In today's episode, Tom and Sherif discuss a couple of active disinformation campaigns that appear to originate from the People's Republic of China. In the second segment, Tom reads a Facebook post about Disinformation that was originally written in 2021, but remains relevant.
Ongoing Chinese Disinformation Campaigns
- VOA News: China-connected spamouflage networks spread antisemitic disinformation
- Asia Times: PRC-linked Spamouflage works to spread antisemitic disinformation
- Pacific Forum: PacNet #101 – The PRC's role in spreading antisemitic disinformation
- The Washington Post: 4 countries form the axis of weaponized antisemitism
- Bitcoin Policy Institute: Foreign Influence in the Campaign against American AI
- Bitcoin Policy Institute: Foreign Influence in the Campaign against American AI, Part II: The Singham Ground Game
- LinkedIn - Two Six Technologies: Russia China Shift to AI-Enabled Influence Ops in June 2026 Report
2021 Facebook Post on Disinformation (In 2026, I'd Make Some Adjustments!)
This is going to be a long post, and it's going to do something that I generally avoid: it's going to delve into politics. Not the partisan politics of Republican versus Democrat that we're normally used to, though it touches upon that; but rather, international politics. In so doing, I'm going to talk about two maladies: COVID-19, and the disease of division, in reverse order.
Before I continue, I want to talk about myself for a second. I'm definitely not bragging myself up - in fact, I'm probably my own harshest critic, and there's ample competition for that title. However, there are three things that most people would probably acknowledge about me.
First: I'm an unashamed American patriot. When serving my country in uniform or in a government job didn't work out, I spent a decade serving my country as a federal contractor. I believe, simultaneously, that America is the greatest country in the world, and that we as a country need to get better at ensuring that our system enables every American to realize the American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Second: I'm a "devout Anglican and practicing Catholic," and I take my faith very seriously. I believe that the greatest commandment is that I love my neighbor, and the Bible tells me that it's God's role to judge, not mine.
Third: I'm committed to the truth, irrespective of the source, even if it's inconvenient. I'm probably the person who most of you know who's most likely to unilaterally acknowledge something that contradicts my own position.
Okay, with that established up front, I'd like to recommend three podcasts. There will be other sources cited throughout this post, but if you ignore everything else, listen to these.
The first was released last year by the International Spy Museum, in which Curator Andrew Hammond interviewed two experts - one on China and one on Russia - on the topic of disinformation. For clarity, "misinformation" is the spread of false information; "disinformation" is the deliberate proliferation of false information in support of an ulterior agenda.
SpyCast: Dis.information: Russia, China & the Specter of Democracy
The second was released earlier this year by the War Studies Department at Kings College London, and talks about the use of disinformation to aggravate a pandemic as a form of biological warfare, absent an actual biological weapon. There's some fashionably British commentary about American politics, but the information itself is valid.
War Studies Podcast: Disinformation and epidemics: The next phase of biowarfare with Rose Bernard
Third and finally is a recent clip from the Michael Medved Show, in which Medved interviewed author, historian, and retired Army intelligence officer Ralph Peters. Notably, Peters served as a Foreign Area Officer specializing in the Soviet Union. Skip to 10:39 and listen until 18:22.
The Michael Medved Show: Ralph Peters on Afghanistan
I've been studying this sort of thing for a long time. I know a lot about Russia - probably more than most of the chuckleheads who are currently formulating policy in Washington. I don't know as much about China, but a lot of the concepts that pertain to China "rhyme", so to speak, with concepts from other current and former competitors of the United States, or before it the British Empire, or Imperial Rome... Anyway, since 2016, a lot of breath and ink have been spent on "active measures," which basically amounts to Russia's version of divisive and disruptive propaganda. "Active measures" involves circulating outright lies and partial falsehoods to attack two of our greatest strengths: our national unity, and our confidence in our democracy. Moscow has been employing targeted propaganda for decades, both before and after the collapse of global communism. In one major example, Soviet operatives worked to agitate racial tensions during the Cold War. Later, as the analysts in that first podcast note, Russian operatives leveraged social media networks to fuel both the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements. In some cases, Russian trolls have deliberately stirred up flash mobs to meet at the same locations in order to provoke violent encounters. An example of it is documented in the podcast below. Where the potential exists to make two groups of Americans feel as if the opposite group is the "other", the Kremlin will leverage Russia's intelligence resources to drive a wedge between otherwise amicable Americans.
