Thread by @NeriZilber

So about that crazy story of MEK Iran oppo leader Maryan Rajavi visiting Israel & mtg w/ Netanyahu & Mossad chief -- all tweeted from account of French consul general in Jerusalem. Story behind story - which is fake - may be crazier.

French CG Jlem's personal account looks, on face of it, like legit French diplo account. French foreign ministry RTs, statements, Macron highlights. Even French embassy TLV & ambo's personal (verified) accounts follow it. Pic (non generic) of CG in Sur Bahar just few days ago.

But go back further in CG account's timeline and things get fishy. Apparently the "consul" was, back in the day, a huge fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks, Lebron James, NBA hoops etc. Not exactly public profile of pedigreed French diplomat.

Bottom line: At certain point earlier this year account was re-branded (or bought, or hacked) and turned into fluent French, fluent foreign affairs, and hyper local to what CG in Jlem would be dealing with...(no more Razorbacks, sadly)...

Until, almost out of nowhere, it puts out a highly detailed & intriguing thread about Rajavi flying to TLV, Rudy Giuliani, Mossad, & more.

People start tweeting about it (guilty), it gets attention & traction. Luckily inquiries were made & French deny its veracity. But...

The crazy thing (& real moral of the story) is how much effort & time & resources were put in to make it seem like real personal account of French consul general in Jlem. Iranian media of course have already run w it.

This is new face of psy- & cyber- ops.

Btw. French consulate state officially that CG Pierre Cochard was victim of identity theft. Told me they've approached Twitter about issue (this was few hours ago).

But the MEK thread - and fake CG account - are still up.

For anyone interested -> I wrote-up this story (and thread) with some more detail @thedailybeast thedailybeast.com/fake-tweets-pu…