Portman/Murphy Bill Promotes
Coordinated Strategy to Defend America, Allies Against Propaganda and
Disinformation from Russia, China & Others
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) today announced that their
Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act – legislation designed to help American allies counter foreign government propaganda from Russia, China, and other nations
– has
passed the Senate as part of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization
Act (NDAA) Conference Report. The bipartisan bill, which was
introduced
by Senators Portman and Murphy in March, will improve the ability of
the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation by
establishing an interagency center housed at the State Department to
coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the
U.S. government. To support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant
program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside
government who are engaged in counter-propaganda related work. This will
better leverage existing expertise and empower local communities to
defend themselves from foreign manipulation.
“The passage of this bill in the Senate today
takes us one critical step closer to effectively confronting the
extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and disinformation
operations being waged against us. While the propaganda and
disinformation threat has grown, the U.S. government has been asleep at
the wheel. Today we are finally signaling that enough is enough; the
United States will no longer sit on the sidelines. We are going to
confront this threat head-on,” said Senator Portman. “With the
help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and propaganda used
against our allies and our interests will fail.”
“Congress has taken a big step in fighting back
against fake news and propaganda from countries like Russia. When the
president signs this bill into law, the United States will finally have a
dedicated set of tools and resources to confront our adversaries’
widespread efforts to spread false narratives that undermine democratic
institutions and compromise America’s foreign policy goals,” said Murphy.
“I’m proud of what Senator Portman and I accomplished here because it’s
long past time for the U.S. to get off the sidelines and confront these
growing threats.”
NOTE: The bipartisan Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is
organized around two main priorities to help achieve the goal of
combatting the constantly evolving threat of foreign disinformation.
They are as follows:
- The first priority is developing a whole-of-government strategy for
countering foreign propaganda and disinformation. The bill would
increase the authority, resources, and mandate of the Global Engagement
Center to include state actors like Russia and China in addition to
violent extremists. The Center will be led by the State Department, but
with the active senior level participation of the Department of Defense,
USAID, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the Intelligence Community,
and other relevant agencies. The Center will develop, integrate, and
synchronize whole-of-government initiatives to expose and counter
foreign disinformation operations and proactively advance fact-based
narratives that support U.S. allies and interests.
- Second, the legislation seeks to leverage expertise from outside
government to create more adaptive and responsive U.S. strategy options.
The legislation establishes a fund to help train local journalists and
provide grants and contracts to NGOs, civil society organizations, think
tanks, private sector companies, media organizations, and other experts
outside the U.S. government with experience in identifying and
analyzing the latest trends in foreign government disinformation
techniques. This fund will complement and support the Center’s role by
integrating capabilities and expertise available outside the U.S.
government into the strategy-making process. It will also empower a
decentralized network of private sector experts and integrate their
expertise into the strategy-making process.
###
Under the guise of countering foreign “propaganda,” the
GOP-controlled Congress quietly passed a bill last week that will
unleash even more government propaganda on humanity, while at the same
time establishing what critics blasted as an Orwellian “Ministry of
Truth.” The “bipartisan” but flatly unconstitutional scheme, dubbed the
Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act, also calls for providing
tax funding and training to “journalists,” media outfits, and other
propagandists willing to parrot the U.S. government’s viewpoints.
According to its sponsors, the goal is to help promote Washington,
D.C.’s “foreign policy goals.” The potential for abuse, though, is
nearly endless, and the bipartisan establishment’s “foreign policy
goals” are often at odds with the Constitution — not to mention common
decency, human liberty, and peace. And so, critics are speaking out
forcefully.
