New release shows how fake Russian tweets pushed Jade Helm conspiracy theories

[turbinetree]

We finally have evidence for a former CIA chief's claim.

CASEY MICHEL AUG 7, 2018, 5:18 PM

A few months ago, former CIA chief Michael Hayden let slip something of a bombshell about Russia’s social media interference operations.

Appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe podcast, Hayden said “Russian bots” had helped hype conspiracy theories surrounding the 2015 Jade Helm military exercise. The exercise, which took place from Texas to California, was a simple training exercise — but conspiracy theorists claimed that the exercise was actually an Obama administration move to impose martial law. As Hayden said, these bots helped convince “many Texans” that Jade Helm “was an Obama plan to round up political dissidents.”

At the time, Hayden didn’t provide any evidence, although ThinkProgress first reported that at least one fake Russian Facebook page, “Heart of Texas,” had also pushed Jade Helm conspiracies. As one “Heart of Texas” post read, broken English and all, Jade Helm “is some kind of Washington’s attempt to frighten and subordinate Texas and other states.”

Now a new trove of Twitter accounts associated with Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) is offering more insight into what Hayden may have been talking about.

https://thinkprogress.org/fake-russian-tweets-pushed-jade-helm-conspiracy-theories-ab0d7fa815b3/

[d_r]

1. I remember

them saying that an old walmart building was going to be turned in to a concentration camp. It is weird how the right wingers actually did that when they got it power.

[turbinetree]

2. Yepper, spot on................good point I forgot all about that .............