General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRonan Farrow in the New Yorker: "Private Mossad for Hire"
Inside a plot to influence American elections, starting with one small-town race.Psy-Group stood out from many of its rivals because it didnt just gather intelligence; it specialized in covertly spreading messages to influence what people believed and how they behaved. Its operatives took advantage of technological innovations and lax governmental oversight. Social media allows you to reach virtually anyone and to play with their minds, Uzi Shaya, a former senior Israeli intelligence officer, said. You can do whatever you want. You can be whoever you want. Its a place where wars are fought, elections are won, and terror is promoted. There are no regulations. It is a no mans land.
In recent years, Psy-Group has conceived of a variety of elaborate covert operations. In Amsterdam, the firm prepared a report on a religious sect called the Brunstad Christian Church, whose Norwegian leader, Psy-Group noted, claimed to have written a more important book than the New Testament. In Gabon, Psy-Group pitched Operation Bentleyan effort to preserve President Ali Bongo Ondimbas hold on power by collecting and disseminating intelligence about his main political rival. (Its unclear whether or not the operations in Amsterdam and Gabon were carried out. A spokesperson for Brunstad said that it was plainly ridiculous that the church considered any book to be more important than the Bible. Ondimbas representatives could not be reached for comment.) In another project, targeting the South African billionaire heirs of an apartheid-era skin-lightening company, Psy-Group secretly recorded family members of the heirs describing them as greedy and, in one case, as a piece of shit. In New York, Psy-Group mounted a campaign on behalf of wealthy Jewish-American donors to embarrass and intimidate activists on American college campuses who support a movement to put economic pressure on Israel because of its treatment of the Palestinians.
Psy-Groups larger ambition was to break into the U.S. election market. During the 2016 Presidential race, the company pitched members of Donald Trumps campaign team on its ability to influence the results. Psy-Groups owner, Joel Zamel, even asked Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, to offer Zamels services to Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law. The effort to drum up business included brash claims about the companys skills in online deception. The posturing was intended to attract clientsbut it also attracted the attention of the F.B.I. Robert Mueller, the special counsel, has been examining the firms activities as part of his investigation into Russian election interference and other matters.
A deep dive into the wild west world of opinion-influencer "guns for hire" focused on manipulating elections.
This is an interesting time to be alive, but not a happy one for democratic self-governance.
We are increasingly at the mercy of oligarchs with vast fortunes to expand and protect.
sadly,
Bright
underpants
(182,819 posts)Ill read this fully later
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)Keep up the journalist values of honesty and courage that should not demand such sacrifices from those who do.
justhanginon
(3,290 posts)virtually anything anymore. Increasingly we have to rely on those investigative reporters and journalists who have a track record of verifiable truthtelling.
Dem2theMax
(9,651 posts)calimary
(81,283 posts)PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)and we will only be able to pick between two, with no ability to corroborate either one's story. The future is so exciting.
Grins
(7,217 posts)Israel is as deep into Trump, Trump Jr., Putin, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates, both Kushners, Deutsche Bank, Papadopoulos, Elliott Broidy, Bannon, Tom Barrack, Cambridge Analyticia, the Mercers, Erik Prince, Felix Sater, the Russian mob, Joel Zamel, the fucking with NATO, Brexit, Bezos and the National Enquirer, and just for the fun of it the NRA - as any of them.
And that's why I think when the final Mueller report comes out it will be FAR broader and FAR MORE ENCOMPASSING than just the 2016 election and Trump Tower Moscow. FAR MORE.
I wouldn't trust the sucking-up-to-the-Reich-Wing-Evangelicals Israeli's for a second, on this or anything else!
watoos
(7,142 posts)there are many here who are sensitive to anything that hints of being anti-Israel. People don't seem to be able to separate Bibi and his far right allies from moderate Israelis.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)Anything in the least bit negative about Israel gets you spanked, BUT, Native Americans are open season?
Just look at trump v Warren.
I demand equal rights for OUR indigenous people!
Grins
(7,217 posts)I'm anti-Likud! And right-wing religious Shas party. And I think I can defend my position.
I'm old enough to remember in the early 1950's hoping Eisenhower would win election, a tough time for the new state of Israel. I supported them in the 1960's too, in spite of actress Vanessa Redgrave on "60-Minutes" arguing for the rights of Palestinians, in an arguments that I could not refute. And even then I still supported Israel. I supported them in the 1960's and the 1970's and still can see in my mind George Jessel on the "Tonight Show" and everywhere else flogging the phony 'plant a tree in Israel' to make the desert bloom nonsense (that turned out to be a huge Israeli government-run scam on donors.)
And then it all changed. The extortion they pulled on Nixon and Kissinger. Jonathan Pollard. Ben-Ami Kadish. The USS Liberty. The 30 UN Security Council resolutions that Israel ignored (with the support of the U.S.) between 1968 and 2008. The shelling the shelling of refugees in a UN school. The 2009 shelling of a home of 30 people in Gaza all evacuees by the IDF that the UN Commissioner high commissioner for human rights said "has all hallmarks of war crime". May 15, 2009:
GOP House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) circulated a letter ...urging President Obama to support Israel when moving forward with any Israeli peace process. Trouble is, they forgot to delete the name of the lobbying group involved in the letter from the document. Attached to the email message...was the document, titled, AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf.
The "Eff-you-in-your-face" construction of 1600 new illegal housing units on land the Palestinians consider their future capital in East Jerusalem. The 200 Israelis, some former members of Israeli military intelligence, arrested - in the United States - in 2002.
And Sheldon Adelson.
And to stop belaboring the point:
"Muslims do not hate our freedom but rather they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights and the longstanding even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt Saudi Arabia Jordan Pakistan and the Gulf states. ....In other words they do not hate us for our values but because of our policies."
Where did that come from? U.S. Defense Science Board in 2004, tasked after 9/11 to find out why the Muslim world hates us. The Secretary of Defense who requested this study: Donald Rumsfeld.
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)Thanks for sharing!
RAAD2
(95 posts)Winston had to love Big Brother.
Everything told him he had to.
bluescribbler
(2,117 posts)Fortunately, the effort in the recall election failed miserably.
ToxMarz
(2,168 posts)It is not beyond belief that they are also cultivating the likes of AMI and National Enquirer etc. in their influence machine. All those magazines at the checkout counters of every grocery/drug/conveinience in America, that literally everyone must pass frequently is akin to your Facebook page being overrun with misinformation/propaganda. And no one has to log in, buy or even pick one up and open it up. You just stand there waiting to checkout and peruse.
A while back a local grocery began covering the Enquirer in the checkout because of complaints, but then the right wingers complained so they uncovered them. Then locals began covering them up as they went through the checkout and it became a big mess.
I think all those magazines should be removed from the checkout and put in a normal place where people that want them can get them and those who don't aren't having them forced on them. If the Govt can't do this, maybe public pressure can. Just moving them to another neutral location shouldn't be a free speech issue.