The deeply controversial legislation, approved by the U.S. Senate on
December 8, was not voted on as a stand-alone bill, but was instead
buried deep inside the 1,576-page National Defense Authorization Act
(NDAA) of 2017. Because the NDAA funds the military and is considered
“must pass” by lawmakers with little regard for the oath they took to
the Constitution, Big Government-loving politicians often sneak
outlandish schemes into the NDAA that otherwise would almost certainly
be rejected. In recent years, for example, they snuck a purported
authorization for the military to indefinitely detain American citizens
without charge or trial. That same ploy to sneak through totalitarian
schemes appears to have occurred with the latest NDAA, with the
Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act stuck into the conference
report and approved by huge margins, likely without even the knowledge
of most lawmakers.
Under the radical measure, the U.S. government will unleash a
powerful new federal bureaucracy on Americans and the world dubbed the
“Global Engagement Center.” Overseen by the U.S. secretary of state — likely the pro-Russia Exxon-Mobil boss Rex Tillerson, ironically enough
— the unconstitutional outfit will bring together bureaucrats from the
State Department, the Pentagon, various “intelligence” bureaucracies,
the lawless foreign-aid bureaucracy known as USAID, foreign governments,
and more. In addition to establishing what one critic described as a
“propaganda factory” to pump out U.S. government-backed propaganda, the
bill also authorizes spying on journalists, funding “media” outlets
willing to serve as U.S. government propaganda organs, and much more.
According to the legislation, the new Global Engagement Center should
“develop, plan, and synchronize … whole-of-government initiatives to
expose and counter foreign propaganda and disinformation directed
against United States national security interests and proactively
advance fact-based narratives that support United States allies and
interests.” It should also work “to establish cooperative or liaison
relationships with foreign partners and allies … and other entities,
such as academia, nongovernmental organizations, and the private
sector.” So even universities, schools, businesses, and non-profit
organizations will be harnessed and exploited to promote U.S. government
propaganda.
Perhaps even more troubling is that the scheme aims to corrupt and
co-opt existing media outlets and journalists, making all journalism
suspect as Americans struggle to find out who is shilling for an
increasingly radicalized Uncle Sam and who is not. The bill “establishes
a fund to help train local journalists and provide grants and contracts
to NGOs, civil society organizations, think tanks, private sector
companies, media organizations, and other experts outside the U.S.
government with experience in identifying and analyzing the latest
trends in foreign government disinformation techniques.” Under the bill,
then, the U.S. government will officially get into the business of
buying and training propagandists to promote its agenda.
While the scheme was passed quietly, and was barely mentioned by the
establishment’s propaganda organs aiming to quash their competition in
the alternative press, the two senators behind it were cheering about
their success in a press release. “The passage of this bill in the
Senate today takes us one critical step closer to effectively
confronting the extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and
disinformation operations being waged against us,” claimed Senator Rob
Portman (R-Ohio) on the same day that failed Democrat presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton promoted his bill as a way for the U.S.
government to respond to “fake news” and alleged propaganda.
“While the propaganda and disinformation threat has grown, the U.S.
government has been asleep at the wheel,” continued Portman. “Today we
are finally signaling that enough is enough; the United States will no
longer sit on the sidelines. We are going to confront this threat
head-on. With the help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and
propaganda used against our allies and our interests will fail.”
Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), dubbed Portman’s “partner in crime”
by critics, made similarly bombastic claims in a statement. “Congress
has taken a big step in fighting back against fake news and propaganda
from countries like Russia,” he claimed. “When the president signs this
bill into law, the United States will finally have a dedicated set of
tools and resources to confront our adversaries’ widespread efforts to
spread false narratives that undermine democratic institutions and
compromise America’s foreign policy goals. I’m proud of what Senator
Portman and I accomplished here because it’s long past time for the U.S.
to get off the sidelines and confront these growing threats.”
Unsurprisingly, neither of the two chief senators behind the
propaganda scheme are known for their fidelity to the U.S. Constitution
they swore an oath to uphold. Senator Portman has a measly 51 percent on
The New American magazine’s Freedom Index,
which ranks lawmakers according to the constitutionality of their
voting records. Senator Murphy, meanwhile, has a 13 percent, meaning he
voted against the Constitution on almost nine out of ten bills examined
for the index. In the House, the lawmakers behind the scheme, dubbed
H.R. 5181 in its original form, were Congressman Adam Kinzinger
(R-Ill.), who has a 55 percent, and Congressman Ted Lieu, a California
Democrat who has voted constitutionally less than a third of the time.
