Russian disinformation spread by “Useful Idiots” inside the U.S.

As the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) conducts its criminal probe of Giuliani, U.S. intelligence grows more concerned about how Russian disinformation is influencing other influential Americans, as well as the lay public. Personally, I believe that Giuliani is knowingly allowing himself to be manipulated by the Kremlin in order to promote his own interests.

It is a sad state of affairs when the FBI must warn Rudy Giuliani, members of Congress, conservative media outlets (Fox News, One America News), and top U.S. government officials that they are being manipulated by a well-organized Russian disinformation campaign (As if they didn’t know, tongue in cheek) … and they ignore the warning.

Yeah, I get it, Tucker Carlson has a conservative audience, but that’s no excuse for him to ignore the FBI’s warning, too. You’d think his right-wing followers would be angry over Putin’s invasion of a democratic country. After all, don’t such fundamentalist Republicans hate communism?

Apparently, they do not. The RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, the Kremlin, and Russian newspapers advance Putin’s Ukraine invasion by continually quoting pro-Russian comments made by Tucker Carlson.

The remarks by Carlson and a few other Fox News commentators are seized upon by the Russian disinformation-spreading, state-controlled news media not only to find fault in the Biden administration, but to paint a critical portrait of America’s “corrupt” democratic process, and to depict U.S. foreign policy as a threat to Russia’s interests.

With the help of GOP traitors to the democratic system, the infamous Russian troll farm in St Petersburg, called the Internet Research Agency, has ramped up its disinformation campaign against America. This pro-Putin, oligarch-funded operation spent nearly as much in the first six months of 2018 as it did the entire year before. Between Jan. 2016 and June 2018, the IRA’s total budget was over $35 million (more than 2 billion rubles).

The FBI warned Giuliani, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Donald Trump, the Fox News administrators, and members of Congress of the IRA’s mission, but to no avail. It continues to spread its vile, using new hi-tech graphics that make the spreading of disinformation and distrust online much worse than ever before. Rapid advances in deep-learning algorithms to synthesize video and audio content have made possible the production of “deep fakes” — highly realistic and difficult-to-detect depictions of real people doing or saying things they never said or did. When you’re online, expect to see more of this realistic trash from Russia, and read everything critically… don’t be fooled!

The MISSION OF VENGEANCE spy thriller reveals how Russia’s vast online disinformation campaign deceives America. Here is a Snippet from the novel:

General Morrison asked, “Active measures? That’s going back to the sixties. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia promised the CIA that it would abandon ‘Active Measures’.”

The KGB defector replied. “It never did. Just like in the sixties, Putin today is spreading disinformation to discredit the U.S. This time, in the Caribbean. As you recall, the KGB convinced Americans that the U.S. government assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. In the eighties they spread gossip that your CIA created the AIDS virus at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Now, we have social media. Putin sent Boris Markov to the Dominican Republic to take over my DVD bootlegging business; it has become a front operation for a Russian troll factory. Markov sent dozens of hackers from the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency to my estate, along with the same bloggers and journalists who hijacked your 2016 elections. They write fake news articles about how the U.S. attempts to exploit the Caribbean nations, then post them in social media and newspapers throughout the Caribbean.”

“How far is their reach?” Corey asked.

“Roughly 146 million Americans and Caribbean citizens see a constant flow of disinformation in several hundred Caribbean newspapers and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr and Google+… all originating from my estate in the Dominican Republic. Hundreds of Bots and trolls spread the disinformation…black state conspiracy theories, constant reports of the U.S. screwing over Caribbean nations. I listed each hacker’s name on my smartphone app.” End of snippet.

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), enjoys writing about the U.S. Intelligence Community, and relishes traveling to the Florida Keys and Key West, the Bahamas and Caribbean. He combines both passions in his Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series. Check out his latest spy thriller: MISSION OF VENGEANCE.