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Chapter 3: Old Active Measures and
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| Chapter 3: Old Active Measures and Modern Malign Influence Operations A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOVIET ACTIVE MEASURES The FBI and CIA were involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The United States and Israel organized an attack on Mecca in 1979. US. government scientists created the AIDS virus as a biological weapon in 1983. All of these bogus stories, and many more, were concocted and disseminated by Soviet propagandists during the Cold War. 183 Some are even still repeated today. For example, in a June 2017 interview, Putin referenced the JFK assassination theory to accuse US. intelligence agencies of conducting false flag operations and blaming them on the Russian secret services, saying that there is a theory that Kennedy’s assassination was arranged by the United States special services. If this theory is correct, and one cannot rule it out, so what can be easier in today’s context, being able to rely on the entire technical capabilities available to special services, than to organize some kind of attacks in the appropriate manner while making a reference to Russia in the process.’’ 184 While the technological tools have evolved, Russia’s use of disinformation is not anew phenomenon—as one Russian military intelligence textbook says, Psychological warfare has existed as long as man himself.’’ 185 During the Cold War, active measures or disinformation and malign influence operations, were well integrated into Soviet policy and involved virtually every element of the Soviet party and state structure, not only the KGB.’’ 186 Rus- sian specialists inactive measures used official newspapers and radio stations, embassies, and foreign communist parties to create and distribute false stories. Each state organ would use their own capabilities in coordinated campaigns the KGB was responsible for black propaganda’’—creating forgeries and spreading rumors the International Information Department was responsible for white propaganda’’—broadcasting the stories through official media organizations and the International Department was responsible for gray propaganda’’—disseminating the stories through inter- VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00041 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 36 187 Ibid. at 3. 188 Ibid. at 2. Statement of Thomas Rid, Professor, Department of War Studies, King’s College London, Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns, Hearing before the US. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Marat (citing Gunther Bohnsack, Herbert Brehmer, Auftrag Irrefuhrung, Carlsen, at 16 (1992)). 190 Schoen & Lamb, Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications, at 104. Statement of Thomas Rid, Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influ- ence Campaigns, at 2. The Fog Of Wars Adventures Abroad Boost Public Support at Home The Economist, Oct. 22, 2016. Soviet Active Measures in the United States, 1986-87; Prepared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation reprinted in the Congressional Record, 133 Cong. Rec. H (Dec. 9, 1987) statement of Rep. CW. Bill Young. Directorate of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, Soviet Strategy to Derail US INF Deployment Feb. 1983. national front organizations. 187 And they were intently focused on their target audience as one Soviet disinformation practitioner put it, every disinformation message must at least partially correspond to reality or generally accepted views.’’ 188 Active measures also sought to take advantage of preexisting fissures to further polarize the West. As Colonel Rolf Wagenbreth, longtime head of active measures operations for the East German Stasi, reportedly said, A powerful adversary can only be defeated through . . . . sophisticated, methodical, careful, and shrewd effort to exploit even the smallest cracks between our enemies . . . and within their elites.’’ 189 Opinions on the effectiveness of Soviet active measures varied among US. national security experts. During the Reagan Administration, Under Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger and Deputy CIA Director Robert Gates argued that the operations were deleterious but generally not decisive although, according to Gates, who cited the Dutch decision on deployment of intermediate range nuclear weapons and Spain’s referendum on NATO participation, in a close election or legislative battle, they can make the difference.’’ 190 Soviet bloc disinformation operations were not a rare occurrence more than 10,000 were carried out over the course of the Cold War. 191 In the s, Yuri Andropov, then head of the KGB, created active measures courses for operatives, and the KGB had up to 15,000 officers working on psychological and disinformation warfare at the height of the Cold War. 192 The CIA estimated that the Soviet Union spent more than $4 billion a year on active measures operations in the s (approximately $8.5 billion in 2017 dollars. And then, as now with the Kremlin, the highest level of the Soviet government approved the themes of active measures operations. 193 Active measures campaigns in the s focused on influencing the arms control and disarmament movements, for example, by promoting the European peace movement in countries that were scheduled to base US. intermediate-range nuclear forces. That campaign made use of the West German Communist Party, the Dutch Communist Party, the Belgian National Action Committee for Peace and Development, the World Peace Council, and the International Union of Students, among others. 194 In addition to political parties and peace organizations, the Soviet Union also used the Russian Orthodox Church and an affiliate of the Soviet- VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00042 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 37 Soviet Active Measures in the United States, 1986-87; Prepared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation reprinted in the Congressional Record, 133 Cong. Rec. H. Andrew Weiss, Vladimir Putin’s Political Meddling Revives Old KGB Tactics The Wall Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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