Geen evolutie en ecolutie zonder revolutie!

Albert Einstein:

Twee dingen zijn oneindig: het universum en de menselijke domheid. Maar van het universum ben ik niet zeker.
Posts tonen met het label GCHQ. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label GCHQ. Alle posts tonen

zaterdag 24 maart 2018

VS gebruikt sociale media om 'fake comment' te verspreiden en de bevolking te hersenspoelen met leugens, ofwel 'fake news....'

De algehele hysterie over 'fake news' (of: 'nepnieuws') is compleet en al dik meer dan een jaar gaande, waarbij de sociale media werden aangewezen als de verspreiders, terwijl de echte makers en verspreiders van nepnieuws juist de reguliere media zijn, zie de berichtgeving voorafgaand aan de illegale oorlogen tegen Afghanistan, Irak, Libië en Syrië, plus de berichtgeving over Oekraïne (en ga nog maar een tijd door.......)

Nu is er nieuws opgedoken over de VS overheid (en het leger) die al actief negatief nieuws over de overheid en bijvoorbeeld het leger te lijf gaan met een fiks aantal verzonnen personen, die meerdere identiteiten hebben op het internet, personages die het echte nieuws onderuit moeten halen. Het leger van de VS heeft al een klein legertje aan personen samengesteld om hun werk te doen. Overigens heeft Israël al eerder aangekondigd kritiek en negatief nieuws op/over deze fascistische apartheidsstaat aan te zullen vallen met een 'snelle reactiemacht.....'* 

Overigens dient opgemerkt te worden dat de VS en Israël nog iets verder gaan dan alleen kritiek aan te vallen, daar ze actief nepnieuws zullen verspreiden die bijvoorbeeld de uitgeoefende staatsterreur (in binnen en buitenland) moeten rechtvaardigen...... 

Topmilitairen van de VS zien in deze vorm van volksverlakkerij een belangrijk wapen om de bevolking te beïnvloeden, bijvoorbeeld (weer) met het schoonpraten van de grootschalige terreur die dit leger op meerdere plaatsen in de wereld uitoefent.......

Lees de volgende stap in het vervolmaken van de Big Brother staat zoals door George Orwell beschreven, alleen gaat de werkelijkheid  straks nog veel verder dan hij ooit had kunnen dromen.......
(door de immense technologische vooruitgang nadat zijn boek 1984 in 1949 werd gepubliceerd)

What the Media Isn’t Telling You About Social Media

March 20, 2018 at 9:12 pm
Written by Corbett Report

(CORBETT) — Now openly admitted, governments and militaries around the world employ armies of keyboard warriors to spread propaganda and disrupt their online opposition. Their goal? To shape public discourse around global events in a way favourable to their standing military and geopolitical objectives. Their method? The weaponization of social media.



TRANSCRIPT:

It didn’t take long from the birth of the world wide web for the public to start using this new medium to transmit, collect and analyze information in ways never before imagined. The first message boards and clunky “Web 1.0” websites soon gave way to “the blogosphere.” The arrival of social media was the next step in this evolution, allowing for the formation of communities of interest to share information in real time about events happening anywhere on the globe.

But as quickly as communities began to form around these new platforms, governments and militaries were even quicker in recognizing the potential to use this new medium to more effectively spread their own propaganda.

Their goal? To shape public discourse around global events in a way favourable to their standing military and geopolitical objectives.

Their method? The Weaponization of Social Media.


Facebook. Twitter. YouTube. Snapchat. Instagram. Reddit. “Social media” as we know it today barely existed fifteen years ago. Although it provides new ways to interact with people and information from all across the planet virtually instantaneously and virtually for free, we are only now beginning to understand the depths of the problems associated with these new platforms. More and more of the original developers of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter admit they no longer use social media themselves and actively keep it away from their children, and now they are finally admitting the reason why: social media was designed specifically to take advantage of your psychological weaknesses and keep you addicted to your screen.
SEAN PARKER: If the thought process that went into building these applications—Facebook being the first of them to really understand it—that thought process was all about “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever, and that’s gonna get you to contribute more content and that’s gonna get you more likes and comments. So it’s a social validation feedback loop. I mean it’s exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. And I think that we—the inventors/creators, you know, it’s me, it’s Mark, it’s Kevin Systrom at Instagram, it’s all of these people—understood this consciously and we did it anyway.

