As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes this morning, a very large mug of coffee in hand, I punched in the password for my computer, wound up on Facebook, and saw a new Anna Chapman message staring at me.  Now, normally, when I wake up to a gorgeous redhead, it’s a good thing.  Then I read the message and I almost spewed a perfectly good mouthful of coffee across my computer screen.

When reading the message, please excuse the Facebook translation, I didn’t correct the spelling, capitalization, or grammatical errors.

Then the war between Georgia and south ossetia began only in order to raise the Ratings Rusofobia Mccain, proigryvavshego presidential race Barack Obama.

Full stop, which is old telegraph language for “hold your horses right there”.   The Russian invasion of South Ossetia was ONLY to raise the ratings of Russophobia for the purpose of the McCain/Obama presidential campaign?   Oh, puh-lease…   I believe that was the same year that Mitt Romney was laughed at for calling Russia the greatest threat to the US in the world.  Russia also loudly declared the invasion was to protect the Russian people in South Ossetia who were being threatened by Georgia…  or was he lying about that, too?  That was around the time she moved from the UK to the US, so I’ll forgive her glaring oversight.

The alarming part of her message is in the last two lines:

To Beat Clinton, as in the 2008th year, the “Hawks” need to make Russia the aggressor, who represents a danger to the entire world.  A new war in Ukraine is suitable for this perfect, as cynical as it may seem.

Russia is setting the stage for invading Ukraine. The reason?  To beat Clinton as a US presidential candidate.   Somehow, in the alternate reality that exists in Russia, some guy thought of this absolutely ridiculous story, to tie a Russian invasion to electing Donald Trump, to defeating Hillary Clinton, in order to justify Russia invading another country.  You read it here first, Russia is absolutely bonkers, bat-crap crazy.  Of course, we knew that already.

Anna Chapman worked for the SVR in the past, and may very well still be in their employ.  She might be trying to attract young lads around the world with lust in their hearts and a weakness for gorgeous redheads to act on Russia’s behalf, lure them in with her message of Russian suffering, and oh, won’t you please sympathize with us?  I can’t bat my eyelashes in this message and act sultry like I’m certain she can, but I think you get the point.

Russia, will you please, please, please keep paying Anna Chapman but have her stop this obvious drivel?  I’d rather look at this picture and wonder which is softer, the rabbit or her sweater…

Scratch that, I would never type that out loud. Oops.

By Alya Shandra

An email dump of a “DNR Ministry of information” employee reveals how the self-proclaimed Russian-backed statelet in eastern Ukraine denied accreditation to disloyal journalists and influenced materials of loyal ones under the supervision of Moscow.

On 3 August 2016, a message to Ukraine’s Security Service was sent from the twitter account of Tatyana Egorova, an analytic of the information ministry of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DNR”). “I can’t lie any longer and will not permit others to do so,” it said, and included a link to a dump of her mailbox (the link no longer works, but the dump is now available here).

Most probably, this is the result of the work of hackers, not Egorova’s sudden turn of sympathies. Nevertheless, the dump appears to be real: in a comment to Detector Media, Pavel Kanygin, journalist of the Russian Novaya Gazeta, confirmed that he indeed sent the emails that were filed under his name in the hacked database.

Kanygin was eventually also denied accreditation in the “DNR,” like all journalists ofNovaya Gazeta, after it published a resonant interview with a Russian contract soldier from the central Asian Buryat Republic.

The dump contained over 9,000 messages where Egorova communicated with her advisors, superiors, colleagues, and, of course, journalists from Ukraine, Russia, and beyond.

This isn’t the first time that “DNR Information Ministry” employees are hacked – a few months ago, the Ukrainian site Myrotvorets, which gathers open-source evidence on people fighting against the Ukrainian government in the ranks of the Russian-backed separatist “republics” published lists of journalists who were accredited in the “DNR.” This publication was widely condemned by the enlisted caused a scandal – many decided that accreditation at the authorities of an unrecognized government is a usual and acceptable practice.

Myrotvorets’ defenders then argued that the Russian-backed separatists would grant accreditation only to journalists reporting only things they would approve of.

This leak shows that, starting from 15 July 2015, indeed that was quite often the case. What follows is an analysis of the leak.

“Russophobe, get him out of Donetsk!”

On 15 July 2015, the Russian businessman Andrey Stepanenko launched the DONi international news agency for the breakaway republic. As its head Janus Putkonek described it in an annual report,

“DONi is a news agency, funded from private sources, a non-commercial, non-governmental organization functioning with the support of Moscow, Russia.”

Janus Putkonek is a Finn who Russian media describe as a “western journalist-enthusiast, who tries to break the information blockade around the “DNR” and “LNR.” According to the report, he started his work as a propaganda coach starting from September 2014.

Scan of Putkonen’s passport from the dump

Under his guidance, DONi grew to have several internet platforms, recruited student volunteers to translate “DNR”-approved news to a variety of languages, and monitored publications of foreign journalists to deny accreditation to disloyal ones.

The journalists were listed and then monitored on a weekly basis. Depending on the publications, journalists were assigned a color, which meant, according to Janus: “Red – Low, no accreditation suggested; Yellow – medium; Green – High, special positive interesting; White – Neutral, ok.”

Expelling enemies and building friendships

As of 18 August 2015, “green” journalists were pretty rare. “Russophobe, writes about pro-Russian separatists,” “NATO journalist-propagandist, get him out of Donetsk” are recommendations offered to executive “DNR” bodies regarding accreditation. The links to the right are presented as proof of the journalist’s position.

