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Gay Girl in Damascus: Tom MacMaster defends blog hoax

POSTED BY: GEEZER
UPDATED: Monday, June 13, 2011 13:43
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Monday, June 13, 2011 1:57 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up


Quote:

Tom MacMaster, a US student at the University of Edinburgh, said the blog had been a fiction - but that the facts it contained were true.

The 40-year-old married man's blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus, described life in the Syrian city amid the current political unrest.

It gained a worldwide readership and was closely followed by news reporters.

The blog, dating back to February this year, claimed to document the life of 25-year-old Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari, a half-Syrian, half-American lesbian living in Damascus.

Entries covered her social life and relationships, but "Amina" also criticised President Bashar al-Assad and spoke about her role in the growing anti-government protests.

'Real facts and opinions'

Last Monday a post which was said to be written by Amina's cousin said she had been seized by armed men believed to be members of President Assad's Baath party.

The news was widely reported, including by the BBC, and bloggers and activists launched an online campaign to secure her release.

On Sunday, an "apology to readers" appeared on the blog signed by Tom MacMaster - a 40-year-old American Middle East activist studying at Edinburgh University - who said he was "the sole author of all posts on this blog".




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13747761

So. Sneaky lying hoax, or good way to increase people's awareness of the troubles in Syria, or something else?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Monday, June 13, 2011 2:40 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!



NOT a Kidnapped Lesbian in Syria: Brit Jelena Lecic said that the identity theft has put her in danger
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=18&t=48748



Quote:

"Mindwar is the deliberate, aggressive convincing of all participants in a war that we will win that war. In its strategic context, mindwar must reach out to friends, enemies and neutrals alike across the globe. through the media possessed by the United States which have the capabilities to reach virtually all people on the face of the Earth. These media are, of course, the electronic media—television and radio. State of the art developments in satellite communication, video recording techniques, and laser and optical transmission of broadcasts make possible a penetration of the minds of the world."
-U.S. Army, "From PSYOP to MindWar: The Psychology of Victory", by accused pedophile Lt Col Michael Aquino founder of the Temple of Set and member of the Church of Satan, authr of "The Church of Satan"
http://www.xeper.org/maquino/nm/MindWar.pdf
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread329345/pg1
http://www.xeper.org/maquino/index.html

"Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence… to pass the U.S. message. In this way, the U.S. can overleap the entrenched inequalities and make use of preexisting intellectual and social capital. Sometimes numbers can be effective; hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering. Hacking the site and subtly changing the messages and data—merely a few words or phrases—may be sufficient to begin destroying the blogger’s credibility with the audience."
US Special Operations Command, Joint Special Operations University, "Blogs and Military Information Strategy"
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/03/report-recruit/



10 Tips for Viral Marketers from a Military Propaganda Manual for Rumor Targets: "The successful propaganda rumor is self-propelling in a high degree, retains its original content with a minimum of distortion, and confirms to strategic requirements."
http://www.futurelab.net/blogs/marketing-strategy-innovation/2009/12/1
0_tips_viral_marketers_milita.html


Pentagon calls for ‘Office of Strategic Deception’
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2010-10-Capability_Suprise_Vol_2.pd
f

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/pentagon-report-calls-creation-strategic-d
eception-entity
/

Washington Post: U.S. Information Warfare Operation Takes Down Website Used to Plan Attacks on Americans Inside Iraq; The Website Was Set Up and Run by CIA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010
031805464.html

http://cryptogon.com/?p=14421


"You're talking full-on Grassy Knoll conspiracy theory!"
-Castle, Steam Punk

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Monday, June 13, 2011 11:22 AM

FREMDFIRMA



Pffth, justification for their endless friggin wars, you ask me, just like "WMD" and the Kuwaiti Incubator story - worse is that not only do we have asshats who do this for thier own reason, our tax dollars go into such propaganda bullshit as well.

Pentagon Audit Clears Propaganda Effort
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/washington/20lincoln.html
Quote:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 — An American military propaganda campaign that planted favorable news articles in the Iraqi news media did not violate laws or Pentagon regulations, but it was not properly supervised by military officials in Baghdad, an audit by the Pentagon Inspector General has concluded.

The report said that the secret program, run by the military in conjunction with the Lincoln Group, a Washington contractor, was lawful and that it did not constitute a “covert action” designed to influence the internal political conditions of another country.


I called shenanigans at the time, and if you don't think they've planted bullshit stories here as well you need to re-think that a bit, given a proven history of doing exactly that, via shit like COINTELPRO and MOCKINGBIRD.

Given how private firms are often now involved, and wish to obfuscate that involvement, it's always worth a cold, hard, second look at anything - doubly so when they're telling you what you wanna hear.

Of course, kool-aid drinkers on either side gobble it up by the thousands and regurgitate it endlessly till most of em are fully convinced it is true, and confronting them with the facts just makes em angry cause they can-not, will-not, dare-not, admit that they've been duped, since it would lead to them having to QUESTION their own worldview and acknowledge some level of personal responsibility.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Monday, June 13, 2011 1:43 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


I have to admit that if I liked blogging and found it enjoyable (which I don't), I'd be very tempted to create a pretend blog. I'm surprised more people don't do this really, I had the idea a long time ago. What he did was deceptive and really not right since he got too involved, claimed Amena had been kidnapped, got government officials involved etc. I'd never do something that significant, but the thought has crossed my mind to create a blog, either about my imaginary perfect life or about my charactors that I write about in my Tayona stories, the latter raising awareness about touched folk, caregiving etc. But ultimately I wouldn't do it because people would get invested in something that I'd have to later admit wasn't true.

I must admit that I perpetrated a fiction on the internet once, but I stopped as soon as it seemed like people believed it, I knew it wasn't right and I stopped.

But a blog about being secretly from the fae realm and being stuck here in mortal and flawed form would be fun to write. :)

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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