It should be no surprise, then, that in this world of social media addicts and smartphone zombies, the 24/7 newsfeed is taking up a greater and greater share of people’s lives. Our thoughts, our opinions, our knowledge of the world, even our mood are increasingly being influenced or even determined by what we see being posted, tweeted or vlogged. And the process by which these media shape our opinions is being carefully monitored and analyzed, not by the social media companies themselves, but by the US military.
MARINA PORTNAYA: When the world’s largest social media platform betrays its users, there’s going to be outrage.
ABC HOST: The study to see whether Facebook could influence the emotional state of its users on that news feed.
CNN ANCHOR: It allowed researchers to manipulate almost 700,000 users’ news feeds. Some saw more positive news about their friends, others saw more negative.
CNN GUEST: Well I’m not surprised. I mean we’re all kind of lab rat than the big Facebook experiment.
PORTNAYA: But it wasn’t only Facebook’s experiment. It turns out the psychological study was connected to the US government’s research on social unrest.
MORNING JOE GUEST: This is really kind of creepy.
PORTNAYA: And it gets worse. What you may not know is that the US Department of Defense has reportedly spent roughly $20 million conducting studies aimed at learning how to manipulate online behavior in order to influence opinion. The initiative was launched in 2011 by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, otherwise known as DARPA. The program is best described as the US media’s effort to become better at detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns via social media. Translation: When anti-government messages gain ground virally, Washington wants to find a way to spread counter opinion.
SOURCE: US military harnesses social media to manipulate online behaviour

The DARPA document that details the Pentagon’s plans for influencing opinions in the social media space is called “Social Media in Strategic Communication.” DARPA’s goal, according to their own website, is “to develop tools to help identify misinformation or deception campaigns and counter them with truthful information.”

Exactly what tools were developed for this purpose and how they are currently being deployed is unclear. 

But Rand Walzman, the program’s creator, admitted last year that the project lasted four years, cost $50 million and led to the publication of over 200 papers. The papers, including “Incorporating Human Cognitive Biases in a Probabilistic Model of Retweeting,” “Structural Properties of Ego Networks,” and “Sentiment Prediction using Collaborative Filtering,” make the thrust of the program perfectly clear. Social media users are lab rats being carefully scrutinized by government-supported researchers, their tweets and Facebook posts and Instagram pictures being analyzed to determine how information spreads online, and, by implication, how the government and the military can use these social media networks to make their own propaganda “go viral.”

As worrying as this research is, it pales in comparison to the knowledge that governments, militaries and political lobby groups are already employing squadrons of foot soldiers to wage information warfare in the social media battlespace.
AL-JAZEERA ANCHOR: The Pentagon’s got a new plan to counter anti-American messages in cyberspace. It involves buying software that will enable the American military to create and control fake online personas—fake people, essentially—who will appear to have originated from all over the world. The plan is being undertaken by CENTCOM (US Central Command), and the objective of the online persona management service is to combat enemy propaganda by influencing foreign social media websites. CENTCOM has hired a software development company called “Ntrepid,” and, according to the contract, the California-based company will initially provide 50 user licenses, each of which would be capable of controlling up to 10 fake personas. US law forbids the use of this type of technology, called “sockpuppets,” against Americans, so all the personas will reportedly be communicating in languages like Arabic, Persian and Urdu.
SOURCE: Persona Online Management, Fake Online Personas, Sock Puppets, Astroturfing Bots, Shills
CTV ANCHOR: So is it okay to have the government monitor social media conversations and then to wade in and correct some of those conversations? With more on this, let’s go to technology expert Carmi Levy. He’s on the line from Montreal. Carmi, do you think the government’s monitoring what you and I are saying right now? Is this whole thing getting out of line, or what?
[…]
CARMI LEVY: It opens up a bit of a question. I’d like to call it a Pandora’s box about, you know, what exactly is the government’s aim here, and what do they hope to accomplish with what they find out? And as they accumulate this information online—this data on us—where does that data go? And so I think as much as we should applaud the government for getting into this area, the optics of it are potentially very Big Brother-ish. And the government really does need to be a little bit more concrete on what its intentions are and how it intends to achieve them.
SOURCE: CTV Confirms Government(s) employing Internet Trolls, Shills & PR Agents to ‘correct misinformation’ 
4WWL REPORTER: New evidence that government-owned computers at the Army Corps of Engineers office here in New Orleans are being used to verbally attack critics of the Corps comes in an affidavit from the former editor-in-chief of nola.com. Jon Donley, who was laid off this past February, tells us via satellite from Texas, in late 2006 he started noticing people presenting themselves as ordinary citizens defending the Corps very energetically.
JON DONLEY: What stuck out, though, was the wording of the comments was in many ways mirroring news releases from the Corps of Engineers.
[…]
SANDY ROSENTHAL: These commenters tried to discredit these people . . .
4WWL REPORTER: And when Rosenthal investigated, she discovered the comments were coming from users at the internet provider address of the Army Corps of Engineers offices here in New Orleans. She blamed the Corps for a strategy of going after critics.
 ROSENTHAL: In the process of trying to obscure the facts of the New Orleans floodings, one of their tactics was just verbal abuse.
SOURCE: Government Sock Puppets
NAFTALI BENNETTMo’etzet Yesha, in conjunction with My Israel, has arranged an instruction day for Wiki editors. The goal of the day is to teach people how to edit in Wikipedia, which is the number one source of information today in the world. As a way of example, if someone searches the Gaza flotilla, we want to be there. We want to be the guys who influence what is written there, how it’s written, and to ensure that it’s balanced and Zionist in the nature.
SOURCE: Course: Zionist Editing on Wikipedia

