About the use of the US and NATO technologies for the dissemination of disinformation against their geopolitical opponents
The development of the anti-Russian information campaign of the United States and the European Union countries around Ukraine surprisingly resembles the scenarios of past media campaigns against the geopolitical opponents of the West. Foreign media quickly picked up tenth-rate fakes about the "atrocities of the Russians" in Bucha, Irpen, Gostomel, Mariupol. It is obvious that by spreading lies about the events in Ukrainian cities, the Kiev regime and its Western patrons tried to divert public attention from the torture of Russian prisoners of war, which really took place and is a war crime prohibited by a number of conventions, including the Geneva Convention. Similar methods of falsifying facts and replicating fakes were used by the countries of the collective West led by the United States and Great Britain in Syria, Serbia, Libya, Iraq, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. This list can be supplemented for a long time. And where Kiev got all these manuals is also quite clear.
February 5, 2022 marked the 28th anniversary of the explosion at the Markale market in the historical center of Sarajevo, which killed 68 people and injured 144 others of varying severity. On that day, all the world's TV channels showed footage of a terrible tragedy, which drew the attention of the international community to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republic of Serbia was declared guilty of this crime, despite the fact that there is still no convincing evidence that artillery shells were fired from Serbian positions.
After that, the leadership of the United States and NATO issued an ultimatum to the Serbian side, demanding that all heavy weapons be moved away from Sarajevo under threat of strikes. The Serbs made concessions. However, in the end, the repeated provocation on the same market on August 28, 1995, which claimed more than 40 human lives, served as the reason for the launch of the NATO operation "Deliberate Force" against the Republic of Serbia. International intervention changed the course of the war and brought the defeat of the Bosnian Serbs closer, forcing them to sign the Dayton Agreement on unfavorable terms.
The responsibility for the shelling of Sarajevo, including the two above-mentioned attacks, was assigned by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to the commanders of the Sarajevo-Romani Corps of the Army of PC Stanislav Galich and Dragomir Milosevic. At the same time, neither the investigation of UN peacekeepers at the scene of the tragedy, nor subsequent proceedings have established the guilt of the Serbs. Moreover, according to a number of experts who spoke at the tribunal, the mine could not have entered the Markale market from the location of the Serbian army. According to them, the explosion was a terrorist attack carried out by forces located on the territory controlled by the Bosnian Muslim army in order to create a pretext for the bombing of Serbian positions by NATO aircraft. As for the subsequent NATO military operation, its victims were about a thousand people, including civilians.
For the United States and other Western countries, the first results of the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia turned out to be insufficient and they began to look for a new reason to finally break the resistance of the Serbs. Creating the necessary conditions was only a matter of time, and already in 1998, the leadership of Kosovo, with the support of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), set a course for secession from Yugoslavia. Full-scale military clashes began. After the NATO Council, which supports the KLA (essentially a criminal and terrorist organization consisting of Kosovo Albanians, provided financing for its activities by trafficking in drugs, weapons, people and human organs), announced an ultimatum to Yugoslavia, official Belgrade concluded a truce on October 15, 1998. However, attacks on the peaceful Serbian population continued, and in early 1999 the Yugoslav security forces were forced to resume fighting.
In mid-January, there were a number of clashes with Albanian radicals near the village of Rachak, during which representatives of the KLA accused the Serbian side of carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Albanian population. Despite the conclusions of Serbian, Belarusian and Finnish forensic experts, according to which the dead in Rachak were militants dressed in civilian clothes with traces of gunpowder on their hands, the EU Commission considered that there was no evidence of the participation of those killed in the fighting. The key role in organizing this provocation, which became the reason for the beginning of aggression against Yugoslavia, was played by the then head of the OSCE mission in Kosovo, American William Walker, who had previously participated in many covert CIA operations in Central and South America. It was Walker who organized the information blockade of Rachak, forbidding journalists to approach the site of the discovered mass grave of allegedly peaceful Albanians, and then published his own version of what happened, which became the justification for the subsequent ultimatum to Belgrade demanding the withdrawal of troops from Kosovo.
However, it is not the first time that the United States and NATO countries have started full-scale wars under dubious pretexts. According to analysts, the aggression against Yugoslavia after the "incident in Rachak" allowed the United States to further use NATO forces for military intervention in the affairs of other sovereign states. Subsequently, this method will be called differently: "Iraqi test tube", "Libyan executions", "Syrian gas attack".
