Right-wing Unleashes Campaign Against Democracy in Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

Right-wing Unleashes Campaign Against Democracy in Latin America
Written by Chuck Kaufman
Tuesday, 31 May 2011 21:11

US Latin Americanist Cold Warriors and their far-right allies in the region kicked off a propaganda campaign in May to influence Congress and US citizens against Venezuela and fellow ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas) countries. With declining attention being paid to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, neoconservatives and neoliberals want to turn our attention to rolling back social and economic advances in Latin America.

The campaign began with a Sunday, May 22, 2011, opinion piece in the Miami Herald penned by Reagan administration chief propagandist Otto Reich and continued with a Congressional briefing that he moderated on May 26. His premise in the Miami Herald article: “Dictatorships are being established in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua by an alliance of self-avowed ‘21st-century socialist’ leaders who utilize free elections to reach power and then set about destroying the very institutions of democracy that put them there.”

He claimed that ALBA, which is a trade agreement based on cooperation rather than competition, “has not only managed to survive as a retrograde movement in a modernizing hemisphere, but is now actively exporting its subversive model to neighboring countries.”

Background on Otto Reich

Reich knows a lot about subversion. As head of the Office of Public Diplomacy in the Reagan White House, Reich used military PSYOPS techniques to mold congressional and public opinion in favor of Reagan’s illegal Contra War to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/3055-right-wing-unleashes-campaign-against-democracy-in-latin-america

Editorials:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x605554

[Judi Lynn]

1. Speaking of propaganda: U.S. military using fake online profiles to spread propaganda

U.S. military using fake online profiles to spread propaganda
By Lewis Bazley
Last updated at 11:18 AM on 18th March 2011

The American military has spent $2.8million on software to create fake personas on social networking websites in a bid to curb online jihadists.

The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) has awarded a $2.76million contract to California company Ntrepid in order to create false identities – known as ‘sock puppets’ – to manipulate conversations on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The move is reportedly intended to hamper online extremism but critics will argue the scheme actually strikes a blow against free speech.

A June 2010 contract shows the software in question would allow users to control ‘10 personas… replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographically consistent’.

Up to 50 users of the software would be ‘able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world’ with the intention of interacting ‘through conventional online services and social media platforms’.

More:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367535/U-S-military-using-fake-online-profiles-spread-propaganda.html

Editorials:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x606175

[EFerrari]

2. I went looking for a transcript of the briefing

but what I found was only a couple of audio files at Americas Forum. There is no permalink to the download page, but the link to it is at the bottom of this one:


http://www.americasforum.com/content/bipartisan-agreement-hugo-chavezs-21st-century-socialism-%E2%80%98systematically-dismantling-democra

I don't know if I have the patience to listen to the drivel but it would be interesting to read Reich's piece and compare it to the memes used at this event.

Whooooeeeeeeeeeee! This Americas Forum is Vulture Central! If you go there, wear some garlic!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Cool! Did you see their "about us" page? They give you NO information.

Looks as if they have a lot to hide.

Found a link which mentions their co-chair, George Fauriol, which mentions Americas Forum is a "Washington, DC, network of hemispheric policy professionals." ... "Georges Fauriol has been senior vice president of the International Republican Institute (IRI) since October." .... "Fauriol worked with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Inter-American Development Bank. He is a board member of the Florida Association of Voluntary Agencies for Caribbean Action and a research council member of the Center for a Free Cuba. He has been an adjunct senior research associate at the University of Miami’s North-South Center and has testified before Senate and House subcommittees eighteen times."

One of those mad-dog fascists.

Nearly LOL'd seeing their "breaking news" headlines. OM#######G. Do they EVER sober up?

We'll have to remember them as a great "news source!" News from the Outer Limits, that is.

International Republican Institute. God Bless 'em. They made Haiti what it is today.