These operations are only the visible and publicly-admitted front of a vast array of military and intelligence programs that are attempting to influence online behaviour, spread government propaganda, and disrupt online communities that arise in opposition to their agenda.

That such programs exist is not a matter of conjecture; it is mundane, established, documented fact.
In 2014, an internal document was leaked from GCHQ, the British equivalent of the NSA. The document, never intended for public release, was entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for a New Generation of Online Covert Operations” and bluntly stated that “We want to build Cyber Magicians.” It then goes on to outline the “magic” techniques that must be employed in influence and information operations online, including deception and manipulation techniques like “anchoring,” “priming” and “branding” propaganda narratives. After presenting a map of social networking technologies that are targeted by these operations, the document then instructs the “magicians” how to deceive the public through “attention management” and behavioural manipulation.

That governments would turn to these strategies is hardly a shocking development. In fact, the use of government shills to propagate government talking points and disrupt online dissent has been openly advocated on the record by high-ranking government officials for the past decade.

In 2008, Cass Sunstein, a law professor who would go on to become Obama’s information “czar,” co-authored a paper entitled “Conspiracy Theories,” in which he wrote that the “best response” to online “conspiracy theories” is what he calls “cognitive infiltration” of groups spreading these ideas.
Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action. In one variant, government agents would openly proclaim, or at least make no effort to conceal, their institutional affiliations. […] In another variant, government officials would participate anonymously or even with false identities.”

It is perhaps particularly ironic that the idea that government agents are actually and admittedly spreading propaganda online under false identities is, to the less-informed members of the population, itself a “conspiracy theory” rather than an established conspiracy fact.

Unsurprisingly, when confronted about his proposal, Sunstein pretended to not remember having written it and then pointedly refused to answer any questions about it.
LUKE RUDKOWSKI: My name is Bill de Burgh from Brooklyn College, and I know you’ve written many articles. But I think the most telling one about you is the 2008 one called “Conspiracy Theories,” where you openly advocated government agents infiltrate activist groups of 9/11 Truth and also stifle dissent online. I was wondering why do you think it’s the government’s job, or why do you think the government should go after family members who have questions and 9/11 responders who are lied to about the air, survivors whose testimony conflicts, and also government whistleblowers that were gagged because they released information that contradicts the official story.
CASS SUNSTEIN: I think it was Ricky who said I’d written hundreds of articles and I remember some and not others. That one I don’t remember very well. I hope I didn’t say that. But whatever was said in that article, my role in government is to oversee federal rule-making in a way that is wholly disconnected from the vast majority of my academic writing, including that.
[…]
RUDKOWSKI: I just want to know is it safe to say that you retract saying that conspiracy theories should be banned or taxed for having an opinion online. Is it safe to say that?
SUNSTEIN: I don’t remember the article very well. So I hope I didn’t say either those things.
RUDKOWSKI: But you did and it’s written. Do you retract them?
SUNSTEIN: I’m focused on my job.
SOURCE: Obama Information Czar Cass Sunstein Confronted on Cognitive Infiltration of Conspiracy Groups

Now, a decade on from Sunstein’s proposal, we know that military psyops agents, political lobbyists, corporate shills and government propagandists are spending vast sums of money and employing entire armies of keyboard warriors, leaving comments and shaping conversations to change the public’s opinions, influence their behaviour, and even alter their mood. And they are helped along in this quest by the very same technology that allows the public to connect on a scale never before possible.

