Tag: propaganda

Discussions Before Iran War Indicate Nuclear Weapons Issue Was Less Pressing Than Netanyahu Claimed

Private discussions between Israeli officials before launching the war against Iran in June indicate that Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons was not an immediate concern. At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran’s nuclear program was an immediate threat. 

“We are at a historic moment with a crucial decision. If we don’t stop [them], within a few years, they will get tens of thousands of kilograms of [nuclear] explosives,” the Prime Minister said at a top-secret meeting the day before launching the war. “Iran has already enriched fissile material at a level that is enough for eight to nine bombs, and they are working on the weaponization.” 

According to The Times of Israel, one unnamed senior military official said the attack would prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon in “the long term” and the war would “improve Israel’s strategic balance.”

Publicly, Netanyahu gave far more alarming warnings about Tehran’s breakout time to build a nuclear weapon. He said, “Iran’s nuclear teams were racing to build nuclear warheads. The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad claimed Iran could assemble a nuclear weapon within 15 days. 

The private discussions also reveal that Israeli officials believed that they would not be able to destroy Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium and were depending on Trump entering the conflict. “The basic assumption is that at the end of the operation, Iran will still possess enriched material,” one official said.

Tel Aviv needed the US to destroy the Fordo nuclear facility. One senior official admitted, “Fordo will be destroyed only if the US attacks it.” Setergetic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was confident that Trump would decide to bomb Fordo and provide Israel with assistance in shooting down Iranian missiles. 

The conversations additionally reveal that Tel Aviv was trying to overthrow the Iranian government, not just destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. 

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New owner of CBS coordinated with former Israeli military chief to counter the country’s critics, according to leaked emails

A widely noted dataset of purportedly leaked emails from former Israeli minister of defense Benjamin Gantz appears to show that David Ellison, the new head of media conglomerate Paramount, was coordinating with the recently retired commander-in-chief of the Israeli military on a nascent campaign to sabotage critics of the Israeli military’s activities in Palestine.

The previously unreported emails appear to show David Ellison being recruited in December 2015 as a core American supporter of a nascent Israeli government effort which Gantz labeled the “Counter-BDS Initiative.” The original concept of the program, according to leaked emails and PowerPoint presentations, was to raise $1 million each from twelve prominent Jewish philanthropists in order to fund “state-of-the-art cyber technology as a soft weapon” and to contract the controversial private intelligence firm Black Cube to spy on and disrupt activists.

David and his father, Larry Ellison – the centi-billionaire founder of the enterprise database company Oracle – have come under increased scrutiny as a result of their joint financing of an $8 billion merger between Paramount and David’s own media company, Skydance. The purchase took place alongside Paramount agreeing to pay $16 million to President Trump over editorial choices regarding an interview with former Vice President Harris. Focus further increased on Wednesday, when Larry Ellison was reported to have overtaken his business partner Elon Musk as the world’s richest man.

Larry Ellison’s ties to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a prominent opponent of Gantz, are well known. According to reporting in Haaretz in 2021, the Oracle founder went as far as offering Mr. Netanyahu a seat on his company’s board.

The New York Times further reported on Wednesday that David Ellison is considering appointing the former New York Times opinion columnist Bari Weiss as co-president or editor-in-chief of the CBS News division of Paramount. The possible role comes alongside Ellison’s widely reported consideration of a roughly $100 million acquisition of Weiss’s ‘anti-woke’ media outlet, The Free Press, which prominently criticized CBS for its handling of a contentious interview conducted by its anchor Tony Dokoupil with author Ta-Nehisi Coates on September 30. “The sad truth is that Coates is not speaking truth to power,” editorialized The Free Press, in response to Coates having criticized the Israeli military’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip.

Paramount has also received criticism for its recent appointment of Kenneth R. Weinstein, a former head of both the conservative think tank Hudson Institute and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, as the conglomerate’s new ombudsman for CBS News.

The previously unreported emails between David Ellison and former Israeli military chief Benjamin Gantz are part of an archive originally released by the hacktivist group ‘Handala’, which is widely believed to be associated with Iranian intelligence, with the U.S.-based nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets serving as the primary intermediary for journalists. A related repository of leaked emails from former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, also published by Handala, led to recent reporting on Barak and the convicted child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein discussing potential investments in the now-defunct data analytics firm Fifth Dimension, which Gantz chaired from 2015 to 2018.