Image: Euromaidan Press

What did a journalist have to do to be part of the “red” list? Report things that went astray from the narrative of events that Russia’s authorities and propaganda outlets have been promoting. In the case of journalist Filip Warwick, the reasons were“inadequate vocabulary regarding the servicemen,” writing about Russian tanks located on “DNR” territory (something that Russia still denies), and referring to the Crimean illegal annexation as to an annexation. According to Tatyana Egorova, it should be called a “legal referendum where the population expressed their will to join Russia.”

Most of the world disagrees with the Russian version of events regarding the Crimean referendum held at gunpoint in 2014, and condemns the forceful annexation of Crimea from Ukraine with the help of unmarked Russian troops.

Later, the anger turned to mercy: Filip Warwick was allowed entry in February 2016, as a reward for not signing an open letter of French journalists regarding Moreira’s film “Masks of the Revolution,” which they considered as “slandering their profession” by presenting a manipulation of actual events suiting the Russian propaganda narrative.

However, journalists Gulliver Gragg and Sebastien Gobert were denied entry – because of their signatures under the letter. “DNR’s” propaganda ministry kept an eye on world events.

“All names in this list are clear enemies of the Russian world,” concluded Janus in his recommendation to Tatyana.

Basically, representatives of all western media outlets were denied accreditation in the “DNR:” Reuters, BBC, Al Jazeera, VICE. Anna Nemtsova was denied entry for an articlein The Daily Beast on peace protests in occupied Donbas with the explanation “because she’s fucking writing things like this.” But exceptions were made for Fergal Keane, a journalist writing for the BBC, which is “not friendly to Russia and DNR yet “very influential.” Other BBC journalists were banned. Each accreditation case was carefully studied to make sure the self-proclaimed “republic” would reap the most propaganda benefit from the visit.

Image: Euromaidan Press

The journalists of whom the information ministry workers weren’t sure were asked to send in their works for assessment of compatibility with the “Russian world.” Journalists in the yellow list were sometimes monitored – for example, the Australian channel ABS was classified as a “russophobic channel” but permitted entry for the sake of an experiment.

The journalists in the green list were assigned meetings and worked with to build information support for the “LNR” and “DNR,” which are designated as terrorist in Ukraine, abroad.

Image: Euromaidan Press

The “DNR’s” information ministry’s obsession with terminology stands runs through the whole massif of data.

Accreditation in the “republics” was denied to those referring to the Russian-backed militias as “terrorists” – which stands in contrast to the Ukrainian Anti-Terrorist Operation – Ukraine’s term for the events in Donbas, and for a good reason. It’s hard to legitimize internationally representatives of a terrorist organization – what Ukraine claims the “DNR” and “LNR” are.

The ultimate goal of all of this? Getting the “DNR” narrative into the mainstream media.

Screenshot from the dump

Here is an example of “success” – a piece on PBS Newshour where special correspondent Nick Schirfin provides unrestricted airtime to quoting of representatives of the Russian-backed militia, stitching together a report from phrases such as “the entire Ukraine is fighting with us following NATO orders. They are nothing on their own.”

No money for propaganda in the “DNR”

From what it appears, DONi had trouble convincing the “authorities” of the “DNR” to invest in international propaganda. On 1 July 2016, Janus Putkonen sent a letter to the Security Service of the “DNR” with a copy to Egorova, informing that he will be shutting down if more money doesn’t come. “Almost daily we made objective proposals for collaboration with foreign media sources and journalists in close collaboration with the [DNR] MGB (Security Service), Ministry of Defense, Donetsk Press Club, and also administration or other DNR ministries. (…) The track records of some foreign journalists were also studied in the framework of direct military needs of the DNR,” he wrote in the letter where he asked to increase financing for its needs.”

“DONi’s system of information protection was based in Moscow, from where the database was supported and information was processed,” he continues, naming the costs of its maintenance – 50,000 RUR monthly, and proposes moving it to Donetsk to cut costs to 30,000 RUR. ”

Apparently, he succeeded: the next letter was an annual report, where he informed of his plans to transform DONi into a full-fledged media agency promoting “DNR” interests, by launching a “Donbas International TV Production,” given that the “DNR” pays up – at least 300,000 RUR monthly ($4,500) to around 10 employees.
That is a fraction of the costs of the “DNR’s” “Ministry of Information,” which on May 2015 employed 100 people with a budget of $30,600, according to an excel file in the dump.

The email dump contains a wealth of other information regarding the “DNR’s” propaganda apparatus. Stay tuned for further analysis on Euromaidan Press.

Source: http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/08/05/hack-reveals-how-dnr-denied-accreditation-to-disloyal-journalists/

By James Bamford

Thu Aug 4, 2016

National attention is focused on Russian eavesdroppers’ possible targeting of U.S. presidential candidates and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Yet, leaked top-secret National Security Agency documents show that the Obama administration has long been involved in major bugging operations against the election campaigns — and the presidents — of even its closest allies.

The United States is, by far, the world’s most aggressive nation when it comes to cyberspying and cyberwarfare. The National Security Agency has been eavesdropping on foreign cities, politicians, elections  and entire countries since it first turned on its receivers in 1952. Just as other countries, including Russia, attempt to do to the United States. What is new is a country leaking the intercepts back to the public of the target nation through a middleperson.

There is a strange irony in this. Russia, if it is actually involved in the hacking of the computers of the Democratic National Committee, could be attempting to influence a U.S. election by leaking to the American public the falsehoods of its leaders. This is a tactic Washington used against the Soviet Union and other countries during the Cold War.

In the 1950s, for example, President Harry S Truman created the Campaign of Truth to reveal to the Russian people the “Big Lies” of their government. Washington had often discovered these lies through eavesdropping and other espionage.

Today, the United States has morphed from a Cold War, and in some cases a hot war, into a cyberwar, with computer coding replacing bullets and bombs. Yet the American public manages to be “shocked, shocked” that a foreign country would attempt to conduct cyberespionage on the United States.

