Global
Research, May 11, 2016
Region: USA
Theme: Intelligence, Media Disinformation
‘Conspiracy theory’ is a term that strikes fear
and anxiety in the hearts of most every public figure, particularly journalists
and academics. Since the 1960s the label has become a disciplinary device that
has been overwhelmingly effective in defining certain events as off limits to
inquiry or debate. Especially in the United States, raising legitimate questions
about dubious official narratives destined to inform public opinion (and
thereby public policy) is a major thought crime that must be cauterized from
the public psyche at all costs… CIA Document 1035-960 played a definitive role in making the
‘conspiracy theory’ term a weapon to be wielded against almost any individual
or group calling the government’s increasingly clandestine programs and
activities into question. – From CIA Document 1035-960
We’ll know our disinformation program is
complete when everything the American public believes is false. – William Casey, Ronald Reagan’s first
CIA Director (from Casey’s first staff meeting, 1981)
It is quite easy for a disinformation agent to
spin a rich disinformation tale and then craft several different versions of
the tale with new ‘facts’ to support the story in each one. These tales are
usually a good mix of verifiable facts and cleverly designed lies, so that
people who check the ‘facts’ tend to believe the lies that are mixed in. -- from: http://www.wanttoknow.info/g/disinformation-agents
It wasn’t very many years after the world-wide
web became operational that it was contaminated by secret disinformation
agencies and also by individuals that were eventually called internet trolls.
Trolls (defined below) began interjecting themselves – uninvited and unwanted –
into otherwise useful and productive conversations involving web-groups of
like-minded individuals.
These trolls, intent on scurrilously confusing
various website commenters, seemed to delight in angering up certain online
groups. Typically, a lot of time and effort was wasted in such fake arguments
before members of the group finally realized that they had been ambushed by a
disinformation agent.
Many folks might recall how promising were the
prospects for the internet’s new method of communication that was affordable,
quick and paperless. Many envisioned an internet that was “without commercial
interruptions” and a way to promote healthy interactions between well-meaning
people of different races, religions, politics, commitments, lifestyles and
cultures.
Progressive-thinking folks without ulterior
motives saw the internet as a new way to explore and solve some of the common
threats to them or the planet. Peacemakers saw the internet as a tool that
could expose the ideological enemies of the exploited 99% and perhaps even
unite against the predatory elites in the ruling 1%. Some saw opportunities to
expose and then eliminate fascism, racism, militarism, corporatism, bigotry,
pollution, over-population and income inequality (and, more recently, global
climate change) and to foster understanding and cooperation between various
cultures.
Tragically, before you could say “corrupt crony
capitalism”, the web was dominated – and then essentially owned – by
profiteering corporations that saw world peace and cooperation as a threat to
their greedy profiteering goals. (Peace is never as profitable as war or the
rumors or war.)
In the viewpoint of amoral corporations, the
internet was seen as just another way to market their products to otherwise
inaccessible consumers, even if their infernal advertisements were uninvited
and unwanted by most internet users (albeit sometimes entertaining) .
But, while Big Business and the investor
classes took over the internet, the web also became a recruitment tool for
assorted hate groups like white supremacists, religious bigots, racists and
neo-fascist talk show hosts who all developed a following and websites that
allowed them to spew their hate, bigotry and disinformation much more
efficiently.
Why and How Propaganda Works
The internet, like so much of what passes for
technological advancement in our commercialized society, has, predictably,
become a force for ill, not unlike how Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi Party used
the universally-accessible and very affordable radio to spew their right-wing
hate propaganda in the 1930s and 40s (after first smashing the liberal media’s
printing presses, of course).
But the ruling elites who own the
trans-national mega-corporations also own our legislative bodies and our major
media. That often nefarious Gang of Four has brain-washed their way into our
hearts, minds and bank accounts. Many of them can be seen eagerly pig feeding
at the trough of more than one government bureaucratic agency that may be
busily granting no-bid contracts behind closed doors.
These corporations, in the interest of
unlimited (and unsustainable) stock price growth, have been compelled by their
stakeholders to plunge head-long into the soul-destroying muck of the
dog-eat-dog-competition that exists in both business and political spheres. The
muck has become much less embarrassing – but no less odious – since the
democracy-destroying Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision of 2011 that
legalized the anonymous bribery of most political candidates and made the
fiction of corporate personhood the law of the land.
