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<h1 class="agrq4zn">US – UK Intel Agencies Declare Cyber War on
Independent Media</h1>
<p>Published on <time datetime="2020-11-25" pubdate="">November
25, 2020</time></p>
<div class="a1ryita6">
<div class="b5fas5x">By</div>
<div class="d1slxp1m">principia-scientific.com</div>
<div class="t1wtd119">14 min</div>
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<p>Written by Whitney Webb</p>
<p>In just the past week, the national-security states of the United
States and United Kingdom have discreetly let it be known that the
cyber tools and online tactics previously designed for use in the
post-9/11 “war on terror” are now being repurposed for use against
information sources promoting “vaccine hesitancy” and information
related to Covid-19 that runs counter to their state narratives.</p>
<p><span></span>A new cyber offensive was launched on Monday by the
UK’s signal intelligence agency, Government Communications
Headquarters (GCHQ), which seeks to target websites that publish
content deemed to be “propaganda” that raises concerns regarding
state-sponsored Covid-19 vaccine development and the
multi-national pharmaceutical corporations involved.</p>
<p>Similar efforts are underway in the United States, with the US
military recently funding a CIA-backed firm—stuffed with former
counterterrorism officials who were behind the occupation of Iraq
and the rise of the so-called Islamic State—to develop an AI
algorithm aimed specifically at new websites promoting “suspected”
disinformation related to the Covid-19 crisis and the US
military–led Covid-19 vaccination effort known as Operation Warp
Speed.</p>
<p>Both countries are preparing to silence independent journalists
who raise legitimate concerns over pharmaceutical industry
corruption or <a
href="https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/operation-warp-speed-is-using-a-cia-linked-contractor-to-keep-covid-19-vaccine-contracts-secret/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-1">the extreme secrecy</a> surrounding
state-sponsored Covid-19 vaccination efforts, now that Pfizer’s
vaccine candidate is slated to be approved by the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) by month’s end.</p>
<p>Pfizer’s history of being <a
href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/pfizer-fined-23-billion-illegal-marketing-off-label/story?id=8477617"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-2">fined billions for illegal
marketing</a> and for bribing government officials to help them
cover up <a
href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pfizer-bribed-nigerian-officials-in-fatal-drug-trial-ex-employee-claims/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-3">an illegal drug trial that
killed eleven children</a> (among other crimes) has gone
unmentioned by most mass media outlets, which instead have
celebrated the apparently imminent approval of the company’s
Covid-19 vaccine without questioning the company’s history or that
the mRNA technology used in the vaccine has sped through normal
safety trial protocols and has never been approved for human use.
Also unmentioned is that the head of the FDA’s Center for Drug
Evaluation and Research, Patrizia Cavazzoni, is <a
href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/23/janet-woodcock-replacement-fda/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-4">the former Pfizer vice president
for product safety</a> who covered up <a
href="https://www.classaction.org/zoloft" target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer" id="reader.external-link.num-5">the
connection of one of its products to birth defects</a>.</p>
<p>Essentially, the power of the state is being wielded like never
before to police online speech and to deplatform news websites to
protect the interests of powerful corporations like Pfizer and
other scandal-ridden pharmaceutical giants as well as the
interests of the US and UK national-security states, which
themselves are <a
href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/28/operation-warp-speed-vast-military-involvement/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-6">intimately involved</a> in the
Covid-19 vaccination endeavor.</p>
<h2>UK Intelligence’s New Cyberwar Targeting “Anti-Vaccine
Propaganda”</h2>
<p>On Monday, the UK newspaper <a
href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gchq-in-cyberwar-on-anti-vaccine-propaganda-mcjgjhmb2"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-7"><em>The Times </em>reported</a> that
the UK’s GCHQ “has begun an offensive cyber-operation to disrupt
anti-vaccine propaganda being spread by hostile states” and “is
using a toolkit developed to tackle disinformation and recruitment
material peddled by Islamic State” to do so. In addition, the UK
government has ordered the British military’s 77th Brigade, which <a
href="https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/british-military-information-war-waged-their-own-population"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-8">specializes in “information
