{"id":187787,"date":"2019-05-04T04:34:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-04T04:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=187787"},"modified":"2019-05-06T04:38:52","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T04:38:52","slug":"whales-crickets-and-other-fearsome-russian-doomsday-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=187787","title":{"rendered":"Whales, Crickets, and Other Fearsome Russian Doomsday Weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.strategic-culture.org\/news\/2019\/05\/03\/whales-crickets-and-other-fearsome-russian-doomsday-weapons\/\"><strong>Caitlin Johnstone \u2013 Strategic Review May 3, 2019<\/strong><\/a><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Headlines were blaring the word \u201cRussian\u201d again the other day because the mass media narrative managers found yet another reason for westerners to feel terrified of the icy potato patch that we\u2019d barely ever thought about prior to 2016. I\u2019d like to talk about the Kremlin\u2019s latest horrifying horrific addition to its fearsome doomsday artillery, and recap a few of the other incredibly frightening and terrifying tactics that those strange Cyrillic-scribbling demons of the East are employing to undermine truth, justice, and the American way. Just to make sure we\u2019re all good and scared like we\u2019re supposed to be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Gather the kids, clutch your pearls and sign off on hundreds of billions of dollars of extra military spending, my patriotic brethren! Here are five super scary ways the Red Menace is trying to destroy you and everything you hold dear:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<h3><strong> Whales<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Is this beluga whale actually a Russian spy?  <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GC8hYIuH7J\">https:\/\/t.co\/GC8hYIuH7J<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; USA TODAY (@USATODAY) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/USATODAY\/status\/1122999016856354818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Headlines and TV news segments from virtually all mainstream outlets were falling all over themselves the other day to report the fact that some Norwegians found a tame beluga whale with a harness on it, and \u201cexperts\u201d attest that the animal may have been part of a covert espionage program for the Russian navy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">While there is no indication that this spying cetacean has been trained in the arts of sonar election meddling or shooting novichok from its blowhole,\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190429100508\/https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2019\/apr\/29\/whale-with-harness-could-be-russian-weapon-say-norwegian-experts\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>the\u00a0<em>Guardian<\/em>\u00a0helpfully informs us<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the harness was labeled \u201cEquipment of St. Petersburg\u201d, and was equipped to hold \u201ca camera or weapon\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cMarine experts in Norway believe they have stumbled upon a white whale that was trained by the Russian navy as part of a programme to use underwater mammals as a special ops force,\u201d the\u00a0<em>Guardian<\/em>\u00a0reports.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Norwegian tabloid\u00a0<em>Verdens Gang<\/em>, which picked up on the discovery well before the breathless English headlines began gracing us with their presence, is a teensy bit less Ian Flemingesque in its reporting on the matter: the harness\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/archive.is\/acwGd#selection-1065.0-1065.54\">is equipped for a GoPro camera<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. The words \u201cEquipment of St. Petersburg\u201d\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/archive.is\/acwGd#selection-909.83-909.110\">are written in English<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Why is the Russian military writing \u201cEquipment of St. Petersburg\u201d in English on the garments of its aquatic special ops forces, you may ask? If there were indeed a secret beluga espionage squad assembled by Russian intelligence services, would they not perhaps avoid writing the home address of the whales on their harnesses altogether, and maybe, you know,\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0let them run free in the wild?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">And to that I would say, stop asking so many questions. That\u2019s just what Putin wants.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>\n<h3><strong> Crickets<\/strong><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NBC and MSNBC Blamed Russia for Using \u201cSophisticated Microwaves\u201d to Cause \u201cBrain Injuries\u201d in U.S. \u201cDiplomats\u201d in Cuba. The Culprits Were Likely Crickets. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7G8p0PyCKI\">https:\/\/t.co\/7G8p0PyCKI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ggreenwald\/status\/1082319522852470786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">A\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aUU2vD5NFeU\">report<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0seeded throughout the mainstream media by anonymous intelligence officials last September claimed that US government workers in Cuba had suffered concussion-like brain damage after hearing strange noises in homes and hotels with the most likely culprit being \u201csophisticated microwaves or another type of electromagnetic weapon\u201d from Russia. A recording of one such highly sophisticated attack was analyzed by scientists