As an example of how propaganda works, we need
to examine the CIA, America’s major national intelligence agency and propaganda
machine. The unofficial motto of the CIA, “Admit nothing, deny everything and
make counter-accusations.” was blurted out by Porter Goss, GW Bush’s second CIA
director in 2005. The official motto of Britain’s CIA-equivalent MI6 is “Semper
Occultus” (Always Secret) and, according to the whistle-blowing, ex-Israeli
Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky, the Mossad’s motivating motto has always been
“By Way of Deception, Thou Shalt Make War” (derived from a phrase from the book
of Proverbs).
Weaponizing the term “Conspiracy Theory”
But the fact (not just the theory) of
widespread official conspiracies (along with the obligatory disinformation and
cover-up operations) isn’t really new. As one prime example, the CIA (which by
law is forbidden to have anything to do with domestic affairs [the FBI’s job])
has been a huge disinformation agency for as long as it has been in existence.
The CIA institutionalized the term “conspiracy
theory” in its very successful attempt to derail the honest attempts to
investigate the roles of various governmental agencies and individuals that
were involved in the execution of President Kennedy in 1963. (See the
documentation of that assertion at the end of this column.)
Of course, all clandestine state-sponsored
secret service agencies (like the CIA, MI6 and the Mossad) routinely and
shamelessly make use of lies, secrecy, deception and false flag operations in
their daily affairs. It is a fact of life for such secret agencies and it is
all accomplished in the name of “national security”.
The CIA has admitted that it routinely “plants”
stories in the mainstream media. Those “press releases” contain disinformation
that influences the perceptions of the electorate and thus national policy. See
the evidence for that in the following video (and the narrative that follows):
It is a certainty that the FBI, the NSA, the
Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the White House (not to mention most
corporations) do the same.
Secret intelligence agencies such as the CIA
routinely concoct conspiracies that involve spying, regime changes,
de-stabilization of governments, expansion of military bases and even torture,
disappearances, “suicides” and extrajudicial assassinations as a matter of
course. Of course, all leaked evidence of what are often unethical, immoral or
even criminal deeds must be denied.
On 9/11/01, for example, many investigative
journalists and alert citizens saw with their own eyes that the three WTC
towers had obviously been suddenly and unexpectedly brought down by controlled
demolitions. Their suspicions were affirmed by the multitude of video and
science-based evidence that abounds online. (Start your own edification by
listening to real experts who know the real science of
controlled demolitions by clicking on: http://www.ae911truth.org/.)
If You See Something, Say Something (Unless
it’s Conspiratorial)
We American citizens have been advised by our
government to “say something if we see something”, so those patriots who loved
their country enough to have a lover’s quarrel with it, kept pointing out the
improbability – indeed impossibility - of the Bush White House’s
conspiracy theory (that a group of Saudi Arabian nationals conspired to fly two
jets into two buildings, causing office fires that rapidly burned down three
concrete, massively steel-reinforced, essentially non-flammable high-rise
towers, with ach of the three buildings successively collapsing into fine
powder in less than 10 seconds). Unbelievable.
Bush failed in trying to silence those
patriotic observers from speaking out by holding a very unconvincing press
conference denigrating those who espoused “outlandish conspiracy theories”.
However, the mainstream media (including the New York Times, which falsely
claims to publish “all the news that’s fit to print”) got thoroughly on board
with the cover-up. Sadly, since then, anybody who didn’t see what really
happened on that day has been effectively brain-washed to believe whatever the
major media dis-informed them on, and that includes most of the millennials who
were either unaware or unborn at the time of the deed!
Tragically, most of the distracted, deceived or
too busy Americans succumbed to the totally blacked-out propaganda efforts and
their in-bred need to be obedient to authority figures; and thus most Americans
were led to believe the deniers of the truth rather than the powerful evidence
of conspiracy.
One of the reasons that I am addressing this
topic in this column is the fact that recently there have been a number of
examples of disinformation in my local media about real conspiracies about
which I have enough expertise to be able to disprove the claims that were made.
A recent letter to the editor in my local
newspaper regurgitated the disproven “conventional wisdom” that live virus,
mercury-containing or aluminum-containing vaccines are all safe and effective,
that they never cause neurological damage to infants and that the
infamously-smeared British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield’s research on
autism and vaccines was a fraud.