NSA operations have, for example, recently delved into elections in Mexico,  targeting its last presidential campaign. According to a top-secret PowerPoint presentation leaked by former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden, the operation involved a “surge effort against one of Mexico’s leading presidential candidates, Enrique Peña Nieto, and nine of his close associates.” Peña won that election and is now Mexico’s president.

The NSA identified Peña’s cellphone and those of his associates using advanced software that can filter out specific phones from the swarm around the candidate. These lines were then targeted. The technology, one NSA analyst noted, “might find a needle in a haystack.” The analyst described it as “a repeatable and efficient” process.

The eavesdroppers also succeeded in intercepting 85,489 text messages, a Der Spiegel article noted.

Another NSA operation, begun in May 2010 and codenamed FLATLIQUID, targeted Pena’s predecessor, President Felipe Calderon. The NSA, the documents revealed, was able “to gain first-ever access to President Felipe Calderon’s public email account.”

At the same time, members of a highly secret joint NSA/CIA organization, called the Special Collection Service, are based in the U.S. embassy in Mexico City and other U.S. embassies around the world. It targets local government communications, as well as foreign embassies nearby. For Mexico, additional eavesdropping, and much of the analysis, is conducted by NSA Texas, a large listening post in San Antonio that focuses on the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

Unlike the Defense Department’s Pentagon, the headquarters of the cyberspies fills an entire secret city. Located in Fort Meade, Maryland, halfway between Washington and Baltimore, Maryland, NSA’s headquarters consists of scores of heavily guarded buildings. The site even boasts its own police force and post office.

And it is about to grow considerably bigger, now that the NSA cyberspies have merged with the cyberwarriors of U.S. Cyber Command, which controls its own Cyber Army, Cyber Navy, Cyber Air Force and Cyber Marine Corps, all armed with state-of-the-art cyberweapons. In charge of it all is a four-star admiral, Michael S. Rogers.

Now under construction inside NSA’s secret city, Cyber Command’s new $3.2- billion headquarters is to include 14 buildings, 11 parking garages and an enormous cyberbrain — a 600,000-square-foot, $896.5-million supercomputer facility that will eat up an enormous amount of power, about 60 megawatts. This is enough electricity to power a city of more than 40,000 homes.

In 2014, for a cover story in Wired and a PBS documentary, I spent three days in Moscow with Snowden, whose last NSA job was as a contract cyberwarrior. I was also granted rare access to his archive of documents. “Cyber Command itself has always been branded in a sort of misleading way from its very inception,” Snowden told me. “It’s an attack agency. … It’s all about computer-network attack and computer-network exploitation at Cyber Command.”

The idea is to turn the Internet from a worldwide web of information into a global battlefield for war. “The next major conflict will start in cyberspace,” says one of the secret NSA documents. One key phrase within Cyber Command documents is “Information Dominance.”

The Cyber Navy, for example, calls itself the Information Dominance Corps. The Cyber Army is providing frontline troops with the option of requesting “cyberfire support” from Cyber Command, in much the same way it requests air and artillery support. And the Cyber Air Force is pledged to “dominate cyberspace” just as “today we dominate air and space.”

Among the tools at their disposal is one called Passionatepolka, designed to “remotely brick network cards.” “Bricking” a computer means destroying it – turning it into a brick.

One such situation took place in war-torn Syria in 2012, according to Snowden, when the NSA attempted to remotely and secretly install an “exploit,” or bug, into the computer system of a major Internet provider. This was expected to provide access to email and other Internet traffic across much of Syria. But something went wrong. Instead, the computers were bricked. It took down the Internet across the country for a period of time.

While Cyber Command executes attacks, the National Security Agency seems more interested in tracking virtually everyone connected to the Internet, according to the documents.

One top-secret operation, code-named TreasureMap, is designed to have a “capability for building a near real-time interactive map of the global Internet. … Any device, anywhere, all the time.” Another operation, codenamed Turbine, involves secretly placing “millions of implants” — malware — in computer systems worldwide for either spying or cyberattacks.

Yet, even as the U.S. government continues building robust eavesdropping and attack systems, it looks like there has been far less focus on security at home. One benefit of the cyber-theft of the Democratic National Committee emails might be that it helps open a public dialogue about the dangerous potential of cyberwarfare. This is long overdue. The possible security problems for the U.S. presidential election in November are already being discussed.

Yet there can never be a useful discussion on the topic if the Obama administration continues to point fingers at other countries without admitting that Washington is engaged heavily in cyberspying and cyberwarfare.

In fact, the United States is the only country ever to launch an actual cyberwar — when the Obama administration used a cyberattack to destroy thousands of centrifuges, used for nuclear enrichment, in Iran. This was an illegal act of war, according to the Defense Department’s own definition.

Given the news reports that many more DNC emails are waiting to be leaked as the presidential election draws closer, there will likely be many more reminders of the need for a public dialogue on cybersecurity and cyberwarfare before November.

(James Bamford is the author of The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America. He is a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine.)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-election-intelligence-commentary-idUSKCN10F1H5

WASHINGTON | By Warren Strobel

The Obama administration is preparing to elevate the stature of the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, signaling more emphasis on developing cyber weapons to deter attacks, punish intruders into U.S. networks and tackle adversaries such as Islamic State, current and former officials told Reuters.

Under the plan being considered at the White House, the officials said, U.S. Cyber Command would become what the military calls a “unified command” equal to combat branches of the military such as the Central and Pacific Commands.

Cyber Command would be separated from the National Security Agency, a spy agency responsible for electronic eavesdropping, the officials said. That would give Cyber Command leaders a larger voice in arguing for the use of both offensive and defensive cyber tools in future conflicts.

