On October 25th I went over what a Black PSYOP is and how the President’s attempt to extort Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election on his behalf by having newly elected President Zelensky go on CNN and announce his government was opening investigations into the Bidens and Ukraine’s conspiracy with the Democrats to fix the 2016 election for Secretary Clinton and frame Russia for doing it (NEITHER OF THESE THINGS IS TRUE!) is a Black PSYOP. But they form the basis of the conspiracy theories, rooted in Russian disinformation planted in late Spring 2014 about the Bidens and during the 2016 election via Paul Manafort, that are at the center of the President’s animosity to Ukraine and Attorney General Barr’s, and the House and Senate Republican caucus’s, attempts to validate these conspiracy theories to protect and please the President.
To briefly recap:
Psychological Operations, popularly known as PSYOP, are the weaponization of information for effect. The effect being to influence the targeted population, whether a group, an organization, a society, an element within a society, or a government, to either undertake an action or to prevent an action from being taken. Black PSYOP refers to the attempts to launder the influence operation through a legitimate third party that is not connected to those conducting the influence operation.
Before we go further, let’s just get the documentation of why the two different conspiracy theories that the President and his surrogates have internalized and are pushing, are completely made up out of whole cloth. The accusation against the Bidens was first planted in Russian state backed media in April of 2014: to muddy the waters around Putin scarfing up Crimea and invading eastern Ukraine, as well as dirty up VP Biden and Secretary Kerry who were considered two potential candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
The conspiracy theory that Ukraine conspired with the Democratic Party to fix the 2016 election for Secretary Clinton and to frame Russia for it was created by Russian military intelligence (GRU) and pushed to Paul Manafort via his GRU handler Konstantin Kilimnik. Manafort started pushing this conspiracy theory on the President in 2016. The purpose of this conspiracy was, of course, to create a plausible reason for the President to lift the sanctions that President Obama had placed on Russia because Russia, according to this conspiracy theory, are innocent victims of those scheming, malevolent Democrats and Ukrainians. This is, of course, a lie.
In my 25th October post I delineated the three domestic lines of effort of the Black PSYOP the President, AG Barr, and his surrogates were undertaking. Over the past two weeks we’ve seen the opening up of a fourth domestic line of effort, by Republican members of the House of Representatives. This fourth domestic line of effort in the Black PSYOP is to use the impeachment hearings and eventual trial in the Senate – from the behind closed doors depositions to the public hearings set to start tomorrow to whatever Senator Graham and AG Barr are cooking up in their meetings about AG Barr’s line of effort in the Black PSYOP – to launder both the conspiracy theories through the US Congress. This is why the Republican members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and their staffers, including the minority counsel, keep asking questions of witnesses like Fiona Hill and LTC Vindman about Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine, Ukraine’s conspiring with the Democrats to steal the 2016 elections and frame the Russians and the Trump campaign for doing so, and trying to get the name of the person they believe to be the whistleblower into the transcripts that will be released publicly. All of this is being done to launder these conspiracy theories, misinformation, disinformation, and information for provocation into the Congressional Record and through the House impeachment hearings into the mainstream media. From there, like every other good Black PSYOP, once the information has been laundered through legitimate sources, in this case the US Congress, the broadcast networks, the mainstream cable news networks (CNN and MSNBC), and the mainstream print and digital news media, the laundered conspiracy theories, misinformation, disinformation, and information for provocation can then be effectively weaponized in support of the President’s reelection efforts in 2020, as well as other Republican and conservative movement efforts.
Forewarned is, hopefully, forearmed.
Open thread!
Adam L Silverman
I’ve got to run some errands, I’ll be back in an hour or so. You all have fun.
debbie
How many minutes into the first hearing will it be before Gym Jordan brings up Hillary Clinton? How long until Nunes bitches about parody accounts? Inquiring minds…
Good luck to Adam Schiff in keeping this all from turning into a looneytunes circus.
chris
@debbie: Steele Dossier! Drink!
