Politico, the most read “Capitol Hill” publication online, has released an investigation arguing that Veterans Today and SouthFront are shaking pillars of American society, foremost among them the military.
From our own point of view the article written by Ben Schreckinger provides another evidence of a high evaluation of our collaborative effort by mainstream media outlets and think tanks funded by corporates and governments. It explains why more and more people turn away from the mainstream coverage and analysis of the military and geo-political issues of our time.
SouthFront provides a full text of Politico’s investigative report (LINK):
“How Russia targets the U.S. Military. With hacks, pro-Putin trolls and fake news, the Kremlin is ratcheting up its efforts to turn American servicemembers and veterans into a fifth column.”
In the fall of 2013, Veterans Today, a fringe American news site that also offers former service members help finding jobs and paying medical bills, struck up a new partnership. It began posting content from New Eastern Outlook, a geopolitical journal published by the government-chartered Russian Academy of Sciences, and running headlines like “Ukraine’s Ku Klux Klan — NATO’s New Ally.” As the United States confronted Russian ally Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons against Syrian children this spring, the site trumpeted, “Proof: Turkey Did 2013 Sarin Attack and Did This One Too” and “Exclusive: Trump Apologized to Russia for Syria Attack.”
In recent years, intelligence experts say, Russia has dramatically increased its “active measures” — a form of political warfare that includes disinformation, propaganda and compromising leaders with bribes and blackmail — against the United States. Thus far, congressional committees, law enforcement investigations and press scrutiny have focused on Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s successful efforts to disrupt the American political process. But a review of the available evidence and the accounts of Kremlin watchers make clear that the Russian government is using the same playbook against other pillars of American society, foremost among them the military. Experts warn that effort, which has received far less attention, has the potential to hobble the ability of the armed forces to clearly assess Putin’s intentions and effectively counter future Russian aggression.
In addition to propaganda designed to influence service members and veterans, Russian state actors are friending service members on Facebook while posing as attractive young women to gather intelligence and targeting the Twitter accounts of Defense Department employees with highly customized “phishing” attacks. The same Russian military hacking group that breached the Democratic National Committee, “Fancy Bear,” was also responsible for publicly posting stolen Army data online while posing as supporters of the Islamic State in 2015, according to the findings of one cybersecurity firm. And the hacking group’s most common target for phishing attacks in the West has been military personnel, with service members’ spouses making up another prominent target demographic, according to another cybersecurity firm.
While the military and its contractors have long been the targets of cyberattacks from hostile foreign powers, the Russian campaign is noteworthy for its heightened intensity, especially since the imposition of Western economic sanctions following the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and for the novel tactics it is employing online. All of it amounts to a new kind of low-intensity or “hybrid” warfare that Western governments are still struggling to effectively counter.
“We are focused on the azalea bushes at the edge of a redwood forest,” said retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, who stepped down last June after three years as supreme allied commander of NATO, where he witnessed a surge in Russian active measures against Baltic states and in efforts to spread negative disinformation about the alliance’s soldiers stationed in Europe.
The active measures campaign has followed Breedlove home and into retirement. In July, emails hacked from his Gmail account were published on the Russian front site DC Leaks, and Breedlove said he was recently targeted with a series of more than a dozen sophisticated phishing emails purporting to come from his bank. Breedlove declined to name his bank but said it is used by the majority of his fellow officers, leading him to conclude the motives of the phishing attack were political rather than financial. “What Russia is doing across the gamut from our internal audiences to military audiences and others,” he said, “is quite astronomical.”
***
In the 20th century, intelligence agencies looking to build ties with foreign soldiers might have gone through the trouble of sending agents out to watering holes near military bases, waiting for servicemen to show up and gaining their trust one drink at a time.
Now, social media makes it cheap and easy to target soldiers and veterans in their virtual hangouts for intelligence gathering and influence campaigns.
John Bambenek, a threat intelligence manager at Fidelis Cybersecurity, whose work has included investigating the DNC breach, said Russia is one of several foreign powers using social media lures to gather intelligence on the U.S. military. “Some are quite unsophisticated (attractive women sending friend requests), some get more complicated,” he wrote in an email. “Spies understand that a great deal can be discerned about what militaries are up to based on the unclassified behavior of soldiers.”
Forming connections on social media could help foreign states directly communicate with groups of American soldiers, a tactic employed in recent conflicts by both Russia and the U.S. During the first days of the annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian soldiers were bombarded with demoralizing text messages such as, “Soldier you are just a raw meat for your commanders.” Ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military emailed Iraqi soldiers en masse, encouraging them to surrender, according to Richard Clarke’s 2010 book, “Cyber War.”
The Pentagon is clearly worried. Defense Department spokeswoman Linda Rojas declined to comment on specific activities, but said new technologies have made the military more vulnerable in cyberspace. “The proliferation of internet-based communications and social media applications has elevated the potential for nefarious use that could affect our personnel,” she wrote in an email. Rojas also said the military was working to address the mounting threats posed by hacking and online influence operations. “We make every effort to educate and inform DoD personnel of these threats, while bolstering our network defense capabilities to protect IT infrastructure from outside intrusions,” she wrote.