Both organizations are based at Fort Meade, Maryland, about 30 miles north of Washington, and led by the same officer, Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers.

A former senior intelligence official with knowledge of the plan said it reflects the growing role that cyber operations play in modern warfare, and the different missions of the Cyber Command and the NSA. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

A Cyber Command spokesman declined comment on the plan, and the NSA did not respond to requests for comment.

Established in 2010, Cyber Command is now subordinate to the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees military space operations, nuclear weapons and missile defense.

U.S. officials cautioned that details of the plan, including some aspects of Cyber Command’s new status, are still being debated.

It was unclear when the matter will be presented to President Barack Obama for final approval, but the former senior intelligence official said it was unlikely anyone would stand in the way.

A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration was “constantly reviewing if we have the appropriate organizational structures in place to counter evolving threats, in cyber space or elsewhere.”

“While we have no changes to this structure to announce, the relationship between NSA and Cyber Command is critical to safeguarding our nation’s security,” the official said.

The Pentagon acknowledged earlier this year that it has conducted cyber attacks against Islamic State, although the details are highly classified.

“We are dropping cyberbombs. We have never done that before,” Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said in April.

The Washington Post reported last month that Pentagon leaders had been frustrated with the slow pace of Cyber Command’s electronic offensive against Islamic State, militants who control parts of Iraq and Syria and have sympathizers and supporters worldwide.

In response, Rogers created Joint Task Force Ares to develop new digital weapons against Islamic State and coordinate with the Central Command, which is responsible for combat operations in the Middle East and South Asia.

The new task force has “the specific mission to accomplish cyberspace objectives in support of counter-ISIL operations,” a Cyber Command statement said. Task Force Ares, it said, “comprises operations and intelligence professionals from each of the military services.”

James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the plan that will be presented to Obama highlights how Cyber Command, reliant on the NSA in its early years, is developing its own work force and digital tools.

“It reflects the maturing of Cyber Command and its own capabilities,” Lewis said.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter hinted at the higher status for Cyber Command in an April speech in Washington, in which he said the Pentagon is planning $35 billion in cyber spending over the next five years.

“Adapting to new functions will include changes in how we manage ourselves in cyberspace,” Carter said.

NSA’s primary mission is to intercept and decode adversaries’ phone calls, emails and other communications. The agency was criticized for over-reach after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed some of its surveillance programs.

NSA’s focus is gathering intelligence, officials said, often favoring the monitoring of an enemy’s cyber activities. Cyber Command’s mission is geared more to shutting down cyber attacks – and, if ordered, counter attacking.

The NSA director has been a senior military officer since the agency’s founding in 1952. Under the plan, future directors would be civilians, an arrangement meant to underscore that NSA is not subordinate to Cyber Command.

(Additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by John Walcott and Grant McCool)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-idUSKCN10G254

Article By Eric Tallant – Former Army NCO/Fellow at The Intelligence Community

This propaganda leaflet was found March 13th, 2016, taped to a pole outside the 19th century Dauphine Lalaurie Mansion. The Lalaurie Mansion is the site of one of America’s most savage abusers of African slaves. The placement of this leaflet was very deliberate.

New Orleans is a city of “have and have nots”. This makes the lower economic class especially vulnerable to political ideologies that play on said divides to stir up anger, and protest. New Orleans (NOLA) is also witnessing a tech and real estate economic boom that is one of the largest in America.

Unaffordable Housing is Setting  the Table for Subversive Propaganda Campaigns

“The New Orleans metropolitan area is forecast to be the sixth-hottest housing market in the nation in 2016 with higher prices and more sales, following in the footsteps of recently surging cities such as San Diego and Atlanta, according to a report by Realtor.com.

Home sales activity is expected to increase by 10 percent and single-family home prices to rise 6.8 percent in 2016 in the New Orleans-Metairie metropolitan statistical area, according to the report. Following recent trends, growth is expected to be centered largely in the city’s historic and lakefront neighborhoods and in parts of Metairie.

Nationwide, Realtor.com predicts home sales next year will push to the highest levels since 2006.

Many local homebuyers have been feeling the pain of higher prices and a competitive market the past two years. Home prices are up 46 percent in the city since Hurricane Katrina this year. The average house in New Orleans sold for $339,743 or $166 per square foot in the first half of this year — the most recent data available — a 4.6 percent climb.

Realtor.com chief economist Jonathan Smoke said the New Orleans metro market as a whole has lagged behind the hottest markets across the country, in places such as San Francisco and Boston, where price growth has clocked in as high as 20 percent.

“Essentially, New Orleans appears to be ready for its day in the housing recovery,” Smoke said.

Continued at https://stopagitprop.com/2016/08/06/new-orleans-the-big-easys-soil-is-a-rich-environment-for-agitation-and-exploitation/

An Open Letter to Mr. Donald J. Trump,

Dear Mr. Trump,

I am writing as an American citizen, a husband, a retired Army officer and former enlisted Special Forces, and now work as a Russian information warfare specialist and expert.

Two decades ago I was a die-hard Republican, as a military man, I could not even dream otherwise. Times change, political parties change, and I grew disillusioned with both parties, Democrat and Republican.  They were and are too extreme, limited in their perspective, and out of touch with reality.  Today I think both parties just plain suck. They are an embarrassment, they do not represent the American people at all, and their artificial reality does not embrace American values, all they want is votes.  Most of all, as a career military officer, I say that none of the leadership puts country above self.  Consequently, the vast majority of America loses, and will continue losing, unless one or both parties build realistic platforms and begin supporting America and “We the people”.

