Is the Gazette now in the “disinformation business?” I read with a bit of shock the July 1 opinion column, “Is the Mueller report a hoax?” penned by Mary Wentworth.
It didn’t take me very long to start seeing the thread of repeated disinformation running through her article. Let’s focus on one because we know if it’s not sensational, our attention spans dwindle — that of the “inside hack.”
This widely circulated (on the internet and apparently walked into the White House) document was penned supposedly by a group of “widely respected intelligence experts,” but has in fact been traced to its originator, one person who goes by the name of Adam Carter.
In Veteran Intelligence Professonals for Sanity (VIPS)-circulated materials, they speak of Carter as an “independent intelligence researcher.” It turns out that Carter is actually Tim Leonard, a 39-year-old low-level programmer who lives in Darlington, U.K., with no experience in the intelligence services.
Leonard worked in concert with U.S.-based trolls to spread disinformation on any possible connection between the Democratic National Committee attack and Russia. Leonard further attempted to lend credibility to the theories by co-creating a second fake identity known as “Forensicator” (also cited by right-wing media outlets such as “Disobedient Media” as a real, anonymous, intelligence expert).
It seems Ms. Wentworth has been following a campaign with the express purpose of confusing U.S. citizens so they will once again be targets of whatever efforts foreign interests have in determining the outcome of our election.
Rick Rabe
Belchertown