Counter-misinformation

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Counter-misinformation

Postby AlicetheCurious » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:07 am

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Damage Control<br><br>State Department Officer Works To Dispel Lies, Conspiracy Theories And Urban Legends That Harm U.S. Image</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>October 16, 2006<br><br>By WILLIAM WEIR, Courant Staff Writer Page 76 of the sixth-grade U.S. textbook, "An Introduction to Geography," tells us that the United Nations and the United States have teamed up to take control of the Amazon forest.<br><br>It's a startling revelation, but you're out of luck if you want to know more. Though the page has made its way around the world, no other trace of the book has been found and no publishers have any record of it. The page is also riddled with misspellings and odd syntax.<br><br>This was one of the easier cases for the State Department, which declared it a fake that probably came from a right-wing group out of Brazil. But the forgery still makes the rounds via e-mail and picks up new believers.<br><br>It's the kind of thing that keeps Todd Leventhal busy. He's the U.S. State Department's sole counter-misinformation officer. As such, he tracks conspiracy theories and urban legends, dissecting the inaccuracies and identifying the origins of questionable information that reflects poorly on the nation and its government.<br><br>Go to the State Department's "Identifying Misinformation" website usinfo.state.gov/media/misinformation.html and you'll find Leventhal's research. It's a curious body of work, and impressive in scope. Research posted there covers everything from a brief mention of the legend of the woman who tried drying her dog by microwave oven to an exhaustively researched report - nearly 6,000 words - on rumors of Americans kidnapping children for organ and cornea transplants.<br><br>Besides the glut of 9/11 conspiracy theories, counter-misinformation work takes on various false rumors: AIDS was invented in a Pentagon laboratory; the author of an 1830 Islam-bashing book is President Bush's grandfather (though he was the cousin of Bush's great-great-great grandfather). It works over Hugo Chavez's oft-repeated claims that the U.S. plans to invade Venezuela (he's confused it with a Spanish military war game that has no U.S. involvement, the State Department says).<br><br>Many of the entries' titles are in question form, and "no" is almost always the answer. "Is the U.S. harvesting organs from Iraqis?" "Did the U.S. create Osama Bin Laden?" "Was Saddam's capture faked?"<br><br>Another debunker of misinformation says she's impressed with the thoroughness of the enterprise.<br><br>"Clearly, they've been putting a lot of time and effort into it," says Barbara Mikkelson. She's one of the founders of Snopes.com, the popular website that tracks urban legends and assigns each a verdict of true or false.<br><br>It's probably good thinking on the government's part, she says. "Generally, it is better to combat rumors than to let them lie," she says. "The best way to combat misinformation is with information."<br><br>But for all the work, the State Department doesn't do much to promote the results, at least here in the U.S. When we called Leventhal at his home in Washington, the former Bolton resident said he'd be happy to talk about his work, but that the State Department rarely allows him to give interviews.<br><br>The State Department did agree, though, to answer a series of questions by e-mail. Responses were attributed to "a State Department official." The State Department declined to say whether the unnamed official was a man or a woman.<br><br>The official said the State Department doesn't promote its counter-misinformation work in the U.S. because, by law, work in theInternational Information Programs Bureau is directed toward foreign audiences.<br><br>What's the budget for counter-misinformation work? The diffuse nature of the work "makes it difficult to assign an exact figure."<br><br>How does counter-misinformation work? When U.S. embassies become concerned about misinformation gaining credence in their region of the world, the official said, they contact Leventhal.<br><br>"Mr. Leventhal leads the effort to collect information on `myth busting,' drawing on the expertise of other offices to craft a response." Embassy officials then decide how best to use Leventhal's research to counteract the bad information.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Conspiracies Run Amok</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Thanks to the Internet and the enormity of 9/11, there may be more conspiracy theories circulating the globe than ever.<br><br>Among the most egregious "disinformers" singled out by the State Department is "Islam Memo," a "pro-al Qaeda, pro-Iraqi insurgency, Arabic-language" website in Saudi Arabia.<br><br>And there's "Loose Change," a documentary available on the Internet that's been a prodigious source of 9/11 conspiracy theories. Although not mentioned by name, the movie's claims (planted explosives brought down the World Trade Center towers; an American missile, not a plane, hit the Pentagon, etc.) are dissected in the "Top September 11 Conspiracy Theories" section.<br><br>Conspiracy theorists - no surprise - aren't impressed. Many cite the number of times the U.S. government has played a hand in media affairs in the past few years - paying columnists to promote government policies, planting military-boosting stories in Iraqi newspapers, etc. - and say the government has lost the authority to counteract propaganda.<br><br>John Perkins' book, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," is featured prominently on the "Identifying Misinformation" website and denounced as largely a work of fiction. Perkins claims the National Security Agency paid him to sabotage the economies of other nations.<br><br>But Perkins says denials from the National Security Agency don't hurt his credibility. "Their mission statement is a lie, so when they use their mission statement to say my book is a lie, I think it speaks for itself," he says. "I think anything like this helps books sales."<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Correcting Lies</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>How much damage can a few crackpot theories do? Actually, says the State Department official, a great deal of harm can result "when people believe these lies and then act on the basis of their mistaken beliefs."<br><br>For example, the official says Al-Qaida members "were encouraged to `join the jihad' at least in part because of disinformation."<br><br>And an American woman visiting Guatemala in 1994 was attacked and permanently disabled. The attackers were spurred on by the story of Americans adopting Latin American children for organ transplants.<br><br>In 1979, rumors of U.S. involvement in the takeover of a Saudi Arabian grand mosque caused a mob in Pakistan to attack and kill two U.S. servicemen and two Pakistani employees at an embassy in Islamabad.<br><br>Even when you can't pinpoint the effects of false information "it is clearly not in the interests of the U.S. government or the American people if foreign audiences believe outrageous lies about Americans or their government."<br><br>And, of course, "crackpot" is a relative term. Stories that sound absurd to one group of people may well fit the worldview of others, says Herb Romerstein, who held an earlier version of Leventhal's job up through the 1990s. For those who already think poorly of the United States, he says, any story with a U.S. villain could seem credible.<br><br>Romerstein doesn't agree with the State Department's keeping a low profile on its counter-misinformation work. "I think they should be disseminating this information," he says. "There's a desire for it."<br><br>But whenever you rebut a claim, you're also publicizing it. Perkins knows this. He was unaware of the State Department's website until somebody called his attention to its section on the Venezuelan "invasion" plan. Right above it was a section about "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," arguing they were "fantasies," not confessions.<br><br>Suddenly, major newspapers started paying attention to the book.<br><br>"Mainstream journalists weren't touching the book because no one thought they should give it any play," he says. "But once the State Department admitted the book was out there, it kind of broke the code of silence."<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-misinformation.artoct16,0,7784347.story?coll=hc-headlines-life">www.courant.com/features/...lines-life</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Counter-misinformation

