The IDF using U.S. Military Veterans as Avatars
Some U.S. military veteran content creators - working for the IDF - are targeting their fellow brothers and sisters-in-arms to promote the military objectives and propaganda of a foreign government.
The last article, Cyabra is the IDF 'Wolf' Guarding the Social Media 'Hen House' went in-depth into the background of the company with its ties to Israeli cyber defense units and Mike Pompeo joining the board last year.
Now, I want to investigate the online social media influencers and possible avatars that are connected to Cyabra.
Usually, an avatar refers to a character or image that represents an online user. But in online influence operations, an avatar is when intelligence agencies or private companies hire real people to pretend their thoughts and views are their own.
These ‘deep avatars’ run fictitious news agencies, build websites, and manage fake profiles on social media.
Veterans are a tribal bunch, and we wouldn’t necessarily trust information or news from an outside source. So, when I heard military friends repeating IDF talking points I wanted to know the source they were getting it from.
Lo and behold, they were watching Ryan McBeth (works for Cyabra), Preston Stewart, and the Unsubscribe Podcast who make social media content that actively targets a military audience.
The veterans involved with these influence operations targeting the veteran community have reached a whole new level of Blue Falconry.
Meet your Blue Falcons tied to Cyabra, Psy-Group, and Cambridge Analytica:
Ryan Mcbeth frequently promotes Preston Stewart and Evan Long (Habitual Linecrosser) who is featured on the Unsubscribe Podcast.
The Unsubscribed Podcast features Evan Hafer who is tied to the Black Rifle Coffee Company who hired Matthew Oczkowski from Cambridge Analytica.
We currently have veterans sitting in prison for January 6th because they believed these influencers who pushed the lie of a stolen election in 2020. Every single one of them should be sued just like Alex Jones.
Pay attention to who these people cross-promote and who cross-promotes them on X (Twitter) and YouTube.
Preston Stewart - Evan Long (Habitual Linecrosser) - Chris Cappy - Task & Purpose
Danny Jones - Danny Jones Podcast - Chris Cappy - Task & Purpose - Destiny
Jordan Harbinger - Preston Stewart
Angry Cops - Donut Operator - Unsubscribe Podcast - Evan Long (Habitual Linecrosser)
These buddy f*ckers should be really thankful this new generation of veterans doesn’t handle betrayal as we did in the past...
In order to fully understand this IDF backed online cross promotion network you should read this Haaretz article (important bits I did the font in bold and italicized) about Psy-Group and Percepto International using “influence campaigns” and “deep avatars” on social media.
Antisemitic Influencers, Fake Journalists: Inside an Israeli Factory for Online Deception - National Security & Cyber - Haaretz.com
Gur Megiddo and Omer Benjakob Feb 16, 2023
Percepto International, which is owned by media consultant Lior Chorev and Royi Burstien (a retired lieutenant colonel from the Israeli army’s intelligence corps), is in large measure a continuation of Psy Group – the business Burstien used to run. Among other activities, Burstien’s previous business ran a sophisticated mass-deception system on social media and came to public attention mainly over an FBI investigation, after which it shut down.
Psy Group, its founder Joel Zamel and CEO Burstien were investigated by the U.S. bureau on suspicion of offering their services to Donald Trump’s campaign headquarters on his first run for the presidency in 2016. The suspicion was that a foreign player, and not Trump, had offered to pay for the services. The investigation did not result in indictments, but did lead to the demise of Psy Group – which had been facing financial difficulties even before the investigation.
A 2020 report from the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on foreign involvement in the 2016 election contained quotes from internal company emails regarding negotiations between people from the firm and Trump’s people. It included remarks by a company employee, Arnon Epstein, regarding “intel on the Lady and her team” – a reference to Hillary Clinton. It noted that intelligence gathering regarding 10 targets associated with Clinton would cost about $250,000. In another email, an offer was made to deploy avatars (complex fake digital personae with a presence across social media platforms) in support of Trump’s election campaign.
Following the collapse of Psy Group, Burstien and Epstein established a new deception enterprise based less on technology and more on target-oriented influence operations. The organization, which was initially called Athiri, worked in collaboration with Chorev. In 2021, the team that was running it began operating under a new name: Percepto International. Burstien is Percepto’s CEO, Chorev is company chairman and Epstein acts as a senior salesperson. One of the new mudslinging enterprise’s biggest initial wins was against the ICRC…
This investigation into Percepto is part of a series of reports on "Team Jorge" – another group of Israelis, headed by Tal Hanan, who have offered their services to disrupt election campaigns around the world. Unlike Team Jorge, Percepto is not hiding its existence, but what it publicly presents as its activity does not match what we have seen in its presentations…
Fake news agency
We got to the meetings with Burstien via Epstein – the fast-talking salesperson who had been working with Burstien from when Psy Group was in business.
In various conversations, Epstein was presented as a partner in Percepto, along with Chorev and Burstien. Yet he is not registered as a shareholder in L.R. Perception International (the formal name of Percepto), of which Chorev and Burstien each own half the stock. (Percepto is not affiliated with the Israeli drone company Percepto Autonomous Solutions.)
In their presentations, Epstein and Burstien repeatedly highlighted their company’s strict security procedures. They claimed that they had technology that allowed their clients to contact them through a secure connection. Burstien even claimed that the security procedures were of a comparable standard to those of Israel’s Shin Bet security service.
“All of my employees go through a security check and do polygraph tests,” he said in one presentation. “I doubt if the client does this for his closed circle.”
Such statements appear absurd when one considers that in that same conversation, Burstien volunteered to give us information on a range of “influence campaigns” – in other words, scam operations carried out using “deep avatars,” which Burstien himself defined as “an online entity who looks real, but is really not real.”
Burstien’s boast becomes even more laughable when you consider that this report is the second time his enterprise has been penetrated, his people recorded and his information leaked.
The previous instance was in 2020, though that is being reported here for the first time. A source whose identity is known to the reporters managed to have one of Percepto’s production workers, who built websites and managed fictitious profiles on social media, give the reporter a guided and recorded tour of the company’s portfolio of web scams.
The comments heard on those recordings confirm Burstien’s claims, with the former employee naming deep avatars, a fictitious news agency and two of the company’s clients.
Burstien told us about an “investigative journalist” from Paris who specializes in “investigative reporting” on French-speaking Africa and reports based on what a client asks for.
“We’ve been operating this investigative specific journalist for the past, uh, from 2019,” he said. “She is French. She lives in Paris, she’s an avatar of course.
“She’s already worked in three different countries and three different projects,” he continued. “She can be relevant for this project.”
Burstien’s employee was recorded in 2020 operating the “investigative journalist” and even provided her name in the recording that we obtained. “There’s a blog,” the staffer said, “from the reporter, who was originally from an entirely different project … Anita Pettit, investigative reporter.”
-D.C.
Brilliant work!
The million dollar question is why they were so against Hillary and/or pro Trump?
Pure misogyny? Trump easier to manipulate?
filthy pigs