You, Sir, are not politically correct very often, and that is part of your popularity.  However, you come off like a buffoon, all too often.  You say you are smart and you have graduated from some good schools.  Yet you shoot your mouth off without thinking, and that is frightening, especially in a potential President. Many of your sentences contain good intentions, but then you seem to lose control of your own speech – your mouth goes crazy or something.

• Would it be possible for you to start speaking frankly and not allegorically?
• Is it possible for you not to insult people every time you open your mouth?
• Could you put more humanity into most situations and not slam everybody?
• Would you please study foreign policy and speak intelligently about it?   I know the press is taking many of your statements out of context and spinning everything you say, so could you kindly back off from sounding like a monster so often?
• Would you please agree to study your platform and study Presidential rhetoric?   No more guessing, know it cold.

You have the potential of being a great President, quite honestly, but not the way you look and act today.

Sir, you do not have my support.  But you could.

by Seph Rodney on August 5, 2016

At a round-table discussion at Smack Mellon gallery, convened on July 27 by Hyperallergic and the gallery, and moderated by Hyperallergic’s editor-in-chief Hrag Vartanian, the issue of the distinction between propaganda and art was in focus. Much of the artwork displayed in Smack Mellon’s Of the People exhibition (which closed July 31) straddles the shifting line between the two discourses. Vartanian posed the question to the panel whether a hundred years from now would people looking back on this work and be able to tell whether it was one or the other.

One artist on the panel, Sue Schaffner, who is half of Dyke Action Machine! (DAM!), answered by proudly claiming that the work she does on behalf of DAM is propaganda, part of her political project to bring lesbians in the US to public visibility and recognition. Artist Daniel Bejar, who is part of the Of the People exhibition, similarly argued that the distinction was something he was trying to blur, essentially to provoke awareness of the current cultural situation in which a great deal of what we see in advertising and political advocacy is already propaganda. By blending art and propaganda, Behjar contended that he was making it more possible for people to ascertain when we are being manipulated.

Continued at: http://hyperallergic.com/314989/how-to-tell-the-difference-between-propaganda-and-art/

Social media has a big problem with racist and misogynistic harassment and human intervention isn’t working. Time to bring in the bots.

3 August 2016

By Sally Adee

WHEN Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones was hounded off Twitter last month, having braved several days of racist and misogynistic abuse, many people decried the social network’s failure to enforce its policies. If a star of a Hollywood blockbuster can be treated like that, what hope is there for the rest of us? For some, such cases show it’s time for a new approach to dealing with online abuse.

“Social media is a shitshow,” says Libby Hemphill, an online communication researcher at Illinois Institute of Technology.

The statistics may feel familiar: a 2014 study by Pew Research in Washington DC showed that 40 per cent of internet users have been harassed and 66 per cent of those said the most recent instance was on social media.

Since then, despite many promises made by internet companies, efforts to curb online harassment using human moderation have fallen flat. Last year, Twitter’s then CEO Dick Costolo took “personal responsibility” for the continuing abuse problems on his site. “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years,” he told employees in an internal memo.

“If a star of a Hollywood blockbuster can be treated like that, what hope is there for the rest of us?“

But the problems haven’t stopped. That’s because social networks are too large to police by hand and their approach tends to be reactive rather than proactive. So an increasing number of people are turning to another solution: bots.

The simplest way bots can help is with block lists, which specify the accounts you don’t want to see in your feed. You can block accounts yourself. But reporting them to prevent harassment of others is a hassle. For example, a form must be filled out for each abusive tweet. Apart from being slow, it’s also unpleasant – someone may have to trawl through hundreds of personal slurs, reporting each individually.

It would be better if you didn’t receive abusive messages in the first place – something bots could help with by managing block lists automatically. Subscribe to a blockbot, which continually updates a list of accounts blocked by other users, and you should receive less invective. But that approach only works if someone adds an abusive account to the block list. Is it possible to automate the detection of harassment?

Hemphill and her colleagues tried to do this by first asking people on crowdsourcing platform Mechanical Turk to identify instances of abuse. But they hit a snag: there was less agreement between crowdworkers than they would have liked. “Humans don’t agree on what constitutes harassment,” she says. “So it’s really hard to train computers to detect it.”

Feed the trolls

Enter the argue-bots. These distract trolls from their human victims by drawing their attention and engaging with them, often with entertaining results.

One, called @Assbot, recombined tweets from its human creator’s archive into random statements and then used these to respond to tweets coming from Donald Trump. The result was a torrent of angry Trump supporters engaging with a bot spouting nonsense.

@Assbot simply deployed a mishmash of existing tweets. But what if it had been smarter? Kevin Munger at New York University is interested in group identity on the internet. Offline, we signal which social groups we belong to with things like in-jokes, insider knowledge, clothes, mannerisms and so on. When we communicate online, all of that collapses into what we type. “Basically, the only way to affiliate yourself is with the words you use,” says Munger.

This squares with research on online abuse. Sometimes it is malicious, intentional and directed against specific minorities. But other times it functions more as a way to signal group affiliation and affinity. “Abuse is less of a problem for niche sites than a catch-all platform like Twitter,” says Hemphill. “Group dynamics and norms of behaviour have already been established there.”

So Munger wondered if he could create a bot to manipulate a troll’s sense of group dynamics online. The idea was to create bots that would admonish people who tweeted racist comments – by impersonating a higher-status individual from their in-group.

First he found his racists. He identified Twitter accounts that had recently issued a racist tweet, then combed through their previous 1000 tweets to check that the user met his standards for abuse and racism. “I hand-coded all of them to make sure I didn’t have false positives,” he says.

He then created four bot accounts, each with a different identity: white male with many followers, white male with few followers, black male with many followers and black male with few followers. To make his automated account look legit, he bought dummy followers from a website. “They were $1 for 500,” he says.

