The final . Marketed in North America as SSRM Tek, the technology will soon be tested for airport screening by a U.S. company under contract to the Department of Homeland Security. [5] Foreign Affairs gave a mixed review saying the author exaggerated the role of the KGB. They learned that if you bombard the human subjects with fear messages nonstop, in two months or less most of the subjects are completely brainwashed to believe a false message(i.e. Another such forgery claimed that the CIA plotted a covert assassination attempt on the Indonesian president. 3 talking about this. In particular, a specific false report stated a fictitious strategy supposedly planned by the United Kingdom jointly with the U.S., to invade Indonesia through Malaysia. The operation targeted an Ambassador from Indonesia through a honeypot espionage ploy, tempting him with attractive women. Under the direction of the Soviet secret police, Bittman was deputy chief of the disinformation division for Czech intelligence called the Department for Active Measures and Disinformation. "With Smirnov, the FBI was either demanding a yes or a no, and therefore our methods weren't put to use, unfortunately," Rusalkina said, taking a drag on her cigarette. From my perspective, it would be even more important, especially for the long term, to train students as early as elementary school to differentiate between facts and opinions and to identify not only propaganda techniques, but also fallacies in logic. Op-Ed: Busy Bee DeSantis is Buzzing Around the Honey Hive Will He Land on a Cherry Blossom? Before long, immense numbers of people around the world (including in the US) came to believe, falsely, that the US government was responsible for AIDS. 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For example, officials from the Reagan Administration were perturbed that Dan Rather reported the Soviets accusations about AIDS and Fort Detrick on the CBS Evening News in 1987 without requesting a US government response. Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.46a. Photo: Nathan HodgeSmirnov died in November 2004, leaving the widowed Rusalkina -- his long-time collaborator -- to run the institute. A dungeon-like room in the Psychotechnology Research Institute in Moscow is used for human testing. Are our representatives in Government voting Constitutionally? The contract is a small victory for the Psychotechnology Research Institute and its leaders, who have struggled for years to be accepted in the West. What possible reasonable reason could there be for leaving a paper that is a lie in their journal without even an expression of concern, much less a retraction? For companies claiming innovative technologies, the past few years have provided bountiful opportunities. The warning signs had been there all along. These days, Rusalkina explained, the institute uses its psychotechnology to treat alcoholics and drug addicts. The author recounts covert operations that significantly affected international relations. She noted that the studies analyzed did not necessarily compare people who were afraid to people who were unafraid, but instead compared groups that were exposed to more or less fear-inducing content. [1][2][3] The book is about the KGB's use of disinformation and information warfare during the Soviet Union period. For example, some Christians in Europe blamed the Jews for the bubonic plague and responded with violence and murder. [1][2] Prior to the publication of The KGB and Soviet Disinformation, Bittman had written a book on the history of disinformation in Soviet covert operations, The Deception Game: Czechoslovak Intelligence in Soviet Political Warfare (1972). [3][5], The book received a positive reception from SAIS Review, where it was called "fascinating reading". In the meantime, the DHS contract is still imminent, according to those involved, although all parties declined to comment on the details, or the size of the award. MK:What are the lessons we can learn from Operation Denver in responding to the Russian and Chinese disinformation now? Today, it absolutely does not help, for example, when the Trump Administration and other U.S. politicians openly promote their own conspiracy theories about COVID-19, including basically unsubstantiated claims that the virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan. Mitrokhin was an archivist for the KGB for 30 . [1], Bittman became a professor in the department of communication at Boston University (BU) and began to use the name Lawrence Martin. [7] The other reviewer, Peter C. Unsinger, wrote "At times his examination is superficial, and for depth into some specific events, the reader will have to look at Bittman's earlier work". In other words, these people, the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible; to rid society of these people you have, you need another 20 or 15 years to educate a new generation of patriotically minded and common sense people who would be acting in favor and in the interests of the United States society and yet these people have been programmed and as you say in place, are favorable to an opening with the Soviet concept, these are the very people who would be marked for extermination. "That kind of thing is reasonable, and there's good experimental evidence behind it. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and the logical behavior. [2] In the book, he warns how disinformation can lead to blowback, causing unintended consequences from intelligence agency actions, which were harmful to the Soviet Union. One particularly reprehensible episode was the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which the US Public Health Service had observed the long-term effects of syphilis on infected African-American sharecroppers and their offspring for four decades, from 1932 to 1972, without providing them with effective medical treatment, even after penicillin had proven effective against the disease. Selvages article appeared a few months before COVID-19 burst into public consciousness. