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More On the "Cuban Twitter" Scam
We mentioned a few days ago the USAID-funded SMS social network that was connecting Cubans against the wishes of the Cuban government. Now Glen Greenwald's The Intercept has more on this kind of back-channel government intervention via what he characterizes as "the Internet propaganda bucket." Advocatus Diaboli (1627651) writes with an excerpt: "These ideas–discussions of how to exploit the internet, specifically social media, to surreptitiously disseminate viewpoints friendly to western interests and spread false or damaging information about targets–appear repeatedly throughout the archive of materials provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Documents prepared by NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ–and previously published by The Intercept as well as some by NBC News–detailed several of those programs, including a unit devoted in part to "discrediting" the agency's enemies with false information spread online.
The documents in the archive show that the British are particularly aggressive and eager in this regard, and formally shared their methods with their U.S. counterparts. One previously undisclosed top-secret document–prepared by GCHQ for the 2010 annual "SIGDEV" gathering of the "Five Eyes" surveillance alliance comprising the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.–explicitly discusses ways to exploit Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media as secret platforms for propaganda."
The documents in the archive show that the British are particularly aggressive and eager in this regard, and formally shared their methods with their U.S. counterparts. One previously undisclosed top-secret document–prepared by GCHQ for the 2010 annual "SIGDEV" gathering of the "Five Eyes" surveillance alliance comprising the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.–explicitly discusses ways to exploit Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media as secret platforms for propaganda."
We're watching you, so behave
It has been said that the essence of Britishness is fair play. Speaking as a public school educated (that's private boarding school, to you Yanks) toff, I can say with certainty that this is not true at all. The essence of Britishness is hypocrisy. In our hearts we are not standard-bearers of freedom and democracy, but temporarily embarrassed imperialists. And those of us whose mathematical aptitude did not win us a place in the City find themselves landed with a Civil Service job, a job with much the same purpose but with the requirement to do more of what we are told.
and this is from a year ago..
Bolivian President Evo Morales expels USAID, 1 May 2013 (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-22371275)
Bolivian President Evo Morales has said he will expel the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Mr Morales accused the agency of seeking to "conspire against" the Bolivian people and his government. US state department spokesman Patrick Ventrell rejected the allegations as "baseless and unfounded".
About the US cyberattack on Cuba. First of all, it failed, as every US attack on Cuba has failed. Second, the US puts form over content--the idea that if you get people to follow your Twitter feed sports scores, when you say "OK! Everyone out to the Plaza to overthrow the government!" that hundreds of thousands of people will show up and try to overthrow the government, even if they didn't know they wanted to (which in Cuba most people don't). Third, the continuing destruction of internet trust on the part of the US. And fourth, their willingness to put people at risk without telling them they're putting them at risk.
This is just a mountain made out of a molehill by leftists who are fans of the government of Cuba and don't like when Western governments try to undermine it. I have news for them: doing things like this is the intelligence agencies' *job*. They're supposed to spy; that's why they're called spy agencies, and Cuba couldn't be a more deserving target.
If Cuba doesn't do such things itself, it's only because of lack of budget in these post-Soviet days, not lcak of scruples. (Remember when Cuba used to send "advisors" to Africa?)
(Would I like it if Cuba did that here? No, of course not. But I wouldn't like it if Cuba dropped bombs on us either, yet I'm not foolish enough to say that it's immoral to drop bombs on another country.)
I don't read twitter, no facebook account. And on YouTube i watch only funny cat videos!
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
I don't mind a government overseas propaganda division, really. It's one of the few effective counters against countries that operate their own censorship and propaganda systems. It's the sneaking around that I really don't like. Be honest about it.
Did he ever have legitimacy ?
There was never any doubt that this was being done. The questions is do you want the NSA having your info or Facebook and Google.
... trying to derail/distract/deride/divert
Cheney should be shitting bricks right now.
How much did all of this cost?
Let's be blunt here. The purpose of this program was never to in any way seriously affect the Cuban regieme. The purpose of this program, like so many others at the NSA, was to "legitimize" bonuses and to buy new Cadillacs for NSA managers and senior officers. If General Alexander's Star Trek office revealed one thing, it is that the NSA has a culture of gorging at the public trough.
May the Maths Be with you!
Why? Because there may be no "angry common people overthrowing a corrupt tyranny and dying for freedom", merely "people misled by foreign provocateurs into destabilizing their own country"?
I hope that he keeps releasing more and more bad things until European countries ask the US to withdraw bases and have a general cooling of relations. Our so-called European "allies" bring nothing to the relationship and they are filled with arrogant, conceited assholes who I wish harm upon. In that regard they are worst than Israel. At least Israel doesn't blame a large number of their domestic problems on the US cultural imperialism.
