AMITT/incidents/I00044.md

Incident I00044: JadeHelm exercise

• Summary: In the summer of 2015, thousands of troops from the US Army Special Operations command conducted and multi-state, weeks-long training operation across the southwest. Russian trolls amplified conspiracy theories promoted by far right media operatives such as Alex Jones, specifically: the Jade Helm 15 exercise was a precursor to domestic invasion and subsequent martial law by the Obama Administration in coordination with China. Some versions have deus ex machina such as an asteroid strike. Ultimately the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbot, was forced to speak out on the conspiracy theory, but he hedged on Obama’s motives.

• incident type: incident

• Year started: 2015

• Countries: , USA

• Found via: MIS

• Date added: 2019-02-25

Technique	Description given for this incident
T0009 Create fake experts	I00044T008 Promote fake “experts” with impressive (and scary) titles
T0010 Cultivate ignorant agents	I00044T007 cultivate, manipulate, exploit useful idiots (Alex Jones... drives conspiracy theories)
T0019 Generate information pollution	I00044T003 RT & Sputnik generate information pollution
T0020 Trial content	I00044T005 4Chan/8Chan - trial content
T0031 YouTube	I00044T004 YouTube; Reddit
T0032 Reddit	I00044T004 YouTube; Reddit
T0046 Search Engine Optimization	I00044T006 SEO optimisation/manipulation ("key words")
T0053 Twitter trolls amplify and manipulate	I00044T002 Twitter trolls amplify & manipulate
T0054 Twitter bots amplify	I00044T001 Twitter bots amplify & manipulate
T0056 Dedicated channels disseminate information pollution	I00044T003 RT & Sputnik generate information pollution

DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE - PLEASE ADD NOTES BELOW

Actors:

• SVR and IRA;
• Alex Jones;
• Global Research;
• anti-gov trolls; rapture trolls; alt-right trolls;

Timeframe: Most of 2015

Date: May - Oct 2015

Presumed goals:

• US operational dry run;
• Test 2016 themes;
• Promote paranoia in right wing US populations;
• Establish and prime anti-government narratives for future use.

Method:

• Amplification via sockpuppet and cyborg accounts;
• Social media groups and meetups;
• Promote fake “experts” with impressive (and scary) titles;
• Amplify US media derision of message “carriers” in Russian state media;

Counters:

• Media exposure;
• Texas Governor disavows

Related incidents:

• 2016 US election;
• QAnon;
• Texas secession

References

• That 'Jade Helm' Conspiracy Freakout Was Spurred By Russian Bots, Ex-Intel Chief Says
• Russians Sowed Divisions in Texas Politics, Says U.S. Senate Report
• Case Analysis: Jade Helm 15 and Russian Active Measures
• Trolling for Trump: how Russia is trying to destroy our democracy
• Anatomy of a Russian attack: First signs of the Kremlin’s attempt to influence the 2016 election

Details

Even before the 2016 presidential election, the Russians had been testing disinformation in Texas by stirring up the controversy surrounding the Jade Helm military maneuver in the summer of 2015. Conspiracy theorists had created the idea that a joint military training exercise in Texas was cover for President Obama to declare martial law and seize Texas. The conspiracy theory gained traction when Abbott ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the U.S. military. Earlier this year, a former head of the National Security Agency and the CIA—Air Force General Michael Hayden—said the Jade Helm disinformation campaign was pivotal to the Russians’ decision to try to influence the U.S. presidential campaign. “At that point, I’m figuring the Russians are saying, ‘We can go big-time.’ And at that point, I think they made the decision, ‘We’re going to play in the electoral process,’” Hayden said.

When thousands of troops from Army Special Operations Command descended on the American southwest for the totally normal eight-week training exercise Jade Helm 15, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — goaded on by anti-government ideologues, rapture-predicting ministries and alt-right internet famewhores — ordered the state's volunteer guard to "monitor" the U.S. service members on their land to make sure they didn't start kidnapping undesirables and grabbing people's guns.

It was a precursor to martial law, they said. It was "way worse than you realize: police, military working together toward population control," they said. It was "secretly using recently closed Wal-Marts to stockpile supplies for Chinese troops who will be arriving to disarm Americans," they said. It was preparation for Obama's takeover after an impending asteroid impact that would begin the global apocalypse, they said. It mobilized right-wing activists to prepare to fight their government — their uniformed soldiers! — to the death.

Russian intelligence, state media, and trolls under President Vladimir Putin sought to bum steer U.S. domestic reactions to Jade Helm 15, the multi-state U.S.-based military training exercise concludedSeptember 15th. Russia has invested tens to hundreds of millions to infiltrate U.S. media markets with English language news, opinion, conspiracy, and troll content, often interlocking with the most popular U.S. conspiracy theory websites on the net.