At first, people turned on the bots. It was unnerving, he says. “The most common response was ‘kill yourself’.” But something seems to have sunk in. After a short-term increase in racist language, he found that abusers who were admonished by a bot that appeared to be a high-status white male reduced their use of racist slurs. In the month after the intervention, these people tweeted the n-word 186 fewer times on average than those sanctioned by a bot that appeared to be a low-status white male or a black male.

“Abusers sanctioned by a bot impersonating a high-status white male reduced their use of racist slurs“

“It’s useful to know that such an impersonator-bot can reduce the use of slurs,” says Hemphill. “I’m surprised the effects didn’t decay faster.”

It doesn’t work on everybody, however. “The committed racists didn’t stop being racist,” says Munger. Another problem, as Hemphill found, is that identifying abuse is hard. Munger wanted to target misogyny as well as racism but gave up when he found words like “bitch” and “whore” were so widespread that it was impossible to distinguish genuine abuse from casual chat.

There is also an inherent weakness in the system. “The more people become aware that these are out there, the less effective they’ll be,” says Munger.

For now, Hemphill thinks it’s the best we can do. “Nothing else is working,” she says. “We may as well start using bots.” But Munger doesn’t wants bots to be the endgame. “I don’t envision an army of bots telling people to behave themselves,” he says. “I’m looking for what works, so we can figure out what kind of language and moral reasoning works best to stop a racist troll.”

Munger is now looking at politics-based abuse. He has his work cut out.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Troll hunters”

Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23130851-300-troll-hunters-the-twitterbots-that-fight-against-online-abuse/

By Eric Tallant

Former Army NCO/Fellow at The Intelligence Community

Everyone has that one family member that they just can’t have at a gathering anymore. You know the one. They show up drunk, loud, and suck all the life out of the party. The offender only gets worse as the get together goes along. You know, making passes at family friend’s spouses, taking four ounce shots of vodka, before finally passing out in the bathroom, naked. Well, that’s Russia, right now.

Russia’s behavior excludes them from participating in, well, almost everything these days. Soccer hooligans from Russia took home first place for worse behaved fans, ever, at this year’s international soccer games.  That’s no small feat for soccer fans, who are widely known to be rowdy.  Add to that, the fact that members of Russia’s would be Olympic team tested positive for enough performance enhancing drugs to make Lance Armstrong say, “DAMN!”, and Russia gets declined their chance to compete for “The Gold”.

So, the no good Russian leadership does what it does best when shunned on the world stage. They do no good.

Think back to 2014. It was only two years ago. Russia used the cover of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi to seize part of the sovereign nation of Ukraine. By now, you probably know that story. So, I won’t insult your intelligence with a recap. Well, it’s time for the Summer Olympics, Russia isn’t invited, but they won’t let that bother them. Instead, they’ll throw their own party. A military party, and it’ll be staged on the Russian/Crimean border with Ukraine.

Russian Armor and Internet Blackouts

I awoke this morning to several Facebook Instant Messenger messages from a friend of mine in Ukraine. That’s not uncommon. What is uncommon is the contents of her messages. Here, I’ll let you see for yourself:

Continued at: https://stopagitprop.com/2016/08/08/dont-invite-russia-to-the-olympics-no-problem-russia-will-seize-ukraine/

China’s propaganda-video makers have one message for you: The West is the root of all of China’s troubles.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been working full speed the past few months to produce videos blaming “foreign hostile forces,” especially the US, for everything from inciting separatism to stealing territory in the South China Sea. Last week, as the high-profile trials of four Chinese human rights lawyers got underway, the video makers were in overdrive as they churned out at least six propaganda videos to counter criticism of its crackdown on civil society.

The videos usually surface on the social media platform Weibo and go viral after being promoted by state organs like the Communist Youth League. And they appear to be working.

“The US is the world’s biggest terrorist group… They never allow any government to have different standpoints from them,” one Weibo user commented under a video (link in Chinese) that warned of a US conspiracy to incite a pro-democracry “color revolution” in China. The writer added, “I love China! I love my country!” The comment earned more than 3,000 likes.

Here’s a guide to some of China’s recent anti-Western propaganda videos.

They didn’t come here for Tianjin’s famous buns

This four-minute video, with footage apparently from Chinese security police, was posted by the Chinese Communist Youth League’s official Weibo account on Aug. 4. It shows scenes outside a courtroom in the northern city of Tianjin, where the trials of four prominent human rights lawyers were taking place, and accuses foreign diplomats of organizing the lawyers’ family members to protest outside the courthouse on Aug. 1, one day ahead of the trial.

“Were they looking for business opportunities? Did they come to take in the beautiful scenery? To try some of the fried dough twists on 18th street? Or some of Tianjin’s famous Goubuli meat buns? None of the above. They came here provoking trouble!” says the video, according to a translation posted by US-based advocacy group China Change.
It also questions foreign journalists’ professionalism. One shot shows a closeup of the press card of an AP reporter, calling him out as an example of bad journalism. Elsewhere it suggests the wife of one of the imprisoned lawyers collapsing to the ground was staged, saying she fell “expertly” to pose for pictures.

Continued at: http://qz.com/751338/the-complete-guide-to-chinas-propaganda-videos-blaming-the-west-for-almost-everything/

This article is part of a larger guidebook by RuNet Echo to help people learn how to conduct open-source research on the Russian Internet. Explore the complete guidebook at the special project page.

RuNet Echo has now published eight installments in a guidebook on conducting open-source research on the Russian Internet. This ninth and final entry takes the tools and instructions we’ve been studying and applies them to a single case study: the wildfires that caused significant damage to the Siberian city of Chita in 2015.

Finding Photographs and Videos

One of the first logical places to look for footage of last year’s wildfires in Siberia is Russian national television. You can search Russia’s national and local TV broadcasts by date (in this instance, April 12–16, 2015) on the various networks’ websites (as detailed in this guide).