TaMara (HFG)
Someone (I was just listening, so not sure who) on Ari’s show this afternoon on MSNBC was giving a similar warning today. I’m not looking forward to their theatrics.
Chip Daniels
@debbie:
They should put “Nunes’ Cow” on the witness list just to fuck with him.
zhena gogolia
I pray that the truth being spoken firmly by the people who plan to tell the truth will triumph.
Mueller was unable to speak with firmness and conviction because he seemed hamstrung by all the ongoing investigations. That won’t be the case with the witnesses tomorrow.
I have absolutely no time to watch it. It’s probably a good thing for me that BJ will be dormant.
laura
The utter distain for the Constitution and the oath they each took to defend it.
The sheer contempt for each of the branches of our government, let alone their fellow Americans.
The glory in the willful ignorance of any concept of a social good, or the four freedoms, or any sense of love of country over party.
The depraved indifference to their machinery of suffering and unfathomable trauma to children and others who seek our shores.
Their rage and lust for violence and demand for it in ever large doses with more frequency.
It can happen here.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Military-ese for electronic research reconnaissance and nachos devouring staff?
:)
:)
HinTN
@Adam L Silverman:
Surely you jest. This is ‘murika, by damn. We don’t need no stinking thought process.
HinTN
@laura:
Frank Zappa taught us this a long time ago.
VOR
@zhena gogolia: Josh Marshall raised the idea today that Mueller had constrained himself, or been constrained, to not pursue certain lines of inquiry. The trigger was the revelation in the Stone trial that Rick Gates was present with Trump during a call w/Stone about Wikileaks. Trump reportedly stated, under oath and in writing, that he did not discuss Wikileaks with Stone. And surely Gates told Mueller this little fact. So why wasn’t it pursued? The DOJ ruling that Trump can’t be prosecuted while President? Guidelines from Rosenstein or Barr? Ongoing investigations and trial of Stone?
Redshift
@Chip Daniels: I saw that yesterday or the day before, someone edited the Wikipedia page about the House Intelligence committee to say that the ranking Republican was Devin Nunes’ Cow.
FelonyGovt
It’s not like it wasn’t apparent that Trump was a conspiracy theory enthusiast, as the main promoter of the Obama birther stuff. But the extent to which the “president”, various members of Congress, and much of the public have completely swallowed this Ukraine-Clinton nonsense is remarkable.
zhena gogolia
@VOR:
I don’t know. The whole Mueller thing is mysterious and depressing.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: The nachos devoured the staff? That explains where they went. I thought they were just slacking off.
Jay
Jay
Stuck in moderation,…..
Jay
@Jay:
Post noting that I am stuck in moderation, is stuck in moderation,
Wrong email addy used.
Jay
Retry:
Jay
Thanks Adam,
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: @Jay: You know what you did!
I freed it nonetheless.
J R in WV
I thought everyone knew the DNC email server was hosted on the Cloud — I presume the Amazon cloud servers, but it could be some other vendor. That means the DNC data was on multiple servers spread all over the world. NOT on a single hardware device that could have been shipped / smugged to Ukraine, or the Azores, or Burma or wherever …
This whole confabulation of the DNC and their email server and Hillary and her private email server, etc, etc is absurd in every way. Political, technical, every possible manner, it’s insane and absurd!!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: Nonsense, everyone knows that the DNC server AND Hillary’s server are both at Chernobyl. Trump will send Eric to get it.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
@laura:
The rise of fascism is happening here.
It was happening in America in the 20s and 30s until subsumed (at least in it’s most blatant forms) by our wars against the fascist governments of Germany, Italy, and Japan, but didn’t really stay too far down for long.
The John Birch Society laid the post-war American-style Fascism groundwork, Nixon and Reagan and both those who served them in government and those in the general public who wholeheartedly supported them were proto-fascist, at least, Gingrich and the Contract On America and all that constituted further steps to the right into the fascist realm, the W/Cheney admin and their supporting cast throughout the GOP were/are militaristic fascists bent on conquest, and the current Republican Party — from the admin of the demagogue-buffoon in the White House all the way down to almost every local level — is the political wing of a fully fascist movement whose tenets and policies are now indistinguishable from those championed earlier by the John Birch Society.