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Top US firm ends contract with Israel to whitewash Gaza war crimes

US public affairs giant SKDK has ended a $600,000 contract with the Israeli government that “promoted Israel’s perspective” about the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, according to POLITICO.

“SKDK stopped this work on Aug. 31 and has begun the process of de-registering,” a spokesperson for SKDK told the DC-based magazine, declining to comment on the reasons why the contract was cut short early, saying only that the work “had run its course.”

According to POLITICO, the contract between Tel Aviv and SKDK was expected to run until March 2026.

The announcement followed a report by Sludge on 15 September that said the firm was involved in a bot program to boost pro-Israel content online. 

“The contract, worth $600,000 from April 2025 through March 2026, also tasks SKDK with coaching Israeli civil society spokespeople for on-camera appearances, testing the effectiveness of social media influencers, and arranging tailored outreach to journalists at outlets including BBC, CNN, Fox, and the Associated Press to secure favorable coverage,” the Sludge report details.

However, SKDK and its parent company, Stagwell, denied this, insisting their work was limited to media relations. “Our work focused solely on media relations and nothing else,” the SKDK spokesperson told POLITICO.

An investigation by MintPress News in July revealed that Israel has spent millions of dollars per day on an expansive advertising campaign across YouTube, aimed at shifting European public opinion in support of its genocide and its unprovoked war against Iran.

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Backlash over Stagwell’s Israel work puts PR ethics in the spotlight

Stagwell, the US-based holding group that owns agencies including agencies Assembly, 72andSunny, Allison+Partners and Anomaly has come under scrutiny following reports of a major research and messaging program conducted for the Israeli government.

According to leaked documents first reported by Drop Site news website, the project involved research across more than 13,000 people and tested campaign messages designed to improve perceptions of Israel internationally. The recommendations included emotional storytelling, messaging around terrorism, and connecting Islamic radicalism to the conflict.

The presentation also recommended the “notion of radical Jihadism” being “universally effective” for conservative audiences. It said connecting radical Jihadism to a desire to dominate other religions was effective as communications means. The report also said that Mark Penn, chairman and chief executive of Stagwell, has long-standing links to Israel.

In a statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, the holding group confirmed a small team had worked on the project, but stressed that each agency in the network operates with autonomy and that its portfolio spans clients “across the political and issue spectrum.” Still, the revelations have prompted strong reaction across the PR and advertising industry.

Strategy consultant Zoe Scaman called on talent within Stagwell-owned agencies to “walk away,” with her LinkedIn post attracting almost 1,000 likes and more than 140 reposts. A follow up post also read:

This industry has a problem with selective blindness.

“We’re brilliant at seeing every nuance of consumer behaviour, every shift in cultural sentiment, every emerging trend. But somehow we develop convenient myopia when it comes to examining our own moral architecture.”

Other agency leaders also voiced criticism, highlighting growing concerns about the role of communications firms in politically charged work.

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BBC Media Action: Britain’s overseas info warfare unit

Leaked documents reveal how a shadowy BBC unit is “embedding” staff in foreign media outlets to “contest the information space” and generate “behaviour change” in favor of London’s geopolitical objectives.

Though BBC Media Action (BBCMA) portrays itself as the “international charity” of the British state broadcaster, files show the group frequently carries out politically-charged projects overseas with government funding. Furthermore, the group consistently trades upon the BBC’s reputation and its intimate “links” with the British state broadcaster when pitching for contracts with donors, including the Foreign Office, which operates in tandem with MI6.

The leaks reveal that BBCMA’s work is explicitly “driven by a social and behaviour change communication approach.” The organization’s “project design” is informed by “psychology, social psychology, sociology, education and communication,” and consideration of “the specific factors that can be influenced by media and communication that could lead to changes in behaviours, social norms and systems” in foreign countries. Which is to say, BBCMA is concerned with psychological warfare, warping perceptions and driving action among target audiences.

“We recognise that different formats achieve different things when it comes to change… and consider audience needs, objectives and operational context when deciding which format to use,” BBCMA asserts in one file. In another, the organization crows, “people exposed to our programming are more likely to: have higher levels of knowledge on governance issues; to discuss politics more; to have higher internal efficacy (the feeling that they are able to do something); and participate frequently in politics.”

