Thread by @mtaibbi

1. FOIA FILES EXTRA:
STATE DEPARTMENT "TARGETING AMERICANS"?

2. In late May and early June, 2019, a story hit the news: Donald Trump's State Department had been caught trolling people, including a Washington Post reporter, deemed insufficiently tough on Iran. Outrage was universal:

3. Similar stories at The Intercept and Guardian ripped State's Global Engagement Center for funding @IranDisinfo, which was said to have dubbed critics of of Trump's "Maximum Pressure" policy “‘mouthpieces,’ ‘apologists,’ ‘collaborators,’ and ‘lobbyists’” of Iran:

4. For a brief moment, it seemed the national press would alert to the wider problem of federal bureaucracies like the State Department violating traditional bans on propagandizing Americans:

5. But the story was quickly reframed to focus on Trump's misuse of GEC to target Iran instead of Russia:

6. As shown in the #TwitterFiles, GEC really never stopped targeting Russia or China. GEC sent huge lists of alleged Chinese propagandists deemed a "crock" by Twitter, while another Twitter analyst joked that if you retweet a Russian, "you become Russia-linked" to GEC:

7. No one really knew what GEC did, because its awards were and are kept secret. An Inspector General report in 2020 redacted all but 3 of 39 GEC contractors, but offered the helpful information that most of its money came from the Pentagon:

8. Last year, began filing FOIA requests on GEC in search of contractor names, which are beginning to come in: Racket.News

9. "STORIES ABOUT GEC TARGETING AMERICANS":

Recently. we found unpublished emails about the @IranDisinfo tale while dumpster-diving in the federal FOIA portal. Here, a Democratic Senate aide grills GEC on "targeting Americans," asking if bad press lay ahead:

10. "NOT THE KIND OF THING WE SHOULD... READ IN THE PRESS BEFORE WE HEAR IT FROM STATE"

The aide was clearly not amused when the "State Department troll" story broke a few days later:

11. "GRAND PLAN TO 'BRAIN WASH' AMERICANS"

The GEC official pleaded with the Appropriations aide not to believe the "conspiracy narrative" that GEC is part of the "U.S. Government's grand plan" to "brain wash Americans":

12. "A FINE LINE GEC ITSELF HAS WANTED TO WALK"

The aide, who hasn't responded to request for comment, blasted the GEC official, saying the issue wasn't brainwashing, but misuse of State resources to target Americans - a line GEC "wanted to walk... not totally unfounded":

13. The press remembered civil liberties when GEC was used to flog Trump's Iran policies. But emails from America First's lawsuit show the agency pitched major media outlets on similar tales about "mouthpieces" and "proxies" of Russia or China without fear of blowback:

14. "REMOVED SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCES": Here, a GEC aide pitches Michael Gordon - co-author with Judith Miller of a famed @nytimes WMD story - on Russia's "Pillars of Russian Disinformation," promising deep background lists of removed accounts:

15. "WOULD YOU MIND GIVING US THE QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE?"

Gordon to his credit didn't go along, but GEC still sought a handout on top of glowing coverage, asking if the @WSJ would send interview questions in advance, so brave official Daniel Kimmage would be more "prepred":

16. This episode shows it isn't just congressional Republicans who see the problems posed by GEC's propaganda and censorship. But politicians don't mind, so long as the agency's powerful tools are used to advance their agenda.

Full story at racket.news/p/a-foia-story…