Becoming Facebook friends with American soldiers also gives foreign agents the ability to post propaganda that will show up on their news feeds.
Serena Moring, a former military contractor from a military family, said she first became concerned about pro-Russian sentiment among soldiers on social media last spring, when an unverified report purporting to relate the story of a Russian soldier who died heroically while fighting ISIS in Syria began circulating among American service members on social media.
“All of the response from the military guys was like, ‘That is awesome. That’s an epic way to die,’” recounted Moring, 39. “It was a very soldier-to-soldier bond that was created through social media.”
Moring said she has become further alarmed as friends of hers in the military, including military intelligence, have become avowed admirers of Putin, and that she now expends considerable effort arguing about Russia on Instagram and Facebook channels geared to military audiences.
In the Wild West of social media, it is difficult to sort out pro-Russian sentiment that is organic—Putin’s approval rating has surged among U.S. Republicans since 2015, and he is often the subject of positive coverage in right-leaning outlets like Fox News—from that which is manufactured. But Breedlove said much of the sentiment is being generated by a concerted Kremlin influence campaign. “People popping up on veterans’ sites and singing the praises of Putin, you can guarantee those are trolls and part of the army that’s sitting over there attacking us every day,” he said.
***
Putin has made the creation of a pro-Russian “alternative media ecosystem” to, in his words, smash “the Anglo-Saxon monopoly on the information stream” a top priority of his foreign policy. A significant prong of those operations is aimed at the American military community, and the Russian activity has ramped up in recent years as tensions have increased over sanctions, the annexation of Crimea and the expansion of NATO.
Veterans Today is a homegrown American site that was founded in 2003 in opposition to the invasion of Iraq and soon began publishing wild conspiracy theories. Before it partnered with Russia’s New Eastern Outlook in 2013, it had forged ties with Iran’s state-backed PressTV and counted among its editorial board of directors a former head of Pakistan’s intelligence services, publishing headlines like, “Israeli death squads involved in Sandy Hook bloodbath” and “Water Terrorism by India to Overawe Pakistan.”
New Eastern Outlook “chose to work with VT after following us for a while and seeing us for the unique platform that we are,” Veterans Today managing editor Jim Dean explained in an article about the arrangement. He described it as a “marriage made in heaven.”
A Veterans Today bio for Dean lists several relatives and ancestors who served in the military and describes his membership in several military-themed groups but does not indicate he himself has served. The site’s chairman, Gordon Duff, served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam and began contributing to the site in 2008. In one 2012 interview, he stated, “About 30% of what’s written on Veterans Today, is patently false. About 40% of what I write, is at least purposely, partially false, because if I didn’t write false information I wouldn’t be alive.”
Veterans Today is the flagship property of the “Veterans Today Network,” which includes a jobs board, a cancer foundation and a sister site, Veterans News Now, which describes itself as “an independent online journal representing the positions and providing news for members of the military and veteran community.” The network is also affiliated with the Veterans Housing & Education Foundation, which has the stated goal of raising $500 million in five years.
A form on VeteransTodayCancerFoundation.org, which as of this writing was down for maintenance, invited veterans in need to request help by filling out a form that asked them to submit personal details, including the handles for their social media accounts.
An administrator for the Veterans Today Network who asked that his name not be used said that the jobs board, HireVeterans.com, currently has 35,000 active résumés in its system and that it has partnered with “major companies in the U.S. in helping them find veterans for employment.” The jobs board lists dozens of featured employers — including Bank of America, Merck, Geico and Westinghouse — that according to the administrator have purchased premium annual memberships. A 2011 article by Fox Business recommends the jobs board to employers.
The administrator said that though Veterans Today and the jobs board were both owned by Success Spear, there would be no way for foreign states to access veterans’ personal information via their partnerships with Veterans Today. The administrator said the cancer foundation had not yet fully launched.
In October 2013, at the same time that Veterans Today began publishing content from New Eastern Outlook, its sister site Veterans News Now began publishing content from the Strategic Culture Foundation, a Moscow think tank run by Yuri Profokiev, a former head of Moscow’s Communist Party and member of the Soviet Politburo.
In October 2015, Veterans Today also partnered with a slickly designed, anonymously authored military affairs website called South Front that had been registered in Moscow that April just as Russia was ramping up its influence operations in response to Western sanctions.