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Speaker Johnson Blocks Massie’s Attempt To Repeal The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act

Since ascending to the seat of Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson has had a tumultuous tenure that has raised serious questions about how committed Republican leadership is to disrupting the political establishment in Washington, DC, which it promised to vanquish. Ironically, the controversies that have marred his leadership the most have not been initiated by partisan opposition from the left. Instead, the most formidable challenges to Johnson have come from within the Republican Party itself. Representative Thomas Massie, who in stark juxtaposition has earned a reputation as one of the few members of Congress with any integrity, has proven to be Johnson’s greatest adversary in that struggle.From his crusade to prevent Johnson’s re-election to the seat at the head of the House of Representatives to his mission to bring transparency to the debacle over the release of the Epstein Files™, Massie’s efforts have painted the Speaker in the light of someone who has used the promise of putting America first as a vehicle for political expediency rather than as a testament to his commitment to the American people.

By actually fighting against the corrupt Washington establishment, Massie’s efforts have shown just how much Congress is still at odds with the American people under Johnson’s leadership. The congressman’s recent effort to repeal legislation that legalizes the use of state-sanctioned propaganda against the American citizens by their own government is the latest episode in the saga between Massie and Johnson. Massie’s revelation that his attempt to repeal the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act was blocked by Speaker Johnson amplifies concerns about whose interests are being fought for by Congress and how committed Republican leadership is to delivering on its promises to provide the public with greater transparency and integrity of the rule of law.

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Influence Operation? The EU Paid-Off €600,000 To Friendly Media Outlets Right After European Elections

While the European Union likes to throw out terms like “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “influence campaigns,” the reality is that the EU is pumping millions into influencing public opinion itself. The difference is just that when Brussels does it, it is not supposed to be propaganda.

One European politician, MEP Petr Bystron, has revealed that the EU commission has provided Financial support to the American investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) right after the 2024 EU elections. Major German news outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung belong to the group, which is the world’s largest network of investigative media.

These outlets are known for their hit pieces on conservative and right-wing parties, often at opportune times. Notably, Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung’s reporting in 2019 on the Ibiza Affair scandal — which involved an undercover video of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) party’s leader — led to the toppling of the Austrian government at the time, which included the FPÖ. Many critics believed that due to the sophistication of the operation, which included an undercover actress, intelligence services may have played a role.

The OCCRP group was founded in 2006 and is most well known for publishing the “Panama Papers” and the “Azerbaijan Laundromat” evasion scandals.

After a massive flow of U.S. money was cut off to key European establishment outlets and NGOs, Brussels is stepping in to fill the gap. Namely, the Trump administration ended the massive levels of funding headed towards foreign organizations, particularly from USAID, which allowed them to pump out pro-EU and left-wing content to wide swathes of the population across Europe.

The OCCRP group has received an extraordinary amount of money from U.S. taxpayers and other U.S. sources. According to French outlet Mediapart, the group received nearly $50 million from U.S. sources, but these funders were not just generous donors. They also could dictate editorial agendas and veto staff appointments.

Two journalists from NDR, a German state media network, questioned just how independent the OCCRP is in a 2024 report.

The two determined that a significant portion of the money was coming from American funds, particularly from USAID. OCCRP was funneling content and material to German media outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

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How The EU Pays Mainstream Media To Promote Its Narratives

The unelected leadership of the evidently corrupt European Union (EU) is now paying mainstream media to promote the agendas of its EU “elites.” The EU appears to have spent as much as 1 billion euros during the past decade alone in the process, according to a recent report, “Brussels’s media machine: European media funding and the shaping of public discourse,” by Thomas Fazi, from the European think tank MCC Brussels.

Framing the projects as “fighting disinformation” and “promoting European integration” the EU has been throwing taxpayer money, conservatively estimated at €80 million annually, to “media projects” — not including indirect funding, such as advertising contracts.

The report also shows that the EU runs a highly sophisticated “EU media complex” through which it gets to shape media narratives about itself and its agendas.

