This god-awful NATO tweet intended to trick Westerners into supporting Ukraine is a good reminder that Ukraine is the birthplace of the digital psyop. It's where the US State Department, intelligence agencies, and tech companies truly came together for the first digital coup. 1/
You have to start with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). By now, a lot of people are familiar with it, but it's worth starting here. 2/
On the surface, the NED is an NGO that promotes "civil society" around the world by, among other things, sponsoring and providing training for journalists and activists directly or indirectly. But it's actually an appendage of the intelligence community. 3/
Via ProPublica: "The National Endowment for Democracy was established by Congress, in effect, to take over the CIA's covert propaganda efforts. But, unlike the CIA, the NED promotes U.S. policy and interests openly." 4/ propublica.org
The NED's co-founder, Allen Weinstein, admitted as much. "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA," he said in 1991.
The point of the NED, in part, was to protect the intelligence community from humiliation. 5/ washingtonpost.com
The point of the NED, in part, was to protect the intelligence community from humiliation. 5/ washingtonpost.com
"The biggest difference is that when such activities are done overtly, the flap potential [i.e., the CIA being embarrassed by controversy] is close to zero."
An example of this was the Ramparts magazine scandal, a tiny New Left monthly publication that exposed the CIA. 6/
An example of this was the Ramparts magazine scandal, a tiny New Left monthly publication that exposed the CIA. 6/
In 1967, Ramparts humiliated the CIA by exposing that it had turned the National Student Association's international activities into "an arm of United States foreign policy" through undercover financing and secret collaboration. 7/ nytimes.com
The NED dramatically reduces the chances of that sort of scandal happening again. "Openness is its own protection," as Weinstein put it, and the NED openly advances the mission of the US establishment under the cover of fortifying "democracy."
Now back to Ukraine. 8/
Now back to Ukraine. 8/
Carl Gershman, who served as the NED's president from its founding in 1984 until 2021, called Ukraine "the biggest prize" in September 2013. 9/ washingtonpost.com
Victoria Nuland, then the US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said in Dec. 2013 that the US had invested more than *$5 billion* since 1991 to help Ukraine achieve "the future it deserves"--an effort that involved the NED. 10/ mearsheimer.com
Nuland's been described as the architect of US-Ukraine policy. She's a lunatic. The world would be better off with her in jail or an asylum. Until very recently, she was also a board member of the NED. She's also married to Robert Kagan, another loon. 11/
She served under Clinton from 1993 to 1996, played an influential role during the US invasion and occupation of Iraq as a key advisor to Cheney, and acted as US ambassador to NATO in Brussels from 2005 to 2008 and helped worsen tensions between Georgia and Russia there. 12/
Nuland is also notorious for her part in Ukraine's 2013-2014 "Maidan Uprising," a coup by color revolution that saw the country's government replaced with one approved by the US government. The NED was central to that $5 billion effort. 13/
Pictured in this article: then US Assistant Secretary of State Nuland handing out cookies and bread to cheering Maidan protesters.
Today, she's Biden's under secretary of state for political affairs. 14/ csmonitor.com
Today, she's Biden's under secretary of state for political affairs. 14/ csmonitor.com
The US-backed Maidan color revolution began in 2013, the same year then-NED president Gershman called Ukraine "the biggest prize," and the same year the US Embassy in Kiev hosted "TechCamp Kiev 2.0" at the Microsoft Ukraine Headquarters. 15/
March 1, 2013: "US Embassy Hosted TechCamp Kyiv 2.0 to Build Technological Capacity of Civil Society." This screams Washington influence operation with an eye toward regime change. 16/ #selection-1273.0-1273.13" target="_blank" rel="noopener" onclick="event.stopPropagation()">archive.is
The State Department bulletin said the program provided "hands-on training in a variety of areas ranging from fundraising using crowdsourcing, citizen journalism, PR tools for NGOs, Microsoft software and programs for NGOs, and more."
