******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ********************
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*****************************************************************
Just received this comment on my post about this strange story:
Louis - Very interesting piece. I thought of you when I read the article
yesterday morning (I subscribe to the Post). My background is in the
history of Soviet/Russian security operations and I speak Russian. I
studied under John Dziak at George Washington University & Georgetown,
and also Ray Rocca. Dziak was the senior Soviet analyst for some years
at DIA and Rocca was Deputy Chief of Counterintelligence at CIA for a
long time and a mentor to Dziak. Rocca personally knew all the defectors
from the early Soviet period and was a great historian of the Cheka.
What I think you are missing in focusing on the Russian operative known
as Alice is that this individual is but a small part of a much larger
program of deception, disruption and disinformation on the part of the
Russians. It isn't just limited to planting articles in publications.
It's a broad-based program to disrupt and take advantage of our open
system and incite political conflict. One of their most effective
tactics is to co-opt people, organizations, and criminals. Most of the
GRU's and FSB's top hackers are criminals that were facing serious jail
time for using their skills to steal money in Russia. And take
Wikileaks. You will recall when Wikileaks first came on the scene some
years ago they promised to leak Russian secrets as well as US ones. A
Russian official physically threatened Asange in a public statement and
we never did get the Russian secrets. Yet just a few months later
Assange had a tv show on RT. Coincidence? My favorite part of the Post
article was when the U.S. went to Europe with their little presentation
and the Euros laughed at them and said they had told them about all this
two years before. People here in the US just do not understand how
Russia operates. Deception has always been a favorite weapon and they
are very good at it. You mentioned once that you have Netflix. Watch the
Norwegian miniseries "Occupied." That really shows the kind of stuff
they practice and why Europeans are much more aware of the problem than
we are. Finally I will address Curt's post in which he says it's no big
deal that Alice is a fake name. Well if it's no big deal, then why
bother using a fake name? Why bother having trolls go to the comments
sections of major newspapers in droves and pretend they are Americans?
Why not just say "I'm a Russian and here is what I think."? Why is it
that Russia feels the need to continually run deception operations on a
massive scale, something that no other country in the world does? That's
the bigger issue here, not just that some GRU or FSB operative planted a
few articles. It a very serious issue that most Americans, even in
government just don't understand at any level. One other recommendation
to get an understanding of Russian deception is the classic book "The
Conspirators" by G. Bailey. It's the story of the most famous Russian
deception operation of all time, The Trust, which caused huge damage to
anti-Soviet organizations in the early days of the Soviet regime. It's
considered the prototype of all deception operations and is critical in
understanding Russia's use of this weapon.
_________________________________________________________
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at:
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