Technology is always a double-edged sword, and sometimes it can be dangerous to wield that sword at all. There are ways to identify and neutralize the threat of online trolls and shills, but the phenomenon is not likely to go away any time soon.

Each of us must find our own answer to the question of how best to incorporate these technologies into our life. But the next time you find yourself caught up in an argument with an online persona that may or may not be a genuine human being, it might be better to ask yourself if your efforts are better spent engaging in the argument or just turning off the computer.

==========================================

* Zie: 'Israël zet snelle reactiemacht op poten tegen anti-Israëlische kritiek'

Zie ook: 'Jeremy Corbin wordt gedemoniseerd als antisemiet.......'

        en: 'Facebook wil samen met door Saoedi-Arabië gesubsidieerde denktank censureren.... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

        en: 'Het echte Facebook schandaal: manipulatie van de gebruikers en gratis diensten voor eertijds presidentskandidaat Obama.......'

        en: 'Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook doneerde aan de politici die hem in de VS aan de tand voelden >> in het EU parlement maakte hij gebruik van megalomane EU politici.....'

        en: 'Facebook stelt perstituee van New York Times aan als censuur-agent...... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

       en: 'AVG: Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (geleid door Aleid Wolfsen PvdA) niet berekend op EU wetgeving.......'

       en: 'Facebook e.a. hebben lak aan AVG (GDPR), misbruik persoonsgegevens gaat gewoon door.......'

       en: 'Rusland krijgt alweer de schuld van hacken, nu van oplichters Symantec en Facebook....... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

       en: 'Wie het nieuws controleert, controleert de wereld......'

       en: 'Westerse massa misleiding in aanloop naar WOIII......'

       en: 'Facebook verlaat 'tranding news' voor 'brekend nieuws' van 80 reguliere mediaorganen, ofwel nog meer 'fake news.....''

       en: 'Facebook komt met nieuwsshows van betrouwbare media als CNN en Fox News.... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

woensdag 21 maart 2018

Op 20 maart 2003 startte Bush de bloedige illegale oorlog tegen Irak, waar de NSA een grote rol in speelde....... Ook daarom nee tegen de sleepwet!

Gisteren was het 15 jaar geleden dat de psychopathisch gewelddadige dombo George W. Bush een illegale oorlog tegen Irak begon, een oorlog die in feite nog steeds voortduurt..... Ook daarom is Irak allesbehalve veilig, zoals ons ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken durft te beweren...........

Deze oorlog heeft intussen aan meer dan 1,5 miljoen Irakezen het leven gekost en nog steeds vallen er doden als gevolg van die grootschalige terreurdaad van de VS (met hulp van een aantal westerse landen waaronder Nederland....).......

In de volgende video van Brasscheck TV wordt de NSA aangeduid als mede verantwoordelijke, die naast o.a Bush en Cheney op de achtergrond een grote rol speelde. 

De NSA heeft in 2003 de 6 landen* die in de VN tegen de inval van de VS in Irak waren, onder druk proberen te zetten, door te zoeken naar zaken waarmee men deze landen kon chanteren. Katharina Gun, een vertaler van het Britse geheime dienst agentschap Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), heeft deze zaak in 2003 gelekt naar de media......

Een en ander heeft ook te maken met de wil van de NSA om alle digitale data te verzamelen en iedereen tot onderwerp van onderzoek te kunnen maken. Groot voorstander daarvan is de democratische senator voor Californië, 'sneaky' Dianne Feinstein, terwijl ze wordt betaald door een groot deel van de bedrijven die deel uitmaken van het militair-industrieel complex (zoals Boeing)..... Dit complex houdt zich ook bezig met de afbraak van de privacy middels het verzamelen van data, computer inbraak bij verdachten en het tappen van telefoons. Deze verzameling van data is dan ook tot een hele industrie verworden........

Zie de volgende video (10 minuten), een gesprek van presentator Ed Schultz met George Zornick, een deskundige op deze gebieden. Hij stelt dan ook dat de geheime diensten niet meer bevoegdheden nodig hebben om hun werk goed te kunnen doen. Daar is dan ook weinig fantasie voor nodig, gezien het feit dat daders van aanslagen telkens weer bekend bleken te zijn bij de verschillende geheime diensten in de landen waar deze aanslagen plaats vonden, sterker nog: men volgde deze figuren zelfs..... 

Vandaar ook nogmaals: stem vandaag ajb tegen de sleepwet, waarmee niet alleen het laatste restje van ons recht op privacy wordt afgebroken, maar tevens de democratie (onze-) een grote klap wordt toegebracht!