warfare</a>,” to launch an online campaign to counter “deceptive
narratives” about Covid-19 vaccine candidates.</p>
<p>The newly announced GCHQ “cyber war” will not only take down
“anti-vaccine propaganda” but will also seek to “disrupt the
operations of the cyberactors responsible for it, including
encrypting their data so they cannot access it and blocking their
communications with each other.” The effort will also involve
GCHQ reaching out to other countries in the “Five Eyes” alliance
(US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) to alert their partner
agencies in those countries to target such “propaganda” sites
hosted within their borders.</p>
<p><em>The Times</em> stated that “the government regards tackling
false information about inoculation as a rising priority as the
prospect of a reliable vaccine against the coronavirus draws
closer,” suggesting that efforts will continue to ramp up as a
vaccine candidate gets closer to approval.</p>
<p>It seems that, from the perspective of the UK national-security
state, those who question corruption in the pharmaceutical
industry and its possible impact on the leading experimental
Covid-19 vaccine candidates (all of which use experimental vaccine
technologies that have never before been approved for human use)
should be targeted with tools originally designed to combat
terrorist propaganda.</p>
<p>While <em>The Times</em> asserted that the effort would target
content “that originated only from state adversaries” and would
not target the sites of “ordinary citizens,” the newspaper
suggested that the effort would rely on the US government for
determining whether or not a site is part of a “foreign
disinformation” operation.</p>
<p>This is highly troubling given that the US recently seized the
domains of many sites, including the <em>American Herald Tribune</em>,
which <a
href="https://news.antiwar.com/2020/11/04/doj-seizes-27-domains-claims-they-are-controlled-by-iran/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-9">it erroneously labeled as
“Iranian propaganda,”</a> despite its editor in chief, Anthony
Hall, being based in Canada. The US government made this claim
about the <em>American Herald Tribune </em>after the cybersecurity
firm FireEye, a US government contractor, stated that it had
“moderate confidence” that the site had been “founded in Iran.”</p>
<p>In addition, the fact that GCHQ has alleged that most of the
sites it plans to target are “linked to Moscow” gives further
cause for concern given that the UK government was <a
href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2018-11-27/196177"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-10">caught funding</a> the
Institute for Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative, which falsely
labeled critics of the UK government’s actions as well as its
narratives <a
href="https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/beyond-integrity-initiative-scale-ukgov-counter-disinformation"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-11">with respect to the Syria
conflict</a> as being related to “Russian disinformation”
campaigns.</p>
<p>Given this precedent, it is certainly plausible that GCHQ could
take the word of either an allied government, a government
contractor, or perhaps even an allied media organization <a
href="https://www.rt.com/uk/504694-bellingcat-foreign-office-higgins/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-12">such as Bellingcat</a> or <a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/mysterious-death-media-scrambles-white-helmets-founder-james-le-mesurier/263142/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-13">the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab</a> that
a given site is “foreign propaganda” in order to launch a cyber
offensive against it. Such concerns are only amplified when one of
the main government sources for <em>The Times </em>article bluntly
stated that “GCHQ has been told to take out antivaxers [sic]
online and on social media.</p>
<p>There are ways they have used to monitor and disrupt terrorist
propaganda,” which suggests that the targets of GCHQ’s new cyber
war will, in fact, be determined by the content itself rather than
their suspected “foreign” origin. The “foreign” aspect instead
appears to be a means of evading the prohibition in GCHQ’s
operational mandate on targeting the speech or websites of
ordinary citizens.</p>
<p>This larger pivot toward treating alleged “anti-vaxxers” as
“national security threats” has been ongoing for much of this
year, spearheaded in part by Imran Ahmed, the CEO of <a
href="https://www.counterhate.co.uk/our-people" target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer" id="reader.external-link.num-14">the
UK-based Center for Countering Digital Hate</a>, a member of the
UK government’s <a
href="https://extremismcommission.blog.gov.uk/2020/04/15/our-steering-committee/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-15">Steering Committee on
Countering Extremism</a> Pilot Task Force, which is part of the