These are color revolution ingredients. 17/
These are color revolution ingredients. 17/
TechCamps supported the State Department's Civil Society 2.0 initiative. Officially, it was about digitally modernizing NGOs and civil society organizations. But by now, thanks to people like @DarrenJBeattie, people know what that actually means. 18/
TechCamps presented a digital tool for the State Department's favorite regime change model: engineering contested elections and seemingly grassroots civil unrest to disrupt and override legitimate elections and dislodge incumbent governments—aka as color revolutions. 19/
Key to Civil Society 2.0 was Jared Cohen, who served as a member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff from 2006 to 2010. In 2011, Cohen and then-Google executive Eric Schmidt told Financial Times about their plans to influence geopolitics with digital technology. 20/
Via Financial Times in 2011. The relationship between the US foreign policy establishment and tech--"digital tools for diplomacy"--is underappreciated. 21/ ft.com
Remember that the The Arab Spring was also nurtured by an array of institutes financed through the NED. 22/ nytimes.com
When Fast Company covered Civil Society 2.0., it credited "electronic evangelists like Jared Cohen" that the State Department had created "smart partnerships . . . with Google, Microsoft, the World Bank and others to empower NGOs." 22/ fastcompany.com
FC: "The buzz at the State Department is all about Civil Society 2.0—the idea that the U.S. can help NGOs prosper through judicious use of technology. But at least one one international relations wonk believes Civil Society 2.0 will actually empower repressive regimes." 24/
But the "repressive regime" most empowered by Civil Society 2.0. was the one in Washington, and it helped give rise to a coup in Ukraine that bore names like "Facebook Revolution." 25/
Headline from the Business Insider (whose publisher was founded with CIA money): "Here's how Facebook kicked off Ukraine's Euromaidan revolution." businessinsider.com 26/
The usage of social media was instrumental to shaping perceptions of the movement from the outside. It was a potent combination of naïve idealists, State Department backed agitators, and CIA-funded "civil society" institutions. 27/
It wasn't a coincidence that key aspects of the revolution were similar to Civil Society 2.0's program. The European Journalism Observatory even remarked the movement had seemingly "sprung from several grass root civic initiatives." 28/ en.ejo.ch
And this gets at the fundamental problem of tech: does it empower or enslave? In Ukraine, it gave the perception of empowering a democratic movement. In reality, it advanced the interests of the US government and its proxies. 29/
The Maidan psyop also concealed the darker aspects of the coup, just like the NATO psyop does today. There is evidence the US government and/or its proxies trained/aided snipers who shot and killed a lot of people. I wrote about it for @HumanEvents. 30/ humanevents.com
The people killed during the coup are known as the "Heavenly Hundred." It's designed to be a stain on Russia and those who were more friendly toward Russia in Ukraine. But the truth is they were more likely killed with help from the US and its allies. 31/
"Snipers were also trained in Poland" as "a favor to Washington," said Polish politician Janusz Korwin-Mikke in an interview with Wirtualna Polska. 32/ opinie.wp.pl
Asked for evidence, he replied: "I am sitting in the European Parliament next to Mr. Urmas Paet, the Estonian Foreign Minister, who admitted in an interview with Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland that it was our people who shot on the Maidan." 33/
But why Poland? Because it's home to an important CIA black site. Via NYT:
"'Poland is the 51st state,' a CIA official once recalled James Pavitt, a former director of the CIA's clandestine service, as saying. 'Americans have no idea.'" 34/ nytimes.com
"'Poland is the 51st state,' a CIA official once recalled James Pavitt, a former director of the CIA's clandestine service, as saying. 'Americans have no idea.'" 34/ nytimes.com
You'd think that the "Facebook Revolution," the digital uprising, the civil society coup in Ukraine, would have exposed the fact that the West had enabled agitators to shoot dead protestors and cops to stoke more violence. Instead, it helped cover it up. 35/
But if you're not convinced, it's worth revisiting Paet once more.
Paet had investigated the sniper killings and what he found was completely buried. 36/
Paet had investigated the sniper killings and what he found was completely buried. 36/
In a leaked call, Paet told then EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton that his intelligence indicated that the snipers were not operating under orders from the outgoing regime but from the "new coalition," backed by the West. 37/
Paet confirmed the call was authentic after it was leaked but it was all downplayed and ultimately buried, which, again, is not supposed to happen in the age of digital citizen journalism--unless that's not actually the point. 38/
Ukraine is truly the home of World War Reddit. A feel good psyop that looks democratic and strikes all these chords that resonate with pop cultural notions and tastes. But beneath that veneer is the engine of liberal internationalism led by the US. 39/ contra.substack.com
The consequence of the color revolution in Ukraine was that the current war became inevitable. And what that coup and the war have in common is that perception is shaped by the same digital tools that supposedly free us but actually just make it easier to manipulate people. 40/
Whoops, I forgot the link to the Paet phone call story. Highlight from this report in The Guardian: "In the call, Paet said he had been told snipers responsible for killing police and civilians in Kiev last month were protest movement provocateurs rather theguardian.com…
Why does any of this matter? Because, as has become clear, telling moral myths ("this is just like Harry Potter/The Avengers/Star Wars!") is key to the justification of US foreign policy. That falls apart once you see that it's all a mask for a vicious enterprise. 42/
A lot of this reporting is drawn from stuff I have published in Substack. You can subscriber to support my work there. 43/ contra.substack.com
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