Hier de tekst op Brasscheck TV bij de video en de video zelf:

Yesterday was the day the US invaded Iraq 15 years ago.

Trillions wasted, thousands of Americans killed and wounded, millions of Iraqis killed, injured and impoverished.

Guess who was responsible?

Cheney and Bush for sure and one shadowy group that never got exposed
- until now.

The NSA Lied Us Into Iraq

THE STORY YOU NEVER HEARD






PRODUCED BY RINGOFFIRERADIO.COM


How did this “little” point get lost in the NSA story?

The NSA’s JOB is to spy on the communications of our enemies, not to listen to and record your phone calls.

Here’s a case where they not only got it massively wrong, it also looks like they remained silent while their “evidence” was used to drive the US into a ruinous war.

Did they present false information to the Bush criminals or did they merely sit back and do nothing when that evidence was grossly misrepresented.

It hardly matters, does it. Massively wrong in either case.
======================================

* Kleinere landen, dus buiten China en Rusland.

dinsdag 2 januari 2018

Protesten Iran opgezet door de VS en Israël

Moon of Alabama bracht afgelopen vrijdag een bericht over de protesten in Iraanse steden tegen de slechte economische omstandigheden. Volgens de schrijver van het artikel is het duidelijk dat deze protesten onderdeel uitmaken van een door de VS en Israël opgezette operatie die in Iran tot een verandering van regime moet leiden. Gezien de enorme kritiek, bol van leugens van deze 2 landen, overigens in samenspraak en innig overleg met de reli-fascistische dictatuur van Saoedi-Arabië, is de kans bijzonder groot dat deze schrijver gelijk heeft.......

Vergeet niet dat dit de beproefde manier van werken is, die de VS al meermaals heeft gebruikt, al is het succes 'niet altijd even groot', neem Syrië....... Overigens een methode die veelal wordt voorafgegaan door een economische oorlogsvoering van de VS middels een boycot en sancties tegen het door de oorlogshitsers aangewezen doel, zie: Libië en Venezuela...... Daarmee krijg je uiteindelijk de mensen wel op straat. Neem het gebrek aan medicijnen in Venezuela, deze is puur en alleen aan de VS te danken en aan haar vazalstaten die aan Venezuela grenzen....... 

Hetzelfde geldt voor levensmiddelen: een paar grote supermarktketens in Venezuela zijn in handen van VS ondernemingen, deze stopten al onder druk van 'vredesduif' Obama met het bevoorraden van de winkels........ 

Terug naar Iran: de schrijver van het artikel hieronder, 'b' stelt dat de protesten terecht zijn vanwege de zoals deze het noemt (neo-) liberale koers die de regering Rohani vaart. Wat deze b vergeet is de volkomen onterechte economische boycot tegen Iran, ingegeven door de VS, een boycot die z'n sporen nog steeds dwars door Iran trekt..... Deze (VS) boycot werd eerder deels opgeheven onder Obama (n.a.v. de nucleaire deal met Iran), maar is intussen al weer ingesteld door dezelfde VS (uiteraard onder de junta van het 666 beest Trump), de VS ofwel de grootste terreurentiteit op aarde.....

De gematigde krachten in Iran hebben de laatste verkiezingen gewonnen en het zou ons in het westen sieren, deze krachten de kans te geven om langzaam veranderingen door te voeren. Als dit te snel gaat, grijpen de fundamentalistische krachten de macht en moet 'het spel' van voren af aan opnieuw gespeeld worden, zoals we eerder al gezien hebben, bijvoorbeeld in 2009 met de zogenaamde 'Groene Revolutie....' Logisch dus, dat Iraniërs die verandering willen, allesbehalve geholpen zijn met een snelle omwenteling...... 

De zogenaamde 'arabische lente', was dan ook in landen als Libië en Syrië, een door de VS gecreëerde 'lente...' (nou zeg maar gerust: een zware, ijskoude winter...)

Een herhaling van wat de VS in 1953 heeft geflikt, door de Iraanse (destijds nog Perzisch genoemd) democratisch gekozen regering Mossadegh af te zetten en een VS vriendelijke dictator in het zadel zetten is al zeker geen oplossing*. Het is dan ook meer dan duidelijk, ook gezien de smerige oorlog van het soennitische Saoedi-Arabië (met de volledige steun en deels medewerking van de VS en GB) tegen de sjiitische moslims in Jemen, dat de strijd van de VS, Israël en Saoedi-Arabië tegen Iran, vooral een strijd is tegen de sjiieten, waar de VS haar eigen belangen in het Midden-Oosten wil verstevigen, na het debacle in Syrie, waar de VS een blauwtje liep met haar (terreur-) tactiek......