It is happening here. The resistance is hanging in there, but I say just barely, with much of the structures of the political/economic systems and most of the media (that most people pay attention to) stacked against us, and about half the people in the country not really caring either way.
I’ve been politically aware and engaged for over 50 years now, flatter myself that I have a good grasp on history, and I think our current situation in America is the most dangerous since the 1850s. As then, the main question is: how long will the majority in this nation allow a vicious and hateful minority to rule over us, with no compromise with them ever being enough?
Outside the question of how we adapt to the coming inevitable climate catastrophes (we are way past the turning point) that is the gravest thing facing us, and I don’t think we’ll be waiting very long for the answer.
Dan B
Is PSYOPS limited to misinformation? During the Vietnam War I was in a group that counseled GI’s at Ft. Lewis / Madigan Hospital / McChord AFB. We were spied on but also intimidated by the MPs. The same thing happened but more aggressively in Chicago to the anti-war organizers and Gay Liberation. There were regular visits by the FBI and people watching us at protests. It was intended to rattle us. We learned how to mock them for a little chuckle.
There were infiltrators who were often recruited to get put of jail sentences. Many of them seemed metally ill. They were often agitating or promoting violent acts at open meetings. People who didn’t realize these were plants would be put off. We lost members and potential allies. There is a misinformation aspect but the calls to violence were equally about creating a threatening atmosphere.
Feathers
Adam – I just finally read all the comments and closed the tabs on the first installment this morning. Good timing!
Thanks so much for all your work and how well you wrap this all up. When I get confused following everything on the twitters, i know that there will be a good and meaty post here explaining it all clearly.
kindness
The difference between the Republican Party during Watergate and now is stark. During Nixon Republican’s weren’t pleased Nixon used 2 bit crooks to do his dirty work. It was the cover-up Republicans in Congress were ready to toss him out for and that is mostly because they feared the consequences of their constituents. Now days, Republicans & conservatives watch Fox or worse so there isn’t any repercussions among most red districts. People believe what they want to believe and it’s Fox. Repubs can lie and lie and it doesn’t matter. The Republican Party has ‘evolved’ and it ain’t pretty.
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: No. As I’ve written here several times, Psychological Operations is about delivering information for effect and that effect is to influence the targeted population. Here’s my article, adapted from my keynote speech, on PSYOP and the 21st Century. I apologize in advance for the random capitalizations. I do not know why they copy edited them in.
https://www.soc.mil/SWCS/SWmag/archive/SW3201/32-1_JAN_MAR_2019_web.pdf
Dan B
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot: Masha Gessen interviewed Brian Brown at an international conference. He’s the anti- LGBT activist who has worked overseas promoting anti gay laws like the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda that hasn’t passed yet – only life sentences. Uganda is not the only country he has radicalized.
Brown is a very polite and soft spoken man. Gessen asked him if there is a way to compromise so that she, a lesbian, could live in the same country as he. His calm reply was “No.”
There are approximately half, 49%, of Americans that believe a king would be better than what we have now. They see gridlock and want action. They don’t imagine anything bad would happen to them. They don’t connect their reduced spending power and our crumbling infrastructure connected to oligarchs or powerful right wingers. They want an end to gridlock.
Kattails
@Adam L Silverman: But the cheese stands alone… God, my brain has been reduced to flinging up bits of old nursery rhymes.
OK. Forewarned is forearmed, but what percentage of the population cares to be either? I’ve been in a position where people were effectively waging a tiny personal war on me & have no doubt that the current GOP is doing so with most of the citizens of this nation. Most people haven’t dealt with this first hand & can’t/would not care to believe it. In the same way that they can’t quite see how someone can be taken in by a con man, rather than grasping that the con man has a PhD in the subject.