UK government’s Commission for Countering Extremism.</p>
<p>Ahmed told the UK newspaper <a
href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-social-media-anti-vax-misinformation-vaccine-conspiracy-a9604481.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-16"><em>The Independent</em> in
July</a> that “I would go beyond calling anti-vaxxers conspiracy
theorists to say they are an extremist group that pose a national
security risk.” He then stated that “once someone has been exposed
to one type of conspiracy it’s easy to lead them down a path where
they embrace more radical world views that can lead to violent
extremism,” thereby implying that “anti-vaxxers” might engage in
acts of violent extremism.</p>
<p>Among the websites <a
href="https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_7aa1bf9819904295a0493a013b285a6b.pdf"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-17">cited by Ahmed’s organization</a> as
promoting such “extremism” that poses a “national security risk”
were Children’s Health Defense, the National Vaccine Information
Center, Informed Consent Action Network, and Mercola.com, among
others.</p>
<p>Similarly, a think tank tied to US intelligence—whose GCHQ
equivalent, the National Security Agency, will take part in the
newly announced “cyber war”—argued in <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/27/us-warning-pandemic-anti-vaxxers"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-18">a research paper published just
months before</a> the onset of the Covid-19 crisis that “the US
‘anti-vaxxer’ movement would pose a threat to national security in
the event of a ‘pandemic with a novel organism.’”</p>
<p>InfraGard, “a partnership between the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and members of the private sector,” warned in
the paper published last June that “the US anti-vaccine movement
would also be connected with ‘social media misinformation and
propaganda campaigns’ orchestrated by the Russian government,” <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/27/us-warning-pandemic-anti-vaxxers"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-19">as cited by <em>The Guardian</em></a>.</p>
<p>The InfraGard paper further claimed that prominent “anti-vaxxers”
are aligned “with other conspiracy movements including the far
right . . . and social media misinformation and propaganda
campaigns by many foreign and domestic actors. Included among
these actors is the Internet Research Agency, the Russian
government–aligned organization.”</p>
<p>An article published just last month <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/coronaviurs-antivax-conspiracies/2020/10/06/96ddd2c2-028e-11eb-b92e-029676f9ebec_story.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-20">by the<em> Washington Post</em></a> argued
that “vaccine hesitancy is mixing with coronavirus denial and
merging with far-right American conspiracy theories, including
Qanon,” which the FBI <a
href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/fbi/455770-fbi-memo-warns-qanon-poses-a-potential-terror-threat-report"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-21">named a potential domestic
terror threat</a> last year. The article quoted Peter Hotez,
dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston, as saying “The US anti-vaccination movement
is globalizing and it’s going toward more-extremist tendencies.”</p>
<figure><figcaption>Simone Warstat of Louisville, Colo., waves a
placard during a rally against a legislative bill to make it
more difficult for parents to opt out for non-medical reasons to
immunize their children Sunday, June 7, 2020, in Denver. </figcaption></figure>
<p>It is worth pointing out that many so-called “anti-vaxxers” are
actually critics of the pharmaceutical industry and are not
necessarily opposed to vaccines in and of themselves, making the
labels “anti-vaxxer” and “anti-vaccine” misleading.</p>
<p>Given that many pharmaceutical giants involved in making Covid-19
vaccines <a
href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/10/big-pharma-continues-to-top-lobbying-spending/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-22">donate heavily to politicians</a><a
href="https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/covid%E2%80%9319-big-pharma-players-behind-uk-government-lockdown"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-23">in both countries</a> and have
been involved in numerous safety scandals, using state
intelligence agencies to wage cyber war against sites that
investigate such concerns is not only troubling for the future of
journalism but it suggests that the UK is taking a dangerous leap
toward becoming a country that uses its state powers to treat the
enemies of corporations as enemies of the state.</p>
<h2>The CIA-Backed Firm “Weaponizing Truth” with AI</h2>
<p>In early October, the US Air Force and US Special Operations
Command announced that they had awarded a multimillion-dollar
contract to the US-based “machine intelligence” company Primer.