In recent weeks, unhinged conspiracy theorists in government and the
establishment media — the primary purveyors of fake news, critics say —
have blamed everything from Clinton’s defeat and Trump’s victory to
British voters’ historic decision to leave the European Union on
“Russian propaganda” and “fake news.” In the real world, of course,
those decisions by voters had nothing to do with Russian propaganda,
according to virtually every credible expert, analyst, and lawmaker who
has commented on the question. Instead, the votes had everything to do
with the U.S. and U.K. electorate getting fed up with
totalitarian-minded globalists subverting their nations and liberties.
“I’ll be the first one to come out and point at Russia if there’s
clear evidence, but there is no clear evidence — even now,” explained
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence
Committee involved with the Trump transition team. “There’s a lot of
innuendo, lots of circumstantial evidence, that’s it.” Indeed, the Washington Post and the New York Times
appear to be spreading fake news and false propaganda in a bid to
undermine the alternative media, President-elect Trump’s administration,
and the use of new media such as Wikileaks that is increasingly making
the establishment propagandists and gatekeepers obsolete. And the
implications are incredibly dangerous to freedom and free speech.
Among those speaking out was Daniel McAdams, executive director of
the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. McAdams suspects that
the liberty-minded non-profit he runs will be among those targeted early
on under the new propaganda scheme. “The measure essentially
establishes a U.S. government-funded Ministry of Truth to ferret out and
silence any independent media voices not toeing the US government
line,” he warned, adding that the bill appeared designed to treat any
criticism of the U.S. government’s foreign policy agenda — “meaning
disastrous neocon interventionism” — as Russian propaganda to be
extinguished.
Under the scheme, he continued, the U.S. government is going to
“actively propagandize” Americans in an effort to convince people that
policies such as the “liberation” of Libya, the U.S. invasion of Iraq,
the 15 year war on Afghanistan, the “regime change” plot aimed at Syria,
and more, “were not at all dismal failures but in fact glorious
successes!” “Anyone who denies that our interventionist foreign policy
is producing great things overseas is obviously a Russian intelligence
asset and must be neutralized!” McAdams continued, using sarcasm to
ridicule the lawmakers behind the scheme.
McAdams also criticized the plot to pay journalists to promote U.S.
government propaganda while putting together “hit lists” of independent
media sites that oppose or expose Washington, D.C.’s deadly “foreign
policy” machinations. “We may take some comfort laughing at the
ridiculous ´Putin did it´ hysteria, but slowly and behind the scenes
Washington is building the infrastructure to end free speech as we know
it,” McAdams warned. “Beware!”
Also blasting the propaganda scheme was analyst Jason Ditz with the
liberty-minded, pro-peace, non-interventionist website Antiwar.com.
“That we still don’t know much about what this new federal body will be
authorized to do reflects both the vague wording of the bill itself and
the fact that there was virtually no debate on the matter,” he
cautioned. “This vagueness likely means future governments will be able
to decide for themselves just how broadly empowered they have been,
which is never a good sign.”
The propaganda measure was passed quietly amid efforts to pass
another, related scheme as part of the 2017 Intelligence Authorization
Act (H.R. 6393). That bill, approved by the House last month, takes aim
at websites and media sources alleged to be aiding “Russian propaganda”
efforts. Among other schemes, it calls for the U.S. government to
“counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence … carried
out in coordination with, or at the behest of, political leaders or the
security services of the Russian Federation and the role of the Russian
Federation has been hidden or not acknowledged publicly.”
Considering that the globalist establishment and its propaganda
organs have been labeling anything and everything that disagrees with
their pro-globalist, pro-Big Government narrative as Russian propaganda
or “fake news,” the implications of the legislation should be obvious.