Radiolab: The Curious Case of the Russian Flash Mob at the West Palm Beach Cheesecake Factory
Der Spiegel: Russia's Propaganda Campaign Against Germany
CSIS Report: Conflicting Russian and Western Interests in the Wider Europe (November 2010)
Some of us who have been paying attention to these trends for a long time saw right through Russia's playbook during the 2016 and 2020 elections. How? Because we'd already seen it play out in European elections for several years prior. In 2016, a few carefully stolen E-mails, dropped into the public discourse at a few opportune moments, had Americans very nearly at each other's throats. According to a 2014 report by FireEye, a universally respected cyber security company:
"Since 2014, APT28 network activity has likely supported information operations designed to influence the domestic politics of foreign nations. Some of these operations have involved the disruption and defacement of websites, false flag operations using false hacktivist personas, and the theft of data that was later leaked publicly online... All of these operations have aimed to achieve a similar objective: securing a political outcome beneficial to Russia." - FireEye, pp. 7
This serves Russian interests by weakening actual democracies, but also by undermining the credibility of Russia's domestic democracy campaigners. As I'm fond of saying: all strategy is politics, and all politics is local. Of course, once the election results were in, one American political faction played right into Russia's hand by seizing upon these efforts as an excuse. Their beloved President hadn't alienated voters, and their aspirational candidate hadn't run a losing campaign! No, it was the Russians! The Russians had wanted their opponent, and they'd intervened on his behalf! The Russians hacked the election! Except that they didn't. As information security journalist Patrick Gray noted on his podcast a couple of weeks ago:
"Look, as much as we point to the fringe Republicans in the United States, who are jumping onboard with these looney conspiracy theories, the Democrats can't really escape some blame here, either. Because they, of course, after the 2016 election, were very careless in their language around hacking and elections and stuff. 'Oh, y'know, the Russians hacked the election!' They really did conflate the DNC theft with an election hack. And that, again, just made this thing messier than it needed to be." - Patrick Gray, "Risky Business" Episode 636, September 2021
Of course, there was only evidence for what Russia had done, not why they'd done it. That made it easy to present the evidence in terms of the American perspective - candidates that Americans did or didn't like - rather than presenting that same evidence in its rightful Russian context. I've found two - two - commentators who appear to actually understand Russia, and they reached the same conclusion that I did: Vladimir Putin expected Hillary Clinton to win, as virtually everyone did; he wanted her administration to be ineffective on day one; and he wanted Americans to doubt the integrity of their democratic institutions. (The video link skips straight to the relevant portion, but the whole thing is worth watching.)
World Affairs Council Greater Hampton Roads: Great Decisions 2018 - Russia Part 1
War College Podcast: The Kremlin had a plan - Donald Trump winning wasn't part of it
Instead, we heard about collusion and Vladimir Putin's designs on getting Trump elected, literally for years. American taxpayers funded an investigation that yielded the result that some of us anticipated all along: a few unrelated indictments, but zero evidence of collusion between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign. We as a country played right into Vladimir Putin's hand, just not in the way that he was expecting.
And since then? He and his intelligence apparatus have done everything in their power to keep it up. Remember that press conference in 2018, when Vladimir Putin said that he'd wanted Trump to win? And half of America screamed, "I knew it!"? Sorry, but those folks got trolled by Vladimir Putin.
Politico: Putin: I wanted Trump to win the election
A 2018 U.S. Department of Justice report - just to clarify, that's Donald Trump's Department of Justice - put all of this very succinctly:
"Foreign infuence operations include covert actions by foreign governments intended to sow division in our society, undermine confidence in our democratic institutions, and otherwise affect political sentiment and public discourse to achieve strategic geopolitical objectives." - Report of the Attorney General's Cyber Digital Task Force (July 2018)
Marine Corps University: The New Fighting Words?: How U.S. Law Hampers the Fight Against Information Warfare
Read that again: "sow division in our society"; "undermine confidence in our democratic institutions"; affect political sentiment and public discourse." Does any of that sound familiar to any of you? It sounds really familiar to me. I've been watching it play out both here and in Europe, for years. And as they rightly noted in that very first podcast from the Spy Museum, the Russians have been playing both sides. Vladimir Putin wants us at each other's throats. I'm not as familiar with Xi Jinping, but every indicator is that he's just fine with that, too. If Western democracy - American democracy - stops working, there's that much less pressure on either of them to respond to the needs of their people. If we aren't confident in our national institutions - not just voting, but law enforcement, criminal justice, the public health apparatus - then we'll be too distracted with our outrage to pay attention to Russian or Chinese shenanigans.
Just so we're clear: that's not to say that Donald Trump is great, or that we as a country don't have a lot of room for improvement. Rather, it's to say that whatever is wrong with Donald Trump, is wrong independent of this other problem with the powers that be in Moscow and Beijing. And also, that it's in the interests of Moscow and Beijing for Americans to think that conditions in our country are worse than they actually are. We, the People, can choose to continue playing into their hands; or we, the People, can choose to see through their shenanigans, and work together to get our country back on track. This disease of division is something that we can heal, but we have to want to heal - to build a "herd immunity" to foreign attempts to sow chaos and disunity.
