COJ: Opwatch

Wikileaks NYTimes Disinformation Operation

This isn’t anything new at this point, but it’s a spectacular example of psyops disinfo.  As I have explained in detail, the puppeteers behind the wave of manufactured uprisings that suddenly began in 2009 have accomplished this largely through producing and propagating false reality and disinformation (and fooling the populace into believing it is legitimate), and these efforts have increased in scope and complexity exponentially over the last three years.

These blatant and continuous fake media reports are evident throughout Arab Spring operations but as this latest NYTimes disinfo operation proves, this tactic is equally prevalent in Wikileaks / Anonymous / Occupy operations.  Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone, since they are all branches of the same tree.  Even Wikileaks / Anonymous have admitted “heavy crossover personnel” between these operations… an understatement to be sure.

The method and purpose of these operations have become repetitive and obvious.  Just as in the Arab Spring operations, where heavily armed and well trained remotely controlled terrorist rebel groups are portrayed as ‘peaceful protesters’ to gain public support, the espionage and cyberwar operations against the U.S. Government (and many, many others) are portrayed as ‘First Amendment / Free Speech’ rights to gain support for their operations from an unwitting public.  In both instances they are obvious disinformation cover stories, and intended to put the populace in between these governments and these covert efforts.

This fake NYTimes article shows the evolution of the puppeteers’ cyberforgery abilities and demonstrates what they have learned from their many, many attempts.  This fake domain intended to mimic the actual NYTimes site was registered in March, the whois information for the site shows the same name for the registrant as the actual NYTimes website, a fake supporting PayPal blog document was posted to lend further fake credibility to the fake NYTimes article, etc.  Even the front page of the fake Opinion site is an exact duplicate of the actual NYTimes Opinion page from July 25th, 2012.  As stated in the BetaBeat article, “Whoever staged this had a ton of help, or a ton of time on their hands.”

This operation is anything but a ‘hoax’ as Wikileaks has attempted to downplay it – after admitting responsibility.  This ploy is continuation of the ongoing and escalating disinformation campaign and tactics developed since #iranelection 2009.  It was rolled out in the same manner these disinformation ops have been for three years.  The fake twitter account, the fake websites, and the subsequent twitter campaign to distribute the disinformation are ubiquitous characteristics of each and every one of the Arab spring, Occupy, and Anonymous operations.  As usual, the easiest place to observe this is at the origin of propagation.

Lets look at the very first accounts to disseminate this fraud.  Bear in mind that just as was the case on the first day of the #iranelection prototype, the first people tweeting this are demonstrating prior knowledge.  Since this article resides on a fake New York Times site and initially wasn’t publicized in any other way, the creators and / or associates are the only ones who would even know of the links existence.  As is standard operating procedure when beginning these disinformation ops, a group of accounts will interject the disinformation.

At approximately 1am EST, several users tweet the link to this fake article.  There are several important characteristics to take note of in these tweets:

1. They are not retweets: Although this obscure link has not be publicized in any way between 1am and 2am, these users ‘spontaneously’ tweet the link to this fake article – meaning they were informed and coordinated somewhere other than the public stream of twitter.

2. This operation is instantly identified as an Anonymous operation by the account that is the second to tweet the link.  Guy Legion (Guy Fawkes / We Are Legion) is clearly an Anonymous sock account.

3. NYTimes homepage link: The more developed tweets include the link to the actual NYTimes.com site followed by the fake link to the hoax site.  There isn’t any way this could happen by accident and shows deliberate effort to further convince the reader that the fake link is associated with the real site.

4. NYtimes user account: Just as the NYTimes.com site is falsely and deliberately associated with the link to the fake site, so is the @NYTimes twitter account.  Certainly the @NYTimes account did not tweet the link to the fake article, yet that is what these tweets claim to further create the illusion of legitimacy.

5. Individual links: Although they all go to the same place, they have different and individually shortened links – meaning it’s not the same tweet re-purposed.

This may have been exposed as a fraud but the objectives – as always – are already accomplished.  This fraudulent document is already ‘out there’ and has already been widely distributed. The fraudulent Arab Spring documents that have guided the delusion for three years are often exposed as disinformation as well, but the retractions never make it a fraction as far as the fabrications do, and the ‘impressions’ are already made.  Each one of these disinformation devices is intended to endure, and will be used to manipulate opinion and reality long after their exposure as frauds are forgotten.

Even when one of these fake documents has been proven a fraud, it doesn’t stop them from continuing to distribute it.  This NYTimes ploy was exposed 4 days ago, and as you can see they are still distributing it using the same deceptive practices like nothing happened.  Each one of these fake documents manipulates public perception and represents another brick in their false reality construction, and each one pushes the boundaries of this charade a little further.

As I said, this is hardly an isolated incident.  The only reason this one got the brief attention that it did is because It’s a major newspaper, but there are fake news stories being generated and propagated by fake twitter ‘news’ accounts every day.  It’s time for people (and MSM in totality) to wake up to the evident and evolving effort to replace old-world disinformation with disinformation 2.0.  The fight for actual reality may not be getting any easier, but it’s never been more important…  Get to know the puppeteers.