REVEALED: How "Facebook" and "Twitter" are Used by CIA and now "Military".
We know the "rebellion" in Egypt and Libya was fueled via "Facebook Groups" which formed the "APRIL 6 MOVEMENT". These are part of "Operation Sock Puppet".
Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media
Exclusive: Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain - guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 March 2011 13.19 GMT
General David Petraeus has said American efforts to spy on social media are aimed at 'countering extremist ideology [Zionism perchance!] and propaganda and ensuring credible voices are heard'. Photograph: Cliff Owen/AP
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media using fake online personas designed to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with the US Central Command (Centcom) to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities at once.
The contract stipulates each persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 controllers must be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".
The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet.
Centcom's contract requires the provision of one "virtual private server" in the United States and eight appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world. It calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability".
Once developed the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with a host of co-ordinated blogposts, tweets, retweets, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.
Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."
He said none of the interventions were in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.
The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as an psychological weapon against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m programme and is thought to have been used against jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
OEV is seen by senior US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation programme. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last year General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US military's objective was to be "first with the truth".
This month Petraeus's successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".
The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.
Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consenus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.
Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose whether the multiple persona project is in operation or discuss any related contracts.
Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.
In his evidence to the Senate committee Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop new techniques and tactics that the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".
According to a report by the inspector general of the US defence department, in Iraq OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather than Centcom.
Asked whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it could "find no evidence" of this. The MoD refused to say whether it had been involved in the development of persona management programmes, however, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."
OEV was discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in Washington DC, where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to "communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our adversaries".
Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in so-call sock puppetry have faced prosecution.
Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.
It is unclear whether a persona management programme would contravene UK law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any other person's prejudice". However, this would apply only if a website or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a result.
I know people love their Facebook, but common sense should tell you that once you put all that personal information into cyberspace, it can be accessed by anyone (even without this latest tact). Facebook is a handy data collection bonanza for corporate marketers and government fusion centers.
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
What happens to the info you share on Facebook?
http://albumoftheday.com/facebook/
I agree with Noa on this stuff. It's going to be used against you. Don't leave a trail behind you just because everyone else does.
I do find it odd the military can now spare people who can speak "Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto" as many as 50 of them, to do this. In the past, people like the FBI and CIA had a terrible time finding enough folks to translate (life and death critical) surveillance recordings. They tried to blame 9/11 intelligence being missed on that very shortage.
Much, if not most, of the energy the U.S. spends against the "war on terror" is now aimed at Americans. That should tell people something (especially those who accept the official explanation for 9/11).
This type of projects just reinforce the axiom of most meditation techniques that says to "act only from within". All information that is coming from our senses, including this article, is being manipulated, influenced, and corrupted in a variety of ways by known and unknown organizations and individuals (including our own ego / interpreter) with their own agendas, so there is no way that we can really be sure of what is true or not, or even, if we try to be clever, in which way it's being skewed.
For example, is this article implying that what is happening in the Middle East is the product of Western intelligence agencies? And therefore not worthy of our appreciation? (personally, I think it is the beginning of a real world revolution. TPTB will try to manipulate and position it to their own advantage, but they will fail)
As Pooh would say: "Hmm... think, think, think."
Meditation says: Don't think. Feel, and act from those feelings.
In Vipassana meditation, while sitting with our eyes closed, when a body discomfort comes up, one learns to try not to get rid of the pain, push it away, or wish it out of existence. One simply looks at it, dispassionately and without judgment. Simply knowing that it will go away. But one must look at it, not simply ignore it. And "miraculously", the discomfort goes away, allowing one to sit motionless for long periods of time, observing, in silence, the internal activity of the "body".
I believe all these incidents and events that are happening in the world are our "greater body" discomforts as we are being propelled by Nature to wake up. I think we need to look at them and be aware, but not react in fear or anger. If we take action from our heart within, our intuition, unaffected by fear, then we can be certain that we are aligned with the flow of Nature, and whatever TPTB may want to manipulate will be of no use to them or harm to us. (knowing, of course, that "them" are part of "us", only "them" are like the scab over a body injury that will eventually fall off or be scratched away)
Peace.
Bob
Wise words, Bob. I think we've passed the point of physically being able to prevent the dark agenda from enfolding to a degree. The answer, I believe is a spiritual one. Since our thoughts shape our physical reality, resisting the fear and envisioning instead a world in balance can bring it to manifestation. Trusting that divine order is at work and allowing it to unfold without panicking will be crucial to survival. (Easier said than done.)