Since then, the site has consistently published articles that push the Kremlin party line, both from its Russian partner and its own contributors. Now, in addition to learning about “The Coming Shift to Cosmic Fascism,” readers who cruise to Veterans Today — which has 45,000 Facebook followers and claims more than 900,000 unique visitors per month — to catch up on the news or to check out the free services offered to veterans can read headlines like “Pravda: Ukraine indignant at 80% of Jews in power” and “Trump Humiliated: Syria Shoots Down 34 of 59 Cruise Missiles, Russia to Upgrade System Soon.” Recent contributions from South Front include “U.S. Suffers Reverses as Trump’s Plan to Aid Terrorists is Realized by Russia” and “The Political Uses Of Russophobia.” And recent contributions from New Eastern Outlook include, “If NATO wants peace and stability it should stay home” and “Brussels, NATO and the Globalists in Total Disarray.”
In late 2014, Duff and Dean attended a counterterrorism conference in Damascus at which Duff proclaimed to delegates from Russia, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon his theory that “the U.S. government is subservient to a worldwide criminal organization.” This March, the Veterans Today chairman attended a “VT Reception” in Damascus at which attendees gave speeches flanked by over-sized portraits of Assad and Putin, according to video he published on YouTube. Duff did not respond to a question about whether any foreign entities had been involved in funding his travel to Syria.
A State Department expert in Russian influence campaigns who was not authorized to speak on the record said he had taken note of Veterans Today’s partnership with New Eastern Outlook and that Southfront appears to be a Russian front that deliberately obscures its origins. The expert also described the Strategic Culture Foundation as a part of the Kremlin’s influence apparatus and noted that Russia has long sought to amplify the voices of Western conspiracy theorists.
Kate Starbird, a professor at the University of Washington who has studied the role of Veterans Today in the Russia-aligned “alternative media ecosystem,” described the website as an “active partner” in the dissemination of Russian propaganda.
Despite the often far-fetched claims and clunky feel of Veterans Today and other outlets used by Russian propagandists, Starbird said she has come to consider them potentially potent vehicles for disinformation. “I used to think it, and others like it, were quite fringe,” she said. “But the intentional targeting of U.S. military, active and retired, seems to be a strategy of information war. I have anecdotes from friends, family members and now strangers who tell me about their family members who are deeply engrossed in this information ecosystem.”
Joel Harding, a former Army intelligence officer who now works as independent researcher, describes Veterans Today, Veterans News Now and South Front as “Russian proxy sites.” Harding said that in combination with other components of Russian influence efforts, the sites could successfully influence the military community over the long term. “Veterans Today and Veterans News Now will not cause soldiers, Marines, airmen, or seamen to defect or become pro-Russian, not by themselves,” he said. “But if someone regards them as a reliable source of truthful information, does not recognize that they are pushing Russian propaganda or information with a pro-Russian perspective, over time they will change.”
In an email, representatives of South Front who did not provide their names said the site has no links to the Russian government. They suggested that identifying South Front as part of the Kremlin’s influence apparatus would run contrary to the principles of freedom of speech and be discriminatory against Russians (one common tactic of Russian influence operations is to invoke Western values in their efforts to undermine Western societies). The Strategic Culture Foundation did not respond to messages requesting comment and emails sent to the contact address provided by New Eastern Outlook were rejected by the journal’s web servers.
Dean said he was not aware that researchers had identified Veterans Today as a vehicle for Russian propaganda. “We appreciate the publicity,” he wrote in an email. “Please ask them to keep up the good work.” He did not address a question about whether the site received funding from foreign entities. Debbie Menon, the Dubai-based, recently departed editor-in-chief of Veterans News Now did not respond to an email seeking comment.
***
In addition to influence operations, military personnel and veterans have been the subject of a disproportionate share of hacking attempts in Russia’s active measures campaign against the United States.
In fact, the Russian military hackers who breached the DNC appear to expend as much effort on current and former military personnel as on political targets. A security oversight by the hacking group, most commonly known as “Fancy Bear,” gave researchers a public window into the targets of thousands of its phishing attempts between March and September of 2015. Of the people targeted by Fancy Bear outside of the former Soviet Union, 41 percent were current or former members of the military, according to a report by cybersecurity firm SecureWorks. Authors and journalists made up 22 percent of Fancy Bear’s targets; NGOs, 10 percent; political activists, 4 percent; and government personnel, 8 percent. Of the journalists and authors targeted, more than one-fifth were spouses of military members who blog about military life.
The posting of hacked data, a novel tactic used in Russia’s assault on the American political system, has also been a component of the country’s active measures against the American military. Last summer, Russian hackers leaked emails stolen from Breedlove in an effort to embarrass NATO. And in 2015, a group calling itself Cyber Caliphate hijacked the Twitter account of the United States Central Command, directing the account’s followers to a site where the group had posted data stolen from the military. Cyber Caliphate purported to be supporters of ISIS, but in fact, this was a “false flag” designed to obscure the true identity of the perpetrator, which was Fancy Bear, according to a report by the Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro that said French authorities confirmed the firm’s own analysis fingering the Russian hacking group.
