Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies. The lead defendant in the indictment was “Internet Research Agency,” which was charged with “conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.”
According to the indictment, some of the defendants posed as Americans on social media without indicating that they were Russian. These Russians had formed a wide variety of front groups and events, such as “United Muslims of America,” “Being Patriotic,” and “Florida Goes Trump!” Overall, the intention was to support President Donald Trump, as well as Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and oppose Hillary Clinton.
This prompted CNN to harass a senior citizen on the front lawn of her home. The elderly lady was a part of one of the groups, and now she is being bombarded with nasty messages on her Facebook account.
What’s interesting, however, is that CNN is not going after a guy like Michael Moore who attended an anti-Trump rally outside of Trump Towers in New York City that was allegedly started by Russia.
Will CNN harass Moore outside of his home now? Unlikely.
Or, what about MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid? The Russian trolls were apparently big fans of Reid. Where is CNN’s Drew Griffin?
Indeed, the revelations have angered the American left and the mainstream media. Too bad there wasn’t as much outrage about a 2014 report that the U.S. government clandestinely established a so-called Cuban Twitter “to stir unrest and undermine government” for three years.
The Associated Press reported that then-President Barack Obama’s CIA utilized bots, fake identities, and phony groups to perhaps create trouble in Havana.
From the AP:
In July 2010, Joe McSpedon, a US government official, flew to Barcelona to put the final touches on a secret plan to build a social media project aimed at undermining Cuba’s communist government.
McSpedon and his team of high-tech contractors had come in from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Washington and Denver. Their mission: to launch a messaging network that could reach hundreds of thousands of Cubans. To hide the network from the Cuban government, they would set up a byzantine system of front companies using a Cayman Islands bank account, and recruit unsuspecting executives who would not be told of the company’s ties to the US government.
McSpedon didn’t work for the CIA. This was a program paid for and run by the US Agency for International Development, best known for overseeing billions of dollars in US humanitarian aid.
According to documents obtained by the Associated Press and multiple interviews with people involved in the project, the plan was to develop a bare-bones “Cuban Twitter,” using cellphone text messaging to evade Cuba’s strict control of information and its stranglehold restrictions over the internet. In a play on Twitter, it was called ZunZuneo — slang for a Cuban hummingbird’s tweet.
Documents show the US government planned to build a subscriber base through “non-controversial content”: news messages on soccer, music, and hurricane updates. Later when the network reached a critical mass of subscribers, perhaps hundreds of thousands, operators would introduce political content aimed at inspiring Cubans to organize “smart mobs” — mass gatherings called at a moment’s notice that might trigger a Cuban spring, or, as one USAid document put it, “renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society.”
At its peak, the project drew in more than 40,000 Cubans to share news and exchange opinions. But its subscribers were never aware it was created by the US government, or that American contractors were gathering their private data in the hope that it might be used for political purposes.
“There will be absolutely no mention of United States government involvement,” according to a 2010 memo from Mobile Accord, one of the project’s contractors. “This is absolutely crucial for the long-term success of the service and to ensure the success of the Mission.”
The program’s legality is unclear: US law requires that any covert action by a federal agency must have a presidential authorization. Officials at USAid would not say who had approved the program or whether the White House was aware of it. McSpedon, the most senior official named in the documents obtained by the AP, is a mid-level manager who declined to comment.
Why wasn’t CNN outraged by this? Where was Drew Griffin on people’s lawns? How come MSNBC didn’t have 24/7 coverage of this?
Was just telling my students about this and many other examples. Recently Obama attempted to throw the Israeli election. We do it all the time then act so outraged when others do. Is hypocrisy a prerequisite for government “service”?