Postby Hugh Manatee Wins » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:31 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Besides the glut of 9/11 conspiracy theories, counter-misinformation work takes on various false rumors: AIDS was invented in a Pentagon laboratory; <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>the author of an 1830 Islam-bashing book is President Bush's grandfather</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> (though he was the cousin of Bush's great-great-great grandfather).<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Ah, now that's some muddlement of Prescott 'Nazi financier' Bush and Yale's Skull and Bones spooks and bankers-type power base fraternity established back in 1832. <br><br>Disinfo accomplished.<br><br>Highly recommended book-<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.fleshingoutskullandbones.com/">www.fleshingoutskullandbones.com/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.fleshingoutskullandbones.com/grafx/FOSB_3d-240.gif" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Fleshing Out Skull & Bones features 42 chapters from a dozen+ authors, plus many historical articles, providing a wide array of viewpoints into this very secret organization whose members increasingly affect world events. (720 pages)<br><br>Chapter titles include:<br><br> * The September 11th Attack, the War on Terror and the Order of Skull & Bones • Memoir • Antithesis: Financing The Nazis by Antony Sutton<br> * Geronimo’s Bones by Howard Altman<br> * A Role Model For His Daughters by Charlotte Iserbyt<br> * Secrecy and Our Constitution: Whom do they serve? by Dr. Ralph Bunch<br> * Prescott Bush, $1,500,000 and Auschwitz by Toby Rogers<br> * The Secret Treaty of Fort Hunt by Carl Oglesby<br> * The War of ‘82 by Daniel Hopsicker<br> * Reflections on the Yale Succession by Steve Sewall<br> * The Order of Skull & Bones and Illegal Finance: A Study of the Analytical Framework of Conspiracy Theory by Jedediah McClure<br> * The House of Bush: Born in a Bank • The Hitler Project • Skull and Bones: The Racist Nightmare at Yale by Webster Griffin Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin<br> * Everything you ever wanted to ask, but were afraid to know • Blackmarket Bones • Prescott Bush, the Union Banking Corporation and The Story • The Tomb • Man, Magic and Yale • The Skeleton Crew • RTA Incorporated • A Shell Game • What Hath Women Wrought? by Kris Millegan <br><br>— and many more!<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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hmm

Postby orz » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:23 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>"pro-al Qaeda, pro-Iraqi insurgency, Arabic-language"<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> ...one of these things is not like the others... <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :rolleyes --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/eyes.gif ALT=":rolleyes"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: hmm

Postby AlicetheCurious » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:56 pm

Actually, orz, three of these three are not like the others. <br><br>The Iraqi insurgency is a legitimate response to an illegal, larcenous and murderous foreign occupation. <br><br>Al-Qaeda is the bogeyman created by Western intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA, and its subsidiaries such as Pakistan's ISI and Saudi intelligence, to justify Western global domination under the pretext of an endless "Global War on Terrorism".<br><br>The Arabic language is a beautiful and expressive language spoken and written by some of the warmest, kindest and unfortunately, most unjustly maligned people on earth. <p></p><i></i>
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...

Postby orz » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:05 pm

well, yes! <p></p><i></i>
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