As Washington comes to terms with the scope of Russian active measures, the hacking campaign against the military continues. Last month, Time reported that American counterintelligence officials concluded in March that Russian hackers were targeting 10,000 Department of Defense employees with highly targeted messages on Twitter designed to trick them into downloading malware that could compromise their Twitter accounts, computers and phones.
***
While there is no expectation of a “Red Dawn”-style Russian invasion of the United States, the Kremlin’s active measures campaign has the potential to blunt the military’s ability and weaken its resolve to counter future Russian military aggression elsewhere.
The active measures are not targeting the military and political system in isolation, but as part of a broader effort to subvert Western institutions including the news media, financial markets and intelligence agencies. Because of its multidimensional nature and use of unconventional tactics, the U.S. government has struggled to effectively combat the effort. “This is obviously a really difficult challenge and a lot of people are worried that our response to date hasn’t been effective,” said one expert on active measures who recently testified on the issue before Congress.
And rather than abating after the presidential election, these campaigns have only continued to get more brazen, according to Strategic Cyber Ventures CEO Tom Kellermann, who has watched them closely.
In May and June of 2015, Kellermann, who was then the chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro, said the firm warned the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that Kremlin hackers had drawn up a list of 2,300 people, comprising the most powerful leaders in Washington and New York along with their spouses and lovers to target with a concerted hacking campaign. Kellermann said he does not know whether the government acted on the tip, which warned that the hackers had the ability to turn on microphones and cameras on the personal devices of their targets to obtain sensitive information about their personal lives. But he believes the campaign has successfully compromised American leaders, emboldening the Kremlin. “When you wonder why certain people act certain ways,” he said, “You have to remember these people have been warned that their dirty laundry could be aired.” (Spokespeople for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI declined to comment.)
Kellermann cited the activities of the Shadow Brokers, a hacking group believed to be Kremlin-backed that began publishing data stolen from the NSA last summer and most recently published a leak in April. The upticks in online attacks are harbingers of armed aggression, said Kellermann, who predicted that conflict between the United States and Russia was most likely to break out in the Baltic region.
“I’m very, very concerned,” he said. “Cyberspace is always the precursor to kinetic reality.”
Shawn Musgrave and Andrew Hanna contributed to this report.
First of all, we’d like to thank Politico because they, as journalists, thought it necessary to contact us while preparing the article. Naturally, the final draft either omits or distorts the answers they received. But these are minor details, the customary double standards used by mainstream media (MSM).
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We are, however, astounded by something else. Is it really true that top US experts and journalists actually believe that SouthFront and Veterans Today represent a significant threat to the US military? To its morale? And merely because these sites publish information that causes discomfort in the State Department, Pentagon, or the CIA? If so, this leaves only two possibilities.
- The US society and system of government have deteriorated to such an extent that any alternative assessment of military and political activity, any neutral depiction of combat operations, is seen as a breath of fresh air in the smog of MSM lies. The principles of democracy have been discredited, and double standards are apparent to all. The people are rapidly losing faith in America’s global mission. In their government’s efforts to protect freedom and justice, rather than mere clan interests of the financial elites. If that’s the case, it is the veterans and military servicemembers who are the most vulnerable. They are the ones who were sent to the combat zones. They have seen the results of US policies overseas with their own eyes, and now they are observing them at home. They are much more resistant to being engulfed by the matrix of MSM virtual reality. Moreover, they are men and women of action. In such circumstances, even the weak voice of SouthFront should cause panic among the US political establishment.
- The other possibility is hardly better. The mainstream expert community is no longer able to discern societal trends. It is acting like a frightened ostrich who sticks his head in the nearest, pardon the expression, pile of manure. It has convinced itself that societies stopped developing. From now on, content Americans will do nothing more than silently watch the political spectacle being enacted by professional actors. But it is not so. We believe that it is precisely that kind of perception of reality which represents the main threat to the United States. Those who call themselves the elites have separated themselves from the people and stopped respecting it. But while this state of affairs can continue for a lengthy time in countries with a short history of democracy, in the US it will quite predictably bring about protest, both within and without.
This is likely the reason the alternative positions expressed by SF and VT attract audience interest. The SF project is a form of civil society, in the main of volunteer nature. Its participants are the most ordinary citizens of the US, EU member states, Russian Federation, and other countries.
Politico experts err in the sense that SF is not attempting to create problems in the US military or society but are merely casting light on what already exists. We are interested in, and want, global stability, which is impossible without stability of the US itself.
But let’s back to the claims of SF content threatening US interests, which is the assessment of Politico, The Washington Post, and of DOD and State Department spokespeople. We’d like to draw the attention of our esteemed opponents to the fact that SF is trying to provide objective coverage of military activities. If there are US, Coalition, or US-controlled proxy force successes in Iraq or Syria, we always inform our audience of them, just as we do of their failures. This, we feel, is the main distinction between SF and mainstream media, both Western and Russian ones. Both provide only a one-sided coverage of events. Some members of our team believe that’s the reason this project has received a silent treatment by the Russian mainstream media.