And that brings me to the other disease: COVID-19. One thing that I've waited to mention (it's discussed in that War Studies podcast) is that one of Russia's most successful Cold War era "active measures" efforts was Operation INFEKTION: the campaign to convince Americans that HIV was an artificial creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, developed to harm blacks and gays. That was nonsense, but there are Americans who still believe it to this day, even though we know for a fact that it was Soviet propaganda.
Wikipedia: Operation INFEKTION
And now, they're doing it again. And this isn't just me saying so: there's evidence that they're doing it again. The following links are from the Trump Departments of State and Health and Human Services; and from the non-partisan Pacific Research Institute and Center for Strategic and International Studies.
U.S. Department of State: Pillars of Russia's Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem (August 2020)
Health and Human Services: Healthcare Disinformation (December 2020)
Pacific Research Institute: China and Russia Are Spreading Coronavirus Disinformation
CSIS Online Event: The Scramble for a Vaccine: Putin's Sputnik V— "Trust me!"
Unfortunately, just as they did after the 2016 active measures campaign, our politicians have virtually committed themselves to making matters worse. It hasn't been partisan, and it hasn't been confined within any borders: every government, from the municipal level to the international level, has failed to get things right, to strike the appropriate balances. Let's remember that early in the pandemic, Japanese officials called the World Health Organization - a division of the United Nations - the "Chinese Health Organization" because they'd trusted Beijing and ignored urgent warnings from Taipei. Poor handling of the pandemic has led to anti-mask, anti-vaccine, and anti-lockdown demonstrations from the United Kingdom, to mainland Europe, to Australia.
Wall Street Journal: World Health Coronavirus Disinformation
Japan Times: The Chinese Health Organization?
President Trump could have handled the initial months well, and save for funding vaccine development, he didn't. Now, President Biden has managed to turn some Americans' refusal to wear masks or get vaccinated into a display of patriotic dissent. Let's not forget that, as a candidate, Vice President Harris said, and I quote: "If Dr. Fauci, the doctors, tell us that we should take [the vaccine], I'll be the first in line to take it. But if Donald Trump tells us we should take it, I'm not going to take it." I tend to give public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci a lot of slack, but you can't deny that some of their decisions - like reversing their mask guidance in an effort to prevent a run on protective equipment needed by frontline medical staff - cost them credibility with those marginal folks who may otherwise have been inclined to trust them. As Dr. Christopher Preble of the Atlantic Council, et. al., noted on a mid-August podcast from War on the Rocks:
"This credibility problem is not confined to foreign wars. It's not. We have a collapse in trust in institutions in this country right now. Millions of Americans are unable to differentiate fact from fiction. It's killing people, right now. Thousands of people are dying, right now, because they refuse to get vaccinated. They do not believe what they are told by public health officials about the effectiveness of the vaccine and the dangerousness of COVID. I actually checked: nearly five thousand Americans have died in the last seven days alone - of COVID! So, this is my point: I do not believe, and I think the evidence shows, that a country's willingness to defend Mission A does not say anything about its ability to execute Mission B or C; but there is a government credibility problem right now, and it's getting worse. The American people do not believe government officials." - Christopher Preble, August 17th, 2021
And let's not kid ourselves: if the 2020 election had swung the other way, Republicans would be celebrating "Trump's vaccine," and Democrats would be exercising their right to make their own medical decisions. Why? Because Russia and China would have shifted their efforts accordingly.
So, where do we stand? Well, we know that, for a variety of reasons, our strategic competitors are plenty eager to see us hate one another, and if a bunch of us are needlessly ill while doing so, then so much the better. We also know that our own governments are letting us down. On the other hand, we also know that for all the criticism they get - some deserved, some not - one group that hasn't let us down has been the "Big Pharma". For all the talk of "experimental vaccines," the major Western vaccines - Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, AstraZenica - are very effective, and very safe. We have the statistics, and they're very clear: if you're vaccinated, COVID-19 stops being life-threatening. You might get a breakthrough case, but you're not going to be in the intensive care unit, on a ventilator, fighting for your life, and potentially dying alone. Save perhaps for a couple of days of comparatively minor symptoms, people aren't seeing serious side effects from these vaccines.
