State Department Forms an Army Social Media Trolls To Spread Propaganda

The latest initiative by the country’s diplomatic offices mirrors the social media disinformation campaign used against Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential campaign and may have disquieting impacts on the perceptions of people around the world.

The Obama administration is set to request $21.5 million next year for a propaganda outfit designed to combat Daesh’s growing influence on social media. The program will be fashioned after faux news and social media empire of Hillary Clinton confidante David Brock.

Known as the “Global Engagement Center” (GEC), the division will be part of the US State Department and will have the authority to hire any individual who can “change the narrative” on social media.

This taxpayer-funded boondoggle has grown from a $5.6 million venture in 2015 to $15 million in 2016, with costs continuing to rise. Despite the budget increase, progress continues to stagnate.

Much like David Brock’s “Correct the Record,” which was used to spread vitriol about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s opposition Bernie Sanders, the State Department will employ internet trolls to ‘shift narratives’ on the US-led coalition.

If the US government’s new army of social media trolls is focused on degrading the appeal of terrorist entities like Daesh and al-Qaeda, the effort will prove much more noble than Brock’s Media Matters platform, which used its influence to acquire a polling service firm and a digital media entity known as Blue Nation Review that is used to distort public perceptions.

But Washington appears to be focused on expanding its mission well beyond combating terrorism. The GEC will also sponsor and fund foreign journalists who are not required to disclose that they receive the lion’s share of their funding from US government sources.

The largest such operation is the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which will have a $777.8 million budget in FY2017 to not only operate defunct media outlets like Voice of America, but to also subsidize foreign reporters while hiding their influence and bias behind the brands of local, impartial news outlets.

With news industry standards deteriorating around the world due to hidden corporate and government support, people around the world have taken to social media to research the facts on the ground in real-time in order to be one step ahead of the spin.

That was the case in the US presidential election, when media titans pushed for Clinton’s nomination while treating Sanders as a longshot candidate.

As David Brock’s $1 million army of internet trolls has proven to be true, grassroots activists can quickly be drowned out. The 2016 election brought with it the realization that propaganda can be extended to social media, and now that the US government realizes it, the truth may never be the same.

Russia, Syria Lead Fight To Free Raqqa From Daesh, US-Backed Forces Retreat

The Obama administration pledged to play an integral role in liberating the city of Raqqa, but US-backed forces are moving in the wrong direction and are now nearly 80 miles from the Daesh stronghold.

The Syrian Army (SAA) continued to advance on Raqqa after seizing the Taqba dam on the Euphrates River only 25 miles (40km) from Raqqa this weekend. The surge represents the first time that Syrian forces have entered the Raqqa province since 2014, when Daesh first began its terror campaign.

The SAA’s assault on the Daesh stronghold has been supplemented by unrelenting Russian airstrikes in the eastern areas of Hama province, bordering Raqqa. The aligned forces are currently situated in the town of al Tabqah, recently cleared of Daesh and which served in 2014 as a aunchpad for Daesh attacks, givens its proximity to Raqqa.

At the same time, the US-backed and Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have reversed their position and refocused military strength toward recapturing the city of Manbij, in a bid to strengthen the opposition group’s position to destabilize Syria’s Assad regime.

The retreat by the US-backed SDF, which had previously been in competition with the Russian-backed SAA in a collective bid to recapture Raqqa from Daesh, presents a major strategic setback for the Obama administration, employing the dual goals of ousting Bashar al-Assad while also liberating territory from Daesh.

Financial Times reporter William Wallis wrote on Monday that by recapturing Raqqa ahead of American-backed forces, the Russian and Syrian armies would “poke the Americans in the eye in a place they have long talked of helping to recapture.”

What has been to date a productive competition could erupt into a conflict between the partners, with the two-sides sharing very different geopolitical views. Russia believes it is necessary to prop up the Assad regime, at least until Daesh has been vanquished. The United States believes it is necessary to support opposition forces and oust Assad. The US effort has often stumbled, with American weaponry consistently falling into the hands of al-Nusra terrorists aligned with violent rebel groups.

Others see the retreat by Kurdish-dominated forces as an acquiescence by American military strategists, suggesting that the US and Russia are coordinating efforts to liberate territory in Syria.

US Defense Department spokesperson Peter Cook rejected this explanation, saying “in terms of direct coordination of activities on the ground [between the US and Russia] that is not happening.”

The possibility remains that both the US-backed SDF and the Russian-backed SAA could meet in Raqqa, potentially escalating tensions between Moscow and Washington. The strategic repositioning of American troops, however, has minimized that possibility albeit at considerable expense to the Obama administration.

With both sides planning to soon descend on Raqqa and bring an end to a civil war that has killed 500,000 Syrians, Loud & Clear’s Brian Becker sat down with Zafar Bangash of Toronto’s Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought to discuss the situation.

https://www.spreaker.com/embed/player/standard?episode_id=8723483&autoplay=false

Are the US-Backed SDF and Russian-Backed SAA Forces Cooperating?

“I don’t think there is coordination between the two sides,” said Bangash. More so there appears to be a race towards Raqqa, although the Syrian Army seems to be better placed because they have already captured al Tabqah right next to a dam on the Euphrates River, and they are trying to take control of the airport there.”

“The Syrian Army is only 40km (25 miles) southwest of Raqqa whereas the Syrian Democratic Forces, dominated by the Kurds, have headed in the opposite direction, towards Manbij, which is 136 kilometers (85 miles) away from Raqqa, so the Kurds are much further away right now.”

Bangash explained that Kurdish forces are focused on playing the long game by consolidating their own territories with a view toward having a stronger hand in future negotiations, but potentially at the expense of the United States losing the race to be the first to seize Raqqa.

What is the relationship between the US military and the Kurdish-dominated forces?

“The United States is backing the Kurds fully,” said the commentator. “There are US special forces working with them and American forces wearing Kurdish uniforms have been viewed guiding them in operations, which has been problematic for relations with Turkey who has adamantly protested this.”

Bangash explained that the United States’ willingness to support Kurdish fighters even over the protests of Turkey indicate that the Obama administration is “keen on preventing the Syrian Army from taking control of their own country” by strengthening alternate forces to ultimately weaken Assad’s control over the Syrian government.