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. You can stream it for free on YouTube. A year in the making, discover the inside story of how big drug companies have fuelled Americas opioid addiction endemic. Smirnov was a Rasputin-like character often portrayed in the media as having almost mystical powers of persuasion. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. #DemVoice1 . The author defines disinformation as "a carefully constructed false message leaked to an opponent's communication system in order to deceive the decision-making elite or the public". The institute has for years served as the center of an obscure field of human behavior study -- dubbed psychoecology -- that traces it roots back to Soviet-era mind control research. It is possible that a Stasi officer heard the term Fort Detrick and thought Denver instead of Detrick that is, a geographical term more familiar to most Germans. [2] He chose to defect to the United States in 1968 at the conclusion of the period known as the Prague Spring, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. She pointed, for example, to a spate of Russian news reports about "zombies" -- innocent people whose memories had been allegedly wiped out by mind control weapons. KOLs manage to turn a blind eye to the way in which they are being exploited. In the 60s, the KGB did conducted psych experiments and learned that if you bombard human subjects with nonstop fear messages, most are completely brainwashed to believe the lies in 2 months or less, and no amount of evidence to the contrary can change their minds. The Chinese government has succeeded to some extent in lumping together accusations about the Wuhan laboratory with all other criticisms of its role and response to the pandemic as mere China-bashing.. Your email address will not be published. Today, first-time visitors to the institute -- housed in a drab concrete building at the Peoples Friendship University of Russia -- are asked to watch a half-hour television program dedicated to Smirnov, who is called the father of "psychotronic weapons," the Russian term for mind control weapons. Business, Economics, and Finance. Yuri Bezmenov, known by the alias Tomas David Schuman, was a Soviet KGB informant who defected to Canada. DS: During the Cold War, the Reagan Administration had an Active Measures Working Group that exposed and publicised examples of Soviet disinformation. [2] He served within the Czechoslovak intelligence agency as its deputy chief of the disinformation division, the Department for Active Measures and Disinformation, from 1964 to 1966. Before the KGB: The Cheka, the OGPU and the NKVD . Igor Smirnov, founder of the Psychotechnology Research Institute, died of a heart attack in 2005. SSRM Tek is presented to a subject as an innocent computer game that flashes subliminal images across the screen -- like pictures of Osama bin Laden or the World Trade Center. Presenting a fear appeal more than doubles the probability of change relative to not presenting anything or presenting a low-fear appeal, said Albarracin. Scientist. The Cuban government also played a role in spreading AIDS disinformation about the US in Latin America, but the details remain unclear. [1][2][10] While there, Bittman taught journalism with a focus on disinformation at BU and founded the Program for the Study of Disinformation, the first academic center in the U.S. to focus on the study of disinformation. With regard to COVID-19 today, we see the spread of similar conspiratorial beliefs, an associated rejection of public health measures, and a similar propagation of unproven and potentially dangerous alternative therapies. The slow migration of Smirnov's technology to the United States began in 1991, at a KGB-sponsored conference in Moscow intended to market once-secret Soviet technology to the world. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Smirnov is best known in the United States for consulting with the FBI during the 1993 Waco siege. (When a reporter visited last year, Rusalkina also declined to demonstrate the software, saying it wasn't working that day.). Mcdermott, one of our first and thus veteran reporters, is also a data analyst for select independent news and media organizations in the United States. Fear produces a significant though small amount of change across the board. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. "That's the level of modern neuroscience. HP 991 ac kartu, yazclar iin nerilen orjinal toner kartular arasndadr. 18.8K subscribers fact checked by Jamie Frater. During the interview, several patients -- gaunt young men who appeared wasted from illness -- waited in the hallway. "It would be premature to discuss any details about the pending contract with DHS and I will be happy to do an interview once the contract is in place," Ioffe, of Northam Psychotechnologies, wrote in an e-mail. Why didnt the Journal itself retract the misinformation once they knew about it? "We worked out a program with (a psychiatric facility) to study criminals. The KGB and Stasi relied on forged documents and inaccurate testimony from purported experts to suggest that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, had originated not from infected animals in Africa but from biological warfare research carried out by US military scientists at Fort Detrick in Maryland. They learned that