As far as military and political analysis goes, we already stated above that our point of view often fails to coincide with that of official Washington, Moscow, Ankara, and others.
Concerning Politico’s claim the site is registered in Moscow, we’ll take this opportunity to explain to our dear friends in Politico certain peculiarities of the contemporary digital society. Yes, it’s true that the SF domain was obtained (and registered) using the official Russian domain registrator Reg.ru. This was done because it was more convenient for those team members who registered a new domain 2 years ago. Therefore the site contains contact information of Reg.ru’s office in Moscow, not of SouthFront. Internet allows one to obtain the domain you want from nearly any corner of the world, using nearly every registrator available. SouthFront uses a variety of services in its work, some of them based in the US, others in Russia or yet other countries. We are, after all, living in the Information Age. And yes, the SF team includes both US and Russian citizens.
Finally, we are amazed by Politico’s statements concerning anonymity. In the course of our correspondence, we received that question and provided an extended answer. One can find names of many members of our team on the SF site. The fact that much of our material has no byline simply means it’s a news item, or an editorial piece that expresses the view of the entire project. As far as we know, it is consistent with journalism standards.
In any event, we’d like to take the opportunity to thank Politico one more time for at least their desire to understand the opposing team.
Welp, they just advertised the soul out you. As Trump had proven in the election, any coverage is good coverage.
Even BAD Publicity is Good Publicity. Hope now we get more People to read and watch your Stuff,Hope for the Best for You!
Goddamn! Putin must be the most effective efficient leader of any country anywhere, anytime, to exert this much influence across the world at a fraction of the budget and cost that the US literally showers into its intelligence and information warfare divisions. Just like Assad excels at providing awesome education to very young children, as his school system (in wartime) manages to let 7 year olds compose perfect tweets in English.
Imagine what he could do with the US budget. He’d be Emperor Putin of the World within a week.
Should’ve just told them to fuck off…
I would. ^.^
President Putin is educated and realises in light of the Stalin era that the public cannot be fooled by government lies for long. Truth is the best propaganda.
The US governments since ( and probably before ) WW2 have told ever greater lies. The US Veterans have seen what is really going on and feel betrayed I am sure.
Southfont and other similar news portals show events as they are and not the Hollywood fantasies of the US Government. TRUTH is a potent weapon against fantasy and lies.
Yep. “Truth stands alone. Only lies need government support” – Thomas Jefferson
Another beauty. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d12b8e6a41fc13256133f5ac0a05e09f6879f2a2a5dbb4379e8106d31e358ab1.jpg
Ryan Dawson also supports SF and is hostile to the Veterans, says they are Zino with a mask also says that about Wikileaks, but they all do a good job, rivalry about audience share is a big factor, they all heavily support marketing it could go big with Patreon taking on Facebook, that is if Allah wants it to.
Dammit the Amerikanski’s are on to us! Shut it down comrades, I’ll call the Kremlin for extraction asap.
You said that one hour ago comrade! They already rendered Boris and Natasha and Ivan never came back from his meeting with Trump…hurry up and get us out of here!
I told you Ivanka and Boris and others should have changed their names to WEST European names! It was too easy to see through!
Cool…Recomendations from the shill on the hill. What a bunch of maroons.
So one guy (the evil Mr. Putin) hires himself a “troll army” and a couple of “hackers” and sends them on a cybermission to go “phish” and, uh, “post comments” in America’s digital ocean. As a backup the mad Pooteen launches a few “fake news” websites that offer opinions so powerful they mindfuck the great American people, confound their leaders and bring the mighty Empire to its knees.
Get the American people emotionally roused and you can feed them all kinds of BS and nonsensical baloney and they will believe every word of it. lmao
I skimmed the article because of it’s length and time constraints. I’ve read some real whoppers at VT and found their comment moderation policy to be very aggressive, restrictive and truth suppressive. I’m not sure what to think about South Front, but so far I think that it’s a lot more objective than VT. With excellent Syria war coverage.
None better for Syria than here
VT is just too weird. If Duff was quoted accurate in the Politico article nothing he says can be trusted.
I’ve done a lot of ET contact work, and with the technology that I’ve run into, what seems like magic and impossible to us, is possible for them. So I take the weird factor with a wide latitude and try to apply the scientific method of hypothesis, theory and fact proven with dependable repeatability in properly certified testing laboratorys and real life examples, and judicial standards of evidence using the different grades of court admissible evidence up to prima facia.
I also take metaphysics into consideration in instances where something is happening, but it can’t be explained because our science and technology isn’t sufficiently advanced. Because over time some of what was metaphysics has been proven as science advanced, some has been disproven, and some remains neither proven or disproven.
For instance, people like Tesla and Cray claimed to have ET involvement in their work that helped them with their advances. My mental catharsis has transitioned to the point where I’m looking at information in my minds eye that is like looking at computer screens. I’m writing this on a 6 24 inch screen 3 over 3 trading computer. And it’s similar to looking at my work station except in my minds eye. It isn’t something that’s usable at this stage, but it didn’t used to be like this before I got involved in contact work. So there may be a learning curve involved to be able to access the innernet to use off planet information grids. Such as talking to a ships computer.
