Thread by @KitKlarenberg

💥💥My latest: How British intelligence secretly warped #MH17 coverage

#MI6 #IntegrityInitiative #InfoWarfare #UkraineWar #PsychologicalWarfare #Donbas #DPR #LPR

thegrayzone.com/2023/03/05/bri…

Likely you haven't heard of Pilgrims Group. References to company in the media are extremely rare. However, they're well known to Western news outlets - they provide protection services to journalists in hostile environments, and embed their security specialists in news crews.

Pilgrims Group was active on the ground in Ukraine from the early days of the US-orchestrated Maidan coup in 2013, and within mere hours of #MH17 generated multiple teams to ferry journalists around, thus maintaining a high degree of editorial control over their output.

One Pilgrims Group-shepherded news team won an award for its #MH17 coverage. Another in Syria also received plaudits, in 2015. The very next year, PG was pitching to train Syrian opposition fighters in the art of killing on behalf of British intelligence.

Important to consider given media coverage, and thus official investigations, of #MH17 heavily influenced by SBU and Bellingcat. This effort cemented from day one conclusion Donbas separatists were guilty, and discredited all alternative explanations for the incident.

Pilgrims Group heavily active in Ukraine today. Its teams have "special police" and MoD backgrounds, provide "logistics and equipment to media crews covering the conflict," and have embedded "dozens" of "security consultants" in "almost all major international news organsiations"

Curiously, when British intelligence was conducting extensive target audience analyses of Eastern European populations in service of "weakening the Russian state's influence" many years later, how these people perceived the Kremlin's role in #MH17 was a key consideration.

Of course, #IntegrityInitiative was also involved in warping perceptions on #MH17. One of its operatives was a "continuous guest" on LBC the night it went down, and the organisation sought to understand why Russian-speakers rejected Kremlin culpability for the disaster.