(For those uninformed or misinformed about the
Big Pharma-manufactured Wakefield pseudo-controversy: In 1998, the
once-prestigious British Lancet medical journal published Dr Wakefield’s
ground-breaking research that proved the connection between (the British
pharmaceutical company) GlaxoSmithKline’s live measles virus-containing MMR
vaccine and a disabling measles virus-caused inflammatory enterocolitis
disorder in a group of severely-regressed autistic kids (each of whom had been
developing normally until being injected with the scheduled MMR vaccination).
The validity of the study, incidentally, has been replicated by other
researchers, but the pharmaceutical firm Glaxo cunningly executed a massive
disinformation campaign that resulted in the complicit British Medical
Association stripping Wakefield of his license to practice medicine!) For
documentation of the Wakefield smear campaign, go to a series of videos,
starting with this one:
Another recent article in my local newspaper
falsely claimed that the persistent aerosol spray that can occasionally be seen
coming from large, non-commercial jets are simply “contrails” that are capable
of making hazy the cloudless blue skies that the weatherman had forecast the
night before. (Contrails are an abbreviation of “condensation trails” that can
indeed represent frozen water vapor from jet engine exhaust, but that only
momentarily freezes at the extremely cold temperatures at extremely high
altitudes and then evaporates rapidly.) The proven fact of the matter is that
any jet plane trail that lasts longer than a few seconds is actually a
“chemtrail” that is composed of metallic nanoparticles like aluminum, barium or
strontium that are sprayed, as part of secret governmental/military weather
modification experiments, but which persist in the air, potentially cooling the
earth slightly by reflecting the sun’s rays upward (watch www.geoengineeringwatch.org for the documentation).
Definitions to Help Understand Disinformation
Agendas
Therefore, in an attempt to explore the
interactions between the pejorative term “conspiracy theory” and the prevalence
of “disinfo agents”, I include here some relevant definitions of terms,
obtained from easily accessible online sources:
Conspiracy theory: An explanatory proposition that accuses two
or more people, a group, or an organization of having caused or covered up,
through deliberate collusion, an event or phenomenon of great social,
political, or economic impact. Such conspiracy theories are frequently proven
to be truthful when the bullying disinformation campaigns that try to silence
them are revealed as false, misleading, impossible and/or unscientific.
False flag operation: A covert operation that is
designed to deceive in such a way that the operation appears as though it is
being carried out by entities other than those who actually planned and
executed them. Usually there is an ulterior motive, such as starting a war or
invasion under false pretenses and blaming the war on some other entity, such
as the victim of the false flag op.
Misinformation: False or inaccurate information.
Disinformation: False information that is intended to
mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization or a
corporate advertiser.
Troll: A supernatural creature of Scandinavian
folklore, whose ancestors were thought to have carried massive stones into the
countryside (although actually the result of glaciers). Living in hills,
mountains, caves, or under bridges, they are stupid, large, brutish, hairy,
long-nosed, and bug-eyed, and may also have multiple heads or horns. Trolls
love to eat people, especially small children.
Internet troll: A person, usually operating under a
pseudonym, who posts deliberately provocative messages to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of
provoking maximum disruption and argument. They are often paid by nefarious
sources but sometime are motivated to do so for their own amusement. They often
try to provoke dissension and doubt by writing dis-informational letters to the
editors of newspapers.
Another good definition of an internet
troll: A person who purposely and deliberately starts an online or media
argument in a manner which attacks others on a forum without in any way
listening to the arguments proposed by other commenters. He will often use ad
hominem attacks.
Internet shill: Someone who promotes something or someone
online for pay without divulging that they are associated with the entity they
shill for. Shills promote companies, products, public figures and viewpoints
for profit, while pretending to have no motivation for doing so other than
personal belief. Alternatively, they sometimes denigrate someone or something,
such as a political viewpoint or a competitor’s product, that is in conflict
with the entity they serve. Shill jobs are telecommute positions or are
conducted from temporary offices which are frequently moved to avoid detection.
Conventional wisdom: opinions or beliefs, often
theoretical and even erroneous, that are held or accepted by most people. Often
such “wisdom” contradicts known facts. (Ex: “The earth is flat” was at one time
conventional wisdom for over 99% of the population.)
Propaganda: Information of a biased or misleading
nature and used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point
of view. Corporations call it advertising.
Clandestine/Covert: Referring to secrecy or concealment,
especially for purposes of subversion or deception.
Hate group: A group whose members have beliefs or
practices that attack or malign an entire class of people. They all have
websites. (A few examples from the courageous Southern Poverty Law Center are
at: https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map: Ku Klux Klan, White Nationalist,
Racist Skinhead, Christian Identity, Neo-Confederate, Holocaust Denial groups,
Anti-LGBT groups, Anti-Immigrant groups, Anti-Muslim groups, etc.