De VS tactiek is het opzetten van een opstand tegen een regering, zoals in het geval van Syrië, tegen het bewind Assad, een zaak waar de VS al vanaf 2006 mee bezig was. De VS en Saoedi-Arabië hebben zelfs een heel groot deel van de 'gematigde rebellen' (psychopathische moordenaars en verkrachters) bewapend en vervoert richting Syrie, zoals IS en Al Qaida leden vanuit Libie, dat onder VS terreur (gesteund door de meeste NAVO landen en de NAVO zelf) meer dan 50 jaar in tijd werd teruggebombardeerd en werd veranderd in één grote chaos, waar nu zelfs openlijk slavenmarkten worden gehouden..... Libië, het eens rijkste land van Afrika is door ingrijpen van de VS en een deel van het andere westen, veranderd in één van de armste landen in Afrika.......

Intussen hebben zich al schotenwisselingen voorgedaan tussen de door het westen genoemde 'vreedzame demonstranten' en de politie...... Deze 'vreedzame demonstranten' zouden één of meerdere legerdepots hebben geplunderd....... In het nieuws van 12.00 u. op WDR 5 werd gemeld dat ('vreedzame', toevoeging Ap) demonstranten politiebureaus overvallen om zo aan meer wapens te komen.....

Iran - Regime Change Agents Hijack Economic Protests

December 29, 2017

Yesterday and today saw some small protests in Iran. They are probably the first stage of a large "regime change" operation run by the U.S. and Israel with the help of Iranian terrorist group.

Earlier this month the White House and the Zionist prepared for a new assault on Iran:
A delegation led by Israel's National Security Adviser met with senior American officials in the White House earlier this month for a joint discussion on strategy to counter Iran's aggression in the Middle East, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Haaretz.
Another report about the meeting quotes Israeli officials on the result:
"[T]he U.S. and Israel see eye to eye the different developments in the region and especially those that are connected to Iran. We reached at understandings regarding the strategy and the policy needed to counter Iran. Our understandings deal with the overall strategy but also with concrete goals, way of action and the means which need to be used to get obtain those goals."
This is probably a result of the above meeting:
Hundreds took to the streets of Iran’s second largest city of Mashad on Thursday to protest over high prices, shouting slogans against the government.
Videos posted on social media showed demonstrators in Mashad in northwest Iran, one of the holiest places in Shia Islam, chanting “death to (President Hassan) Rouhani” and “death to the dictator”.
The semi-official ILNA news agency and social media reported demonstrations in other cities in Razavi Khorasan Province, including Neyshabour and Kashmar.
video of that protest in Mashad showed some 50 people chanting slogans with more bystander just milling around.

Protests against the (neo-) liberal economic policies of the Rohani government in Iran are justified. Official unemployment in Iran is above 12% and there is hardly any economic growth. The people in the streets are not the only ones who are dissatisfied with this:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has repeatedly criticized the government’s economic record, said on Wednesday that the nation was struggling with “high prices, inflation and recession”, and asked officials to resolve the problems with determination.
On Thursday and today the slogans of some protesters turned the call for economic relief into a call for regime change.

My hunch is that the usual suspects are behind these protests. Note that these started in several cities at the same time. This was not some spontaneous local uproar in one city but had some form of coordination.

Then there is this:
Carl Bildt‏ @carlbildt - 9:38 PM - 28 Dec 2017 from Rome, Lazio
Reports of signals of international satellite TV networks jammed in large cities of Iran. Would be sign of regime fear of today’s protests spreading.
A search in various languages finds exactly zero such "reports". Carl Bildt is a former Swedish prime minister. He was recruited in 1973 as a CIA informant and has since grown into a full blown U.S. asset. He was involved in the Ukraine coup and tried to personally profit from it.

The only response to Bildt's tweet was from one Riyad Swed‏ - @SwedRiyad who posted several videos of protests with one of them showing burning police cars.**

I am not sure the video is genuine. The account has some unusual attributes (active since September 2016, 655 tweets but only 32 followers?).

