Cyber-Warriors for Obama Project
According to this source, paid operatives began targeting websites, blogs, forums and social media accounts at exactly 7:00 a.m. on January 23, [2013] under an operation called “the Cyber-Warriors for Obama Project.” That report, which was met with a firestorm of skepticism despite the level of detail provided, noted the activation of government shills infiltrating and attacking “problem” web sites and forums, particularly Christian, conservative, “birther” and other similar sites. In one particularly disturbing characterization ostensibly included for motivational purposes, Obama was referred to as the “Pharaoh of the internet.”
Now, over a year later, documents leaked by Edward Snowden and reported by Glenn Greenwald provide hard evidence that “Western governments” are indeed engaged in such activity. In his report dated 24 February 2014, Mr. Greenwald discloses the role ofGCHQ, or Government Communication Headquarters based in the UK, from top secret, classified government documents. These documents describe the methods employed by Western intelligence agencies to “manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction.”¬† In his revealing report based on the Snowden disclosures, Mr. Greenwald explains that the targets of such marginalization are not at the nation-state level, but those who post material online that is contrary to the political interests and agendas of government.
While the revelations focus on the tactics of the UK based GCHQ, it is important to understand that intelligence between the UK and the U.S. is commonly shared to circumvent the laws that restrict U.S. intelligence agencies such as the CIA from operating domestically. The recently released authenticated documentation leaked by Snowden outlines very disturbing and controversial techniques to disseminate deception online, exactly as detailed in my report from a year ago.