear campaign against Corbyn involved tweeting a link to a Times of London op-ed with quoted excerpts:
https://twitter.com/initintegrity/status/966965852892467200?s=21
The covert clusters are described this way on the Institute for Statecraft’s website: “This international project brings together in a network of clusters across Europe and North America people who understand the threat posed to Western nations by a flood of disinformation, deception and lies which is being put out by those opposed to Western concepts of liberalism, freedom and democracy.”
https://www.statecraft.org.uk/projects-programmes/integrity-initiative-defending-democracy-against-disinformation
Was Corbyn smeared with govt funds as one of "those opposed to Western concepts of liberalism, freedom and democracy" or just a "useful idiot" or both?
https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=CORBYN%20from%3AInitIntegrity&src=typd&lang=en
paulsurovell said:
Was Corbyn smeared with govt funds as one of "those opposed to Western concepts of liberalism, freedom and democracy" or just a "useful idiot" or both?
https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=CORBYN%20from%3AInitIntegrity&src=typd&lang=en
Looks like the Integrity Initiative is in the habit of tweeting links to several articles a day. You found links to four pieces about Corbyn over six-plus months.
If the Integrity Initiative deliberately ignored articles about Corbyn’s work toward the initiative’s goal of fighting Russian disinformation, that’d be to its discredit.
nan said:
It just seems so obviously a Cold War relic, trying to purposefully manipulate public perception of Russia for political and perhaps financial purposes.
So obvious, yet also so covert.
DaveSchmidt said:
paulsurovell said:Looks like the Integrity Initiative is in the habit of tweeting links to several articles a day. You found links to four pieces about Corbyn over six-plus months.
Was Corbyn smeared with govt funds as one of "those opposed to Western concepts of liberalism, freedom and democracy" or just a "useful idiot" or both?
https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=CORBYN%20from%3AInitIntegrity&src=typd&lang=en
If the Integrity Initiative deliberately ignored articles about Corbyn’s work toward the initiative’s goal of fighting Russian disinformation, that’d be to its discredit.
The problem is that they smear Corbyn as a tool of Russian disinformation, through links to articles or in their own tweets.
paulsurovell said:
DaveSchmidt said:The problem is that they smear Corbyn as a tool of Russian disinformation, through links to articles or in their own tweets.
paulsurovell said:Looks like the Integrity Initiative is in the habit of tweeting links to several articles a day. You found links to four pieces about Corbyn over six-plus months.
Was Corbyn smeared with govt funds as one of "those opposed to Western concepts of liberalism, freedom and democracy" or just a "useful idiot" or both?
https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=CORBYN%20from%3AInitIntegrity&src=typd&lang=en
If the Integrity Initiative deliberately ignored articles about Corbyn’s work toward the initiative’s goal of fighting Russian disinformation, that’d be to its discredit.
And Corbyn is just one of many that this group has been smearing. The number of people involved is just being investigated and reported on, usually on social media such as this: https://twitter.com/now_into/status/1076517112045281280
The mainstream does not seem to want to touch this story, with the exception of mentioning the Corbyn smear. Love how the Integrity Initiative says, "The Integrity Initiative is a non-partisan programme" when it so obviously is not that nor anything else it claims to be, while using government funding.
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Don't think this is getting much, if any, coverage on mainstream media, but it is a big deal. I was going to post it on my Bill Browder thread because he is supposedly involved, but it is much larger than one individual. It relates to several other threads so I decided to make it a standalone.
Basically, early last November, Anonymous released a group of files that they said were related to the UK's Integrity Initiative, a propaganda campaign launched in 2015. It was originally posted on the Cyberguerrilla Soapbox (https://www.cyberguerrilla.org/blog/operation-integrity-initiative-british-informational-war-against-all/) with this introduction:
There have been additional data dumps since the first one and much discussion and analysis. I will be posting some of that here.
The Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media has assembled comprehensive briefing notes on the Integrity Initiative which are located here: http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/briefing-note-on-the-integrity-initiative This is the best way to get general information on what has been released and who's who. You might need to scroll down to see them (the links did not work for me).
I am still reading about this and trying to make sense of it all, but it seems to be a huge unethical effort to ramp up the Cold War using planted representatives from many fields and countries, including academic and journalism. Kinda real creepy.