Per<a
href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/socom-and-us-air-force-enlist-primer-to-combat-disinformation-301143716.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-24"> the press release</a>, “Primer
will develop the first-ever machine learning platform to
automatically identify and assess <em>suspected disinformation </em>[emphasis
added]. Primer will also enhance its natural language processing
platform to automatically analyze tactical events to provide
commanders with unprecedented insight as events unfold in near
real-time.”</p>
<p><a
href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/socom-and-us-air-force-enlist-primer-to-combat-disinformation-301143716.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-25">According to Primer</a>, the
company “builds software machines that read and write in English,
Russian, and Chinese to automatically unearth trends and patterns
across large volumes of data,” and their work “supports the
mission of the intelligence community and broader DOD by
automating reading and research tasks to enhance the speed and
quality of decision-making.”</p>
<p>In other words, Primer is developing an algorithm that would
allow the national-security state to outsource many military and
intelligence analyst positions to AI. In fact, the company <a
href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/socom-and-us-air-force-enlist-primer-to-combat-disinformation-301143716.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-26">openly admits this</a>, stating
that their current effort “will automate the work typically done
by dozens of analysts in a security operations center to ingest
all of the data relevant to an event as it happens and funnel it
into a unified user interface.”</p>
<p>Primer’s ultimate goal is to use their AI to entirely automate
the shaping of public perceptions and become the arbiter of
“truth,” as defined by the state. Primer’s founder, Sean Gourley,
who previously created AI programs for the military <a
href="https://www.insider.com/sean-gourley-primer-funding-walmart-2017-10"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-27">to track “insurgency”</a> in
post-invasion Iraq, asserted in <a
href="https://primer.ai/blog/to-fight-disinformation-we-need-to-weaponise-the-truth/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-28">an April blog post</a> that
“computational warfare and disinformation campaigns will, in 2020,
become a more serious threat than physical war, and we will have
to rethink the weapons we deploy to fight them.”</p>
<p>In that same post, Gourley argued for the creation of a
“Manhattan Project for truth” that would create a publicly
available Wikipedia-style database built off of “knowledge bases
[that] already exist inside many countries’ intelligence agencies
for national security purposes.” Gourley then wrote that “this
effort would be ultimately about building and enhancing our
collective intelligence and establishing a baseline for what’s
true or not” as established by intelligence agencies. He concludes
his blog post by stating that “in 2020, we will begin to weaponize
truth.”</p>
<p>Notably, on November 9, the same day that GCHQ announced its
plans to target “anti-vaccine propaganda,” <a
href="https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2020/11/air-force-turns-machine-learning-fight-covid-19-disinformation/169900/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-29">the US website <em>NextGov</em> reported
that</a> Primer’s Pentagon-funded effort had turned its
attention specifically to “Covid-19 related disinformation.”</p>
<p>According to Primer’s director of science, John Bohannon, “Primer
will be integrating bot detection, synthetic text detection and
unstructured textual claims analysis capabilities into our
existing artificial intelligence platform currently in use with
DOD. . . . This will create the first unified mission-ready
platform to effectively counter Covid-19-related disinformation in
near-real time.”</p>
<p>Bohannon, who previously worked as a mainstream journalist
embedded with NATO forces in Afghanistan, also told <em>NextGov</em> that
Primer’s new Covid-19–focused effort “automatically classifies
documents into one of 10 categories to enable the detection of the
impact of COVID” on areas such as “business, science and
technology, employment, the global economy, and elections.” The
final product is expected to be delivered to the Pentagon in the
second quarter of next year.</p>
<p>Though a so-called private company, Primer is deeply linked to
the national-security state it is designed to protect by
“weaponizing truth.” Primer proudly promotes itself as having more
than 15 percent of its staff hailing from the US intelligence
community or military. The director of the company’s National