Indeed, the Washington Post, rescued by Bilderberg billionaire
Jeff Bezos, published a malicious hit piece based on anonymous sources
accusing hundreds of often respected alternative media outlets,
including the Drudge Report, of peddling Russian government propaganda
and potentially even violating federal laws against espionage. The
increasingly discredited newspaper, facing potential libel lawsuits, has
since clarified with an editor’s note, and backed down somewhat. But
the hysteria is growing — and it is dangerous.
Of course, none of the criticism of the new unconstitutional scheme
takes away from the fact that hostile foreign powers — including those
in Moscow and Beijing — regularly use propaganda and disinformation to
achieve geopolitical objectives. In fact, KGB disinformation officer
Anatoliy Golitsyn, upon defecting to the United States, warned
Western governments that the entire “collapse” of the Soviet Union
(then still in the future) was in fact a giant disinformation operation
by the Kremlin aimed at facilitating an eventual takeover of the West.
The overwhelming majority of his predictions have already come to pass.
And yet, the establishment media continues to ignore his warnings,
preferring instead to promote the demonstrably false narrative of Russia
as bastion of conservatism and Communist China as free-market haven.
Democrats, though, have been active participants in promoting Kremlin propaganda. Indeed, the Democrat Party, which former Communist Party USA boasted is “utilized” by communists to pursue their totalitarian agenda,
have often collaborated with and even encouraged Kremlin propaganda
efforts. As conservative firebrand Ann Coulter documented in her book Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America,
for example, the late statist Senator Ted Kennedy was among the
Democrats keen on helping the savage Soviets’ anti-American propaganda
campaign. Indeed, Kennedy was even busted sending secret messages to
Soviet mass-murderer Yuri Andropov plotting propaganda efforts.
“Kennedy said how ´very impressed´ he was with Andropov, while
decrying ´Reagan’s belligerence´,” Coulter explained in her book. “The
communist boot licker asked for pointers on responding to Reagan’s
´propaganda,´ particularly any tips on Reagan’s vulnerabilities. Most
perplexing for the Soviets must have been Kennedy’s suggestion that
Andropov embark on an American media tour to counter Reagan, with
Kennedy proposing interviews with Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters.”
In other words, a leading Democrat politician wanted to help a
murderous communist dictator use the (American) establishment media for
pro-communist, anti-American propaganda. Since then, not much has
changed, of course. Indeed, as The New American reported some years ago, Obama even took the
unprecedented step of inviting Putin’s terror troops to train with U.S.
military forces on American soil — for the first time in history. Communist Chinese troops were invited for similar training schemes with U.S. forces under Obama, again for the first time in history, as leading globalists such as George Soros push for Beijing to “own” what they call the “New World Order.”
So far, The New American magazine, which has been exposing the schemes of the Kremlin and Putin
and the establishment media since long before it was fashionable, has
not yet been smeared as “Russian propaganda.” Indeed, that would be a
tough sell, considering the fact that the late chairman of TNA’s parent organization, Congressman Larry McDonald, was shot down by the Kremlin’s fighter jets on a commercial airliner on his way to South Korea. Indeed, the establishment and its propaganda organs once demonized TNA
and The John Birch Society, which publishes it, for allegedly being
overly concerned about the threat Moscow posed to America and the world.
No apologies have been forthcoming despite the hysterical shrieking
about Putin’s alleged (but almost certainly false) role in “hacking” the
Democrat Party’s e-mails.
There is certainly good cause for Americans and people around the
world to be concerned about government propaganda. It is ubiquitous, and
incredibly dangerous. However, whether it comes from the globalist and
communist totalitarians in Washington, D.C., London, Moscow, Beijing,
or some other capital matters little. The solution is not to authorize
unconstitutional U.S. government propaganda and censorship schemes.