The snow is melting down on the forest service road high passes back in the wilderness areas within driving distance from where I live, to the point where I can get over them in a 4×4 to do some overnight camping away from civilization in remote areas where ET contact can be established without causing a disturbance, assuming that it’s positive contact, which isn’t always the case. It’s necessary to make friend or foe, safe or unsafe assessments, such as if hazmat is a consideration, that I’m trained and certified in.
As my level of contact increases, I’m careful on how much information that I release to avoid negative consequences in my life. Even if I don’t break any laws or do anything immoral, there can still be suppression and negative activity. There’s also an occult facet that I avoid, but others don’t. So you have to be careful.
Duff and others at VT have significant credibility deficits in my opinion. Their writings on the VT site that I’ve read in real time as they were published don’t pass the scientific and judicial standards that I use to navigate my life on a day to day basis. A couple of examples, and there are others, are Duff’s statement that there are 40 million homeless in the US and Greenhalgh’s statement that Trump lost the general election with less than 30% of the popular vote. With no credible proof to support their statements, and a lot of evidence to the contrary. Maybe they’re using a twisted version of semantics to try to justify statements like that, but I haven’t read them if they are. I’m not currently visiting that site anymore.
Congratulations SouthFront! Well deserved recognition.
I agree with Politico. Southfront and other filth Putin trolls are turning some serivice members into fitth column
In that case, we respectfully ask you to FUCK OFF and don’t let the door slam into your rear as you leave….
Oy Vey, but isnt it the job of Hasbara trolls to throw shit at anything reporting the actual truth?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c55273e4d4e13a88a9e511463e7f5d6a8766480f47110cefdadb39a33e3c8bb.jpg
Mountain Dew taste bad very bad.
Your the Saudi/ Israël fifth column you ignorant Dick, you should change your Avatar to à mountain of shit . Go educate yourself sir
Then why are you even here? Take your obvious paid horseshit elsewhere…like to politico or some other such put-up non-sense outfit. To Gary, to hell with the ‘respectfully’ bit, he can just plain FO…the DA wouldn’t be here except that his paycheck depends on it.
No one is turned into a troll by the mind of another. The internet is a smorgasbord and there’s an amazing variety of opinion and expertise. I like South Front because it’s matter of fact and not hysterical. CounterPunch publishes reasonable stuff. I’ll read The Nation occasionally. VT puts my teeth on edge. I want to support alternative views but they do have to be reasonable.
You can tell whether an author is grounded in facts. Service members or girlfriends don’t turn into “fifth columnists” because their eyeballs saw some words on a screen.
In today’s US truth is a painful thing. It comes form living in MSM/CIA/Hollywood illusion world. Breedlove sounds like he is in an advanced state of paranoia. These people are paying the prize of the massive corruption they have been engaged in.
They have lost all of their marbles.
Gen. Breedlove (you f’king Israeli-firster traitor): I got an ‘active measure’ for you. It involves my boot and your ass
And Politico? I’ll remind you bastards that U.S. (and most other nation’s) veterans all have one very finely-honed skill from being in the military: we’re good at recognizing bullshit, especially political bullshit. In fact, the military of any nation is sort of a bullshit immersion program. We don’t need your God damn ‘safe spaces’ and we’re never going to believe the worthless MSM or politician spew anymore. Do you actually think we would go back to watching CNN if you could block us from alternative news sites? Jesus… you’re almost as stupid as the weaponized autists in DC that you write for.
Don’t presume any of us need your help to chose the ‘right’ flavor of bullshit. Self-serving politicians peddle only one flavor of bullshit and, frankly, we’ grew tired of it a long time ago. Think of us as bullshit free-rangers.
Nicely said!
Thanks, but it was a bit over the top. Who am *I* to disparage Politio and the article’s author, Ben Schreckinger? I’m just a random idiot on the internet, and he’s is a real, honest-to-goodness journalist. A quick search shows he’s published on a lot of prestigious sites, like Zionist Organization of America. Well, he actually just reposted his own Politico article on the ZOA site a few days later. But that’s certainly more than I can say for myself!
ZOA IN THE NEWS: Trump, Carson flop with Jewish Republicans Before Pro-Israel Activists
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16f9b2d01af6af4f88c60d6f6381e341c9367fd9bfced32058faa86f3b9273de.jpg
Thanks for warning me about those sneaky Rooski bastards, Ben. I almost fell for their cleverly-disguised propaganda here on South Front and could actually feel myself turning into a fifth columnist. Imagine that – a foreign power influencing MY America! Damn you, Putin! From now on, I’ll stick to trustworthy, legitimate American news sources, like Politico and Zionist Organization of America.