Security Group is <a href="https://primer.ai/about/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-30">Brian Raymond</a>, a former CIA
intelligence officer who <a
href="https://www.thecipherbrief.com/experts/brian-raymond"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-31">served as</a> the Director for
Iraq on the US National Security Council after leaving the agency.</p>
<p>The company also recently added several prominent
national-security officials to its board including:</p>
<ul>
<li><a
href="https://www.govconwire.com/2020/10/primer-names-veralinn-jamieson-raymond-thomas-to-advisory-board-sean-gourley-quoted/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-32">Gen. Raymond Thomas</a> (ret.),
who led the command of all US and NATO Special Operations Forces
in Afghanistan and is the former commander of both US Special
Operations Command and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).</li>
<li><a
href="https://www.govconwire.com/2020/10/primer-names-veralinn-jamieson-raymond-thomas-to-advisory-board-sean-gourley-quoted/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-33">Lt. Gen. VeraLinn Jamieson</a> (ret.),
the former deputy chief of staff for Air Force Intelligence,
Surveillance and Reconnaissance who led the Air Force’s
intelligence and cyber forces. She also personally developed
“strategic partnerships” between the Air Force and Microsoft,
Amazon, Google, and IBM in order “to accelerate the Air Force’s
digital transformation.”</li>
<li><a
href="https://www.govconwire.com/2020/04/brett-mcgurk-named-primer-independent-board-director-sue-gordon-appointed-strategic-adviser/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-34">Brett McGurk</a>, one of the
“chief architects” of the Iraq War “surge,” <a
href="https://www.aei.org/profile/frederick-w-kagan/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-35">alongside the notorious Kagan
family</a>, as NSC Director for Iraq, and then as special
assistant to the president and senior Director for Iraq and
Afghanistan during the Bush administration. Under Obama and
during part of the Trump administration, McGurk was <a
href="https://www.state.gov/biographies/brett-mcgurk/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-36">the special presidential
envoy</a> for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS at the State
Department, helping to manage <a
href="https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/04/21/us-defeat-in-syria-leaves-only-a-campaign-of-spite/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-37">the “dirty war”</a> waged by
the US, the UK, and other allies against Syria.</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to those recent board hires, Primer <a
href="https://www.govconwire.com/2020/04/brett-mcgurk-named-primer-independent-board-director-sue-gordon-appointed-strategic-adviser/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-38">brought on Sue Gordon</a>, the
former principal deputy director of National Intelligence, as a
strategic adviser. Gordon previously “drove partnerships within
the US Intelligence Community and provided advice to the National
Security Council in her role as deputy director of national
intelligence” and had a twenty-seven-year career at the CIA. The
deep links are unsurprising, given that Primer is <a
href="https://primer.ai/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer" id="reader.external-link.num-39">financially backed
by</a> the CIA’s venture-capital arm In-Q-Tel and the
venture-capital arm of billionaire <a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/mike-bloomberg-ties-jeffery-epstein-harvey-weinstein/265369/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-40">Mike Bloomberg</a>, Bloomberg
Beta.</p>
<h2>Operation Warp Speed’s Disinformation Blitzkrieg</h2>
<p>The rapid increase in interest by the US and UK national-security
states toward Covid-19 “disinformation,” particularly as it
relates to upcoming Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, is intimately
related to the media-engagement strategy of the US government’s
Operation Warp Speed.</p>
<p>Officially a “public-private partnership,” Operation Warp Speed,
which has the goal of vaccinating 300 million Americans by next
January, is dominated by the US military and <a
href="https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/google-oracle-monitor-americans-who-get-warp-speeds-covid-19-vaccine-for-two-years/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-41">also involves</a> several US
intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency
(NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as
intelligence-linked tech giants <a