Instead, citizen-led educational campaigns on the Constitution and the
forces seeking to subvert are the key. Once the public is educated,
government propaganda becomes a much harder sell, if not completely
irrelevant.
Related articles:
Dispute Over CIA Claim Russia Tried to Get Trump Elected
War on ‘Fake News’ Part of a War on Free Speech
Trump-Russia Connection or Wild Conspiracy Theory?
Red March to Global Tyranny
Russian Troops Coming to U.S. for Terror Drills, DoD Confirms
UN Internet Summit Run by Beijing Pushes “Global Governance”
Putin: Key Player in the “New World Order”
Putin’s East v. Globalist West: Merging Into a New World Order
Government Uses Psy-ops, Trolls, Propaganda to Push “Conformity”
British Surveillance Agents Create False Internet Information
Government Agents Invent False Evidence to Destroy Reputations
U.K. Launches War on “Non-Violent Extremism,” Seeking UN Help
Obama Behavior Team to “Nudge” U.S. Toward Government Goals
U.S. Military Funds Studies on How to Influence Social Media Use
Elements of Soviet Mind-control Schemes Exposed
EU Bosses Step Up Bullying, Propaganda to Combat Euroskepticism
UN and Media Plan “Sustainable Development” Propaganda Blitz
UN Plotting to “Dramatically Alter” Your Views and Behavior
Top U.S. Communist Boasts That Party “Utilizes” Democrats
U.S. Tech Giants Join EU to Censor the Internet
________________________________________________________
Senate Quietly Passes The “Countering Disinformation And Propaganda Act”
Another, perhaps even more dangerous and limiting to civil rights and freedom of speech bill passed on December 8
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
While we wait to see if and when the Senate will pass (and president will sign) Bill “H.R. 6393, Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017″,
which was passed by the House at the end of November with an
overwhelming majority and which seeks to crack down on websites
suspected of conducting Russian propaganda and calling for the US
government to “counter active measures by Russia to exert covert
influence … carried out in coordination with, or at the behest of,
political leaders or the security services of the Russian Federation and
the role of the Russian Federation has been hidden or not acknowledged
publicly,” another, perhaps even more dangerous and limiting to civil
rights and freedom of speech bill passed on December 8.
Recall that as we reported in early June, “a bill to implement the U.S.’ very own de facto Ministry
of Truth has been quietly introduced in Congress. As with any
legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering
Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 marks a further
curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of
accurate information. Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted
Lieu, H.R. 5181 seeks a “whole-government approach without the
bureaucratic restrictions” to counter “foreign disinformation and
manipulation,” which they believe threaten the world’s “security and
stability.”
Also called the Countering Information Warfare
Act of 2016 (S. 2692), when introduced in March by Sen. Rob Portman,
the legislation represents a dramatic return to Cold War-era government
propaganda battles. “These countries spend vast sums of money
on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted
campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to
influence key audiences and populations,” Portman explained, adding that
while the U.S. spends a relatively small amount on its Voice of
America, the Kremlin provides enormous funding for its news
organization, RT.“Surprisingly,” Portman continued, “there is currently no single U.S. governmental
agency or department charged with the national level development,
integration and synchronization of whole-of-government strategies to
counter foreign propaganda and disinformation.”
Long before the “fake news” meme became a daily topic of extensive
conversation on wuch mainstream fake news portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R.
5181 would rask the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary
of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting
Board of Governors to “establish a Center for Information Analysis and
Response,” which will pinpoint sources of disinformation, analyze data,
and — in true dystopic manner — ‘develop and disseminate’ “fact-based narratives” to counter effrontery propaganda.
* * *
Fast
forward to this past Thursday, December 8, when the “Countering
Disinformation and Propaganda Act” passed in the Senate, quietly
inserted inside the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
Conference Report.
Here is the full statement issued by the generously funded Senator
Rob Portman (R- Ohio) on the passage of a bill that further chips away
at press liberties in the US, and which sets the stage for future which
hunts and website shutdowns, purely as a result of an accusation that
any one media outlet or site is considered as a source of
“disinformation and propaganda” and is shut down by the government.