On the other hand, it is important for people to realize that there is a lot of trickery being used to confuse and manipulate us. To avoid getting beaten, one must know how the game is played.
You are right. We need to be aware of the 'opposition' is using. As such, we shouldn't place any personal information in these networks. But, about the misinformation, disinformation, misdirection programs that are going on... regardless of what they do or want, there is an innate desire and drive for freedom and liberty by each one of us.
There's a very interesting program in Aljazeera about how the Internet helped spark the revolution:
Social networks, social revolution and another Egypt: Seeds of change about the organizers of the movement. Very interesting and informative, without the usual corporate filtering we get in the US media. (Who know what sort of filtering they are doing. However, I find that they are much more on the side of the 'underdog'. Remember when the US was for that? How long ago was that?)
Anyway, even Zbigniew Brzezinski mentioned in a recent speech to the CFR meeting that they are facing a new situation in the world. This is the first time when there is a worldwide political awareness of the global condition. Here's an interpretation of that speech.
When the slaves in the south were told by their masters that they couldn't dance, they invented Tap Dancing. When they were told they couldn't lift their feet to do that, they invented "Soft shoe" dance. When the Irish were forbidden by the church from using their bagpipes and dance, they invented that strange way of dancing with their feet alone. (Remember Riverdance?)
The point being... The human spirit can not be suppressed for long.
As the "Handbook for a New Paradigm" states, what is needed is not a change of the present system but the introduction of an entirely new paradigm. One that we must create ourselves ("they" can not tell us).
The present one seems to be, at it's simplest form, a) that we live in a dangerous world, b) that we are objectively separate from it, and c) we need to exert some sort of effort to make it safe for us (whatever the concept of "us" may be).
What would be the anti-present-paradigm? It seems to me that would be, a) that we live in a safe (Sacred) world, b) that we are integrally connected to it, and c) that no effort is needed to experience it.
How can anyone in their right mind say that this "anti-present-paradigm" could possibly be true when logic, reason and intellect is constantly demonstrating to us the exact opposite?
Well, I know I'm "preaching to the choir" here, but, the problem is precisely that. Logic, reason and intellect. These are functions of the left-brain/ego/interpreter, and as long as we keep using only this to evaluate our perceptions, the present paradigm is absolutely correct and true. But as it has been mentioned before, the left-brain/ego/interpreter mechanism will do everything in its power to maintain the narrative it has formed and convinced us to follow. The answer of course is what we call here "internal work", or meditation, which is at its base the process of transferring the power of perception from the left brain to the right hemisphere and heart. The right brain reports to the observer only what it perceives. It does not add or subtract any data to make the situation fit a preconceived idea like the left brain does, and the heart is the "antennae" with which we can perceive deeper, subtler aspect of what is before us.
It doesn't mean that when we enter this new paradigm all will be "everything nice with sugar on top". The problems we face are real. But it means that we will be working with Nature (the Sacred), not against it, thus "no effort".
This re-routing of our sense perceptions is also a very gradual process. It takes time to undo these habits that have been programmed/ingrained into us, but it can and will happen. Don't despair. Notice and take confidence from the synchronicities (miracles) that happen in your daily activities. Those are signs that we are connected and treading on The Way.
Namaste
The actual reality of nature is that it is far more cooperative than competitive - Darwin's Origin of the Species mentions "survival of the fittest" one time but it mentions "love" hundreds of times. All of nature is integrally synergystic and mutually sustaining. Our long exploration of separation and duality has been taken to very close to its absolute limits and the delusion of this abstracted frame of reference is becoming increasingly evident. We live on a sphere; there is no place "over there" where we can throw something "out." There is only here. The radiation spewed into the air in Japan, the depleted uranium munitions exploded in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and now Libya are in the winds blowing all over this planet...We are all in this together. We have been conditioned to think interms of us and them but there is no "them." This is just a misunderstanding. There is only us here.
As we awaken together, we awaken both to the shadow and the light that includes our dualistic constructs of the "light" and the "darkness." We already are, each of us individually and all of us together as this human species of consciousness, inextricably enmeshed with all the rest of All That Is. We are just beginning to recognize it.
Now is the time.
Thanks for that post - Noa. This is a great example of why we should not be using something that doesn't serve us. While it seems to serve us on the surface (like so many other things in our unsustainable systems) - in the bigger picture - they do not. What we are being asked to provide as we awaken, is discernment. If we would all just see beyond the surface "benefits" and ask ourselves who is truly being served - and make our choices accordingly, we would (and will) be able to create a completely different system based on balance and sustainability instead of greed, power and control.