How Disinformation Agents Spread Their Webs of
Deception
Information obtained from: http://www.wanttoknow.info/g/disinformation-agents
It is quite easy for a disinformation agent to
spin a rich disinformation tale and then craft several different versions of
the tale with new ‘facts’ to support the story in each one. These tales are
usually a good mix of verifiable facts and cleverly designed lies, so that
people who check the ‘facts’ tend to believe the lies that are mixed in.
The disinformation agent has only to feed these
versions of his tale to several of the many conspiracy oriented websites out
there, and it’s all over the Internet – but not on reliable websites. These
same disinformation agents will use pseudonyms to join in on the discussions
generated by their “news” so that they can manipulate the direction that
comments take.
Below are excerpts from a short article that
was published on the GlobalResearch.ca website on January 22, 2013:
CIA Document 1035-960 and Conspiracy Theory:
the Foundation of a Weaponized Term
‘Conspiracy theory’ is a term that strikes fear
and anxiety in the hearts of most every public figure, particularly journalists
and academics. Since the 1960s the label has become a disciplinary device that
has been overwhelmingly effective in defining certain events as off limits to
inquiry or debate. Especially in the United States, raising legitimate
questions about dubious official narratives destined to inform public opinion
(and thereby public policy) is a major thought crime that must be cauterized
from the public psyche at all costs.
…it was the Central Intelligence Agency that
likely played the greatest role in effectively ‘weaponizing’ the term. In the
groundswell of public skepticism about the Warren Commission’s findings on the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the CIA sent a detailed directive
to all of its bureaus, titled ‘Countering Criticism of the Warren Commission
Report’.
The dispatch played a definitive role in making
the ‘conspiracy theory’ term a weapon to be wielded against almost any
individual or group calling the government’s increasingly clandestine programs
and activities into question.
“This important memorandum and its broad
implications for American politics and public discourse are detailed in a
forthcoming book by Florida State University political scientist Lance
deHaven-Smith, titled Conspiracy Theory in America. Dr. deHaven-Smith devised the
State Crimes Against Democracy (SCAD) concept to interpret and explain
potential government complicity in events such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident,
the major political assassinations of the 1960s, and 9/11.
The agency was especially interested in
maintaining the CIA’s own image and role as it “contributed information to the
[Warren] investigation.
The memorandum lays out a detailed series of
actions and techniques for ‘countering and discrediting the claims of the
so-called conspiracy theorists, so as to inhibit the circulation of such claims
in other countries’.
The agency also directed its members ‘[t]o
employ propaganda assets to [negate] and refute the attacks of the critics.
Book reviews and feature articles are particularly appropriate for this
purpose’.
CIA Document 1035-960 further delineates
specific techniques for countering ‘conspiratorial’ arguments centering on the
Warren Commission’s findings. Such responses and their coupling with the
pejorative label have been routinely wheeled out to this day in various guises
by corporate media outlets, commentators and political leaders against those
demanding truth and accountability about momentous public events.
Today, more so than ever, news media
personalities and commentators occupy powerful positions for initiating
propaganda activities closely resembling those set out in 1035-960 against
anyone who might question state-sanctioned narratives of controversial and
poorly understood occurrences.
…the almost uniform public acceptance of
official accounts concerning unresolved events such as the Oklahoma City Murrah
Federal Building bombing, 9/11, and most recently the Sandy Hook Elementary
School massacre, is largely guaranteed.
The effect on academic and journalistic inquiry
into ambiguous and unexplained events that may in turn mobilize public inquiry,
debate and action has been dramatic and far-reaching. One need only look to the
rising police state and evisceration of civil liberties and constitutional
protections as evidence of how this set of subtle and deceptive intimidation
tactics has profoundly encumbered the potential for future independent
self-determination and civic empowerment.
Dr Kohls is a retired physician from Duluth, MN,
USA. He writes a weekly column for the Reader, Duluth’s alternative newsweekly
magazine. His columns mostly deal with the dangers of American fascism,
corporatism, militarism, racism, malnutrition, psychiatric drugging, over-vaccination
regimens, Big Pharma and other movements that threaten the environment or
America’s health, democracy, civility and longevity. Many of his columns are
archived a
and at
The original source of this article is Global
Research
Copyright © Dr. Gary G. Kohls, Global Research, 2016
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