Looking at the Politico site, I see Ben Shreckinger did write a great article in April:
The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin
Interesting if you consider The Saker’s article from a year or so back and other authors that describe something of a Jewish mob war going on between two factions of powerful oligarchs: one that left post-USSR Russia for Israel/Ukraine and who remained in Russia and are friendly with Putin.
Shreckinger’s article seeks to connect Trump/Kushner with ‘Putin’s kind of Jews’ to impune Trump. Chabad has something to do with the Russian side – I won’t even pretend to know the soap opera that is Russian politics. I had a hard time following Saker’s article because there’s just so much going on.
This has little to do with Judaism and and everything to do with powerful criminal oligarchs. Whether or not you agree with his Trump-Jewish Mafia-Putin connect-the-dots, Shreckinger’s article may be of interest to anyone that followed the old Saker article.
http://www.conspiracyschool.com/blog/donald-trump-chabad-lubavitch-and-oligarchs Redux on Putin and Trump…is they are both beholden to Jewish Crime Oligarchs and The Chabad Lubavitch movement Jews. Have published online history side to the Masonic and Banker extortion which is Wars,revolutions,conflicts since 1700s. This Racket* as Gen Smedley Butler exposed. ..is still going strong today with various Oligarchy competing against other power groups with their Bankers. Ex…Russian Oligarchs are knee deep in the Blood of the Ukraine. It’s truly disturbing to see These grinning Lubavitch hovering around Putin and Trump ( Jared Kushner).
US soldiers and Russian are not dying by the hundreds each day like WW 2 The recent conflict tempos are much reduced. The history side reminds the Game will do battles like Antietam or Gettysburg. Or Dresden/Tokyo firestorms There seems to be no way to turn the machine off… It’s a shit sandwich.
Unfortunately for the City of London/Washington/Tel Aviv we own Weaponized Autism. Their Neets are defecting to us daily.
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Don’t do it, man…. Once opened, the portal to 4chan can never be sealed.
McCarthyism 2.0
No. McCarthyism was a great blessing. It was about identifying communists who had infiltrated our government. The real swine were the people who opposed McCarthy, the communists, fellow travelers, and useful idiots. McCarthy was a great patriot and the commies hated him with a passion.
South Fronts getting famous, no such thing as bad publicity :D
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Yeah well, 99% of the mainstream media is dominated by Zionists, who are, of course, pro-Israel (and Politico, also a Zionist news outlet, will never discuss that), so we need news organizations like Veterans Today and South Front, to present less biased information. And the comments below the articles of South Front show varied opinions. The Politico piece sounds like a recommendation to read South Front.
Sour grapes , like the Democrat’s who can’t believe the millions they spent on backing Hillary failed , Politico and the rest of the MSM , can’t stand that other view points still have an expression . Repeal of the “Smith – Mundt Act” , allowing the media to knowingly lie , might be a beginning .
Yes, but the Dems won 12 to 2 in the Congressional baseball game. See what they can do without Hillary ;)
Bernie would have won by a landslide , there wouldn’t be thousands of troops up and down the Russian border , gone from Syria , and definitely not heading back into Afghanistan . Trump is entertaining , your right though , baseball is better .
Do I hear barking from the pompous assholes in suits in musty think tank information monopoly dungeons in Washington? Wasn’t it Orwell who said something to the tune that telling the truth in a world filled by lies is a revolutionary act? Keep up the great job!
Congratulations , SF-Team ! This article from “politico” is to compare to an “Imprimatur” from the pope in times of Galileo. The beast couldn´t have made it better. Now you are on the official list of enemies of the swamp !
VeteransToday is a disinformation site. 90% truth and 10% CIA fake news.
SouthFront’s reprinting of ZeroHedge articles – 90% click-baity nonsense, 10% good journalism – is very troubblesome.
You again, let southfront Do its thing, it obviously works. And its better than MSM wich is 100% fake. Bé thankful for the wonderful work the southfront project is doing on a limited budget. Thank you for your understanding
If I wouldn’t appreciate SouthFront’s work I wouldn’t even bother to write. What I tell SouthFront is what I would tell to anyone I care of:
– Be careful who you associate with, it could be your down-fall. – When Zion-media starts praising you by fake-condemning you, something is fishy.
Hi Éric
Thanks for replying to me in such à courteous manner, I will reciprocate in the future.
I understand your point of view it is wise.
I dont think that was à fake condemnation thogh, I think thé establishement is scared of us, the awaken. But at the same time were so few.
I’m 34, I work with alot of guys on There 20’s and 30’s. Most of them are addicted to facebook Snapchat instagram and whatever other crap There is out there. Most of the people dont give à fuck about the real world, because reality has become distorted through our lying gouvernement,media, and social media.
The zios know this, thats why they are shitting on southfront for example, because we here have décent analysis that does not follow the mainstream.
Its all about control.
I dont know zerohedge, but it seems you have a hate on for Them. Why? I want to bé objective in this excercise.
