Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political,military,or commercial goals. Disinformation is implemented through attacks that "weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths,half-truths,and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies."
Black propaganda is a form of propaganda intended to create the impression that it was created by those it is supposed to discredit. Black propaganda contrasts with gray propaganda,which does not identify its source,as well as white propaganda,which does not disguise its origins at all. It is typically used to vilify or embarrass the enemy through misrepresentation.
Active measures is a term used to describe political warfare conducted by the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The term,which dates back to the 1920s,includes operations such as espionage,propaganda,sabotage and assassination,based on foreign policy objectives of the Soviet and Russian governments. Active measures have continued to be used by the administration of Vladimir Putin.
The First Main Directorateof the Committee for State Security under the USSR council of ministers was the organization responsible for foreign operations and intelligence activities by providing for the training and management of covert agents,intelligence collection administration,and the acquisition of foreign and domestic political,scientific and technical intelligence for the Soviet Union.
Blowback is the unintended consequences and unwanted side-effects of a covert operation. To the civilians suffering the blowback of covert operations,the effect typically manifests itself as "random" acts of political violence without a discernible,direct cause;because the public—in whose name the intelligence agency acted—are unaware of the effected secret attacks that provoked revenge (counter-attack) against them.
Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn CBE was a Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about the long-term deception strategy of the KGB leadership. He was born in Pyriatyn,USSR. He provided "a wide range of intelligence to the CIA on the operations of most of the 'Lines' (departments) at the Helsinki and other residencies,as well as KGB methods of recruiting and running agents." He became an American citizen by 1984.
As early as the 1920s,the Soviet Union,through its GRU,OGPU,NKVD,and KGB intelligence agencies,used Russian and foreign-born nationals,as well as Communists of American origin,to perform espionage activities in the United States,forming various spy rings. Particularly during the 1940s,some of these espionage networks had contact with various U.S. government agencies. These Soviet espionage networks illegally transmitted confidential information to Moscow,such as information on the development of the atomic bomb. Soviet spies also participated in propaganda and disinformation operations,known as active measures,and attempted to sabotage diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and its allies.
Who's Who in CIA is a book written by the East German journalist Julius Mader and published in East Berlin in 1968,under Stasi auspices and probably with KGB assistance. Mader was employed by the East German military publishing house and apparently had access to some information on CIA officers that was not publicly available. The book purported to identify about 3,000 active agents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. It was modeled after other Who's Who guides.
Černéjezero in the Bohemian Forest is the largest and deepest natural lake in the Czech Republic.
Operation Denver was an active measure disinformation campaign run by the KGB in the 1980s to plant the idea that the United States had invented HIV/AIDS as part of a biological weapons research project at Fort Detrick,Maryland. Historian Thomas Boghardt popularized the codename "INFEKTION" based on the claims of former East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi) officer Günter Bohnsack,who claimed that the Stasi codename for the campaign was either "INFEKTION" or perhaps also "VORWÄRTS II". However,historians Christopher Nehring and Douglas Selvage found in the former Stasi and Bulgarian State Security archives materials that prove the actual Stasi codename for the AIDS disinformation campaign was Operation Denver. The operation involved "an extraordinary amount of effort –funding radio programs,courting journalists,distributing would-be scientific studies",according to journalist Joshua Yaffa,and even became the subject of a report by Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News.
Josef Frolík was a Czechoslovak spy who,in 1969,defected to the United States and joined the CIA.
Seat 12,also known as Operation Seat 12,was a left wing disinformation campaign conducted by the Soviet Union during the Cold War to discredit the moral authority of the Vatican because of its outspoken anticommunism. Claims of the operations existence were first made in 2007 by Ion Mihai Pacepa,a general who headed the Romanian secret service before defecting to the West in 1978.
The Interagency Active Measures Working Group was a group led by the United States Department of State and later by the United States Information Agency (USIA). The group was formed early during the Reagan administration,in 1981,purportedly as an effort to counter Soviet disinformation.
Herbert "Herb" Romerstein was an American ex-communist and historian who became a writer specializing in anticommunism and was appointed Director of the U.S. Information Agency’s Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures. As an author he is best known for his book The Venona Secrets.
Lawrence Martin-Bittman,formerly known as Ladislav Bittman,was an American artist,author,and retired professor of disinformation at Boston University. He was best known for his 1983 book,The KGB and Soviet Disinformation:An Insider's View.
Disinformation:Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom,Attacking Religion,and Promoting Terrorism is a 2015 non-fiction book about disinformation tactics and history rooted in information warfare. It was written by former general in the Securitate,the secret police of Socialist Republic of Romania,Ion Mihai Pacepa,and law professor Ronald J. Rychlak. It was published in 2013 along with a companion film,Disinformation:The Secret Strategy to Destroy the West.
The KGB and Soviet Disinformation:An Insider's View is a 1983 non-fiction book by Lawrence Martin-Bittman,a former intelligence officer specializing in disinformation for the Czech Intelligence Service and retired professor of disinformation at Boston University. The book is about the KGB's use of disinformation and information warfare during the Soviet Union period.
Dezinformatsia:Active Measures in Soviet Strategy is a non-fiction book about disinformation and information warfare used by the KGB during the Soviet Union period,as part of their active measures tactics. The book was co-authored by Richard H. Shultz,professor of international politics at Tufts University,and Roy Godson,professor emeritus of government at Georgetown University.
Use of disinformation as a Soviet tactical weapon started in 1923,when it became a tactic used in the Soviet political warfare called active measures.
Richard Paul Mitchell (1925–1983) was a history professor at the University of Michigan and a foreign intelligence officer. He is the author of 27 works in 90 publications in 4 languages,and the award-winning book The Society of the Muslim Brothers.