and\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2019\/01\/07\/nbc-and-msnbc-blamed-russia-for-using-sophisticated-microwaves-to-cause-brain-injuries-in-u-s-diplomats-in-cuba-the-culprits-were-likely-crickets\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>turned out to be the mating call of the male indies short-tailed cricket<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Neurologists and other brain specialists\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2018\/aug\/14\/cuban-acoustic-attack-report-on-us-diplomats-flawed-say-neurologists\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>have challenged the claim<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that any US government workers suffered any neurological damage of any kind, saying test results on the alleged victims were misinterpreted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The actual story, when stripped of hyperventilating Russia panic, is that some government workers once heard some horny crickets in Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">*cough*<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>\n<h3><strong> Puppies<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Robert Parry explores the strange mystery of the Russia-gate puppies, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XL9pxJW4E8\">https:\/\/t.co\/XL9pxJW4E8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Consortium News (@Consortiumnews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Consortiumnews\/status\/915690441542176768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Ye gads, is is nothing sacred? Is there any weapon these monsters won\u2019t use to transform the west into a giant, globe-spanning Mordor?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">That\u2019s right, in 2017 puppies became one of the many, many things we\u2019ve been instructed to fear in the hands of our vodka-swilling enemy to the east, with mass media outlets reporting that a Facebook group for animal lovers was one of the sinister, diabolical tactics employed by St. Petersburg\u2019s notorious Internet Research Agency. As the\u00a0<em>Moon of Alabama<\/em>\u00a0blog\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moonofalabama.org\/2018\/12\/senate-reports-on-russian-influence-campaign-fail-to-discuss-its-only-known-motive.html\">has explained<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, the only evidence we\u2019ve seen so far actually indicates that the Internet Research Agency\u2019s operations in America served no purpose other than to attract eyeballs for money. As journalist Aaron Mat\u00e9\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/russiagate-elections-interference\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>wrote<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the highly publicized Russian Facebook meddling, \u201cFar from being a sophisticated propaganda campaign, it was small, amateurish, and mostly unrelated to the 2016 election.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The late, great Robert Parry, one of the earliest and most outspoken critics of the Russiagate narrative, covered this one for\u00a0<em>Consortium News<\/em>\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2017\/10\/04\/the-mystery-of-the-russia-gate-puppies\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>in an article<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0he authored a few months before his untimely passing:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">As Mike Isaac and Scott Shane of The New York Times\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/02\/technology\/facebook-russia-ads-.html?_r=0\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in Tuesday\u2019s editions, \u201cThe Russians who posed as Americans on Facebook last year tried on quite an array of disguises.\u00a0\u2026 There was even a Facebook group for animal lovers with memes of adorable puppies that spread across the site with the help of paid ads.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Now, there are a lot of controversial issues in America, but I don\u2019t think any of us would put puppies near the top of the list. Isaac and Shane reported that there were also supposedly Russia-linked groups advocating gay rights, gun rights and black civil rights, although precisely how these divergent groups were \u201clinked\u201d to Russia or the Kremlin was never fully explained. (Facebook declined to offer details.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">At this point, a professional journalist might begin to pose some very hard questions to the sources, who presumably include many partisan Democrats and their political allies hyping the evil-Russia narrative. It would be time for some lectures to the sources about the consequences for taking reporters on a wild ride in conspiracy land.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Yet, instead of starting to question the overall premise of this \u201cscandal,\u201d journalists at The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, etc. keep making excuses for the nuttiness. The explanation for the puppy ads was that the nefarious Russians might be probing to discover Americans who might later be susceptible to propaganda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cThe goal of the dog lovers\u2019 page was more obscure,\u201d Isaac and Shane acknowledged. \u201cBut some analysts suggested a possible motive: to build a large following before gradually introducing political content. Without viewing the entire feed from the page, now closed by Facebook, it is impossible to say whether the Russian operators tried such tactics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>4. Pok\u00e9mon<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/077-nYiaUAU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Yes,\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/077-nYiaUAU\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Pok\u00e9mon<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">This Russia hysteria has been a long, wild ride, and sometimes it\u2019s honestly felt like they\u2019re just experimenting on us. Like they\u2019ve been testing the limits of how ridiculous they can make this thing and still get mainstream Americans to swallow it. Like the establishment propagandists are all sitting around in a room smoking blunts and making bets with each other all,<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cI\u2019m telling you, we can sell a Pok\u00e9mon Go Kremlin conspiracy.