ChunkyMonkey
02-26-2014, 17:44
http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/02/26/its-true-government-agents-are-infiltrating-online-communities/
It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 at 12:43 PM MST
If you have been following Glenn since his days at Fox News, you may remember the expose he did on Obama ‘regulatory czar’ Cass Sunstein and his nudge theory. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/2010/09/28/glenn-beck-from-nudge-to-shove/) One of Sunstein’s more disturbing ideas involved government operatives infiltrating online communities in order to disseminate false information. As Glenn describes it, the goal was to “pose, infiltrate, and discredit.” Anyone who actually took Sunstein’s words at face value were mocked and labeled conspiracy theorists. But, as it turns out, it was all true
“The English version of the NSA is the GCHQ… The English NSA has now revealed that that’s exactly what our government is doing,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “What Cass Sunstein proposed in a purely academic setting – that was his excuse – the British NSA has now verified. That’s exactly what we are doing. And so there are operatives posing as regular citizens on our web sites and in our organizations. I mean how crazy is that? Wake up, America! Wake up!”
Glenn Greewald – the former Guardian reporter who worked to publish the material exposed by Edward Snowden – released a thorough report on his new website, FirstLook.org, dissecting the data.
Greenwald reports (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/):
Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series (http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/27/22469304-snowden-docs-reveal-british-spies-snooped-on-youtube-and-facebook?lite) of articles (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/war-anonymous-british-spies-attacked-hackers-snowden-docs-show-n21361) about “dirty trick” tactics (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/snowden-docs-british-spies-used-sex-dirty-tricks-n23091) used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/snowden_youtube_nbc_document.pdf) classified (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/snowden_anonymous_nbc_document.pdf) GCHQ (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/snowden_cyber_offensive2_nbc_document.pdf) documents (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/snowden_cyber_offensive1_nbc_document.pdf) presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/is-the-five-eyes-alliance-conspiring-to-spy-on-you/277190/). Today, we at the Intercept are publishinganother new JTRIG document (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/02/24/art-deception-training-new-generation-online-covert-operations/), in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.”
By publishing these stories one by one, our NBC reporting highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and destructive viruses. But, here, I want to focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.
Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums.
Later in the article, Greenwald actually references Sunstein and explains “these GCHQ documents are the first to prove that a major western government is using some of the most controversial techniques to disseminate deception online and harm the reputations of targets.”
Not surprised! So who's among us? [Coffee]
It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 at 12:43 PM MST
If you have been following Glenn since his days at Fox News, you may remember the expose he did on Obama ‘regulatory czar’ Cass Sunstein and his nudge theory. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/2010/09/28/glenn-beck-from-nudge-to-shove/) One of Sunstein’s more disturbing ideas involved government operatives infiltrating online communities in order to disseminate false information. As Glenn describes it, the goal was to “pose, infiltrate, and discredit.” Anyone who actually took Sunstein’s words at face value were mocked and labeled conspiracy theorists. But, as it turns out, it was all true
“The English version of the NSA is the GCHQ… The English NSA has now revealed that that’s exactly what our government is doing,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “What Cass Sunstein proposed in a purely academic setting – that was his excuse – the British NSA has now verified. That’s exactly what we are doing. And so there are operatives posing as regular citizens on our web sites and in our organizations. I mean how crazy is that? Wake up, America! Wake up!”
Glenn Greewald – the former Guardian reporter who worked to publish the material exposed by Edward Snowden – released a thorough report on his new website, FirstLook.org, dissecting the data.
Greenwald reports (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/):
Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series (http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/27/22469304-snowden-docs-reveal-british-spies-snooped-on-youtube-and-facebook?lite) of articles (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/war-anonymous-british-spies-attacked-hackers-snowden-docs-show-n21361) about “dirty trick” tactics (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/snowden-docs-british-spies-used-sex-dirty-tricks-n23091) used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/snowden_youtube_nbc_document.pdf) classified (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/snowden_anonymous_nbc_document.pdf) GCHQ (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/snowden_cyber_offensive2_nbc_document.pdf) documents (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/snowden_cyber_offensive1_nbc_document.pdf) presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/is-the-five-eyes-alliance-conspiring-to-spy-on-you/277190/). Today, we at the Intercept are publishinganother new JTRIG document (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/02/24/art-deception-training-new-generation-online-covert-operations/), in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.”
By publishing these stories one by one, our NBC reporting highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and destructive viruses. But, here, I want to focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.
Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums.
Later in the article, Greenwald actually references Sunstein and explains “these GCHQ documents are the first to prove that a major western government is using some of the most controversial techniques to disseminate deception online and harm the reputations of targets.”
Not surprised! So who's among us? [Coffee]