More fun COINTELPRO finds. In the late 1960s the FBI attempted to subvert New Left media by creating their own underground comix and newspapers. The purpose? To discredit the SDS and promote fighting among left-wing groups.
The first proposal, The Workshop, adopted the language of anarchists because their "point of view [was] the most disruptive element in the New Left" and could be used to target anyone. The FBI intended to attack figures like Stokely Carmichael.
That same year, in 1968, it produced a real fake underground paper: Armageddon News. The paper was ostensibly based out of the University of Indiana Bloomington, allowing the FBI to use it to astroturf attacks on left-wing activists on campus.
And a third paper, The Longhorn Tale, was distributed by the San Antonio field office at the University of Texas at Austin. The paper essentially doxed SDS activists deemed "disruptive."
I'd like to give credit here to a friend, Dale Brumfield, who pointed me to some of these documents after I found his writing on the subject and reached out to him. First, his Medium article from 2019:
Ah fuck, forgot the funniest one. A Maoist, pro-Che paper initially called Chevara News somehow morphed into an objectivist rag called The Rational Observer.
🤔
Seems like this might blow up, so buy Dale's book on real underground press. He's an amazing researcher/writer.
This is just plain wrong. In 2018 BLM activists sued the City of Memphis and found its police department had created fake social media accounts to monitor their activities.
The "believe science" crowd believes science until it goes against their desired narrative. An extremely disingenuous reading of the Havana Syndrome case by @NBCNews.
Mind you, there isn't only one government report contradicting Havana Syndrome claims, there have been multiple, from different agencies. @NBCNews has even reported on this.
Interesting memo issued by the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation in the 1960s. "Doubt is our product," they argued. What does that mean? You don't need to convince someone something is true, you only need to introduce them to the possibility the opposing info might not be.
The tobacco industry manufactured "controversy" around the subject of smoking by astroturfing bad science. They created front groups like the Center for Indoor Air Research to fund fake scientific studies arguing smoking doesn't cause cancer.
I'm not saying that our government has astroturfed fake research on the subject of Havana Syndrome, I'm simply pointing out that the information coming from grant-funded universities and government agencies might not be accurate
The story initially blew up thanks to an AP article reporting on info from CBS Radio News. WaPo reprinted that article, deleted it, and essentially reposted it by a different writer with a focus on Trump. News outlets then credited WaPo.
Shortly after, AP followed up with a possible source for the alleged attacks: a sonic weapon. In October, they posted the "dangerous sound" heard by diplomats.
This is, sadly, nothing new. Big Business often goes beyond mere intimidation to straight up murder. Examples: the Coca-Cola backed United Self Defence Forces of Colombia waged a terror campaign against union workers in Colombia.