I've seen fanboidom from microsquishy on ./, and you can spot it half a dozen comments away, but Federal Sok-Pups are a new kind of sock. I would even suspect that they wouldn't even have analysts doing this: they would have an automated message insertion system, a "Federal Sok-Pup 10000" with a purpose of determining the best time in which to insert a message, gauging the viewers, targeting the right message for the audience, and at the most opportune time, inserting a message, or a dozen different messages, perhaps even some giving a *weak* dissenting view from what is their main message. You don't have to worry about the military or the police: its the crowds you have to worry about and the information they have been fed. 20 years ago in Rwanda, an ethnic group --spurred on by message-- killed 20 million of their countrymen (usually with nothing more than machetes). In Ukraine, the local population were spurred on: the military hardly fired a shot, and in Detroit a motorist accidentally hit a boy who ran out into the street without looking. The man stopped to see if the boy was hurt, and he had minor injuries: the crowd that gathered beat the man to critical condition. The police and military can be bad, but crowds spurred by misinformation: crazy as shithouse rats.
Remember when Snowden's leaks were about blowing the whistle on illegal wiretapping of American citizens? Does anyone else feel like he's long lost all legitimacy?
This "Cuban Twitter" kerfuffle was exposed by the Associated Press. It has nothing to do with Snowden or the NSA.
He's still toasted with a drink at almost every party and bar I've been to lately, so the answer to your question is 'no'.
Unless Tha NSA let Snowden back into their network this is from the same stuff he took back last year.
Do I think he's lost legitimacy? No.
At the very start he turned over all his data to a few journalists (Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, etc.) and they are the ones who choose to publish articles based on the data he gave to them. Snowden has said he doesn't retain any of the documents or data himself, and has no control over what is published or not. That's entirely up to the journalists.
The Soviets and their proxies have been running very successful propaganda/disinformation campaigns in the West for almost 100 years.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
He's releasing documents in an on-going manner. You make like it or not, but I don't see how this is about Snowden.
Remember when Snowden's leaks were about blowing the whistle on illegal wiretapping of American citizens? Does anyone else feel like he's long lost all legitimacy?
No, I feel like you're probably being paid by the government to disseminate lies and propaganda in order to keep the people confused and divided.
Does anyone else feel like he's long lost all legitimacy?
No. The worst you can say is he should have given the data to a different journalist. He hasn't had anything to do with these releases for a long time.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Hey there, I share your hope of cooling relations.
The USA can GTFO with their "free trade treaties" that just undermine our rights and health and are always negotiated in secrecy. There is a joke: "What the USA considers food is not even allowed for constructing buildings in Europe." And you can GTFO with your spying on people you pretend to be allies with. And you can GTFO with interfering in European politics. While you're at it: you may relocate GB to another continent, we don't need them either.
But to be realistic: European leaders will jump every time the USA says "jump". It's just embarrassing. :/
If you think we blame our home made problems to the USA think again. But you can be quite sure we are opposing the current reality of the "American way of life". Call us socialists and what not, we don't care. Just look at our northern countries. They are light years in front of everyone else and you know what? They have huge taxes but on the other hand they have great and free education, a dense social support net and their health care is also great.
It's "funny" how you call us assholes just right before you wish harm on us.
News at 11
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
I think the people should know the excesses of bureaucratic abuse. The question becomes 'How much spying is too much?'
Is it necessary for the NSA to hoover in 1.8 million encryption keys of Indonesian phones? How will this make Americans (and Indonesians) safer? Surely if they know someone plotting terrorism they can simply spy on that phone, with legal due process. It seems that this 'intelligence' gathering for its own sake simply creates noise.
Is it necessary to spy on the private communications of a German ally? This seems to be an abuse of trust where the real issue is someone blabbed about the NSA's dishonesty: Such dishonesty makes it difficult for the USA to dictate international conventions. Once again, what will this intelligence source provide that regular spying won't? It merely reminds me of the Russians gaining state secrets by blackmailing bureaucrats.
Spying on Americans is a big issue because it is totally banned by law until an individual is targeted by due process. The mere realization that bureaucrats, secret courts, and elected officials have all endorsed this breach of the law reveals how corrupt the government is now. A lot of the excuses use the "no-one actually looked" argument. But again: Hoovering in 'intelligence' and not looking at it just creates more noise.
Every revelation of abuse demonstrates that the US government is more interested in busywork that incidentally oppresses everybody than having 'eyes and ears' make sense of their SigInt.
An example of that busywork is the TSA: the USA has dictated their TSA security model to other countries but such international surveillance has failed to expose one of the terrorists it was designed to catch.
Yes, there was doubt.
Lots of people bought into the gov't saying "oh, no, we would never do that" as earlier whistleblowers came forward. The gov't just switched tactics to "we need to spy on you for your own good".
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
This is no different than Voice of America radio which has been broadcasting propaganda for decades without anyone getting their panties in a bunch.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
There are things that we expect all government intelligence agencies to do. In the US, spying on our own people without warrant or committing propaganda activities are not in that set. But such activities are definitely in the set we do and should expect against other countries - and that we do and should expect from other sovereigns against us.