Just yesterday one lecture at the CCC "hacker" congress was about the British GHCQ Secret Service and its sock-puppet accounts on Twitter and Facebook. These are used for acquiring human intelligence and for running "regime change" operations. Page 14-18 of the slides (11:20 min) cite from obtained GCHQ papers which lists Iran as one of the targets. The speaker specifically notes a GCHQ account "@2009Iranfree" which was used in generating the protests in Iran after the reelection of then President Ahmedinejad.

Today, Friday and the weekly day off in Iran, several more protest took place in other cities. A Reuters reportfrom today:
About 300 demonstrators gathered in Kermanshah after what Fars called a “call by the anti-revolution” and shouted “Political prisoners should be freed” and “Freedom or death”, while destroying some public property. Fars did not name any opposition groups.
...
Footage, which could not be verified, showed protests in other cities including Sari and Rasht in the north, Qom south of Tehran, and Hamadan in the west.
Mohsen Nasj Hamadani, deputy security chief in Tehran province, said about 50 people had rallied in a Tehran square and most left after being asked by police, but a few who refused were “temporarily detained”, the ILNA news agency reported.
Some of these protests have genuine economic reasons but get hijacked by other interests:
In the central city of Isfahan, a resident said protesters joined a rally held by factory workers demanding back wages.
The slogans quickly changed from the economy to those against (President Hassan) Rouhani and the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei),” the resident said by telephone.
...
Purely political protests are rare in Iran [...] but 
demonstrations are often held by workers over layoffs or non-payment of salaries and people who hold deposits in non-regulated, bankrupt financial institutions.
...
Alamolhoda, the representative of Ayatollah Khamenei in northeastern Mashhad, said 
a few people had taken advantage of Thursday’s protests against rising prices to chant slogans against Iran’s role in regional conflicts.
...
“Some people had came to express their demands, but 
suddenly, in a crowd of hundreds, a small group that did not exceed 50 shouted deviant and horrendous slogans such as ‘Let go of Palestine’, ‘Not Gaza, not Lebanon, I’d give my life (only) for Iran’,” Alamolhoda said.
Two videos posted by BBC Persian and others I have seen show only small active protest groups with a dozen or so people while many more are just standing by or film the people who are chanting slogans.

Videos published by the terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq [MEK], 12345, also show mostly small protests despite the MEK's claim of Tens of thousands of people chant “death to dictator". The MEK, or its "civilian" organization National Council of Resistance of Iran , seem to be most involved in the current protests. Its website is currently filled with the protest issue with a total of ten reports and its head figure issued a supportive statement:
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, saluted the heroic people of Kermanshah and other cities who rose up today chanting “death or freedom”, “death to Rouhani”, “death to the dictator”, and “political prisoners must be freed”, and protested against high prices, poverty and corruption.
She said, “Yesterday Mashhad, today Kermanshah, and tomorrow throughout Iran; this uprising has tolled the death knell for the overthrow of the totally corrupt dictatorship of the mullahs, and is the rise of democracy, justice and popular sovereignty.

This very early engagement of the MEK -its first report was published yesterday at 10:26 am- is extremely suspicious.

In 2012 it was reported that Israel had used the MEK terrorist organization to assassinate nuclear scientists in Iran:
On Thursday, U.S. officials speaking to NBC news claimed that Mossad agents were training members of the dissident terror group People’s Mujahedin of Iran in order assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists, adding that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama was aware of the operation, but had no direct link to them.
The U.S. officials reportedly confirmed the link between Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), with one official saying: "All your inclinations are correct.”
In October a CATO Institute paper analyzed (and rejected) several options for U.S. handling Iran. Under Option Three: “Regime Change from Within” it noted:
In this approach, the United States would pressure the Iranian regime and simultaneously back groups that oppose it-whether the exiled extremist National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), pro-democracy Green Revolution factions, or ethnic minorities within Iran-a strategy advocates often compare to Reagan’s support for civil society groups in the Soviet Union.
...
[A] proponent of “coerced democratization,” the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Mark Dubowitz, urged President Trump to “go on the offensive against the Iranian regime” by 
“weakening the Iranian regime’s finances” through “massive economic sanctions,” while also “undermin[ing] Iran’s rulers by strengthening pro-democracy forces” inside Iran. This option appears to be gaining traction in the Trump administration’s ongoing Iran policy review and has received public support from Tillerson. CIA Director Mike Pompeo also favored such an approach during his time in Congress.
The MEK/NCRI noted that Senator Tom Cotton, who will likely replace CIA chief Pompeo when Pompeo moves to the State Department, issued a supportive statement for the protests.