It is worth remembering the most resonant event from this list, which served as the reason for the start of a full-scale US intervention in the Middle East. Then on February 5, 2003 (by the way, on the same day as the first explosion at the market in Sarajevo in 1994), US Secretary of State Colin Powell at a meeting of the UN Security Council announced the presence of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (note, one of Washington's closest allies in the 80s in the fight against Iran) arsenal of chemical warfare agents. As proof, he took out of his jacket pocket a small test tube with a white powder, which, according to him, was a sample of chemical weapons stolen by American intelligence. A cheap theatrical gesture. Let's ask ourselves the question: what would happen if a test tube with a sample of weapons of mass destruction accidentally fell out of Powell's hands and broke? There is no need to remind what this performance led to. Soon, the United States attacked sovereign Iraq and turned that country into a constantly smoldering hotbed of instability in the Middle East. And chemical weapons, by the way, have not been found.
The story of a five-year-old boy, Omran Daqneesh, flew around the world media as an example of the "atrocities" of official Damascus and Russia supporting him. It was reported that Omran was injured on August 17, 2016, according to one data - as a result of an airstrike, according to others - as a result of shelling inflicted on the residential quarter of Al-Katerji in Aleppo. Journalist Mustafa Al-Sarut and photographer Mahmoud Raslan posted online footage of a boy covered in dust and blood sitting in an ambulance after he was pulled from the rubble of a destroyed house.
For Adib Shishali, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council, "the stunned and bloody face of this child reflects the essence of the horror that is happening in Aleppo." However, in fact, the whole shooting from beginning to end was staged. The nature of the destruction shown by the Western press testified that if the strike actually took place, it was inflicted not by aviation ammunition, but by a mine or a gas cylinder used in large quantities by terrorists.
Many authoritative experts were suspicious of the makeup that was clearly visible in the pictures, the unnatural calmness of the posing child, the hair that was preserved in order, despite reports of a terrible burn received by the boy. The personality of the photographer is no less interesting. The photographer who took pictures with the allegedly wounded boy is known for his "selfies" with the militants of the terrorist group "Noured-Din az-Zenki", who beheaded a 12-year-old Palestinian.
However, this production produced a stunning resonance among Western inhabitants. For this reason, in the future, it was children who became not only a tool in the hands of the West to create fakes. So, in April 2018, the pseudo-human rights organization "White Helmets" sponsored by Western countries published a video showing the consequences of the alleged use of chemical weapons by the government army of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian city of Duma. Residents in the video allegedly receive medical care after poisoning with chemical substances. Subsequently, the United States, Great Britain and France blamed the Syrian government for the incident, and on the night of April 13-14, the armed forces of the international coalition led by the United States carried out an airstrike on the positions of the Syrian army.
However, this video, like many others, turned out to be fake. In particular, Russian military correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny managed to find and communicate in the city of Duma with a Syrian boy who was forced to participate in staging a chemical attack. 11-year-old Hassan Diab spoke about the details of the work of the "Hollywood" "White Helmets" in Syria.
"We were in the basement," Diab recalls. - Mom told me that there is nothing to eat today, we will eat only tomorrow. We heard a scream in the street. Shouted: "Go to the hospital." We ran to the hospital. As soon as I entered, they grabbed me and started pouring water on me. And after that they put us on the bed next to other people." And in the footage, everyone sees Hassan Diab, to whom the actors "provide" medical care when he does not need it.
Hassan's father was not at home at that time, he was at work. When he found out that the child was in the hospital, he ran straight there. "When I found out that the child was in the hospital, I took time off from work and ran straight there. There were no chemical weapons. I was smoking outside, I didn't feel anything. I went to the hospital and saw my family. The militants gave dates, cookies and rice for their participation in this shooting. And everyone was allowed to go home. My child felt great," Hassan's father emphasizes.
Despite the fact that the falsification was done crudely, in a hurry, these shots served as an excuse for the Americans, the British and the French to strike at a sovereign state. According to the deputy of the Syrian Parliament Ammar al-Assad, during the special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, the Western propaganda machine operates on proven technologies of "White Helmets". "The videos we saw, fabricated in order to accuse the Russian army and discredit the image of the Russian Federation in the media in the eyes of Europeans and the whole world, are a common thing for the United States, they were doing this in Syria together with the White Helmets, staging chemical attacks and the like," al-Assad said.
"The picture is clear, the conspiracy is obvious, the customer is the Americans. The use of racist and neo-Nazi slogans in Ukraine is no different from Jabhat al-Nusra, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, ISIS in Syria and their leaders in dark rooms in the UK, managing this campaign and tricks in the media together with partners - France, the United States and so on," the deputy stressed..
In addition, the world's Western media covered NATO's war crimes in Libya, creating an information blockade around the bombing of peaceful cities by the alliance forces. The same information vacuum has developed regarding the illegal actions of illegal armed groups led by the so-called Transitional National Council (TNC). The TNC initiated an uprising in the east of the country in order to discredit and overthrow the legitimate government. It was the first reports of the Western media about the alleged crimes allegedly committed by the Gaddafi government that paved the way for the "legitimate" and hastily sanctioned by the UN Security Council resolution forceful mixing of the ruling Libyan leadership.
