Last week
I wrote an article and did
an interview explaining
that in my reading of the new Russia sanctions bill just signed by President
Trump, there is a measure opening the door to a US government crackdown on some
of the non-mainstream media. In particular, Section 221 of
the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” would punish
“persons” who are “engaging in transactions with the intelligence or defense
sectors of the Government of the Russian Federation.”
At first
one might think this is reading too much into the text, however as a twelve
year Capitol Hill veteran bill-reader I can assure you that these bills
are never written in a simple, expository manner. There is always a subtext,
and in this case we must consider the numerous instances where the
Director of Central Intelligence and other senior leadership in the US
intelligence community have attempted to establish the idea that foreign news
channels such as RT or Sputnik News are not First Amendment protected press,
but rather tools of a foreign intelligence organization.
You can see in the current atmosphere, where anti-Russia
hysteria has spread like typhoid, how readily-accepted such a notion would be
by many. The reds are under our beds and the Russkies have taken over our
airwaves.
I don’t think the crackdown will stop at Russian government
funded news organizations like RT and Sputnik, however. Once the initial strike
is made at the lowest hanging fruit, the second wave will target
Russia-focused organizations not funded by governments but that challenge
the official US government line that Russia is our number one enemy and its
government must be overthrown. Popular private alternative websites like The
Duran and Russia Insider will likely be next on the list for prosecution.
Sound farfetched? Think of it this way (I can assure you the
neocons do): if the Russian government and RT are opposed to sanctions and you
operate a website that also takes a line in opposition to Russia sanctions are
you not doing the work of Russian intelligence? Are you not seeking to
influence your readers in a manner that Russian intelligence would want? Are
you not “engaging in transactions” even over the airwaves?
And after this second wave you can be sure there will be a push
to move on other alternative media that has nothing to do with Russia but that
opposes US interventionist foreign policy: ZeroHedge, Lew Rockwell, Ron
Paul Institute, ConsortiumNews, etc.
Crazy, you
say? Don’t forget: this war against us already started last year when the
Washington Post ran a front page article accusing
all of the above of being Russian agents!
What would be next? Do you read any of these alternative news
sites? Do you pass along articles that oppose US sanctions policy toward
Russia? You are engaging in transactions. You will be subject to “sanctions” as
described in the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,”
which is now the law of the land.
This would never happen, you might say. The government would
never compile, analyze, and target private news outlets just because they
deviate from the official neocon Washington line.
Perhaps not yet. But some US government funded
“non-governmental” organizations are already doing just that.
The German
Marshall Fund has less to do with Germany these days than it did when founded
after WWII as a show of appreciation for the US Marshall Fund. These days it’s
mostly funded by the US government, allied
governments (especially in the Russia-hating Baltics), neocon grant-making
foundations, and the military-industrial complex. Through its strangely
Soviet-sounding “Alliance for Securing Democracy” project it has launched
something called “Hamilton 68: A New Tool to Track
Russian Disinformation on Twitter.”
This
project monitors 600 Twitter accounts that the
German Marshall Fund claims are “accounts that are involved in promoting
Russian influence and disinformation goals.” Which accounts does this monitor?
It won’t tell us. How does it choose which ones to monitor? It won’t tell us.
To what end? Frighteningly, it won’t tell us.
How ironic that something called the German Marshall Fund is
bringing Stasi-like tactics to silence alternative media and opinions in the
United States!
So what does the “Hamilton 68” project do? In its own words it
firstly “shows tweets from official Russian propaganda outlets in English, and
a short post discussing the themes of the day. This is Russia’s overt
messaging.”
But it goes further than that. It tracks and stores information
about others who have no connection to Russia but who “on their own
initiative reliably repeat and amplify Russian themes.” This is what the German
Marshall Fund calls a “network” of second tier disinformation distributors.
What does this “network” of people with no connection to Russia
but who amplify Russian “themes” do?
It “reflects Russian messaging priorities, but that does not
mean every name or link you see on the dashboard is pro-Russian. The network
sometimes amplifies stories that Russia likes, or people with like-minded views
but no formal connection to Russia.”
So, according to the self-proclaimed alliance for securing
democracy you might not even know it when you are pushing Russian
state propaganda!
Do you see what they are doing here? They are using US and other
government money in an effort to eliminate any news organization or individual
who deviates from the official neocon foreign policy line on Russia, Syria,
Ukraine, etc. They are trying to eliminate any information that challenges the
neocon line. To criminalize it.
In fact they admit that they are seeking to silence alternative
viewpoints:
Our objective in providing this dashboard is to help ordinary
people, journalists, and other analysts identify Russian messaging themes and
detect active disinformation or attack campaigns as soon as they begin.
Exposing these messages will make information consumers more resilient and
reduce the effectiveness of Russia’s attempts to influence Americans’ thinking,
and deter this activity in the future by making it less effective.
The very
Soviet-sounding “Alliance for Securing Democracy” project description ends
with a suitably authoritarian warning, ripped from the pages of 1984, Darkness at Noon, or Erich Honecker‘s “how-to” guide:
We are not telling you what to think, but we believe you should
know when someone is trying to manipulate you. What you do with that
information is up to you.
Chilling, no? And much of it is being done with your money by
your government and in your name.
That is
why the neocons and their myriad think tanks (government-funded in many
cases) would like nothing more than to shut down our upcoming Peace and Prosperity 2017 Conference, to be
held right at their front door! They cannot stand an open debate
about Washington’s hyper-interventionist foreign policy. They don’t want
to talk about all their failed wars — and they really don’t
want to talk about the wars they have planned and are pushing.
We are not the anti-Americans. They are. They hate the First
Amendment. They hate debate. They hate us.
How can we fight back? One very easy way is to show them a full
house at our conference! Just by showing up you are poking a neocon in the eye.
Can you
imagine how furious they were when last year’s Peace and Prosperity Conference
was broadcast on CSPAN?
Thanks to
the support of our very generous Host Committee we can keep the
ticket price as low as possible. We want to see all of you there! You will get
a full day of fantastic and insightful speakers, the opportunity to network and
plot with like-minded individuals, and a very nice luncheon with plenty of
coffee and tea to boot! We also managed to get a great rate at the
hotel to save you some money!
And you’ll
drive the neocons nuts! What are you waiting for! Book your ticket today!
Daniel McAdams is the Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute
for Peace and Prosperity.
Copyright © 2017 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in
whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are
given.
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