The White House and the Netanyahoo regime agreed on a strategy towards Iran. Major members of the Trump administration are in favor of "regime change" by "pro-democracy forces" in Iran. A few weeks after an agreement was found, coordinated economic protests start in Iran which are soon hijacked by small groups of very active regime changers. A group of Iranian exile terrorists, well known for deadly collaboration with Israeli spies as well as for having operation cells in Iran, is highly engaged in the protest from very early on.

If this the "regime change" operation I presume, the protests will soon get bigger. When the people need money a few thousand dollars are enough to create a large crowd. Small groups will riot while hiding within the larger protests of maybe genuinely concerned people. The "western" media will engage with their usual pseudo liberal humanism and concern trolling. When the police in Iran tries to arrest those rioters who are raising havoc the media will scream "brutality". Some "martyr" will be created and iconified. Rumors of censorship and suppression will be raised (see Carl Bildt above), fake news will come from everywhere and hundreds of sock puppet Twitter and Facebook accounts will suddenly be "Iranian" and breathlessly report "from the scene" of their Langley offices.

For the Iranian politicians and police the issue is tricky. Economic protests are clearly justified with even Khameni voicing support for the issue. But rioting in the streets must be suppressed before it further escalates and becomes uncontrollable. Weapons on the protesters site firing in all directions may soon become a problem. The Mossad and the MEK are not shy of killing random people.

But the Islamic Republic in Iran has genuine support in large parts of the society. There are big civil organizations that support the government - not on every issue but in its general framework. Most Iranian's are proud nationalists and will be difficult to divide. If this is indeed the "regime change" attempt I suspect, I predict that it will fail.

Posted by b on December 29, 2017 at 02:45 PM | Permalink
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*  Hier tekst van Wikileaks over Mossadegh: 'Mohammad Hedayat Mossadeq of Mossadegh was de premier van Iran van 1951 tot 1953. Zijn regering introduceerde een reeks progressieve sociale en politieke hervormingen zoals sociale zekerheid, huurbescherming en landhervormingen'. Je ziet meteen waarom de VS destijds heeft ingegrepen, immers een regering die kiest voor het volk en niet voor (grote) bedrijven en welgestelden, is automatisch een vijand van de VS (althans als de president, premier of dictator niet een volgzame pion is van de VS, al zullen volgzame pionnen van de VS het wel uit het hoofd laten, bijvoorbeeld landhervormingen of nationalisaties door te voeren....)

** Hier volgt een video, die ik niet kan overnemen, zie de link naar het origineel.

Zie ook:
'Groot-Brittannië saboteert de Iran deal en de belofte van de EU de VS sancties te compenseren: Iraanse olietanker werd op verzoek VS overvallen' (zie ook de links in dat bericht, anders dan de hier getoonde)


'De VS en niet Iran is een schurkenstaat'

'Iraakse regering pissig over VS beschuldiging dat Iraanse bewind corrupt is'

'VS, Saoedi-Arabië en Israël willen Iraanse bewind verdrijven met terreur, moord, sabotage en manipulatie van het nieuws...'

'Frankrijk beschermt Iran tegen de 'politieagent' van de wereld, de VS'

'The New Tyranny of the Dollar'

'VS vermoordt Iraniërs met sancties, EU doodstil.......'

'With Veiled Regime Change Threats, Trump and NeoCons Blasted for Exploiting Iran Protests'

'US Empire Is Running The Same Script With Iran That It Ran With Libya, Syria'

'Trump volgt het scenario van deep state: oorlog met Iran 'is onvermijdelijk....''

'Rudy Giuliani viert het sterven van Iraniërs en stelt desondanks dat het Iraanse bewind door de VS geweldloos zal ondergaan.......'

'Jeremy Bowen (BBC correspondent) vindt Iran een gevaar voor het Midden-Oosten'

'Nikki Haley (VS ambassadeur in de VN) bedreigt sjiitisch Iran met militair ingrijpen......' (klik ook de links onder dat bericht)

'VS liegt schaamteloos om het westen verder op te zetten tegen Iran........'

'Iran, de protesten en wat de media je niet vertellen.........'

'Iraanse protesten allesbehalve compleet spontaan (zoals VS ambassadeur bij de VN Haley durfde te stellen...)....'

'Reagan middels manipulaties tot president gekozen; waarom de gijzelaars in Iran moesten wachten op hun vrijheid....'

'Saoedi-Arabië beschuldigt Houthi's en Iran van raketbeschieting en noemt dit een oorlogsverklaring............'