Thread by @mtaibbi

1. #CTIFIles2
INTRODUCING THE #CTIFiles
The Deep State, With Its Pants Down

2. Tuesday, @Shellenberger, @galexybrane and I began releasing the CTI League (CTIL) Files. Provided by a whistleblower, they detail activities of a group ostensibly formed for the narrow purpose of fighting Covid misinfo. We quickly found they had wider interests:

3. “I DON’T KNOW A LOT, BUT…”
The documents equal or exceed the #TwitterFiles in explosiveness, offering a devastating portrait of the digital censorship sector – from breathtaking authoritarian views to comic ignorance and lack of self-awareness.

4. The CTIL story has enormous significance because of its close ties to the FBI, DoD, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CISA chief Chris Krebs boasted of CISA’s partnership with CTIL.

5. A whistleblower told Public and Racket CTIL’s online meets were regularly attended by FBI and DHS operatives. The source added CTIL founder SJ Terp said the original go-ahead for the program came from the White House. cisa.gov/news-events/ne…

6. But the #CTIFiles are not just more confirmation of state-aided censorship efforts. They expose much more.

7. Unlike the #TwitterFiles, which detail mostly defensive activity like censorship and deamplification, the #CTIFiles show members instructed in a wide array of “offensive” operations, including infiltration, creation of fake personas, use of burner phones, and more.

8. “IMPAIR THE OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ENEMY”
CTIL members repeatedly stressed building a “good guy analog” to disinfo programs of Russians, Chinese, even “Fox News Snorters," using an array of military-style “counters” to disrupt "the enemy” – American citizens?

9. “REPETITION IS TRUTH”
The #CTIFiles also detail how marketing executives with no skills apart from corporate brand management shifted from manipulating perceptions of products to doing it for nation-states, policies, and political parties:

10. @CTILeague has been the subject of reporting before. Accounts like @pepesgrandma aka “Bad Kitty” months ago connected CTIL, DHS, and operations like the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP). The whistleblower docs, however, tell a damning and irrefutable new story.

11. That the DHS and FBI partnered with a group that endorsed both censorship and “bad guy” offensive operations “against U.S. citizens” is only one of many key revelations. The size of this leak makes it difficult to summarize quickly.

12. There are so many ugly details in the #CTIFiles, in fact, that the fastest way to introduce them is to release docs in bunches, by theme. In the next hours, days, and weeks, look for more threads in this space.
First up, momentarily: SOCKPUPPETS AND SPIES.