 

But this is just a starting point; you shouldn’t settle for the footage aired by the media. In these circumstances, it’s possible to find more information uploaded to the Internet by ordinary people on the ground. You can do this by searching Instagram and YouTube, among many other websites and online services. (For conducting such searches on Russian social networks, see this RuNet Echo instruction guide.) By searching some of the hashtags used for this wildfire, such as #пожары2015 (“wildfires 2015”) and #чита (“Chita,” a large city where there were wildfires), you can find a wealth of materials documenting the disaster.

Continued at http://www.stopfake.org/en/how-to-use-runet-echo-s-open-source-research-guidebook/

The latest edition of StopFake News with public policy and electoral consultant Michael Getto.

Among this week’s fakes:

• more claims that southern Ukraine is a training ground for ISIS fighters
• Spanish media call the Ukrainian coat of arms a fascist emblem
• more unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine is ignoring the Minsk agreement
• French MPs visit Crimea and give Russian propaganda a field day.

Source: http://www.stopfake.org/en/stopfakenews-94-eng-with-michael-getto/

Putin’s Russia as a fascist political system

Alexander J. Motyl
Department of Political Science, Rutgers University, United States

A b s t r a c t

There is a broad consensus among students of contemporary Russia that the political system constructed by Vladimir Putin is authoritarian and that he plays a dominant role in it. By building and expanding on these two features and by engaging in a deconstruction and reconstruction of the concept of fascism, this article suggests that the Putin system may plausibly be termed fascist. Not being a type of group, disposition, politics, or ideology, fascism may be salvaged from the conceptual confusion that surrounds it by being conceived of as a type of authoritarian political system. Fascism may be defined as a popular fully authoritarian political system with a personalistic dictator and a cult of the leader – definition that makes sense conceptually as well as empirically, with respect to Putin’s Russia and related fascist systems.

© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Regents of the University of California.

Download Putin’s Russia as a fascist political system

Deep breaths all round, folks …

“FSB Russia prevented the commission of the Republic of Crimea terrorist attacks prepared by the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine” (news release, in Russian) – Google English translation here:

Federal Security Service prevented the commission of the Republic of Crimea terrorist attacks prepared by the General Directorate of the Ministry of Intelligence of Defense of Ukraine, the objects of which critical infrastructure and livelihood of the peninsula have been identified.

The purpose of sabotage and terrorist attacks – to destabilize the social and political situation in the region during the preparation and conduct of elections of the federal and regional authorities.

As a result of operational search activities on the night of the 6th of August 7th, 2016 in the region of the Armenian Republic of Crimea discovered a group of saboteurs. During the arrest the terrorists as a result of fire contact the Russian FSB officer died. At the site of clashes found 20 improvised explosive devices with a total capacity of more than 40 kilograms of TNT, ammunition and special means of initiation, regular and anti magnetic mines, as well as grenades and special weapons, consisting armed special units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The measures taken on the peninsula of Crimea eliminated intelligence network Chief of the Defence Intelligence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Detained persons from among the citizens of Ukraine and the Russian Federation shall be assisted in the preparation of terrorist acts, which give a confession. One of the organizers of the terrorist attacks is prevented Evgeny Panov, born in 1977, resident of Zaporozhye region, a member of the DIU who is also detained and giving a confession.

On the night of August 8, 2016 Ukrainian Defense Ministry special forces were made two more attempts to break the subversive and terrorist groups that prevented law enforcement units of the FSB of Russia and cooperating agencies. Attempts to break camouflage massive bombardment from the neighboring state and armored vehicles of the armed forces of Ukraine. During the fire contact serviceman killed Defense Ministry.

Based on the results of investigative activities and combat the investigation department of FSB of Russia in the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol prosecuted. Conduct additional operational activities and investigations.

Adopted additional security measures in public places and the rest of people, as well as for the protection of critical infrastructure and livelihood. Strengthened border regime on the border with Ukraine.

This, meanwhile, from UKR Defence Intelligence (original in Ukrainian) …

“The grouping of Russian troops in the Crimean out the anti-terrorist measures threats … “We do not exclude provocations, which can be implemented on the territory of Russia occupied Crimea and other occupied territories of our country,” – said the representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.”

… with this reminder from UKR DefInt (also in Ukrainian):  “Russian forces in Crimea are able to use nuclear weapons”

Also, this, from the UKR MoD (in Ukrainian) …   “Statements FSB untrue”

… as well as Ukraine’s Security Service:  “SBU denies Russian security agency claims about Ukrainian diversionary group in Crimea”

Various media takes …

• “Russia accuses Ukraine of armed Crimea incursion, says two killed” (Reuters, UK-based wire service)
• “Russia accuses Ukraine of attempted Crimea ‘incursions’ “ (BBC)
• “Russian FSB foils terrorist attacks plotted by Ukrainian intel agents in Crimea” (RT, RUS state TV)
• “Russia allegedly arrests Ukraine Spec Ops who planned terrorist attacks in Crimea” (Ukraine Today,
• “SBU: Ukraine does not try to regain Crimea by force”  (112-international, UKR private media)
• “Ukrainian General Staff Denies Kiev Involved in Plotting Attacks in Crimea” (RIA Novosti, RUS state media)
• “Attempts to Destabilize Crimea Will Be Met With Tough Response” (RIA Novosti, RUS state media)

More from Google News here.

Let’s see how this shakes out, then …

Source: https://milnewsca.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/milnews-ca-ukr-update-trouble-in-crimea/

By Joe Uchill – 08/10/16 05:14 AM EDT
Researchers who uncovered a security key that protects Windows devices as they boot up say their discovery is proof that encryption backdoors do not work.