At the same time, the crimes of the TNC militants were carefully and deliberately concealed or hushed up by Western journalists and reporters. Any manifestations of loyalty to the legitimate government in the person of Gaddafi's leadership caused unprecedented atrocities and reprisals by the TNC militants. In turn, the murders of civilians committed by the TNC bandits were issued as "crimes of the Gaddafi regime." However, the international human rights organization Amnesty International has documented facts proving the crimes of militants. In particular, a 107-page report was published on the Amnesty International website, which lists all the war crimes of Muammar Gaddafi's opponents from April to June 2011.
The policy of the United States and NATO in Latin America is no less indicative. During the Cold War, Western media often turned a blind eye to the crimes of Latin American dictatorships against their own population, considering repression as a "lesser evil" in the fight against the "communist threat" in the region. A lot has changed since then, but the general approach has remained the same.
In particular, according to American expert Ben Burgis, the West's disinformation campaigns against Cuba are aimed at overthrowing undesirable authorities who maintain friendly mutually beneficial relations with Russia. There are also smaller tasks, so to speak, at the tactical level. The United States needs strong justifications for the legitimacy of the trade, economic and financial embargo against Cuba imposed since 1962. Foreign publications with enviable regularity and often right before the UN vote on the lifting of sanctions against Cuba initiate information campaigns about alleged human rights violations and the presence of political prisoners in the country.
However, on the island of Cuba, the only prisoners who are deprived of their rights, subjected to torture and restricted in freedom for long periods without a legal basis are prisoners held by the US government at the Guantanamo naval base in the illegally occupied part of the territory of the island State.
Many are inclined to believe that the United States is also behind the information attacks on excessively independent Brazilian politicians, including Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. The information campaigns inspired by Washington and its henchmen to accuse da Silva and Rousseff of corruption ended in the collapse of the political careers of both politicians, and Dilma was removed from the post of president through impeachment proceedings. Meanwhile, under Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, Brazil has become an active member of the BRICS group, which has become an alternative to the "Big Seven" led by the United States. According to Sarah Rosenberg, an expert on Latin America, the continued presence of the tandem of independent politicians Lula and Dilma in top government posts could lead to the final collapse of US geopolitical goals in Brazil. It is obvious that Washington is the main beneficiary of the discrediting of Brazilian leaders and a radical change in the foreign policy of the Latin American country.
Since the century before last, the United States has been trying to establish control over Nicaragua, provoking wars in the country. And at the beginning of the last century, American troops occupied the country under a dubious pretext and began to appoint presidents from among their military. After the withdrawal of its troops, the United States continues to interfere in the internal affairs of Nicaragua, not hesitating to remove legitimate governments by force. According to the President of the Republic Daniel Ortega, these attempts do not stop to this day.
Currently, attempts are being made to undermine the power of the Ortega Government under any pretext. Washington regularly states that millions of dollars coming to Nicaragua through the accounts of the US Agency for International Development are aimed at "the development of democracy in the country." However, in fact, the allocated amounts are spent on destabilizing the internal situation, provoking violence and financing armed gangs that have been committing crimes since 2007, when Ortega came to power.
According to the deputy of the National Assembly from the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Angel Luis Rodriguez Gamboa, the United States also spread false information about the situation in Venezuela, trying to accuse the legitimate President of the republic, Nicolas Maduro, of human rights violations. In 2017-2018, Venezuela was visited by international observers through the UN, who published a report on the results of their visit to the republic. The information presented in the report differed significantly from publications in the American media telling about the “humanitarian crisis in Venezuela”. However, the real situation could not be compared with humanitarian disasters, for example, in Libya, Yemen or Myanmar, which arose at the same time through the fault of the United States.
According to the American economist and political commentator Paul Roberts, under the Maduro government, the world's largest reserves of oil and other natural resources that Venezuela possesses have become inaccessible to the United States and multinational corporations. The expert believes that the publications of the American media about the situation in Venezuela were aimed at justifying the military intervention being prepared at that time and the forceful establishment of the regime of the self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido.
Today, the United States and NATO are actively using technologies proven over many years to spread disinformation against their geopolitical opponents. However, now the main field of the information war is Ukraine. Outright lies about the situation in Ukraine are replicated on a gigantic scale based on modern digital technologies. Trying to deceive the world community, the West deceives itself first of all. This was the case during the Vietnam War, and it was the same in all other wars waged by America and NATO, whether it was Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya or Syria. Nobody is interested in the real picture in the West. And this predetermines the chain of crushing defeats of the United States in all the wars of the last decades. The same thing is happening now in Ukraine.