Senate Passes Major Portman-Murphy Counter-Propaganda Bill as Part of NDAA
Portman/Murphy
Bill Promotes Coordinated Strategy to Defend America, Allies Against
Propaganda and Disinformation from Russia, China & Others
U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) today announced that their Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act – legislation designed
to help American allies counter foreign government propaganda from
Russia, China, and other nations – has passed the Senate as part of the
FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report. The
bipartisan bill, which was introduced by Senators Portman and Murphy in
March, will improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign
propaganda and disinformation by establishing an interagency
center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize
counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government. To
support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant program for NGOs,
think tanks, civil society and other experts outside government who are
engaged in counter-propaganda related work. This will better leverage
existing expertise and empower local communities to defend themselves
from foreign manipulation.
“The passage of this bill in
the Senate today takes us one critical step closer to effectively
confronting the extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and
disinformation operations being waged against us. While the propaganda
and disinformation threat has grown, the U.S. government has been asleep
at the wheel. Today we are finally signaling that enough is
enough; the United States will no longer sit on the sidelines. We are
going to confront this threat head-on,” said Senator Portman. “With the
help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and propaganda used
against our allies and our interests will fail.”
“Congress
has taken a big step in fighting back against fake news and propaganda
from countries like Russia. When the president signs this bill into law,
the United States will finally have a dedicated set of tools and
resources to confront our adversaries’ widespread efforts to spread
false narratives that undermine democratic institutions and compromise
America’s foreign policy goals,” said Murphy. “I’m proud of
what Senator Portman and I accomplished here because it’s long past time
for the U.S. to get off the sidelines and confront these growing
threats.”
NOTE: The bipartisan Countering Disinformation and
Propaganda Act is organized around two main priorities to help achieve
the goal of combatting the constantly evolving threat of foreign
disinformation. They are as follows:
- The first priority is developing a whole-of-government strategy for countering foreign propaganda and disinformation. The
bill would increase the authority, resources, and mandate of the Global
Engagement Center to include state actors like Russia and China in
addition to violent extremists. The Center will be led by the State
Department, but with the active senior level participation of the
Department of Defense, USAID, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the
Intelligence Community, and other relevant agencies. The Center
will develop, integrate, and synchronize whole-of-government
initiatives to expose and counter foreign disinformation operations and
proactively advance fact-based narratives that support U.S. allies and
interests.
- Second, the legislation seeks to leverage expertise
from outside government to create more adaptive and responsive U.S.
strategy options. The legislation establishes a fund to help
train local journalists and provide grants and contracts to NGOs, civil
society organizations, think tanks, private sector companies, media
organizations, and other experts outside the U.S. government with
experience in identifying and analyzing the latest trends in foreign
government disinformation techniques. This fund will complement
and support the Center’s role by integrating capabilities and expertise
available outside the U.S. government into the strategy-making process.
It will also empower a decentralized network of private sector experts
and integrate their expertise into the strategy-making process.
* * *
In
other words, the Act will i) greenlight the government to crack down
with impunity against any media property it deems “propaganda”, and ii)
provide substantial amounts of money to fund an army of “local journalist”
counterpropaganda, to make sure the government’s own fake news drowns
that of the still free “fringes.”
So while packaged politely in a veneer of “countering disinformation and propaganda”,
the bill, once signed by Obama, will effectively give the government a
full mandate to punish, shut down or otherwise prosecute, any website it
deems offensive and a source of “foreign government propaganda from
Russia, China or other nations.” And since there is no formal way of
proving whether or not there is indeed a foreign propaganda sponsor, all
that will be sufficient to eliminate any “dissenting” website, will be
the government’s word against that of the website. One can be confident
that the US government will almost certainly prevail in every single
time.
What
Hillary
Media
The
Isn’t