So you’ve given us this great counter-information. What can I/we do to get this out there while side-stepping people’s reflexive refusal to believe such a thing? Sorry, can’t figure out how to state this w/o sounding negative; I am looking for practical thoughts. The information is greatly appreciated.
Adam L Silverman
@Feathers: You’re quite welcome.
Adam L Silverman
@Kattails: Since I have no idea if we’re going to have a site/blog after tomorrow AM, here’s those links for you.
Here’s my accidental guest post on the topic at TTAG:
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/armed-jews-fought-back-against-the-nazis-to-no-appreciable-effect/
Here’s my similar post in regard to something Secretary Carson said here:
https://balloon-juice.com/2015/10/09/bad-historical-analogy-theater-jewish-armed-resistance-against-the-nazis-2/
And here’s my related post on Israeli gun laws:
https://balloon-juice.com/2018/02/21/the-right-to-teach-and-bear-arms/
Jay
@J R in WV:
No, it’s hosted on The Cloud, no not that one, no not that one,…. it’s a big cumulonimbus one, dark on the bottom, like it’s going to thunder , lightning and rain,…….
No, not that one, thats a cirrus,
No, not that one, that’s a cumulis,…..
Not that one either,…….
Okay, you are close, right type of cloud, wrong cloud,…..
opiejeanne
@Adam L Silverman: That might explain why I saw someone on Twitter claiming that Volker’s testimony cleared Trump of wrong-doing. It did nothing of the sort, and it fell in line with what Taylor, Yovanovich, and Vindman? Can’t remember who the 4th person was, maybe Yovanovich? Sondland was the odd man out, at first. Now he’s trying to revise and revise his testimony, to stay out of trouble, but that post about Volker supporting the president’s position sounds a lot like the disinformation campaign you describe. The name of the poster was not one I recognized, but it had the effect of making me question myself about what I thought I knew (a reaction I’ve had before). I finally googled and it was a lie.
opiejeanne
@Jay: That’s not thunder you hear, it’s the sound of two cats running through the house.
Dan B
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks for the article. You write so well here at BJ and reading a much longer piece was like a deep dive into a trove of great thought.
In response to your belief that the intimidation that us anti war activists experienced was not PSYOPS it seems similar to the St. Michael campaign by ISIS. ISIS starts with an idea, very simple, so they want to reach people and put them in jeopardy in their community – France. Us US activists were under a campaign to paint us as not patriotic. The other side of that is the belief that patriotism is demonstrated by obedience to military and political leaders. The intimidation sought to rattle us to make mistakes that would paint us as dangerous to the public and disobedient.
Lots more thoughts as usual with your posts but time for me to feed the Mike’ster.
Kattails
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you for taking the time to do that. I sincerely hope that we do have a site/blog after tomorrow because just starting on what you linked to is going to keep me up way past my bedtime and it’s a hell of a lot of screen-shooting to save it all “for later”. And I really do want to save the archives and pass on the links to a couple of people who might use them.
We’ll be OK.
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: You’re welcome. It was definitely the use of information for effect, but I think what you’re describing is much closer to the use of information for intimidation, rather than to change people’s views of a given topic. The former is a type of informational terrorism, the latter is PSYOP.
Dan B
@Dan B: A couple thoughts: Words are not the only way to communicate. Residents of St. Michael were informed that where they had moved to was dangerous. Us peaceniks were informed we were vulnerable to being manipulated into appearing violent. But we were weak except for our ideas and the supporters we could attach to our cause.
You seem to believe that PSYOPS can only be successful if it has a coherent goal and clear ideas. But PSYOPS doesn’t have to be successful to be PSYOPS. The mafia took out a contract on us to intimidate us. Their idea was we need to keep our power and not lose money to these F*gs ideas. They didn’t have a vision as strong as ours. Both of us used PSYOPS by some measures.
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: I did a post on this:
https://balloon-juice.com/2015/11/19/booo-isis-and-the-use-of-terrorism-as-psychological-operations/