Russia's Active Measures Directorate

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   GA Andersonposted 7 years ago

   Note: I pulled this from Promisem's thread after I realized I had hijacked his topic.
   
   
   
   Hello Will, interesting timing on your post. I have been pondering opening a thread on this topic - regarding Russian attempts to influence U.S. elections and public opinion.
   
   Just finished a book about super-spy Robert Hanson; The Bureau and The Mole, by David A. Vise.
   
   During the timeline of the book, around 1990, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, they redirected their efforts from building for a military effort for victory, which they then understood to be not possible, to a propaganda and influence campaign. A new 'Active Measures Directorate', (or Division), was created. To emphasize the importance they placed on these efforts - the Directorate was unbudgeted, they could spend whatever they needed.
   
   Examples of their efforts included subversion of so-called Main Stream Medias - globally. For instance; in the U.S. they had spies tasked to penetrate and influence U.S. media using a two-prong attack; 1) provide disinformation to cast the Soviet Union in a better light to our sway our public opinion - "Shucks, the Ruskies ain't so bad." and 2) to plant negative stories that caused public mistrust of our own media.
   
   One example of their global effort, which missed no opportunities, was their supportive European efforts for a Dutch photographer's book that consisted of negative images of the poorest and most desperate peoples and regions of the United States. Their successful efforts propagated a negative image of the U.S. to the European public.
   
   They, (the Soviets), viewed these efforts as so important that the Active Measures Directorate was separate and superior to their already substantial Cyber Efforts Directorate, and their Propaganda Divisions - which were placed under the umbrella of the Active measures Directorate.
   
   The point of that long explanation was to validate your point, and suggest that your link's author, although correct in points, was almost two decades late in the timing of when these efforts started. It began in 1990, not 2008.
   
   Food for thought for folks that think 2016 was a new Russian initiative.
   
   GA

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      dianetrotterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      And the FBI is not going to lie for the WH!

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      Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      It is worth reading RT and Sputnik from time to time. These are not covert and I wouldn't catagorise them as false news, either, but they put a very sophisticated and plausible spin on Kremlin policies. A lot of resources go into Russia's propaganda efforts.
      
      The ultimate aim is to split the US from Europe and both of those from Far East allies. If Japan and a couple of major European powers took a serious nationalist route, rejected Nato and the US world view, the US would find it was suddenly a regional power, not a world power.
      
      That scenario is not impossible to imagine.

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         ptosisposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         RT is the Russian version of Faux News & is definitely fake. But yes, good to watch, it's easy  - whatever they say the opposite is most likely true.
         
         I trust Al Jazeera more so than CNN, used to like VICE news but they were bought out and sold out.
         Rupert Murdoch buys into alternative media with a $70m slice of Vice News. Everybody complaining about fake news when it's the ilk like Murdoch who controls the majority of all news.
         
         Concentration of media ownership = # MediaOligopoly
         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentra … p#Top_Five

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            Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I was impressed by Al Jazeera when it first launched. They stole the best journalists from the BBC and gave them huge budgets to get out into the world and do real journalism.
            
            Conflict in a remote corner of Peru? There was Al Jazeera interviewing those affected and producing a measured thirty minute segment. Diamond smuggling in the deserts of Namibia, squabble over land rights in the Australian outback, endangered species at the bottom of the Marianas Trench? You could hardly move for Al Jazeera film crews.
            
            Problem is you need deep emotional reserves to deal with all that suffering and I just don't have them.
            
            I accept the grim nature of the struggle for survival but can only focus on small sections at a time.
            
            I also need plenty of drinking time, lol.

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