New documents reveal a covert British military-intelligence smear machine meddling in American politics
The
Integrity Initiative has mobilized an international disinformation
campaign across Europe. Now, with government and right-wing
foundation money, this massive “political smear unit” is
infiltrating the US.
by
Max Blumenthal and Mark Ames
Part
3 - Lessons from “the man who sold the war”
A newly
released Integrity Initiative document reveals that the outfit
plans an aggressive expansion across the US.
The
Integrity Initiative claims to have already established a
“simple office” in Washington DC, though it does not say where.
It also boasts of partnerships with top DC think tanks like the
Atlantic Council, the Center for European Policy Analysis,
CNA, and close relationships with US officials.
A major
hub of Integrity Initiative influence is the State
Department’s Global Engagement Center, a de facto US
government propaganda operation that was established by President
Barack Obama to battle online ISIS recruitment, but which was rapidly
repurposed to counter Russian disinformation following the election
of Trump.
The
Integrity Initiative has also recruited one of the most
infamous American PR men to organize its clusters of journalists and
political figures.
He is
John Rendon, best known as “The Man Who Sold The War” — several
wars, in fact, but most notoriously the Iraq invasion. Rendon was the
self-described “information warrior” who planted fake news in the
major US-UK media about non-existent WMD threats. With deep ties to
the CIA and other military-intelligence agencies, his PR firm was
paid $100 million to organize and sell Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi
National Congress. In 2002, the New York Times
exposed a Pentagon program using Rendon to plant “disinformation”
— including “false stories” and “the blackest of black PR”
— in media outlets around the world, in order to shape public
opinion and sell the Iraq invasion.
Journalist
James Bamford outlined a catalogue of disinformation feats Rendon
performed for the Pentagon, such as identifying “the biases of
specific journalists and potentially obtain an understanding of their
allegiances, including the possibility of specific relationships and
sponsorships.” Bamford also found proposals and programs Rendon
was involved in that aimed to “’coerce’ foreign journalists
and plant false information overseas… [and] find ways to ‘punish’
those who convey the ‘wrong message.’”
These
tactics seem particularly relevant to his work with the Integrity
Initiative, especially considering the internal documents that
reveal further Rendon-style plans to produce reports and studies to
be “fed anonymously into local media.” (Among the outlets
listed as friendly hosts in Integrity Initiative internal
memos are Buzzfeed and El Pais, the center-left Spanish
daily.)
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