Thank you sir
ZeroHedge use to be very good, specially for finance and economical stuff. Now they have become very trashy and clickbaity. But they are very fast and when a big story breaks, they are often among the first, with good insider info.
I get the impression that you are doing very well, Concrete Mike. Planet Earth is the place to be, sol let’s enjoy the ride. Take care!
Not really. It’s good to know what kind of bullshit the enemy is up to. I just read 2 articles from them on BLN and most everyone saw the blatant bullshit stated as fact and no one was fooled. That, in turn, generated more info from commenters disproving or at the least challenging their assertions…in the end spreading more truth.
Yeah, but none of them preached there were WMDs in Iraq like the “respectable” NY Times ;)
Disinformation happens on different levels. People find out the ‘their’ NYT gets more and more disgusting and look for other information sources. And they find them – infiltrated by the powers that be as well ;)
Dears Adm.
I would prefare You made a short version and made a link to details.
Im a good reader, but writing like 2 bibles and more to it is too much. Im aware its complicated stuff.
Dear southfront dont dumb it down like this commenter requested, every détail counts!!! Keep Up the great work, together as global patriots we Shall prevail
you can always read something else.
hehe Yeah, SF the Pirates on Potomac, in the District of Criminals, in the Imperial banana republic uISISa, have started to whine, buhu, yeah, poor wankees, cant have everything their way, and resorts to stupidity’s so lame it actually hurts. And this from Politico, the dungeon of the net, whom, have feed the void with bullshit for so long it actually believes its own scams, aka AGW and so on, and now the “humanitarian” interventions, aka bombing anyone back to the stone age, and “helps” to control and, even better “secure” and then “invest” in the local resources, yeah, like the local mob, whom kicks your door in an wants you to pay for protection, and grabs half of your income.
Somehow, when we point this out, they start to whine, Afghanistan is all about resources, Lithium, and others even rarer, huh, and Heroin.
Troll army’s, hehe. not that I wouldn’t mind living in St. Petersburg (an f…. big city) , or somewhere in the region, all the way to Onega, I like Birch forests, in the borderline between them and Pines, and lakes. But otherwise, Dunka, dunka.
Again, Russia dont have to do anything else than tell the truth, no reasons for hiding things that anyway is in the open, be frank, but the Wankees, wants to control everything, incl whats going on, on the ground. We dont do anything else than comment, on this events, of course, we base our comments on an different historical pedigree, and that is obviously forgotten in the imperial banana republic. I cant help for your people been stupid, ignorant morons, CIA is an crime org, everybody knows it, what makes them function, and their range of control, is the fact that this Mafia org, runs/owns the uISISa Gov. Trump have reduced Him self to an mere Joke. The effect of this Mafias policy, is seen everywhere, the biggest difference this days, is that information goes much, much faster, the issues, haven’t clanged for century’s, where the uISISa have started over 200 wars, and whines about Iran been an existential threat to peace. You gotta be kidding, wankee. huh Tripping on Prozac is more lightly. Of course, it is and will be an massacre, stop lying, stop the wars, end the plundering, the scams, then I may stop commenting, so your pathetic little turd brain can work in peace.
Russians, what, Ukrainians, are bonkers, and that one makes my hart bleed, how on earth could that happen, the nazification of Ukraine, the war, and they are the same people, makes it more bizarre. I dont blame the Russians for anything, the Crimean nonsense is like the Russian hacking, nothing but bullshit, and everybody knows it. And by the way, I haven’t watched CNN (Clinton News Network) nor BBC (Bullshit,and Bollocks Constantly) for years, not an second, and have no intentions what so ever to do that either. And the last on is this, like the Palestinian rightful fight against the terror state Israel, and the sole difference, between Me and the MSM/politicians is that I dont have, nor needs, to Lie. I simply dont have to, but the opposition, lies about everything, all the time. And instead of admitting, you resort to whining, demanding censure, based upon emotions, like children refused candy, like snotty little spoiled brats.
And you whine, and demands us to be silent, because it hurts your feelings, huh, snowflakes. God, you are pathetic.
PS: they (the alphabet soup) know fully well whom I am, I know that, you know that, so what is it, does the name change anything, no, so shut up.
peace
We was warned: Roosevelt 29/4/1938 and Eisenhower 17/1/1961 and what they warned of has come to pass in the form of a new McCarthyism. Ironically, the first opponent of this McCarthyism II was the President himself, Donald John Trump, but he has proved resilient despite episodes of weakness, such as his capitulation on April 4th. His backing of Saudi Arabia also seems to be part of McCarthyism II, but his somewhat disorganized defiance of the MSM shows he’s still fighting. His blundering bluntness obviously appeals to many but it also reduces his effectiveness against McCarthyism II and makes him an easy target for all sorts of other issues (such as climate change). However, thanks to SouthFront, the spirit of Orwell lives on triumphant. Lang may yer lum reek!