Periodically, we can and should expect a public event when one is found out, and the involved individuals get treated like spies - because that is what they are.
This is a propaganda campaign from one country against another. Whoops, it was discovered. There will be sabre rattling and possibly counter intelligence activity and spies sent back in response. So, what's the big deal? Why should we care about this one?
What does Snowden have to do with this? I haven't seen his name associated with it before.
This isn't criticism; maybe he is involved; I don't know. Can you give a few cites that explain the link?
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
So, the GCHQ is the yellow press of the intelligence world. Only the disgruntled, gossiping cat of the Elton John's boyfriend could have seen it coming. The kitty litter scandal is upon us. Read all about it soon from the Roswell files of Her Royal Majesty the Queen. Only the Republic of the Great Britain can save us from the humiliation. Revolt, now!
Of course you blame your problems on the US. You just did (possibly, I have no idea which country you are from). Your leaders were not opposed to spying, but acted outraged when it was released, then tried to play dumb when it was proved that many of them were involved. Instead of blaming the politicians of yours that were apparently so spineless that they wouldn't protect their citizens, you blame the US. Same with the free trade agreements you so loath. Not only that, but any time that a problem is identified in Europe the first response from Europeans is always to point out some other problem in the US and claim that they are not as bad.
But anyway, I think we can both agree that it is time to stop pretending that the US and Europe still have enough cultural ties to justify maintaining the pretense of such a close relationship. Personally, I do not think that the European way of life and culture (I do not make this under the guise of criticizing Socialism either; I am not against socialism or welfare or taxes or any of things you presumed) is the future and you do not seem to care for the USA's.
Remember when Snowden's leaks were about blowing the whistle on illegal wiretapping of American citizens? Does anyone else feel like he's long lost all legitimacy?
Fucking faggot. How dare you disparage our lord and savoir edward snowden! I am modding you down into oblivion.
and American imperialism is alive and well. I praise Cuba for their continued heroic resistance to the great evil in their backyard. It must greatly anger the American empire that they cannot break a small island nation 90 miles off the coast of Florida.
It's a bad thing to let some light into a communist dictatorship?
Greenwald is just upset that he isn't all powerful anymore since nobody is paying attention to him.
This has no relevance and just damages Cuban relations by making it public. Him and Snowden are making things hell for the state dept and foreign relations. That is causing a lot more damage than anything the NSA did or didn't do.
We're watching you, so behave
It's more like "We will make sure that you'll be very miserable if you do not behave"
Thank you, England, for teaching America how to take this program worldwide.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
> ...to what extent was the US involved in other countries?
Have a look at this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
and then weep: the CIA distributed tons of chinese-manufactured AK 47 in Afghanistan, probably those who later killed American and European soldiers -- just to annoy the Soviets. Heck, Osama Bin Laden was a CIA pawn against the Soviets.
Dear USians -- you gotta reign in your three-letter agencies as long as you can.
It differs from other propaganda because it's happening HERE On /. There are establishment trolls all over this place trying to shape public opinion. How can you act so blasse, You say this is nothing new, but clearly it must be, because this concept didn't even occur to you! You don't even mention it. So spare me your lazy yawns so long as you lazily look past the elephant in the room.
Waiting for cold fjord to post here.
Every story he places on theintercept.org gets pages of mentions on google news. But please, keep peddling your lonely illusion that no one cares. No one will buy it, of course--the fact that you trolls have to fill this place with your nonsense shows just how hypocritical your claims of "no one cares!" really are.
Did he ever have legitimacy ?
There was never any doubt that this was being done.
There absolutely was doubt being spread and denials up and down, that the U.S. would never do such things.
The leaks have helped in that few will deny such things any more.
The questions is do you want the NSA having your info or Facebook and Google.
Neither. And I don't like being given false choices either.
Who is paying you?
I like how you're bitter about Maidan. But I have to agree with the wording you chose. It may or may not be the former or the latter, that's for sure.
Instead of blaming the politicians of yours that were apparently so spineless that they wouldn't protect their citizens, you blame the US
Sounds exactly like the U.S. OMG politicians have to protect us from the terrorists.
Not only that, but any time that a problem is identified in Europe the first response from Europeans is always to point out some other problem in the US and claim that they are not as bad.
Geez, those Europeans sound EXACTLY LIKE AMERICANS.
But anyway, I think we can both agree that it is time to stop pretending that the US and Europe still have enough cultural ties to justify maintaining the pretense of such a close relationship.
This is hilarious. Get a room you two! You were meant for each other. Everyone else can see it. Why can't you two?
Corporate astroturfing is one thing, but the matter being discussed in this thread is one of paid government shills. You're insisting this is nothing new, which is incorrect--the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 has enabled domestic propaganda for the first time since the cold war. http://thecable.foreignpolicy.... Yes, paid trolls on forums IS new. And it's clear you don't give a shit, because again, you won't even acknowledge the issue. You aren't the least bit concerned when dozens of posts of "fuck beta!" spam very specific threads here?