if you bombard human subjects with fear messages nonstop, in two months or less, most of the subjects are completely brainwashed to believe the false information. Powered by Infopop www.infopop.com 2000 The use of Denver had apparently created some confusion. ", The problem, he said, is that there is no science he is aware of that can produce the specificity or sensitivity to pick out a terrorist, let alone influence behavior. Smirnov's technology reappeared on the U.S. government's radar screen through Northam Psychotechnologies, a Canadian company that serves as North American distributor for the Psychotechnology Research Institute. A dungeon-like room in the Psychotechnology Research Institute in Moscow is used for human testing. Yet thats what happened earlier this year, when Illinois-based Surgisphere Corporation began a publishing spree that would trigger one of the largest scientific scandals of the COVID-19 pandemic to date. Among the East European intelligence services that assisted the KGB in this effort was the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi), which used the codename Denver when referring to the campaign. Smirnov's claims of mind control piqued the interest of Chris and Janet Morris -- former science-fiction writers turned Pentagon consultants who are now widely credited as founders of the Pentagon's "non-lethal" weapons concept. "If there's something there, that person will need to go through extra checks.". In fiscal year 2007, DHS allocated $973 million for science and technology and recently announced Project Hostile Intent, which is designed to develop technologies to detect people with malicious intentions. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. WASHINGTON Fear-based appeals appear to be effective at influencing attitudes and behaviors, especially among women, according to a comprehensive review of over 50 years of research on the topic, published by the American Psychological Association. We reveal how one of the biggest fake news stories ever concocted the . About three years ago, Northam Psychotechnologies began seeking out U.S. partners to help it crack the DHS market. (No mention was made of the Soviet Unions much larger, offensive biological-weapons research program, but little was publicly known about it at the time.). They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. For example, the KGB was not the first to accuse the US government of constructing the AIDS virus. ), Uncovering the Deep State: Special Investigation on U.S. Intelligence, VIPedophilia: An Inquiry into Pedophilia and Human Trafficking, Clinton Cash Investigation Into Donations to The Clinton Foundation, Requiem for the American Dream: Concentration of Wealth & Power, Citizenfour The Documentary Film on The NSA Spying Scandal, Satire: Hilarious Parody of Obamas Endorsement of Joe Biden, Zeitgeist: Socioeconomic Paradigms, Capitalism And Communism, The Mysterious Death of Frank R. Olson Biological Weapons Scientist, QAnon The Plan To Save The World (Conspiracy Theory), Hillary Clintons Emails and Proof of Lies To The FBI, Benjamin Lefty Ruggiero from the Bonanno Crime Family, The Gambino Crime Family The American Mafia, Angelo Salvatore Ruggiero, Sr. of the Gambino Crime Family, John Gotti (aka The Teflon Don) of the Gambino Crime Family, World War A When Aliens Attack | UFO Documentary, Inside the Meltdown Sub Prime Mortgages and The Housing Bubble, Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis. In the 1960s, the KGB conducted some fascinating experiments. One can see a similar dynamic today between Russian disinformation and US conspiracy theorists if one closely views Sputnik News and RT (formerly Russia Today) on Twitter and Facebook. On social media, there's a campaign to get the upcoming presidential debate fact-checked. the truth . "The goal of these measures," the KGB wrote, "is to create a favourable opinion for us abroad that this disease is the result of secret experiments with a new type . MK: When you began writing about the Soviet-East German AIDS disinformation campaign, did you ever imagine that you might live through a global pandemic that would give rise to lurid conspiracy theories in Russia, China, and Iran claiming that the deadly pathogen was manufactured in US biological defence laboratories? [3][5], The book was first published in 1983 by Pergamon-Brassey's and another edition was released in 1985 by the same publisher, with a foreword by Roy Godson. At the heart of the deception was a paper published in The Lancet on May 22 that suggested hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug prom, 329 Lullaby, Stevie Lewis Bloody brilliant, some astute, clever lyrics, also a plug for Children of the Cure, Bravo Stevie, Bravo all brave dissenters,.. X. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright var currDate = new Date(); document.write(currDate.getFullYear()); Data Based Medicine Americas Ltd. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. the truth . It was particularly active in combatting the Soviet blocs AIDS disinformation. In an interview last year, Chris Morris recalled being intrigued by Smirnov -- so much so that he accompanied the researcher to his lab and allowed Smirnov to wire his head up to an electroencephalograph, or EEG. To the untrained ear, the demonstration sounds like squealing pigs. Posts: 148144From: I hold a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) In the 1960's the KGB ran a series of psychological experiments. Forty years ago the U.S. Congress changed the rules; informed consent is now required for any government-funded medical study involving human subjects. 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