On July 2015, at a community meeting in Bastrop, some Texans were up in arms about hosting part of a multi-state U.S. military training exercise named Jade Helm 15. While most locals were unswayed by the conspiracy theories of Jade Helm 15 ushering in martial law, the video of the crowd at the link records aspects of U.S. social and cognitive vulnerability to Russian “active measures.”

It's an age-old problem; during the Cold War, Soviet agencies worked to whip up leftist anger at the U.S. government, highlighting America's race and inequality problems. But today, they've found that the most effective, salient mode of fuckery in U.S. affairs is to push right-wing conspiracy theories — "deep state," Hillary emails, Pizzagate, Seth Rich, Soros, Islamists sneaking over the Mexico-U.S. border, Benghazi — that reinforce the idea that anyone to the left of, say, President Donald Trump, is a robotic foreign-paid human-trafficking overlord doing the bidding of the Rothschilds or Trilaterals or Freemasons or Kellers some other inane shit.

The Russian SVR (Sluzhba vneshney razvedki) has chief responsibility for conducting active measures outside of Russia. The SVR’s active measures surrounding Jade Helm 15 generated fear to ignite a range of behaviors serving Russian foreign policy objectives, from feeding cynicism about the U.S. governing system and its people, to inciting violence and sabotage in the U.S.

One example of how this messaging worked in ramping up fear of Jade Helm 15 was found at “Global Research,” a media outlet for a Canadian non-profit called Centre for Research on Globalization. Entitled, Towards a Militarized Police State in America? Explosive New Revelations over “Jade Helm 15 Exercise” and Potential False Flags, the online article was posted May 27, 2015, roughly 48 days before the Jade Helm 15 training exercise was to begin. Such a lead would give the piece time to disseminate to conspiracist sites and gullible readers ample time to organize a response.

The idea is to get Americans thinking other Americans are the real enemies of humanity and progress. And it works, because a lot of Americans are already disposed to that way of thinking.

On the other hand, it’s an easy cop-out to blame the Russians for every insecure dumbass idea that excitable Americans run with.

Considering their interlocking content and links, Global Research and Alex Jones’s InfoWars.com (one of the most popular conspiracy websites on the internet) have a de facto alliance. Both sites published conspiracy pieces about Jade Helm 15 in advance of the exercise, as did many other conspiracist websites that link with one or both.

The blizzard of conspiracy has had an effect. By May 2015, a Rasmussen poll on Jade Helm 15 found that “45% of voters are concerned that the government will use U.S. military training operations to impose greater control over some states,” with 19% “Very Concerned.” Rasmussen also reported that “21% believe the government’s decision to conduct military training exercises in some states is an infringement on the rights of the citizens in those states.”

Some debate the effectiveness of Russian active measures, propaganda, and trolling. Russia Today (RT) is a more sophisticated Kremlin media outlet, with slick television, internet, and periodical output. RT’s portrayal of Jade Helm 15was to depict Americans as prone to conspiracy theory, and to amplify left-leaning U.S. media derision of Texas demographics disturbed by Jade Helm 15, while casting doubt on the government operation with headlines and sub-headlines. Russia Today’s approach had accentuated personal caricatures and distrust driving partisan anger in the U.S.

On social media however, Kremlin-linked and other conspiracists sometimes represent themselves as insiders or experts whose content can be frightening and inciting.

For example, on LinkedIn.com, many Pulse posts have focused on Jade Helm 15. Below I profile two examples of Pulse writers who hit Jade Helm 15 theme especially hard, one of them naming himself a “Military Intelligence Analyst / Russian Regional CME” and the other a “Geopolitical Strategist, Journalist & Author”

Are apocalyptic conspiracies harmless despite their over-the-top claims?

Apparently not. One ominous event may have turned Jade Helm 15 Active measures into a high-yield victory for Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin. Three North Carolina men amassed arms, munitions, and weapons and had been actively preparing to ambush Jade Helm 15 troops in training. Fortunately, the FBI received a tip from a gun and surplus store owner and arrested the would-be domestic-terrorists who feared that Jade Helm 15 was a prelude to martial law in the U.S.

The Russian SVR and Putin’s media have aimed at Texas before. Did Putin foresee that Texas politicians might respond to popular conspiracist fears ramped up by the Kremlin itself and so cause strife in the partisan divide? That happened when Governor Greg Abbot tried to reassure Texans about Jade Helm 15, and opposition media lampooned him.

Yet according to the San Antonio Express News, Governor Abbot, who is also a former Texas Supreme Court Justice not of the conspiracist mold, had initially a milder approach. Yet the opposing partisan media did more than just embarrass Gov. Abbot over his response, it called some of his constituents who had been moved by conspiracy propaganda “dumb,” which further tends to divide U.S. demographics along stereotypical lines. Mr. Putin must have been pleased.

Examples