According to Fazi’s report:

“The European Commission – through its Journalism Partnerships programme alone, with a cumulative budget approaching € 50 million to date – oversees a vast ecosystem of EU media ‘collaborations.’ Over the years, these have included hundreds of projects, ranging from pro-EU promotional campaigns to questionable ‘investigative journalism’ initiatives and sweeping ‘anti-fake news’ efforts. And that’s on top of the advertorial campaigns funded through the Information Measures for the EU Cohesion policy (IMREG) programme, to the tune of € 40 million so far…

“Even more concerning is the central role played by major European public broadcasters in this process. These projects show that this is not a matter of one-off collaborations, but rather an evolving semi-structural relationship between EU institutions and public media networks.”

The European Commission has, it seems, has literally paid off almost everything and everyone in the media world — meaning that everyone, from news agencies to media outlets, public broadcasters and other media organizations, sits in the pocket of the European Commission to greater or smaller degrees.

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Media Fail: So-Called ‘Firefighters’ Arrested by ICE Agents in Washington Are Actually Criminal Illegal Aliens

Democrats and their allies in the establishment media are falsely claiming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have arrested a pair of “firefighters” in the sanctuary state of Washington. In actuality, the two men are not firefighters, but rather illegal aliens with past criminal records.

Last week, the establishment media ran wild with a story claiming that two firefighters were arrested by ICE agents in Bear Gulch, Washington, amidst an ongoing fire.

Jose Bertin Cruz-Estrada of Mexico, one of the illegal aliens arrested, has previously been charged with delivering and selling methamphetamine. Cruz-Estrada has been encountered by Border Patrol agents a total of 15 times.

Cruz-Estrada was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge in April 2015 and deported by ICE agents on February 27, 2016. After his last deportation, Cruz-Estrada crossed the southern border again on an unknown date.

The other illegal alien arrested by ICE agents was previously charged with illegally carrying a concealed weapon. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told Breitbart News that the pair were not firefighters and had been working for a company that was involved in cutting firewood, not actively fighting the Bear Gulch fires.

The facts of the case did not stop Democrats from turning the arrests into a false talking point that the establishment media breathlessly picked up.

A headline from NBC News reads “Trump’s immigration crackdown sweeps up 2 firefighters battling a wildfire in Washington state,” while a piece from Reuters reads “Two firefighters held at Washington ICE detention center amid wildfire, US representative says.”

Democrats were quick to latch onto the unfounded claims.

“Donald Trump ran his campaign on sending out the worst of the worst,” Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) wrote on X. “I’m not sure who’s more the best of the best than our firefighters, actively fighting the largest fire in Washington.”

Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA) did an interview with Reuters where she suggested that ICE agents were potentially trying to hide information from her regarding the arrests.

Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-OR) similarly posted on X that she had detailed knowledge of one of the illegal aliens arrested, continuously referring to him as a firefighter and omitting his criminal record.

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Campaign of Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat Running for Governor in Virginia, Creates Fake News Site to Promote Her Candidacy

Abigail Spanberger is the Democrat running for governor in Virginia. She was the leading candidate until about two weeks ago, when Republican Winsome Sears started catching up to her in the polls.

In an effort to boost her candidacy, Spanberger’s campaign has created a fake news website called the Commonwealth Courier, which shares positive news about Spanberger on social media sites.

The media has completely ignored this story, which should surprise no one.

David Strom writes at Hot Air:

VA Governor Candidate Spanberger Invents ‘News’ Site to Deceive Voters

Abigail Spanberger is the Democratic Party candidate for Governor in Virginia.

Automatically, that makes her suspect.

Pravda and the Democrats have promoted Spanberger as a moderate Democrat, whatever that means these days, although she tends to avoid discussing issues and is distancing herself from her radical voting record. There’s a lot of vague talk–something pretty common in politics, I admit–and lots of promises that utopia is just around the corner.

But to get an idea of what the real Spanberger is like, all you need to know can be summed up by one fact: her campaign has literally invented a fake news site to push the narrative that she is a different kind of Democrat, and that Republicans are the puppy and kitten killing party.

The “news” outlet is the Commonwealth Courier, which is a Facebook page that presents itself as a “Media/News” company. Only it isn’t a company at all. It is, in fact, an artificial creation of the Spanberger for Governor campaign.

The Commonwealth Courier doesn’t exist to get followers–it has very few–and I couldn’t even find a webpage for it. There is a “Commonwealth Couriers,” but they provide courier services, not fake news.

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