The pair of researchers, credited by their hacker nicknames MY123 and Slipstream, found the cryptographic key protecting a feature called Secure Boot.

They believe the discovery highlights a problem with requests law enforcement officials have made for technology companies to provide police with some form of access to otherwise virtually unbreakable encryption that might be used by criminals.

“Microsoft implemented a ‘secure golden key’ system. And the golden keys got released from [Microsoft’s] own stupidity,” wrote the researchers in their report, in a section addressed by name to the FBI.
“Now, what happens if you tell everyone to make a ‘secure golden key’ system? Hopefully you can add 2+2.”

Secure Boot is a built into the firmware of computer — software unique to different types of hardware that exists outside the operating system and is used to boot the OS.

Microsoft built Secure Boot to handle a type of malware that tampers with the boot process. This malware — called a rootkit — flies so far under the radar that even security tools cannot notice it.

To handle the problem, Microsoft requires devices to have a mode that prevents any operating system without a Microsoft issued cryptographic key from booting. It also allows some keys to control specific aspects of the boot.

Most systems let users turn Secure Boot on and off. Certain systems, including some tablets and phones, do not. Devices that cannot disable Secure Boot can never install competing operating systems.

There appears to have been a mode set up for developers to disable the keys being checked. MY123 and Slipstream were able to exploit a design flaw in the system to steal the keys to the mode that disables the keys.

The pair notified Microsoft of the design flaw, and Microsoft has made a few patch attempts to fix it. But the patches, writes Slipstream, have not worked.

Four hours after the research was posted, someone posted what purports to be the key-disabling key. Now, anyone looking to bypass Secure Boot is able to do so.

“This is a perfect real world example about why your idea of backdooring cryptosystems with a ‘secure golden key’ is very bad! Smarter people than me have been telling this to you for so long, it seems you have your fingers in your ears,” writes Slipstream in the report.

FBI Director James Comey has been non-committal as to whether he wants a golden key — a single key used to unlock a series of devices — or what’s known as a split key — a two-key system where a device manufacturer holds one and the FBI the other. But reverse engineering the Secure Boot key or keys from this design flaw would be largely the same no matter which method was used.

From a security standpoint, now that its keys have been released, having Secure Boot turned on is more or less no different than having Secure Boot turned off, bringing rootkits back into the threat landscape.

But the keys’ release is nonetheless cause for celebration for many Microsoft device owners. The phones and tablets that could not turn off Secure Boot before now have the ability to do so, which means people who had no ability to change operating systems on their tablets now have that ability.

Source: http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/290947-researchers-crack-microsoft-feature-say-encryption-backdoors-similarly

Remember Gleiwitz?

The Gleiwitz incident was a false flag operation by Nazi forces posing as Poles on 31 August 1939, against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany on the eve of World War II in Europe.

Wikipedia

The Gleiwitz incident was the excuse Nazi Germany used to invade Poland.  The incident was completely fabricated by the Nazis. Is Russia doing the same today in Crimea, on territory Russia controls?

With a ton of Russian forces poised on the precipice of invading Ukraine, Russia may be very well inventing an excuse to invade Ukraine.  Stranger things have happened. Russia invaded Crimea to prevent NATO taking over Crimea, at least that is what they told the Russian people. Russia had to protect the Russian language, it was being threatened by Ukraine. Georgia was firing on South Ossetia and Russians, so Russia invaded Georgia. Russia may be doing exactly what the Nazis did in Poland on 31 August 1939.  We know that Russia lies about everything else, why not lie now?

Russia is looking to invent an excuse. Oh, pardon me, they are inventing a reason. Oops, pardon me. Russia is fabricating evidence once again.  For a full-out Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s economy is in the absolute pits, in today’s article “Russia reveals signs of serious economic recession. Interview with former Russian economics minister“.  What better way to distract the Russian people that to have a little war as a distraction?  “Pay no attention to your suffering, people of Russia, we’re invading Ukraine!” and “Look, Ukraine is launching terrorist attacks at us in Crimea!”

Here is Russia beginning their story, below, on RT.

</end editorial> ht to gg

‘Kiev has turned to terrorism’: Putin on foiled sabotage plot in Crimea

Given that the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR MOU) was allegedly behind the thwarted terrorist attacks in Crimea, it is “pointless” to meet with Ukraine’s current authorities to seek a solution to the country’s crisis, Putin said.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany were to meet in the so-called “Normandy format” to discuss the peace process in Ukraine on the sidelines of the upcoming G20 in China.

However, Kiev has demonstrated that it’s not interested in peaceful negotiations, the Russian president told reporters, adding that he would like to address the matter with Moscow’s American and European partners as well.

“I think it’s obvious that Kiev’s current authorities are not seeking for ways to solve problems through negotiations, but have turned to terrorism,” Putin said, adding that this new development is rather alarming.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Wednesday it had discovered a group of infiltrators in Crimea close to the Ukrainian border. Explosive devices and ammunition used by the Ukrainian Army’s special forces were discovered at the scene, while more attempts by Ukrainian raiding and terrorist groups to break through had been prevented by Russian forces this week, the FSB said.

Kiev refuted the FSB report of a foiled terrorist plot, and instead accused Moscow of provocation.

Stating that Ukraine “condemns terrorism in all its forms,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko refuted accusations that Kiev’s military had been plotting to organize attacks on the Russian peninsula. Having called Moscow’s FSB reports “senseless and cynical,” the Ukrainian leader said Kiev is “committed” to bring back Crimea through “political and diplomatic means.”

Blaming the “escalation” on Russia, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the Council of Europe, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Twitter that Moscow “tests West’s reaction.”

Source: https://www.rt.com/news/355419-putin-crimea-terrorism-kiev/