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cDo it!\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cNo way. There\u2019s no way they\u2019ll go for it.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cYeah well you said that about the puppy dogs!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">And then they release their latest experiment in social manipulation and place bets on how many disgruntled Hillary voters they can get retweeting it saying \u201cGod dammit, I\u00a0<em>knew<\/em>\u00a0that jigglypuff looked suspicious!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The October 2017\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/archive.is\/EWp6y\">CNN report<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0which sparked off a full day of shrieking \u201cOMG THEY\u2019RE EVEN USING PIKACHU TO ATTACK OUR DEMOCRACY\u201d headlines was titled \u201cExclusive: Even Pok\u00e9mon Go used by extensive Russian-linked meddling effort\u201d, and it reported that Russia had extended its \u201ctentacles\u201d into the popular video game for the purpose of election meddling. Apparently the Internet Research Agency attempted to hold a contest using the game to highlight police brutality against unarmed Black men, which of course is something that only an evil autocracy would ever do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Not until\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"http:\/\/archive.is\/EWp6y#selection-1109.1-1109.272\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>the fifteenth paragraph<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the article did we see the information which undercut all the frantic arm flailing about Russians destroying democracy and warping our children\u2019s fragile little minds:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cCNN has not found any evidence that any Pok\u00e9mon Go users attempted to enter the contest, or whether any of the Amazon Gift Cards that were promised were ever awarded\u200a\u2014\u200aor, indeed, whether the people who designed the contest ever had any intention of awarding the prizes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Mmm hmm<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>\n<h3><strong> Laughter<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Turns out jokes are a Russian disinformation conspiracy.<br \/>Is nothing safe? What will those barbarian Others think of next? Weaponizing our tears? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0CFcTL65q0\">https:\/\/t.co\/0CFcTL65q0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkAmesExiled\/status\/1073982431131328512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 15, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Late last year the BBC\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-46567364\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>published an article<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0titled \u201cHow Putin\u2019s Russia turned humour into a weapon\u201d about yet another addition to the Kremlin\u2019s horrifying deadly hybrid warfare arsenal: comedy. The article\u2019s author, ironically\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/in\/olga-robinson-940159115\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>titled<\/strong><\/span><\/a> \u201cSenior Journalist (Disinformation)\u201d by the BBC, argues that Russia has suddenly discovered laughter as a way to \u201cdeliberately lower the level of discussion\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cRussia\u2019s move towards using humour to influence its campaigns is a relatively recent phenomenon,\u201d the article explained, without speculating as to why Russians might have suddenly begun laughing at their western accusers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Is it perhaps possible that Russian media have begun mocking the west a lot more because westerners have made themselves much easier to make fun of? Could it perhaps be the fact that western mass media have been doing absolutely insane things like constantly selling us the idea that the Kremlin could be lurking behind anything in our world, even really innocuous-looking things like puppy dogs, Pok\u00e9mon and whales? Could we perhaps be finding ourselves at the butt end of jokes now because in 2016 our society went bat shit, pants-on-head, screaming-at-passing-motor-vehicles insane?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Nahhh. Couldn\u2019t be. It\u2019s the Russians who\u2019ve gone mad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">This article originally appeared in <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@caityjohnstone\/whales-crickets-and-other-fearsome-russian-doomsday-weapons-42177cd1a278\"><strong>medium.com<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caitlin Johnstone looks at the corporate media\u2019s coverage of Russia\u2019s disinformation war with the West. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":187584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,91,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mind_control","category-russia","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187787"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187790,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187787\/revisions\/187790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/187584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}