href="https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/google-oracle-monitor-americans-who-get-warp-speeds-covid-19-vaccine-for-two-years/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-42">Google, Oracle</a>, and <a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/palantir-to-help-u-s-track-covid-19-vaccines-11603367276"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-43">Palantir</a>. Several reports <a
href="https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/category/expose-warp-speed/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-44">published in <em>The Last
American Vagabond</em></a>by this author and journalist
Derrick Broze have revealed the extreme secrecy of the operation,
its numerous conflicts of interest, and its deep ties to Silicon
Valley and Orwellian technocratic initiatives.</p>
<p>Warp Speed’s official guidance discusses at length its phased
plan for engaging the public and addressing issues of “vaccine
hesitancy.” According to the Warp Speed document entitled “<a
href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/strategy-for-distributing-covid-19-vaccine.pdf"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-45">From the Factory to the
Frontlines</a>,” “strategic communications and public messaging
are critical to ensure maximum acceptance of vaccines, requiring a
saturation of messaging across the national media.”</p>
<p>It also states that “working with established partners—especially
those that are trusted sources for target audiences—is critical to
advancing public understanding of, access to, and acceptance of
eventual vaccines” and that “identifying the right messages to
promote vaccine confidence, countering misinformation, and
targeting outreach to vulnerable and at-risk populations will be
necessary to achieve high coverage.”</p>
<p>The document also notes that Warp Speed will employ the CDC’s
three-pronged strategic framework for its communications effort.
The third pillar of that strategy is entitled “Stop Myths” and has
as a main focus “establish[ing] partnerships to contain the spread
of misinformation” as well as “work[ing] with local partners and
trusted messengers to improve confidence in vaccines.”</p>
<p>Though that particular Warp Speed document is short on specifics,
the CDC’s <a
href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/downloads/COVID-19-Vaccination-Program-Interim_Playbook.pdf"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-46">Covid-19 Vaccination Program
Interim Playbook</a> contains additional information. It states
that Operation Warp Speed will “engage and use a wide range of
partners, collaborations, and communication and news media
channels to achieve communication goals, understanding that
channel preferences and credible sources vary among audiences and
people at higher risk for severe illness and critical populations,
and channels vary in their capacity to achieve different
communication objectives.”</p>
<p>It states that it will focus its efforts in this regard on
“traditional media channels” (print, radio, and TV) as well as
“digital media” (internet, social media, and text messaging).</p>
<p>The CDC document further reveals that the “public messaging”
campaign to “promote vaccine uptake” and address “vaccine
hesitancy” is divided into four phases and adds that the overall
communication strategy of Warp Speed “should be timely and
applicable for the current phase of the Covid-19 Vaccination
program.”</p>
<p>Those phases are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Before a vaccine is available</li>
<li>The vaccine is available in limited supply for certain
populations of early focus</li>
<li>The vaccine is increasingly available for other critical
populations and the general public</li>
<li>The vaccine is widely available</li>
</ul>
<p>Given that the Covid-19 vaccine candidate produced by Pfizer is
expected to be approved by the end of November, it appears that
the US national-security state, which is <a
href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/28/operation-warp-speed-vast-military-involvement/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-47">essentially running Operation
Warp Speed</a>, along with “trusted messengers” in mass media,
is preparing to enter the second phase of its communications
strategy, one in which news organizations and journalists who
raise legitimate concerns about Warp Speed will be de-platformed
to make way for the “required” saturation of pro-vaccine messaging
across the English-speaking media landscape.</p>
<p>Read more at <a
href="https://unlimitedhangout.com/2020/11/reports/us-uk-intel-agencies-declare-cyber-war-on-independent-media/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
id="reader.external-link.num-48">unlimitedhangout.com</a></p>
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