When we were at our family reunion in early August, one of Judy's cousins told me that he'd talked to a physician friend of theirs who had told him that people who get the Moderna vaccine basically just don't come down with COVID, at all. The Pfizer vaccine is also excellent - remember, Pfizer is the company that managed to cure erectile dysfunction by accident - and the Johnson and Johnson and AstraZenica vaccines are also very good. If you're worried, like I was, you can talk to your doctor, medicate, and monitor until you're clear of the point at which you'd potentially have a reaction. These vaccines only stay in your system for a matter of hours before they're cycled out, having taught your immune system to recognize the infamous "spike protein". The Tampa Bay Times has a great page that talks about how the vaccines work - the mechanics of vaccination. Most of the seemingly reasonable justifications that I've heard for avoiding the vaccine are addressed in one of the two links directly below.
Tampa Bay Times: Have coronavirus vaccine questions? We have answers, Florida.
UAB News: Three things to know about the long-term side effects of COVID vaccines
And if you're not vaccinated? Yeah, there's a decent chance that if you get COVID, your case will be asymptomatic; but there's no guarantee. For all the talk of multiple co-morbidities, this thing has taken young people, in good shape, in their prime. It's caused long term damage for both the young and the old, to include MIS-C/PIMS (a Kawasaki Syndrome-like ailment) in children. Plus, whether you are or aren't symptomatic, you still have a greater chance of passing it on to a loved one with co-morbidities - weight, age, pregnancy, what have you - before you even know that you're carrying it, than you do if you're vaccinated.
With that in mind, I want to talk about myself again: initially, I was anxious about getting vaccinated. For those who don't know, I have a clotting disorder and a circulatory disorder, and I've experienced at least two clotting incidents in my life. Clotting issues are a major co-morbidity for COVID-19, and I had reservations. If they had offered me the Johnson and Johnson or AstraZenica jabs, I probably would have declined vaccination. I ended up getting the Moderna vaccine, and I did fine: no reaction whatsoever, and despite having probably been exposed at one point or another, I haven't gotten a breakthrough case. Ultimately, I looked at it like this: I can manage the low risk of a side effect, but it's a lot tougher to manage the risks from COVID-19 itself.
So, what's my agenda in writing this diatribe?
First: I'm sick of this pandemic. Maybe it was thinking that we were through it, only for the Delta Variant to drag us back into it, but I'm exhausted with this nonsense. I've tried to keep my mouth shut, because I didn't think it was productive to potentially alienate people; but several recent events have led me to reconsider my silence.
Second: I care very deeply about people who are suffering from this thing, either because they've had it, or because they're taking care of people who have it, or because they're at risk of contracting it. Recently, we had a family member who was diagnosed with a breakthrough case because that individual is surrounded by people who won't mask or get vaccinated. (Our relative will be fine, but the point is that it shouldn't have happened in the first place.) My wife teaches in a public school, and the public school system is already experiencing outbreaks after spending just a couple of weeks in session. She's exhausted from all of this. I have friends who are nurses. They're exhausted, too. I've lost people I cared about to this thing. Not only am I tired of the inconvenience, as I mentioned above, but I'm tired to watching the human toll that this pandemic is costing us.
Third: I don't like watching people get snookered. I'm mature enough to understand that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are doing what they think is best for both themselves and their countries, but they're doing it by making life worse for me, the people I care about, and the country that I love. I take that personally. I felt like it was my duty to do something after 9/11, and I feel like it's my duty to do something right now.
The Atlantic: The Liberals Who Can't Quit Lockdown
With all of that said, if you've read this far, I'm asking you, politely, respectfully: please get vaccinated. And, if you're in a situation where it's appropriate to do so, please wear a mask. If people had given the public health folks the benefit of the doubt more than a year ago, we could have been done with this, yet here we remain. I've been saying since fairly early in the pandemic that this situation is a six or a seven on a scale of one to ten. Some folks have treated it, and continue to treat it, like it's an eleven; other folks are treating it like it's a zero. Our governments may be letting us down, but that's all the more reason for us to look out for one another. While I'm concerned about the government's push for vaccination mandates, there's no doubt in my mind that protecting the sick, the weak, the elderly, and the vulnerable is our duty as Americans, and - if you're so inclined - as Christians. (Or Muslims, or Sikhs, or Humanists... ) As Americans, we do so for our country; as Christians, we do so for everyone, regardless of nationality. I think you should. I hope you will. You'll get no judgement or condemnation from me if you don't; in fact, I'm right there defending your right to make your own decisions about what you put into our body. But, I'll also be right there, telling you that it's your responsibility to do the right thing, even if God granted you the inalienable right to do the wrong thing.
And, if you're on the fence, I'd be happy to make some time to have a mature, friendly conversation about it. But don't let your excuse for not getting vaccinated be that a politician told you that you had to. Do it because it's the right thing to do. People who don't like you want you to be sick, and to hate your neighbors. Don't fall for it. Don't be a sucker.
US National Archives: Don't Be a Sucker
